Quotable | Patriot (Election 2016 Edition)

A Patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.-- Edward Abbey, author, essayist, and environmental advocate (1927-1989)


I posted this Abbey quote at the height of the 2008 election season and on the eve of the 2010 mid-term elections. And it is still relevant today on Election Day 2016. I am not, however, advocating a form of "tea party" patriotism or some progressive agenda. I use the quote as a warning that the "government" is not a monolithic entity. It is comprised of all the following:

• Elected persons who are members of both major political parties
• Candidates who are trying to become elected for the first time
• Candidates who are trying to keep (or regain) political office
• Lobbyists who work for, and against, parties and candidates
• Think tanks who examine citizens' behavior and then attempt to mold it toward a certain purpose (without letting those same citizens know they are being subtly manipulated)
• Members of the media who try to tell us what the government is doing, and sometimes chastise elected officials and candidates, even as they try to court favors and money from those very same officials (or promises from up-and-coming candidates)
• Individual citizens who vote -- and voting is done directly at the polls as well as indirectly with every dollar a person spends or choice they make.

  So, what exactly is Abbey's patriot defending against? Well, in a word: "us."

Alan Moore: Magic and the Job of the Artist

Alan Moore on art (it's magic!) and artists (they're shamans!):

There is some confusion as to what magic actually is. I think this can be cleared up if you just look at the very earliest descriptions of magic. Magic in its earliest form is often referred to as “the art”.  I believe this is completely literal.  I believe that magic is art and that art, whether it be writing, music, sculpture, or any other form is literally magic.  Art is, like magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words, or images, to achieve changes in consciousness.  The very language about magic seems to be talking as much about writing or art as it is about supernatural events.  A grimmoir for example, the book of spells is simply a fancy way of saying grammar.  Indeed, to cast a spell, is simply to spell, to manipulate words, to change people's consciousness.   And I believe that this is why an artist or writer is the closest thing in the contemporary world that you are likely to see to a Shaman. 

"I believe that all culture must have arisen from cult.  Originally, all of the faucets of our culture, whether they be in the arts or sciences were the province of the Shaman.  The fact that in present times, this magical power has degenerated to the level of cheap entertainment and manipulation, is, I think a tragedy.  At the moment the people who are using Shamanism and magic to shape our culture are advertisers.   Rather than try to wake people up, their Shamanism is used as an opiate to tranquilize people, to make people more manipulable.  Their magic box of television, and by their magic words, their jingles can cause everyone in the country to be thinking the same words and have the same banal thoughts all at exactly the same moment.  

"In all of magic there is an incredibly large linguistic component.  The Bardic tradition of magic would place a bard as being much higher and more fearsome than a magician.  A magician might curse you.  That might make your hands lay funny or you might have a child born with a club foot.  If a Bard were to place not a curse upon you, but a satire, then that could destroy you.  If it was a clever satire, it might not just destroy you in the eyes of your associates; it would destroy you in the eyes of your family.  It would destroy you in your own eyes.  And if it was a finely worded and clever satire that might survive and be remembered for decades, even centuries.  Then years after you were dead people still might be reading it and laughing at you and your wretchedness and your absurdity.

"Writers and people who had command of words were respected and feared as people who manipulated magic.  In latter times I think that artists and writers have allowed themselves to be sold down the river.  They have accepted the prevailing belief that art and writing are merely forms of entertainment.  They’re not seen as transformative forces that can change a human being; that can change a society.  They are seen as simple entertainment; things with which we can fill 20 minutes, half an hour, while we’re waiting to die.  It’s not the job of the artist to give the audience what the audience wants.  If the audience knew what they needed, then they wouldn’t be the audience.  They would be the artists.  It is the job of artists to give the audience what they need."

