Michigan Books

this was Trotsky's bout with one-time Marxist Karl Kautsky, representative of Social-Democracy,revolution,the affinity for parliamentarian incremental change through bourgeois means; ballot-boxes, sitting sovereigns, capital comforted with safety nets, and the context here is Soviet Russia was waiting(isolated) for assistance from the German Revolution to happen which just eroded away with the murder of Rosa Luxemberg, curious that the word "terror" has magnetized itself around it new multi-dimensional meanings,the media has done wonderful work bundling the word "terror" with anything resembling opposition, I doubt if Israeli apparatchiks could speak on TV without utilizing the word a few dozen times, to define, fears fears-of-fears, Unknown-Knowns-Fears,Known-Knowns, the Rumsfeldian epistemology,still there is some marvelous reflections here from Trotsky on the Paris Commune,the balance of power in the shape of the globe circa 1920; the paradigms of power and the next thread in its evolution, Kautsky simply wanted to preserve, the Known-Knowns,without seeking to face those monstrous Un-Knowns, he didn't have a sensibility for such dangers, Trotsky did up to a point,but was blind of his own fate, yet here there is good analysis of the reality of aftermath Soviet situations prior to the Stalin Thermidor was to take root,a vastly involutarily trained endoctrinated marxologist himself I suspect Zizek is looking for cognitive "threads"in shapes resembling Badiou-ian " Truth" nodes, "Events" which can illumine a path perhaps simply to more discussions on youtube within the world un-evolving postpoltical context, with bio-politics, and the neo-liberal order at the helms stirring the ship with their own cognitive maps. Zizek is good at what he does, and leaves out the residue of rhetorical hatreds you still odiously find on the Left,fighting self-defeating battles merely to hear one's own voice, I like to recall the old RCA white putchee dog, staring mindlessly into vinyl playing speaker cone; "What's this?" like the Left does today for things they refuse to explain, Zizek has a Wotan-like spirit in these Verso writings assignments assembling his theoretical "Walkure" to assist him;

The writer of Medievel mysteries Umberto Eco, after seeking his counsel, called Etienne Gilson an "Illustrious medievalist... dear and unforgettable" (quoted from the intro of the book "The Name of the Rose"). Well, Etienne Gilson, in this book, "Heloise and Abelard" sets out to solve a real mystery set in medieval times; that of the intricacies of love, an unplanned pregenancy, and the resultant problems (Abelard ,was castrated (but two of his assailants were, under Christian justice at the time, given the same treatment, as well as having their eyes gouged out)). Gilson in the manner of detective and psychologist, as well as historian, attempts to deal out justice as well as look inside people's hearts, and discover their true intents (which he admits in the end, God only knows). The true story of Heloise's love for Abelard is one of the most endearing ever told and something that many medievalists tinker around with (including Heiko Oberman) Abelard was on superstar status, in his day, as a professor of theology and philosophy in age where students had much more leeway to choose their teachers and professors were paid by the number of students they had; Abelard was so popular he had to hold classes outside. Part history, part philosophy (or history of philosophy), and Gilson takes some liberties at psychologizing a bit. If you like Umberto Eco you might like this book as well, but read about them on the internet or in an encyclopedia before you start, if you know nothing about them, as Gilson gets right into the detectiving with little background details. There are all kinds of devious and/or devoted monks that Abelard must contend with, like the monks in Umberto Eco's stories.

Favorite quotes, from the book:

"Their appeal (Heloise and Abelard's) is to a system of ethics which separates the order of acts from the order of intensions(65)."

"They both played the comedy of sanctity(53)."

"What is a husband but a domesticated beast of burden"(31, Gilson quoting Theophratus).

Some interesting words on marriage, death, love, loyalty, wisdom, sorrow, and providence are also expounded on. Gilson (despite Heiko Oberman in his book "Dawn of the Reformation" placed Gilson, with the name of Arnold Toynbee, as an arbitrary period in history making sophist) clearly states, in the last chapter, that separating the medieval times with the Renaissance -- especially given what huge a word renaissance entails and the disparaging implications for the time previous -- points out the silliness of such a word as Abelard and, especially, Heloise have many "Renaissance" charatoristics despite belonging to the Medieval age.

Some of the writing is superfluous, as Gilson repeats himself longwindedly. Also Gilson seems to be inconsistent in the final pronouncement upon whether Abelard submitted his soul's salvation to Heloise's prayers or the joy of sacrifice to God.

