Dispatches from Vilnius

I remember reading about Red Cloud in elementary school.  It was part of a series entitled The Library of American Heroe s.  Here's what the book looked like .  It was published in 1965. I hadn't realized there was an autobiography , which I'm sure would be much more telling. One of my favorite books I read later in high school was Black Elk Speaks , although I've since read reviews that John Neihardt took a lot of liberties in this "oral history."  But, still it was a mesmerizing book especially as Black Elk related his time in London and his out of body experiences, in which he returned to his native land. Richter noted that it was very difficult to translate native languages into English or any other European language, as the structures were very different, not to mention the lack of comparable words to express what the natives actually felt, especially in regard to John Elliot's Tears of Repentance , noted in the previous post .  At least in ...

After a great start on Facing East from Indian Country , I've gotten bogged down in the middle chapter where  Dan Richter obsesses on Tears of Repentance , a narrative by John Elliot in which he tries to capture the confessions of the Christianized natives of Natick.  I think Richter tries a little too hard to read in between the lines of the confessionals provided by 15 former tribesmen who had professed their new faith in Christianity, but were having a hard time overcoming their sins.  Richter sees this as a classic clash of cultures, with the narrative being a rare attempt to capture the voices of the Indians themselves. I enjoyed the earlier chapters much more as Richter delves into the mythology that has shrouded any real understanding of  the indigenous population before the arrival of English, Dutch and French settlers in North America.  He offers some very interesting interpretations on the folk legends of Pocahontas, Kateri Tekawitha and Metacom...

Bob Dole is the latest conservative to come out and say that the GOP needs to do some soul searching.  When asked on Fox News Sunday if Reagan would make it in today's Republican party, he said "I doubt it," and further noted that the national committee should put a sign on its door, " Closed for Repairs " and come back next year with new ideas and a new agenda. Meanwhile, Boehner and Mitch seem to be on cruise control, content to sit it out until 2014, assuming Americans will blame the latest stalemate on Obama and the Democrats, despite most polls showing just the opposite.  Yet, the Tea Party remains very active, and may very well mount insurgent challenges to Republican leaders who have been anything but inspiring. The Tea Party seems to have gotten a lift from the IRS "unfairly" targeting it for tax audits.  A Northern California Tea Party affiliate has even filed a law suit against the IRS.  Tea Party darlings, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, s...

Flipping through channels last night I fell on Legends of the Fall , a very odd movie to say the least.  It was based on Jim Harrison's novella from a few years before.  It wasn't one of Harrison's best efforts as he seemed to be setting All My Sons during WWI with the patriarch of the family (Anthony Hopikins) oddly resembling Teddy Roosevelt.  A woman (Julia Ormond) gets caught between the three sons (Adrian Quinn, Brad Pitt and Henry Thomas).  You really feel sorry for her in the end.  But, probably the most incongruent part of the film is that it was told from the point of view of one of the old Indian workers on Ludlow's ranch, projecting an iconic family portrait Many of the scenes looked like something out of a Ralph Lauren commercials, extolling a mythic Americana that never existed.  Brad Pitt even did his best to reprise Jeremiah Johnson as he goes on a "vision quest" to try to restore his balance.  The film followed pretty closely o...

The book came out a couple years ago and is now available in paperback.  It tells the story of the Comanche "empire" and Quanah Parker's role in saving what was left of it.  I came across it when I was looking for titles on the Comanche.  The broad network of tribes seemed more like an amalgam than an empire or nation.  Reminds me of the Seminole in Florida, who like the Comanche were hard to pin down and took decades to finally subdue.  They too had no single cultural identity, but absorbed roaming tribes that had broken off from other Southeast tribes and were seeking refuge from the intrusion of settlers. I also noted Dee Brown's book on The American West , where he looks at the different Indian nations, including the Comanche, which comprised the American Plains.  One of the things I found amusing about Frankel, was he noting that the Comanche had an egocentric view of themselves by calling themselves "the people."  Actually, most tribes co...

I was perusing the fashion photos from Cannes when I came upon a photo of James Franco at the premier of As I Lay Dying .  It can't be, I said, but sure enough Franco has taken on Faulkner's classic novel, which I think is virtually unfilmable, and has apparently succeeded to some degree to read reviews .  It is hard to reconcile a guy who just played the leader of a group of bikini-clad thieves, who called himself  "Alien," now serving up one of Faulkner's most difficult novels to an unsuspecting public.  But, stranger things have happened, I guess. So, who is this James Franco, and where does he get the audacity to try to pull off a stunt like this?  Looking at his IMDb profile , there is nothing to suggest he is ready for a project like this.  He not only stars but wrote the adapted screenplay and directs the film.  Seems that Franco is one of those guys who will take on any project, with his private projects lurking in the back of his mind w...

With V-E Day earlier this month, I thought it would be interesting to share a relatively recent Time Out poll of the 50 best World War II movies , with guest contributor Quentin Tarantino.  The poll was timed with the release of Inglourious Basterds , which QT notes was loosely based on an earlier Italian production .  Both seemed to be inspired by The Dirty Dozen . Quite a number of American films, but topping the list was a 1985 Belarus production, Come and See , which surprisingly Mr. Tarantino had no comment on, as I would think this surreal depiction of the ravages of the war in Russia would be right up his alley.  Of course, there are many notable omissions, as there usually are with such lists.   The poll seems to favor action films over more cerebral ones, and surprisingly has very few Holocaust films.  I thought Agniezka Holland's Europa, Europa was excellent.  It was based on the true story of Solomon Perel .   Also not included...

