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These are purportedly 100 of the most banned books.What should be on there is one title,The Irregulars appearing as an audio book in 2 parts, and which I would like to review at length as given in my notes and observations below. The Irregulars by Jennet Conant appeared as an unabridged audio book on 9-9-08 and consists of 6 hours of narration especially as a narration of the history of British espionage and covert activities originating in Washington DC. A small coterie of British spies were formed in the US when it was critical to obtain US support then in an isolationist frame of mind. England was in a dire state and would not have survived had we not entered on her side during the war and Churchill knew this and sent William Stephenson in advance to Washington to man an army of spies and covert agents to turn the US from her isolationist ways then predominant and join the war and hence in the process save Britain from a Nazi invasion and encroachment/destruction. The bombing of London was but a prelude to this impending intention of Hitler. Western civilization was possible by their victories due to their espionage and covert activities.Notables of this coterie were: Roald Dahl , the later fabulist known world wide; Ian Fleming the creator of the James Bond series; Noel Coward and others yet to be mentioned and later known more definitively as MI6 . Unrevealed letters and dairies and reminiscences comprise the core of the book .These were Churchill's underground fortress in America and helped turned the tide away from Nazi barbarism to the Allied cause. The story is detailed and picaresque . More in another post. It was not exclusively troops and air power that won the allied cause , but superb and clandestine intelligence activity always, of course laced with dirty tricks and moral ambivalence in a good cause. They were the right arm of our then fledgling OSS.
http://needmoreshelves.blogspot.com/2009/10/unlock-worlds-banned-books-challenge.html
Saturday, October 31, 2009
EZRA Pound The Spirit of Romance Unprecented Definition of Poetry
I have never seen such a definition and it strikes me as being truthful and instantaneously clicked with me and appeared in Pound's book. Pound is the most underrated of scholars and also one of the very intuitive scholars with an intuitive sense of the mystical and a detailed knowledge of the literature of the Middle Ages . He eschews conventional and pigeon holed labels such as "classical" and "romantic" as meaningless and gauges poetry by other than conventional measurements..
He describes poetry as inspired mathematics with the emphasis on inspired. They are equations for human emotions. To those inclined to magic or incantations, rather than science,this definition sounds more arcane and recondite, and does not fit neatly into "classical" or "romantic" in pigeon hole fashion/format.
The character of the spells experienced by the great poets , more often in past ages than this present. more inebriated with the arcane, with visions of other worlds in the guise of their poetic works, and geared to their peculiar characters. These poetic works were couched artificially as either "classical" or "romantic" by later critics apparently and accurately so. Classic applied to beauty of the normal, and romantic applied to beauty of the unusual. The unusual are momentary glimpses ,apparently, of other worlds and slivers thereof, imported into the poet's vision, and transcribed by him or her and imported with meaning . Many more glimpses appeared in ages past than in this present.
He describes poetry as inspired mathematics with the emphasis on inspired. They are equations for human emotions. To those inclined to magic or incantations, rather than science,this definition sounds more arcane and recondite, and does not fit neatly into "classical" or "romantic" in pigeon hole fashion/format.
The character of the spells experienced by the great poets , more often in past ages than this present. more inebriated with the arcane, with visions of other worlds in the guise of their poetic works, and geared to their peculiar characters. These poetic works were couched artificially as either "classical" or "romantic" by later critics apparently and accurately so. Classic applied to beauty of the normal, and romantic applied to beauty of the unusual. The unusual are momentary glimpses ,apparently, of other worlds and slivers thereof, imported into the poet's vision, and transcribed by him or her and imported with meaning . Many more glimpses appeared in ages past than in this present.
Noir city symptom of the sickness of modern civilization
My comment on this blog underscores the possibly harmful effects of the foisted doctrine of diversity in our schools, and public forums as a factor in alientaion. Note commentrs 3 and 4.
The book The Cinematic City edited by David B Clarke (Routledge 1997) was cited in particular the essay by Krutnik cited in this excellent post.
F Krutnik page 89
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