Monday, April 11, 2005
Must-see Movie of the Week
The Aristocrats, by Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette. Any film so repulsive must be good.
The Religion Thing
Thoughtful and considered pieces from Ed Rooksby and Socialism in an Age of Waiting on “the religious question” appeared over the weekend, pondering the appropriate socialist attitude toward religion and the religious. SIAW also ask whether it might be possible for socialists to develop an attitude comparable to “hating the sin but loving the sinner” as advocated by the Christian faith in one form or another.
As anarchists, and therefore socialists, our beef has always been with organized religion and the insidious nature of power relationships as they are exercised through the hierarchy (and patriarchy) of the church (used in the broadest sense to cover all mainstream organized religions). The religious impulse itself is another matter entirely: Anarchists’ attitudes towards what we might call “spirituality” vary from the scepticism of Stirner and the Bakuninites to the Catholic workerism of Simone Weil and Dorothy Day to the anthroposophy of Jens Bjørneboe.
For what it’s worth, my own personal view is that it’s both patronizing and short-sighted for anarchists to imagine that the religious are less enlightened, more parochial, or simply more gullible than those of us who have, it follows, attained a higher level of perceptiveness and proximity to understanding the world as it really is. The impulse to find meaning in the world is something that is universal, something that not just derives from the human condition, I would argue, but which arises simply as a logical consequence of the presence of consciousness to itself. In other words, if we ever encounter aliens, they too will exhibit, if they are conscious, the same propensity toward making sense of life in a manner that we can call religious, not forgetting that what we today regard as superstition was once regarded as science, as providing an explanation for everything.
I’m drawing on the existentialists, particularly Sartre, here, although he gives anyone a hard time who attempts to argue that life has definite meaning and that our existence here is anything but accidental. Unnecessarily hard, I think, because the temptation to conclude that our existence must have some purpose is overwhelming. That the universe exists at all is something impossible to explain; that there should be something rather than nothing prompts speculation in itself. Add to that the infinite number of possible forms that the universe could take and you begin to see why anyone might conclude that their existence surely could not be accidental: The odds against their existence are so immense that surely arbitrary chance would have resulted in some other outcome.
The irony is that, whatever outcome there might have been, if there were conscious entities in it, they would be tempted to regard their existence as anything but accidental. Existentialists (myself included) are in the minority, I have no doubt, when we conclude that, yes, it is an accident that we exist—Darwinism has made things much easier for that minority to bolster its case, mind you, and to increase its numbers—and we are right to argue our corner, but it doesn’t make sense for us to behave the way someone like Dawkins does and to regard religion as irrational and “a virus.” Human beings have a distinctively human reason (yes, reason) for being attracted to explanations for their existence, and when the absurdity of that existence is compounded by apparently inexplicable and arbitrary suffering, the need to find an explanation or justification for that pain is only made all the more urgent. Some of that suffering, socialists can relieve because it originates not in “the human condition” but in the organization and distribution of resources in society, but the last thing we should do is present socialism as a form of earthly religion, promising a universal panacea for everything that ails us as a species.
As anarchists, and therefore socialists, our beef has always been with organized religion and the insidious nature of power relationships as they are exercised through the hierarchy (and patriarchy) of the church (used in the broadest sense to cover all mainstream organized religions). The religious impulse itself is another matter entirely: Anarchists’ attitudes towards what we might call “spirituality” vary from the scepticism of Stirner and the Bakuninites to the Catholic workerism of Simone Weil and Dorothy Day to the anthroposophy of Jens Bjørneboe.
For what it’s worth, my own personal view is that it’s both patronizing and short-sighted for anarchists to imagine that the religious are less enlightened, more parochial, or simply more gullible than those of us who have, it follows, attained a higher level of perceptiveness and proximity to understanding the world as it really is. The impulse to find meaning in the world is something that is universal, something that not just derives from the human condition, I would argue, but which arises simply as a logical consequence of the presence of consciousness to itself. In other words, if we ever encounter aliens, they too will exhibit, if they are conscious, the same propensity toward making sense of life in a manner that we can call religious, not forgetting that what we today regard as superstition was once regarded as science, as providing an explanation for everything.
I’m drawing on the existentialists, particularly Sartre, here, although he gives anyone a hard time who attempts to argue that life has definite meaning and that our existence here is anything but accidental. Unnecessarily hard, I think, because the temptation to conclude that our existence must have some purpose is overwhelming. That the universe exists at all is something impossible to explain; that there should be something rather than nothing prompts speculation in itself. Add to that the infinite number of possible forms that the universe could take and you begin to see why anyone might conclude that their existence surely could not be accidental: The odds against their existence are so immense that surely arbitrary chance would have resulted in some other outcome.
