R A L P H The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities Number 135 Late Mid-Summer 2005 |
NEW TITLES
Hannah Coulter
"After awhile things get
so wooky there in Berryland
that one finds oneself
wanting to call up the ghost of
Sherwood Anderson or Sinclair Lewis,
just to put a tad of fire
in these folk."
Kinsey
The Manor and the Estate Reading Lolita in Tehran Roads to Forgotten Texas Livestock Hotel Great Reviews of the Past
BRIEF REVIEWS LETTERS
ARTICLES
READINGS
The Oozing Cyst Blues
POETRY THE OFFICIAL RALPH
GENERAL INDEX
A PITHY SAMPLE
SUBSCRIBE
"He had seen homosexuals
in prison, blackmailed, made to feel
guilt and anxiety, even made outcasts,
and it had made him very angry.
This never led him to falsify his figures;
it did dictate his presentation."
"Maybe we should call it
Yiddish Magical Realism.
The pages are overflowing with
weird, funny, sassy, greedy,
hungry, pompous characters.
As with most of I. B. Singer's writings,
it spares no one."
"Because of its repetitions,
some of us may get the feeling
that we are being persecuted as well.
Many of us love Henry James
or Jane Austen or the Brontës ---
but not so much that we must
smother them in words."
"I guess its poetry,
although it just may be
end-stopped lines of dribble set out
with what the printers like to call
center-justified
so that Sabine Lakes comes out like
some kind of middle-of-the-road
creamy vanilla pudding."
"Now get along, get hip little doggies
Get along, better be on your way
Get along, get hip little doggies
He trucked 'em on down that old fairway
Singin' his cow cow boogie in the strangest way
Comma ti yi yi yeah
Comma ti yippity yi yeah."
Another Day of Life
"If one wants to be journalist,
one comes in when everyone else is going,
goes without sleep and comfort and
clean clothes and baths and safety,
gets to know who issues the passes,
where the war is, which trucks or
DC3s are going there, and when.
That's modern civil war
journalism."
Some titles that
over the months
fell off our reviewers' bed-tables,
including works on Spanish Colonialism,
coal, desert wars,
the Lower East Side and
Freud the Tyrant
Carlos Amantea
Carolyn Creedon
The Problems of the World
Jackson Pollack vs.
Jackson Pollock
Kaiser Sunset
"Hello, Mitty, he said.
We're having the devil's own time
with McMillan, the millionaire banker
and close personal friend of Roosevelt.
Obstreosis of the ductal tract.
Tertiary.
Wish you'd take a look at him.
Glad to, said Mitty."
The Word-Consuming Thing
"The thing cleaned house,
chopped firewood, and cooked
delicious meals. It was
warm to sleep beside, and ---
given the feed words ---
offered joys of which
the man had never dreamed."
Part I
"Many years ago,
there was a
disgusting song called
"The Oozing Cyst Blues."
The first stanza went:
Woke up this morning and I'll tell you the news
Looked down at my cyst and it began to ooze."
Part II
"By this time
the boy was quite curious about
what he would be doing
on the weekend to cure his ulcer,
and I began the procedure of digressing.
In a slow, aggravating, dragging out,
shaggy-dog sort of way,
I offered the therapeutic plan."
Three from In the Criminal's Cabinet
Flea Circus
"Back in the dark the glass tent came alive:
trapeze and cannon, plunge-pool and high-wire,
everything shaken to a frenzied show.
And though we'd later accuse --- come to blows ---
we'd never be sure which of our number
left the Top unhooked."
Italian Masturbazione
"I am astonished that all are not behaved like me.
When then I feel the women that they consider the degrading
masturbazione and therefore to avoid, the arms fall off me.
Is there is something that does not go in this my way to think?"
Modern Maid
"Joan of Arc works at the Gap.
Her armor, nearly invisible under
the florescent light, catches on the sweaters
she folds, so that cashmere threads
follow her everywhere, a crimson cape."
Paradox-of-the-Month
A complete list of all books reviewed in RALPH,
arranged by title, including author, subject, and publisher,
plus a listing of all readings, articles and poems
that have appeared since 1994.
of our most notorious reviews
as collected in the hard-copy
"FOLIO"
Help perpetuate honest, noisy, pesky book reviews.
With your $25 subscription, you get
a free copy of one or more of the titles from
Mho & Mho Works
Submitting Books The best way to get books to RALPH for review. Submitting Reviews Suggestions for would-be reviewers --- and payment schedule. History RALPH didn't spring full-blown from the brows of the gods: We've been around (in different guises) for over thirty years. The Fessenden Fund Describing the good works of RALPH's official godparent Copyright Notice The Reginald A. Fessenden Educational Fund, Inc. |
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