Literature has not always led society, but when there has been leadership, literature has furnished it. Other arts, from time to time. History assuredly recalls the election of 1960 as an event of cultural decompression, exorbitantly deferred, foretold in 1936. Of social promise, shiningly exposed. We will not see the election of 2008 in this light, but as 1948, revisited.
Most of the young I know cannot bear to recall the attention they paid to the incumbent's election. They don't know their history. Very well, they were never told: we learn it, before we can be it.
The way up is the way back.
Heraclitus of Ephesus
Brooks Haxton, translation
Fragments
Penguin, 2001©
don't you think you should have kept the b&w photo for a "commute" posting?
ReplyDeletethe "red-unaware-uninformed" twins(?) are perfect for here though!
A wise bit of advice, I don't doubt, but doubly valued for even knowing there is a "commute" series going on here. I love the picture, which reminds me of a Paul Strand (it may be a Paul Strand, for all I know), so I was willing to allocate its "authority" with me to balance against the other image. Kind of you to accept their implicit congruency with the text, but of course one cares about them, which is the point. Plus, they know all the good new music, and won't tell me (the furniture is meant to store LP vinyl records).
ReplyDeleteNice of you to swing by, Tassos.