A Practical Policy

Review by Peter Faulkner:

This well informed and clearly written book has two main aims: to tell the reader about the importance and extent of the tradition of anarchist or left-libertarian writing in Britain; and to argue for the urgent relevance today of that tradition of political thought, particularly in its pacifist and environmentalist forms. The latter aim is necessarily the more difficult to fulfil, since it may well come up against the reader’s existing political prejudices or commitments; and I will consider it later. But in that it provides a great deal of information in a form that is both accessible and suggestive of the importance of the tradition discussed, the book is undoubtedly successful. Eight writers classified by Goodway as anarchists are discussed at length, in historical order as follows: Edward Carpenter, Oscar Wilde, John Cowper Powys, Herbert Read, Aldous Huxley, Alex Comfort, Christopher Pallis and Colin Ward. In addition, Goodway offers thoughtful readings here of three other writers broadly sympathetic to the anarchist tradition, but with more reservations about it: William Morris, George Orwell and E. P. Thompson. Each writer is carefully placed in his historical context: Morris in that of late-Victorian radicalism; Orwell that of Spain and the Civil War; and Thompson in that of nuclear disarmament and the ‘New Left’.

…

From Anarchist Librarian’s Web:

Favorite Anarchist/Libertarian Novels 1.0 – July 1998 – This list compiled from discussions held on the anarchy-list in July 1998:

In no particular (dis)order:

• Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula Le Guin
• Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin
• The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
• He, She and It by Marge Piercy
• Woman on Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
• The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You by Dorothy Bryant
• The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy
• Illicit Passage by Alice Nunn
• A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski
• Anarchist Farm by Jane Doe Continue reading David Goodway’s Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward

Great Novel of the People – Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
Leftward Whoa! The Academy
PEN and Public or Political Fiction
“Incompatible”? – Novels, Politics, News?
Literature, Teaching, Ideology
The Reactionary Ayn Rand
Huckleberry Finn and Effects of Story
John Updike’s Lit Establishment Rules
Noam Chomsky, Orwell, and the Importance of Caricature
The Power and Import of Purpose in Fiction
The Possibilities of “Political Fiction”
Impact of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
Orwell’s Problem and Partisan Fiction [with links, clear quotes, see here]
Progressive Political Fiction 
Write a Political Novel?
The Power of Political Fiction and Mainstay Press — Interview
A Few Notes on the Literary Establishment  
Against Vicious Injustice — An Interview with Mickey Z
Politics and Art – The Personal is the Public and Private
Great Lit Is Based On Principle – Letter to ULA
The Future of Imaginative Literature – Roles for Novelists 
The Fate of Plutocracy; Or, American White Slavery
Fiction and Social Change – Some Limits of DeLillo, Pynchon…
NYT Best Fiction Discussion and Artists in Times of War (Arundhati Roy)
“Best Work of American Fiction“
More on the NYT “best of” American fiction list
Barbara Kingsolver’s 2006 Bellwether Prize
The Politics of Literary Politics
Have They Been Banned? Iraq War Novels — Interview
Establishment Irresponsibility: Ana Marie Cox Wrong on Stephen Colbert…
Send a Novel Message
Nothing They Care to Hear — Stephen Colbert
The Power of Poetry

Karen D’Souza:

“Americans (and many others) are hungry for something beyond the political twaddle that passes for national debate in this country, and indeed globally,” says Stanford University drama professor Rush Rehm. “The Mime Troupe calls things as they are; our political debate at the national level has an ‘all wear gloves’ approach, only rarely can anything be talked about.

“The Mime Troupe uses one of the rare public spaces available – performances outdoors in the park, free, and there, lo! still some truths can be told. Audiences like that, and we need it.”

For the Mime Troupe, art and activism have always been flip sides of the same coin. These left-wing rabble-rousers don’t even charge for tickets (though they do pass the hat); they believe that if theater is to be for the people, it must be truly accessible.

