Who owns your books?

Is anyone else appalled byAmazon’s electronic retrieval and removal of customers’ Kindle ebook purchases? I own yellowed, paperback copies of the texts in questions: Animal Farm, 1984, and Atlas Shrugged. Talk about irony. I didn’t have to sign an agreement statement when I made my purchases. With electronic texts, apparently the retail company views its texts as a “service.” (Read about how Apple checks IPhone applications. )

The bookselling giant had its reasons. Well enough. But those of us who have indeed read Orwell and Rand smell a e-rat or at least yet another potential means for invasion of liberty, monitoring of reading material being a telling starting point with totalitarian regimes.

Here’s the article  from Slate, where you can also find a link to info.  on the book by Harvard law professor, Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It.

Agnostic editor makes case for the Bible, but not God

Slate’s David Plotz read every word of the Bible and lived to write about it in  Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible,

He tells about how fascinating are the stories, the etymologies (shibboleth),  the frequently used allusions. And how cruel the slayings, judgments, and punishments.

Plotz says he began the reading project as an unconcerned agnostic and ended as an angry agnostic. The Bible, it seems, turned him further against God. Yet he admits the value of such a study and wonders why, given the Bible’s significance, more of it isn’t required reading in college and high school.

We know the answer to that.

Who reads the Bible today? We  might “cherry pick” our favorite texts or the easier reads. Or we have determined which parts are just “in there” but not particularly relevant or were cultural manifestations and not applicable. In previous centuries in the West, a working knowledge of the Bible was a given. Today, in teaching, the many biblical allusions are lost on most students. And I’m talking S0lomon-level references.

So ket us hear the end of the matter. The Bible is for many The Word of God. For others, like Plotz, an interesting and important text. Others don’t have a position on it any more than they do on The Grapes of Wrath: it doesn’t figure into anything.

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2212616/pagenum/all/#p2

“We all will be received in Graceland”

For Christmas Daughter Dearest gave her brother a copy of Lyrics 1964-2008, an anthology of Paul Simon’s lyrics from songs spanning those years. Quite a career. Of course, these lyrics are all available free online, but the book makes for easy perusing not to mention an attractive coffee table addition.

Both kids are Simon fans, as we might expect, since they grew up with the music in the background on trips and around the house occasionally. Simon is a poet, and so there were always “meanings” to discuss — something to think about. That and the music. Since they were meant to be sung, the lyrics scan well, and while some of them might be considered “simple,” they supply a kind of natural American experience and catalog of emotion representative of the FIVE DECADES Simon’s work spans.

Reading through the lyrics, as with any poet’s works, I find it interesting to look for patterns of development in style, theme , or content. Simon has moved from the dark, melanchoy world of “Sound of Silence” (Hello, Darkness, my old Friend) and “I am a Rock” to fun works like “Call Me Al.”  (Simon with Chevy Chase)   that parodies music videos. There’s a kind of middle period with lyrics more mature, knowing, and disillusioned like “Fifty Ways” and “Slip Sliding Away.” Something for everybody.

Simon slips in plenty of irony, paradox, imagery, allusion, and metaphor to satisfy literary cravings as in my all-time favorite: “Graceland.” Working from the allusion to the Elvis home in Memphis as a metaphor for this, what I call “travelling song,” the gently driving music leads us through places of heartache and lonliness to a pilgrimage toward a place of solace and salvation — grace — favor. The kind we don’t have to deserve.  And the speaker has a “reason to believe/we all will be received in Graceland.”  Adding to the metaphor are images of the South and its hospitality,  not to mention Bible Belt Christianity.

The similes work: 
The mississippi delta was shining
Like a national guitar
I am following the river
Down the highway
Through the cradle of the civil war
I’m going to graceland
Graceland

He also writes

And she said losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow.

and a metaphor –

There is a girl in New York City
Who calls herself the human trampoline
And sometimes when Im falling, flying
Or tumbling in turmoil I say
Oh, so this is what she means
She means we’re bouncing into graceland.

I’d put “Graceland” in the category of songs of hope — optimisitic words from one who has known failure but who still is able to glimpse and reach for something better — a kind of salvation at least.

