Getting Ready to Be Alone Here & There

A bill introduced by a Massachusetts legislator would make Moby-Dick the official book of Massachusetts.  Another bill would make squash the state vegetable.   

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The LA Times takes a look at the sad demise of the local bookstore: "A good bookstore...is unlike any other retail space. Where else can you linger, sample the merchandise and then casually reject it if not quite right? Your local pizzeria would frown on such behavior. In a culture that worships money, bookstores are one of the few commercial institutions where cost doesn't trump all other considerations. Massive bestsellers share shelf space with the most obscure tomes."

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Folks in Scotland, including Ian Rankin, are up in arms over the government's refusal to help save the house in which Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes because he "does not occupy a significant enough position in the nation's consciousness."

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You have to check out this story about yet another outraged, hyperzealous parent who is seething mad about a book (I Saw Esau, The Schoolchild's Pocket Book) being available in her daughter's school library, but don't worry about reading the article; check out the photos in the sidebar.  Okay, you at least need to get the mom's brilliant quote: "I understand that it is a book of poetry, but there is a fine line between poetry art and porn and this book's illustrations are absolutely offensive in every way."

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A friend of Syntax of Things sends word of an interview with Jack Butler which will appear in the next issue of the Mississippi Quarterly.  I don't know what I can do short of changing the name of this blog to "Read Jujitsu for Christ for Christ's Sake" to convince everyone who stops by here to read this man's work.  You won't be sorry.  Anyway, there's no direct link to the interview but my friend did send me a copy and I'm giving you an excerpt, one of the many quotable portions of the text (beneath the cut):

MQ: Given your interest in the holy, then, what do you see the ideal role of the writer, or perhaps simply your role as a writer, as being? Do you intend for your work to spark an encounter or understanding of a deeper religious truth?

JB: Not exactly. One must talk around such things or not talk, but for me, if you say truth, you do not need the words “deeper” and “religious.” I feel ecstatic at times, and will happily say so, but I would not presume to speak for something larger than myself or presume that I have sufficient spiritual authority to point readers in the right direction.

I often feel that the gift of speech is godlike, by which I mean both that it makes us like god, and that it makes us have ideas of what god may be like. By which I also mean that it is the informing spirit, or at least can be. Speech, is, itself, pentecost.

I was taught to denigrate the importance of the word, in keeping with the stammering modesty that has for some reason seized contemporary bards. In a world of practical considerations, so goes the modernistic rag, fascination with words is a luxury, one the tribe can ill afford. I would say to that voice in my head: No, not the words, interlocutor, but words. Without words we would not be a tribe.

So yes, I feel that getting it right—I call it right naming—is holy work. At the same time, you’d be a fool to surrender the sheer intoxication and sly physicality that words afford, or to measure the practice in terms of the supposed moral good it can be shown to reinforce.

In order to do words well, one must not care about words, and yet care everything about them. It sounds paradoxical and I have learned to assume there is mystery wherever my mind is forced into paradox. Mere facility will not do. The move has to be an honest move. Seek a state where opposites coincide. If you’re not winging it on the sheer exhilaration of words, with no preconception of the holy, it aint real. If it aint real, it aint holy.

Comments

[Bill Ectric]

I only wish there was a better view of the page tagged, "This is just obsene(sic)!"

To which the critics of this book might reply, "Yes, it IS sic!"

[georgekaplan]

*sigh*

Why is it always Tennessee?

[Zandi]

Moby Dick ? Please tell me this is a joke?
Come on there are oh 2 dozen or so books set in Massachusetts that better reflect the true history and culture of the area that would do far better!
Yes, it's a great look in to the Whaling industry as it was at the time but come on if it's to be a state book it should represent the state and it's FULL haritige!
~~~~~
It's sad that book stores (in general) aren't what they use to be when I was A kid (Mind you I'm nearly 40) Now I go to the local bookstore (I live in The Netherlands these days) and see people comming in with lists of must buy books because OMG this is the most popular thing out there *squee* it's on the top of all these lists... I have to have it! You don't see book clubs (serious book clubs) meeting to discuss the latest book for people with functioning brains debating over coffee in these places any more. (last one I remember was G.Gordon Liddy s The Monkey Handelers at an Einestine books in DC back in what 89 or 90) though I did spot students in the Dennys at the end of the Florida Turnpike on US1 discuaaing White Orliander when it hit Oprah s list about 10 years later BUT they were only there because of Ms.Winferys popularity (How sad is that?) . Sure you see some people flipping though pages but the enviorments of these places have gone down hill! (You seriously dont feel comfortable reading in these places)Coffee house bookstores are more Star Bucks than any thing (Places people go to be seen in a trendy over priced place)and the good ones all fade away. Gone are the days of

~~~~~

Perhaps it's just because I was raised by "hippie" parents in a commune but I honestly don't get people offended by nudity and images of a nursing mother.

