Illinois Books

These poems, sited in Kalamazoo MI (and a few other midwestern towns) and in Liberia (Africa) are beautiful. Her voice and her eye, noticing small things, juxtaposing them with surprising things, are lilting and engaging. Perhaps it's because I just heard her read from this and an earlier collection last week; perhaps her spoken voice lingers in my ear. But even on the page, there is a lightness and fundamental optimism, or hope, in the way this woman sees her wide-ranging world. I most love the poems in which she calls up her far-flung friends and family, calling on London, Accra, Chicago, Jersey City... and the ones in which she notices the small things in her yard, in her memory of home. This is very much a trans-cultural sensibility and vision.

This is a great resource book written through actual experiences of the authors. Great pictures and references. The book shares information that is not readily available through tourist information. It makes you want to get out your bike and ride along with nature. One does not have to be biking to enjoy the Bed &Breakfast establishments visited in the book.

This book is for the fairly serious scholar of music interested in an in-depth examination of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas. It is not for beginners in the study of music history. A high degree of familiarity with music theory and with the works in question, as well as with Beethoven's piano sonatas and many other works, is assumed. In that context, however, the book is a treasure, with a great deal of truly original and captivating insights into these unique and emblematic works. This originality of a necessity creates rather sharp stylistic and theoretical differences among the perspectives of the various authors. Seek the uniform taxonomical approach elsewhere. Musical citations are abundant and beautifully laid out on the page, although occasionally their sheer size demands that they not be placed immediately opposite the relevant text. The notes and bibliographical references are very useful to students seeking further study of the composer and his world.

BENCHMARKS is a brilliant book of insightful, incisive, even FUNNY 30-year-old science fiction book reviews originally published in the pages of late, lamented GALAXY magazine. Budrys takes close looks at SF classics like Frank Herbert's DUNE, John Brunner's STAND ON ZANZIBAR, Ursula LeGuin's LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, Philip K. Dick's THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH, Larry Niven's RINGWORLD, Roger Zelazny's CREATURES OF LIGHT & DARKNESS, ISLE OF THE DEAD, & LORD OF LIGHT, Samuel R. Delany's EINSTEIN INTERSECTION & NOVA, Harlan Ellison's DANGEROUS VISIONS anthology, & 100's more, plus great overlooked classics -- & shows not only how & why these books succeed (or fail), but passes on priceless advice to would-be SF writers, & snapshots of how it felt 2 B an SF writer 30 years ago. A MUST 4 NE serious SF reader or writer! Budrys was the best book reviewer of his time in the SF magazines of the late 60's, late 70's & early 80s. 2 bad he isn't still reviewing, the modern SF scene could use the input....

This is an extremely important and readable book about two very important working-class writers. It is one of the finest efforts of its kind to begin to help us rediscover and recover working-class literature as well as to renew the importance of class in our national discussion.

Between Tedium And Terror" by Sy M. Kahn. Subtitled: "A Soldier's World War II Diary, 1943-1945". University Of Illinois Press, 1993.

The writing is excellent which is remarkable since it seems that the book is a verbatim copy of the diaries that Sy Kahn wrote, under stress, more than sixty years ago in the Pacific. The author has included some photo copies of his original, hand-written diaries, and the corresponding text appears to be an exact copy of what he had written during the war. As an engineer, I have written more than 35 technical papers for the IEEE, and I have never been able to go with the first draft. Most writers go through many drafts, and, even then, are not satisfied.

Sy Kahn barely mentions being born and raised in Manhattan (a small island in NYC), but goes directly to his subject matter, with his ship going under the Golden Gate Bridge, September 1943. The author evades a detailed description of basic training and gets directly to the heart of the matter: action in the Pacific. As he records in his introduction, writing and reading kept him sane over the next three years or so. As a result of his fidelity to his diary, we have this excellent book. He records that his outfit, the 244th Port Company, endured some three to four hundred air attacks, and being torpedoed and being shelled by shore guns. The frustration was that his outfit was not equipped to fire back and had to depend on others for their defense. "Thus we alternated between tedium and terror". (page xx).

There are quite a few introspective entries, as Mr. Kahn was a young man, growing up in a restrictive environment, which, while challenging him physically, did not challenge him mentally. He was always looking to learn, (Page 102: "I learned much from the many people I spoke with") and used reading as both a means of learning and as escape from the tedium of "hurry up and wait". Kahn laments the fact that he never knew what it was to be a civilian between the ages of 18 and 21, but, in his later years, ironically, he spends his time teaching college students in the same age bracket.

I liked this book, perhaps because I followed a path similar to Sy Kahn. Born and raised in Manhattan, a small island, I enlisted in the United States Navy after high school (in The Bronx) at the age of 17 years. I, too, could not see the big "E" on the eye chart. I spent much of my Navy time at Naval Air Station, Key West, which was hot enough to give me a nasty case of tropical boils. Unfortunately, I did not keep a diary. Sy Kahn has written a good book that fills in gaps in personal histories of individuals who fought in the Pacific in world War II.

This collection brings 17 of Mary Hunter Austin's short works together for the first time in book form, and the selection is wonderful. From the likes of "An Appreciation of H.G. Wells, Novelist," to "Regionalism in American Fiction," these essays typify her work. They also expand the understanding of literary and social conditions during her lifetime. Austin's writings place her as one of the finest American essayists of the early Twentieth century. Also, once again Reuben Ellis and Southern Illinois University Press have performed a great service with this collection by another great author.

this book makes me think of how horrible i am for being a white person. I want to be black

WORD IS BORN

Big Bill Thompson has been a political whipping boy ever since he failed to win re-election as Chicago mayor in the 1930s. Subsequent books on Thompson were written by supporters who wished to praise, detractors who wished to condemn or journalists who just wanted to tell a good story. But finally, after 70 years, an objective account has been written of Big Bill Thompson together with the intricate details of the prevailing political climate in Chicago before, during and after the Roaring Twenties.