For more from the mind of Moore, check out Alan Moore: Storyteller (2013, Rizzoli Universe Promotional Books, ISBN 0789327112) by Millidge Gary Spencer (Author) , Michael Moorcock (Foreword)

Quotable | Patriot (Mid-Term Election 2010 Edition)

A Patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
-- Edward Abbey, author, essayist, and environmental advocate (1927-1989)


I posted this quote at the height of the 2008 election season. I bring it back now on the eve of the 2010 mid-term elections because it is still relevant. I am not, however, advocating a form of "tea party" patriotism. I use this as a warning that the "government" is not a monolithic entity. It is comprised of

• elected persons who are members of both major political parties
• candidates who are trying to become elected for the first time
• candidates who are trying to keep (or regain) political office
• lobbyists who work for, and against, parties and candidates
• think tanks who examine citizens' behavior and then attempt to mold it toward a certain purpose (without letting those same citizens know they are being subtly manipulated)
• members of the media who try to tell us what the government is doing, and sometimes chastise elected officials and candidates, even as they try to court favors and money from those very same officials (or promises from up-and-coming candidates)
• individual citizens who vote -- and voting is done directly at the polls as well as indirectly with every dollar a person spends or choice they make.

  So, what exactly is Abbey's patriot defending against? Well, in a word: "us."

RIP Brad Graham; and thanks for coining "blogosphere"

I had no idea a theater publicist had coined the term, "blogosphere." Nor did I know the man behind this term was himself a blogger who didn't even like the word "blog." Read Jeff Jarvis' piece (linked below), or wait till this evening when the audio is posted and listen to it. Too bad it is nearly as brief as Graham's own life (he died at age 41).

Brad L. Graham [Photo: St. Louis Today]

NPR: The Man Is Gone, But Long Live The Blogosphere by Jeff Jarvis January 6, 2010 Most bloggers I know don’t much like the word "blog", and they have even less affection for "blogosphere." Blech. Wikipedia says credit — or blame — for coining "blogosphere" goes to Brad Graham, a theater publicist and blogger in St. Louis who died this week at the age of 41. Look him up on Google and you’ll see: "Blogosphere" is his legacy. But thank goodness, Graham was joking when he first said it... [read more]

More on Brad Graham:

• Obit in St. Louis Today
• Remembering Our Friend Brad (MetaFilter)
• The BradLands (Brad Graham's blog)
• "Blogosphere" in Wikipedia

Mr. Tolkien's Birthday and Kuhns Corner Books

I meant to post this on Monday, January 5 -- and that is when I started it -- but the whole thing got lost in the shuffle. I'm posting it now before I forget all about it again. Almost two weeks ago, I had a chance to visit a new independent bookstore near my home. Kuhns Corner Books (http://www.kuhnscornerbooks.com/) opened, appropriately enough, on the corner of West Walnut and South 5th Streets in Perkasie, PA. I think it opened around the middle of 2008, but it could have happened much earlier. I just know I've been driving past it for a little while now. But on January 3rd, while bringing Milo and Otis back from their annual visit to the vet, Mrs. Brainwise and I passed Kuhns and I noticed that it was open. So I decided to visit it. But first I had to complete the return trip for the thoroughly traumatized kitties. Oh, how they love to travel, especially when it involves being poked and prodded and examined. After we got home and did our best to pacify the boys a bit, I asked if there was enough time before our next appointment (visiting Mrs. Brainwise's mother in Bethlehem, and then having dinner with her friends in Easton). The window was plenty wide enough, and there was even time on the clock to hit the local Post Office. So I bundled up, gathered my keys, envelopes, and iPod, and hit the road ... walking. Yes, the new bookstore is within walking distance from my home. How cool is that? Anyway, the store is great. It's small, rather quaint I would say. They sell new and used books, but don't expect a great deal of inventory -- only one or two copies per title. And it's the only bookstore I've yet seen with a kitchenette dividing the front showcase area from the back. I did mention this is an independent bookstore, right? So, I'm wandering around, checking out what they have and soaking up the atmosphere. It was a perfect day for taking a break in a bookstore -- bright and sunny, but cold and blustery. Crazy windy day. I made mental notes regarding a few of the books I found, but nothing really stood out as a potential purchase. Well, nothing stood out until I came across a used copy of Master of Middle Earth: The Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien by Paul H. Kocher. First edition softcover, 1972, good condition: Not exactly rare, but still pretty cool. It's a book that has been on my "to read" list for some time. And I want to support the local indie bookstore scene. So I purchased it and walked home. Upon arrival, I had just enough time to get some lunch and load up the car before we headed up to Bethlehem for the Mom-in-law and friends visits. I didn't have another thought about my new copy of Master of Middle Earth. That is, until the following Monday. January 5. Midway through the morning, I took one of my Google News breaks -- or maybe I was checking my email and I saw a Google Alert -- and I saw a story or two about Tolkien and his recent birthday. And then it hits me. I bought my book about Tolkien's writing on his birthday. On 116th anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien's birth, I purchased a book that was published about a year before his death. What a great way to "celebrate" one of my favorite writers! No fanfare. Nothing ostentatious. Just a quiet afternoon in a small bookstore. Let's hear it for the indies!