The human body, as I see it, is a beautiful work of art created by God himself. And having visited places where nudity (or partial nudity) is the cultural norm (as it is among many tribal peoples) and being told that such things as Rape are vertually unheard of in these cultures (though I do take issue with some of the age of concent among many tribes wich can be as young as 9 and some "deflowering" practices *in some cases all the virginity of the girls are taken by a tribal leader or valued male within the tribe such as a successful hunter when she reaches a particular age or shortly after her first menstal cycle* and such) I find my self wondering if the tabu of nudity in our culture isn't part of why we have so many people addicted to true pornography or why extreeme (sexual) diviant behaviour has become so trendy or why we hav so many (often times voilent) sex crimes.(such as rape and consentaul sex that turns in to unconcenting S&M *Forgive me I am unaware of any single word for this*)

And being offended by a nursing mother * place puzzled face hewre* PLEASE! God gave me breast to feed my chirldren with!It's our sick and twisted culture that has turned them in to "sexual objects" Do get a grip!And then guit this foolishness!

~~~

I LOVE Butlers work!
Unfortunatly, we live in a culture in wich a person of such an extensive vocabulary is concitered "too wordy" and his wonderfuly baltiant honesty is oftimes misunderstood by the unlearned masses who attempt to pass them selves off as intelectuals simply because they hold a degree(baught more often than not with daddys money) or 3 or 5.

But what would an unapplogenic dislexic,skatter brained, under educated,silly little child of hippies know such things as sharing of the truth (as seen by the author/sharer ofcourse) or anything for that mater?

[TJ]

It's not, George. Sometimes it's South Carolina. Or Kansas. Or even Iowa or New York. You know where it's never, though? Delaware. Seriously. Is there ever a controversy in Delaware that hits the national stage? That should be their state motto: "Controversy free since 1764."

[Zandi]

Moby Dick ? Please tell me this is a joke?
Come on there are oh 2 dozen or so books set in Massachusetts that better reflect the true history and culture of the area that would do far better!
Yes, it's a great look in to the Whaling industry as it was at the time but come on if it's to be a state book it should represent the state and it's FULL haritige!
~~~~~
It's sad that book stores (in general) aren't what they use to be when I was A kid (Mind you, I'm nearly 40) Now I go to the local bookstore (I live in The Netherlands these days) and see people comming in with lists of must buy books because OMG this is the most popular thing out there *squee* it's on the top of all these lists *squee again just to annoy me*... I have to have it!
You don't see book clubs (serious book clubs) meeting to discuss the latest book for people with functioning brains debating (over coffee) in these places any more. (last one I remember was G.Gordon Liddy s The Monkey Handelers at an Einestine books in DC back in what 89 or 90) though I did spot students in the Dennys at the end of the Florida Turnpike on US1 discussing White Orliander * wich to me is but so much repeated V.C.Andrews dribble come to life without the generational continuation* when it hit Oprah s list about 10 years later BUT they were only there because of Ms.Winferys popularity (How sad is that?) .
Sure you see some people flipping though pages (now and again) but the enviorments of these places have gone down hill! (You seriously dont feel comfortable reading in these places)Coffee house bookstores are more Star Bucks than any thing (Places people go to be seen in a trendy over priced place)and the good ones all fade away. Gone are the days of stepping in to your advrage book store and finding a place where non lemming types congrigate and the brainless are too intimidated to dare enter.

~~~~~

Perhaps it's just because I was raised by "hippie" parents in a commune but I honestly don't get people offended by nudity and images of a nursing mother.

The human body, as I see it, is a beautiful work of art created by God him/her/its self.
And having visited places where nudity (or partial nudity) is the cultural norm (as it is among many tribal peoples) and being told that such things as Rape are vertually unheard of in these cultures(though I do take issue with some of the age of concent among wich many tribes wich can be as young as 9 and some "deflowering" practices *in some cases all the virginity of the girls are taken by a tribal leader or valued male within the tribe such as a successful hunter when she reaches a particular age or shortly after her first menstal cycle* and such) I find my self wondering if the taboo of nudity in our culture isn't part of why we have so many people addicted to true pornography or why extreeme (sexual) diviant behaviour has become so trendy or why we hav so many (often times voilent) sex crimes. commited(such as rape and consentaul sex that turns in to unconcenting S&M *Forgive me I am unaware of any single word for this*)

And being offended by a nursing mother * place puzzled face here* PLEASE! God gave me breast to feed my chirldren with!It's our sick and twisted culture that has turned them in to "sexual objects" Do get a grip!And then guit this foolishness!

~~~

I LOVE Butlers work!
Unfortunatly, we live in a culture in wich a person of such an extensive vocabulary is concitered "too wordy" and his wonderfuly baltiant honesty is oftimes misunderstood by the unlearned masses who attempt to pass them selves off as intelectuals simply because they hold a degree(baught, more often than not, with daddys money) or 3 or 5.

But what would an unapplogenic dislexic,skatter brained, under educated,silly little child of hippies know such things as sharing of the truth (as seen by the author/sharer ofcourse) or anything for that mater?

[Matthew Tiffany]

Where does one find a copy of "Jujitsu for Christ"? Powells: no; BookMooch: no. Don't even say Amazon.

[georgekaplan]

Being a Tennessean makes me sensitive to such things - I think only Kansas has us beat. Scopes to "Wizard of Oz" to recent anti-evolution legislation. At least this can be used to make fun of Murfreesboro.

But I think the all-time sanctimonious idiot is the Maryland legislature for the attempted banning of Randy Newman's "Short People."

[Jeff]

Delaware is close enough to Maryland that it probably seeps across the border. I'm surprised Alabama doesn't try to get more of this type of attention. Of course, there was the proposed legislation in AL to ban all books by and about gay folks from state-funded libraries, which would have included universities. Thankfully, it died in committee.

[prof fury]

Matthew, I've had good luck with abe.com or alibris.com--you can usually find a paperback copy relatively cheap. Enjoy!