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The implausibility of the narrative. by: Shaharazade Thu Dec 17, 2009 at 14:43:59 PST ( - promoted by buhdydharma ) When politics gets to a point where there is no reality and we the people are only offered a story written by and for the villain with one face, politics becomes poetic faith. Our choice is between two sides of the same face. We emotionally invest in the choice believing that the pols we're offered are going to win the day for we the people. We expect the reality of oppressive governance to end, everything will be groovy, and hopey changiness will once again rule the land of the free and the home of the brave. Yes we can!           There's More... :: (33 Comments, 333 words in story)

Wanted: "Reality"-based criticism of President Obama by: MinistryOfTruth Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 10:43:12 PST ( - promoted by buhdydharma ) Crossposted at Daily Kos     Of all the screwed up things the Republican party and their Corporate Media enablers have done maybe the worst is the souring of the debate on whether President Obama is doing the right thing or not. When the "faithful" opposition in American politics is more concerned with ACORN and socialism than it is with Corproate malfeasance or the corrupt status quo, it just isn't worth debating with, but that debate is necessary and our system does worse without it.     Similarly, the left has been conditioned by the raving right to interpret ALL criticism of President Obama as an attack on him. Many on the left see activists who criticize Obama as if they were joining in on the hyperbole, and they fear that Obama, and Democratic majorities, might fall if pressure from the left and the right becomes overheated. These people are often the loudest defenders of Obama, but are they really helping his cause?      I firmly believe that we MUST, as activists and voters, be able to hold President Obama and the Democratic party accountable, otherwise they will walk all over us. In order to do this, we MUST be able to constructivly criticize our leaders, and since the right wing of American politics long ago left the reality based world, it is the left which must provide this criticism. The problem is, will others on the left allow it to happen?     More below the fold. There's More... :: (27 Comments, 1143 words in story)

WWYMNHHO: Adolfo Bioys Casares, The Invention of Morel by: davidseth Tue Sep 09, 2008 at 20:30:43 PDT cross posted from The Dream Antilles Wonderful Writers You Might Not Have Heard Of (WWYMNHHO) is an occasional, erratic, idiosyncratic series.  It's like an island that floods at high tide and migrates in the turquoise sea.  Sometimes it appears.  But I digress. Adolfo Bioys Casares (1914-1999) Adlofo Bioys Casares' 1940 novel The Invention of Morel is a short gem.  Jorge Luis Borges, Bioys' mentor, wrote in the prologue, "To classify it (the novel) as perfect is neither an imprecision nor a hyperbole." And Mexican Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz wrote, "The Invention of Morel may be described, without exaggeration, as a perfect novel."  Given this kind of praise, it seemed imperative to read it. I have no intention of spoiling this book by revealing the plot.  I will tell you this much: Morel is a person and not a mushroom, and the invention is his, it is not that he is invented.  This is the kind of thing that happens when better translators than I render La Invencion de Morel as something other than Morel's Invention. The narrator has escaped from a crime to an island with peculiar tides.  He hides.  Sometimes there are two suns; sometimes, two moons.  Events appear to repeat on the island; perhaps there is some fatal disease there.  At some point, Faustine appears and without ever talking with her, watching her carefully from a distance, he falls in love with her.  It is a love of the idea of a person, a love for an image of a person, a love of a phantom.  It's not quite real, but it's very deeply felt.  And Bioys manages to convey this mystification, if it's fair to call it that, beautifully. There is more, much more to this.  But it's just not fair to give it all away.  If you're going to read the book, try to avoid the Wiki on the book and the one on Bioys (though I've linked to them). The book is only 103 pages long.  You could gobble it up in an afternoon or evening, or you could read it in small bits over a week, as I did.  There is enough going on to ponder that a slow reading can be especially enjoyable. Adolfo Bioy Casares was born in Buenos Aires, the grandson of a wealthy landowner and dairy processor. His parents were keen alphabet enthusiasts, which explains their choice of his initials "ABC". He wrote his first story ("Iris y Margarita") at the age of 11. He was a friend and frequent collaborator of Jorge Luis Borges and wrote many stories with him under the pseudonym of H. Bustos Domecq. He won the Gran Premio de Honor of SADE (the Argentine Society of Writers, 1975), the French Légion d'honneur (1981), the title of Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires (1986), and the Premio Miguel de Cervantes. Enjoy. Discuss :: (3 Comments)