Mike Ragogna at the Huffington Post has some thoughtful remarks on Simon and the new book as well as some good commentary on the music industry.

Though it’s hard to separate a song like “Mrs. Robinson”  from the music, for fans it’s enlightening to read the lyrics as stand alone poetry.  And though Barnes and Noble has it rated at three stars, I would recommend it to any Simon fan’s library.

Jekyll and Hyde and a Christmas sermon

Victorian Bohemian Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the best-selling novella The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an indictment of societal hypocrisy. Its success earned his son financial independence. He wrote both drafts in 1886 in six days at 10,000 words a day.

Critics and lay readers differ as to its meaning, but most agree that the “double” is a major theme: a staid, reputable gentleman-physican wants very badly to be ‘bad.” But how can he accomplish this? In Victorian England a good reputation is one’s most valuable treasure.  He won’t risk it without assurance of impunity.  Being a doctor, he turns to what he knows best: drugs. There is his method of escape from morality and his disguise.

Readers also expand the story and ponder whether Steenson is making the statement that within all men such a dualism exists. Or, they wonder, do separate personalities reside within the same man — the flesh and spirit debate. Many critics claim that the Jekyll is good, that he struggles and loses the battle of illicit desire. But Hyde (pun) doesn’t even resemble Jekyll: he’s deformed, ugly, bestial. He delights in pure evil as depicted with the trampling of the  small child, synbol of Victorian purity. Jekyll isn’t struggling, he’s indulging making sure that he doesn’t get caught, clever man that he is.

Whichever the case, Stevenson’s view of life is intriguing. And antithetical to typical 19th-century views. This excerpt from Stevenson’s “A Christmas Sermon” (1888) expresses a summary of his view of life and death. He suffered from “the ‘English disease,” tuberculosis, and this surely affected his views.

To look back upon the past year, and see how little we have striven and to what small purpose, and how often we have been cowardly and hung back, or temerarious and rushed unwisely in; and how every day and all day long we have transgressed the law of kindness; – it may seem a paradox, but in the bitterness of these discoveries, a certain consolation resides. Life is not designed to minister to a man’t vanity. He goes upon his long business most of the time with a hanging head, and all the time like a blind child.

Full of rewards and pleasures as it is-so that to see the day break or the moon rise, or to meet a friend, or to hear the dinner-call when he is hungry, fills him with surprising joys – this world is yet for him no abiding city. Friendships fall through, health fails, weariness assails him; year after year, he must thumb the hardly varying record of his own weakness and folly.

It is a friendly process of detachment. When the time comes that he should go, there need be few illusions left about himself.  Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, failed much: – surely that may be his epitaph, of which he need not be ashamed. Nor will he complain at the summons which calls a defeated soldier from the field: defeated, ay, if were Paul or Marcus Aurelius! – but if there is still one inch of fight in his old spirit, undishonored. The faith which sustained him in his life-long blindness and life-long disappointment will scarce even be required in this last formality of laying down his arms. Give him a march with his old bones; there, out of the glorious sun-colored earth, out of the day and the dust and the ecstasy – there goes another Faithful Failure!

Other versions: Though often criticized for being too “Freudian,” the Spencer Tracey (Victor fleming, director) version features early special effects as Jekyll morphs on screen. Julia Roberts plays Jekyll’s (John Malkovich) housekeeper who knows what she shouldn’t in Mary Reilly. The Broadway musical featured David Hasselhoff — of Baywatch.

“There is no frigate like a book”

Emily Dickinson knew it as do all readers. Under the current circumstances, the less than inspiring presidential candidates, economic blunderings, and general malaise or despair we might all do well to escape into a good book.

