No Kings — Parma II, tyranny not welcome

The Constitution is not a suggestion. 

First of all *rump and his boot lickers lie profusely.  They project their behaviour, and there animus onto those they oppose. They want to win the definition of terms, and the media always presents their deceitful words verbatim. These fotos were taken to-day in Parma of Ohio. Now, Parma is the seventh most populous city in Ohio, and it is the largest suburb of Cleveland. This was only one of several easy distance drive in northeast Ohio. The lies of the regime are these are violent, and un-American people. What anyone who came there could see, are people in a jovial mood. They are friendly. They have good humour. They are contradicting the liars, and mocking the Devil. This First Amendment Assembly of Patriots was scheduled from 10am to 1pm. We got there before 10.15, and the sidewalks on both sides of Ridgewood were filled with hundreds of sign carrying, and some costumed determined Americans of good cheer. The number was slightly less than the previous No Kings event, perhaps there were more locations this time?

The beagle's sign reads, "Antifa paid me in belly rubs".

The Portland Frog sent me.

Parma loves America not kings!

Another happy member of the Kermit resistance. — Ω ☨

Morons Are Governing America.   &  Don't read to me.

Why are Ice agents all fat Magats

Democracy dies when good people remain silent. #No kings in America

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."  Mark Twain

Fox "News" causes brain rot.

No kings. No fascists. No tyrants. No nazis.   &  No kings since 1776.

 

 “It is possible,” Jordan says. “Then you will have to fight in your country as we fight here.”
“Yes, we will have to fight.”
“But are there not many fascists in your country?”
“There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find out when the time comes.”
—Robert Jordan [American] in conversation with  El Primitivo [Spaniard] in For Whom the Bell Tolls. by Ernest Hemingway. 

when a lie becomes a confession

Vance let the cat out of the bag, “I will lie to get the media to talk about what i want them to talk about”.  The most Republican thing ever said.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do”. ~ (current alias, JD Vance) Republican nominee for Vice-President. 2024.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”.  ~ Exodus xx. 16.

That commandment speaks to a grievous form of lying, lying to do harm to person(s), malicious perhaps to death. Vance is a US senator from Ohio. He slanders his fellow Ohioans with repeated lies, that they kill and eat wildfowl, and neighbours' pets. The particular people he attacks are émigrés from Haiti living in Springfield, and Dayton. He gets bonus lies in that they are black people from the Caribbean, Kamala Harris' father came from Jamaica in the Caribbean.

“…But let us not forget that violence does not and cannot exist by itself: It is invariably intertwined with the lie. They are linked in the most intimate, most organic and profound fashion: Violence cannot conceal itself behind anything except lies, and lies have nothing to maintain them save violence. Anyone who has once proclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose the lie as his principle. At birth, violence acts openly and even takes pride in itself. But as soon as it gains strength and becomes firmly established, it begins to sense the air around it growing thinner; it can no longer exist without veiling itself in a mist of lies, without concealing itself behind the sugary words of falsehood. No longer does violence always and necessarily lunge straight for your throat; more often than not it demands of its subjects only that they pledge allegiance to lies, that they participate in falsehood...”. ~ from Aleksandr Isajevič Solzhenitsyn Nobel Lecture. 1970.  

“Every lie is a poison; there are no harmless lies. Only the truth is safe”. ~ Lev Nikolajevič Tolstoj. Resurrection. 1899.

Florida 451, Republican controlled states 451

The Republican Party is a fascist organisation. It has empowered its adherents to have books removed from school, and public libraries. The threshold is one such fascist to begin the process of removal. Florida is one of the hot spots for this. They have made teachers, and librarians suspects and scapegoats. Broward County has made an option for a library card to look like supra. Immediately, a Republican legislator threatened them retaliation in cutting funding. This party does not tolerate non-compliance, and is vindictive, and will seek vengeance.

 I snapped supra in 2013, it was a rare instance of good graffiti. It was on a remaining building of Joseph Feiss clothing factory in Cleveland. Since then the building has been converted into a school.

„Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people.“  — Heinrich Heine

When the nazi-fascists came to power in Germany in 1933, they orchestrated bonfires of books. Many intellectuals left the country. In 1934, in Paris, the exiles created a Library of the Burned Books. The German fascists burned books in occupied countries, e.g. a large majority of school libraries in Poland were destroyed, and books burned. This was part of cultural genocide.

