by itabix | May 30, 2018 | Alcoholism, Coming to terms with the past, Earthrise, Gay literature, inclusive gay community, language, Memory, the South
This, said to us by the man who says of himself, “Call me Ishmael:” It [the spermiceti] had cooled and crystallized to such a degree, that when, with several others, I sat down before a large Constantine’s bath of it, I found it strangely concreted into lumps, here...
by itabix | Jul 10, 2016 | Coming to terms with the past, Marriage, Save the raw material, Stonewall Riots, The effects of bigotry, the South, Walking wounded
Elie Wiesel, who died this week, said in his Nobel Prize speech, “I have tried to keep memory alive […] I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.” But it’s worse than that. If we forget what has happened to...
by itabix | Apr 10, 2016 | Celebration, Courage, Fighting, Fighting Back, the South, Victory
North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia—where do these states get their morals? It is often said that they get them from their religion—this is, after all, the Bible Belt, which has been, in itself, enough to drive many of the rest of...
by itabix | Jan 21, 2016 | Black Mountain, Books, the South
Between October 10, 2015 and now, I have been to see the exhibition on Black Mountain at the ICA maybe half a dozen times. I read a 600-page book on Black Mountain, written by Martin Duberman and published in 1971. I have also studied the catalogue for the show. Aside...
by itabix | Sep 7, 2015 | Fighting Back, Marriage, Marriage cases, SCOTUS, Sexuality, the South
I was in the Back Bay Thursday, on the second floor of the Library, when I saw the headline, US Clerk jailed for gay marriage defiance; dispute goes on. I was on the subway coming back to Somerville, ruminating on the headline. It made people think of the sixties. I...
