We lost a literary giant

On June 14, 2023 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

Since reading is personal and visceral and very subjective, I cannot say what drew me to Cormac McCarthy’s novels year after year. I liked his plots, his mix of minimalism and lyrical passages, the closeness of the land in his work, his ear for authentic dialogue, and a writing approach that dragged readers kicking and screaming into some of the most beautiful and the most violent tales they ever experienced.

As quoted in Wikipedia, In 2003, literary critic Harold Bloom named McCarthy as one of the four major living American novelists, alongside Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth. His 1994 book The Western Canon had listed Child of God, Suttree, and Blood Meridian among the works of contemporary literature he predicted would endure and become ‘‘canonical’“. Bloom reserved his highest praise for Blood Meridian, which he called ‘the greatest single book since Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying’“, and though he held less esteem for McCarthy’s other novels he said that ‘to have written even one book so authentically strong and allusive, and capable of the perpetual reverberation that Blood Meridian possesses more than justifies him. … He has attained genius with that book.'”

Oddly enough, his Pulitzer Prize Winning novel The Road is probably my least favorite, though I like journey stories in general. In many ways, I think it got the Pulitzer for the same reason actors sometimes win Academy Awards: the powers that be realize the recipient should have gotten the award for an early book/movie and hand out the honor as a last-ditch chance to even things up. I would have picked Blood Meridian over The Road, but I wasn’t consulted. <g>

There are quite a few McCarthy retrospectives and homages online today. It’s nice to see them because there are times when I think he’s “underread” by people who prefer lesser stuff and don’t think of him when new titles are announced.

I liked the subhead in the story in The Atlantic: “The worlds depicted in his novels are not built for mortal humans like you and me.” CNN said, “Despite accolades, McCarthy remained relatively obscure for much of his career; as recently as 1992, 27 years after his first book was published, the New York Times Book Review said he “may be the best unknown novelist in America.”

Typical of his work are these quotes:

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”

“War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.”

“Your heart’s desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there is no mystery.”

“A man’s at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.”

“That night he dreamt of horses in a field on a high plain where the spring rains had brought up the grass and the wildflowers out of the ground and the flowers ran all blue and yellow far as the eye could see and in the dream he was among the horses running and in the dream he himself could run with the horses and they coursed the young mares and fillies over the plain where their rich bay and their rich chestnut colors shone in the sun and the young colts ran with their dams and trampled down the flowers in a haze of pollen that hung in the sun like powdered gold and they ran he and the horses out along the high mesas where the ground resounded under their running hooves and they flowed and changed and ran and their manes and tails blew off of them like spume and there was nothing else at all in that high world and they moved all of them in a resonance that was like a music among them and they were none of them afraid neither horse nor colt nor mare and they ran in that resonance which is the world itself and which cannot be spoken but only praised.”

McCarthy always gave us a story and left us with divine PTSD.

–Malcolm

PEN AMERICA AND 3 OTHER FREE SPEECH GROUPS FILE AMICUS BRIEF IN 1ST AMENDMENT HERNDON V. NETFLIX CASE

On June 13, 2023 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Threats to Press Freedom, writing2 Comments

Legal Filing Argues that Netflix Can’t be Held Liable for Depicting Suicide in Fictional Series Under 1st Amendment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 13, 2023

(NEW YORK) – PEN America, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) on Monday jointly filed an amicus brief to support the First Amendment rights of Netflix in a lawsuit over the series 13 Reasons Why, which depicted suicide.

Netflix is being sued for damages following a 15-year-old girl’s tragic suicide after watching the series. The lawsuit filed in 2022 by the girl’s father, John Herndon of Livermore, CA, alleged that viewers were not adequately warned or shielded from the show’s content. A federal judge dismissed Herndon v. Netflix in 2022; Herndon has appealed.

In its amicus brief, the four free speech organizations argued that the program is fully protected under the First Amendment and therefore Netflix cannot be held liable for the death.