2022 Miscellany #14

Old Brooklyn, Cleveland 

A lot of fotos in this post. Some are of annual events, some are of public places that are available to everyone, some are random sightings while travelling to other locations. I think, all are interesting in that, they stand out from the drabness that is overwhelming. 

 

This journal is named, "a voice from the rustbelt". The rustbelt is the northeast, and the middle west. The rustbelt is urbanised, and has been diminished in influence as the west coast, southwest, and other parts of the sunbelt have gained prominence. Yet, there are many things still in the rustbelt. Not everything here in this journal revolves around, near, or inside of the rustbelt—there is the whole world outside, and there is no vacuum, we intersect, one thing effects other things. The locus here is greater Cleveland. At one time Cleveland was the 5th, or 6th most populous city in the United States. Cleveland is in the near middle West [or the Old Northwest] (the far middle West states which do not border the Mississippi are outside the rustbelt). Chicago is the capital city, and Cleveland was the chief city in the eastern province. Cleveland shares much cultural milieu with the western cities of the northeast, Buffalo and Pittsburgh. Many great fortunes were centered here, and some of that was spent on edifices, and objects, and institutions that are still extant. Of course, most of the populace never enjoyed these things when they were created; but some are available to the public. Members of the rabble created institutions also, and were, and are the residents and denizens. The name is patterned after "a voice in the wilderness", not that there is much of a comparison to John the Baptiser. It is a voice that says something (he believes is important) which is ignored, or deemed unimportant, or not listened to by others.

Krazy Cops, Columbus Parade, Murray Hill Road, Little Italy, Cleveland

one of several faux gargoyles on Garfield Monument, Lake View Cemetery

Items used for ceremony to open the dragons' eyes at Dragon Boat Races Lorain Ohio.

St. Michael the Archangel (Orthodox), Broadview Heights Ohio, The Three Holy Youths (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), from the 3rd chapter of Daniel.  [click]

In America, it is more common for an Orthodox church to have a scene from the Old Testament.

entrance to tunnel under Lake Road at Huntington Metropark, artwork by Bernadette Glorioso & students from Incarnate Word Academy

ladybug on golden rod in Seven Hills

I was near Langston Hughes Branch Cleveland Public Library to return a book that i read [click].  Painted on the wall was a poem he wrote at 17, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". The historical marker outside has it as his best known poem. I had thought "Harlem", or "Let America Be America Again".

 

For people without much money, almost everywhere it is not easy to get by, and there are few resources to enjoy. To go out with the family may cost more than an hundred dollars, or even to go to a show with someone. But in the area around Cuyahoga County there are excellent libraries, and metroparks. And here is the odd point, all those are tax supported, taxes that are voted upon. When levies are on the ballot for the parks, and the libraries—they invariably win. 

 

One political party, the Repukes, always complain about taxes. The local media always cheerleads for levies for schools, fire, and police. These are all paid for services. If good services are wanted, they have to be paid for. Local governments' most expensive outlay is often the police department. The Repukes always cry, and scare people about crime (they mean street crime, and not white collar crimes, or sedition), and they say they support police forces. The rich have more income than anyone—no shit. The taxes they hate the most are income taxes.

 

When taxes come back to state, and local governments, when Repukes are in charge they spend that money, and not always what it was meant for, and they sometime lower local taxes (income taxes, which by definition, the largess benefits the rich). In reality, the country is under taxed; and the Repukes are greedy hypocrites, who game the system.

Mayfield Wildcat mascot, Columbus Day Parade

Piccola Italia, that's what my father called it.

clever sign: Vote and tell them, "Ruth sent me"

We know this sign refers to the Dobbs decision overthrowing Roe vs. Wade concerning abortion. There are many things to vote for, against, and on. This year, maybe in other years to come too, the chief vote is whether democracy will be allowed. If democracy is permitted to survive this time, the issue may come again; if democracy loses this time, we cannot guess if it comes back.

man and friend, Lorain Ohio

trees in autumn color Wade Park Avenue, Cleveland

When the Emperor was Divine

    

Well, sometime ago i got "When the Emperor was Divine" from the library. I got it because it was banned. Someone with a political agenda objected to it as un-American. It described the internal concentration camps for Japanese Americans. That was a taboo subject, and some want it to be again. Orwell's memory hole exists in America, and it is de rigeur in Republican America.

