14940. (Thomas Jefferson) Original Draft of the Declaration of Independence [article]
14941. [4] (Thomas Jefferson, et. al.) The Declaration of Independence [article]
14942. (Orson Scott Card) Empire
14943. (Anthony Shadid) With Iran Ascendant, U. S. is Seen At Fault ― Arab Allies in Region
. . . . . Feeling Pressure [article]
14944. (Garry Wills) At Ease, Mr. President [article]
(William Tenn) The Seven Sexes:
. . . . 14945. (William Tenn) Author’s Note [preface]
. . . . 14946. (William Tenn) Child’s Play [story]
. . . . 14947. (William Tenn) The Malted Milk Monster [story]
. . . . 14948. [2](William Tenn) Errand Boy [story]
. . . . 14949. (William Tenn) The House Dutiful [story]
. . . . 14950. (William Tenn) Mistress Sary [story]
. . . . 14951. (William Tenn) Sanctuary [story]
. . . . 14952. (William Tenn) Venus and the Seven Sexes [story]
. . . . 14953. (William Tenn) Bernie the Faust [story]
14954. (William Irwin Thompson) Passages About Earth [story]
14955. (Tony Taylor) Seeing the Writing on the Wall Graffiti in History — from Pompeii to Belfast
14957. (Mervin Peake) Titus Alone
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Category Archives: BO - Reading 2007 - Page 4
READING – FEBRUARY 2007
14957. (Mervyn Peake) Titus Alone
I got tremendous pleasure finishing Mervin Peake’s enigmatic fantasy series. I was warned that the last volume would be a disappointment, but when I got around to it, I did not think it so. It’s true that it has a significantly different “feel” from the first two, and shifts focus to other matters. Peake was near death, and quite ill, when he wrote it, so it contains some lapses in style and internal inconsistencies. But it does not merit the scorn it faced on publication, or the dismissal it gets from fans of Gormenghast. Titus, who is more or less a place-marker in the imagistic maze of the first volumes, acquires much more of an internal voice Titus Alone. The issues and imagery of this volume curiously anticipate the cyberpunk and steampunk styles of a half century later.
14940. [2] (Thomas Jefferson) Original Draft of the Declaration of Independence [article] 14941. [7] (Thomas Jefferson, et. al.) The Declaration of Independence [article]
I have not yet seen Gary Wills’ renowned study of the Declaration. But I did read Carl Becker’s work on the same subject when I was a kid. I have made a small reputation by trying to show the global origins of the democratic idea, as opposed to the connect-the-dots Greece-Rome-Britain-America sequence that is still a major component of the currently confused understanding of democracy. However, that doesn’t mean that I consider documents like the Declaration to be unimportant. Far from it. It was so important, in fact, that minor variations in its phrasing would have made a profound difference in the subsequent history, not only of the United States, but of the world. Because the Declaration was in the pocket, so to speak, of every American, it could have repercussions, and utility, far beyond any philosophical essay. Frederick Douglas, whose character and intellect make most of the more famous thinkers of the 19th century seem puny by comparison, wrote movingly of the impact its wording had on him. When you are a plantation slave, as Douglas was, the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” are not just a snappy slogan. They are hope, enlightenment, destiny, righteous anger, humanity, solace, and conciliation compounded in a single sentence. That sentence is important to anyone who wishes to free themself from slavery, and is a precious gem in humanity’s strongbox, not just for Americans.
So it’s interesting to compare Jefferson’s first draft with the final article. The first version follows the conventions of mid-eighteenth-century prose more closely. It is said that Thomas Paine had some influence on the revision, and it does shift to blunter, more Quakerish phrasing that would seem unusual in a cultured Virginian like Jefferson. But I think it more likely that Jefferson realized he was thinking in a new way, and that it had to be said in a new way. The first version is a product of a writer to be read in a book. The final version is a product of a man tapping a moral dimension of the universe. The sad thing is that Jefferson himself could not live up to his own inspiration. The man who did more than anyone except John Woolman to lay down the moral argument against slavery himself kept slaves. It is true that the Virginia legislature, fearful of his example, had declared that if Jefferson attempted to free his slaves, they would be seized and sold to other, doubtless crueler masters, but Jefferson, being an undoubted genius, could surely have devised some stratagem to circumvent this. No, it was just another sad case of a brilliant intellect capable of imagining, but not of doing what reason demands.
