E.E. Reed

@poetryforsupper

we shall not live by bread alone. public works are for the public.

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E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· 20d

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

'No!' said Thorin. 'There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!'

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· 21d

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· 21d

Mail. A government of the people, by the people, for the people. Still a pretty neat idea in the history of political philosophy. A form of life worth defending even.

The Reconstruction Papers. Liberal Currents. Cover.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· 29d

Rosa out here trying his darnedest to translate the ancient search for meaning into a contemporary frame: “If acceleration is the problem, then resonance may well be the solution.”

If acceleration is the problem, then resonance may well be the solution. This is the most concise formulation of the central thesis of this book, and it signals two important fundamental insights.

First, the solution is not deceleration. Though the press has occasionally cast me in the role of a "deceleration guru" (an image that I have perhaps unwittingly earned thanks to a few incautious media appearances, I have never actually proposed slowing down as either an individual or a societal solution to the problem of acceleration, but at most suggested it only as a "coping strategy" for dealing with tempo-induced problems in the course of everyday life. Essentially, I have never engaged with "deceleration" in a systematic way.
Second, if deceleration is not the solution, this also means that the problem must be defined more precisely. Modern societies are characterized by systematic changes in temporal structures for which acceleration may serve as a blanket term. I defined acceleration in my previous book, Social Acceleration, as growth in quantity per unit of time, which makes clear that we are dealing here with comprehensive processes of increase. As I will show in the final part of this book, acceleration can also be understood as an irrevocable tendency toward escalation rooted in the fact that the social formation of modernity cannot stabilize itself except dynamically. This means that modern capitalist society, in order to culturally and structurally reproduce itself, to maintain its formative status quo, must forever be expanding, growing and innovating, increasing production and consumption as well as options and opportunities for connection - in short: it must always be dynamically accelerating.
This systematic tendency toward escalation changes how people are situated in the world, the ways in which human beings relate to the world. Dynamization in this sense means a fundamental transformation of our relationship to time and space, to other people, to the…

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jul 11

yes. quite a day.

Little River Canyon. Lookout Mountain. DeKalb County, Alabama.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jul 11

hold the summer in your hand.

blackberry in my hand, marigolds in the background.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jul 7

Kotsko’s gloss on Heraclitus is very good: Neoliberalism loves to hide.

Adam Kotsko. Neoliberalism’s Demons.

Neoliberalism loves to hide. On the increasingly frequent but still rare occasions when the term appears in the mainstream media, it is always in the context of an introductory treatment.' Strangely, one can never assume that the educated public is already acquainted with the force that has deeply shaped public policy and economic outcomes for a generation or more in the major Western countries and much of the developing world. For its advocates, as for those shaped by the "common sense" of mainstream political discussion, it is not a particular ideology nor even an ideology at all. It is simply the way things are, the set of "realistic" policies that "work." This very invisibility is a measure of its power, and the fact that the word can now be uttered in public is a sign that its planetary sway is growing less secure.
The term itself is slippery. It is first of all a periodizing concept that names the political-economic model that grew out of the crisis of the postwar settlement known as Fordism; hence it is in principle purely descriptive.
At the same time it is a conceptual weapon for left-wing critics who take aim at all that is oppressive and alienating in our present world. So on the one hand, one might observe, seemingly neutrally, that whereas Fordism favored high taxation to limit inequality, energetic regulation of industry to make sure it serves social goals, strong labor unions that help workers claim

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jul 7

Mail.

Natasha Trethewey. Monument & The House of Being. Covers.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jul 6

R.S. Thomas

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 29

yes. quite a day.

Tennessee River. Jackson County, Alabama.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 27

i picked up another novel that has sat on my shelf for many years, and i am halfway through it. it very tightly observed with impeccable technique, but it is distant and cold and i do not love it.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 24

this little novel has sat unread on my shelf for many years, but i finished it last night. it is beautiful and perfect.

J.L. Carr. A Month in the Country. Cover.

Am I making too much of this? Perhaps. But there are times when man and earth are one, when the pulse of living beats strong, when life is brimming with promise and the future stretches confidently ahead like that road to the hills. Well, I was young...

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 21

yes. quite a day.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 19

Strange, history. Complicated, too. It will always be a mystery, history. New disclosures are as bizarre as the most bizarre fantasy. Happy Juneteenth.

Flight to Canada. Ishmael Reed.

