random items for 1.22.05
a poem I like:
Boston
by Aaron Smith
Monbiot on the US media:
The role of the media corporations in the United States is similar to that of repressive state regimes elsewhere: they decide what the public will and won’t be allowed to hear, and either punish or recruit the social deviants who insist on telling a different story. The journalists they employ do what almost all journalists working under repressive regimes do: they internalise the demands of the censor, and understand, before anyone has told them, what is permissible and what is not.
So, when they are faced with a choice between a fable which helps the Republicans, and a reality which hurts them, they choose the fable. As their fantasies accumulate, the story they tell about the world veers further and further from reality. Anyone who tries to bring the people back down to earth is denounced as a traitor and a fantasist. And anyone who seeks to become president must first learn to live in fairyland.
Read all about it here: Media Fairyland by George Monbiot
a literary quiz:
Hey you! Yeah, that’s right you, Smartypants. If you think you’re so great why don’t you take the William Faulkner Quiz at The Barcelona Review? I gave up after two questions.
myfanwy collins 