Governments keep war hidden because it is hideous. To allow citizens to see its reality -- the shattered bodies, the wounded children, the incomprehensible mayhem -- is to risk eroding popular support for it. - Gary Kamiya on Salon.com
I did not want to look at this photo gallery now, at work. I know I will cry, and I also don’t want to offend or upset anyone who might be watching or walking behind my computer. But I think it’s important that we Americans know the true toll and devastation of this war, just as I thought it was important that we not be too shielded from the true horror of September 11’s events. We cannot make our decisions for our political stances and lifestyle choices without facing up to the consequences of said decisions, and the events those actions may inspire or cause. You can’t – or at least shouldn’t - be antiwar without knowing why, and conversely, you can not - or should not - be pro-war without being fully cognizant of what the war entails for our soldiers/our citizens.
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Myla Goldberg (Bee Season) has a new book out; it’s called Wickett’s Remedy. Bee Season (NOT to be confused with The Secret Life of Bees) was an uneven but ultimately engaging book, with a surprising ending. Her character of Eliza Naumann is awkward and average - and at times thoroughly unlikeable - but eventually inspires intense empathy and probably makes every mother feel as if she just wants to protect the poor girl, from herself and her bonkers family. I’m not all that nuts about the whole Irish theme of the new book, but I’ll read it.
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Go, Mark Kurlansky! And in that same vein, maybe the British are NOT inherently smarter than we are… Although I am far more likely and willing to believe that the British MPs are reading Dan Brown than I am that George Bush is reading social and/or Russian history.
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I am considering buying this book for my Republican, capitalist little brother…or at least for his new child. Since I know the boy won’t be reading the Commie-leaning Rainbow Fish anytime soon.
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The Crimson Petal and the White is all right but it’s just not grabbing me. So I started (for the umpteenth time) Captain Corelli’s Mandolin; this time it might stick, as I am enjoying it except for the boring The Duce sections, but I guess the political machinations are part of what fuels the novel’s plot. We shall see.
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A couple books that have crossed my radar, that I want to look into: Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks. I think I mentioned this a few months ago, and worried it was likened to The French Lieutenant’s Woman. But it looks worthy of checking into. I was also interested to discover that Faulks wrote On Green Dolphin Street. Anna Quindlen mentions OGDS as one of the books that her mother read over and over again; Quindlen’s book of this sort was The Forsyte Saga. I am always curious about other people’s “comfort” books.
And for Gina : ), Not a Games Person – Julie Myerson. For some reason, this looks like a book you might dig, Gina.
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Yesterday was the first day of classes for the fall semester. The library is considerably busier than it’s been since I started here. And I have only one thing to say: how on earth did some of these students even manage to get INTO college? Good Lord.
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On the way to daycare this morning, we saw a little grey dead cat in the middle of the other side of the road. With my boys in the car, I hesitated to pull over and move the cat out of the road, but I did call Animal Control so the poor thing wouldn’t keep getting run over. Simon of course heard the whole conversation and proceeded to query me about the cat.
Si: Do cats get run over a lot?
Me: Well, no, not especially, but that one did.
Si: What about mouses?
Me: Um, sure. They’re small but probably sometimes…
Si: Chipmunks?
Me: Um, sure. Although they’re pretty small and fast too.
Si: Badgers?
Me: Um, I’d say no on that one, Si.
A few moments of silence while he considers, and then,
Si (joyfully and triumphantly): Well, I KNOW *people* can get run over!
9 comments:
Yesterday was the first day of classes here also and, like you, I sometimes wonder how some of these students managed to get into college.
Rainbow Fish is commie-leaning? The things you learning reading blogs! :)
well, you know, all that sharing of fins : )
Um, what's that saying about From each according to his abilities (or lovely shiny fins); to each according to his needs?
And obviously one of my abilities isn't proofreading! "The things you learning reading . . ." -- I need an icon that rolls its eyes. :)
I never thought of Rainbow Fish that way. He should have sold his fins to the other fish. Then it could have been a capitalist story.
I'm just glad Rainbow Fish was not a capitalist story, 'cause I found it monumentally soporific.
If there was some sort of Adam Smith angle to, say, Goodnight Moon that would have worked, because that one was SUPPOSED to be soporific. (Right?)
I wonder that same thing.
Often.
Especially when grading spelling.
Last week I encountered one of the most dimwitted people I've ever met, and she was on her way to Notre Dame. I couldn't believe any school would accept her.
I generally put myself to sleep reading Goodnight, Moon. If it's not meant to be soporific, I might have a problem. Once Susan Lewis on ER read it to her TV-daughter at the end of an episode, and I practically fell asleep.
Although we've moved onto Thomas the Tank Engine stories lately -- yawn. I do enjoy some of the veddy veddy British exclamations and expressions, however.
Anything riddled with veddy, veddy British exclamations ("Oi, Thomas, mind that bloody steam of yours, mate!") is, at a vare minimum, OK.
Unless all the book conveys is Stalinist agitprop.
-Joke
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