The Daily Sabbatical

Graham Greene was never a show off.  He was not the sort of writer that shot off flares with every sentence or attempted to change the way language worked.  He is best known, in fact, as a writer of suspenseful, twisting tales of intrigue with a sprinkling of wry humour and subtle irony.  He was, however, a master, a complete, undeniable master, and for proof look no further than The Power and the Glory.

Published in 1940, The Power was the pinnacle of the novels most influenced by his Catholicism, a creed he adopted in his early twenties.  The novel follows a priest moving through the shadows in Tabasco in the 30s when the redshirts were in power.  Catholicism and religion in general is being stamped out, and most other priests have either fled, broken their vows, or died at the firing line.  Our unnamed protagonist is not a glorified picture of piety, however.  He is a “whiskey priest,” dualing with the bottle and haunted by his bastard child, the fruit of his misdeeds.  He is a torn man, convinced of his unworthiness but dedicated to his mission which is itself a cloudy affair.  His duty is to continue his flight, but his inclination is to lay down and die.

Despite the religious themes driving the novel, Greene is never heavy handed.  The priest’s plight stems from his belief in a power that transcends the world, but his existence is humblingly human and his anguish is undeniably mortal.  The Power and the Glory could have been penned as easily by a non-believer.  It feels, in fact, like a Cormac McCarthy novel perhaps spliced with something by Mario Vargos Llosa.

Most importantly, the writing here is superb:

The squad of police made their way back to the station.  They walked raggedly with rifles slung anyhow: ends of cotton where buttons should have been: a puttee slipping down over the ankle: small men with black secret Indian eyes.  The little plaza on the hill-top was lighted with globes strung together in threes and joined by trailing overhead wires.  The Treasury, the Presidencia, a dentist’s, the prison–a low white colonaded building which dated back three hundred years–and then the steep street down past the back wall of a ruined church: whichever way you went you came ultimately wo water and to river.  Pink classical facades peeled off and showed the mud beneath, and the mud slowly reverted to mud.  Round the plaza the evening went on–women in one direction, men in the other; young me in red shirts milled boisterously round the gaseosa stalls.

So starts chapter two.  Great rhythm–the repetition of mud alone makes the paragraph.  If you haven’t read Greene, this would be one to put on your list.

The word is out: even conservatives are beginning to bemoan Senator McCain’s choice of a vice-presidential candidate. They no doubt feel betrayed. I know I do. Even though I am a strong supporter of Barack Obama, when McCain won the primary I was relieved. Sure, he offered the best chance for a Republican victory, but who cares? He seemed a very tolerable downside. He seemed reasonably moderate, very experienced, full of integrity, and honest. So, even if he won, at least it would be a huge step up from the disaster of the Bush years.
And then came Palin.
Suddenly the downside is very, very far down. Suddenly I see a future where I pine for the Bush years. This is not sexism: McCain could have chosen any number of women on the hill or elsewhere in the country who would have been shining examples of intellect and expertise. But he chose someone he barely knew, who had barely moved into the governorship of the least densely populated state in the nation, and who has all of a communications degree from the University of Idaho. Yes, she is very right wing, and no, I don’t like that. But that is plainly not the issue. Hell, I think I’d even prefer Ann Coulter!
McCain threw a political Hail Mary, sacrificing the country in the bargain. Despite all the fawning over the P.O.W.’s patriotism, this is so far from patriotic as to almost be treasonous.

As an end to this diatribe, I’ll simply post this video from CNN.

Turns out that inside the McCain camp, the absurdity of his pick is being realized.  See the Huffpost report here.

This song and this video are the complete shit. Check out the rollerskating! Right on! Thanks to DJ ZOO for exposing me to this one!

By any rights Sarah Jaffe will soon be famous.  She’s too good to continue as an opening act for tours through Dallas.  That’s not all she does, of course, but it was in that capacity I saw her.  I don’t recall whom she was opening for, because she is the one I recall.  She’s somewhat folky, if a bit too dark to be granola, and she plays a mean guitar in front of a truly powerful voice.  Seriously: this is a voice that stills a room.  All this wouldn’t mean a damn thing if her songs were weak, but her writing doesn’t let her down.  She’s less country–and perhaps a tad more Lilithy–than Lucinda Williams, but that’s the company Jaffe deserves to keep.  Since she’s only 21, this Dentonite has some time to get noticed.  But it shouldn’t take long.  Take a listen and then go buy her EP “Even Born Again” from Good Records.

Even Born Again

One of my favorite bands of all time is back playing live shows.  First the Pixies, now My Bloody Valentine?  What have I done to deserve this?  Now, if only Slint would reform for a live show…oh wait, they did.
It’s silly to think MBV can be captured on video cam, but someone tried it and it doesn’t sound all that bad.

The legendary MacArthur “genius” grants have been awarded for 2008, and it’s an interesting assortment of folks.  Check em out here.  I have to say I’m always disappointed that philosophers don’t make it onto the list more often, and the philosophers who do are usually incredibly well established, which does not seem to be the trend in many other fields in which the grant seems to find “rising stars.”  Since the award was founded, here are the philosophers who have received it:

Compared to the list of recipients from other disciplines, this is a very short list indeed.  In the humanities, we have more than classics, biography and musicology, but are whomped by religious studies, literary studies, History of Science, History, Art History and Criticism, and American History.  Considering biography and arguably classics is a form of history (though classics no doubt can be grouped with literary studies as well) That leaves us ahead of musicology.  Surely philosophy has a larger place in the intellectual world than this!

“Question the least little thing in their speeches and they will go on like bronze bowls that keep ringing for a long time after they have been struck and prolong the sound indefinitely unless you dampen them.”
                                  —Socrates (Plato’s Protagoras)