Learn about the Big Bill Thomson who inherited his money from lucky parents who owned the one section of Chicago which did not burn in the Great Fire of 1871.

Learn about the Big Bill Thompson who was one of the most celebrated athletes in late 19th century Chicago.

Learn about the Big Bill Thompson who as a cowboy turned a profit on his ranch while Teddy Roosevelt was losing money on his.

Learn about a Mayor Thompson who championed an "America First" policy while exploiting class envy for his own political gain.

The reader is left with the impression that Big Bill Thompson invented the type of politics in use today. Rather than focus on Thompson himself, however, the book also explores the campaigns of his opposition, leaving the reader with a full understanding of what worked for Thompson and why it worked.

The scandal involving contributions from gangsters which effectively ended his career is given the space it deserves at the end of the book, but is not the focus of the book, as are most contemporary news stories. The reader is left with a well-rounded and objective account of one of the most successful mayors in Chicago history -- and how he got there.

And as the final coup de grace at the conclusion of the book, the reader will undoubtedly be shocked when they realize that Big Bill Thompson never committed half the indiscretions attributed to Big Bill Clinton.

All in all, it was an excellent and enlightening read. Thoroughly enjoyable.

I read Sophocles Antigone for graduate Humanities class. It is an essential reading to understand Greek Tragedy. It is also a foundation stone of literature in studying Western Civilization.

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus in 3-cycle play, faces capital punishment for burying her brother who rebelled against Thebes. Obeying instincts of loyalty of love and the divine law, she defies Creon, the King and her uncle. Creon says laws of states outweigh all other laws, and family loyalty, when he finally relents it's too late.

Over the centuries there has been a great deal made about the conflicts played out in the play, law of state vs. law of goods, personal vs. state duties. Loves knowledge vs. state knowledge. Greek understanding of tragedy- Aristotle lays down understanding of Greek tragedy. He based it on Sophocles. Tragedy- most important thing for tragedy is plot, it is all essential. Tragedy defined as- is imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude in language embellished with incidents arousing pity and fear ant to the audience it accomplishes catharsis of such emotions. Every tragedy must have six parts that determine its quality. 1. plot 2. character 3. diction 4. fault 5. spectacle and 6. melody.

According to Aristotle, tragedy is higher and more philosophical than history or poetry; it is one of the highest expressive forms because it dramatizes what may happen. History is a narrative that tells you what has happened tragedy shows what is possible. History deals with particulars, tragedy deals with the universal. Tragedy creates a cause and effect chain and shows how the world operates. It frames human experience in universal discourse, tragedy is central in this effort. Tragedy arouses pity and fear in audience because we can envision ourselves caught in this cause and effect chain. Plot most important feature, the arrangement of incidents, the way incidents, and action is structured. Tragedies outcome depends on the outcome of these cause and effect changes not on being character driven. Plot must be whole, beginning middle and end. Beginning must have a motivation that starts the cause and effect chain of events must be a center or climax that is caused by earlier incidents. There must be an end some kind of closure caused by earlier events in tragedy. This is all part of the complication of the tragedy all must be connected. You can't have a dues ex machnia in a superior tragedy.

In tragedy, the hero or heroine walks knowingly towards the fate that is written and can't be changed. Unity of action plot must be structurally self-contained, each action leading invariably to the next without outside intervention. The worst kinds of plots are episodic, like a Jerry Seinfeld sitcom, can't be something about nothing, must have unity of action. Magnitude, quantatively meaning length, and quality of action, it must be serious. Must be of universal significance, depth, and richness. Character- most important feature is the fatal flaw. Motivations of characters are important but character is there to support the plot. Character must be a prosperous renowned personage. Change of fortune from good to bad will really matter and bring fear and pity to the audience. In ideal tragedy, the hero will mistakenly bring about his own downfall. Because they make a mistake, because knowledge of our selves is always partial, we can't have complete knowledge of ourselves. Hall quotes Descartes in the article, "The limited error prone perspective of the individual. Subject is always imperfect and human and these limitations include our ability to know in any reliable way ourselves." The fact that we as subjects, as agents can never fully know ourselves means that we are always prone to error, error is the essence of the tragic hero, tragedy is the essential drama of human subjectivity.

What is Hegel's understanding of concept of tragedy? He revises Aristotelian principals and logic. Immensely influential German philosopher, he writes about; tragedy in the Aesthete 1820-29, he proposes, "the suffering of the tragic hero are merely the means of reconciling the opposing moral clients." According to Hegel's account of Greek tragedy, the conflict isn't between good and evil, but between competing goods, all is good. Between two entirely ethical worlds that clash and can't come together. Both characters have an ethical vision or belief that they have to follow it is there one-sidedness of their vision that clashes with the one-sidedness of the other character. Both sides of contradiction are justified. Conflict of irreconcilable justifiable ethical worlds, ethical visions. Just as his dialectic must lead to an ultimate synthesis, so to must tragedy lead to a synthesis. This is dramatized in the death of the tragic actor, which becomes the synthesis. Hegel says; "the characters are too good to live." They are too good to live in this world. What is interesting is that Hegel so wants to correct moral imbalances his emphasis is on moral balances.

Greek tragedy is great reading for people interested in aesthetics, history, psychology, and philosophy.