The irony is that, whatever outcome there might have been, if there were conscious entities in it, they would be tempted to regard their existence as anything but accidental. Existentialists (myself included) are in the minority, I have no doubt, when we conclude that, yes, it is an accident that we exist—Darwinism has made things much easier for that minority to bolster its case, mind you, and to increase its numbers—and we are right to argue our corner, but it doesn’t make sense for us to behave the way someone like Dawkins does and to regard religion as irrational and “a virus.” Human beings have a distinctively human reason (yes, reason) for being attracted to explanations for their existence, and when the absurdity of that existence is compounded by apparently inexplicable and arbitrary suffering, the need to find an explanation or justification for that pain is only made all the more urgent. Some of that suffering, socialists can relieve because it originates not in “the human condition” but in the organization and distribution of resources in society, but the last thing we should do is present socialism as a form of earthly religion, promising a universal panacea for everything that ails us as a species.
Behold, The Future Foretold!
The latest missive from Rennie Sparks of the Handsome Family (link left)
"Dear Diary, I have made every sensible attempt to contact you via bus station telephone as well as encrypted e-mails masquerading as appeals from the Nigerian government. I feel I have no recourse but to write you directly and announce:
LATEST TOUR DATES FOR THE HANDSOME FAMILY...
Alas, we must start from the beginning -- several days ago I dropped a raw egg into a jar of water and studied the patterns as the yolk slowly drifted apart. I was much alarmed by what I saw.
APRIL, 2005: HANDSOME FAMILY TOUR DATES
April 21, CEDAR CULTURAL CENTER
416 CEDAR AVE. SOUTH, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 612-338-2647
April 22, “THE FUTURE OF FOLK MUSIC”
(WITH EUGENE CHADBOURNE, SIR RICHARD BISHOP)
AT THE HIGH NOON SALOON, 701A E. WASHINGTON AVE., MADISON, WI.
SPONSORED BY THE UW CENTER FOR HUMANITIES.
April 26, KIVA AUDITORIUM
2ND STREET & MARQUETTE, NE, ALBUQUERQUE, NM.
OPENING FOR WILCO.
I examined my dental records, a recent MRI, and a childhood colonoscopy, but found conflicting messages within the hazy images. I threw chicken bones from a burlap bag. I swung a hatchet down into the kitchen table and took careful note of the pattern of quivering in the handle. I looked at the swirls of hair left by my cat upon the bedspread. It was simply not possible that all this hair had come from my cat!
I approached a young girl on the street and asked her to hold my key chain dangling between her first finger and thumb. Her slender fingers trembled and the keys slowly began to swing in a wide counter clockwise circle. I made a dowsing rod from a coat hanger and carefully marked where the rod began to point downward as I slowly walked about my neighbor’s yard in the wee hours before dawn. I drew the alphabet in the dirt behind the grade school and spun round until I fell over onto one of the letters. There was much blood.
JULY, 2005: HANDSOME FAMILY TOUR DATES
July 8 and 9— WINNIPEG FOLK FESTIVAL, WINNIPEG, CANADA
www.winnipegfolkfestival.ca
ALSO IN JULY
EUROPE:
16 JULY, UK
LARMER TREE FESTIVAL
www.larmertreefestival.co.uk
+44 (023) 8071 1820
18 JULY, SPAIN
HUESCA PIRINEOS SUR FESTIVAL
www.pirineos-sur.com
21 JULY, UK
THE 100 CLUB - LONDON
£12.50 adv
www.the100club.co.uk
www.wegottickets.com
I walked into the local police department and demanded to be handcuffed. I set my shirt afire. I opened the telephone book at random. I called strangers and asked them to guess what was in my mouth. I took a jar full of beetles down to the cemetery and observed how they gravitated towards the graves of murder victims. I examined the bubbles left by drunks urinating in my flower pots. For the love of all nameless gods, I beg you to cease and desist. Your ever-faithful servant...
Xo Rennie"
"Dear Diary, I have made every sensible attempt to contact you via bus station telephone as well as encrypted e-mails masquerading as appeals from the Nigerian government. I feel I have no recourse but to write you directly and announce:
LATEST TOUR DATES FOR THE HANDSOME FAMILY...
Alas, we must start from the beginning -- several days ago I dropped a raw egg into a jar of water and studied the patterns as the yolk slowly drifted apart. I was much alarmed by what I saw.