In the recent hardcover edition which I have, the dates of printing of Thorstein Veblen's book IMPERIAL GERMANY AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION are listed as 1915, 1939, and 1964. In the first two years listed, America was safely sitting on the sidelines, observing the kind of warlike behavior attributed to the dynastic state in this book in Europe, much as Elizabethan England enjoyed several centuries of isolation from the wars which were devastating Europe in the years in which its economic activities became industrial, though socially, as Veblen observed, "Conventions that are in some degree effete continue to cumber the ground." (p. 30). By 1964, America was playing such a large role in the world that Germany might have been the kind of problem that America, from a unique position of political and military superiority, ought to have been able to resolve, and possibly did by acting as if the major problems in the world were somewhere else.

Chapter I, Introductory -- Races and Peoples, compares the mixture of races which populated England and Germany to be quite similar, if not exactly the same. A note on page 23, in Chapter 2, The Old Order, compares such mixing with what occurred in Japan, "and possibly also the Aegean peoples of antiquity." "By a curious coincidence, the period of Japanese prehistory and history seems to cover loosely the same general interval of time as that of the Baltic peoples; and as with the latter, so in the case of the Japanese, the cultural life-history of the people is a history of facile and ubiquitous borrowing done in the most workmanlike manner and executed with the most serviceable effect."

In the chapter on The Dynastic State, Veblen notes that printing was a handicraft which was well practiced in Germany, and included "the circulation of obnoxious literature that purveys excessively modern ideas" (note on p. 76), but that it appeared to be best "to engender that habit of reading as to make the assimilation of the new industrial order an easy matter, resulting in a marked advance in efficiency and physical comfort, and then to temper coercion with a well-conceived cajolery." (note, p. 76).

One of the pleasures of reading Veblen is encountering philosophical ideas in an utterly different context, as on page 109:

. . . While the corresponding English movement, in so far as touches the point here in question, has tended strongly to an atheistic and unmoral scheme of opaque and impersonal matter of fact. This work of the human spirit as it has come into play under the German habituation is spoken of as "nobler," "profounder,"--a point not to be disputed, since such discrimination is invidious and is an affair of taste and perspective.

The final paragraph of the chapter on The Case of England is devoted to the "direct waste of time and substance involved in this ubiquitous addiction to sports." (p. 148). I enjoy Veblen's offhandedly remarkable description of how "persons with a predilection for artistic and intellectual dissipations may be moved to deprecate addiction to dissipations of this crude and brutalizing nature," (p. 148) but this book deserves far more serious readers than I am.

Political Heretics echoes a style found in the writing of Will Durant. Though a historical review of the political origins and offshoots of the World through the 1950's, it is by no means just another dull history book. Nomad writes as if he knew Bakunin, Marx, and the countless other characters found in his book personally. Nomad's commanding knowledge and personable writing offer the reader a chance to truly understand the subject, and subjects, found within the pages of Political Heretics.

I've never read a better "non-technical" book on the social, and often personal, development of a/political movements. It's too bad that much of Nomad's knowledge has disappeared from contemporary texts.

At the present time, Amazon.com is not listing that it's not just Edwards, but specifically, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), the same one that wrote "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". Thus, he is strongly classically evangelical, believing in the doctrines of original sin, love for God... and subsequent Christian teachings such as love for enemy, love for neighbor.

The summary of the book for those versed in virtue ethics is that Jonathan Edwards comes out as an agape-virtue ethicist. He thinks of the highest virtue of love ("The General nature of true virtue is love", p.85), which he does not name as agape, but that he does describe as unconditional love towards God, and then proceeding from this virtue, the true virtue of love of neighbor.

It's a rather difficult read, and unlike a lot of sermons which have a flow in argument or repeat their points over and over, and wrap up with a conclusion, Edwards more makes multiple stabs at various points.

Virtue, to Edwards, is the beauty of the quality and exercises of the heart, or those actions which proceed from them (p.2), and true virtue most essentially consists in benevolence to being in general (p.3). Thus, virtue most essentially consists in love (that is to say, that true virtue should inspire acts of love, but acts of love may not be representative of true nature), and true beauty is also the individual's harmony to the universe. There is also a distinction between love of complacence (almost similar to 'eros'), which presupposes beauty, and love of benevolence (specifically looking at God's love, which is not limited to things we consider beautiful). Thus, God's love is uncondition, which is linked to His character, exemplifying true virtue. Also, true virtue is not related to love of gratitude or reciprocity.

