Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day, a day specifically set aside to honor all those who have served in our military and sacrificed for the common good of our country.

Veterans Day began in 1919 as, of course, a commemoration of Armistice Day, the end of World War I - "the war to end all wars." The horrors of World War I have been expressed in some amazing, and well-known, literature. For example, Dalton Trumbo's 1939 classic Johnny Got His Gun. It is the story of a World War I soldier who awakens in the hospital with his mind intact, but his body destroyed, no arms, legs or even a face. Written as an anti-war piece, it is chilling and absorbing.

A famous poem from a soldier of World War I was written by a physician, Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae. His poem, In Flanders Fields, was one of my favorite poems to read when I was a kid, browsing through my mother's books of poetry:

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Poppies have now become a symbol of remembrance for veterans. More poems of war and remembrance can be found at this about.com link.

Thanks to all who have served, and particularly my dad, who served in the United States Navy during World War II.

Christopher Hitchens

Writing in Slate, Christopher Hitchens pours cold water on America's electoral glee. Okay, okay, we get it Mr. Hitchens: people hate America, the economy is in tough shape, there is no god, etc.

Robert Silvers of the New York Review of Books

Robert Silvers, co-founder and editor of the New York Review of Books, is interviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle. The November 20th edition of the NYRB marks its 45th anniversary.

The NYRB was born in 1963, during a city-wide newspaper strike in New York. Silvers told the Chronicle:

"'We felt you had to have a political analysis of the nature of power in America - who had it, who was affected," he recalled. "It's hard to sum up a paper. We published thousands of articles of many kinds. But the current running through from the beginning was - here we were, editors of this paper in New York. We had control. We could do whatever we wanted, if we could pay the printer.' By the third year, they were in the black.

"'It struck us that in so many parts of the world - under the Shah or under Brezhnev - people could be punished for publishing what they believed,' Silvers said. In response, the Review has continuously published in-depth interviews with political dissidents, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakharov and Vaclav Havel."

Writing and Publishing: A means of speaking truth to power.

Continued Election Decompression

Still winding down from last Tuesday? Check out these election night photos released by the Obama campaign. (Note: Click the "Slideshow" button on the top, right side of the linked page)

Sunday

Patagonia Lake State Park, Patagonia, Arizona.

Read, rest and relax today!

Abstain: "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein

I suspect that lots of people will buy, read, and assert that they thoroughly enjoyed The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Sadly, I am not one of those readers.

At the beginning, I had high hopes for this book. The title seemed magical. To accompany that magic, the novel is narrated by a dog named Enzo. And in fact the first 20 pages were great. As the book begins, Enzo has reached the end of his life (this alone had me misty-eyed at page eight) and he is telling the story of all that he has seen, experienced, and what he still hopes for. As he sets up the novel, Enzo has witty thoughts and an interesting narrative voice. Alas, the magic disappeared as the book went on.

What follows in the book is a good outline that doesn't get translated into a good story. Here is the outline: The canine narrator lives with aspiring race car driver Denny Swift in Seattle. He tells us how Denny meets Eve. The two marry and have a daughter, Zoe. Life is good until a crisis occurs: Eve gets sick. This puts the brakes on Denny's career. Will his career recover? Will Eve recover? Conflict arises between Denny and his in-laws. More conflict - is Denny making some missteps? Will Denny be happy and live out his dreams? And what of Zoe? In the step between developing these plot ideas and mapping it out, the skillful novelist's art of making magic, of drawing the reader into a a beautiful tapestry of words and story, does not happen.

Where can that magic be found? Anne Tyler's novels have it. Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres was magical (if you haven't read it, please don't judge the book by the movie). While The Art of Racine in the Rain has some clever bits and interesting plot ideas, it didn't have the rich texture of a highly successful read.




There is magic in the two books below:

Shepard Fairey's New Obama Image

Shepard Fairey, creator of the cool red and blue "Hope" poster featuring President-elect Obama and seen all over throughout the campaign, has designed a new Obama, post-election image. A free sticker sporting the image can be obtained from MoveOn.org