LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Monday, June 9, 2008

Summer Arrives with Dragon Breath

100 degrees.

A pile of requests had been waiting for me at the library, so I was there when the doors opened at 10 a.m.

  • Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
  • James Buchanan by Jean H. Baker
  • Gender and Jim Crow by Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore
  • Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney, the Illustrated Edition
  • Havana Red by Leonardo Padura
  • Age of Bronze, Part 1 -3A, The Story of the Trojan War by Eric Shanower (graphic novel)

It's all bedtime reading though, with the exception of two titles for the ongoing research.

I've already made the sticky rice so it will be cold, with the shrimp, tofu and chicken by dinner time. The rice is the bed for spinach, sliced avocado, mango, green and red bell peppers, drizzled with chili-seseme oil and lemon and lime juice.

7 comments:

K. said...

Seattle must be the only place in the box that is cold and rainy. Lessee, I'm going to guess that the James Buchanan bio and the last three are the bedtime reading. Will Bush supplant Buchanan as the worst president in the history of the US?

I'm on the home stretch of Josh Russell's Yellow Jack.

Foxessa said...

You're right on the nose, Mr. K!

But I think youknowwho has beaten out Buchanan for that title long ago.

This is a nice series, btw, from Time, via HarperCollins. Slim books on each of the presidents, written by people who are, generally, at least, pretty smart, giving the issues before during and post the administrations. We've read Van Buren (which is writte by someone we know) and a couple of others. Not all the presidents have a book yet, but they're close -- The American Presidents series.

Love, C.

Graeme said...

The Blackmon books sounds interesting and the food sounds good :)

Frank Partisan said...

I was told to read Spartacus by my friend.

I've been into Tom Ripley books.

Foxessa said...

Graeme -- The Blackmon book is difficult reading because the terrorism and torture and brutality and inhumanity is non-stop. Think Angola prison, which is still a slave plantation, but an incalcuably worse.

Black people could be arrested and charged for anything and sentenced to conditions that were at least as bad as anything in the nazi jewish camps, enslaved as miners. Work gangs of prisoners were organized into coffles sent around the deep south, particularly Alabama, just like in the pre-Civil War days. They had auctions for work gangs in the same places slave auctions took place. It's just sickening. The entire wealth and prosperity of Birmingham, steel and coal, was built on the enslavement of these men. And the sheriffs got themselves damned wealthy out of it too.

Love, C.

Foxessa said...

Ren -- You've been reading the elegant Patricia Highsmith?

Which Spartacus? Novel or history?

Love, C.

Frank Partisan said...

Novel by Howard Fast.