Welcome to Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ March 8, 2010
Note from the Editors: After another two-week mainstream non-news
cycle, it is with much anticipation that we present Part Two of Michael
Doliner's "Short History of Stupidity" in which he considers the
Jacobian revolution, the transfer of power from aristocracy to the
bourgeoisie, the latter's resulting monomaniacal quest for moneymaking,
and the perpetual lies and enormous bad conscience at the heart of
bourgeois life. Doliner's comprehensive analysis provides a fitting
backdrop to Michael Barker's latest philanthropic exposé examining the
African National Congress, the Free Africa Foundation, and how foreign
aid is an integral tool by which global capital and American
neoconservatives conquer foreign markets. Power, lies, and monomania in
the form of quasi-lobotomized congregations of Paulistas, Palinistas,
Tea Baggers, and the flailing left permeate Gilles d'Aymery's Martian
Blips, along with FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair's bullish lies, damned
lies, and faulty statistics, some thoughts on real change, and more.
Returning to Africa from an insider perspective, perhaps Femi
Akomolafe's recent accounts of AWOL Nigerian president Yar'Adua led to
his recent resurfacing -- Femi constructs a humorous debate on who is
the better leader, Yar'Adua or South Africa's "virile" Jacob Zuma.
Turning our attention to culture, we learn that even the art world is
not impervious to elite exploitation. Peter Byrne reports on
advertising magnate Charles Saatchi's move from manipulation of the
public to manipulation of artists and their work. Meanwhile, in the
throes of the annual Oscar orgy, Charles Marowitz dons his critic cap
to review the blockbuster movie "Avatar," a production with an
incredulous narrative that is brutally and rollickingly violent and
damnably clever -- but so what? On a musical and societal note, Harvey
Whitney, Jr. sings the jukebox blues from the deep South, exposing the
industry's meddling with consumer choice at the dawn of the digital
revolution, while concertmaster Isidor Saslav waxes lyrical in Part One
of a potpourri of operatic observations.
Closing with the incredible power of the written word, Christine
Spadaccini weaves a poignant short story on suicide by lily, the
ravages of Alzheimer's disease, and the plight of political refugees in
France and those who are punished trying to help them. Guido Monte and
his students blend verses about war and peace with the words of John
Lennon and Bertolt Brecht, and Martin Murie offers a brief review of
Barbara Ehrenriech's Dancing In The Streets, with a reminder for us all
to get some sociality into our restricted lives. We close with your
letters, on Dave Patterson's new anti-capitalist book Greenways as an
antidote to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged; our tax dollars at work in
alleged trespassing deer hunter Bo Keely's mistaken identity ordeal in
the California justice system; and the collection of Kenneth Rexroth's
columns republished by the Bureau of Public Secrets. A question Gilles
d'Aymery keeps asking: Is another world possible, and if so, when are we
going to start building it? Answers most welcome...
# # # # #
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
And you have access to almost 14 years of archives by date, author, and
subject at:
http://www.swans.com/library/archives.html
To help our work financially: http://www.swans.com/about/donate.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
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
