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thanks much. i'm looking forward to reading some of these. on the pictured shelf i noticed a photograph of frederick douglas. is that yours? perhaps oddly, seeing his photograph reminded me of the strange condition of american literature. the writing schools (journalism schools too) are producing numerous talented novelists and other writers of rather dubious character. the cultural life of the united states is dominated by these shitheads. james mcbride is one of them. in his 2013 national book award winning novel, the good lord bird, he portrays frederick douglas as having a runaway libido, capable of ravishing a teenage girl (who is really a boy), a veritable pedophile. mcbride's justification? douglas is known to have had an affair! listen to him (3:00 onward). he describes it as "the book does have a little fun with frederick douglas" (2:42). he suggests that having such "fun" is a better way of learning history! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z25CTmzwknQ he also refers to john brown as america's first terrorist (1:14) because he attacked america's biggest arsenal. of course he's always hedging and here he says "if he were alive today people would say he was maybe ...". he then compares the raid at harper's ferry to robbing a bank and jacking cars to address global warming (2:09). the 2013 pulitzer winner, the orphan master's son, is of equally appalling methods and sentiments. touted as a book that opens a window into the horrors of north korea, a society that johnson repeatedly likes to call "absurd" (his favorite word), it likely is more a window into the absurd imagination of a hack for capitalist aggression. i'm no fan of north korea but this screed from the hulking stanford professor tells us nothing we couldn't learn better from north korean ex-patriots. instead of training his attention on the absurdities of the society he knows, he instead places a template of bourgeois expectations onto a regime and society he knows almost nothing about. and kim jong il is a character! considered a triumph over authorial risk he paints a picture of a man that wanders through his world more like willy wonka than joseph stalin. jong il keeps a kidnapped female american rower in his dungeon where he woos her with luxuries, hoping she will come to love him. oh, the satire! sorry for the re-direction of your post but the contributions of individuals like douglas are today being undermined in the name of art. it is a reminder that the people's culture is under constant and repeated assault in a capitalist world, not least of which by putatively well-intentioned and especially liberal-minded celebrities. i like forward to reading your posts. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Serve, Marxism" <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> To: "Faulkner, Charles" <lacena...@comcast.net> Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2014 5:37:16 PM Subject: [Marxism] After Six Years and a Quarter Million Hits: The Rustbelt’s Top Twenty Posts ====================================================================== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. ====================================================================== New Post: After Six Years and a Quarter Million Hits: The Rustbelt’s Top Twenty Posts http://rustbeltradical.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/after-six-years-and-a-quarter-million-hits-the-rustbelts-top-twenty-posts/ The Rustbelt Radical has been around since 2008, with a couple of years of minimal activity. I never set out to promote the blog or have ambitions other than to have a place to occasionally write, communicate, rant or share. Even though the blog has been dormant of and on, I am proud of the well over 500 posts that I have produced. I am not proud of each post; of course, many – most- weren’t my best. But some of them I am quite proud of. Coincidentally, many of those I am most proud of are also those that have been most popular on the blog over the years. On the occasion of getting 250,000 hits, and returning from a longish absence, I thought I would share the top posts, in order of popularity, on the Rustbelt over the years with readers. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/lacenaire%40comcast.net ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com