Monday, September 19, 2011

At Some Party I'd Said It Was the Best Novel Since Absalom, Absalom!, which May Have Been True, but Mostly I Was Trying to Impress Her and Convince Myself




I'm still fighting the urge to bleggalgaze - and this post signifies I'm still mightily losing - though I can offer this advice: posting post-classical noise, 20th century high modernist poetry, news of your cats and kid, and reviews of your favorite soccer team's latest games as a means of asserting your authorial independence over your insatiable pinglust at the cost of alienating all but your most loyal, patient, tolerant, and most forgiving readers is win!

Those of you left, as thank you gift, here: motherfucking professional progressives:

Liberal activists and academics displeased with the Obama administration’s handling of several issues popular with progressives say they are seeking candidates willing to mount a primary challenge against President Obama next year.

The group, led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader and scholar Cornel West, said it faults Obama for the escalation of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for extending tax cuts first enacted by George W. Bush and for his actions during the recent debt ceiling negotiations.

The group said Saturday it is seeking six “recognizable, articulate” candidates who would not mount serious challenges to Obama, but “rigorously debate his policy stands” on issues related to labor, poverty, foreign policy, civil rights and consumer protections.

Gah. Comedy gold. Meanwhile, more new blegs added left and right.











BOOK LOANED TO TOM ANDREWS

Bobby C Rogers

I'd already found out that one of the secrets to happiness was never loan your
 books. But I loaned it anyway. We were all of us poor and living

on ideas, stumbling home late to basement apartments, talking to ourselves.
 What did we own except books and debt? When the time came

we could move it all in the trunk of a car. Tom knew what a book was worth—he
 brought it back a week later, seemingly unhandled, just a little looser

in the spine, a trade paper edition of The Death of Artemio Cruz, required reading
 for a course in postmodernism we were suffering through.

The book's trashed now, boxed up and buried in the garage with a hundred other
 things I can't throw away. When I moved back south I loaned it again

to a girl I'd just met. At some party I'd said it was the best novel since Absalom,
 Absalom!, which may  have been true, but mostly I was trying to impress her,

and convince myself, still testing all I'd been told about the matter of a book
 is best kept separate from, well, matter. Months later it turned up

on my front steps without comment, the cover torn in two places, the dog-eared
 pages of self-conscious prose stuck together with dark, rich chocolate.


3 comments:

  1. Rigorously debate? That'll show 'em who's boss.

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  2. I saw the Tea Party zombie videogame, Yeah, the graphics are a bit weak, but there is something satisfying about giving a bunch of zombie teabaggers the double tap. Gotta enjoy the little things. :-)

    As for primarying the Pope of Hope? I suppose it's gotta be tried. At this point, the Dems are so far gone I'm not sure what good will come of the effort. When/if things don't go swimmingly in November next year, it'll just provide more ammo for the party brass, the Village punditry, and the various and assorted Kool Kid wannabes to blame the party's left for their sins. I'm not sure how many more years the various liberals and progressives will continue to serve as the Democratic Party's bitch, but it's worked for several decades now, so why fool with the formula, eh?

    ReplyDelete