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ping pong ball even if he was standing one foot away i mean i can only imagine his aim has gotten worse because as you know he is very old and he s also one of the best people i ve ever met i think i can speak for all of us excluding a few dozen university deans and administrators when i say that my life is better because of him david i know you can t abide this sentimental stuff but you re just going to have to deal with it tonight thank you for everything i promise i won t press changes for the flying books and not just because the statute of limitations has expired you are a great man and i love you posted by d g myers at 10 12 am comments 1 monday july 14 2014 the 10 best novels of the 1940s new york post critic kyle smith s series over at pj media on the best films of the decades has been entertaining to follow especially when you disagree with the choices smith s latest an inventory of the best films of the forties from double indemnity 10 to citizen kane 1 got me to thinking what are the best novels of the forties a decade that lies just outside my critical expertise what follows is a preliminary listing not a ranked order but a chronological one richard wright native son 1940 not only the classic fictional treatment of race relations in america but a novel that is more compelling for its very contradictions the forties were a great decade for discursive fiction novels that discuss ideas which are embodied in men s obligations and commitments and wright s was one of the decade s great examples christina stead the man who loved children 1940 more recently praised by the novelists jane smiley and jonathan franzen stead s novel owes its fame to the 1965 reprint edition with an introduction by randall jarrell who called it one of those books that their own age neither reads nor praises but that the next age thinks is a masterpiece it remained neglected in stead s native australia until 2010 when it was finally reprinted with an introduction by the more fashionable franzen instead of the more distinguished jarrell arthur koestler darkness at noon 1941 the classic fictional treatment of moscow show trials and one of the great works of anti communism a member of the german communist party for seven years koestler wrote the novel in paris while his lover daphne hardy translated it into english she smuggled her translation out of paris just ahead of the nazis and published it in england in 1941 it was not released in germany until 1948 janet lewis the wife of martin guerre 1941 if i were going to rank these books in order of greatness lewis s novel only slightly longer than a novella would be my first choice i have written about it elsewhere the wife of martin guerre is the perfect historical novel lewis understands bertrande de rols her heroine wholly in the customs and conventions of 16th century provincial france unlike later retellers of martin guerre s story she does not permit modern values to stain her closely woven fabric evelyn waugh brideshead revisted 1945 in my recent books culture essay on the young catholic novelists william giraldi and christopher beha i said that the greatest religious novels are written out of a religious discernment much the same way that surrealistic poetry is written out of a particular vision of reality it soaks the work from top to bottom brideshead revisted is the model for this approach the account of charles ryder s conversion to catholicism is so subtle that many readers fail to notice that it is happening ivo andrić the bridge on the drina serbo croatian 1945 english 1959 anyone still interested in the former yugoslavia must read two books rebecca west s magisterial two volume travel book black lamb and grey falcon 1941 and the masterpiece of serbian literature published four years later compared to one hundred years of solitude for its multi generational sweep andrić s novel is a hundred pages shorter scrupulously avoids the magic in magical realism and might be more accurately described as the painted bird with a conscience robert penn warren all the king s men 1946 the forties were a decade for political fiction but none of the decade s political novels is like any of the others one of america s greatest poets warren wrote a lyrical account of an american populist demagogue modeled upon huey long and played by broderick crawford in robert rossen s 1949 film version the novel is narrated by an onlooker whose own corruption is restrained by his prose style which is warren s promise of something better in the american polis hans fallada every man dies alone german 1947 english 2009 one of the decade s best novels had to wait sixty years for an english translation in the new york times liesl schillinger called its long deferred publication in english the signal literary event of 2009 a harrowing account of two german anti nazi resistance fighters based on the actual experiences of otto and elise hampel pictured above fallada s long 500 page novel is as exciting as anything by eric ambler or alan furst with the added dimension of a powerful vision of human freedom albert camus the plague french 1947 english 1948 while the stranger seems a product of its time and confined to it the plague remains as fresh as any of amazon s recommendations for this month marina warner has testified to how much more she saw in the novel when she read it again years later than when she first read it as a young sixties woman basking in existential disaffection if you think you already know this novel reread it and think again what never molds is the purity of camus s style george orwell nineteen eighty four 1949 perhaps the most obvious book to include on this list with the rise of a new style of totalitarianism in our time to rival nazism and communism nineteen eighty four remains timely even thirty years after the dystopic future in which it was set readers who are more animalistically political than i will never tire of emmanuel goldstein s theory and practice of oligarchical collectivism but i i will need free my mind of winston smith s greatest horror which finally breaks him down into helpless love for big brother honorable mention william faulkner the hamlet 1940 vladimir nabokov the real life of sebastian knight 1941 joyce cary the horse s mouth 1944 saul bellow dangling man 1944 thomas mann doctor faustus german 1947 english 1948 malcolm lowry under the volcano 1947 james gould cozzens guard of honor 1948 graham greene the heart of the matter 1948 reader recommendations eric ambler journey into fear 1940 carson mccullers the heart is a lonely hunter 1940 rex warner the aerodrome 1941 wright morris my uncle dudley 1942 hermann hesse the glass bead game german 1943 english 1949 thomas mann joseph and his brothers german 1943 english 1948 jean stafford boston adventure 1944 l p hartley eustace and hilda 1944 1947 henry green loving 1945 william maxwell the folded leaf 1945 r k narayan the english teacher 1945 eudora welty delta wedding 1946 mervyn peake titus groan 1946 j f powers prince of darkness stories 1947 yasunari kawabata snow country japanese 1948 english 1956 nelson algren the man with the golden arm 1949 posted by d g myers at 2 40 pm comments 13 sunday july 06 2014 an open condemnation of the murder of mohammed abu khdeir cross posted from elder of ziyon we unequivocally condemn the horrific murder of mohammed abu khdeir it was unjustifiable under any circumstances the killing was reprehensible and we hope that the criminals