Minnesota Books

I was apprehensive when, early on, Cedric Johnson footnotes Hardt and Negri and other 'autonomist Marxists' as useful theoretical guides (if this is the alternative to black nationalism, give me Baraka). And my apprehension deepened when Johnson scolded Harold Cruse for not embracing certain approaches to culture that have become fashionable in academia thirty years after the publication of The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual. But then I was surprised. Johnson sets aside his theoretical predispositions (or at least buries them in the text) and offers a sympathetic, but highly critical history of the way in which Black power rhetoric ultimately paved the way for conventional ethnic-brokerage politics. The problem--not so surprising in basic theoretical outline, but Johnson closely explicates how it works in practice--is that the unity claimed around Black identity masks divergent ideologies and class interests. It impairs a detailed understanding of the contradictions of the American political economy, and also complicates producing coalitions that would cross identity lines.

For those who care (and I know we're not huge in numbers, but we matter!), the book marks a step forward in the historiography of the American left. In recent years, there has been a backlash against works written primarily by white liberals that glorify the early days of SDS or SNCC, and then trash the later radical turn. Newer works, like Max Elbaum's Revolution in the Air, insist on the validity and nobility of the radical turn. Johnson moves the debate forward by sympathetically describing many of the limitations of the forms of radicalism adopted, particularly Black nationalism and the Marxist Leninism of the mid seventies (which addressed emergent contradictions in the Black Power movement by retreating to doctrinaire ideology).
One complaint--Johnson looks entirely within the movement to describe its weaknesses. But it was also a problem that it was making history under conditions not of its choosing. For example, the American union movement basically adopted a reactionary attitude towards social movements until, at the earliest, the mid-nineties (and up to the present, it has not yet opened itself up and fully dealt with racism in its leadership practices). This did a lot to push the movement in some directions and not in others.
Presently, we are seeing some glimmerings of more complex formulations about organizing with both class and race in mind. Johnson praises (with justification, in my thinking) some of the writings of Bill Fletcher, Jr. Reading Johnson's book, and understanding fully some of the dead ends of the past, may help improve the prospect that these approaches can work better in the future.

I sailed with Marlin when he first got down to Lake Poncetran 1996 and oh my what an interesting man. What a beautiful boat. I saw the boat again in 2003 a little shabby but still beautiful. Read it

The Seamus Heany poem says it all: Once in a lifetime the longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme.

Linda Back McKay's wildly beautiful poems address not only the lyrical moments in life, but also the soul searing life events that leave one forever changed. Her fearless and honest appraisal of a deeply textured life, produces profound insights, beautifully crafted by this skilled wordsmith. Her prose expresses vivid emotions, along with gentle, loving observations to make this collection, "Ride the Full Tilt Boogie" a wonderful ride indeed.

Compiled and edited by Daniel Leonhard Purdy, college-level students of fashion design history will welcome The Rise Of Fashion: A Reader, a compendium of key writings on fashion trends from the Enlightenment to modern times, translating many works previously available only in other languages, providing important critiques of fashion among different classes, and survey both social and political issues in the framework of fashion art developments. An important compilation for any college-level fashion department, The Rise Of Fashion will also hold immense interest for professional fashion designers and non-specialist general readers with an interest in fashion history.

Clarence Jonk's classic book is the story of a poor but idealistic young man and his adventures of living on the Mississippi River on a home-made houseboat during the Great Depression. Originally published in 1964, it has been re-released in 2003.

There is something about living by a big river that makes one wonder what the river leads to. It turns out that the destination is not so much a place as a state of mind. The power and magic of the river are transformative and when your journey is over you are better for it. I think that the same can be said for Clarence Jonk's River Journey - if you read it you will be better for it.

River Stories is a timeless and universally appealing collection of articles. Although the writings are set in Northeastern Minnesota and reveal personal feelings of the author and his family, they can be easily sensed and understood by a person not familiar with this particular geographical location. Just as a person does not have to live in Hannibal, Missouri, to appreciate Mark Twain's writings, the reader residing outside of the Arrowhead of Minnesota can certainly enjoy this collection. These stories are comforting and pleasant to read. Unconsciously, the reader is drawn to the author and his family, as well as the land and the life along the river that they love. Reading the stories is visiting a friendly neighbor and his family in their home. The stories are well written and enjoyable to read, and the "down-home" folks in River Stories leave the reader with a comfortable smile on his face.

Written by a Carleton College prof not too long after the infamous raid, this book gives a clear picture of that fateful day, September 7, 1876. The title includes Hero because of Acting Cashier Joseph Lee Heywood's courage in not letting Frank & Jesse into the (unlocked) safe! Northfield and Carleton College would either be very different or would have become a ghost town and a failed college. Read the book and find out why Northfield celebrates the DEFEAT of Jesse James days every year the first weekend after Labor Day!

The full table of contents for this book is as follows:

INTRODUCTION
by Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., and Takayuki Tatsumi

PART I--PROSE SCIENCE FICTION

Chapter 1. Horror and Machines in Prewar Japan: The Mechanical Uncanny in Yumeno Kyûsaku's Dogura magura
by Miri Nakamura

Chapter 2. Has the Empire Sunk Yet?--The Pacific in Japanese Science Fiction
by Thomas Schnellbächer

Chapter 3. Alien Spaces and Alien Bodies in Japanese Women's Science Fiction
by Kotani Mari (Translated by Miri Nakamura)

Chapter 4. SF as Hamlet: Science Fiction and Philosophy
by Azuma Hiroki (Translated by Miri Nakamura)

Chapter 5. Tsutsui Yasutaka and the Multimedia Performance of Authorship
by William O. Gardner

PART II--SCIENCE FICTION ANIMATION

Chapter 6. When the Machines Stop: Fantasy, Reality and Terminal Identity in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain
by Susan J. Napier

Chapter 7. The Mecha's Blind Spot: Patlabor 2 and the Phenomenology of Anime
by Christopher Bolton

Chapter 8. Words of Alienation, Words of Flight: Loanwords in Science Fiction Anime
by Naoki Chiba and Hiroko Chiba

Chapter 9. Sex and the Single Cyborg: Japanese Popular Culture Experiments in Subjectivity
by Sharalyn Orbaugh

Chapter 10. Invasion of the Women Snatchers: The Problem of A-Life and the Uncanny in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
by Livia Monnet

Chapter 11. Otaku Sexuality
by Saitô Tamaki (with an introduction by Kotani Mari)

Afterword. A Very Soft Time Machine: From Translation to Transfiguration
by Takayuki Tatsumi

It's a wonderful book of romantic bed and breakfast inns and intimate places to stay and dine in Minnesota to rekindle your romance.