Comments on: Roundup and a Callout

By: tim

tim — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 12:57:35 +0000

re: the marisha pessl thing, yeah isnt it weird that the food section of the magazine would talk abt FOOD? how strange.

By: Orlando

Orlando — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 01:21:23 +0000

Everything is political.

By: tao

tao — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:44:04 +0000

i liked ames’ essay very much.

By: fairest

fairest — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:14:01 +0000

p.s. — theres these great quotes in the new markson (from pablo neruda, i think) about the perils of assessing literature irrespective of politics.

something about “the cheese of capitalism”, being literature that ignores politics.

By: fairest

fairest — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:07:24 +0000

think about it in reverse, though. would you like to read an article about tolstoy walking around a brothel in the meatpacking district getting spent and drunk and then taking the LIRR back to the estate in southhampton and crying into sofias welcoming arms? or would you rather read another essay about adultery and caste in the kreutzer sonata? both, maybe.

per pessl, a lot of people complain about how no one talks about her book, but the only thing people ever say about the actual book is that its not as bad as everyone thinks it is who hasnt read it.

By: Gwenda

Gwenda — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:52:10 +0000

The Ames piece is interesting, but speaking as a lifelong Southerner who went to a school where a hostage situation (student on student) took place in 1989, he has a romanticized view of Southern kids. They aren’t all hicks with a “get ‘em!” attitude and they aren’t that different than their “coastal” counterparts.

By: amcorrea

amcorrea — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:49:50 +0000

What does a “humanistic vision” have to do with politics? Can’t human decency and compassion be discussed without it becoming political? Call me cynical, but by seeing such an issue as “political” would probably tend to depersonalize it and push personal responsibility that much futher away.