Paul Auster - Travels in the Scriptorium – Comment.

Throughout Paul Auster's prolific writing career, his playful use of language and his explorations into what constitutes `reality', has never disappointed, though his work, appears to be becoming freer, taking more risks, expecting his readers to travel with him, as he pushes the literary envelope. Auster's, Travels in the Scriptorium, is his best metafictional piece, comparable to the most noted postmodern works of Borges, Kafka, or Calvino. 

Like most of Auster's novels, the prose is deceptively simple, creating a palimpsest of plot upon plot, scurrying up one direction, abruptly turning in another to then make connections that the reader would never forecast, but feeling satisfied at the story's end. 

 
On the surface, Scriptorium is a `report' about a certain individual that the all-knowing narrator of the novel chooses to call Mr. Blank for lack of a better name. The character has no recollection of who he is or where he is and strives to come to terms with his lack of memory and strange surroundings. 
 
Mr. Blank is in a small room with a bedside table where a phone is placed, a desk and a window that cannot be opened from the inside. We are told that the subject, Mr. Blank, is being photographed once every second ". producing eighty-six thousand four hundred still photos with each revolution of the earth."

(P.126-7) 
 
In other words, disturbingly, his every movement and word is being recorded by some unknown `authority' or `other'...on all the objects around his small cell, are pieces of tape where is written the name of the particular object: lamp, wall, desk, bed etc.: the narrator goes on to speculate: 
 
"What cannot be known at this point is whether he is reading the word on the strip of tape or simply referring to the wall itself. It could be that he has forgotten how to read but still recognizes things for what they are and can call them by their names, or, conversely, that he has lost the ability to recognize things for what they are but still knows how to read." (P.127) 
 
As the story unfolds, little by little, we meet new characters that certainly know Mr. Blank, however, he does not know them, but feels as if there is a familiarity, and in one case, real love, for the character Anna, who truly does love the old man revealed through her actions. 
 
We come to the end of the novella to discover the whole tale is merely a literary artifice, a creation, that, if the narrator chooses, will go on forever, but only on the narrator's whim. 
 
My favorite part of the story is when Mr. Blank must finish the unfinished story by the author, John Trause. (A character in another Auster novel, Oracle Nights) At first, he reads the manuscript which ends abruptly, and Samuel Farr, the doctor, asks him to finish it aloud. Time runs out and Dr. Farr must leave before Mr. Blank can finish the story. Later, impatient with Farr not returning, Mr. Blank decides to finish the story, aloud, all alone. There are many alternative ways the story can go, all explored by Mr. Blank, until he produces the best one. This is a notable example of reader-response criticism in action. 
 
Tales of the Scriptorium is also a tale that can be an investment for the reader, the reader given the opportunity to grab the tale and push it in many directions. The book is also a tongue and cheek criticism of the third person singular, the all-knowing narrator, controlling every facet of the `realist' novel...the reader merely a passive recipient. This is an excellent example of using the artifice of the novel, playing with its traditional forms, and cleverly revealing these forms for what they are. 
 
A dedicated reader of Mr. Auster for many years, he never ceases to astound me with his constant experimentation, entertaining experimentation with the art form called the "novel". 

Joni Mitchell - the urge for going. Comment.

 

Not part of the generation that spawned this wonderful artist, (hippies, flower children and Timothy Leary) Joni Mitchell entered my life in the summer of my eighteenth year, just graduated high school, and my first time away from home. The power and depth of her music shows that time or generation have no relevance.  

I was living in a small town in New Mexico, working a construction job shoveling cement. My friend was more the construction 'type' and had been experiencing a music retro phase, thus one evening he introduced me to 'Court and Spark'. This was an irony because old Paul just did not fit the folk music image. I had heard Joni on the radio for many years but never payed attention. I was experiencing a retro phase as well, though mine was more of the Led Zeppelin variety. I remember distinctly sitting out on lawn chairs in front of the motel, the obligatory beer in hand watching the desert sun disappear, while Joni's lovely voice echoed in the warm summer night.  

My life changed. 

 As an expatriate living in Australia, for reasons unknown, they do not play Joni Mitchell. As a result, it became a case of 'out of earshot, out of mind.' Years later, though, browsing the geriatric section of the record store, I came upon ~Hits~, bought it immediately, and travelled back down memory lane. This is an outstanding compilation. These songs have withstood the test of time, retaining their magic. 

