Counterphobia?

In his essay on the Russian poet, Irina Ratushinskya, (“Never Afraid,” TLS, 7/15/18) David Astor quotes the following two lines from her poem, “No, I’m Not Afraid” (which was translated by David McDuff): “It isn’t true, I am afraid, my darling!/ But make it look as though you haven’t noticed.” Astor recounts the travails of a poet who lived in the age of Samizdat, and eventually became an international cause celebre, who emigrated for a time to England, through the intervention of Susan Sontag, Francois Mitterand and Mikhail Gorbachev. The lines Astor quotes are classic in their use of ambiguity. Despite the title of Ratushinskaya's poem, one can imagine that fear must have dogged the poet her whole adult life, as she’d had to face the repercussions of running afoul of the Soviet system. How perfectly the lines encapulate a sensibility fearful yet counterphobic enough to go against her own instincts for survival! The lines are like an Ars Poetica for expression amidst tyranny and repression. But they should be hung in the study of every poet and writer who seeks that elusive beauty that Keats defined as “truth.” You don’t need a censor or the threat of imprisonment to clamp down on unpopular voices and the lynch mob can end up on the side of so-called right.

Is it Insulting to Bring a Plastic Arrangement?

artificial daffodils

Is it insulting to give somebody a plastic bouquet? Fresh flowers are always touted for their beauty and their smell, but they can be expensive and it's easy to find artificial ones that look nice for half the price. Who's going to know the difference? Appearances aren't everything and besides their smell and look plastic flowers will not only do the job for a wedding or funeral, they will truly last. The kind of plastic flower arrangement you find in a Target will likely outlive you. Plastic flowers are a memory that doesn't fade with time and your plastic arrangement can easily be passed on like a relay baton by the person you have given them to who will now no longer be obliged to fork out for the next occasion he or she is invited to. 

Crazy Rich Asians

Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians is a Chinese Goodbye, Columbus. Of course there's a huge disparity in the kinds of wealth that both, the movie and Roth’s novella (later made into a film) describe. However, social stratification is the name of the game. The subclasses are pure bred Chinese (who happen to be inhabitants of Singapore) and Chinese-Americans. Nicholas Young (Henry Golding), the scion of fabulously wealthy family falls for Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), the daughter of an immigrant  raised in Flushing, Queens. His imperious mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) is not happy. The fact that Rachel is a professor at NYU with an interest in microeconomics and game theory (which she cleverly demonstrates in a mahjong match) provides a lens by which to deal with the question of wealth itself. Whether Rachel has heard of Thorstein Veblen or read about “conspicuous consumption,” she’s the petrie dish in which to see the interplay of class and materialism at work. Eleanor provides a rather subtle counterpart for though she maintains a dynastic interest in wealth preservation she’s opposed to the American model of social mobility. “All Americans think about is their own happiness,” she comments at one point. Despite these insights, Crazy Rich Asians is peculiarly insular, vacuous and indulgent of the manners and mores it satirizes. You go to the movie with the expectation of a banquet in which you will be satiated and amused and end up feeling empty.

John McCain's Final Vote

Everyone orchestrates their own funeral. You have to make arrangements. Will you be buried or cremated? The will is essentially a means by which one has a say in what’ll happen after one’s demise. But it’s rare that people want or care to have true agency in human affairs when they're gone. And this is what was so extraordinary about John McCain’s funeral in which the orchestration of speakers and events (his inviting former rivals like Obama to speak and his exclusion of Trump from the invitation list) was actually a political act. In the planning of his own funeral, McCain cast the ultimate absentee ballot. When you think about it, what's extraordinary is the extent to which he cared. While the average person wants to make sure his or her affairs are in order and that children, wives, parents and even favored charities are taken care of, few people give a hoot what the world is going to be like after they’re gone. In fact, the reality that you'll no longer be on earth at some point can temper your behavior while your still alive. Indeed, there are times in the course of life that this awareness can have a liberating effect on the way that people deal with those around them. Someday you’re not going to be here to tell them what to do. So why bother now? Whether or not McCain ever enjoyed the freedom deriving from such a realization while he was still on earth, he exhibited a preternatural desire to be a voting citizen in the life to come.

