"The Little Foxes:" a Play for Our Time

I just saw the current Broadway revival of Lillian Hellman's play "The Little Foxes," first performed in 1939 and subsequently made into a film starting Bette Davis in 1941.

Hellman was a Southern, Jewish, ultra-liberal author and playwright (she was a member of the Communist Party for a couple of years) and "The Little Foxes" depicts how the rapacious pursuit of wealth in a capitalist environment crushes human values, destroying marriages and families in the process.

Pippa's dress; The Power of Attire; Manhattan Morning

A day or so ago, The New York Times felt compelled to publically agonize -- on page 2 of the printed edition -- over whether it should have covered the wedding of Pippa Middleton to James Mathews, which it described as "a private family event" as opposed to something of public significance.

Well, yes, the ceremony itself and ensuing festivities were for guests only, but the event wasn't entirely private. The new Mrs. Matthews was said by the paper to have "posed happily for waiting photographers" after the ceremony in her very charming, lace-bodiced wedding gown by British designer Giles Deacon.

Listening to Women Who Have Had Abortions

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, my second novella -- "Gina/Diane" -- is about a woman who has had an abortion.

With the abortion rights controversy heating up once again in the wake of the recent U.S. presidential election, those interested might want to take a look at the book. They can find it as an e-book on Amazon or as a paperback at The Book Patch.

Meanwhile, here is an opinion piece from the New York Times on the topic entitled "Who Should You Listen to on Abortion? People Who’ve Had Them."

Art and a Pineapple

What qualifies as a work of art?

That's not a new question, but rather an ever-present one, at least since around the turn of the 20th century when non-representational, or highly distorted images, came to dominate cutting edge artistic activity and when "found objects" became viewed as equally legitimate to a work that might have taken months to create and only with great skills of one sort or another.

Now comes the celebrated case of the Pineapple, which reopens the question for, one suspects, a lot of younger people who have never previously given the issue much thought.

Do Misfits Have More Insight on the Human Condition?

"I think anybody who has become an artist has learned to claim being a misfit as something that’s cool. Standing outside of the frame is part of what enables us to have insight," said Emily Raboteau, author of "The Professor's Daughter," a novel about a young woman trying to come to terms with a mixed-race background very similar to her own.

She was taking part in a roundtable discussion on what is sometimes called confessional writing published by Literary Hub.

When It Comes To What To Read, Are You a Sheep?

From time to time, I've told people that self-publishing a novel is one of the best ways to assure your anonymity in the ever-increasing surveillance society. Hardly anyone, it seems, makes their own decisions on what to read. Everyone wants to read what everyone else is already reading.

Further evidence of this all-too-human tendency -- essentially we are all sheep, hoping their is a leader around somewhere -- can be found in an article about declining book sales when best-seller lists are discontinued. It comes from an online publication called The Outline.

The Abortion Question: A Good Time to Read "Gina/Diane"

Ok, this is a plug for my latest novella, "Gina/Diane."

Abortion rights is a prominent political issue at the moment, not that it ever seems to go away. Here, for instance, is an article on the topic from The Washington Post and here is another from The New York Times. The Post article discusses how Democrats are wrestling over whether this should be a defining issue for the party. The NYT piece talks about how senior posts within the Department of Health and Human Services are being filled with people opposed to abortion rights.

"Gina/Diane" is not a story about abortion. It's a story about a woman who had one and how that event affected the rest of her life.

It's a good read in the current environment -- if I say so myself.

Quote of the Day: On The Rewards of Writing

"If you’re going to write, you’re going to have to find a reason to do it that has nothing to do with money or recognition or award."

That, says poet Hala Alyan in a Literary Hub article, is because publishers mostly say "no."

I also liked the following from the same article:

"We are living in an age of borders, a moment when people will either cling to those borders or try to dismantle them. A time when language matters more than ever, when words can be used to stoke or resist fear, as people try to criminalize words like 'immigrant' and 'trans' and 'Black.' Reclaim language. Allow writing to transcend those borders."

I don't agree with President Trump on much, but I do agree that political correctness has gone too far.