no longer prison numbers

"You become fatalistic when you strive against a monolithic evil. You know that whatever you achieve is pyrrhic, that the system will flourish despite your efforts. And yet, what binds you, what keeps you going, are these relationships. How can you walk away? How can you do nothing? If you stand with the marginalized and oppressed, those whom James Cone calls the "crucified of the earth," and are defeated, have you failed? Or do you succeed by being willing to make that journey; to show them that they are not not forgotten, not alone? And while the writing of the play was miniscule when set against the vast injustice around us, it was not miniscule to us. The play made human those who had been rendered, often for decades, in human. My students were no longer prison numbers."

~~ from Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison by Chris Hedges

We're on break,

but we hope you're enjoying your June.

ex-friends

"He had no old friends, only ex-friends. He could become terrible, going into reverse without warning. When this happened, it was like being caught in a tunnel by the Express. You could only cling to the walls, or lie between the rails, praying."

~~ from Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow

Humans of the Train

"On the other side of my brain, I was mulling over an old expression, which may even be a cliché to some, but has been an endless puzzle to me: 'Always treat children like adults, and adults like children.' I turned to the twosome and tried to see if this saying would help me understand a grown man blasting music in his ears while ignoring his small child. Did the father do the right thing by telling the son he couldn’t listen to the music? Was the father preparing the son for a lonely world in which you have to bring your own tunes on public transportation? Was this then treating him like an adult, the way you’re supposed to treat a child? Or did the father do the wrong thing by censoring the music, telling the son he was too young, a child, and that the music was for adults only. Should he have let the son listen to the music, and then explain all of the lyrics and why they were inappropriate to share with children?"

poetry and proles

"It's been a whole day of atonement."

"You've seen enough of the whatchamacallems? I learned some new words at the poker game from you."

"Which words?"

"Proles," he said, "Lumps. Lumpenproletariat. You gave us a little talk about Karl Marx."

"My lord, I did carry on, didn't I. Completely unbuttoned. What got into me?"

"You wanted to mix with riffraff and the criminal element. You went slumming, Charlie, and you had a great time playing cards with us dumbheads and social rejects."

"I see. I was insulting."

~~ from Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow

the American novel as it was according to John Updike in 1989

In 1989, John Updike assessed the state of the American novel, and then he discussed some of his own books and related topics.