When it came, i saw it was a small book, but procrastination is its own reward. Well, today i went for the bivalent coronavirus vaccine. In the past, a fifteen minute wait thereafter was required. The nurse saw on her computer, that, i had no allergic reaction to the prior ones, so it was not necessary to wait. I had brought the book to start for that time interval. She asked me, whether i wanted to get a flu shot. I said "yes". There was a line for that, so i began the book.

First paragraph was straight forward prose, it was the cause necessitating a small shopping trip. It was the narrator's last day in town. The next day, the remainder of her family was going into internal deportation. She had things to pack. There were three pictures hanging in the home. One was a painting of Princess Elizabeth...serendipity...she died two days ago. There was a picture of Jesus, and Millet's "Gleaners".

Then the brutality began. Her husband was in camp for months. When he was allowed to write home, the envelope was stamped, "Censored War Department", or "Detained Alien Enemy Mail".

Pets were not allowed to accompany the internal exiles. She gave the cat to a neighbour. The White Dog was old, and blind in one eye. Part of the shopping was for a hammer, the store did not have one sufficiently large. She used a shovel to dispatch the animal, in one blow. The story began on page 3, we are up to page 11. I was slow to start this book, i do not think i will take a long time to finish it.

The problem with a good novel, or other art, is that it can lead to empathy when showing truth. Truth that makes the powers that be, or those who wish to be a part of the powers that be, look bad. It is not that they are ashamed, they are angry and wish to impose their will to satisfy their feelings of revenge, and wish to crush anything that does not support their views, or programme.

thinking of banned books

  

 Danville Public Library Banned Books Week [not my foto]

Couple of months back banned books made the national headlines on account of Republicans had to show who they were. So yeah, i've been thinking of banned books. As a teenager i read several of the books that are still being banned. I went to a Catholic High School, many of these books were assigned reading. There was no objection, save those by students who disliked certain books because of personal preference. I read, "The Lord of the Flies", i did not like it, had no thought of it should not be read by others. 

Looking over frequently banned books, those i read as a teenager: outside of assigned reading: "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Animal Farm"; and assigned: “Of Mice and Men”, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, "The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn", "The Canterbury Tales", "A Farewell To Arms". A few others i read in 7th and 8th grades. Books assigned to other students in the same school: “Slaughterhouse-Five”, "Brave New World", "The Catcher in the Rye". In a public grade school, i vaguely remember a teacher reading "Charlotte's Web" to the class. She liked that Charlotte could write, and spell. We had spelling as a grade.

Several decades later, other books that did not exist then by another generation of writers that have been frequently banned: "The Handmaid's Tale", “Beloved”, "The Color Purple".  Most of these books are banned to have ideas silenced:  anti-militarism, “anti-business attitude”, “troubling ideas about race relations”, exposing hypocrisy ["Elmer Gantry", Sinclair Lewis has fallen out of favor by teachers, he had other great novels].

I was introduced to "The Story of Ferdinand" by Captain Kangaroo. The book came out in 1936, and was promptly banned by the fascist states. Other children books i read that were banned: "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl", "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", "Black Beauty" [the title was offensive].

all Republican speak is duplicity, mendacity, evil intent

legitimate political discourse 

Some of the most consistently lying, delusional, and ultimately evil things spill out of the mouth of the chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Reince Priebus was very aggressive, and quick to distort, and twist everything. When Trump chose to make Priebus his chief of staff, Trump chose Ronna Romney McDaniel to replace him on December 14, 2016. Shortly thereafter, he told her to stop using the Romney name. At the beginning of 2019 she attacked, demeaned, and insulted her uncle for criticising her master, Trump. “For an incoming Republican freshman senator to attack [trump] as their first act feeds into what the Democrats and media want and is disappointing and unproductive.” She is an enemy and traitor to country, and family.

As the world knows, Trump and his party of insurrectionists had a failed putsch in January 2021. That party [the Republicans] wants that to go down the memory hole, as they further connive, conspire, and cabal to be more successful in their next attempts. Early this year, the RNC had their winter meeting. They made and passed a resolution using ultra-Orwellian language, calling the putsch “legitimate political discourse.” [see: click]

settled law as binding precedent 

Bork repeatedly promised to respect “settled law”. He was lying, and every Republican nominated to be on the Supreme Court since has similarly lied. His legal opinions would have made him a Tory in the 1770s. He did not make the jump to the Supremes, and the Republicans want revenge for every loss. It was abortion that the questioners, and proponents were publicly interested in [there were many other issues that Bork, and his party were interested in]. 