The brief states: “Suicide is an enduring, though tragic, facet of human existence. Many great works of literature, history, and religion depict it, and those works are routinely taught to teenagers. For just some of the most famous literary examples, consider Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Julius Caesar, as well as the novels Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Les Miserables, The Catcher in the Rye, and The Great Gatsby. … Yet all the books, plays, and films that include such suicides are of course fully protected by the First Amendment, whether or not they include minors among their audience, and however they may be sold or marketed.”

Kate Ruane, Sy Syms director of the U.S. Free Expression programs at PEN America, said: “Understandably it is difficult to adhere to principles when faced with a tragedy like this one. But to hold Netflix liable in this case would violate constitutional protections, court precedent and, in addition to chilling Netflix’s speech, would undoubtedly risk chilling the speech of other writers, filmmakers, artists and creators on sensitive topics like suicide, drug addiction, or mental health.”

“The plaintiff’s demands fail to take into account the far-reaching ramifications of excluding groups of ‘impressionable audiences’ from essential conversations, blocking student journalists from engaging and informing their peers in an era already fraught with misinformation,” said Jonathan Gaston-Falk, staff attorney for the Student Press Law Center.

FIRE Attorney Jeff Zeman said: “Freedom of speech isn’t the freedom to speak in a vacuum; it necessarily includes the right to promote your speech to an audience. Whether it’s Romeo and Juliet, Dead Poets Society or 13 Reasons Why, fictional works that portray difficult topics like suicide don’t lose their First Amendment protection just because their creators seek to find an audience.”

-30-

Old cats can learn new tricks even if you don’t want them to

On June 12, 2023June 12, 2023 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn cats6 Comments

We’ve always had cats. When a new cat comes into the house, it’s a matter of time before every cat has a resume of new tricks. Mostly bad.

Katy (a typical calico) was adopted 20+ years ago with two smaller cats, so she’s used to being the boss cat. Unfortunately, the other two passed across the rainbow bridge, the last about the time Robbie arrived complements (probably) of some low-life who dumped him out the car door in front of our rural house.

Robbie lived on the front porch for a while, then after a trip to the vet to get him checked out, became our indoor/outdoor cat. Now Katy assumes she gets to go outside, too. Not happening. She’s not streetwise. Robbie obviously is. Though it’s also apparent that he knows how to live in a house (found the kitty potty, sleeps on the bed during the night, and is used to eating off the table).

Robbie is a young male cat with plenty of energy. He can leap furniture in a single bound and is faster than a speeding bullet. Katy can’t compete with that, but once she saw Robbie trying to help himself to the food on our plates and drink out of our water/Coke glasses, she’s become a menace at meal time.

We’re surprised at what they’ll eat. Robbie licked the remains of a hot and spicy Jambalaya soup out of my bowl. I thought, “You’ll regret that.” Next, he tried to steal Lesa’s baked potato, hanging off the edge of her TV tray with one foot while pulling in the remains of the potato with the other front foot. He didn’t get the potato, but things were touch and go there for a few minutes.

Because she was determined to do it, I finally allowed Katy to lick the remains of the salad dressing out of my bowl. It was ranch dressing, something I thought she’d shy away from. She didn’t. I could understand that if it was been a bowl of tuna salad, but greens with ranch dressing is just plain wrong.

If you have cats or have had cats, you probably know the drill on who’s doing to pick up the most new habits. It’s a learning experience for all of us.

Btw, Robbie has a habit of licking people. Now Katy has it. We don’t care for it, but what can we do?

–Malcolm

And now you know why a cat is the narrator of the books in my Florida Folk Magic Series. They muscled themselves into the storyline.

Goulash for Sunday 06/11/23

On June 11, 2023 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Potpourri

If you are making actual goulash rather than expecting my usual potpouri post and inadvertently chop off part of a finger, please fetch it out. Connoseurs will know the difference between a chunk of beef and your ring finger no matter how much Hungarian paprika you add.