Lisa Traiger:

It’s hard to get rid of the sinking feeling that occurs in reliving the run-up to the most recent invasion of Iraq. In Stuff Happens, onstage at Olney Theatre Center through July 20, British playwright David Hare takes on very recent American history, recounting the maneuvers and backroom alliances made and broken by the Bush administration. Truth and fiction intermingle as we see the folly of a few leaders, enamored of power, tear asunder nations and people.

That’s Stuff Happens, its title drawn from the simplistic shrug then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made in response to a question about rioters looting Baghdad following the U.S. invasion.

Within this larger landscape, there’s one gasp-inducing moment in the Olney Theatre’s three-hour production, strategically directed by Jeremy Skidmore. Naomi Jacobson plays a nameless Palestinian woman, her hair modestly covered, her accent thick with the sand and sun of the Middle East. Plaintive and accusatory, the woman, a Palestinian scholar, asks, “Why Iraq? Why now ֹ for us, it is all about one thing: defending the interests of America’s $1 billion a year colony in the Middle East.”

“We,” she asserts, “are the Jews of the Jews.”

At a theater like Olney, long ensconced in suburban Montgomery County with its heavily Jewish audience, a collective gasp at that moment comes without surprise. While Hare’s work is no shock-and-awe campaign, this monologue hits with surgical accuracy.

Nick Miroff:

Seeing the city’s efforts as a ruse to silence him, Fernandez insists he will not remove the sign, nor allow it to be removed. Instead — and this is where the standoff takes an especially strange twist– Fernandez plans to enlarge the structure, having spent $1,500 on architectural drawings for a new, bigger, L-shaped wall, 140 feet by 61 feet, that would span the length of the property.

The new sign, Fernandez said, would feature painted murals and captions depicting the history of American racial injustice. “I really want the community to see what has been done to us people of color these last 500 years,” said Fernandez, whose message to the “European Americans” of Manassas considers Latino immigrants to be “Native Americans” with a historical right to live in the United States.

John Fox:

Last year, one of the most interesting nominations for the Booker was a book called “Animal’s People“, written by Indra Sinha, about a boy walking on all fours because of the Bhopal chemical incident. Well, now Indra Sinha is standing behind the work he did on the novel by joining eight other people on a hunger strike designed to bring the chemical manufacturers who created this atrocious situation, U.S. based Dow Chemical, to justice.

Trumbo trailer:

 
 
NPR feature:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91576667&ps=bb2   

 

The topical satiric comics by David Rees – Get Your War On.

Play adaption – Get Your War On – Shawn Sides / David Rees:

Based on David Rees’s popular clip-art-style Internet comic strip, the foul-mouthed production owes its sensibility to the mocking deadpan of Stephen Colbert, the sour indignation of Lewis Black and the suffer-no-fools-gladly outrage of Bill Maher. Watching “Get Your War On,” you are reminded how lily-livered the political skits have become on “Saturday Night Live,” long the nation’s main outlet for topical satire.

Then again, a show this scorching — the live-theater equivalent of a wildfire — would send network censors straight for the economy-size bottles of Stoli. Rees’s strip, begun in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, takes as its sardonic raison the administration’s war on terrorism. The stage adaptation closely follows the strip, with profanity-laced lampoons of all of the signature news events and code words of the ’00s: the Enron scandal, colorized terror alerts, “freedom fries,” red-state/blue-state, weapons of mass destruction, Halliburton and “Mission accomplished.” The show gives each its scalding turn in the hot seat, and takes swipes at the deficit, Hurricane Katrina and Israel’s war with Hezbollah.

Unfortunately, as the NYT reports:

Eventually, what separates this show from most Bush-bashing satires is a subtext about our own powerlessness. The critics onstage — and those laughing in the seats — seem content to poke fun without ever asking that old, essential question: what is to be done?

What is to be done? Lots of things. Including what happens at the end of the best movie of the US conquest of Iraq thus far, G.I. Jesus.

But in 1947, Trumbo was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) as part of the “Hollywood Ten,” who were questioned about their ties to the Communist Party.

