Deep down, the US, with its space, its technological refinement, its bluff good conscience, even in those spaces which it opens up... for simulation, is the only remaining primitive society.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I'd take off all my clothes & cross the damp cold lawn & down the bluff... into the terrible water & walk forever under it out toward the island.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
During the fifties, for example, the American character appeared with some consistency that became a model of manhood adopted by m...any men: the Fifties male. He got to work early, labored responsibly, supported his wife and children and admired discipline. Reagan is a sort of mummified version of this dogged type. This sort of man didn't see women's souls well, but he appreciated their bodies; and his view of culture and America's part in it was boyish and optimistic. Many of his qualities were strong and positive, but underneath the charm and bluff there was, and there remains, much isolation, deprivation, and passivity. Unless he has an enemy, he isn't sure that he is alive. The Fifties man was supposed to like football, be aggressive, stick up for the United States, never cry, and always provide.... During the sixties, another sort of man appeared. The waste and violence of the Vietnam war made men question whether they knew what an adult male really was. If manhood meant Vietnam, did they want any part of it? Meanwhile, the feminist movement encouraged men to actually look at women, forcing them to become conscious of concerns and sufferings that the Fifties male labored to avoid.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For this world we live in None of us is sly enough.... Never do we notice All is lie and bluff. Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army? Do not treat me in this fashion. Don't leave me out. Have I not Always spoken the truth in my books? And now You treat me like a liar! I order you: Burn me! Those who lead the country into the abyss Call ruling too difficult For ordinary men. Ah, what an age it is When to speak of trees is almost a crime For it is a kind of silence about injustice!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Below me trees unnumbered rise, Beautiful in various dyes:... The gloomy pine, the poplar blue, The yellow beech, the sable yew, The slender fir that taper grows, The sturdy oak with broad-spread boughs.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Southern trees bear a strange fruit Blood on the leaf and blood at the root... Black bodies swingin' in the southern breeze Strange fruit hangin' in the poplar trees.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »