[Pen-l] Swan's Release: June 1, 2009

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ June 1, 2009

***  Thank you Michael DeLang, Charles Pearson, and Walter Trkla for 
your  financial contributions. Please, good readers, support our work 
financially.  Check our Donation page: 
http://www.swans.com/about/donate.html. ***

Note from the Editors:  "We make war that we may live in peace," 
according to  Aristotle. Yet, after millennia of war, when will we 
finally see that peace?  After a fiery, no-win debate amongst Swans 
contributors that began over the  use of pilotless drones, Raju Peddada 
came out fighting in one corner on  behalf of the merits of war as a 
means to peace and as an inherent part of  the natural world, while 
naturalist Martin Murie countered that it is  civilized, proper, and 
timely to oppose wars in the service of empire.  Warriors, we are told, 
are peace-loving individuals, and you always find  people lauding their 
virile courage and even justifying torture in its name.  Michael Doliner 
invokes, with the help of a dark-humorous allegory, the kind  of mindset 
and power structure that it takes to use torture despite its 
ineffectiveness and unintended consequences. Louis Proyect exposes that 
very  mindset and power structure that has brought us slavery and racism 
in his  review of David Roediger's "How Race Survived U.S. History." 
Those versed in  French should read the 1861 Victor Hugo letter 
regarding the destruction and  spoilage of the Chinese Summer Palace by 
the French and the British in the  name of "civilization" and the 
cherished freedom to accumulate.

To counter the war proponents, we find it fitting to republish works by 
Boris  Vian and Tiziano Terzani -- a powerful collection from two 
dissidents that  spans from the 1950s to 2002 and which serves as a good 
reminder of the  corner in which these editors stand.

>From the frontline of activism, Michael Barker takes on the mainstream 
 environmental organizations that ostensibly promote biodiversity and 
global  conservation while maintaining close connections to the mining 
industry. For  those in line at the box office, Charles Marowitz 
recommends swearing off Ron  Howard's "Angels & Demons," and Peter Byrne 
reports from the Tenth Festival  of European Cinema on the political 
films of Costa-Gavras. Alison Phipps  responds poetically to Guido 
Monte's last multilingual creation, and the  French Corner is decorated 
with new works by Marie Rennard and Simone Alié- Daram, along with an 
old classic by Guy de Maupassant in addition to Hugo. We  close with 
your letters on Boris Vian, Gore Vidal, Swans' economics and  politics, 
and more.

                                          # # # # #

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/rajup15.html The Innate Nature Of War 
- Raju Peddada

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/murie71.html Empires Always Die - 
Martin Murie

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/mdolin44.html My Good Neighbor Policy 
- Michael Doliner

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/lproy55.html Are We In A Post-Racial 
America? - Book Review by Louis Proyect

http://www.swans.com/library/art7/xxx071.html Le Déserteur (The 
Deserter) - Boris Vian (Republished)

http://www.swans.com/library/art13/xxx120.html Music Sheet Of Le 
Déserteur</em></a> - Boris Vian & Harold B. Berg  (Republished)

http://www.swans.com/library/art13/xxx122.html Open Letter To Mr. Paul 
Faber, City Councilman - Boris Vian (Republished)

http://www.swans.com/library/art13/xxx121.html I'll Die from a Cancer of 
the Spine - Boris Vian (Republished)

http://www.swans.com/library/art14/ga259.html Introduction to Tiziano 
Terzani's Letters Against the War - Gilles d'Aymery  (Republished)

http://www.swans.com/library/art14/terzani1.html LETTERS AGAINST THE WAR 
- Tiziano Terzani (Republished)

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker21.html Greenwashing Eden: The 
Uses And Abuses Of Biodiversity - Michael Barker

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/cmarow139.html Angels & Demons - Film 
Review by Charles Marowitz

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/pbyrne100.html Costa-Gavras And The 
Z-To-Amen Of Political Cinema - Peter Byrne

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/phipps01.html Conversazioni: Fortress 
Europe - Multilingual Poetry by Alison Phipps

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/marier31.html Ange Gardien - Marie 
Rennard (FR)

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/salie03.html Les sursauts gamma 
(Gamma Ray Burst) ou la fin des étoiles - Simone Alié- Daram (FR)

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/xxx133.html la civilisation de la 
spoliation - Victor Hugo (FR)

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/xxx132.html La chanson du Rayon de 
Lune - Guy de Maupassant (FR)

http://www.swans.com/library/art15/letter166.html Letters to the Editor

                                         # # # # #

Please, consider supporting our co-operative work financially. See 
http://www.swans.com/about/donate.html

Swans (aka Swans Commentary), ISSN: 1554-4915, is a bi-weekly non- 
commercial ad-free Web-only magazine which provides original content to 
its readers. We encourage pulp publications to republish Swans' Work in 
print format. Please contact the publisher at <aymery AT ix.netcom.com>. 
Please, do not repost Swans' Work on the Web and other mailing lists: 
"Hypertext" links to any pages of Swans.com are authorized; however, 
republication of any part of this site, inlining, mirroring, and framing 
are expressly prohibited. We welcome your comments and suggestions. When 
writing to Swans, please indicate your first and last name as well as 
your city and state (country) of residence.

You are receiving this E-mail notification for you have expressed your 
interest in Swans and the work of its team. If you wish not to receive 
these short notifications, simply reply to this E-mail (delete the 
content) and enter the word REMOVE in the subject line. We do NOT share 
your E-mail address with anyone.

Cordially, Gilles d'Aymery -- Swans

"Hungry man, reach for the book: It is a weapon."  B. Brecht




_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l