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Writing
A Childish Ignorance
Book Review
Farther Off from Heaven concerns William Humphrey’s own loss of paradise. Paradise is not necessarily an idyllic place — it only seems so, by the light that our own consciousness casts over it — and Humphrey’s was an ordinary town named Clarksville, in Texas.
November 1977Teilhard
Book Review
In this lucid if somewhat topical treatment of the life of Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), Mary and Ellen Lukas have revealed an old truth: human consciousness is not easily changed but must be challenged by advanced thinkers whose lives are filled with trial, test, and controversy.
October 1977Loose Change
Book Review
What perhaps saves the book, makes the bulk of it interesting and entertaining, if not profound, is Davidson’s remarkable honesty. She does not flinch from the most embarrassing and painful details, even in her own life.
October 1977Lancelot
Book Review
Walker Percy has imagined an ideal listener for his narrative, inserted him in the novel, and allowed him to appear only through the eyes of the narrator. The novel opens — “Come into my cell. Make yourself at home. Take the chair. I’ll sit on the cot.”
September 1977Shadow Dancing
Although the world frequently gives me “gifts” that I do not consciously want, the choice becomes mine as to what I do with these gifts. I am learning to appreciate the inevitable burdens and pain of being alive.
September 1977The Dream Merchants
The older special interest publications could be read by people outside of the group with some degree of comprehension and identification. Magazines like Easy Riders, High Times (dope smokers), or Soldier of Fortune (mercenaries) deny the validity or admit outright hostility toward the kind of world that exists beyond their pages or the daydreams of their readers.
September 1977Monstrosity And Beauty
Book Review
The October light in Vermont that gives the novel its title is variously seen. Lewis Hicks at one point sees it casting beauty over the landscape; James Page, in a moment of despair, believes it exposes all the world’s rottenness.
July 1977Kicking The Corpse, Or Is This Love?
I’m having a hard time writing this. I think I’ve figured out why. I want it to be a eulogy, but I can’t stop kicking the corpse. I want you to care that another American newspaper has expired. But I wonder if I care.
July 1977Shotgun Vision
Book Review
Mike Rigsby, whose poems we’ve published before, asked me to say something about his new book, Shotgun Vision.
June 1977Poet Of The Ordinary: Paul Goodman Remembered
Book Review
I have made this essay personal because I find I cannot be objective about Paul Goodman. I have never fully understood what it is about the man that has so compelled me, what held in my mind the memory of those few days I saw him, what kept me searching through his works until I found access to them.
June 1977
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