In 2005 at Roberts' confirmation hearing his initial statement included, “...Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules. ... that it's my job to call balls and strikes...”.

Well, Alito's draft opinion has been leaked, in it he and his cohorts overturn Roe v. Wade 1973.

In a footnote he wrote:

“whereas the domestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life and available to be adopted has become virtually nonexistent.” 

This reminds me of what Jonathan Swift wrote in 1729 in “A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick”. It is a satire concerning the poverty of the Irish, and the wealth and disinterest of the English. Swift in cruel, straight faced, fancy but blunt language suggests Irish children to be sold as food to the rich English:

“A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout”.

Alito seriously, while Swift satirically, sees infants as items on the commodity market.

madness of Macbeth

Well, i was waiting to see this as soon it was announced that Washington was playing Macbeth. The film was delayed for at least a year. No one is mentioning the cultural appropriation here. An actor can be cast in any role. Washington gives glances as he did in August Wilson's Fences, where he played Troy Maxson. With Shakespeare, one can watch the same play in different productions and be satisfied. In this one, it is early when Macbeth is insane. The ambition causes the madness, and murder follows. When Macbeth sits on the throne, he is mad.

Filming in black and white was good, the visuals were surprising and well done. There is fog, strong light, shadows, and dark, and the sound of a light's pull chain. The director can shade the story when doing a play. The author often does not give much more than words, a naked text. Choices are made in presentation, and different presentations can be well done. The castle is beyond huge (but void of ornamentation), as large as any in a silent movie spectacular. Some scenes the travel within are as in Citizen Kane. The pillars of the castle imitate the trees in the forest, and vice versa. Birnam Wood grows its trees in straight ranks, which match the columns of men carrying boughs. The leaves fall without wind until Macbeth opens the window, and then sits again on the throne and waits. When he stands and walks, the columns and the trees are in the same hall. 

Ross appears again and again, he does not narrate, but he is a catalyst to action and as a witness to the action. The Macbeths are around sixty in this version. Why would their murderous jealousy be directed at Banquo (who is prophesised never to be king)?

There is no cauldron. The three witches were played by one actress, and they would turn into corbies (ravens). Corbies scavenge human carrion. Magpies, rooks, and ravens are all corvids. Here, the Ghost of Banquo is one. At the very end, a flight of these birds end the movie. There is that odd poetic word for a collective of these birds—murder.

Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest play, and this movie finishes the story in about 100 minutes, and they come quick. When a movie flows in viewing, that one is surprised it's already over, it is a good movie.

Visit to Russian, and Armenian Gardens

There is a new, and currently, unmarked pillar in the Armenian  Garden. During the winter, the top was covered with a black, plastic, garbage bag. It is a lovely terra cotta of the heads of a woman and man.

Alexander Sergejevič Pushkin's 222nd birthday was celebrated in the Russian Garden on 6 June.

Lukomorje was mentioned in the mediæval Russian Chronicles. It was by the Sea of Azov, in the land of the Polovetsians. Now in Russian culture it is identified with the Pushkin poem, Ruslan and Ljudmila. The poem begins:

У лукоморья дуб зеленый,
Златая цепь на дубе том:
И днем и ночью кот ученый
Всё ходит по цепи кругом;
Идет направо – песнь заводит,
Налево – сказку говорит.   

U lukomor'ya dub zelenyy,
Zlataya tsep' na dube tom:
I dnem i noch'yu kot uchenyy
Vso khodit po tsepi krugom;
Idet napravo – pesn' zavodit,
Nalevo – skazku govorit.

By the side of the sea, a green oak,
A golden chain on an oaken tome:
And day and night the cat scholar
Continuously walks on the chain;
Goes to the right - a song starts
To the left - he speaks a fairy tale.

Shasta Daisies in front of Juri Aleksejevič Gagarin

time for Camus

Cassius is an existentialist. Camus is the best of the literary existentialists. We are in a time of  a new plague, and pestilence. Camus also wrote a play "Caligula", about a mad (crazy, insane) emperor. Cassius looked through the house, could not find it; and all the libraries are closed.