Agape love is also explained here, as the 'highest good of the object of love,' 'the highest good of all over the good of one,' and 'opposition of evil'. A number of these are further expounded in chapter 1.

"True virtue must chiefly consist in love to God," Jonathan Edwards declares (p.14). And the secondary ground of love is moral excellency. Edwards also links that the love of God supremely is causal (and linked) with loving others, loving one's neighbor. But true goodness is tied into the purpose of glorifying God (p.25). And then morality must be God-focused and then subordinately benevolent (p. 26)

Chapter 3, Edwards talks about primary beauties, such as benevolence, and virtues (or beauties) of justice, wisdom, and secondary beauties such as regularity, order, symmetry, proportion, harmony, etc., as external beauty reflects true spiritual beauty.

It should be noted that Edwards has a few anachronistic terms, such as "self-love" -- which is not narcissism, but it is "love for our own happiness" (p.44) or "love to himself with respect to his private interest" (p.45). Self-love causes us to love those who either help us or promote our interests, and Edwards argues that this could develop a moral sense (of good/bad) (p. 51).

One of Edward's strongest assumptions is that of original sin, that man is not capable of true virtue (i.e., loving God, and thus others) because of original sin, and that anger is not a good illustrator of virtue due to this original sin (depravity of man). He also describes this "true negative moral goodness" (p.91) in all men which also mistake things for true virtue, as well as desire wickedness or do wickedness, or have moral insensibility, or stupidity of conscience. He goes on to say that "all sin has its source from selfishness, or self-love not subordinate to a regard to being in general" (p.92) -- primarily resulting in resentment from God.

Yet, genuine virtues restrain the advance of sin (namely pride and sensuality, p.96).

An excellent book from a German Socialist and contemporary of Lenin and Trotsky. And in this she reflects some criticism against Lenin in comparison to Marxism and the question of censorship, the non-democratic take over of the Putsch and, the ideas of centralism verses opportunism and other activities.

"Lenin has dispersed by force of arms a democratically elected Constituent Assembly, proclaiming instead a "Government of the Workers' and Soldiers Councils," in actual fact, a government of his party." p. 17 Rosa tried to oppose their breaking of democratic faith. She rejected the idea of dictatorship of the Proletariat endorsing a more democratic and extension of freedom to the widest possible number of people. No party had a monopoly of wisdom.

"The true dialectic of revolutions, stands the wisdom of parliamentary roles on its head; not through a majority to revolutionary tactics, but through revolutionary tactics to a majority - that is the way the road runs." p. 39 and speaks of the October revolution as the salvation of the the honor the international revolution.. (p 40).

In this she comments on the land policies of transference from the bourgeois to the peasants, and the nationalities question, "the famous right to self determination of nations is nothing but hollow, petty-bourgeois phraseology and humbug." p. 49 "It is not really people who engaged in these reactionary policies but on the bourgeois and petty bourgeois classes who perverted the national right of self determination into an instrument of their country revolutionary classes. p. 50 but in a class society, each class strives to determine itself in a different fashion with so many variations, which makes it impossible to decide by a popular vote. And to use this instead of the international spirit, this created counter revolutions with bourgeois take overs.

The peasants lack of understanding brought them to vote for Kerensky and Avksentiev, a new constituent assembly was formed and Rosa questions the mechanism of democratic institutions. which contains rigid and schematic conceptions contradicted by historical experience in that here should be more democratic activity after the elections as the votes themselves do not represent the highest voice of majority to sit quiet in between, as the "living fluid of the popular mood continuously flows around the representative bodies, penetrates them and guides them. " p. 60 This should not be renounced in favor of rigid schemes of party emblems and tickets in the very midst of revolution. "The remedy which Trotsky and Lenin have found,the elimination of democracy as such, is worse than the disease it is supposed to cure; for it stops up the very living source from which along can come the correction of all the innate shortcomings of social institutions. that source is the active, untrammeled, energetic political life of the broadest masses of the people." p. 62

