Citizen Blog

Signifying

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 11:37:14 -0600

In his recent essay, "My Subject, Myself" in the New York Times Book Review of October 9, 2005, James Atlas praises British biographer Richard Holmes for his skill at "imaginative reconstruction." I agree. I also would add other talents to the list, most notably his ability to signify. By this I mean his skill at calling the reader's attention to a significant moment or accomplishment in a subject's life. In his volume 1 of his life of Coleridge, for example, rather than sounding trumpets and piling on adjectives, Holmes does something far more persuasive. He says "for the first time." The phrase is merely descriptive but its power is compelling. The reader has been drifting along, enjoying the imaginary journey, when the biographer says, wait a minute, please don't forget we are trying to do more than be with Coleridge; we are also trying to fathom the shape of his life and his work. By telling us when Coleridge did or said something for the first time, Holmes invites us to stand back and hold the shape of the life in our mind. If only for a moment, he shifts our angle of vision and deepens our grasp of the larger story.

Natural Crises versus Economic Crises

Thu, 15 Sep 2005 21:51:26 -0600

It is an interesting thing, although a bit depressing -- when a natural crise happens, the government puts a great deal of energy into rebuiliding the lives of everyone who has suffered (at least, that is the general expectation and goal). When there is an economic crisis, like a serious depression, something very different happens. There is a great ideological debate about what the government should do and what it should not do. The morality of the victim is taken into consideration. There is much concern among those on the right, or of conservative persuasion, that any aid provided not create dependency among those who are starving and homeless. But in a natural crisis? Or to be specific, in the case of Hurricane Katrina? I imagine we will eventually enter into debates about which policies will corrupt the morality of the victims, but we seem to be very far from that right now. At this point, at least, the government (as well as private citizens) feels compassion for all, even for the poor (after a horrible period of abandoning the poor of New Orleans to their own devices). These thoughts arise because in 1894 the major cities of the United States were hit with a devastating economic depression that lasted for three years. In Chicago, Addams and many other concerned citizens tried to help the unemployed, many of whom were hungry and without shelter, find places to sleep and food to eat and some sort of work. But there were many in Chicago who argued against providing any aid at all, believing the government had no responsibilities. These were in the days before unemployment insurance, food stamps, etc. Things have gotten a little better since then. But only a little. Why, I wonder, are we so generous with our compassion in a natural crisis and so parsimonious with it in an economic crisis?

When a generation gap is not a generation gap

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:08:18 -0600

I just finished reading Vera Brittain's Testament ofYouth. Although Brittain was born in 1893, and thus was of the generation after Jane Addams, who was born in 1860, and although Brittain lived through World War I and Addams was merely a baby during the Civil War, and although Brittain was British and Addams American, and although Brittain eventually married, and Addams did not, there were fascinating similarities between Brittain's book and Addams' memoir of her early years, Twenty Years at Hull House, and fascinating differences too. Like Addams, Brittain was raised in the Victorian tradition of womanhood, possessed a carefully trained conscience, endured a sheltered youth and possessed a fierce ambition and a hunger for the best higher education (i.e., men's) while faced with the opposition of a loving but bewildered family. Both too were haunted by the loss of loved ones and were aspiring writers. Reading the two books side by side gives one much food for thought.

About the Blog

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 20:43:09 -0600

Blogs may be the perfect solution to a problem authors of nonfiction books have long wrestled with -- what to do with the myriad ideas and reactions they have in response to current events, to other books they read, to conversations they have, that relate to what they havewritten about in their books but have no place in them. Or, to put it most simply, when I think to myself, "Jane Addams would have thought this about that," now I have a place to write it down. So this blog will serve that function, at least.

Its other function is the interactive one, of course. What do you, oh reader, think? I look forward to hearing those thoughts.A book is necessarily a one-sided conversation but blogs solve that very old problem too. And since interesting conversation was one of Jane Addams's greatest joys, it would be only appropriate for us to have some interesting conversation here, at the website for her biography.