John McCain and the Politics of What Matters

Patriotism is an odd quality. Together with its sibling ideal nationalism, it can be turned to the most invidious of purposes. Patriotism has often justified imperialism of all varieties from the Nazi invasion of Europe to the CIA's deposing of leaders like Mossadegh in Iran and Allende in Chile. At the funeral of John McCain an other side of patriotism was movingly dramatized and that's the subsuming of the self to a greater cause. Certainly that's what great moments in American history like D-Day are all about. It's a project that was exemplified by McCain’s life and his choice of former rivals (in particuolar Bush and Obama) to speak at his funeral. You might not like or agree with him but Joe Lieberman gave one of the most moving testaments to the humor, civility and irascability of the man in describing the history of his friendship with his former colleague. McCain's life elicited a profound meditation on human existence from Henry Kissinger. In fact the presence of former adversaries along with one significant exclusion (that of president Trump) turned the ceremony into one of the most powerful political statements of recent times. No revelation about strippers, no inquiry about Russian interference into the 2016 campaign could compete. It was a reminder of everything that's good about America and a real reason why Americans can and should experience feelings of pride which is also a form of faith. Meghan McCain cited a Greek historian when she said “the image of great men is woven into the stuff other men’s lives.” She also said, "The America of John McCain doesn't need to be made great again because it always was great." Obama quoted from one of McCain's favorite books For Whom the Bell Tolls when he said, “Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.” This is the kind of discourse John McCain inspired. His funeral was a shot in the arm to principles like free speech, due process and to documents like the Constitution and the Bill of Rights whose primacy is increasingly being forgotten in the current state of siege which characterizes American politics. You don't have a booming economy or any economy without people.

Beating the Odds

When you’re in a casino and playing 21, you say “hit me,” when you want to be dealt another card. There are some other phrases  like “les jeux sont faits” which you might hear if you watch a movie like The Croupier (1998) starring Clive Owen. Gambling has something in common with cosmology to the extent that it’s predicated on the notion that while there's no divine order in the universe (why would one gamble if everything is following a plan whose odds you can’t defeat), there’s some free will and some possibility that the chance meeting of atoms, the numbers on the slot machine, the turn of the dice, the black or red numbers of the roulette wheel will result in a Royal Flush or a straight. If you like horses the mountain you’re climbing is the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Preakness Stakes. Bettors also salivate over the Super Bowl and college basketball’s March Madness. The gambling mentality extends into everyday life. When you’re going for a long shot in an impossible situation, you throw a Hail Mary which is a pass that the quarterback of the team that’s losing might heave into the end zone when it’s fourth down with ten seconds left on the clock. What is there to lose? A good majority of gamblers end up in the doghouse, but there are always the exceptions who hit the jackpot and the only way they’ll hold on to their winnings is if they cash in their chips while the metaphorical night is young.

The Final Solution: Wild Kingdom

Here is one of the many John McCain quotes that have recently been cited: “We never hide from history. We make history.” It’s an arresting observation and directly the opposite of the kind of subterfuges characteristic of current US foreign policy. But the key point is not conservative, liberal, global or isolationist. Realpolitik in the extreme manifestation characteristic of the current administration is basically totally lacking in the notion of overarching principles. It’s the exemplification of Herbert Spencer’s “Social Darwinism.” One of the big hits of the famed soul singer Jerry Butler was "Only the Strong Survive." It’s no wonder that his soubriquet was “the iceman.” And this way of thinking looks at human life as an episode of “Wild Kingdom,” in which the fittest, say the hyena munching on the entrails of a downed giraffe, defines the food chain. It’s nice to think that with the advent of consciousness mankind has evolved a little bit beyond that paradigm. The president's supporters admire him because he has the kind of shock jock mentality that doesn't shy from blatancy. Trump portrays himself as the top dog with international relations devolving into one of those illegal cockfighting rings that you read about in the paper. You don’t have to agree with everything that John McCain had to say to realize that it emanated from a place of principle and exuded adherence to a higher calling.