APRIL, 2005: HANDSOME FAMILY TOUR DATES
April 21, CEDAR CULTURAL CENTER
416 CEDAR AVE. SOUTH, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 612-338-2647
April 22, “THE FUTURE OF FOLK MUSIC”
(WITH EUGENE CHADBOURNE, SIR RICHARD BISHOP)
AT THE HIGH NOON SALOON, 701A E. WASHINGTON AVE., MADISON, WI.
SPONSORED BY THE UW CENTER FOR HUMANITIES.
April 26, KIVA AUDITORIUM
2ND STREET & MARQUETTE, NE, ALBUQUERQUE, NM.
OPENING FOR WILCO.
I examined my dental records, a recent MRI, and a childhood colonoscopy, but found conflicting messages within the hazy images. I threw chicken bones from a burlap bag. I swung a hatchet down into the kitchen table and took careful note of the pattern of quivering in the handle. I looked at the swirls of hair left by my cat upon the bedspread. It was simply not possible that all this hair had come from my cat!
I approached a young girl on the street and asked her to hold my key chain dangling between her first finger and thumb. Her slender fingers trembled and the keys slowly began to swing in a wide counter clockwise circle. I made a dowsing rod from a coat hanger and carefully marked where the rod began to point downward as I slowly walked about my neighbor’s yard in the wee hours before dawn. I drew the alphabet in the dirt behind the grade school and spun round until I fell over onto one of the letters. There was much blood.
JULY, 2005: HANDSOME FAMILY TOUR DATES
July 8 and 9— WINNIPEG FOLK FESTIVAL, WINNIPEG, CANADA
www.winnipegfolkfestival.ca
ALSO IN JULY
EUROPE:
16 JULY, UK
LARMER TREE FESTIVAL
www.larmertreefestival.co.uk
+44 (023) 8071 1820
18 JULY, SPAIN
HUESCA PIRINEOS SUR FESTIVAL
www.pirineos-sur.com
21 JULY, UK
THE 100 CLUB - LONDON
£12.50 adv
www.the100club.co.uk
www.wegottickets.com
I walked into the local police department and demanded to be handcuffed. I set my shirt afire. I opened the telephone book at random. I called strangers and asked them to guess what was in my mouth. I took a jar full of beetles down to the cemetery and observed how they gravitated towards the graves of murder victims. I examined the bubbles left by drunks urinating in my flower pots. For the love of all nameless gods, I beg you to cease and desist. Your ever-faithful servant...
Xo Rennie"
Sunday, April 10, 2005
What Noise Does an Anarchist Make?
Mostly a kind of whining sound.
A joke at my own expense and the opening line to novel No. 4, which my agent is waiting very patiently for while she tries to flog the previous three to unsuspecting publishing houses around the world. Also my way of introducing our latest blogroll addition, Fruits of Our Labour, a rather fetchingly designed site which describes itself as centering around the positive social developments in the world today.* The New York/Cowes duo who blog there explain that
“Many blogs on the left are cynical or negative, which is understandable considering the current climate. Our intention is to provide positive and inspirational news and content reminding us that another world is indeed possible.”
Something that some of us need reminding of on a regular basis.
*Okay, so the fact that our reading and musical tastes seem to coincide might also have been a contributory factor to the decision.
A joke at my own expense and the opening line to novel No. 4, which my agent is waiting very patiently for while she tries to flog the previous three to unsuspecting publishing houses around the world. Also my way of introducing our latest blogroll addition, Fruits of Our Labour, a rather fetchingly designed site which describes itself as centering around the positive social developments in the world today.* The New York/Cowes duo who blog there explain that
“Many blogs on the left are cynical or negative, which is understandable considering the current climate. Our intention is to provide positive and inspirational news and content reminding us that another world is indeed possible.”
Something that some of us need reminding of on a regular basis.
*Okay, so the fact that our reading and musical tastes seem to coincide might also have been a contributory factor to the decision.
Friday, April 08, 2005
At home with the intelligentsia. No. 6: Simone de Beauvoir
(Full image shows de Beauvoir poking a rat king with chopsticks)
Now that's what I call music (c)
It hasn't been all bad. I finally got round to buying this today, too: Lust for Life, by Iggy Pop.
