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
# # # # #
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Cordially,
Gilles d'Aymery
--
Swans
"Hungry man, reach for the book: It is a weapon." B. Brecht
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