What follows is the conclusion of “I Wish I Were You”–the concluding story in the new Library of Congress volume:The Unknown Kerouac: Rare, Unpublished and Newly Translated Writings. “I Wish I Were You” is a dark story, but I believe my Beat brother Tom DeMott would’ve found the light in it. B.D.
Culturewatch
The Bitch Whistle
The appointment of Brett Kavanaugh is a stark reminder of patriarchal power, but also a catalyst of militance and mobilization. Suburban women—the so-called soccer moms—are a major swing vote, and in the midterms their feelings about sexual harassment could be a decisive factor, at least when it comes to the House. But beneath the outrage and determination is a more complicated picture. To ignore it is to suffer the results.
Ventilator Blues
From sea to shining sea aging white males gather on playgrounds confused about who they are and certain that someone has it in for them. They may be playing golf or pickle ball rather than putting on the pads for football, but many still worry about how to gain and keep power and how to affirm their sexual identities. For many, women are trophies.
Keil’s Tree of Life
Charlie Keil caught up with Aretha Franklin’s “Tree of Life” last week. When your editor mentioned there were other wonders on Franklin’s Rare and Unreleased CDs, Keil mused about another rare Ree: “I think I still have somewhere a 45 rpm single of Aretha’s ‘Precious Lord’ that I picked up at Chess Records office.” Keil responded to Aretha’s call with this shapely poem …
Robert Lowell x 3
1. I was crossing Harvard Square, coming from the Coop, on my way to Adams House, where my study was. I saw Lowell near the kiosk and he saw me about the same time. He waved me over. “The most extraordinary thing has happened,” he said. “Can you come with me?”
Dreams Fade Into the Everblue: Lori McKenna’s Bygone Humanism
“Here is what I know” is the first line of “A Mother Never Rests,” the opening track off country singer Lori McKenna’s latest LP. “Even when she’s sleeping she’s still dreaming about you”–her voice is weary yet sure of wisdoms both received and earned. McKenna dives into the laundry-list of domestic chores and anxieties expected of a mother in red-state America.
Patriotism and the Christian Spirit
Proust rejected (respectfully) Tolstoi’s polemic against patriotism in the following short review, which was translated by Sylvia Townsend Warner and included in Marcel Proust on Art and Literature (1957).
iLied
I spent my middle school years without a phone. I had an iPod. There’s not much difference but back then a phone and iPod seemed a world apart. (An iPod cannot use cellular data, so you can’t use it without wifi. iPods also can’t make phone calls.) I remember the biggest (most shaming) difference was that on the back of the iPod, iPod was engraved in large letters. Whenever I used my iPod around people I used my fingers to cover that humiliating logo.
Aretha (& “the blacks”)
Aretha’s “Tree of Life” (see below) has a new poignancy since her death. No need for me to break down her funky, Pan-African, pantheist promesse de bonne heure, just press play (please).
What Just Happened? (Kiarostami in Tokyo & Obama in Johannesburg)
The late Abbas Kiarostami’s Like Falling in Love (2012) was originally titled “The End,” which would’ve underscored the final scene’s go-to-smash upending of viewers’ presumptions. The film, set in Japan, works like a gently penetrative Ozu-y character study until it’s transformed utterly by a sudden act of violence in the last second(s).
A Response to “When Children Say They’re Trans”
Talk About “Abortion”
It is more crucial than ever to speak about “abortion rights,” not choice. The word “choice” is meaningless and always has been a running-scared retreat from the real matter of bodily sovereignty for females. Biological determinism is a social idea. Just like social Darwinism, capitalism, and religion.
Razzle Dazzle: Alison Stone’s New Poems
Alison Stone has been a vital voice in First of the Month‘s mixes for nearly 20 years. The following poems from her new collection, Dazzle, testify to her undimmed instinct for happiness inside the dailiness of life. Not that she’s Ms. Beamish. Stone often gives First first shot at her more engagé poems. One of them recently got up Facebook’s nose.
On the Block II: Excerpt from Gilbert Sorrentino’s “Crystal Vision”
What follows is a swatch of Crystal Vision (1981)–a novel of almost pure dialogue by the late Gilbert Sorrentino.
Hooking Up: Benjamin DeMott on Tom Wolfe
Benjamin DeMott published this summative review of a late collection of Tom Wolfe’s work in 2001. It makes a good case for the reviewer (whose own work has seemed fresh to pundits lately).