It's difficult to explain why I postponed buying this album for so long. Well, actually, no it isn't. I always associate Iggy Pop with a much-loved friend of mine (who I even shared the same birthday with), who killed himself not long after earning his Ph.D. Phil was a lovely, considerate, gentle bloke who I sat next to in Russian 'O' level classes for a couple of years (in fact, I doubt I'd have passed if it hadn't been for him) but who came to college with a wiser and more sceptical head on his shoulders than I did, a sweet and slightly obsessive teenager.
When Iggy came to play in Brum, we were 17. Phil was determined to go, and because I was too chicken, Phil realized that there would be a spare pair of boots free; these were my Dad's boots from his National Service days in the Marines. Thus, my most vivid memory of Phil is watching him stomp up our street in my Dad's old boots, audible from 150 yards away.
He brought them back the next day. "How was the gig?" I asked him. "Don't know," he said. "Spent most of it on me arse. I could barely stand up on the polished floor in those fucking boots."
Gave the album a listen to today. The opening track made me feel much less cheated by life.
It's difficult to explain why I postponed buying this album for so long. Well, actually, no it isn't. I always associate Iggy Pop with a much-loved friend of mine (who I even shared the same birthday with), who killed himself not long after earning his Ph.D. Phil was a lovely, considerate, gentle bloke who I sat next to in Russian 'O' level classes for a couple of years (in fact, I doubt I'd have passed if it hadn't been for him) but who came to college with a wiser and more sceptical head on his shoulders than I did, a sweet and slightly obsessive teenager.
When Iggy came to play in Brum, we were 17. Phil was determined to go, and because I was too chicken, Phil realized that there would be a spare pair of boots free; these were my Dad's boots from his National Service days in the Marines. Thus, my most vivid memory of Phil is watching him stomp up our street in my Dad's old boots, audible from 150 yards away.
He brought them back the next day. "How was the gig?" I asked him. "Don't know," he said. "Spent most of it on me arse. I could barely stand up on the polished floor in those fucking boots."
Gave the album a listen to today. The opening track made me feel much less cheated by life.
Why do I keep buying this shite on the recommendation of music magazines? Am I still a teenager or something?
I'm a Bird Now, by Anthony & the Johnsons:
serene and fragile songs of delicate intimacy?
Or irritating and precious overhyped, overtremulous tat?
Decide for yourself. I already have. But at a price.
serene and fragile songs of delicate intimacy?
Or irritating and precious overhyped, overtremulous tat?
Decide for yourself. I already have. But at a price.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
At home with the intelligentsia. No. 5: Bertrand Russell
(Full image shows Russell struggling to untangle a nest of wire coat hangers)
Bend Sinister
From this month's Atlantic:
"Unless you're trying to fill out your bullpen for a post-season run, the evolutionary usefulness of left-handedness may seem a little puzzling. But it turns out that southpaws may remain in the gene pool because they're good to have around in a fight. A study by two French academics tracked the prevalence of left-handedness across a variety of traditional societies, and found that the more violent ones tended to have a higher percentage of lefties. Among the Dioula people of Burkina Faso, for instance, the homicide rate is just 0.013 murders per thousand inhabitants per year, and left-handers make up only 3.4 percent of the population. In contrast, the more warlike Yanomamo of the Venezuelan rain forest have a homicide rate of four per thousand per year, and southpaws compose roughly 23 percent of their population. What's advantageous in baseball, it turns out, may also be advantageous in a jungle knife fight."
"Handedness, Homicide and Negative Frequency-Dependent Selection," Charlotte Fourie and Michel Raymond, Institute of Evolutionary Sciences, University Montpellier II
"Unless you're trying to fill out your bullpen for a post-season run, the evolutionary usefulness of left-handedness may seem a little puzzling. But it turns out that southpaws may remain in the gene pool because they're good to have around in a fight. A study by two French academics tracked the prevalence of left-handedness across a variety of traditional societies, and found that the more violent ones tended to have a higher percentage of lefties. Among the Dioula people of Burkina Faso, for instance, the homicide rate is just 0.013 murders per thousand inhabitants per year, and left-handers make up only 3.4 percent of the population. In contrast, the more warlike Yanomamo of the Venezuelan rain forest have a homicide rate of four per thousand per year, and southpaws compose roughly 23 percent of their population. What's advantageous in baseball, it turns out, may also be advantageous in a jungle knife fight."
"Handedness, Homicide and Negative Frequency-Dependent Selection," Charlotte Fourie and Michel Raymond, Institute of Evolutionary Sciences, University Montpellier II
Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots Festival
approaches, at the end of this month. Line-up includes Micah P. Hinson, the Legendary Shack Shakers, and Carolyn Mark (one half of the Corn Sisters with Neko Case). Book early.