And in suffrage, "the dictatorship of Lenin and Trotsky represent the right to vote is granted only to those who live by their own labor and is denied to every else. . . this basis of a general obligation to labor, is a quiet incomprehensible measure." p. 64 "In reality, broad and growing sections of the petty bourgeoisie and proletariat, for whom the economic mechanism provides no means of exercising the obligation to work, are rendered politically without any rights, " p. 65 "The most important democratic guarantees of a healthy public life and of the political activity of the laboring masses; freedom of the press, the rights of association and assembly have been outlawed for all opponents of the Soviet regime. These attacks on democratic rights, the arguments of Trotsky cited above, on the cumbersome nature of democratic electoral bodies, are far from satisfactory. It is a well known and indisputable fact that without a free and untrammeled press, without the unlimited right of association and assemblage, the rule of the broad mass of the people is entirely unthinkable." p. 67

"Freedom only for the supporters of the government, only for the members of one party - however numerous they may be - is no freedom at all. Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. Not because of any fanatical concept of "justice" but because all that is instructive, wholesome and purifying in political freedom depends on this essential characteristic, and its effectiveness vanishes when "freedom" becomes a special privilege." p. 69

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Arcadia Publishing's Black America Series is worth millions. Each title in the series (currently 82 and growing) focuses on a region or theme, and is written by a local history buff with an obvious passion for their subject. Each is packed with 200 photographs depicting scenes from family, social, business, cultural, religious and political life, with narrative to place them in context. Many of the photos are from private collections and the archives of black newspapers.

The power of making visible what was formerly invisible cannot be overestimated. I have personally reviewed three titles and recommend them all: ANOTHER ANN ARBOR by Carol Gibson and Lola M. Jones, CINCINNATI by Gina Ruffin Moore, and KANSAS CITY by Delia C. Gillis.

The most important American poet of the second half of the Twentieth Century--Stafford is my top candidate, anyway. You may have somebody else in mind.

Stafford is so many things. For one, a poet of great spontaneity--of accepting what comes, of luck, and of writing it down:

"If you write . . . the activity of writing will make things occur to you in your mind. You write the documentary that you think, rather than the documentary that you live. When you write, it doesn't make so very much difference what you have done or intend to do, but it makes quite a bit of difference what occurs to you at the moment you're writing. . . . it's just as if you have a readiness to respond to what occurs to you at the moment."

Stafford is so humble that we may have yet to grasp how vast he is--how expansive his vision.

For Bill Stafford, writing is not about being a great writer, or getting published in the best publications--it's about being a good person--a whole way of life, of which the written poem on the page is an evidence, a record, a door that opens to us, his readers.

"In everyone's life there's all this torrent of things happening and a writer . . . maybe one way to say it would be someone who pays attention at least at intervals, to that torrent. Or a writer is not someone who has to dream of things to write, but has to figure out what to pick up out of the current as it goes by."

Lucky us, whether we write, or read or just live, that Paul Merchant and Vince Wixon put together this collection of Stafford's statements on his writing and teaching.

We're lucky indeed to have three other books in the same vein: You Must Revise Your Life (Poets on Poetry),Writing the Australian Crawl (Poets on Poetry), and Crossing Unmarked Snow: Further Views on the Writer's Vocation (Poets on Poetry).

There's a line in American poetry running straight from ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson through Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams. Stafford, like Dickinson, is humble. He's proximite to nature, sees into the depth of the world, speaks directly to to his reader like a friend and with greatest facility in everyday language--all of which place him right in that line.

Who's next?

This book is well written, and easily read and understood by the average reader. It explores not only the history of Praxiteles most famous creation, but also deals with the female nude in the Ancient Hellenic world. The book helps explain the attitudes of people towards female nudity, and make sense of the appearance of the various female nudes of antiquity. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Of the many cities embellished architecturally during the period between the Two World Wars of the twentieth century, Detroit surely had an athletic spurt of growth, with many examples of the architecture now known as Art Deco decorating its downtown landscape. Now, the Arcadia series has put together a volume of views of these many fine buildings into one book, and at a reasonable price. In fact, this is the only volume specifically concerning Detroit Deco that I'm aware of. As such, it's a valuable additon to the collection of anyone interested in American architecture, specifically the Deco period, appreciation of which has risen considerably, even during the past couple of decades.

Here are many views of Detroit buildings, some of which no longer exist, making the Arcadia contribution even more valuable, for showing us a world of urban life no longer visible. Deco came and went between two violent world upheavals, then was washed under the sea of Modernism in post-war perceptions, when decoration of any kind was abandoned altogether.

Journey back, then, to a world when the urban landscape was considerably more decorative, and sophistication was a trait to be prized.