Trumbo refused to testify and was later blacklisted by Hollywood studios. His story is told in the documentary Trumbo, due in theaters June 27. Continue reading Dalton Trumbo Blacklisted, Antiwar Novelist, Screenwriter

State By State List of Creative Writing MFA Programs

Alabama
University of Alabama – Tuscaloosa

Alaska
University of Alaska – Anchorage
University of Alaska – Fairbanks

Arizona
University of Arizona
Arizona State University

Arkansas
University of Arkansas

California
Antioch University – Los Angeles
California College of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts / CalArts
California State University – Fresno
California State University – Long Beach
Chapman University
Mills College – Poetry / Prose
Otis College of Art and Design
Saint Mary’s College of California
San Diego State University
San Fransisco State University
San Jose State University
University of California – Irvine
University of California – Riverside
University of California – San Diego
University of San Francisco
University of Southern California

Colorado
Colorado State University
Naropa University
University of Colorado Boulder

District of Columbia
American University

Florida
Florida Atlantic University
Florida International University
Florida State University
University of Central Florida
University of Florida
University of Miami
University of South Florida

Georgia
Georgia College & State University
Georgia State University
University of Georgia

Idaho
Boise State University
University of Idaho

Illinois
Columbia College Chicago – poetry / Fiction
Northwestern University
Roosevelt University
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Southern Illinois University – Carbondale
University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign

Indiana
Indiana University
Purdue University
University of Notre Dame

Iowa
Iowa State University
University of Iowa – Fiction / Nonfiction

Kansas
University of Kansas
Wichita State University

Kentucky
Eastern Kentucky University
Murray State University
Spalding University

Louisiana
University of New Orleans
Louisiana State University
McNeese State University

Maine
University of Southern Maine (Stonecoast)

Maryland
Goucher College
Johns Hopkins University
University of Baltimore
University of Maryland

Massachussetts
Boston University
Emerson College
Lesley University
Pine Manor College
University of Massachusetts – Amherst

Michigan
Northern Michigan University
University of Michigan
Western Michigan University

Minnesota
Hamline University
Minnesota State University – Mankato
Minnesota State University – Moorhead
University of Minnesota

Mississippi
University of Mississippi

Missouri
University of Missouri – St. Louis
Washington University – St. Louis

Montana
University of Montana

Nebraska
University of Nebraska-Omaha

Nevada
University of Nevada – Las Vegas

New Hampshire
New England College
Southern New Hampshire University
University of New Hampshire

New Jersey
Drew University
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Rutgers University

New Mexico
New Mexico State University
University of New Mexico

New York
Adelphi University
Bard College
Brooklyn College
City College Of New York – CUNY
Columbia University School of the Arts
Cornell University
Hunter College – CUNY
The New SChool
Long Island University – Brooklyn
New York University
Queens College
Sarah Lawrence College
Stony Brook – Southampton
Syracuse University

North Carolina
North Carolina State University
Queens University of Charlotte
University of North Carolina – Greensboro
University of North Carolina – Wilmington
Warren Wilson College
Ashland University

Ohio
Bowling Green State University
Northeast Ohio Universities Consortium
Ohio State University

Oregon
Oregon State University
Pacific University
University of Oregon

Pennsylvania
Carlow University
Chatham University
Pennsylvania State University
Rosemont College
University of Pittsburgh
Wilkes University

Rhode Island
Brown University
Converse College

South Carolina
University of South Carolina

Tennessee
The University of Memphis
Vanderbilt University

Texas
Texas State University
University of Houston
University of Texas – Austin
University of Texas – El Paso
University of Texas – Pan American

Utah
University of Utah

Vermont
Bennington College
Goddard College
Vermont College of Fine Arts

Virginia
George Mason University
Hollins University
Old Dominion University
University of Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Tech University

Washington
Eastern Washington University
Pacific Luthern University
Seattle Pacific University
University of Washington
Whidbey Writers Workshop

West Virginia
West Virginia University

Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin – Madison

Wyoming
University of Wyoming

Canada
University of British Columbia
Fairfield University

Flobots videos:

No Handlebars
The Flobots No Handlebars video reminds me quite a lot of the troubled beauty, and the joy and terror in Andre Vltchek’s novel Point of No Return.

