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Welcome to Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ January 25, 2010 *** Our thanks to Roger Baker and one anonymous donor for the first two contributions of the year! *** Note from the Editors: Yes, yes, we know. The Massachusetts political earthquake has taken over the Haiti heartbreaking one in the past week. When have you ever watched a "latest" news last more than a week? Actually, by the time you read these notes, the media will have moved from John Edwards's paternity tale to the next dull spectacle. So, we are begging your pardon for not following the trendy circus. Instead, we have chosen to begin with non-news. Worse yet, it's in French -- how insolently daring of us! We dare because we are deeply honored to bring to the fore one of the most talented French photojournalists the Frenchies have produced in a long, long time -- even Art Shay would agree. We are indeed honored to offer our readers (and viewers) a few exceptional photographs of working-class French in the 1960s-1970s taken by Jean-Claude Seine. Marie Rennard, the idiosyncratic editor-in-chief of our *coin français* will tell you more in her editorial, assuming you can read *la langue de Molière.* If you cannot, we still recommend that you go through Seine's pictures. They speak for themselves. Oh, you don't read French? Too bad -- you're going to miss Marie-Laetitia Gambié's take on the deepening travails of unemployed people and the sensitive poetry of Christian Cottard, who in contrast to many poets knows the difference between *eros* and *agape.* But, please, please, do not feel guilty for your linguistic lacuna. After all, even Gilles d'Aymery lost his *Grevisse* there, there at Duculot, and traded his fare for Strunk and Chicago. Nobody's perfect, right? Which allows us to bring to your attention a few works crafted in the language of Shakespeare. The sense of *agape,* or perhaps *philia,* can also be found in *From A to X, a Story in Letters,* a novel written by John Berger, who according to Peter Byrne is a great aesthete and an unrepentant Marxist, which shows that Louis Proyect is in good company, he who offers his own entertaining take on the memoir of Les Evans, a former top leader of the Socialist Workers Party -- a review you do not want to miss as it will either enrage you, make you smile, or both (we smiled). Michael Barker carries on with his long-standing critical examination of liberal philanthropy, this time based on resources from the now-defunct progressive magazine *Ramparts,* and Naomi Klein's book *The Shock Doctrine.* More worrisome than capitalist philanthropy is people's increasing torpor and passivity as the state keeps tightening its repressive noose around their neck -- behavioral trends that remind Gilles d'Aymery of another historical period, on which the long excerpt of Milton Mayer's 1955 *They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45* will provide you with food for thought and may lead to action...a goal that our unrepentant activist Martin Murie calls for as he recommends deeper popular organizing. We end the political part of this issue with the views of Femi Akomolafe on the state of terrorism within the Nigerian sociopolitical scene. In the cultural corner, the talented American photojournalist Art Shay recalls his favorite nudes, from Simone de Beauvoir to Dorothy Terry; Charles Marowitz comes out of the movie theater with a full-fledged deconstruction of Guy Ritchie's *Sherlock Holmes;* and Guido Monte & Silvia Dello Russo keep searching for the mysterious silence/miracle of everything -- all in all 20 pieces (not counting the Letters), which we hope you'll appreciate. (Again, do not miss Jean-Claude Seine's photo journal; it will remind you that there is strength in unity.) # # # # # All the articles and the Letters to the Editor can be accessed from Swans front page. Please go to: http://www.swans.com/ You can also access our past issues at: http://www.swans.com/library/past_issues/past_issues.html # # # # # Swans (aka Swans Commentary), ISSN: 1554-4915, is a bi-weekly non- commercial ad-free Web-only magazine which provides original content to its readers. We encourage pulp publications to republish Swans Work in print format. Please contact the publisher at <aymery AT ix.netcom.com>. Please, do not repost Swans Work on the Web and other mailing lists: "Hypertext" links to any pages of Swans.com are authorized; however, republication of any part of this site, inlining, mirroring, and framing are expressly prohibited. (You are receiving this E-mail notification for you have expressed your interest in Swans and the work of its team. If you wish not to receive these short notifications, simply reply to this E-mail (delete the content) and enter the word REMOVE in the subject line.) Cordially, Gilles d'Aymery -- Swans "Hungry man, reach for the book: It is a weapon." B. Brecht ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
