MAGAZINE REVIEW
Dr. Frankenstein's tomatoes
by Seth Rogovoy(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 1, 1997) -- Proponents of genetically- altered crops claim that bioengineering holds the key to improved disease and pest resistance, greater yields and reduced need for pesticides and other environmental stresses. They have already succeeded in bringing to market Frankensteinian corn, potatoes, squash, soybeans, tomatoes and milk, while the jury is still out on the relative safety of these products.
Mother Jones
The centerpiece of the January/February Mother Jones is the second article in a three-part series examining the intersection between agricultural policy, technology and food. This month's look at "The Future of Food" focuses on the disturbing growth of agricultural biotechnology and genetic tinkering with our food supply.The article, "A Growing Concern," notes that the same corporate agribusinesses funding research and development in bioengineering are also the largest pesticide manufacturers, and their new "supercrops" require the exclusive use of their own, patented weed-killers.
What's most disturbing, of course, is how these engineers approach their task in opposition to nature, rather than working harmoniously with natural processes to enhance productivity. Mother Jones, a bimonthly, promises to investigate the subject further in the final installment in the series: "The Promise of Organic Farming."
In the meantime, since the Food and Drug Administration refuses to require labeling of genetically-altered fruits and vegetables, the only way to insure that you are not ingesting tomatoes made with flounder genes, melons injected with viruses and potatoes that are part chicken is to buy as close to the locally-grown, organic source as possible.
Davka
Subtitled "Jewish Cultural Revolution," Davka is a new quarterly chronicling what has been termed "Radical Jewish Culture," a nebulous, far-flung movement that sees Jews returning to their religion and culture via the likes of avant-klezmer music and "queer Yiddishkeit," a particular brand of Jewish cultural gay activism.The Winter 1997 issue looks at Jews in the sex industry and queer Yiddishkeit. Articles about the late comic Lenny Bruce and sex publisher Al Goldstein place contemporary performers, such as cover subject Annie Sprinkle _ the porn star turned performance artist who is at Pearl Street Nightclub in Northampton from March 5-8 _ in a historical context. Interviews with playwright Tony Kushner ("Angels In America") and members of the Klezmatics discuss how a new gay- Jewish aesthetic is entering the mainstream.
It's a provocative package that, frankly, is not for the prudish or faint-of-heart, but one that documents a thriving, cutting-edge and in some ways quintessentially American cultural phenomenon.
Commentary
At the other end of the political spectrum, Jewish and not, is Commentary, an intellectual monthly published by the American Jewish Committee which is widely considered the house organ of so-called neo- conservativism.The February issue of Commentary features a symposium in which 15 key thinkers offer their thoughts on "The Future of Conservatism" in the wake of Bill Clinton's reelection and the failure of Newt Gingrich's right-wing revolution of 1994.
Among the editors, academics and all-around intellectuals participating in the symposium are such well-known pundits as William F. Buckley, Jr., Midge Decter, William Kristol, Francis Fukuyama and former Commentary editor Norman Podhoretz.
Say what you will about their ideas, but judging from these short essays, the right-wingers seem to have cornered the market on clear, precise and witty expository writing, the most notable example of which is novelist/analyst Mark Helprin's luxurious prose.
In the March issue of Commentary, Wendy Shalit, still just a senior at Williams College, dissects "Intermarriage, Inc.," an industry that has sprung up to service families of intermarried couples. Shalit complains that more often than not, the Judaism served up in this industry's "products" _ wedding ceremonies, baby namings, children's books _ "comes across less as an equal contender than as the (compliant) object of a friendly takeover." Some of the examples she proffers do indeed bespeak of a cultural relativism gone berserk.
The Weekly Standard
Speaking of conservatives, the cover story in the March 3 issue of the Weekly Standard, "A Return to National Greatness" by senior editor David Brooks, bemoans America's lost sense of purpose.Using the architectural marvel that is the Library of Congress _ currently celebrating its centennial _ as a standard for comparison and as a measure of America's turn-of-the-century belief in itself as an engine of historic possibility, Brooks complains about our lack of mission. "America is a more dominant power in the world than Americans a century ago could ever have imagined," he writes. "Yet we have almost none of the sense of global purpose that Americans had when they only dreamed of enjoying the stature we possess today."
Interestingly enough, Brooks heaps the most blame for this lapse on conservatives. Their knee-jerk anti-statism in favor of regional populism works against the development of a common, national purpose. Brooks concludes that "energetic government is good for its own sake....It strengthens common bonds. It boosts national pride. It continues the great national project." Those are not exactly words one expects to hear from a self-styled conservative in 1997.
*******
Anyone who doesn't believe that there are political prisoners incarcerated in this country must read "Susan McDougal's Silence" by James B. Stewart in the Feb. 17 issue of the NEW YORKER. McDougal is ostensibly serving out an 18-month sentence on contempt of court charges for refusing to cooperate with Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr's witch-hunt. The article makes clear that Starr's team is leaning on her to corroborate the mad ravings of her pill-popping, paranoid ex-husband _ who has long fantasized an affair between his wife and the President _ in order to keep afloat its sinking ship of a case against Clinton. To her credit, this daughter of a Nazi- resistance fighter is having none of it. She is a true hero. Also, the Feb. 10 issue includes "The Genius and Mrs. Genius," a look at the curious marriage of Vladimir and Vera Nabokov, by Adams native and Williams College graduate Stacy Schiff.The March issue of INTERNET WORLD offers several articles examining the growth of commerce in cyberspace. "Death of a Middle Man" by John Berry touts, if not quite the death of the salesman, then his transformation into a new species: the cybermediary, negotiating the electronic transaction between supplier and consumer. There are already numerous examples of this on the World Wide Web, where houses, stocks, insurance, automobiles and electronic components are traded. With no one regulating this commerce, a plethora of consumer-advocate Web sites have sprung up, according to "Buyer Beware" in the same issue, to expose the scams and schemes that are proliferating across the Net.
Always straining to stay far ahead of the curve, the cover story in the March WIRED magazine declares the obsolescence of the World Wide Web and the Internet as we know it. In its place the editors of Wired are touting "Push media," more a conceptual revolution than a technological one, in which all forms of networked communications will interact in a sort of space-age, sci-fi manner that will follow us around wherever we go, presumably even to that computer-free room in the house where most of our reading is done.
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION:
Mother Jones: Box 469024, Escondido, CA 92046-9838, or 1-800-GET- MOJO; $12 (six issues)Davka: Dept. 721, 1126 Bush St., Suite 405, San Francisco, CA 94109; $18 (four issues)
Commentary: 165 E. 56th St., New York, NY 10126-0885, or 1-800-829- 6270; $39
The New Yorker: Box 52312, Boulder, CO 80323, or 1-800-825-2510; $40
The Weekly Standard: Box 96110, Washington DC, 20078-7769; $80
Internet World: Box 7461, Red Oak, IA 51591-2461; $29
Wired: Box 191826, San Francisco, CA 94119-9866, or 1-800-769-4733; $30
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on March 1, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
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