Is essayist Eula Biss Joan Didion’s heiress apparent?

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:00:00 +0000

Eula Biss’ “Notes From No Man’s Land” is the most accomplished book of essays anyone has written or published so far in the 21st century. If it has not taken up residence in the popular imagination of readers in the same way Joan Didion’s “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” did in the late 1960s, perhaps it is because we live in a time in which it is more difficult for books to assert themselves with great cultural force in the way they once did, or perhaps because Biss, unlike Didion, has yet to receive the strong support of the systems of power that bring great books to the attention of a broad readership.

But there is still time, and the publication of the audiobook edition of “Notes From No Man’s Land” is one opportunity to wave the flag again, and to say to readers: Pay attention. We live among a literary landscape that is so cluttered with passing next big things that it is possible to miss the truly important things that appear at first glance to be small, but which prove themselves over time to make a lasting home in the memory and moral conscience of their readers.

Obama chair lynchings in Texas and Virginia

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:30:00 +0000

Two people may have single-handedly set back civil liberties by nearly 100 years by hanging Obama effigies in their yards. The chairs, on display at two Centreville, Va., and Austin, Texas, homes, are a reference to Clint Eastwood's chair speech, and conjure memories of mob lynchings once common in the South. Technically, it's a free country, and it's their right, but the symbolism behind the actions of just a few is disturbing for the rest of America.

Burnt Orange reports that when one woman complained to the Texas homeowner, he said, "I don't really give a damn whether it disturbs you or not. You can take [your concerns] and go straight to hell and take Obama with you. I don't give a shit. If you don't like it, don't come down my street." The man has since added an American flag to the chair.

UPDATE: KEYE TV in Austin has uploaded a reluctant interview with the Texas home owner, who took down the chair and moved it because, "Does anybody else that's got a chair sitting out receiving the same harassment that you guys are giving?"

H/T Gawker

Salon.com > lynchings

Is essayist Eula Biss Joan Didion’s heiress apparent?

Obama chair lynchings in Texas and Virginia