who did this sickening act are found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law israel is a country run by the rule of law there are reports that jews have been arrested for this crime if a trial finds that jews are indeed guilty of this unconscionable killing our condemnation is redoubled the idea that jews could do such an act fills us with shame and horror the people who murdered mohammed do not represent us in any way it is not enough to dissociate ourselves from the dreadful act we must also ensure that crimes like this are never repeated just as the appalling murders of naftali fraenkel eyal yifrach and gilad shaar do not in any way justify the hideous murder of mohammed abu khdeir neither does khdeir s murder justify the violence terrorism destruction and incitement we have seen over the past few days against israelis and jews we hope and pray that everyone arab and jew lives in peace and security in the region signed elder of ziyon daphne anson cifwatch adam levick internet haganah a aaron weisburd liberty s spirit elise ronan mike cohen zach novetsky beer sheva edgar davidson ray cook 5 minutes for israel david guy gabrielquotes this ongoing war frimet and arnold roth israelkompetenzkollektion shelly dr sharon chard yaron always write again natalie wood avi eisenberg ms wallack british israel coalition harvey israel matzav carl in jerusalem joe settler philosémitisme yid with lid jeff dunetz a commonplace blog d g myers mystical paths reb akiva erika dreifus meir solomon is the bbc biased sue and craig note go to elder of ziyon to sign the open letter posted by d g myers at 10 54 am comments 1 wednesday june 18 2014 cancer the last obscenity my third good letters post for the image journal is up this morning it is a reflection on living with terminal cancer as i have for the past six and a half years the theme of the post is also the theme of my book in progress life on planet cancer my oncologist tells me that most patients collapse upon being being diagnosed sinking into resignation and despair but while i have discovered small goodness in cancer i have learned to live with it have learned that you can still have a life under its shadow cancer redefines you forever to live in denial to pretend that you do not have the disease is self denial you reject what you have become in favor of some fantasy image of yourself if you were to do this with any of your other limitations your height your intelligence your capacity for self exertion you would recognize it for the neurotic lie that it is about cancer though our culture is forgiving you are permitted the escape from responsibility you would not otherwise be permitted and why because our culture no more wants to acknowledge the reality of cancer than those with the illness cancer is perhaps the last obscenity anything please but the reality of cancer the culture celebrates survivors who have triumphed over it praises the dead for having fought it but those who are living with the illness are invisible hidden away the culture will stoop to speaking the name of cancer that is only when it is past not when it is a present reality for anyone when the baseball hall of famer tony gwynn died on monday from salivary gland cancer he was celebrated for his achievements on the field and off rightly so but his five year experience of living with cancer was reduced to a battle and nothing more how the disease affected his thinking his coaching at san diego state university his self image his personal relationships his faith none of this was mentioned let alone explored he became a hero only in death because his life while diseased is no one s business just as a person s sex life used to be posted by d g myers at 7 32 am comments 7 monday may 05 2014 more on transcendence my first post for the image journal s good letters blog which i have joined as a regular contributor is up this morning it is an attack on the vulgar understanding of religion as the experience of transcendence i prefer what william james dismisses as religion s dull habit the occasion of my good letters post was a review by alan lightman the novelist who doubles as a physicist in which he advances transcendence as the religious emotion transcendence is religion s high but like a drug induced ecstasy it grows blunt and less keen over time larger and more frequent doses of the original stimulus are necessary to revive the experience which will never be as good as the first time or to say the same thing in a different metaphor the acute fever of religion which james defends against its dull habit is a condition in which no one can live for very long without suffering hallucinations there is a more adequate account of transcendence the source is jean améry the great holocaust essayist he also wrote unforgettably about aging and suicide transcendence he wrote in at the mind s limits first published in 1976 is the basic quality of the human mind améry means something quite ordinary by this the mind reveals itself in transcending the brute and unpleasant facts of physical reality the mind is its own place as milton s satan famously says and in it self can make a heav n of hell a hell of heav n terminal illness can become the enjoyment of the small pleasures that give life its subtle tam performing the remunerative but difficult work upon which others depend can become the source of bitterness and complaint in the death camps the german nazis perfected a system for destroying the mind s basic quality of transcendence améry recalled a winter s night upon which the prisoners were being marched back from the i g farben factory the waving of a flag in front of a high finished building caught his attention and immediately it reminded him of a favorite poem by friedrich hölderlin he quoted it aloud nothing happened he quoted it again louder the poem no longer transcended reality there it was and all that remained was objective statement such and such and the kapo roars left and the soup was watery and the flags are clanking in the wind the reality of the camp subsumed the poem fed mind but the outcome was not inevitable prisoners who were committed to a reality beyond the camp militant marxists sectarian jehovah s witnesses practicing catholics and of course orthodox jews were more likely to survive or at least died with more dignity than their irreligious and unpolitical intellectual comrades who often were infinitely better educated and more practiced in exact thinking believing in another reality god s love the brit olam with the jewish people the final victory of communism they were able to detach themselves from conditions in auschwitz that defy the imagination the grip of the horror reality améry concludes was weaker where from the start reality had been placed in the framework of an unalterable idea the function of transcendence in the religious life is to lay the foundation of an unalterable idea the framework though the daily commitment to the idea becomes what lightman calls the most persuasive evidence of god transcendence is a glimpse of the reality created and sustained by dull habit no one in the literary culture understands this better than christopher beha without giving too much away i plan to review it at length elsewhere arts and entertainments beha s second novel turns on an experience of transcendence just like what happened to sophie wilder his brilliant first novel for sophie however the experience of transcendence mandated a r...
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