Many of the other authors of this collection try too hard to be transgressive, and usually to very little effect. Often the stories are reminiscent of the "ka-ka," "poo-poo," "pee-pee" exclamations of a toddler, who having learned that such words get a rise out of grownups, screeches them when in company. The words really aren't that shocking . . . or interesting.
Me, on Love Hotel City
Read the rest here.
—David
Chris Hedges writes about The Disease of Permanent War in Truthdig:
The embrace by any society of permanent war is a parasite that devours the heart and soul of a nation.... It turns culture into nationalist cant. It degrades and corrupts education and the media, and wrecks the economy....
It is a state of permanent war that is finishing off the liberal traditions in Israel and the United States. The moral and intellectual trolls--the Dick Cheneys, the Avigdor Liebermans, the Mahmoud Ahmadinejads--personify the moral nihilism of perpetual war. They manipulate fear and paranoia. They abolish civil liberties in the name of national security. They crush legitimate dissent. They bilk state treasuries. They stoke racism....
Massive military spending in this country, climbing to nearly $1 trillion a year and consuming half of all discretionary spending, has a profound social cost. Bridges and levees collapse. Schools decay. Domestic manufacturing declines. Trillions in debts threaten the viability of the currency and the economy. The poor, the mentally ill, the sick and the unemployed are abandoned....
Our permanent war economy has not been challenged by Obama and the Democratic Party. They support its destructive fury because it funds them. They validate its evil assumptions because to take them on is political suicide. They repeat the narrative of fear because it keeps us dormant. They do this because they have become weaker than the corporate forces that profit from permanent war....
Citizens in a state of permanent war are bombarded with the insidious militarized language of power, fear and strength that mask an increasingly brittle reality. The corporations behind the doctrine of permanent war... must keep us afraid. Fear stops us from objecting to government spending on a bloated military. Fear means we will not ask unpleasant questions of those in power. Fear means that we will be willing to give up our rights and liberties for security. Fear keeps us penned in like domesticated animals.
Escape? Paul Evans, Nature Watch columnist in the UK's Guardian Weekly, points the way:
"We are constantly confronted by crisis, in society and the natural world, and when we step out of the anxieties that are being used to manage us, we rediscover a wild liberty" (15-21 May, 2009 Issue).
In Evans' corner of Shropshire, "spring is all fire and flux.... In the woods the bluebells and wild garlic explode into flower. Above, the trees flower and leaf."
Here in this corner of Japan, the frogs in the flooded paddy fields fill the night with stupendous chorus.
--Julian
azaleas bloom
under a cloudy sky
Before the rainy season,
sun, wind, rain and
the first blue hydrangeas
Cycling home last night, I saw a brown cat walking down a row of onions in a farmer's field. When it heard me, it stopped and looked my way... and I saw it was a wild tanuki (raccoon dog). It turned and ran--fast--into the nearby woods.
--Julian
I received this today from my friendly neighborhood bookseller:
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
As someone who has purchased or rated The Great Fire of London (French Literature Series) by Jacques Roubaud, you might like to know that The Count of Monte Cristo (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) will be released on June 2, 2009.
I had no idea that Dumas, père was involved with the OuLiPo.
--David
If you live in Britain, it's not good news that the gap between rich and poor has widened under the present Labor
government. In a new book (The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better) Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett show that income inequality in a society undermines the health and wellbeing of its members. And not just the less fortunate. In a Sunday Times review of the book, John Carey sums up the argument:
It is not only the poor who suffer from the effects of inequality, but the majority of the population.... One explanation... is that inequality increases stress right across society, not just among the least advantaged.... Chronic stress affects the neural system and in turn the immune system. When stressed, we are more prone to depression and anxiety, and more likely to develop a host of bodily ills including heart disease, obesity, drug addiction, liability to infection and rapid ageing.
Societies where incomes are relatively equal have low levels of stress and high levels of trust, so that people feel secure and see others as co-operative. In unequal societies, by contrast, the rich suffer from fear of the poor, while those lower down the social order experience status anxiety, looking upon those who are more successful with bitterness and upon themselves with shame.... Status anxiety and how we respond to it are basic, it seems, to our animal natures....
In... countries where there is a big gap between the incomes of rich and poor, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, obesity and teenage pregnancy are more common, the homicide rate is higher, life expectancy is shorter, and children’s educational performance and literacy scores are worse. The Scandinavian countries and Japan consistently come at the positive end of this spectrum. They have the smallest differences between higher and lower incomes.... The countries with the widest gulf between rich and poor, and the highest incidence of most health and social problems, are Britain, America and Portugal."
In Japan, too, the gap between rich and poor is widening. Politicians need to know that, in Carey's words, "By reducing income inequality, they can improve the health and wellbeing of the whole population." To help us keep abreast of this important topic, the authors of The Spirit Level have set up a trust and website. I've bookmarked it.
--Julian
This is the latest in my series of letters spurned by the editors of the International Herald Tribune.
Dear Editors:
Rachel Donadio (like many other commentators) seems to be believe that the Pope has some sort of public relations problem ("Further missteps mar pope's Israel visit," May 14, 2009). If the pope were unable to get his message across then one might agree, and blame what Donadio calls "the Vatican's problematic public relations apparatus." The Pope's message—that using condoms increases the risk of AIDS, for example, or that Holocaust-deniers should be hugged to the bosom of the Church—is, however, getting through loud and clear. We must be grateful to him for making it plain exactly where the Catholic Church stands on such issues.
Sincerely,
—David
Four is a lot of movies to see over one wet weekend. All were worth watching, and the best of all was the least expected.
On Saturday night, we watched Red Dust, which is a strong drama and fine vehicle for Hilary Swank. It has a true story feel as it features the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a stunning exercise in human rights and relations: those who had committed atrocities during the period of white rule and black insurgency were granted amnesty if they admitted their crimes. This radical idea was conceived so that the fragile multi-racial country would not be torn apart, and is in stark contrast to the "Nuremberg" model of charging and punishing the losing side only.
2004; 3 stars out of 5; M gave it 3 stars (DVD).
With and after Sunday brunch, we watched Rivers and Tides, a portrait of artist Andy Goldsworthy who works outdoor with stone, wool, flowers, bracken, leaves, icicles.... His creations are singular enough to make you appreciate that art in general can deepen our experience of life. They also specifically made me look anew at my own surroundings--the bark of the pine tree outside the window never looked so gnarled... and beautiful. (Japan note: Is it coincidence or something more that the cone-shaped creations that he calls "guardians" remind me of Totoro?) Filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer adds another layer of beauty to Goldsworthy's creations.
2001; 4 stars out of 5; M gave it 4 stars (DVD).
On Sunday afternoon, we watched Angels and Demons, opening here in Japan the same weekend as in the United States. If you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code, you'll like this even better. It's a sequel in all but story: the same exciting chases following historical clues, the same kind of smart European female co-star, less boring exposition, but... well, let's just say it's a great two-hour summer suspense movie that gets half a star deducted by me for being 140 minutes long.
2009; 3.5 stars out of 5; M gave it 4 stars (Theater).
With dinner, we watched Eastern Promises, which was nauseatingly violent, but when not covering your eyes, it's a surprising story with insights into the Russian mafia abroad, and UK prostitution. Viggo Mortensen offers an Oscar-outstanding performance (He was nominated, but lost to Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood). Apart from all that, this movie is an object lesson that a story can be delivered in--hallelujah--100 minutes!
2007; 3 stars out of 5; M gave it 2 stars (DVD).
--Julian