It looked like it was going to be a tough week for the Big O, but then he pulled off one of his best moves to date by releasing the contentious e-mails from Benghazi, showing that the Republicans had planted the "doctored talking points" story in the news.  Right now, Darryl Issa looks like a total ass.  Yet, as Politics USA reports , Issa isn't backing down, trying to drag no less than the Joint Chiefs of Staff into "Benghazigate," which has even Boehner ducking for cover. It seems the Republicans are doing everything they can to stall a vote on the immigration bill on the table in the Senate.  GOP co-writer of the bill, Marco Rubio, now wants a biometric tracking system included in it, and former Senator DeMint made the audacious claim that the immigration bill would cost taxpayers $6,3 trillion .  He has apparently been pouring over this cost estimate at the Heritage Foundation, which he now heads.  But, it seems few are buying this report or the at...

It seems that Baz Luhrman's update of The Great Gatsby defied most box expectations and drew a large audience to its opening weekend, despite what had been generally bad reviews.  But, of course Baz and Warner Bros. had covered their bases by giving the show plenty of advance publicity and product tie-ins, insuring that there would be enough curious moviegoers to take in one of America's great romance stories. A.O. Scott was one of the few critics to give Baz a  relatively favorable review .  Baz is known for dazzle, and he uses three dimensional effects and hip-hop music to create a rip-roaring good time during America's most opulent and decadent era, much like he did with Paris in Moulin Rouge .  Nuance was never Baz's thing, made abundantly clear in his Australian epic, which used just about every scene to bludgeon you over the head. This is why few critics liked Baz's 3-D Gatsby , preferring Jack Clayton's much more nuanced  1974 version  s...

I couldn't resist this image from facebook, as once again the Republicans try to drag Obama through the mud on Benghazi.  It seems that with the immigration bill virtually a done deal and the gun bill that would call for tighter background checks coming around for a second time, the Repugs have to find some way to distract the public's attention from their failures, jumping all over a puff piece  "reported" by ABC that the Obama administration doctored the "talking point," on Benghazi, covering up warnings of an imminent attack. Since this story broke, it has widely been discredited , as has Boehner's call for the White House to release unclassified e-mails which he and fellow House members were made privy to months ago, but weren't allowed to keep a record of.  The White House staff was similarly not allowed to keep any hard copies.  So far, the White House has done a pretty good job of deflecting this latest broadside from the Republicans, wh...

A lot of advance publicity for Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Bully Pulpit , which sounds like it will make for a good Fall read.  I also noted John Ferling has a new book on the Jefferson-Hamilton rivalry due out in October.  And, there's A. Scott Berg's mammoth biography of Wilson due out in September.  Bully!

You are invited to join us in a discussion of  The Searchers , a new book on John Ford's boldest Western, which cast John Wayne against type as the vengeful Ethan Edwards who spends eight years tracking down a notorious Comanche warrior, who had killed his cousins and abducted a 9 year old girl.  The film has had its fair share of detractors as well as fans over the years, but is consistently ranked in most critics'  Top Ten Greatest Films . Glenn Frankel examines the origins of the story as well as the film itself, breaking his book down into four parts.  The first two parts deal with Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah, perhaps the most famous of the 19th century abduction stories.  The short third part focuses on the author of the novel, Alan Le May, and how he came to write The Searchers. The final part is about Pappy and the Duke and the making of the film. Frankel noted that Le May researched 60+ abduction stories, fusing them together into a nar...

The NRA is flying high these days, fresh off their "victory" in defeating a Senate bill that called for tighter background checks and gun registration.  Apparently, gun rights has become a civil rights issue in their minds, feeling that "law-abiding gun owners" are under attack, waving around the second amendment as their "red badge of courage." If you thought Wayne La Pierre wasn't bad enough,  meet their president , a tough talking SOB who takes the NRA to the outer limits of the Far Right with his incendiary comments.  I suppose in some way this is good, because it helps to illustrate what a bunch of lunatics the NRA has become. Their recent summit included Senate bad boy, Ted Cruz, and that famous pitbull with lipstick, Sarah Palin.  Rick Perry was there too, pitching in his two cents at the event dubbed a "leadership forum."  No one likes gun violence, Perry said, while trying to lure gun manufacturers to come to Texas to avoid al...

Bill Moyers alerted me to Pete Seeger's birthday today.  Pete turns 94.  I couldn't resist sharing this great moment -- Johnny Cash hosting Pete Seeger, or is it the other way around as Pete takes over the show.  Great performance of "It Takes a Worried Man!"

I picked up Susan Jacoby's book, The Age of American Unreason , for a pence, and so far that's about how much I think this book is worth.  Jacoby tries (so far in vain) to describe the anti-intellectualism that has grown out of all proportion in America.  She starts by chastising politicians for the use of "folks," which she sees as a dumbing down of the electorate.  She claims this term was rarely if ever used before Reagan in addressing the people of the United States, but since 1980 has become a favorite term.  Surprisingly, she does make an effort to equate folk with German "volk," which Hitler used widely.  Instead, she takes the tone of a schoolmarm in questioning other terms, such as "troop," which is now used widely in the place of "soldier." But, her biggest peave is the refusal to accept evolution and other scientific theories by a large cross-section of Americans, which she blames on the rise of "Fundamentalism" ...

I found myself thinking of the Haymarket Affair this May Day.  It was one of our better reading groups at Melba.  As I recall, the strike was held on the First of May to mark a national day of labor.  After the  horrible massacre, the Second International established May Day as an international day of labor in commemoration of those accused of the massacre, who were for the most part innocent of the crimes brought against them. Seems the United States couldn't accept a holiday marked by Socialists around the world and eventually established its own labor day in September, whose origins apparently date back to the Knights of Labor, a tailor's organization, although the holiday was not recognized by Congress until 1894, five years after the Second International established May Day as Labor Day. May Day is still celebrated throughout Europe, although it is largely associated with the former Soviet Union, but the US still holds onto such remnants of the celebrati...