At the bar I had a whiskey and a wonderful ham and Swiss sandwich. One thing that had gone wrong in America is the acceptance of bad ham. The bartender wasn’t busy and we talked about Jack London. He was curious about my strange accent…
Brown, Frederick. The Embrace of Unreason: France 1914-1940, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2013 (345pp.$28.95) On May 16, 1915, one of the largest crowds ever to gather on Paris’ Place des Pyramides honored Joan of Arc, Catholic heroine in the long French war against the…
What does the story of our species tell us? By this I mean the narrative made visible by science, not the archaic version soaked in religion and ideology. I believe the evidence is massive enough to tell us this much: We were created not…
Everything in our culture seems to be marinating in the same plastic sack and the ingredients are deeply suspect. Jim Harrison “The English Major”
Snyder, Timothy. Bloodlands, Basic Books, New York, 2011 (544pp. $29.95) The unraveling of the Soviet Empire, the unchaining of Eastern Europe, and the rise of independent-minded countries on the dung heap of formerly communist territory, have all contributed to a new historiography focusing on a…
rebellion (re-bel’yen), n. 1. an act or state of armed open resistance to authority, government, etc. 2. a defiance of or opposition to any control. 3. a rebelling. SYN.—revolt stresses a casting off of allegiance or refusal to submit to established authority (the revolt…
To really learn about another culture is a very long and slow process and you’re not liable to receive anything in a spiritual sense unless it’s already in yourself waiting to be discovered. Jim Harrison “Off to the Side”
Schloegel, Karl. Moscow 1937, Polity Press, New York, 2013, Trans by Rodney Livingstone (653pp.$35) In the year of the Great Terror, a brilliant piece of reportage about America appeared in the Soviet Union and became in its time one of the most widely read bits…
For years now I’ve found the earth haunted. Azoological beasts rage in untraceable configurations. They are called governments…The argument at bedrock: I don’t want to live on earth, but I want to live…I don’t think I’m meant to be part of anything or to raise…
All the time and everywhere readers encounter resistance, some of it fierce. Young readers are bullied in schoolyards and classrooms, and in locker rooms later on. Readers are bullied by governments, School Boards, Legislatures, preachers, pastors, priests and peers. Many young readers are bullied by…