Literary Farmer
February 23, 2009
Seedtime for sonnets.
“As a ‘Literary Farmer,’ and a Real One, Robert Frost Reveled in Planting Time”
“The new seed catalogs are piling up on the kitchen table, we’re meeting this month with friends to organize our separate small gardens into a micro-farm share, and what with all this sunlight pouring down like fertilized hope and the crimson clover gone to nothing in last month’s snows, I’ve been getting the biting urge to get the peas and collards into the ground right now.” Written by David Biespiel.
from The Oregonian
DB notes: My column from February 22, 2009.
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Recently on Take 2: Poetic Adventure and Sexual Ecstacy
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Google Says to Libraries of the World: “We’ll take it from here.”
February 12, 2009
Trust, or verify?
“Google and the Future of Books”
“You cannot legislate Enlightenment, but you can set rules of the game to protect the public interest. Libraries represent the public good. They are not businesses, but they must cover their costs. They need a business plan. Think of the old motto of Con Edison when it had to tear up New York’s streets in order to get at the infrastructure beneath them: “Dig we must.” Libraries say, “Digitize we must.” But not on any terms. We must do it in the interest of the public, and that means holding the digitizers responsible to the citizenry…You cannot legislate Enlightenment, but you can set rules of the game to protect the public interest. Libraries represent the public good. They are not businesses, but they must cover their costs. They need a business plan. Think of the old motto of Con Edison when it had to tear up New York’s streets in order to get at the infrastructure beneath them: “Dig we must.” Libraries say, “Digitize we must.” But not on any terms. We must do it in the interest of the public, and that means holding the digitizers responsible to the citizenry.” Written by Robert Darnton.
from The New York Review of Books
DB notes: If you trust Google’s open source ethic, then their agreement to digitize books and provide them for some sort of fee will create a virtual institution of knowledge that Enlightenment thinkers could never have imagined. If you don’t trust Google’s best intentions, they’ll have a monopoly on book distribution like the sun has a monopoly on light.
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Next on Take 2: Love songs for your sweetheart.
Godspeed, John Updike (1932–2009)
January 30, 2009
In search of faded heroism in the living rooms and bedrooms of America.
Nine Obituaries
AP: John Updike, Author, Dies at 76
New York Times: John Updike, a Lyrical Writer of the Middle-Class Man
The Guardian: Acclaimed writer with an unerring feel for the poetry of ordinary American life
Esquire: The Miracle of John Updike
Los Angeles Times: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author
Washington Post: John Updike’s Lyricism Exalted the Everyday and the Unglamorous
Slate: Updike at Rest
Fresh Air: Retrospective, January 28, 2009
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DB notes: He wrote with a style that matched his subjects: incorrigible, self-lacerating, dystopic, and erect.
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Barack Obama School of Poetry
January 20, 2009
“I, too, am America.” — Langston Hughes
“Langston Hughes’ words are in sync with new political era”
“Langston Hughes once said, “an artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what might choose.” Such are the times again. A deft political poem, a poem that inserts itself into civic discourse with one eye on time and another eye on lyrical imperatives is a rare and necessary piece of art.” Written by David Biespiel.
from The Oregonian
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DB notes: Late in the campaign on October 28th in Chester, Pennsylvania, then-Senator Obama rallied supporters in a downpour. If any image from the campaign is destined to become iconic, this should be the one.
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Ginsberg and Snyder: A Generation on Turtle Island
January 12, 2009
“Dear Gary: Fine build 10’ x 11’ hut, sounds ideal”
“The two men met in Berkeley in 1955 and took part in the famous Six Gallery poetry reading at which Ginsberg gave the first notable reading of “Howl.” After the event, which served as an informal coming-out reception for the Beat Generation in San Francisco, he published “Howl and Other Poems,” which became the subject of an obscenity prosecution, then moved to Europe to join forces with William Burroughs. Meanwhile, Snyder entered a Japanese Zen monastery, embarking on a course of study that would last until his return to the United States permanently in 1969.” Written by James Campbell.
from The New York Times
Assigned Reading
January 3, 2009
Whither the Great Books?
“Few would deny that the likes of Aristotle, Cervantes and Shakespeare are central figures in the western canon. But what, exactly, do we mean when we speak of literary greatness? The very notion is enshrouded in a kind of hoary mysticism. The Victorian critic Matthew Arnold wrote of “the best that has been thought and known in the world,” but that only takes us so far.” Written by Matthew Price
from The National
Poetic Adventure and Sexual Ecstasy
December 23, 2008
The Frenchman brings it home.
“Interview with Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio”
2008 Nobel Laureate in Literature
“I don’t have any office, I can write everywhere. I put a piece of paper on the table and then I travel. Literally, writing for me is like travelling. It’s getting out of myself and living another life; maybe a better life.” Interviewed by Adam Smith.
Plus: Read the Nobel lecture by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio.
from nobelprize.org
Best Letter to the Editor…Ever
December 22, 2008
Yes, I’m that John Ashbery.
” Sir, – Jascha Kessler’s letter (November 28) about W. H. Auden and the Yale Younger Poets Series is seriously delusional.” Written by John Ashbery
Susan Sontag Rocks!
December 21, 2008
The smartest woman in the room.
“If anyone is under the impression that Susan Sontag was, beneath her intellectual brio, just like everyone else, a quick perusal of Reborn: Journals & Notebooks 1947-1963, edited by her son, David Rieff, should put that idea to rest.” Written by Katie Roiphe.
from Slate
Book Prizes Stink to High Heaven
December 21, 2008
More from the literary prize wars.
“Prizes are a vital part of the modern market for serious literature, but they’re also increasingly flawed and compromised.” Written by Tom Chatfield.
from Prospect
