Reading and its discontents

You know how it is for employees at a restaurant -- after a couple of weeks you get tired of the (same old) food. I wonder if some librarians undergo a similar "loss of appetite"? At least, that's what flashed through my mind this afternoon as a teenager with a vacant expression swiped the barcode on my books and barely stifled a yawn when she handed it to me . . . would it have made any difference had she known just how long I'd waited to read Brink Lindsey's Against the Dead Hand: The Uncertain Struggle for Global Capitalism? (I'd heard an interview with the author on NPR back in 2001 which I was utterly fascinated by and, not being able to afford a brand new copy, had been anxiously waiting for the New York Public Library to acquire a copy ever since.)

I had to wonder how many teenagers feel that delicious thrill that I do every time I get a book from the library, the experience of encountering new authors and exploring new worlds of thought that had me hooked from the time I was a little boy. Some of my most vivid memories from childhood are my visits to the libraries in Pennsylvania & North Carolina, and the many books I discovered there.

Anyway, I'd like to hope that it was just the weather (high 90's and humid), or that she had a long day and couldn't wait to get out of there . . . or perhaps she just didn't give a damn about the struggle for global capitalism.

On a similar note, I'd like to know who determines the acquisitions of the New York Public Library -- this book was first published in December 2001 and I had to wait nearly two years before it was added to the library's collection. And yet, Joseph Stiglitz's Globalization and Its Discontents, also of the same genre, was published in April 2003 and appeared almost instantly on the library bookshelves. What's up wit' 'dat?

Relocating.

The New Criterion threw a great part -- ahem, book sale -- this evening, cleaning out their offices in preparation for a move to new digs downtown. It's not often you go to a book sale where they provide wine, beer & munchies (Thank you to the nice girl who coerced another employee into providing me with their last beer -- much appreciated!) The staff were very friendly, although I admit I did feel slightly out of my element. However, I did walk away with Allen Ginsberg's Collected Poems, Christopher Lasch's The True & Only Heaven, Gertrude Himmelfarb's On Looking Into the Abyss, Gary Dorrien's The Neoconservative Mind (a study of Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Michael Novak & Peter Berger) and last but not least The Art of War in the Western World -- the latter which I'll probably never read, but it was a steal at $2.00 and does look rather impressive on one's bookshelf.

I already know what I want for Christmas . . .

Harold Bloom vs. The School of Resentment

Harold Bloom (literary critic, lover of Hamlet and mortal enemy of Harry Potter) on the infiltration of "cultural studies" in academics in a delightful interview with Jennie Rothenberg of The Atlantic:

". . . To a rather considerable extent, literary studies have been replaced by that incredible absurdity called cultural studies which, as far as I can tell, are neither cultural nor are they studies. But there has always been an arrogance, I think, of the semi-learned.

. . . we have this nonsense called Theory with a capital T, mostly imported from the French and now having evilly taken root in the English-speaking world. And that, I suppose, also has encouraged absurd attitudes toward what we used to call imaginative literature.

. . . the wave of French theory was replaced by the terrible mélange that I increasingly have come to call the School of Resentment—the so-called multiculturalists and feminists who tell us we are to value a literary work because of the ethnic background or the gender of the author. . . . I have sometimes characterized these people as a Rabblement of Lemmings, dashing off the cliff and carrying their supposed subject down to destruction with them."

"Ranting Against Cant"
The Atlantic Unbound, 8/16/03

Reassuring News from Iraq

The author of Porphyrogenitus.Net posts a reassuring letter from his uncle in Iraq:

. . . For the first time in decades, public executions, the torture of children in front of their parents and the killing of people who might disagree with the Iraqi government are no longer taking place. The rape of school girls as young as thirteen are no longer conducted in the son's palace and the oil for food program is actually going for food for the population, rather then the palaces for a select few. I can tell you from being in one of [Saddam's] reported 70 palaces, (seventeen just in Baghdad) that the amount of money spent just in marble for the floors would have fed and clothed hundreds if not thousands. . . .

Medical supplies, food aid, employment, free press, representative government and schools opening back up are things that are going on over here but for what ever the reason those very good things are under reported in Western news papers. I guess, "Thousands getting clean drinking water" which happens to be a frequent occurrence, doesn't sell as many newspapers as "soldier being killed" which is a much less frequent happening.

What I did when the lights went off

Like many commuters in NYC, I was -- to put a positive spin on things -- blessed with the opportunity to take a scenic walk home across the Queensborough Bridge and along Queens Blvd. ¹

A few vendors eager to exploit the panic for profit immediately jacked up the prices on essential materials (water, flashlights, candles). Thankfully, we encountered many benevolent souls along the way who provided free water -- including a touching scene of two little kids manning a table all by themselves (with a large supply of plastic cups and gallon jugs from their parents), and a fire station which kept a hose running to cool people in the sweltering 90+ heat.