Language has its purpose

Some days ago i read the last six chapters of Michiko Kakutani's "The Death of Truth: notes on falsehood in the age of Trump". A big part of the book is about anti-intellectualism, and post-modernist deconstruction and how these two, along with nihilism have prepared America for Trump and his political cohort. Two important writers who identified the evil banality of Soviet socialism (communism), and fascism are Hannah Arendt and George Orwell. Those two systems made no distinction between truth and lies, so power could be executed for the sake of power. To-day we have a regime that creates 'alternate facts'. Kakutani mentions a writer i am not familiar with, David Foster Wallace, who wrote about post-modern irony in the 1990s. She sees his mention of the advertising fictional Joe Isuzu ["You have my word on it"], and Rush Limbaugh [and his dittoheads] as precursors to Trump.

I suppose when i was in college was about the time the post-modernist deconstruction writers and disciples were about to switch on the political spectrum. Those in books at the time were far leftists, and those for more than a generation have been far rightists. Then i thought them pretentious bullshit artists that only existed in their circle of effluvium and flotsam; now they are a fascist peril. 

If i were to write that book, yes i would have used some of her sources and historical episodes. But i also would have used "2 + 2 = 4", this is Aristotelian logic; it is also mentioned by Dostojevskij and Orwell. A rational, and a free man can say this. You have freedom if you can say this without penalty. Dostojevskij also had Fr. Zosima say in "The Brothers Karamazov": 

"...The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself. The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than anyone. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offence, isn't it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill -- he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offence, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it, and so pass to genuine vindictiveness. ...". 

I also would have quoted from Solzhenitsyn's Nobel speech: "...Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his METHOD must inexorably choose falsehood as his PRINCIPLE. ...".

World Book Day

To-day (23 April) is St. George's Day, it is connected to both as a date of death to Cervantes, and to Shakespeare. It was begun by booksellers in Spain in 1923, and then expanded by the United Nations in 1995. Alcalá de Henares is Cervantes birthplace and there is a public reading of the world's first novel, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha 1605, on this day there.

It is better to note than Banned Book Week which begins at the end of September. American librarians began this in 1982, rightly to protest censorship. World Book Day is a celebration, while the other is a warning against the dystopia of 1984, and Fahrenheit 451.

Generally it is either important or popular novels that are banned in America. The syllabus of books studied in high school and college literature classes are virtually identical. At different times, different books, for different reasons are objected to. Being absolute crap, like Ayn Rand has not been a reason. Recently a Republican legislator in Idaho wanted one of her doorstops mandatory.

Often it is the idea wants to be censored, especially if is true and, therefore, embarrassing or against controlling economic (or political interest).  Uncle Tom's Cabin 1852 was anti-slavery. The Grapes of Wrath 1939 showed the plight of internal, agricultural, migrant workers. The land magnates, and their stooges burned the book, and banned the book in their part of California. J. Edgar Hoover made sure the FBI and the IRS would always harass the author. Eleanor Roosevelt praised the book, Hollywood made a big movie of it, Steinbeck was awarded Pulitzer and Nobel. That Steinbeck book, and more so Of Mice and Men are routinely threatened to-day.

 “The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.” – Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and To Kill the Mockingbird show the inhumanity shown to slaves and blacks. This is why they were objected to. Yet, now they are objected to over the use of one word, 'nigger'. It is almost a clever way aimed to prevent an appreciation of truth and humanity by directing one to a red herring of a now taboo word.

Some instances are tellingly, dangerously stupid; others are just stupid. Senator Joseph McCarthy had copies of an anthology that included Thoreau's Civil Disobedience removed from US libraries out side the country. Department of War during WWI had pacifist books removed from libraries. More recently, Little Red Riding Hood was banned because she had a wine bottle in her basket. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice has been banned as anti-Semitic.

So, go read a damn good book [do not read trash, it is a waste of valuable time], and tell to others of good books to read.

fortune writing

Advertising is an assault on truth, far more than it is accurate. I dislike the uniquely American  concept of 'boosterism' [See: Sinclair Lewis', Babbitt]. They are manufactured braggadocio, disguised as enthusiasm, and quite often for private profit.

I've quoted the other 1920s Minnesota boy before:

Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero.—F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fortune cookie writing, is a limited market. Few pearls are found in those shells. I have discussed this before. I thought it was done, and it would still be funny, although some supposedly object, for a cookie message to have a preamble: 'Confucius says'. Recently, i found this beauty supra. Generally, the tendency is to blandness, and not toward edginess.   I requested for my three readers to send me a good message. I am still waiting.

