Book Review: Joe Sacco’s Palestine (0)

Posted 24 January, 2009 in Book Reviews, Comic books, Literature, Politics & Activism

Journalist and comic book artist Joe Sacco has been rightly praised for this intense account of his time in the Palestinian territories during the first Intifada. Sacco decided from the start to tell the Palestinian side of the story — not to aim for the false balance of much of modern journalism. His graphic novel is primarily a series of interviews with Palestinians, some arranged in advance and some on the spur of the moment.

If you enjoyed Art Spiegelman’s MAUS books, you’ll probably like Sacco’s work.

Highly recommended.

Kurt (0)

Posted 11 November, 2008 in Literature, Politics & Activism

Kurt Vonnegut would have been 86 today. In honor of his birthday, raise a glass to Indiana, which went blue this year. I’m sure that would have made Kurt happy.

After you lower that glass, use your hands to pick up one of Vonnegut’s books and read it.

San Francisco (0)

Posted 17 October, 2008 in Literature, Poetry, Travel

Jen and I just got back from five days in San Francisco:

Don Quixote (0)

Posted 4 November, 2007 in Literature

SPOILER ALERT! If you’ve never read Don Quixote, be warned: This post will probably give away plot points.

A few minutes ago, I finished reading Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes for the first time.

Don Quixote by Jason Crane

All I knew about it before reading it was that it involved a crazy man who thinks he’s a knight and attacks windmills. In fact, I thought the entire book was about Don Quixote attacking various windmills. It’s one of those books that has entered the cultural consciousness even if most folks have never read it. Fess up, did you think, when you were a kid, that the book was called Donkey Hotee? I did, and I always assumed it was because he rode a donkey. Which, it turns out, he doesn’t.

Little did I know — and even less did I expect — what an amazing work it is. It’s beautiful, comical and tragic all at once. It’s a history lesson, a visionary look at the art of the novel, and a gripping story, too.

In many ways, Don Quixote reminded me of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a work so large and full of so much of the human experience that it’s amazing to consider one person having written it. How could Cervantes and Shakespeare fit so much into a single work? And who were these men that they themselves contained so much wisdom and insight, coupled with the literary talent to set it down in works that will live as long as language? It makes blogging look a bit ridiculous, for one thing. (Hamlet and the first book of Don Quixote were published almost simultaneously. The early 1600s must have been one heck of a time in which to live and read!)

While I was reading the book, I also picked up a few critical studies to read afterward, including Lectures on Don Quixote by Vladimir Nabokov; Meditations on Quixote by Juan Ortega y Gasset; and The Western Canon by Harold Bloom.

The book seems on its face to be a comedy about a crazy man, but to me it was an indictment of a society that had forgotten its values and lost its honor. The duke and duchess who torment Don Quixote and Sancho throughout much of Book Two are villians, as far as I can tell. You’d have to be callous and sadistic to find their “jests” funny rather than cruel. However, my interpretation of the book is through my own cultural lens, and Cervantes may have been in favor of the purges of Jews and Moors that he describes, even though a modern reader can see his commentary as criticism.

In fact, Don Quixote and Sancho maintain their dignity throughout the book, and even if that dignity’s foundation can be called into question, they still come off as more honorable and worthwhile human beings than most of the major characters who try to trick or cure them.

To be continued…

New Globe Theater (0)

Posted 9 May, 2007 in Literature

A group of visionary artists and community leaders are trying to build a New Globe Theater on Governor’s Island off Manhattan. Learn more about this amazing project at newglobe.org.

BOA Editions Getting A New Home (0)

Posted 23 April, 2007 in Literature, Random Musings, Rochester

BOA Editions, one of the brightest spots in Rochester’s cultural life, is moving to new digs. This is from this morning’s Democrat & Chronicle newspaper:

BOA Editions moving to North Goodman Street

Local publishing company BOA Editions will be moving to the Neighborhood of the Arts.

It is moving from 260 East Ave. to the Anderson Alley building, 250 N. Goodman St. The new address will be effective April 30.

Poet and editor Peter Conners from BOA Editions was a guest on The Jason Crane Show last year. You can check out that episode for an interview with Peter and poetry from a number of great poets.

Wisdom from Walden (0)

Posted 7 June, 2006 in Literature, Politics & Activism, Random Musings

“As for the Pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs.” – from Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Happy birthday, Walt! (0)

Posted 31 May, 2006 in Literature

Walt Whitman was born on this day in 1819. For more information about Walt and his work, visit the Walt Whitman Archive.

Speaking of the Whitman Archive, the NEH has offered the Archive a $500,000 challenge grant. To help them meet the challenge, please donate some money to the Archive. Thanks!

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