Review of David Lazar, “Muse of Brooklyn: I Would Never Study but in My Dreams” from Don’t Look Now: Things We Wish We Hadn’t Seen, Ed. Kristen Iversen and David Lazar, 207-12. Columbus, OH: Mad Creek Press, 2020. David Lazar’s “Muse of Brooklyn” is a lyrical and enigmatic piece. Not long, but deep – death and its recollections. I was caught off guard by its ethereal language. The title suggested to me something concrete; I guess that’s how I think…
Review of Nicole Walker, “Lizard Brains” from Don’t Look Now: Things We Wish We Hadn’t Seen. Ed. Kristen Iversen and David Lazar, 63-67. Columbus, OH: Mad Creek Press, 2020. During my hiatus over the last couple months, I have been reading a lot of literary non-fiction. So I thought I would share some of my thoughts on what I have been reading in this space. This is the first in a series of reviews. I know that some people find…
Since the violent storming of the Capitol January 6th, we’ve heard repeated calls for unity and peace. While unity and peace are desirable and some making such appeals, including President Biden, are sincere, nonetheless, many calls are also coming from those who were sowing division just days before. Louisiana Representative Steve Scalise, Minority Whip of the House Republicans, solemnly borrowed Lincoln’s words “with malice toward none” for his speech on Trump’s second impeachment. He was speaking those words on the…
NB: Reviews posted on LiberationNow are not intended to be timely or aesthetically focused. Although some reviews may be timely, works of art and cultural production come to us at different places and times and speak to us in those moments outside of chronology or official release dates. I offer this review and all others from a space of personal interaction and engagement with the book, movie, or piece of music under review as a practice of the philology of…
It is important for you to know that I did not travel to Mammoth Cave National Park to meet Stephen Bishop. I went for the same reason most visitors travel to Mammoth Cave. I was seeking a respite from my routine; I was seeking a respite from the pandemic. I wanted to be around some natural beauty that I had not encountered before. Mammoth Cave delivers on all those things. The Green River snakes its way through the park surrounded…
As Americans head to the polls, the threat of voter intimidation and violence is greater than at any time in recent memory. Not since the Jim Crow South have voters and the political system faced such threats. The potential damage this could do to our political system should not be underestimated. Here again, the Romans provide us an ominous example. By the 50s BCE, the Roman Republic had been marred by political violence for decades, but something had inherently changed. …
Civic virtue does not seem to be of much interest in 21st century America. Perhaps for good reason. It is hard to be civically virtuous when any attempt to be so is taken advantage of. It’s a lamentable loss. For in the end, civic virtue has the power to keep people together longer than institutions and documents. We tend to rely on institutions and documents to do our heavy lifting; we treat these things as if they can police our…
I grew up in a trailer park in Appalachia. I don’t live there anymore. For that, some have called me lucky. For a long time, I believed them. How else does it happen? It’s certainly not hard work alone. Most people in trailer parks all over Appalachia work hard. Most escape the perils of drug addiction and unemployment, but many still don’t escape the trailer park and under-paid jobs. Sure, community colleges and state schools offer a way out of…
The presidency of Donald Trump has renewed and heightened political violence in the United States. American society has always been violent, particularly to people of color, women, immigrants, and the LGBTQ+ community. So we want to be careful to suggest that the violence we are seeing is somehow new or unprecedented. Yet we also want to be careful to suggest that this is merely the same as always and there is nothing to be alarmed at. As I’ve written in…
July 24, 2020 – Ammon Hennacy, Catholic Worker, b. 1893-1970 After five months the United States is still knee deep in the coronavirus pandemic, while other countries that were beset at the same time have found a way to beat back the worst of the virus and protect lives. The U.S. response to simple measures such as stay-at-home orders, social distancing, and mask wearing has been predictable. Rather than tending to these basic public health measures, we have chosen our…