The bottom line of Mike Huckleberry's bio is this:
Family
- Mike is married to Linda, five children and three grandchildren.
It seems to me that murderous recidivists might be the least of his problems. I'm from Michigan, and I had to look up Greenville (thanks internets!) but I'm pretty sure multi-generational polygamous incest is frowned upon, even in the deepest darkest LP midlands.
Nice statement Teresa. I'm glad it's gone up, if only because I was imagining your frustration at seeing the option of quick measured response to this brouhaha slowly slip away.
As a note, David P. at BB has a wicked sense of humor today.
As another note, can anyone believe the nerve of zota over in the other thread? Goddamn. Sockpuppetry is one thing, but using the name of a principal in the argument at hand is maybe the lowest I've seen. I still wish it hadn't been closed off, but it was getting a bit more incendiary, I guess. Still, glad to see this one opened up. Makes me sad when threads are closed off in what I think might be premature defeatism and frustration. I guess because I haven't been reading the commentary anywhere but here (and the ridiculous post at Tomorrow's Futures) I hadn't yet had my fill, whereas Patrick was steeped in the thing.
Thanks, Patrick, for hosting a thread about this.
I haven't even bothered to look at a single BB comment thread since this began because I just assumed they'd be a sea of flame.
Also, doesn't everyone think this thread has been remarkably troll-free and civil (excepting Scraps on occasion)? Remember how full of hate-bots the last thread about Cory's self-promotion on BB was?
I have to agree with Patrick and John that BB remains a personal site, if only because I think the posts themselves have painted such a portrait for me of each of the folks who run it. (Incidentally John, I've had that Doveman version of Footloose in my head all day today.) I also have to agree with David and others that the deletion-without-comment is a bit surprising.
I certainly wouldn't argue, and I don't think too many people have on this thread at least, that it warrants anything other than, well, this sort of discussion. That's why it excites me to see Cory and Xeni commenting here, if only briefly.
I guess all I'm saying is hey, fluorosphere, good job.
For those of you who haven't gone down the list, here's a spreadsheet tool that'll calculate it for you. I'm somewhere around an embarrassing seven percent.
It's not easy being a genre reader, having to split your time.
Teresa, Clay Shirky just gave you a shout-out in a talk here at BEA.
I couldn't even get past the first. I think my allergy to teh stoopid has been worsening lately.
The problem with Solaris is that it's impossible to talk about or recommend without sounding a bit insane.
"So there's this shot of grass, right, and this farmhouse, and a long sequence of Moscow highway and then little people and madmen and enormous sea-babies, in space of course, and you're given a sour taste of happiness and gag on it again and again, and all of it is hypnotizing and effective as hell. Plus, more grass."
Why won't anyone just trust me?
Speaking of McHugh, who's editing this year's Best Poetry anthology? I knew it was someone I had an interest in but can't remember now. Actually looking it up feels like cheating, whereas simply asking other people is less so. My life as crossword.
You know its a good puzzle when squinting actually helps.
The interviewer should have stopped the tape and walked away right there.
Here's a recent article in Dissent that discusses the religious politics of Turkey a bit.
All of this, as exciting as it is to see happen, needs to be taken with a big mouthful of epsom salts.
This study is being funded by the Turkish government. The recent populist upwelling of orthodoxy brought about by an influx of poor easterners to Turkish metropolitan areas aside, the modern Turkish state has always been violently secular. The secular segments of the population, many of whom are still Muslims (and thus reject evolution, abortion, divorce, etc.) see themselves as a bastion of reason in their area, the intellectual descendents of Ataturk. And while modern turkish secularism has a frantic reactionary flavor to it, it has never been the most liberal or well-reasoned of movements. The military, for instance, is a bastion of Turkish secularism, and has used it as an excuse for at least three separate coups of state. The denial of the Armenian genocide, the imprisonment of those who dare write about it, and, recently, the murder of one outspoken Armenian editor, are all part of Turkey's violently nationalist secular heritage. Ankara, a city literally built up from nothing by Ataturk, is a shrine to the man and his secular cause akin to Pyongyang. That this research is being done there is a powerful statement.
The politics in Turkey essentially come down to repressive Islam or repressive secularism. The revision of the founding documents of one by the largely upper middle class scions of the other is exciting, yes, but the motives here are suspect.
So sorry to hear it. I'd seen him and heard of him, but hadn't had the chance to meet him. Can we please declare a moratorium on deaths of people I admire?
Argh. I know no Latin only cognates, which can be infuriatingly misleading, and seeing the solutions, it turns out I haven't actually read all the sources anyways. I'm proud of those I did get.
Hey, I'm putting up a display in the store of classic mid-century fantasy beyond Tolkien. Any favorites that you folks think should be included? There are nice new editions of Porius and the Gormenghast books that settled me on this theme.
Oh, and as for advice for new residents of new amsterdam, I would suggest walking around a bit to orient yourselves. The subway drops you off in so many different neighborhoods without giving you any context.
Strange. Now that I think about it I have so many hyper-specific recommendations, but very few general ones that wouldn't apply to any city.
Argh. Lindy! The Lindy! Maybe if they were doing it under a pole it would be the Lindo.
Also, watching the Korean B-boy commercial, two desires kept lindo-ing through my brain:
I wish i could hear what those stringed instruments actually sound like,
and
I wish I could pull off those muscular hopping windmills.
A brilliant post Patrick. Thank you so much.
Re: A Difference Engine, I couldn't believe that it took until the end of the book to get the damn thing self aware. The suspense was good, sure, and the portrayal of politics pretty great (ooh, also I loved the deadly air in the coal-powered subway), but I wanted a bit more of clackety steam-driven intelligence.
Teresa you are, yourself, spot on. Quality still can be inherent in an object itself, rather than just as commodity. Something-at-all is no replacement for something actually worth having. And yes, New York streets can be miraculous when it comes to getting some few things of worth on a bookseller's budget.
I'm reading Anne Carson's meditation on Simonides and Celan Economy of the Unlost right now, and Marx's discussion of reification has come into it quite a bit. I recommend it to any and everyone. Some of the only literary criticism I've ever honestly loved rather than just admired.
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