Swans Commentary
http://www.swans.com/
October 19, 2009
FUNDRAISING TIME: Dear readers, we need to raise $2,500 between now and the
end of the year. Without this amount of money (in addition to what we have
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Note from the Editors: Faced with the staggering dullness of the daily
circus played out on the big screen TV, we find it appropriate to begin with
some *real* political culture, first with Louis Proyect's superb review of
Michael Yates's latest book that examines the tensions between his working-
class roots, blue-collar sensibilities, and academic career, and next with
Peter Byrne's spirited introduction to storyteller Aleksandar Hemon, a
Sarajevan native who immigrated to Chicago and became a renowned writer,
drawing often from the political conflicts that besieged his childhood.
Fittingly, Charles Marowitz reviews Michael Moore's latest documentary, a
blunt indictment of capitalism that according to Marowitz should goad the
soporific public into action, and in this vein, Michael Barker once again
shows how the conservation movement has been co-opted by powerful capitalists
such as Laurance Rockefeller.
While Femi Akomolafe, our voice from Africa, presents with his unique style a
nasty side of American culture that wants its president's head, Gilles
d'Aymery contrasts power, profits, and the ecosystem we are destroying to
preserve our NASCAR way of life. Turning the channel to college football,
Harvey Whitney demonstrates the length to which universities go to prostitute
themselves in misleading game-day advertisements. And a conversation between
Jeffery Klaehn and Garry Potter on the balance of individual and structural
power is apropos to activist Martin Murie's continued fight for single payer
health care and an end to endless war.
In the French Corner Graham Lea reviews, in English, the cultural meaning of
French *patrimoine* and its profound differences with American Manichaean and
Messianic nationalism. Writing in French, Simone Alié-Daram reviews the
psychological trauma of Lasthenie de Ferjol syndrome; Marie Rennard, the
editor-in-chief of le Coin Français, examines four centuries of Parisian
transportation history; Marie-Laetitia Gambié offers a tale combining
psychology and surprising medicine; and we publish a famous poem by Barbey
d'Aurevilly. We end with *Beginning,* a multilingual poem by Guido Monte,
along with your letters, fan and otherwise.
As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and foes) know
about Swans. It's your voice that makes ours grow.
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http://www.swans.com/library/art15/lproy56.html
Michael Yates's In and Out of the Working Class
- Book Review by Louis Proyect
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/pbyrne111.html
Talespinning Sarajevo-Chicago - Book Review by Peter Byrne
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/cmarow149.html
Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story
- Film Review by Charles Marowitz
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker33.html
Laurance Rockefeller And Capitalist Conservation - Michael Barker
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/femia21.html
Understanding Amerikkka - Femi Akomolafe
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/ga274.html
Contrast - Gilles d'Aymery
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/hewhit02.html
Weakness, Ineptitude, And Folly: Scientistic Sensationalism and Corporatized
Clichés of University Game Day Television Ads - Harvey E. Whitney, Jr.
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/klaehn05.html
Dimensions Of Power - Jeffery Klaehn and Garry Potter
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/murie81.html
Health Care Is A Human Right; Warfare Is A Human Wrong - Martin Murie
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/glea08.html
Le Patrimoine: French Symbolism, and the Triumph of Patriotism over
Nationalism - Graham Lea
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/salie06.html
Histoire d'une pathologie : Le syndrome de Lasthénie de Ferjol
- Simone Alié-Daram (FR)
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/marier39.html
