“It is one of only three journals that the poet is known to have kept and covers the period shortly after what he described as the ‘eleven happiest weeks of my life’ – the honeymoon period of his relationship with the American poet Chester Kallman.
The frank details of his personal life are set against the build-up to the Second World War. He wrote: ‘I am happy, but in debt… I have no job. My [US] visa is out of order. There may be a war. But I have an epithalamion to write and cannot worry much.’”
(Source: millionsmillions)
Maureen Corrigan on the new novel Americanahby Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:
Ifemelu does make it over to America on a student visa and, ultimately, she becomes a very successful blogger. Ifemelu’s blog is called: Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black. The name of her blog should give you a sense of the subjects as well as the tart smarts of her posts, many of which are included in this novel. But, before Ifemelu strikes the blogger bonanza, she must endure the new immigrant initiation rite of looking for work. Ifemelu answers ads for home health aides in apartments that stink of urine and she works as “the nanny” in the Philadelphia suburbs. At one point, desperate for rent money, Ifemelu accepts a sexual job offer.
“There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice. But I do know that art—in my own case the art of poetry—means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage. The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate. A President cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored.” — Happy birthday, Adrienne Rich! The 1997 letter with which the beloved poet became the only person to turn down the prestigious National Medal of Arts. (via wwnorton)
(Source: , via wwnorton)
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The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 1925.
If my mom wrote The Great Gatsby.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 1925.
NPR Fresh Air: Q: I wouldn’t want to be friends with Nora, would you? Her outlook is... -
Q: I wouldn’t want to be friends with Nora, would you? Her outlook is almost unbearably grim.
A: For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath? Saleem Sinai? Hamlet? Krapp? Oedipus?…
THIS. ALL DAY. EVERY DAY.
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(Source: nickthejam)