R A L P H The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities Volume
XXI, Number 2 Mid-Late Summer, 2000 |
NEW LISTINGS
REVIEWS
Inside the Halo and Beyond
Nathaniel's Nutmeg
BRIEF REVIEWS
ARTICLES
READINGS The Collectivisation of the Kulaks
POETRY
LETTERS THE OFFICIAL RALPH
THE BEST OF THE SUMMER SEASON
HELP
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,
The Near-Death of a Young Man in France, and
The Crystal and the Way of Light.
No One Knows What the Nose Knows
"The temperature of your mucosa rises by 1.5 degrees C
immediately after intercourse, making us wonder about scientists
hanging around congressional couples long enough
to stick thermometers up their hot little nostrils."
"Agony is universal.
To be able to convey it,
one must have a universal heart.
Kumin, alas, does not."
"But there was a cure. The doctors agreed.
It was nutmeg. This withered little nut, as Milton describes it,
until now used to cure flatulence and the common cold ---
become as sought after as gold."
Making Hard Cider, with
Homoeroticism and Gerard Manley Hopkins, and
Five Well-Dressed Piggies.
Me and Sam Goody
Part I
"'I used to know Sam Goody.'
'Really?' comes the response,
sometimes with interest,
sometimes out of politeness.
'What was he like?'
'He was a dreadful human being,' I reply."
Part II
"The irony of Sam Goody's current motto --- Goody got it---
is that Goody doesn't got it, and hasn't had it for at least two decades.
In fact, that's how Goody/Musicland/American Can makes its money."
The Nursing Home
"The room looked like
nothing so much as the inside of my own head;
bone white, lit by a mad radiance, and
thronged with lost and aimlessly wandering figures
who might be the myriad rejected versions
of my self, of my soul."
"On
Measures for the Elimination of
Kulak Households in Districts of
Comprehensive Collectivisation
has not achieved the
notoriety of the Final Solution
though it yields nothing to it in terms of
scale and malice."
Eiserene Rose (The Story of the Archangel Mihaela)
What is your name? She asked him.
My name is Charles Wing Krafft, He told her.
I am named after the Archangel Michael She said.
I am named after his wings. He replied.
The Deluged Civilizations of Caucasus,
The Native American Bullet-Wound Singer,
And even more on Dr. Laura
Paradox-of-the-Month
Being a listing of the best new titles
that have come to us over the past few months
--- as chosen by our editors.
Perpetuate honest, noisy, pesky book reviews.
Subscribe, and get a free copy of one of the newest titles from
Mho & Mho Works
along with a print-out of some of our most pithy reviews, in
The Folio
THE PREVIOUS ISSUE OF RALPH
TABLE OF CONTENTS
This will lead you back to the last RALPH, and,
if you persist, all the way back, through forty or so issues
to the very first one, conceived in
the dark and wet Winter of
1994 - 1995.
Titles, authors, and publishers
of all books reviewed in RALPH ---
arranged chronologically.
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 twenty-five years.
The
Fessenden Fund
Other
activities of RALPH's godparents, including
Mho
& Mho Works
Post Office Box 16719
San Diego CA 92176
poo@cts.com