Culture and Arts
Love, an Inspiration ... or Not?
I recently ran across a quote from Francine Prose saying that Love is a poor inspiration for art because it is an element of life that is too fragile, too short-lived to be worthy of the labor of great artists. Having given this some serious thought after I got past my right-off-the bat astonished disagreement, I've decided I still believe that there must have been more to the context than I saw. After all, it's not as if this pronouncement came from just anybody — but I think she's wrong.
Read More...Portraits in Disguise and Imaginary Lives
Dressing up for your portrait has been a technique and 'accepted as a norm' according to a section of England's National Portrait Gallery, Portraits in Disguise:
"The idea that the portrait isn't some form of disguise is interesting, after all it is always an interpretation of a presence. There is no guarantee that the sitter is not 'naturally disguised' when sitting for a portrait, this being often a peculiar and sometimes difficult experience to submit to."
"Facial expression is so often a disguise — how many people recall opening a gift in front of the donor and feigning delight when disappointment is the real emotion provoked by the offering?"
Lessons From a Lifetime in the Classroom: YOU AND I, ME, US, THEY, THEM, WHATEVER!
by Julia Sneden
Pronouns, pronouns, pronouns: does no one these days teach youngsters how to use them?
The other day a bemused friend quoted from a sweet letter she had received:
“Just seeing your face at Mike and I’s wedding…”
Read More...The Most Dangerous Woman in America, a Review of Mother Jones: Raising Cain and Consciousness
The Most Dangerous Woman in America
Reviewed by Jo Freeman
Mother Jones: Raising Cain and Consciousness
by Simon Cordery
Published by University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM; ©2010, 213 pp.
Mary Harris Jones was a late bloomer. Only in her seventh decade did she became the legendary Mother Jones, a paid organizer for the United Mine Workers who was labeled the most dangerous woman in America in 1902.
It would be accurate to call her 'mythical' if only because so many of the stories surrounding her and which she told about herself were in fact myths. One of the tasks Cordery takes on in this book is to separate fact from fiction, though he concludes that the actual facts are sometimes less important than the myths.
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