This CD has most of the top seller's: 'Big Yellow Taxi', 'Help Me', 'Free Man in Paris' and 'You Turn Me on I'm a Radio'. But it also includes songs that you might not have heard. My personal favorite is 'Urge for Going'. I suppose this is understandable considering I dwell in the Southern Hemisphere: when it spins into winter here it is moving towards summer in the U.S. - hence the urge for going.  

After listening to this CD many times, the thought occurred to me that Joni Mitchell is one of the forerunners for popular music. Her music is the prototype for a lot of what we listen to today. I can certainly hear her influence in many hits through the eighties and nineties. Joni set the trend for popular music that continues to proliferate without end. The difference with Joni is she lacks the fanfare, attitude, and bells and whistles that many artists require now to get noticed. Joni Mitchell is pure, and the music speaks for itself. 

My musical tastes live in hard rock land, with the occasional divergence into classical. But Joni Mitchell is in a category all by herself. 

Joseph Wilson: A Diplomats Memoir: Inside the Lies that Led to War and the betrayal of my wife’s CIA Identity.

 

(From the Archives:2005)

Ambassador Wilson's The Politics of Truth is a lucid account of his long and distinguished career in the American Foreign Service, and a detailed and at times shocking description of the infamous so-called Niger-Iraq Uranium Deal that mysteriously was included in President Bush's State of the Union Address. Wilson also tells the story of his wife's betrayal by the Bush administration, revealing her identity as a covert CIA Operative, knowing full well that this revelation would put her and other operatives in harms way. This is an appalling story of an administration that will stoop to anything, including treason, to cover their web of deception to the Senate, the U.S. Congress, and the American people. 

Ambassador Wilson's career in the U.S. Foreign Service makes compelling reading. His diplomatic postings included Niger, Togo, South Africa, Burundi, the Congo, Iraq and finally Washington as an advisor for African affairs to President Clinton. One has a stereotypical image of ambassadors, wearing expensive suits, attending cocktail parties in lush palaces discussing the fate of entire nations. To a small extent this romantic image may be true, but most Foreign Service is demanding work, balancing the diplomatic line. 

Wilson worked for the first Bush administration during Desert Storm, heroically negotiating the release of American prisoners in Iraq. Wilson has great admiration for George H. W. Bush and has nothing but praise for his handling of Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War. In fact, Wilson was the last American representative that spoke with Saddam before the American invasion of Kuwait. Wilson's career in the Foreign Service is an example of loyal service to one's country, which makes the subsequent events in his life under the current Bush administration that much more diabolical. 

The Bush administration alleged that Iraq was in the midst of developing nuclear weapons based on spurious intelligence reports, which justified to congress and the American people the invasion and occupation of Iraq. On CIA request, Wilson was asked to visit Niger and investigate the alleged sale of "yellow cake" to Iraq. His investigation proved no such exchange occurred, and reported this information back to the CIA. Despite this intelligence, the Bush administration forged ahead, using this false information to persuade the international community and the American people to go to war. Ambassador Wilson was outraged that the Bush administration would out-right lie to justify war and wrote an OP-ED piece in the New York Times exposing the falsehood. It was now on for young and old. 

Suddenly the neocons and the right-wing press launched a smear campaign on Ambassador Wilson's character, and when that was not working, someone high up in the Bush administration leaked the identity of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA covert operative, risking her life and the lives of many others. This action cannot be categorized as simply "the game of Washington politics" as certain individuals in the administration have attempted to propose as a tool of mitigation. The stark reality is that the U.S. is at war, and during wartime, to expose covert operatives is an act of treason, punishable by death. What is overwhelming is that the investigation into this act of treason has been dragging on for several months without a resolution in sight.  

Those in the Bush administration that leaked Plame's identity should be brought to justice in a timely manner, especially during wartime. But as usual, the Bush neocons continue to finger point, duck and weave, and shrug-off the situation as if it were below them. Thirty years ago, President Clinton was impeached for twisting the truth about a sexual impropriety, and here we have an administration out-right lying to congress, sending American men and women to their deaths, spending billions of dollars on war reparations that could have been avoided, and committing treason during wartime. Does this administration have so much power that the wheels of justice cannot touch them? Are people too scared to stand up to these men? 

Politics of Truth is a remarkable text, revealing corruption in the highest echelons of government. Finally, we have an individual with enough guts and sense of civic duty to hold a position against the machinations of a dishonest administration.