If you have a dog, and especially if you chopped off part of your finger into the goulash, you may find this article from McSweeney’s helpful: REASONS YOUR DOG IS A BETTER HEALTH CARE PROVIDER THAN YOUR DOCTOR “Your dog takes a highly individualized approach to your care. Instead of saying your Vitamin D is low and suggesting you get more sun, your dog takes you on three walks a day. If you have insomnia, they’ll lay on your stomach and stare into your soul until you fall asleep every night for the next fifteen years. If you’re anemic, they’ll murder a squirrel and leave it under your pillow. Would Dr. Moskowitz do that? Didn’t think so.”
My doctor told me a few days ago that I may have a bleeding ulcer and requested a stool sample. I’m planning to send him this IKEA Marius Stool-Black even though there will probably be some assembly required. If I had a dog, he would probably would have told me to drink two glasses of Tallisker Storm and call him in the morning: “Released in early 2013, Talisker Storm has all the warm, smoky, peppery characteristics we all love in the standard Talisker 10yo – but they’ve been turned up a notch, with more smoke, more spices, and a bigger-than-ever flavour explosion.” A smart dog would know that.
I think the authors of the novel The Observer would have ended up with a compelling novel if they hadn’t limited themselves to their science, or at least to the scientific theories. As it is, just how a patient with a brain-implanted device impacts and/or directly creates his/her reality in a new branching universe isn’t directly shown. We are told s/he does this, but aren’t really shown how it happens. This novel doesn’t work for me even though I believe the theories behind the science and the story. I disagree with Kirkus that said, “Mind-bending … A novel full of life-affirming ideas.”
I have a question. Some years ago, men were bashed for seeking pictures of naked women, a “hobby” that was considered wrong for a dozen reasons. Now, women are creating those pictures (and walking around hardly wearing a stitch of clothing) and posting them online. Is this the new freedom or have they made objects of themselves just like those nasty men always wanted? E.g.: “At 54, Ricki Lake Bares It all in Nude Outdoor Bathtub Pic: ‘Self-Acceptance’”

—Malcolm

‘Songs of Innocence and Experience,’ by William Blake

On June 10, 2023June 10, 2023 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn poetry, writing2 Comments

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was scarcely known during his lifetime, was considered mad by those who were aware of him, sold very few copies of his work, and was buried in a mass grave with borrowed money. Now that he can no longer profit from his works, he’s considered favorably as a poet and engraver.

His introduction to this volume of poems, written and engraved in 1894, shows the style of the work. Readers definitely need the illustrations in order to enjoy the intended scope and meaning of the work.

This edition promises the engravings that belong with the work.

From the Publisher

“This stylish reissue of Blake’s timeless work is sumptuously packaged in burnt-orange casing with gold sprayed edges, which allude to the treasures within.

“Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a rare and wonderful book, its seeming simplicity belying its visionary wisdom. Internationally recognised as a masterpiece of English literature, it also occupies a key position in the history of western art. This unique edition of the work allows Blake to communicate with his readers as he intended, reproducing Blake’s own illumination and lettering from the finest existing example of the original work. In this way, readers can experience the mystery and beauty of Blake’s poems as he first created them, discovering for themselves the intricate web of symbol and meaning that connects word and image. Each poem is accompanied by a literal transcription, and the volume is introduced by the renowned historian and critic, Richard Holmes. This beautiful edition of The Songs of Innocence and Experience will be essential for those familiar with Blake’s work, but also offers an ideal way into his visionary world for those encountering Blake for the first time.”

Wikipedia notes that, “Geoffrey Keynes says that Blake, as the prophet ‘calls the Fallen Man to regain control of the world, lost when he adopted Reason (the ‘starry pole’) in place of Imagination.’ Earth symbolizes the Fallen Man within the poem. Blake (‘the voice of the Bard’) calls him to awake from the evil darkness and return to the realm of Imagination, reassuming the light of its previous ‘prelapsarian’ state. Reason (the ‘starry pole’) and the Sea of Time and Spece (the ‘watr’ry shore’) “are there only till the break of day if Earth would consent to leave ‘the slumberous mass'”

As a reader biased in favor of Blake’s work, I feel that time spent with this volume is time well spent.

—Malcolm

Did you read ‘Flowers in the Attic’ or pretend that you read it?

On June 9, 2023 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing2 Comments

Of course, I read it. After all, there was a war on, I was addicted to Southern Gothic by running with a bad crowd and was working for an employer who tapped my phone (not because I read the book, though I’m not sure about that).