Some people find little difference between the cookie, and paper. Of course, there are many delightful cookies. After last Sunday's Mass, there was a Polish cookie table in the gym. On the drive home, i heard Peter Sagal say he liked cookies, and suggested someone in a Kansas City cookie store to send him one; but fortune cookies are slight.

we all matter

To borrow part of the first sentence of Huck Finn, "YOU don't know about me...but that ain't no matter." I was nine years old when man first stepped on the moon. We were poor, and that summer we did without a television set, and i missed the moon landing. We had a small radio that sat on the top of the electric icebox, and the Cleveland Press on occasion. Once a week, my mother took me to Collinwood's public library. For some reason or another, i was a fanatic about base ball. I read nearly every base ball book that library had. I became familiar with much of twentieth century ball up to the late 1950s; beyond that—Sandy Koufax, and Bob Gibson. I was not able to appreciate "Ball Four", and quit on it. Well, the one important book i read, that summer, was Huck Finn.

Now, that novel came out about 1885 and occurred around 1840. It was popular when it came out, and attacked for its roughness and coarseness. To-day, it is still attacked for its coarseness; but, perhaps, from different perspectives. As America had changed from antebellum to the gilded age, so it has at the beginning of this century. That book is still important, and has become an academic standard in American and English language literature.

The book is told by a participant of the tale. He is a youth, that would have been anonymously overlooked by important people. He speaks to us of conscience, and the choice between good and evil. What is right, is not always legal, or accepted by society and its arbiters of propriety. They will scare with threats of prison and damnation. But simple Huckleberry becomes a servant of his conscience.

So Huck is important to the world. I read, that, this story has always been popular in Russia. After reading much Russian literature, and history, i can see why. The Russian existential question concerns man's relation to the cosmos. Though Neil Armstrong touched the moon first, Jurij Aleksejevič Gagarin was the first cosmonaut.

As Bob Dylan sang, "I've learned to hate Russians all through my whole life". He was a troubadour in the cold war in a country still heavily contesting the difference between white and black men. He begins that same song in an humble, and even more anonymous spirit than Huck. "Oh my name it is nothin', my age it means less. The country I come from is called the Midwest. I's taught and brought up there, the laws to abide". He also is man struggling with his conscience against his country's culture and ethos. The nation still intimidates by coercion of legal, and religious censure.

The point and crux is: we all matter, and where you matter the most is to do right.

          — 29 November 2012.

****            ****            ****            ****            ****            ****             ****            ****

Time, to time i pen things. I also lose them. This was going to be the introductory page for a book, possibly, of interviews with people who followed their consciences. I spoke to a friend about it, he listened and nothing. I would like a publisher.

to belabor the point

Yesterday, was Labor Day. I made a brief statement:

"Sometimes, people need to know what day it is. Sometimes, people need to know why to celebrate. The United States, and Canada acknowledge the first Monday in September as Labour Day."

Here is one of those people. This obnoxious, combative, mendacious stool of a person issued this statement on an idiot's telegraph service:

Eric Cantor @ GOPLeader

Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.

9:06 AM - 3 Sep 12

In George Orwell's dystopic novel, 1984, Winston Smith had to constantly re-write history for Big Brother. The Republican party does the same. And this pissant wants to be Speaker of the House, and then President of the United States. Cantor was elected from Virginia's 7th congressional district. Wayne Powell is running for that seat for the Democracy. Powell's biography says he retired as a colonel from the US Army, and is a lawyer. Cantor is a puke.

literary parody

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness." — Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. Paul Clifford. 1830.

There are competitions for aspiring writers to poke fun at writing. Three parodies that have been recently active mock Hemingway, Faulkner, and overwritten sentences. Hemingway and Faulkner are very distinctive on the page. They both have their avid partisans.

In high school, we had to hand in reports on writers and their books. I went to the main branch of the public library, used the card catalogue, and searched the shelves. For William Faulkner, there were several books written in German, and in French. Of the several writers, that, i researched this was the only one that was so interesting to foreign language readership.

The book the class was all assigned to read was, "As I Lay Dying". The other book i read was, "The Sound and the Fury". My essay concerned Vardaman Bundren and Benjy Compson. The thesis was that they were literary idiots, and not clinical ones.

