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Trakl - Word Trucks- I and You; Here and There; This and That
?
Editorial
Word Trucks: I and You; Here and There; This and That
? We are a nation of fads and one is hard pressed to keep up with all of them. They come and they go, some stick, most don't, and they add variety to our already too various lives. Thoreau noted the trend wisely in Walden when he com- mented on the fashion of his day: "We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae [Roman godesses of destiny] but Fash- ion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler's cap and all the mon- keys in America do the same. "
Friedman's global economy has come to the Pacific Northwest!
One current fashion has to do with "food trucks" that ply their wares seem- ingly on every street corner in America, including this humble hamlet. To be ur- bane means to stand in line and wait for some tacos, burgers, Asian food, then eat on the concrete al fresco style. There is even one food truck entrepreneur in Ed- monds, Washington, who tours her orange truck around the local area area "making hearty sandwiches, salads and soups . . . drawing our inspiration from our exten- sive cookbook collection and seasonal ingredients, and we love global flavors. So our little menu has a little something from here and a little something from there. " The food truck is called, appro- priately, "Here and There Grill. " Thomas
When I lived in China one was warned to never eat on the street for fear of pick- ing up Hepatitis B and, of course, eating on the streets in places like Mexico the possibility of getting sick was cautioned in most travel books. That all seems to have changed in a split second and be- come a cultural moment associated with artisan foods, anti-mall food court cui- sine, and a certain louche style practiced by drunken students in Oxford after a night of carousing.
Literary magazines have been in the food truck business for a long time, serving up a variety of dishes that were intended to stimulate the intellectual pal- ate with "the best words in the best or- der. " Certainly college curriculums have moved away from Dr. Eliot's "Five Foot Shelf" and toward the cafeteria-style cur- riculum ("This and That") which is now deeply entrenched in American higher education.
Parenthetically a recent book by Nicholas Carr titled The Shallows has a provocative subtitle: "What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. " Carr argues that the Internet has rewired our brains so that "deep reading" is passe? for the "Genera-
622 The Antioch Review
tion Net" who have been reared to scan, blog, tag, and tweet. One Duke Univer- sity professor of English whom Carr quotes can't get her literature students to read "whole books anymore. "
South Africa by the Boston-based writer Rose Moss.
We open our essay menu with the fol- lowing starters: Patricia Foster's chilling personal essay "Awakening," followed by Mark Gustafson's about the relation- ship of two poets--Robert Bly and James Wright--to bring the work of George Trakl, the Austrian-born poet who died of a suicide in 1914 at the age of twenty- seven, to an American audience. Thomas Cottle, a frequent contributor here, gives us a compelling case study of a marginal client of his caught up in the downward spiral of poverty and unemployment, only to be rescued in the "American Idol" style. Jean Justice and Amy Tatko then meditate on two places--Charlotte, North Carolina, and a high school class- room in Vermont.
The poetry, like the fiction, has a little of this and that; of the nine poets, eight are new to our pages and come from here and there, meaning Edmonton in Cana- da, Alpharetta in Georgia, Fitzwilliam in New Hampshire and Madison in Wiscon- sin, all known for their peculiar culinary styles and taste.
For the fiction course we have a vir- ginal story by Askold Melnyczuk, a tale about the Second World War, a literary thriller about a mythic Icelandic author by Mika Seifert who lives in Germany, a post-college story set in a Costco or Walmart, a translation of a superb Argen- tinean writer, Hebe Uhart, who has been compared to Carson McCullers and Flan- nery O'Connor, and finally a story set in
And if you "have room for a des- sert" (as the waiter usually says) we have one of our traditional essays--this one by John Dewey from our 1944 summer menu, which featured articles on what the post-war future would look like, par- ticularly with regard to food production. Dewey wrote about education while oth- ers took on "Big Business and the Farm Bloc," "Agriculture in America's Cri- sis," and "Our Postwar Consumption of Food. " All that well before "sustainabil- ity" became a buzzword with a certain vague provenance about it.
Taken together all of these word trucks will give you a heady meal for about ten dollars, either in the digital or print form, and it is gluten-free. Or if you are reading in a library you can dash out and get a terrific souvlaki sandwich on the corner.
Bon appetit!
