“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
I hope to persuade you to read this difficult book, one both unsparing in its descriptions of extravagant cruelty and its consequences, but one that also introduces us to utterly real, comprehensively described human beings, to their inner lives, to the sympathies they evoke in us and those they carry inside themselves for others. I first read it maybe 30 years ago. I wasn’t ready for it. I think I […]
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Shakespeare knew men who knew how to sneer, how to bare their contempt like fangs at him, this scribbler, son of a glover, who sought out the seepage of their hatreds, the source of their thin, vile certainties. Iago hates, the physics of a force he feels: Othello has the honor of the court, a white wife who loves him and a victory — this “thick lips”, escaped slave, a someone who must not exist. Macbeth loves, the physics of a force […]
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Begin with a question and an order: the question: At a meeting of Turning Point USA in Boise, Idaho, on Monday, October 25, 2021, founder Charlie Kirk took questions from the audience. A man asked , “At this point, we’re living under corporate and medical fascism. This is tyranny. When do we get to use the guns? “(members of the audience applaud). The man continues, “No, and I’m not — that’s not a joke. I’m not […]
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I’m a little alarmed. When I awaken at dawn, I’ve crossed my hands high up on my chest, and my body is straight as a line anchored by lead, my open mouth exhales an aroma even I will say is fetid, but my canines have retreated although their edges feel keen to me. I still love the Sun, and I don’t skitter down walls or roam ceilings or the night woods for what, mice, a poor possum, a gaze […]
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