Book Meme
Lisa of Rullsenberg has very kindly roped me into the book meme competition that's doing the rounds: It isn't formally a competition, but it's one of those memes that generates competitiveness amongst literary snobs. I'm just moaning, of course, because the central requirement is that the books you cite be works of fiction, which I barely ever read, offering me no opportunity for oneupmanship. Still, I've got plenty of opinions. Which ones would you like?
You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
For my own pleasure, I would choose either Bigot Hall, by Steve Aylett, or Milk, Sulphate & Alby Starvation, by Martin Millar. Both immensely funny and, in both books, the language just sparkles. No supposed 'classic' has ever affected me as much as these. Alternatively, I'd plump for Mekons United, which comes with a free CD, giving me an accompanying sound track.
But I suppose I have to select something worthy, so it will have to be The Plague, by Albert Camus. Even in translation, the clarity and conciseness of his language stand out.
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Of course not. They're fictional, aren't they? I have enough trouble with crushes on real people.
Now I come to think of it, though, I did fancy Julie Andrews in A Sound of Music when I was 7.
The last book you bought is:
Hanging Crimes, by Frank Sweeney. All about the death penalty in Ireland. It's a birthday present for my dad. Before you ask, we do get on.
The last work of fiction I bought was Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk, reviewed here.
The last book you read:
As far as fiction goes, see the above answer. Otherwise, I finished The Coming of the Third Reich, by Richard J. Evans, on the train home last night.
What are you currently reading?
Russian Philosophy, by Frederick Copleston (bedside); to help me sleep. Booked, by Tom Humphries (bogside - to help me shit); this contains surprisingly lyrical newspaper articles about such topics as GAA, the travails of Irish soccer, and mountain running.
My new train reading is From Dawn to Decadence, by Jacques Barzun. The next fiction I read will be Money, by Martin Amis.
Five books you would take to a deserted island:
Don Quixote, by Cervantes, because I started it but haven't finished it and my brother says I should.
Q, by Luther Blisset. Italian anarchists write a collective novel about the Reformation. How can you go wrong?
And now for some cheating: Three volumes on my shelves I haven't read but must.
USA, by John Dos Passos. Three novels in one.
The Muriel Spark Omnibus, Volume One: includes Jean Brodie and Memento Mori.
The Essential Gore Vidal. Has excerpts from Myra Breckenridge, Julian, etc.
Look, I could be on that island a long time.
Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
Reidski, because he doesn't blog often enough.
Alphonse, to see if he lists any books I've heard of.
and Clare, to spread this party further afield.
Ah thenk yow.
You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
For my own pleasure, I would choose either Bigot Hall, by Steve Aylett, or Milk, Sulphate & Alby Starvation, by Martin Millar. Both immensely funny and, in both books, the language just sparkles. No supposed 'classic' has ever affected me as much as these. Alternatively, I'd plump for Mekons United, which comes with a free CD, giving me an accompanying sound track.
But I suppose I have to select something worthy, so it will have to be The Plague, by Albert Camus. Even in translation, the clarity and conciseness of his language stand out.
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Of course not. They're fictional, aren't they? I have enough trouble with crushes on real people.
Now I come to think of it, though, I did fancy Julie Andrews in A Sound of Music when I was 7.
The last book you bought is:
Hanging Crimes, by Frank Sweeney. All about the death penalty in Ireland. It's a birthday present for my dad. Before you ask, we do get on.
The last work of fiction I bought was Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk, reviewed here.
The last book you read:
As far as fiction goes, see the above answer. Otherwise, I finished The Coming of the Third Reich, by Richard J. Evans, on the train home last night.
What are you currently reading?
Russian Philosophy, by Frederick Copleston (bedside); to help me sleep. Booked, by Tom Humphries (bogside - to help me shit); this contains surprisingly lyrical newspaper articles about such topics as GAA, the travails of Irish soccer, and mountain running.
My new train reading is From Dawn to Decadence, by Jacques Barzun. The next fiction I read will be Money, by Martin Amis.
Five books you would take to a deserted island:
Don Quixote, by Cervantes, because I started it but haven't finished it and my brother says I should.
Q, by Luther Blisset. Italian anarchists write a collective novel about the Reformation. How can you go wrong?
And now for some cheating: Three volumes on my shelves I haven't read but must.
USA, by John Dos Passos. Three novels in one.
The Muriel Spark Omnibus, Volume One: includes Jean Brodie and Memento Mori.
