They... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned.... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.
It is a polemical text, but a good and necessary one. I can only assume that his research is solid (there are no footnotes). Included among the many epiphanies of the first 100 pages is the notion that racism was deliberately fostered by landholders in order to prevent any possible collusion between the sizeable white servant class and the equally sizeable slaves. The evidence is alarming, to say the least. In addition, while Thomas Jefferson comes off as well-meaning but complicit, the usually beatific Founding Fathers are forever besmirched as toadies for the rich. In fact, George Washington was the richest man in America - I mean, could you imagine Bill Gates controlling the Executive Branch??!? Another case for the Interrobang.
No wonder there was no poet at Dubya's Inauguration...Artists of Resistance, also by Mr. Zinn. [via woodslot]
Pataphysics Fountain courted controversy, The Large Glass (The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even, actually) capped his career, unfinished, but to my mind, Three Standard Stoppages is Marcel Duchamp's most perfect work, as well as his funniest:
I have hidden this in plain sight. I have given you deliberate hints. Why don't you be critical and look carefully, and not just believe what creative people or authoritative scholars (and docents giving public tours at MOMA) tell you.[imagined Duchamp quote]
Anti-Globalization and Guattari's The Three Ecologies - this is the first application of F.G.'s Ecosophy concept that I've read and the roots bear fruits daso9999d,/mcvvvvvv [also via woodslot - where does he find time to find/read all this stuff? what a great weblog.]