I thought the name "Vardaman" odd. There is no Saint Vardaman, there is no Hollywood Vardaman. Where did he get Vardaman? James Vardaman was governor of Mississippi (1904-08), and US Senator (1913-19). He was the candidate of poor whites, and a white supremacist. He was wont to speak in colorful, strong, and vile, vulgar terms. As governor he said, "If it is necessary every Negro in the state will be lynched; it will be done to maintain white supremacy." But Vardaman delivered and promised much as a populist, and progressive. “Jesus Christ, Sears-Roebuck and James K. Vardaman are the only friend a poor man has”, was said by many a white Mississippian. The character, Vardaman Bundren, was so named as an illustration of how some 'rednecks (it was a self-identifying political term at the time)' looked up to the politician, and to mark the character as mentally flawed.

Over the years, from 1989-2005, University of Mississippi ran the Faux Faulkner contest. After a time, it and the older Hemingway contest was sponsored by United Airlines, which printed the winners in their in flight magazine. The last Faulkner winner was not printed, though available, at the time, on the internet. The winning entry by Sam Apple was The Administration and the Fury. The Benjy character was substituted by gwbjr.

'Go and get him Saddam's gun,' Condi said. 'You know how he likes to hold it.'
Dick went to my desk drawer and took out Saddam's gun. He gave it to me, and it was hot in my hands. Rummy pulled the gun away.

The Bad Hemingway contest began in a California saloon in 1977. Every year 'one really good page of really bad Hemingway' was sought for. International Imitation Hemingway Competition and the Faux Faulkner contests are in suspension. In the later years the winners were announced in the fourth week of July.

The still active contest has expanded to cover several genres and categories. The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest began in 1982 at San Jose State University.

Faulkner had long meandering sentences where many readers got lost. He wrote of southern decay. Hemingway had none of that. Both won Nobel prizes. Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea is written in very simple sentences. Much of his earlier work was considered ultra-macho. Bulwer-Lytton was the example of wordy, over florid, purple prose to the point of distraction, overly descriptive nineteenth century writing. His novels were received well, upon issuance, but a century later dismissed by current taste. Each style was easy to imitate and snigger at. Bulwer-Lytton is not an awful writer, but a presently mockable author. Remember, the worst writer in English is Ayn Rand; and John Dewey is extra-ordinarily difficult, and he wrote non-fiction.

Charles Schulz went beyond the childhood cute of his Peanuts gang, and touched on other subjects. Linus was a religious philosopher at times. Snoopy was a Walter Mitty dreamer. He cruised the air above the warfields of France in a Sopwith Camel. He, Woodstock, and his buddies are French Legionnaires. At other times he mounted his doghouse becoming the great, undiscovered author. Time, after time, he types, "It was a dark and stormy night".

Here is a Dishonorable Mention in this year's Crime category:

Bishop threw back the shot of bourbon and reflected on his career as a private dick, a profession he always thought of as perfect for a man named Richard who kept to himself and was often unkind to others. — Jon Maddalena of Mesick, Michigan. 2012.

Dickens at 200

stained glass portrait at London's Charles Dickens Museum

Dickens was a story teller, who wrote enjoying colorful and descriptive words. He was always popular. His social commentary caused attention to be paid to living conditions, especially in London, for Dickens the City of London was a character. He used comedy to show that an ass was an ass, and sometimes worse. For these reasons he has been looked down upon by certain breeds of critics.
Ebeneezer Scrooge before Christmas is to-day's capitalist, and in the US, the Republican party domestic policy architect. But, Scrooge as a fictional character was written to be redeemed. The sufferings of the poor, and the cruelties they endured was not what 'society' wanted to read. Notice the television soap operas (yes they have been reduced, because cheaper dreck can be aired) are filled with the grand bourgeoisie, and other than their servants, the only 'poor' characters are poor for a month or so. Dickens wrote in installments, and kept his audience's appetites whetted.
In England, Dickens' bicentennial is being observed. One of many ways to be reminded is on BBC News Magazine page which has a 'Dickens of the day' quote this year. (click here too)

Dickens of the day

3 February

“Strip the bishop of his apron, or the beadle of his hat and lace; what are they? Men. Mere men. Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine” -- Dickens takes aim - in Oliver Twist - at officialdom and its pretensions

23 January

"Please, sir," replied Oliver, "I want some more." The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle; pinioned him in his arm; and shrieked aloud for the beadle - The orphan Oliver Twist bucks the system at the workhouse, delivering his immortal line

13 January

"A good, contented, well-breakfasted juryman is a capital thing to get hold of. Discontented or hungry jurymen, my dear sir, always find for the plaintiff" - Mr Perker, attorney for Samuel Pickwick, shares his legal knowledge

Once upon a time...