I like the Wikipedia comments about the book: “A review in The Washington Post when the book was originally released described the book as ‘deranged swill’ that “may well be the worst book I have ever read”. The retrospective in The Guardian agreed that it is deranged but called it “utterly compelling.”

Sure, there were claims that it might have been based on a true story. I didn’t care. There were also claims that its author V. C. Andrews was as messed up as her novel. I saw that as a plus. People are still arguing about such things thirty-seven years after Andrews died. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire? I think people want there to be fire even though the evidence about real fire is rather slim.

Last year the New York Post said, “Real life of ‘Flowers’ author VC Andrews was as creepy as her gothic novels.” The post based that view on a book about Andrews: “While the new book “The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews Story” (Gallery Books) by Andrew Neiderman may not be as salacious as “Flowers in the Attic,” it’s surely worth its own Lifetime Original Movie.”

I don’t think so, but the reporter never called me for a comment.

While one can hardly say the book is “just good clean fun,” everyone wants to find some reason anyone would write such a novel, and then follow it up with more or the same.

How or why it all happened seems irrelevant to me as an author. The story stands for itself. What it means and/or what the author meant are the kind of swill we get from English departments that think novels must be explained–and possibly the authors as well.

Flowers in the Attic was, for me, a compelling story.

–Malcolm

‘Even So, Remember Me’

On June 8, 2023 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the “profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful” poetry of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European and the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore’s poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his “elegant prose and magical poetry” remain largely unknown outside Bengal. – Wikipedia

My father liked the work of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore , so my brothers and I knew his work well even though it wasn’t mentioned in any of our high school or college literature courses. My favorite poem/song by Tagore was “Even So, Remember Me.” There are multiple translations of the work online, but the only one I like is by Bengali author (a favorite of mine) Sunetra Gupta. You can see her translation here.

In spite of changing times and changing ideas and points of view, we all hope that those we loved will remember us fondly in later years. The hope of that is the power of this poem.

Gupta and I have corresponded and once planned to meet when she was in Georgia for a medical conference–her primary field–but schedules changed and we couldn’t manage it. What a loss. Even so, I sent her an old copy of Tagore’s work that I inherited from my father since Gupta is a well-known translator of Tagore’s work.

Her work at Oxford as an infectious disease epidemiologist and a professor of theoretical epidemiology in the department of zoology takes her away from her novels, the last of which was So Good in Black which came out in 2009. I’ve been waiting for something new from her!

Meanwhile, I love reading her Tagore translations on her website and hope that she will remember me.

–Malcolm

Florida to Ban All Books in All Public and School Libraries

On June 7, 2023 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn satire

Tallahassee, Florida, June 7, 2023, Star-Gazer News Service–The Governor’s office announced here today that all books held in public school libraries, state university libraries, and city/county libraries are banned until further notice.

According to more or less informed sources, the action will save taxpayers millions of dollars that have heretofore been used to ban books individually.

Chief of Staff Honoré de Balzac told reporters at this morning’s briefing, “Le Gouverneur travaille 24 heures sur 24 pour garder les mauvais livres loin de tout le monde.” A translator flown to Tallahassee from Paris said that Balzac said, more or less, that the Governor was spending a lot of time and money chasing his tail on the book banning program and needed to use the time and money to govern the entire state and destroy Disney instead of worrying about “nasty” books.

DeSantis, who claims to be an “old fashioned American with old fashioned American values as promulgated in the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books,” said that HB7, known as the Stop W.O.K.E. act was passed “to keep our state from being taken over my the kinds of screwed up people who belong in California and other godless places like Oregon.”

According to Balzac, “Le canular de l’interdiction des livres est désormais une réalité.” His statement was translated to mean “a hoax is a hoax is a hoax.”

Stoned sources said that DeSantis wants to return Florida–and the entire country–to the out-of-date ideas of the Founding Fathers who–if alive today–wouldn’t know the difference between a thumb drive and sitting on ones thumb.

“I’m a mom, apple pie, and The Good Book kind of guy,” DeSantis said, “and that means woke is broke.”

