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POPSSubjective Reality and Autobiographical Fiction People are still getting worked up over this? Dare I call them gullible? I mean, normally when I read an autobiography where the author claims to have been raised by a pack of wolves I chuckle to myslef and presume that some obscure sense of humor is at work. I mean, seriously, how was ANYONE fooled into thinking this story was real? Apparently it's gonna be an awkward Rosh Ha-Shanah at the Defonseca household, that is, of course, if they don't just skip it. ;) Still, back in the 60s and 70s the work of Hunter Thompson was considered JOURNALISM. Is it safe to say that the public has moved towards a naive objectivism, presuming that all that is printed as fact must be true, and that we have lost touch with the subjective nature of human experience? I hope we get this spasm under control in time to save the beautiful subjective art of Literature!
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POPSThe Vice of Reading Diversified What this author only hints at, and the NEA overlooks entirely, is that literacy and the processing of information in text format has been radically transformed by modern communication. For instance, when I was young people dispaired that the art of letter writing and written expression would disappear entirely. On the contrary, with email, blogging, and other assorted media, we are as a society writing more than ever before. And it's not just the privileged and educated who get to read and write. Writing has become a daily habit for billions of people around the world, and one of the most egalitarian ways of communicating in the developing world. And the NEA also fails to appreciate that the way we live our lives has been altered by how we process information. The line between reading for pleasure, reading for work, reading for education, and reading for spirituality is now hopelessly, and wonderfully blurred.
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POPSYou Darkness, from which I came You Darkness, from which I came, I love you more than all the Flames, Limiting the World, by shining all around us, (?) so that no one knows of the darkness. But the darkness actually holds everything: Form and Flame, Animals and me, How easily it gathers them, (?) Men and Might - And it is possible: a great Power is coming closer. I believe in Nights. *** by Ranier Maria Rilke (My own terrible German translation...)
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POPSA Literary Perspective on the Subjective Nature of Memory I am consistently impressed with Hungarian literature, and the language is moving up my "Must Learn" list. Nadas Peter seems like a particularly relevant novelist today, in an era where facts, and even recent history are extraordinarily maliable. The most amazing part is the way in which the "free" press has been not only complacent but complicit in these revisions. More than any time in the recent passed, these days we need to be reminded that human beings are not inheriently empirical creatures. Emotions and perceptions; desires and frustarations; these are the key architects of our collective memories.
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POPSThe Orthodox Patriarch visits Greenland Neal Ascherson writes with clear but contemplative prose about the surreal beauty of Greenland as it comes in contact with the surreal union of Religion and Science. An interesting look into the ideas of the much-overlooked Orthodox Christian Churches on the issues of global politics and the environment.
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POPSA Beautiful Elegy for the Buddhas of Bamyan Cohen is perhaps the most eloquent writer in the opinion pages of the International Herald Tribune. This is perhaps the most genuine and insightful appraisal of the War on Terror that I have seen to date.
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