 500 West Walnut Street | Perkasie, PA 18944 | 215-258-2515

Update (8/13/2011): This update is more than a tad overdue, but I must point out that (misfortune of misfortunes) Kuhns Corner Books closed down within the last year or so. Well, they've closed down the physical location. They seem to be operating solely as an online book source now.

Quotable | Self-Loathing

Newsweek: "You grew up in Oklahoma in a very religious environment."

Sarah Vowell: "Yeah, sometimes I feel like a translator to my snotty urban heathen friends. To me, Christianity was about self-loathing. It never would have occurred to me to hate anybody else; I was too busy hating myself."

From Newsweek interview with author Sarah Vowell: Fast Chat: Author and Historian Sarah Vowell | Newsweek Periscope

Quotable | Patriot

A Patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -- Edward Abbey, author, essayist, and environmental advocate (1927-1989)

Quotable | Lost

A venturesome minority will always be eager to set off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks, for godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American. -- Edward Abbey, author, essayist, and environmental advocate (1927-1989) Today's quotable is from Abbey's account of life as a park ranger in Utah: Desert Solitaire (1968). I have posted it as a humorous (i.e., tongue-in-cheek) response to a few folks I heard complaining of being provided "poor directions" to a weekend event.

More Ed Abbey on the web:

• Abbey's Web
• Ecology Hall of Fame
• Americans Who Tell the Truth
• Honesty in a Dishonest Age

Quotable | Dream

Sometimes, a dream is all the more powerful simply because you know it will never come true. -- Obadiah (from Angel-Seeker, a novel by Sharon Shinn)

Soul to Soul, and Sole to Sole | RIP Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

I'm late on reporting this, as I actually heard it on the radio around 7:30am this morning, but for anyone who might have missed this ... Kurt Vonnegut is dead at the age of 84. You can go ahead and scour the 'net for reports. Here are a few to get you started:

• Kurt Vonnegut dead at 84 - Washington Post
• Joseph A. Palermo: Kurt Vonnegut - Yahoo! News
• Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Dies - Voice of America
• Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007 - TIME
• Kurt Vonnegut, influential author of 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' dies at 84 - The Daily News
• Kurt Vonnegut dead at 84 - Washington Post, DC

The word "author" seems almost inadequate to ascribe to Mr. Vonnegut, though he was many a person's favorite writer. His works touched upon social commentary (or criticism) and science fiction with a flare of the autobiographical tossed in for good measure. I first encountered his wit and mischevious style in Slaughterhouse-Five -- based on his own experience of the bombing of Dresden during WWII -- and Cat's Cradle -- a rapidfire story that pokes fun at technology and religion while satirizing the arms race (remember Boku Maru and Ice 9?). Both of which I read for a class on American humor in literature. I do admit to being woefully behind in reading Vonnegut's more recent works, but will still claim these two books as my favorite works by him. Vonnegut was a self-professed pessimist, and probably something along the lines of a radical humanist ;) . And we are all the poorer for the loss of his light and insight in this world. Wherever ya are, Kurt (for I realize you probably did not give much thought to an afterlife, particularly one of the Christian persuasion), I wish you well. I would like to imagine that you are in an honored seat, drinking and boasting with whatever Gods will have you.