? Robert S. Fogarty
Copyright of Antioch Review is the property of Antioch Review, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
Word Trucks: I and You; Here and There; This and That
? We are a nation of fads and one is hard pressed to keep up with all of them. They come and they go, some stick, most don't, and they add variety to our already too various lives. Thoreau noted the trend wisely in Walden when he com- mented on the fashion of his day: "We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae [Roman godesses of destiny] but Fash- ion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler's cap and all the mon- keys in America do the same. "
Friedman's global economy has come to the Pacific Northwest!
One current fashion has to do with "food trucks" that ply their wares seem- ingly on every street corner in America, including this humble hamlet. To be ur- bane means to stand in line and wait for some tacos, burgers, Asian food, then eat on the concrete al fresco style. There is even one food truck entrepreneur in Ed- monds, Washington, who tours her orange truck around the local area area "making hearty sandwiches, salads and soups . . . drawing our inspiration from our exten- sive cookbook collection and seasonal ingredients, and we love global flavors. So our little menu has a little something from here and a little something from there. " The food truck is called, appro- priately, "Here and There Grill. " Thomas
When I lived in China one was warned to never eat on the street for fear of pick- ing up Hepatitis B and, of course, eating on the streets in places like Mexico the possibility of getting sick was cautioned in most travel books. That all seems to have changed in a split second and be- come a cultural moment associated with artisan foods, anti-mall food court cui- sine, and a certain louche style practiced by drunken students in Oxford after a night of carousing.
Literary magazines have been in the food truck business for a long time, serving up a variety of dishes that were intended to stimulate the intellectual pal- ate with "the best words in the best or- der. " Certainly college curriculums have moved away from Dr. Eliot's "Five Foot Shelf" and toward the cafeteria-style cur- riculum ("This and That") which is now deeply entrenched in American higher education.
Parenthetically a recent book by Nicholas Carr titled The Shallows has a provocative subtitle: "What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. " Carr argues that the Internet has rewired our brains so that "deep reading" is passe? for the "Genera-
622 The Antioch Review
tion Net" who have been reared to scan, blog, tag, and tweet. One Duke Univer- sity professor of English whom Carr quotes can't get her literature students to read "whole books anymore. "
South Africa by the Boston-based writer Rose Moss.
We open our essay menu with the fol- lowing starters: Patricia Foster's chilling personal essay "Awakening," followed by Mark Gustafson's about the relation- ship of two poets--Robert Bly and James Wright--to bring the work of George Trakl, the Austrian-born poet who died of a suicide in 1914 at the age of twenty- seven, to an American audience. Thomas Cottle, a frequent contributor here, gives us a compelling case study of a marginal client of his caught up in the downward spiral of poverty and unemployment, only to be rescued in the "American Idol" style. Jean Justice and Amy Tatko then meditate on two places--Charlotte, North Carolina, and a high school class- room in Vermont.
The poetry, like the fiction, has a little of this and that; of the nine poets, eight are new to our pages and come from here and there, meaning Edmonton in Cana- da, Alpharetta in Georgia, Fitzwilliam in New Hampshire and Madison in Wiscon- sin, all known for their peculiar culinary styles and taste.
For the fiction course we have a vir- ginal story by Askold Melnyczuk, a tale about the Second World War, a literary thriller about a mythic Icelandic author by Mika Seifert who lives in Germany, a post-college story set in a Costco or Walmart, a translation of a superb Argen- tinean writer, Hebe Uhart, who has been compared to Carson McCullers and Flan- nery O'Connor, and finally a story set in
And if you "have room for a des- sert" (as the waiter usually says) we have one of our traditional essays--this one by John Dewey from our 1944 summer menu, which featured articles on what the post-war future would look like, par- ticularly with regard to food production. Dewey wrote about education while oth- ers took on "Big Business and the Farm Bloc," "Agriculture in America's Cri- sis," and "Our Postwar Consumption of Food. " All that well before "sustainabil- ity" became a buzzword with a certain vague provenance about it.
Taken together all of these word trucks will give you a heady meal for about ten dollars, either in the digital or print form, and it is gluten-free. Or if you are reading in a library you can dash out and get a terrific souvlaki sandwich on the corner.
Bon appetit!
? Robert S. Fogarty
Copyright of Antioch Review is the property of Antioch Review, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