Iraq Rap

 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A car bomb ripped through the street outside the Danish embassy here, killing at least six, in an apparent act of revenge against cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in Danish newspapers in 2005.

A Danish citizen of Pakistani origin was among the dead, according to the Danish Foreign Ministry in Copenhagen . Local Pakistani media put the fatalities at eight; 35 were injured.

Morris Dickstein has an article “Fiction and Political Fact” in the current issue of Bookforum. Dickstein has come up with some thoughtful moments of criticism in his past work. This is not one. The article is more a classic expression of reigning status quo (liberal/conservative) ideology. One could critique the article at length pointing out its absurdities, vacuities, and sheer distortion. Regular readers of this site should be able to note as much…

From a thread at The Valve:

“What, I ask first, is this poem trying to do. Then: is it successful? Then: Is it worth doing?” – Kevin Prufer – http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/2008/05/interview-with-kevin-prufer.html

“Luther Blissett”: “…something well beyond art: we need discernment to foster critical thinking, to make good citizens, to use our time on earth wisely, to heighten our pleasures, to effect social change, to effect personal growth, etc.”

None of the above is necessarily beyond art, or even beyond aesthetics. In fact, these are often central purposes and contents of the experiences that are art.

Many artists ask themselves all the time not only what can I create, but what should I create. Critics, audiences should question (evaluate) that too. Continue reading Art Shaping Life – and Vice-Versa

Election, Incorporated. The sequel:

As their contest for the White House draws closer, watch how, regardless of the inevitable personal smears, Obama and McCain draw nearer to each other. They already concur on America’s divine right to control all before it. “We lead the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the ultimate good,” said Obama. “We must lead by building a 21st-century military . . . to advance the security of all people [emphasis added].” McCain agrees. Obama says in pursuing “terrorists” he would attack Pakistan. McCain wouldn’t quarrel.

…Like all the candidates, Obama has furthered Israeli/Bush fictions about Iran, whose regime, he says absurdly, “is a threat to all of us”.

On the war in Iraq, Obama the dove and McCain the hawk are almost united. McCain now says he wants US troops to leave in five years (instead of “100 years”, his earlier option). Obama has now “reserved the right” to change his pledge to get troops out next year. “I will listen to our commanders on the ground,” he now says, echoing Bush. Continue reading John Pilger on Obama-McCain for President

Rovics:

I first became familiar with the Utah Phillips phenomenon in the late 80’s, when I was in my early twenties, working part-time as a prep cook at Morningtown in Seattle.  I had recently read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, and had been particularly enthralled by the early 20th Century section, the stories of the Industrial Workers of the World.  So it was with great interest that I first discovered a greasy cassette there in the kitchen by the stereo, Utah Phillips Sings the Songs and Tells the Stories of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Eagleton:

 

“Culture is ordinary,” Williams wrote in a pioneering essay, and his own life was a case in point. He saw his transition from Black Mountains to Cambridge spires as in no sense untypical. Right to the end, he regarded the politically conscious rural community in which he was reared, with its neighbourliness and cooperative spirit, as far more of a genuine culture than the Cambridge in which he held a professorial chair and that he once acidly described as “one of the rudest places on earth”. Working-class Britain may not have produced its quota of Miltons and Jane Austens; but in Williams’s view it had given birth to a culture that was at least as valuable: the dearly won institutions of the labour, union and cooperative movements.

 

Since Williams’s death in 1988, culture, one might claim, has become more ordinary than ever. Not in the sense that Milton is sold in supermarkets, though Austen has been sprung from college libraries into film and television. In the teeth of the Jeremiahs, Williams never ceased to argue for the progressive potential of the media. But he believed that these vital modes of speaking to each other should be wrested back from the cynics who exploited them for private gain. His prescription for dealing with the Murdochs of this world was bracingly free of his usual circumspection: “These men must be run out.”