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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
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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.
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