Culture Watch
Many literary magazines on the Web have restricted access to their content now if, indeed, they ever provided it without charges. However, there are many sources, usually of the university variety that soldier on (are we mixing our metaphors?) such as The Online Books Page. The University of Pennsylvania library service is marking 10 years of listing free books including a section we refer to quite often, A Celebration of Women Writers. And in the interest of free speech, don't over the Banned Books Online section.
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Ron Sullivan, who has written for these pages occasionally, has an essay in Faultline, that takes the late Scott and Helen Nearing to task for, well, is it a lack of humor and taking oneself too seriously? At any rate, Ron continues her ruminations,
"...The same people who speak so sensitively of caring for the soil, of being self-sufficient and not depending on fossil fuels, of allowing forests to mature, mention approvingly a Soviet scheme in which 'Eurasian rivers, among the largest on the planet, which have flowed north for millennia are being turned around, made to run south into the Central Asian deserts.' What is this, ecological Stalinism? How is this different from the recent cockamamie plans to drain Canada's water into the southwestern US? Is the disastrousness of this stuff apparent only in hindsight?"
"I doubt it. The first thing to go in a case of humor deficiency is the sense of proportion. Maybe there is such a thing as tending one's own garden too long. Maybe those who undertake to live a worthwhile life should hire someone to sneak up on them once a week and tickle them."
"But there, see, I'm doing it myself: trying to make frivolousness serve a higher purpose. Like any other endangered species, silliness is its own excuse for being. Like some endangered species, it just happens to be good for what ails you."
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The prolific and prize-winning Canadian author, Margaret Atwood has a new entry, Oryx and Crake, which has had some mixed reviews. There's a website that provides a lengthy excerpt, as well as an essay by and interview with the author.
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Although, as advertised, an exhibit of Jean Fouquet's paintings were on display at the Richelieu branch of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, locating more than a few of his works displayed for the Web public was impossible at their site. So we turned again to a reliable source, the Artcyclopedia, and was not disappointed. Their link to the Getty's collection of Fouquet is an excellent resource for his work in panel painting, illuminated manuscripts, and portraiture.
