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  #1  
Unread 03-26-2017, 12:08 PM
Quincy Lehr's Avatar
Quincy Lehr Quincy Lehr is offline
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Default Jacobin nails what's wrong with the literary "resistance."

READ THIS ARTICLE. Read it now. Read it naked.
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  #2  
Unread 03-26-2017, 01:40 PM
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Decent seven points in the last half there. Thanks.
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Unread 03-26-2017, 02:13 PM
Ian Hoffman Ian Hoffman is offline
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Lol, that renga in the Harvard Review was an embarressment. That said I think this goes a little far: isn't the role of a writer to write well, whatever their political commitments? For instance, a lot of the writers praised in this article--June Jordan definitely, and Adrienne Rich to a lesser extent--were, in my opinion, better dissidents than writers. Yes, the US has huge problems, and embracing liberal exceptionalism is a fairly trite response to them. I'm not convinced embracing protest is much better, if it means embracing mediocre writing and writers. Rather I think we need to embrace a sort of historicity that is sadly lacking in this article--and from much of the discourse of the far left--in which we do not, for example, condemn the founders as evil slaveholders, but rather understand them in context, as both typical of their time, exceptional for it, and simultaneously deeply flawed. Any serious critique of the American project should be able to do all that.
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Unread 03-26-2017, 02:30 PM
Ian Hoffman Ian Hoffman is offline
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Also, this Robbins' article on Obama and his drone policy is worth a read--and includes his scathing, semi-funny "To the drone realizing vaguely Eastward" which Yahoo wouldn't publish: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/...esident-drone/
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Unread 03-26-2017, 06:12 PM
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Andrew Mandelbaum Andrew Mandelbaum is offline
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I like A. Rich.

Yeah. Nation-states act like nation-states. Artists shouldn't play footsie with them. America is a giant nation-state. It does large nation-state-ish things. If I could press a button and exchange all US firepower to the hands of another nation state I would choose....hmmm...

There is no chance we aren't going into the dark as a species. This is the end of all that. Pull the bits of salvage from the history to take into the dark times but think animal, biome, symbiosis now. The old categories and concepts here are going to cease to be very helpful.

On Robbins: Old article. I don't think the lack of distinctions between Obama and what preceded him hold when applied to the comparing him with the will of the present band of merry men. Just an aside.
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Unread 03-26-2017, 08:08 PM
Ian Hoffman Ian Hoffman is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Mandelbaum View Post
On Robbins: Old article. I don't think the lack of distinctions between Obama and what preceded him hold when applied to the comparing him with the will of the present band of merry men. Just an aside.
De acuerdo. But, the Robbins poem is still fire.
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  #7  
Unread 03-26-2017, 10:09 PM
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R. S. Gwynn R. S. Gwynn is offline
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These rights are not covered by the US Constitution:

The right to a good night's sleep.
The right to be free of paranoia.
The right of protected speech.
The right to not be worried about one's children.
The right to be anxiety-free.
The right to be happy all the time.

A lot of what I see of the literary resistance seems to focus on feelings like these, which no human system of government could guarantee.

Last edited by R. S. Gwynn; 03-27-2017 at 07:52 AM.
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  #8  
Unread 03-27-2017, 01:12 AM
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There is no chance we aren't going into the dark as a species. This is the end of all that. Pull the bits of salvage from the history to take into the dark times but think animal, biome, symbiosis now. The old categories and concepts here are going to cease to be very helpful.

Does anyone else think this makes any sense. Donald Trump becomes President and it is the end of human life on the planet. I knew you were jolly cross about the Donald, Andrew, but is not this just a wee bit over the top?

We in the UK survived Tony Blair. We really did. And you survived the Dubbya. These guys killed real people, an awful lot of them. To my knowledge the Donald hasn't killed anyone.

Last edited by John Whitworth; 03-27-2017 at 01:28 AM.
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Unread 03-27-2017, 05:29 AM
Aaron Novick Aaron Novick is offline
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Uh no he has killed a lot of people: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7649486.html
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  #10  
Unread 03-27-2017, 06:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Whitworth View Post
There is no chance we aren't going into the dark as a species. This is the end of all that. Pull the bits of salvage from the history to take into the dark times but think animal, biome, symbiosis now. The old categories and concepts here are going to cease to be very helpful.

Does anyone else think this makes any sense. Donald Trump becomes President and it is the end of human life on the planet. I knew you were jolly cross about the Donald, Andrew, but is not this just a wee bit over the top?

We in the UK survived Tony Blair. We really did. And you survived the Dubbya. These guys killed real people, an awful lot of them. To my knowledge the Donald hasn't killed anyone.
The dark referred to here is not really that Trump specific. It is about the anthropocene, human short sightedness and the age of consequences. I don't actually think it will mean the end of human life. Just an an unknown severe turn.
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