–Story filed by Jock Stewart, Special Investigative Reporter

‘The Wind Knows My Name,’ by Isabel Allende

On June 6, 2023 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books

This is a day I celebrate since it’s the release day for The Wind Knows by Name by Isabel Allende, an author whose books I always read and enjoy. Plus, I’m inspired by the fact that an author older than me is still turning out high-quality stories, this one with a partial focus on Kristallnacht.

From the Publisher

“Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht—the night his family loses everything. As her child’s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

“Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Díaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Durán, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother.

“Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.”

From the New York Times

“Telling a story that is rooted so deeply in political events can be a difficult balancing act; an author walks a fine line between writing immersive fiction and explaining historical and social context. “The Wind Knows My Name” contains little of the magic that defined Allende’s earlier novels. Instead, she turns her focus to the brutal details of government-sponsored violence and asks her reader to look closely at the devastation. Allende draws a straight line from Nazi Germany to modern-day atrocities — not because the specifics are the same, but because the damage is.”

From the Associated Press

“Allende moves the story back and forth between Europe and the United States, switches between the past and present, as two very different children in very different places and circumstances search for the safety of home and family.

“It’s a very different kind of book for Allende, who often places her stories in her native Latin America, including her best known and highly successful novel,The House of Spirits and last year’s Violeta, which stretches across a century of South American history.”

You can find an excerpt here.

—Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of magical realism, contemporary fantasy, and paranormal short stories and novels.

Potpourri for Sunday, June 4

On June 4, 2023June 4, 2023 By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Potpourri, writing2 Comments

As I read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, I’m happy to say this novel is a dream. And yet, it’s hard for me not to think of Holden Caufield with quotes like these: “The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.” “People love to believe in danger, as long as it’s you in harm’s way, and them saying bless your heart.”“Sunday school stories are just another type of superhero comic. Counting on Jesus to save the day is no more real than sending up the Batman signal.” The Christian Science Monitor review says, “Her exquisite writing takes a wrenching story and makes it worthwhile. The details are difficult, but they are never gratuitous. She thrusts the reader into the midst of real-world circumstances – especially the opioid epidemic – and she compassionately demands that we not look away.”
As I work on my novel-in-progress, I notice once again that finding a year-by-year timeline for whatever you want to know seems impossible. I can find overviews. I can find out how things work today. But finding out what happened exactly in any given year is a hell of a lot of trouble. Right now, I’m wondering what the standard morphine dosage was in 1955. I guess I’m going to just throw a dart at the morphine history and hope for the best when it comes to oral usage or injection. It’s been around for a long time.
Three of the characters in my novel served in Korea. Good news: I have Jeff Shaara’s Frozen Hours and The Last Stand of Fox Company. These books help me keep up with battles, timelines, and the mess General MacArthur made of the whole thing. If I had been Truman, I would have gotten rid of MacArthur long before the first battle. News from Korea comprised some of the first stories I saw in newspapers and in newsreels, so I would have bought these books even if I weren’t using them for book research.
My wife and I have most of Billy Joel’s recordings. However, since I don’t live in or near New York City, I didn’t realize how long Joel has been at Madison Square Garden. I read in today’s Guardian that, “Billy Joel will conclude his monthly residency at Madison Square Garden in July 2024, with his 150th-lifetime performance at the venue. ‘It’s hard to believe we’ve been able to do this for 10 years,’ Joel said at a news conference on Thursday. ‘I’m now 74. I’ll be 75 next year. It seems like a nice number.'” Heck, I’m older than Joel. Maybe I should start cutting back on all my books and blogs.
For the home viewer, we want the writers’ strike to end so that we can keep watching the stuff we watch. According to Variety, “The Directors Guild of America announced a tentative deal with the studios on Saturday night, providing pay hikes and an improved residual for international streaming. But a summary provided by the DGA makes no mention of pegging the streaming residual to viewership. That indicates that residuals will continue to be the same on streaming platforms — whether a show is a hit or a flop.”
Every time I make Waldorf salad, I think of the Fawlty Towers episode in which Basil is asked by a guest for Waldorf Salad but has no clue what it is. I grew up in a family that had this quite often, so I never understood why Basil didn’t know–other than the fact he’s English and those folks aren’t known for edible cooking.