[Solidarité. Illustration by Ana Juan. From The New Yorker website. Click for a larger view.]
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Michael Leddy“Orange Crate Art” is a song by Van Dyke Parks and the title of a 1995 album by Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson. “Orange Crate Art” is for me one of the great American songs: “Orange crate art was a place to start.”
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Nancy, October 19, 1950.
“Who are we as a country?”
Michael Leddy
Don’t look for premiums or
coupons, as the cost of
the thoughts blended in
ORANGE CRATE ART pro-
hibits the use of them.
Comments are welcome, appended to posts or by e-mail. I moderate comments to keep out spam, so please be patient.
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Words to live by
Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
*
Νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἥλιος. [The sun is new every day.]
Heraclitus
*
Every day is a new deal.
Harvey Pekar, “Alice Quinn”
*
Nos plus grandes craintes, comme nos plus grandes espérances, ne sont pas au-dessus de nos forces, et nous pouvons finir par dominer les unes et réaliser les autres. [Our worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter.]
Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again
*
Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.
Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
*
I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.
J.D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction
*
I’m not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it
one more try
Sufjan Stevens, “Jacksonville”
*
L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité. [Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.]
Simone Weil, in a letter
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
*
Νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἥλιος. [The sun is new every day.]
Heraclitus
*
Every day is a new deal.
Harvey Pekar, “Alice Quinn”
*
Nos plus grandes craintes, comme nos plus grandes espérances, ne sont pas au-dessus de nos forces, et nous pouvons finir par dominer les unes et réaliser les autres. [Our worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter.]
Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again
*
Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.
Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
*
I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.
J.D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction
*
I’m not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it
one more try
Sufjan Stevens, “Jacksonville”
*
L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité. [Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.]
Simone Weil, in a letter
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Nancy, October 19, 1950.
comments: 3
I just read an editorial piece from the New Yorker I found exceedingly thought provoking, but I'm guessing you already read it.
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/unmournable-bodies?intcid=mod-latest
Thanks, Martha. I hadn’t seen this one. Yes, it’s deeply thoughtful.
The New Yorker piece seems an odd collection of complaints about colonialism and control for some, but not all. The plain truth of the world and its history is that all groups, mine and yours, seek to control in a variety of ways, many of them militaristic. Positing a world without conflict is rather like positing a novel without dramatic conflict, something no writer nor pen has accomplished. I wager the world will long war between its groups, for it is not only horrendous to hate but often politically fashionable as well. Them. Us. You. Me. Conflict is the thing, and remains the thing. As someone observed, both business and politics are war extended into other domains. How can it be otherwise? I choose the Western Judeo-Christian traditions, for all the witch burnings and victims of the Inquisition number in the thousands, while the cultural wars between freedom and tyranny number in the millions. I choose the Western tradition for its literature, art, music and dramas. I choose this for its technological potentiality and generalized civility in an age too willing to be uncivil. The Solidarité moment in Paris today suggests something like that too. When thought provokes, it provokes. Here's one: there will be precious few witch burnings in our West anymore but many more crucifixions in the Islamic State in the coming months, as floggings in Saudi Arabia for blogging, dear Orange Crate blogger. Solidarity does not require us to flagellate for past sins, when present sins overwhelm.
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