The Essential Gore Vidal. Has excerpts from Myra Breckenridge, Julian, etc.
Look, I could be on that island a long time.
Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
Reidski, because he doesn't blog often enough.
Alphonse, to see if he lists any books I've heard of.
and Clare, to spread this party further afield.
Ah thenk yow.
There Must be Millions of Them
Check out the consumables at the wonderful Unemployed Philosophers Guild, including the Nietzschean "Will to Power Bar" and Freudian "After Therapy Mints."
Perfect gift items for the nerd in your life.
Perfect gift items for the nerd in your life.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Got the General Idea?
"General Idea Editions 1967-1995," a retrospective of General Idea's prints, posters, books, multiples and editions, is currently touring Canada and the USA: See it at the Luckman Gallery in Los Angeles, March 19 - May 14, 2005.
The catalogue raisonné of General Idea's editions, General Idea Editions 1968-1995, has been awarded the 2004 Melva J. Dwyer Award by the Art Librarian's Society of North America. It can be ordered from Art Metropole, Toronto, from Printed Matter, New York, or from Walther Koenig Buchhandlung, Köln.
Jerry Stahl
Previously praised and much admired author of Plainclothes Naked and I,Fatty, Jerry's IMDb biog is here, including details of his work on CSI. I notice that he wrote one episode called "Fur and Loathing" and that another featured a killer named Dr. Benway. Good stuff.
cheers Mart.
cheers Mart.
Righteous Scribes
(so as to avoid calling them Babes; Ani DiFranco can get away with it, I can't.)
Clare Sudbery writes at the very funny and moving Boob Pencil, "random warblings from a textually loquacious word freak." Manchester-based, she works in Alty and is the author of The Dying of Delight, in which "two shady women run headlong towards, and away from, the solar eclipse of 1999 - a momentous collision of Levenshulme, lesbians and LSD." I could spend hours over at Boob Pencil, but then C&S would never get done.
Julia Darling, who blogs at her eponymous site here, is the winner of the 2003 Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award and a Fellow of Literature and Health at The University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Her Manifesto for a New City, a show based on a manifesto for the re-shaping of Newcastle that she wrote after visiting Barcelona, tours between 31st March and 28th April, visiting Hexham, Newbury, Glasgow, Alnwick, South Shields and Stockton-on-Tees. A woman of wonderful taste.
Clare Sudbery writes at the very funny and moving Boob Pencil, "random warblings from a textually loquacious word freak." Manchester-based, she works in Alty and is the author of The Dying of Delight, in which "two shady women run headlong towards, and away from, the solar eclipse of 1999 - a momentous collision of Levenshulme, lesbians and LSD." I could spend hours over at Boob Pencil, but then C&S would never get done.
Julia Darling, who blogs at her eponymous site here, is the winner of the 2003 Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award and a Fellow of Literature and Health at The University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Her Manifesto for a New City, a show based on a manifesto for the re-shaping of Newcastle that she wrote after visiting Barcelona, tours between 31st March and 28th April, visiting Hexham, Newbury, Glasgow, Alnwick, South Shields and Stockton-on-Tees. A woman of wonderful taste.
The History of Civilization is also . . . balls
Also from the American Spectator:
“The Committee for Western Civilization's seventh Inaugural Ball, entitled “Salute to Public Service” and celebrating the second inauguration of President George W. Bush, was one of the more anticipated events of the Washington season.
The Committee for Western Civilization is dedicated to establishing a deeper understanding of the ideas that sustain our civilization. In other words, through events and lectures, the Committee introduces class and civility into society again. Men dressed in tuxedos and ladies wore dresses of rose, champagne, and classic black, some of whom were admirably adorned in mink.”
Ahh, just like the good old days. Makes you long for Class War's "Bash the Rich" marches doesn't it?
“The Committee for Western Civilization's seventh Inaugural Ball, entitled “Salute to Public Service” and celebrating the second inauguration of President George W. Bush, was one of the more anticipated events of the Washington season.
The Committee for Western Civilization is dedicated to establishing a deeper understanding of the ideas that sustain our civilization. In other words, through events and lectures, the Committee introduces class and civility into society again. Men dressed in tuxedos and ladies wore dresses of rose, champagne, and classic black, some of whom were admirably adorned in mink.”
Ahh, just like the good old days. Makes you long for Class War's "Bash the Rich" marches doesn't it?
Whatever happened to Freedom FROM Religion?
I just came across this article in the March issue of The American Spectator (you have to know your enemy!) but which is subscription only. Fortunately, it also appears here, The Religious Information Service of Ukraine.