I walked this very same route on 9/11, so I was familiar with many of the spots where we rested -- I even recognized one of the people offering free water and bathrooms as the same person who did so two years ago.

One time while we stopped to rest we noticed a young woman having a lot of trouble with her shoes (high heels) -- her co-worker (boyfriend?) took off his own shoes, gave them to her, and walked alongside her barefoot.

The experience was not without humor -- In Forest Hills I passed by a liquor store selling shots for $1.00, and a sushi restaurant attempting to clean out its stock (just what you really want on a hot day with a blackout: RAW FISH!)

As it grew dark there were many families sitting on the steps of their apartments with candles -- one little boy (getting into the capitalist spirit) decided to try and sell his to passers-by for 25 cents, but the decision was quickly vetoed by his mother.

I walked in the door around 9:30pm. Residents of our apartment were hanging out front with candles and incense and had a radio tuned in to the news. It was nice to look up and see the stars for a change (a rare sight for those living in New York).

What I've learned from this experience -- besides the importance of being prepared for emergencies -- is that New Yorkers are an especially resilient bunch, especially after 9/11. (As one radio announcer commented, we're "90% scar tissue"). ² I was particularly impressed with the way (mostly) everybody pulled together over the last couple of days, both on the walk back to Queens and in general.

Although a transplanted Tarheel from North Carolina, I have to say I'm very proud to live here.

---

1. Now that we have power again I charted my route on Mapquest and, although not mathematically certain, it appears to be btw/ 9-10 miles. Quite a trek!
2. Still, we're practically wimps compared to the Iraqis, who've been living under similar conditions for months!

Additional Links

• New York City Blackout - Gothamist Extended Edition
• New York City Blackout as Photographed by John Wehr

The Founding Fakers

In "The Founding Fakers" (The New Republic 8/11/03), Franklin Foer tackles what I consider a glaring and persistent flaw in the conduct of recent Republican administrations: namely, the willingness of some within the GOP to cloak some morally repugnant characters who would otherwise fall into the category of criminals or terrorists in the mantle of democracy when it is politically expedient to do so -- i.e., "the foreign opposition leader romanticized beyond reason."

Liberals did this with Stalin and Fidel Castro; Reagan with the Nicaraguan Contras (or as he called them, "the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers"); the Bush (senior) administration with the Afghan mujahedin . . . and now, says Foer, the spotlight may be turning towards militant groups in Iran such as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, a militant organization based in Iraq which, although currently classified as a terrorist organization, may be useful should the U.S. extend its "war on terrorism" into Iran.

Extolling the virtues of cults like the Iranian mujahedin doesn't simply cheapen rhetoric about liberal democracy, it cheapens conservatism itself. Ever since Edmund Burke, conservatives have made skepticism about revolutions and revolutionaries a central tenet of their politics. As Irving Kristol rephrased the classic complaint in a 1972 essay, "to think we have it in our power to change people so as to make the human estate wonderfully better than it is, remarkably different from what it is, and in very short order, is to assume that this generation of Americans can do what no other generation in all of human history could accomplish." This rigid traditionalism has been sometimes deployed to justify turning away from injustice. But it was also a source of humaneness, a bulwark against rash plans for social upheaval, a vital warning about the violent excesses of ideological fervor, a reminder that revolutions often end in tears. In this new era, with grand plans for remaking the map and new heroes being born, we could stand to be reminded of these old dictates, which add a touch of realism to right-wing idealism and offer a salutary dose of conservatism for conservatives.

Whether the MEK will occupy the same pedestal as the Contras remains to be seen, but I do think Foer has a good point: it's one of those blatant utiliatarian political decisions that can only turn around and hurt us in the end.

. . . oops.

Exactly how this will play out in church situations is unclear, judging from a press conference Wednesday in Minneapolis. There, Wendy Griffith, a reporter with the Christian Broadcasting Network, asked presiding Episcopal Bishop Frank Griswold about Bishop-elect V. Gene Robinson, who was confirmed Tuesday as the first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop. He is divorced and lives with his male partner.     

If, the reporter asked, a divorced male bishop could live with a man to whom he was not married, what about a divorced heterosexual male bishop living with a female lover?     

"Or," she added, "is being outside marriage only OK if you are gay?"     

"The Episcopal Church honors holy matrimony," Bishop Griswold said, "and certainly if a male were elected bishop and was living with a woman without benefit of clergy, that would be a significant problem."     

"So there's a double standard, then?" Miss Griffith asked, at which point church spokesman Jim Solheim abruptly ended the press conference.

Washington Post August 8, 2003.

"The Internet is Shit"

The Internet is Shit.