Old Harriet. Naughty Harriet. Accusing Lord Byron of pornography. She couldn't take to Lincoln. She liked Nobility, Curious. The woman who was credited with ruining the Flanters was a toady to Nobility, just as they were. Strange, history, Complicated, too. It will always be a mystery, history. New disclosures are as bizarre as the most bizarre fantasy. Harriet caught some of it. She popularized the American novel and introduced it to Europe. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Writing is strange, though. That story caught up with her. The story she "borrowed" from Josiah Henson. Harriet only wanted enough money to buy a silk dress. The paper mills ground day and night. She'd read Josiah Henson's book. That Harriet was alert. The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave. Seventy-seven pages long. It was short, but it was his. It was all he had. His story. A man's story is his gris-gris, you know. Taking his story is like taking his gris-gris. The thing that is himself. It's like robbing a man of his Etheric Double. People pine away. It baffles the doctors the way some people pine away for no reason. For no reason? Somebody has made off with their Etheric Dou-ble, has crept into the hideout of themselves and taken all they found there. Human hosts walk the streets of the cities, their eyes hollow, the spirit gone out of them. Somebody has taken their story. Josiah Henson went away and fell in love with wood. Nobody could take his wood. His walnut boards. He took his walnut boards to England and exhibited them at the Crystal Palace. Met the young Queen Victoria. Nobody could take away his Dawn, his settlement in Canada. Harriet gave Josiah credit in her The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. What was the key to her Cabin? Strange woman, that Harriet.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 15

a tiny salad from our own garden.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 12

rave on.

Me, logging into the video chat party dressed in a slim fit suit and a skinny tie.
You: Well, how's it going?
Me, putting on my glasses, pushing play, stepping back to dance pigeon toed with carefully floppy ankles, lip syncing to the music: Waiting for the end of the world.

…

You, through tears: You can't just put on those glasses and call yourself slutty whoever year after year!
Me, reaching out for a hug: Buddy.

You: Alright, who are you this year? Slutty Oscar Isaac at AAR?
Me, throwing a feather boa over my modest cardigan, breaking into song, to the tune of the opening line of Tiny Dancer: Eugene Levy.

…

Me, logging into the video chat party dressed in a slim fit suit and a skinny tie.
You: Well, how's it going?

You, sighing: Again with the glasses. OK.
You dyed your hair grey. Suspenders. And is that a bowl?
Me, tossing a light and flufty piece of popcorn into my mouth.
You: Oh dear God.
Me: That's right, I'm the first and last name in bawdy costumes. I'm Slutty Orville Redenbacher.

…

You: Alright, who are you this year? Slutty Oscar Isaac at AAR?
Me, throwing a feather boa over my modest cardigan, breaking into song,

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 12

not fade away.

"Didn't you wear your Slutty Ira Glass costume last year?"

*looks over the rims of Buddy Holly glasses*

"This year I'm Slutty Colin Meloy."

"Really?"
*looks over the rims of three year old Buddy Holly glasses* "Slutty. Moshe. Kasher."

…

"Didn't you wear your Slutty Ira Glass costume last year?"
*looks over the rims of Buddy Holly glasses*
"This year I'm Slutty Colin Meloy."

"Wait, wait... Slutty Rivers Cuomo?"
"Please. John Darnielle."

…

"Really?"
*looks over the rims of three year old Buddy Holly glasses* "Slutty. Moshe. Kasher."

You, through tears: You can't just put on those glasses and call yourself slutty whoever year after year!
Me, reaching out for a hug: Buddy. I'm just happy to be here. Tonight [deadpans for the camera] I'm Slutty Josh Gondelman.

…

"Wait, wait... Slutty Rivers Cuomo?"
"Please. John Darnielle."

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 10

“But they [the historian and the poet] differ in this: the one speaks of what has come to be while the other speaks of what sort would come to be. Therefore poiêsis is more philosophic and of more stature than history.”

Aristotle. Poetics. Seth Bernardete, translator.

But they differ in this: the one speaks of what has come to be while the other speaks of what sort would come to be. Therefore poiêsis is more philosophic and of more stature than history.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 10

Leo Strauss in a personal letter to Gadamer: “As I knew in advance, we have marched from that common ground in opposite directions — hence the limitations of my understanding your book.”

Strauss. Correspondence with Gadamer Concerning Wahrheit und Methode. Independent Journal of Philosophy. 1978.

E.E. Reed@poetryforsupper· Jun 9

steve. this is precisely why i resist a positivist and reductionist account of language. that account creates abstractions which are, in fact, monsters.