David Aikman's article about Viktor Yushchenko's "orange revolution" offers another perspective on the recent elections there:
"Even TVs cable networks seemed colorblind to what was going on in Ukraine despite the unusual nature of its "orange revolution" as did the prestige dailies and the news magazines. But what happened in Ukraine was not just a struggle of pro democracy, pro West forces against the corruption and repressiveness of the old heirs of Soviet style autocracy. It was, in large part, the spontaneous uprising of Ukraine's new evangelical Protestant churches against the threat that a Russian style clampdown on non Orthodox Christians might be one of Yanukovych's first orders of business.
The emergence of a new evangelical constituency in Ukraine was a direct consequence of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. Protestant missionaries flocked into Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine by the hundreds and thousands, many of them mom and pop teams from the US who knew little about the cultures they were seeking to evangelize. Russia and Belarus soon reacted harshly, enacting laws that gave the Orthodox Church in each country virtual monopoly on religious activity."
I remain one of those few sceptics who regard all religions as little more than an excuse for a hierarchy of snake-oil salesmen to exploit the credulousness, poverty, and alienation of millions of people struggling to come to terms with the meaninglessness and demystification accompanying modernity. Call me a cynical old fucker, but when evangelists pour into a "newly freed" country, I see a new form of enslavement quickly taking shape. How can the locals see this sort of intrusion as anything other than an act of aggression?
David Aikman's article about Viktor Yushchenko's "orange revolution" offers another perspective on the recent elections there:
"Even TVs cable networks seemed colorblind to what was going on in Ukraine despite the unusual nature of its "orange revolution" as did the prestige dailies and the news magazines. But what happened in Ukraine was not just a struggle of pro democracy, pro West forces against the corruption and repressiveness of the old heirs of Soviet style autocracy. It was, in large part, the spontaneous uprising of Ukraine's new evangelical Protestant churches against the threat that a Russian style clampdown on non Orthodox Christians might be one of Yanukovych's first orders of business.
The emergence of a new evangelical constituency in Ukraine was a direct consequence of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. Protestant missionaries flocked into Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine by the hundreds and thousands, many of them mom and pop teams from the US who knew little about the cultures they were seeking to evangelize. Russia and Belarus soon reacted harshly, enacting laws that gave the Orthodox Church in each country virtual monopoly on religious activity."
I remain one of those few sceptics who regard all religions as little more than an excuse for a hierarchy of snake-oil salesmen to exploit the credulousness, poverty, and alienation of millions of people struggling to come to terms with the meaninglessness and demystification accompanying modernity. Call me a cynical old fucker, but when evangelists pour into a "newly freed" country, I see a new form of enslavement quickly taking shape. How can the locals see this sort of intrusion as anything other than an act of aggression?
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Pullet Surprise Winners
From today's New York Times:
The 89th annual Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday. Following are the winners in Letters, Drama and Music.
FICTION: Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
Nearly a quarter of a century passed between Ms. Robinson's first novel, Housekeeping, published in 1981, and this second book, the elegiac tale of a 76-year-old Congregationalist pastor who, facing imminent death, writes a letter to his 7-year-old son. Gilead is set in 1956 in Iowa, a place that Ms. Robinson, 61, knows well as a teacher at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
GENERAL NONFICTION: Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, by Steve Coll
In chronicling how Al Qaeda's brand of Islamic fundamentalism came to thrive in the chaos left by the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan, Mr. Coll, 46, an associate editor and former managing editor at The Washington Post, pieced together the period of ignorance and inaction that led to the worst terrorist attack on American soil.
BIOGRAPHY: De Kooning: An American Master, by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
Mr. Stevens, 53, is the art critic for New York magazine and a former art critic for The New Republic and Newsweek. He is married to Ms. Swan, 54, who has been a writer at Time and a music critic and senior arts editor at Newsweek. Ten years in the making, this book about de Kooning is widely considered the first major biography of the painter.
HISTORY: Washington's Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer
Mr. Fischer, 69, is Warren professor of history at Brandeis University. In Washington's Crossing, he shows how a despairing American army refused to surrender during the darker moments of the Revolution. Reached at his home in Wayland, Mass., Mr. Fischer said he believed that his book presented a complex look at the general. "My Washington was a figure who took me very much by surprise," he said. "What he did was bring together the values of the American Revolution with the conducting of the war."