Some people’s misery loves company. For you the following books are replete with struggles during hard times:

Hard Times — Dickens
Oliver Twist — Dickens
Jane Eyre — Bronte
The Grapes of Wrath — Steinbeck
The Old Man and the Sea — Hemingway
Death in Venice — Mann
Book of Job — Bible
The Bean Trees — Kingsolver
The Poisonwood Bible — Kingsolver
The Handmaid’s Tale — Atwood
Crime and Punishment — Dostoyevsky (lots of poverty)

No thanks? While it occurs to me that most “classics” are somewhat bleak and melancholic, plenty of good reading material abounds if we need bucking up:

The Elf’’s Christmas podcast on NPR – (helped create “elf awareness”)  or something else by David Sedaris
“Ask the Jihadist” Essays by Andy Borowitz 
Education satire – The Onion (mature) This piece is one of my favorites.
A New Life — Malamud
Thirteen Stories — Welty
Donald Barthelme’s (mature) postmodernistic stories
Article from Slate on the positive side of hard times from journalists
education/p.c. satire — The Onion — (mature site, over 18) This piece is clean, however.

“Who is John Galt?” . . . again

At The Huffington Post Greg Zehner  , a former Goldman partner, writes about the bailout as signaling the end of the free market economy in the US.  He describes the current economic crisis as government’s throwing capitalism out the window “without a rope.”

His essay’s conclusion bears quoting:

Our strength as a country, has always been to address problems head on, take the medicine no matter how distasteful, and emerge stronger than ever. Sadly, times have changed. Our government has shown that it will change the rules of the markets whenever it seems expedient. Simply put, it will curtail the free markets when it doesn’t like what the free markets are saying. In the long run, this will lead to a disaster of unprecedented proportions. It would not be surprising to hear people walking the streets of New York asking “Who is John Galt?”

His ending with the ubiquitous question of Ayn Rand’s classic novel of capitalism and conservatism is appropriate. The government assumes too much regulating power over business — the machine that makes the country work — until it weakens and demoralizes the brightest and best resulting in their exodus. Thus Atlas no longer in position to hold up the world lets it collapse.

One interesting element of the novel is the contrast in character between the able, driven businessmen and the officious, pandering GS guys who ruin the country. If you haven’t invested some time (a lot of time) reading this book, please consider it. 

I also refer you to an earlier post of mine on the novel with the pre-bailout title of “Has Atlas Shrugged?”

“Passion” for Poetry in New York

New Yorkers love the arts. Don’t they?

And this latest effort at promotion proves it. At various city venues the Poetry Brothel convenes for readings of high quality, literary works, poetry,  by names and no-names alike.  People like you and me.

Apparently the accoutrements feature heavy velvets, feathers, gambling tables, a bar, along with The Madame and her male partner, Tennessee Pink. 

But the REAL reason patrons are there is the poetry.

The website posts the offer, “Want to be a poetry whore?” If you do, you’ll get to read your own original work to the sincerely interested literary set.  For a price. (We’re not a non-profit, Pal.) For a higher fee, visitors can get a private reading.

Poets have to make a living, too, Maybe they became addicted to poetry early on. Maybe they have no training for other lines of work, so writing and reading “high quality” poetry is all they can do. Society has forced them to choose this dubious occupation.  At least some New Yorkers care enough to give them a chance.

I wonder how many Robert Frosts and Walt Whitmans out there will have their talents recognized and thus be discovered through this new kind of outlet? What a service is being provided! What irony! Capitalism applied to poetry. Principles of marketing 101. Advertisers have always known this: Poetry sells!

American ingenuity is what it is. We know that given the right environment almost every normal person will appreciate poetry. We’ve been using faulty, inferior means — a classroom and a textbook — not to mention those sadsack English teachers.  Now wonder they hate it.

On the other hand, I fear that if the concept proliferates, other industries will follow suit. Next thing we know there’ll be “performances” of various types at baseball games, recreational parks, and concerts. 

But then again, maybe people who love  a good concert, don’t need extras to get them to go.

Has “Atlas Shrugged?”

Atlas

In Ayn Rand’s last and most defining work, Atlas Shrugged, the world’s most gifted, innovative thinkers and inventors, the great minds of the nations, literally go on strike. In a socialist, government dominated, stifling society, these men and women of brains, brawn, and business acumen prefer going underground to benefitting those who lack all of the above. Many people, no doubt, identify with these Randian heroes as they struggle to pursue and produce excellence among those who lack the ability to apprehend or appreciate their talent. They go on strike, too, abandoning such people leaving them to their own inferior devices.

