On an article and two original poems
From the recent review in The Irish Times about a critical book on American literature.
The review is mixed, positive and negative. It mentions Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. The main thing I remember about that novel is Finn saying sometimes you have to reject your society, or at least some of it, for the sake of friendship and humanity.
“’Books keep the evidence so readers might find it tomorrow,’ writes Ilan Stavans, a professor of cultural studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts. It’s a nice way of expressing the nature of literature as a permanent record, from the first written word to today, when physical books – where the reader owns the words and doesn’t just have a licence to read them as long as Amazon allows it – have remained stubbornly popular.”
There is a saying that literature is “history that stays history,” or something to that effect. I think it was from Ezra Pound. I think it comes down to treating literature like myth and psychology.
“Zones” by yours truly
Time zones
Pheromones
Awkward talk on phones
Alone(s}, alone(s}
Intimacy, moans
Retiring and loans.
“Define” by yours truly
“What do you think of the ‘Nay, dohh!’ position in Western Europe?”
“As I define it, it should not be tore up. But they should not get too angry.”