POETRY: Delights & Shadows, by Ted Kooser
Mr. Kooser, of Garland, Neb., is the poet laureate of the United States. Like Wallace Stevens, Mr. Kooser, 65, worked in life insurance for much of his career. He was vice president of Lincoln Benefit Life Insurance, where he wrote advertising copy and oversaw legal affairs; he rose daily at 4:30 a.m. to compose poetry, which he asked his secretary and colleagues to critique. He retired in 1998.
Clarity is the hallmark of Mr. Kooser's style, with deceptively modest metaphors grounded in the Nebraska landscape. The Bloomsbury Review described his work as "like clean, clear water."
DRAMA: Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley
At first glance, the genesis of Doubt would seem to be obvious: The play tells the story of a strong-minded nun investigating suspicions of pedophilia in a Roman Catholic school, and was produced after real-life sex scandals in the church. But Mr. Shanley, 54, said the play was actually inspired by what he called a visceral reaction to current American political discourse. "People who have great certainty can be a force of good, but can also be incredibly destructive," he said yesterday.
MUSIC: Second Concerto for Orchestra, by Steven Stucky
Mr. Stucky's concerto is a colorfully orchestrated work written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which Mr. Stucky has been associated with - first as composer in residence, and now as consulting composer for new music - since 1988. The piece includes allusions to works by Ravel, Stravinsky and Sibelius, composers Mr. Stucky finds particularly influential. But it is also built on motifs that Mr. Stucky based on a code he devised, in which the letters of the alphabet were assigned to musical pitches.
The 89th annual Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday. Following are the winners in Letters, Drama and Music.
FICTION: Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
Nearly a quarter of a century passed between Ms. Robinson's first novel, Housekeeping, published in 1981, and this second book, the elegiac tale of a 76-year-old Congregationalist pastor who, facing imminent death, writes a letter to his 7-year-old son. Gilead is set in 1956 in Iowa, a place that Ms. Robinson, 61, knows well as a teacher at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
GENERAL NONFICTION: Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, by Steve Coll
In chronicling how Al Qaeda's brand of Islamic fundamentalism came to thrive in the chaos left by the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan, Mr. Coll, 46, an associate editor and former managing editor at The Washington Post, pieced together the period of ignorance and inaction that led to the worst terrorist attack on American soil.
BIOGRAPHY: De Kooning: An American Master, by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
Mr. Stevens, 53, is the art critic for New York magazine and a former art critic for The New Republic and Newsweek. He is married to Ms. Swan, 54, who has been a writer at Time and a music critic and senior arts editor at Newsweek. Ten years in the making, this book about de Kooning is widely considered the first major biography of the painter.
HISTORY: Washington's Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer
Mr. Fischer, 69, is Warren professor of history at Brandeis University. In Washington's Crossing, he shows how a despairing American army refused to surrender during the darker moments of the Revolution. Reached at his home in Wayland, Mass., Mr. Fischer said he believed that his book presented a complex look at the general. "My Washington was a figure who took me very much by surprise," he said. "What he did was bring together the values of the American Revolution with the conducting of the war."
POETRY: Delights & Shadows, by Ted Kooser
Mr. Kooser, of Garland, Neb., is the poet laureate of the United States. Like Wallace Stevens, Mr. Kooser, 65, worked in life insurance for much of his career. He was vice president of Lincoln Benefit Life Insurance, where he wrote advertising copy and oversaw legal affairs; he rose daily at 4:30 a.m. to compose poetry, which he asked his secretary and colleagues to critique. He retired in 1998.
Clarity is the hallmark of Mr. Kooser's style, with deceptively modest metaphors grounded in the Nebraska landscape. The Bloomsbury Review described his work as "like clean, clear water."
DRAMA: Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley
At first glance, the genesis of Doubt would seem to be obvious: The play tells the story of a strong-minded nun investigating suspicions of pedophilia in a Roman Catholic school, and was produced after real-life sex scandals in the church. But Mr. Shanley, 54, said the play was actually inspired by what he called a visceral reaction to current American political discourse. "People who have great certainty can be a force of good, but can also be incredibly destructive," he said yesterday.
MUSIC: Second Concerto for Orchestra, by Steven Stucky
Mr. Stucky's concerto is a colorfully orchestrated work written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which Mr. Stucky has been associated with - first as composer in residence, and now as consulting composer for new music - since 1988. The piece includes allusions to works by Ravel, Stravinsky and Sibelius, composers Mr. Stucky finds particularly influential. But it is also built on motifs that Mr. Stucky based on a code he devised, in which the letters of the alphabet were assigned to musical pitches.
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