Bruno Bettleheim's book, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, came out in 1976. A fascinating, freudian view of Grimm's (and others) collected fairy tales. The child can interpret these tales as life lessons. The book proved quite popular in college amongst several departments of students, quite soon after its release.

There is a mythic oral tradition that took centuries to find print. Many of these folk tales took an interested scholar to collect. Throughout european nations, and other cultures, similar stories existed.

Now, the typical english language formula that begins such tales is, 'Once upon a time...'. Some of these tales are illustrative of a certain lesson, others are open to exploration (psychic or otherwise). Some are scary. That fear is of meaning too, and to the child, perhaps, a different one.

ABC television has put on a programme, 'Once upon a time', in which it connects several such stories. Unfortunately, some of the people did a previous programme, Lost [a show i did not view], which played the viewer. A writer constructs his own universe, an untrustworthy one contradicts himself, and confuses his audience. I like the idea of the fairy tale universe, but not one that cheats, tricks and fools the audience. I read there is some carryover from Buffy, the vampire slayer. That is more encouraging. Buffy was quite good until it went beyond its carrying capacity. This new series suggests three years of episodes.

The two main protagonists are Snow White and her Stepmother, in the old land of enchantment; and in the new* it is Snow's daughter. The Stepmother [aka Evil Queen] launches a 'dark curse' that sends everyone to Maine [home of Stephen King]. This 'curse' is fascinating. It is mechanically created? and not by incantation? and its possession was twice transferred. Here it is nebulous [i caught the show in passing, and not in a full and careful viewing].

All the narrative, i am typing, may not be accurate. There is a demonic Rumpelstiltskin who may be the creator. The story presents the Evil Queen as the only one with memory. She is Regina the mayor in the new cursed land. She is a murderer in both. Why bother with a new world? Until Snow's daughter appears in town, the town is in stasis with only the boy, Henry, realising the story, and that is because he has read an illustrated book [who wrote the book?].

So far, the show is working well [for the most part]. I hope they don't mess it up.

The nature of the/a curse is a point of conjecture. Curse exists in both, verb and noun. The recitation of words to do harm, or evil; and the harm/evil itself. This condition is supernatural, or beyond that which the physical world allows, therefore, it is magic. The words are physical agents. Now children can accept magic, because they do not comprehend nature well enough; but we, also, live in a society that encourages magical thinking. That is both stupid, and dangerous. See the Republican Party.

A fictive world can make logical sense, and be artistically successful if it holds respect for the truth, which then applied would be internal consistency following logic. Creating an alternative reality, and accepting, and forcing it on others, as true is dangerous and has been evil.

Fairy tales can teach us truth. Magical thinking does not.
________________________________
*Snow White: Where are we going?
Evil Queen: Somewhere horrible. Absolutely horrible.

and on a side note: Lana Parrilla is a very attractive evil

11/11/11

On the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918, the Armistice (cessation of the use of arms and ordinance) on the Western Front took effect. Men did die in action that day. An estimate of 11,000 casualties, that day, is given by the historian Joseph Persico. French military records recorded French deaths that day as happening on the tenth. Who wants to be told their son died on the last day of the war?

That day was also St. Martin's, the Roman soldier who declared before Worms, "I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight." Many of the French thought he intervened.

Erich Maria Remarque wrote the novel, Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front). The hero, Paul Bäumer, dies in October 1918. Many people are now introduced to that war, by that book. The book has been occasionally banned. There are no combat veterans of that war left alive.

aphorism for the defense

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

— Mary Flannery O'Connor in correspondence 1955

Which is a flare more lyrical than “it is true even though you don't want it so”. O'Connor wrote in seclusion from the family farm. She was not a public figure. This thought needs to be spoken in public. We have a portion of America that is delusional. We have others that are simply lying with relish, and the former are programmed in aggressive idiocy, “What's your source?”, “I don't like your facts”.

And to counter a different sort of idjit, the truth is an absolute defense against slander and libel. We are not in jolly olde England, where the titled can sue people for speaking unpleasant truths. Also, concerning liars being upset and miffed when called for lying, well if you stop lying, then people would not call you liars.