Sublime contemporary translation of the mother of all anti-war sex strikes: "neither my boyfriend nor my wedded spouse shall touch me when inflated, sSublime contemporary translation of the mother of all anti-war sex strikes: "neither my boyfriend nor my wedded spouse shall touch me when inflated, say it girl!" ...more
"Suddenly I became aware of something moving toward me through the grass. So smoothly did it glide and with so little noise. I was frightened! Then re"Suddenly I became aware of something moving toward me through the grass. So smoothly did it glide and with so little noise. I was frightened! Then reason conquered fear and I knew it was Aunt Harriet, flat on her stomach and with only the use of her arms and serpentine movements of her body, gliding smoothly along. Mother helped her back to her chair and they laughed. Aunt Harriet then told me that that was the way she had gone by many a sentinel during the war. Seeing the swaying grass, she was mistaken for an animal or in the dim flicker of the camp fire, she appeared as a small shadow." -- Alice Brickler on an incident in 1910, when Tubman was 88 and unable to walk
Young Winston was an entitled insufferable toff during Britain's most morally ambiguous unjust war (Boer War II), even during his escape. He was neverYoung Winston was an entitled insufferable toff during Britain's most morally ambiguous unjust war (Boer War II), even during his escape. He was never humbled, and so must Britain be. Millard as always turns history into a thriller, while putting in context the decent and good fringe heroes (Solomon Plaatje and Gandhi here) who really made South African history. A useful read for the benighted (which I fear is now most of us), but a problematic Great Man tale for serious students of history. ...more
I have the feeling that Vladimir Nabokov, unlike Pablo Picasso, was indeed called an asshole on many occasions. Also brace yourself for the most hilarI have the feeling that Vladimir Nabokov, unlike Pablo Picasso, was indeed called an asshole on many occasions. Also brace yourself for the most hilarious footnote ever on page 136. ...more
The sad fact is that I think many people want to read this memoir in order to get a voyeuristic view of her married life with the brilliant tyrant andThe sad fact is that I think many people want to read this memoir in order to get a voyeuristic view of her married life with the brilliant tyrant and wordsmith Mark E. Smith -- and Brix does give forth there. But as a memoir of her many shifts between relative privilege and deprivation, not to mention being a woman in a strange rock band, this has its fascinating allure -- culminating midway through in a rather horrific encounter with gender-bending erstwhile friend Leigh Bowery. I wish her "solo" work with the Adult Net merited the attention she devotes to it here, but hey what did we expect! A breezy, harrowing read. ...more
Despite its slightly misleading title (the subtitle is what counts), Rooksby provides essential context and research about the alarming trend in acadeDespite its slightly misleading title (the subtitle is what counts), Rooksby provides essential context and research about the alarming trend in academia to rely on trademarks, copyright, and patents in order to generate revenue and "protect their brand". Putting these market protections or whatever you may call them into public universities undercuts their essential public mission, and denies the increasingly impoverished American (let alone their "mind") essential medicine, services, and research at a reasonable cost. (And yes, colleagues, the University of Minnesota shows up several times here as an offender.)
Bonus: the author aims this at a general readership, so you get a decent primer about the sometimes sordid history of American (and some international) intellectual property law, and its rapid recent changes. ...more
Levine's dark sanity can be both amplified and undercut by his near-wooden simplicity: only rarely do you come across a striking or beautiful passage Levine's dark sanity can be both amplified and undercut by his near-wooden simplicity: only rarely do you come across a striking or beautiful passage that you'd want to memorize and keep with you. Although poetry is never really fictive, many of these feel like his recounting a mundane nightmare or addled midnight vision.
Here's a relevant passage from "To My God in His Sickness":
I wake and it's not a dream I see the long coast of the continent writhing in sleep this America we thought we dreamed falling away flake by flake into the sea and the sea blackening and burning...more
Although these tales are filled with wolves, menstrual blood, sharpened teeth, burned flesh, you name it, there is no clear key to their horrors. CartAlthough these tales are filled with wolves, menstrual blood, sharpened teeth, burned flesh, you name it, there is no clear key to their horrors. Carter clearly eschewed Freudian nonsense just as surely as she rejects the quintessentially male notion that we make our destinies by "chucking paint at a wall". Many of these tale are relentlessly schematic, adorned by her snaky prose and sliced in bits by her strategic lacunae. Some even seem like a new genre: "Black Venus," "The Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe," and "In Pantoland," for example, seem only vaguely fictional -- liberated mental exercises about historical figures or existing imaginative structures. Altogether a dark, moving experience, and closing it with an optimistic meditation on aging called "The Quilt Maker" ("shake it out and look at it again") was especially difficult to endure, knowing that Carter died at age 51. ...more
A frightening and illuminating analysis of the apocalypse that occurs when a wafer-thin stratum of humans finds out that making money is easier than mA frightening and illuminating analysis of the apocalypse that occurs when a wafer-thin stratum of humans finds out that making money is easier than making things. This sort of thing is not widely reported for a variety of reasons (e.g. our media is owned by the very financial interests this book investigates), so establishment journalist Faroohar often comes across as extremely radical -- which I suppose she is. ...more
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