Hark, you heard what???
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. Everything has been figured out except how to live.
- Jean-Paul Satre (Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay On Ontology)
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.,
But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?
10 days Strolling carollers sang by candlelight.
Frosted store windows groaned with a cornucopia of Irish linens, Madras shawls, China tea, Moroccan slippers, Scottish whisky and Madeira wine.
Icy wharves yielded wagon-loads of Jamaica rum, Spanish cigars, East Indies chocolate (two kinds), plus many delicacies worthy of the fastest-growing city in the British Empire.Behind the festive scenes on King and Yonge Sts., immigrants languished in crowded slums. No mistletoe and plum pudding there.
· Many Silent Nights [Toronto Star]
The Difference Between 'Neo' And 'New'
At present there are two models of the future. One is the end of history model — that is to say, the view that we've pretty well settled the basic issues of politics and ideology. The other is the pendulum model, which means there's going to be a reverse of globalism sooner or later, if not another Great Depression.
A reverse of the pendulum could prove as catastrophic as the 1930s, with the rise of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Even if not catastrophic, it would no doubt signal the beginning of a pretty rough time for us in the West. A lot of our certainties and expectations would be overthrown. The odd thing, however, is that it might lead to some real change in the arts, a new seriousness, an end to self-consciousness. Maybe we could kill off irony for another few decades or centuries. That alone might be worth another Great Depression.
· The Pendulum [Toronto Star 2]
Politics Letters to a Young Conservative
To confront liberalism fully we could not be content with rebutting liberal arguments, he writes in the enemy's tongue. We also had to subvert liberal culture, and this meant disrupting the etiquette of liberalism. In other words, we had to become social guerrillas. Conservatives once wandered in the wilderness. Corpulent, confident young conservatives of today have never known life without political power.
· Power [The Nation]
To: Saddam Hussein,
Supreme Leader,
and Premier for Life
I just want to tell you how thrilled I am to be handling publicity for your upcoming novel, Report to UN Security Council on Iraqi Full Disarmament. I think it's dynamite - maybe even nuclear!
At 12,000 pages, it's a bit longer than our usual offering, but I couldn't put it down. Such imagination: vanishing Kurds, I love it! How do you authors do it? (The French are already eating it up. C'est magnifique!) There are a couple things I'd like to take up with you, though, as we prepare to market your novel for the tough American audience:
Let's think together about a new title. I like the comedy in the one you've suggested (full disarmament!), but the rest of it sounds so heavy, so policy wonkish, you know what I mean? Books about being a single woman are really hot over here now. Can we position your book in that direction somehow? Saddam's Diaries? Sects in the City?
...
Let me handle the reviewers. I've got the legal guys looking into it, but we probably can't kill the critics and torture their families - we just don't have the staff, but thanks for the suggestion.
· Positioning Irony & Lies [CS Monitor ]
· Stereotype [Toronto Star]
