MAGAZINE COLUMN
Potlatcxh: A literary feast
by Seth Rogovoy(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., June 14, 1997) --- This week's reading looks at a literary journal of local origin, a literary reminiscence by a local boy made good, some right-wing regrets and mullah-induced misery.
Potlatcxh
A potlatch is a ceremonial feast, and Potlatcxh, a literary and arts journal published in Williamstown, is an intellectual and aesthetic feast.In the second issue of Potlatcxh, editor David Raffeld has compiled a selection of work by local writers and artists of stunningly high quality. The poems, essays, stories, memoirs, photographs and art reproductions in this unpretentious journal speak volumes about the remarkable level of talent spread throughout the Berkshire hills and surrounding valleys.
In the new Potlatcxh, available at Water St. Books in Williamstown and the Bookstore in Lenox, well-known writers and poets like Richard Wilbur and Jamaica Kincaid rub elbows with lesser-known neighbors such as George Aitken and Peter Grudin. It is a tribute to all that the work of their more famous peers does not overshadow those on whom the spotlight of celebrity has yet to shine.
The text, designed invitingly by Julio Granda and Jessica Reardon, artfully integrates visuals, including photographs by Nicholas DeCandia, drawings by Ed Epping and a word-picture by Mike Glier. Two examples of Wendy Rabinowitz's textile art, or "weaving mixed-media pieces," are particularly eye-catching and provocative.
Ted Gilley's short story, "Physical Wisdom," vividly captures the voice and sensibility of a 16-year-old boy dealing with fears of earthquakes both real and metaphorical, while Peter Grudin's letter, "To My Daughter: I," examines basic questions of heritage and identity.
The girls' game of plucking daisy petals in order to divine the heart of a beau is given a different, epistemological twist in George Aitken's poem, "Song 27." A lover's heart -- its steady beat in particular -- is also the subject of a carefully sculpted poem by Lisken Van Pelt Dus.
The book closes with a memoir of her brother by Jamaica Kincaid, a breathlessly generous and gripping meditation on death and family that is variously tender, wicked and funny.
The only complaint one could have about Potlatcxh is the lack of any identifying information about the contributors. Even just to note their hometowns would give their work -- and the issue as a whole -- an added sense of place.
Commentary
Seven years ago, New Marlboro native and Berkshire Eagle alumnus Seth Lipsky launched the Forward, a weekly, English-language version of the venerable Jewish Daily Forward, the Yiddish newspaper celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.The original Forward was and still is strongly identified as a democratic-Socialist, pro-labor newspaper. So when Lipsky, whose previous job was writing editorials for the conservative Wall Street Journal, first announced his plans, he was met with skepticism among those concerned that the new organ under his stewardship would sully the liberal reputation carved for the Forward during the half-century reign of legendary editor Abraham Cahan.
In "Abraham Cahan, the `Forward,' and Me" in the June issue of Commentary, Lipsky recounts the high points in the battle that has since been waged for Cahan's mantle. "[E]ven as I moved deeper into the neoconservative camp," writes Lipsky, "I still continued to cherish certain liberal ideals held by many of my family and friends in an earlier generation." The more Lipsky has learned about Cahan, his politics, and the Forward's historic legacy -- a legacy, Lipsky suggests, that is much more politically complex than some ideologues would have us believe -- the more confident he feels that Cahan would have responded to contemporary events much "in the spirit in which we carry on."
The New Yorker
Since the revolution of the mullahs in Iran in 1979, there has been very little first-hand reporting to come out of that great nation and former U.S. ally. Last month, author V.S. Naipaul spent some time in Iran, and he relates his impressions in "After the Revolution" in the May 26 issue of the New Yorker.Mostly, Naipaul retells stories he has heard, many of them concerning the eight-year war with Iraq. One former soldier describes the hours- long chanting sessions led by professional singers that whipped troops into a hypnotic frenzy before they marched off into certain death. Another tells of his unsuccessful stint as a member of a martyrs' battalion.
The centerpiece of Naipaul's lengthy report is an account of his visit to Ayatollah Khalkhali in Qum. Back in 1979, Khalkhali was at the pinnacle of power, earning his reputation as "the hanging judge" by condemning hundreds to death for violating the improvised laws of the revolution. Naipaul presents a shocking picture of a defeated, forgotten, needy man, one whom time has passed by.
Overall, Naipaul paints a bleak portrait of an Iran in the grip of totalitarianism that is "deforming peoples' lives" -- one part "Blade Runner," one part "1984." Helicopters patrol the skies of Teheran in search of illicit satellite dishes. Women dare not walk the streets unaccompanied lest they be harassed by Revolutionary Guards. Youths rebel against the Islamic strictures by adopting a superficial brand of Nazism. In sum, people live in fear, even Khalkhali himself. "After all the pain," writes Naipaul, "a new nihilism seemed to be preparing."
The Weekly Standard
Republicans, conservatives and other right-wing ideologues and pundits are squirming in the wake of recent electoral setbacks in the U.S. and around the world. It's fun sport to read them fretting about it in the June 9 Weekly Standard, whose cover touts "The Clueless GOP."Author David Frum looks at the big picture in "Confused Conservatives: The Worldwide Crack-Up," in which he pouts that the likes of Bill Clinton and English Prime Minister Tony Blair aren't playing fair because you cannot pin them down and summarize their politics neatly. This isn't how he describes it -- he calls them "vague" and "fuzzy," but it amounts to the same thing. Their elusive ideology makes it impossible for their rightist opponents to red-bait them, and that makes Frum cranky.
Times Literary Supplement
The May 30 issue of the Times Literary Supplement, published weekly in London, reviews a host of new books dealing with Islam and its offshoots. In one review, author Malise Ruthven examines America's Nation of Islam, the black nationalist group founded by Elijah Muhammed and now led by Louis Farrakhan. While Ruthven sees a host of international influences on Farrakhan's end-of-the-world theology, including some striking similarities to Syrian Druse teachings, the NOI's whole "package," as Ruthven calls it, is quintessentially American.[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on June 14, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
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