Though Rand was what one writer calls a “liberatrian atheist,” her ideas, her philosophy resonate with me on a fundamental level. There is truth here. It has mostly to do with freedom and man’s Godlike ability to imagine and create and achieve glory. It shows the nasty, fallen side, too – selfishness, cowardice, and jealousy.

Rand articulates her Objectivism in mellifluous prose making all 1,168 pages entertaining reading, that and also the longest novel in a European-based language. Her characters are exquisitely drawn and the good guys, hopefully not inimitable in reality.

Not everyone is or was thrilled with the novel. The National Review has posted a somewhat negative review by Whittaker Chambers from the 1957 archives, the year of the novel’s publication. Definitely worth reading.

Not intending to provide a traditional review (they abound,) I’ll change the novel’s ubiquitous query, “Who is John Galt?” to “Has Atlas Shrugged? ” Have those whose ideas, integrity, and independent self reliance create and inspire excellence abdicated their place leaving the rest to survive on their meager wits?

No? Then where are they? In our classrooms? In our courtrooms? In our capital city?

Finally I recommend William F. Buckley’s novel Getting it Right and the d’Anconia speech on money excerpt(Capitalism Magazine.) Also read the John Galt 90-page radio broadcast, a novella in itself, and Rand’s manifesto.

While it took me nearly a year to finish this novel, I’ll never regret or forget the experience. Today I rummaged used book stores for a copy of The Fountainhead.

Our friend, Francis Coppola

He’s our friend, not because he knows us but because he loves good writing, especially short fiction. Today in serendipitous fashion, seeking a spot to submit my short shory I came across this site. Simple, artsy, and professional-looking, it would do just fine.

The two editors (there are just the two of them) suggested giving the magazine a read either online or buying a copy. I went through the table of contents for one issue and clicked on the Spring 2008 issue and began reading a story. Wow. He’s good. I’m in over my head. Another one! I can’t stop.

Proceding down the page for another read, I read an introduction to Love. Amazing. From there I perused the authors’ names, bylined by their story’s links. No way. Here are Ethan Coen (O, Brother Where Art Thou?), Wes Anderson, Margaret Atwood,  Tim Roth, and Woody Allen!

And the publisher? Francis Ford Coppola. No less.

This is big. I read Coppola’s mission statement. Inspiring. Various essays and reprints from well-known writers (Vonnegut, Dick) are there, too, along with impressive cover design. But it’s not another anthology of college text collections. Plenty of unknowns are published here, too.

Writers can enter the contest, submit a story, or join the virtual studio where “thousands” of writers critique each other. Or just read. The publication is Zoetrope: All Story.

I love stories, having been introduced to fairy tales and myth as a child. In the fourth grade I read A Midsummer Night’s Dream from an old yellowed copy, some relative’s school Signet Edition.  In third grade my teacher read us Bible stories, and I fell in love with Moses and David. (I never liked ghost stories, however; still don’t.)

After getting a master’s in English, I knew I was forever tied to the story, whatever its form. Talk to me, Do it well. Tell me a story. Use your imagination and we’ll be friends forever. You, me, Francis.

Christian leaders not shacking up with novel

William Young’s The Shack is a best-seller for BN and has topped the NYT list. It’s a Christian genre book and that’s what makes its success surprising — and controversial. Albert Mohler, in a full-length radio program,  has called it “heresy,” and Lifeway has apparently pulled it. But in addition to sales, customer reviews say the book is enriching and renewing.

For me and other would -be writers the most interesting thing here is the book’s publishing history. Young, recently bankrupt and having lost a home of 19 years, wrote the book for his children and a few friends. They loved it, word of mouth marketing kicked in, and a best seller was born.

“Dear Mr. Young, we regret to inform you . . .”  Yes, the book, like so many other successes, was rejected by both Christian and secular publishing houses. Undeterred Young formed Windblown expressly for publishing his own novel. Then came a webpage. Barnes and Noble bought a few copies and when sales soared, ordered more. Many more.

Issues? Christian leaders say the book may be harmful. Fans say it’s the best Christian book they’re read. By the way, in the book God is a black woman.  A quick read will tell. I’m waiting for it to hit the used bookstores or be available at the library.

Young’s website gives the front matter and chapter one for readers. NYT Books has another review. And of course, blogs are weighing in on both sides.