READING – JANUARY 2007
(Eric Frank Russell) Somewhere, A Voice [collection]
. . . . 14900. [2] (Eric Frank Russell) Somewhere A Voice [story]
. . . . 14901. [2] (Eric Frank Russell) U‑Turn [story]
. . . . 14902. [2] (Eric Frank Russell) Seat of Oblivion [story]
. . . . 14903. [2] (Eric Frank Russell) Tieline [story]
. . . . 14904. [2] (Eric Frank Russell) Displaced Person [story]
. . . . 14905. [2] (Eric Frank Russell) Dear Devil [story]
. . . . 14906. [2] (Eric Frank Russell) I Am Nothing [story]
14907. (Donald W. Clarke) Prehistory of Great Bear Lake [article]
14908. (Roger Bacon) The Opus majus of Roger Bacon, edited with introd. and analytical table by
. . . . . John Henry Bridges
14909. (Roger Bacon) Part of the Opus tertium of Roger Bacon, including a fragment now printed for
. . . . . the first time
Read more »
14924. (Brian Sloan) Tale of Two Summers
I was deeply impressed by the courage and skill that went into this new novel for teenagers. First of all, it undertakes the technically difficult task of writing a novel in the style of a blog, with current teenage blog-language used convincingly. Second, it gets in the head of two teenagers, one straight and one gay, who have maintained a friendship from childhood, and are confronting their first sexual choices. Sloan, who is a film director, succeeds admirably in both these tasks. I have been told by too many people that the current atmosphere in publishing precludes an intelligent treatment of teenage sexuality. This book proves that those people are wrong. Yes, it’s true that the marching morons have commandeered and corrupted much of the media in North America. Yes, it’s true that an aging population in the United States and Canada has been getting steadily stupider and more conservative. But it is essential that writers resist these trends, and stand up for true moral values against the ignorance and immorality of Conservatism, especially when it comes to writing for the young. Sloan does so, and earns my respect for it.
14919. (Brian Clegg) The First Scientist, A Life of Roger Bacon
This rounds off a little project of mine to investigate Roger Bacon, the thirteenth century Franciscan friar who wrote about the possibilities of scientific inquiry. His work was suppressed in his lifetime, and he spent most of it imprisoned by his religious order, and forced to bribe his keepers to smuggle in writing paper. His large (for the time) collection of books and experimental apparatus disappeared in the turmoil of war. Since then, his reputation has suffered extremes of interpretation. Renaissance popular culture saw him as an occultist and magician. It was claimed, among other absurdities, that he possessed a talking head of brass. His unrelated namesake, Francis Bacon, expropriated many of his ideas and received the credit for them. Some nineteenth century historians praised him, struck by his prophetic assertions that inquiry into nature would make it possible to observe the stars and very small things with properly arranged lenses, that we would some day create flying machines and “cars” that move without the help of animals, that we would be able to record and replay sounds, and for his precise chemical formula for gunpowder. But twentieth century historians tended to downgrade him to a “pre-scientific” curiosity. Read more »
(Eric Frank Russell) Somewhere, A Voice [collection]
![07-01-04 READ (Eric Frank Russell) Somewhere, A Voice [collection]](http://www.philpaine.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/07-01-04-READ-Eric-Frank-Russell-Somewhere-A-Voice-collection.jpg)
Most of these stories, written between 1948 and 1955, have worn out with time. The title story, for instance, is a parable to teach racial tolerance that now just seems corny, though I’m sure it had an impact when it was written. But the second last story, “Dear Devil” still holds up well. I read it when I was a child, got intense pleasure from it, and never forgot its details. It takes place on an Earth long after a nuclear war, where a few humans struggle to survive. An alien poet, who is stranded on Earth, befriends a human boy, and helps him find hope and meaning in life. Russell rose above his usual pulp style to write this, and the emotional ending is superb. You can see this story as the principle inspiration for Edgar Pangborn’s later A Mirror For Observers (1954) and Davy (1964), which employ some of the same elements, and have the same mood and attitude. There is also some resemblence to George R. Stuart’s Earth Abides, published a year before. All these stories share the same concerns, and the same humanistic impulse to find some sort of balance between youth and age, freedom and responsibility, cynicism and hope. “Dear Devil” was often anthologized, so if you can’t find this old Ace collection of Russell’s work, you should be able to dig it up in some thematic or “best of” anthology. Make the effort. Read more »