Doctor, Lawyer, Banker
Stephanie Steele
Doctor, Lawyer, Banker
Here is the doctor.
She will sew up your birth
belly with an expert stitch.
She will explain how you
can keep your uterus.
And if she is a really good
doctor, she will heat up the
speculum with warm water
before she slides it into you.
Here is the lawyer.
She can help you with your
divorce. She will explain
how twenty eight years of
purging your self is labor,
deserves an honest wage.
And if she is a really good
lawyer, she will fight for
ten percent interest on all
of your back pay.
Here is the banker.
He will not give you any
money, so don't even ask.
Move on to the poet.
Here is the poet.
She will explain nothing.
She is not an expert, or a
professional, and is usually
broke. But if she is a really
good poet, she will return
a part of yourself- maybe
the part that you hate, or
are ashamed of, or lost for
twenty eight years, and she
will say- this is yours, keep
it, it's important.
sls.
--
=======================================================================
Stephanie Steele
ste...@chip.aem.umn.edu
Marek Lugowski
that chance. I liked it; it was a fun read; but the gender switch to male
at the banker was social realism, honey. It was as inspiring as a polished
Marine band farting out a hail to the chief... Or equivalent, in Havana.
It's Rewrite Time, baby!!!!!! Big RT!!! (per Dick Vitale's voice on ESPN)
-- Marek
- - -=-=- - -= ---=-==-=-= -=-==-
Stephanie Steele
>Stephanie, this poem may be subtler than my reading of it, but I'll take
>that chance. I liked it; it was a fun read; but the gender switch to male
>at the banker was social realism, honey. It was as inspiring as a polished
>Marine band farting out a hail to the chief... Or equivalent, in Havana.
>It's Rewrite Time, baby!!!!!! Big RT!!! (per Dick Vitale's voice on ESPN)
> -- Marek
> - - -=-=- - -= ---=-==-=-= -=-==-
marek, i think you mean "socialist realism," which in fact refers to a
literary period that occured in soviet russia during the '30's,
characterized by the sectarianism of stalin's communist party. the party
dictated what and how literature should be written and for whom. liter-
ature, in short, must always carry the party line, basically, all art
must reaffirm the communist ideal.
but *social* realism, as you state above, is precisely what i was going
for- how many women bank presidents do you know marek? and do you equate
a feminist theme with communism?
at any rate, all of your nasty *snorting* above aside (are double prepositions
legal?) i did think twice about the gender switch- "took that chance" as
you say, but i'm still not totally convinced it should go- you're the only
person to comment on the piece so far- i'd like to hear from the masses
before i start my rewrite ;)
steph.
Mike Gardner
>ma...@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Marek Lugowski) writes:
>>Stephanie, this poem may be subtler than my reading of it, but I'll take
>>that chance. I liked it; it was a fun read; but the gender switch to male
>>at the banker was social realism, honey. It was as inspiring as a polished
>>Marine band farting out a hail to the chief... Or equivalent, in Havana.
>at any rate, all of your nasty *snorting* above aside (are double prepositions
>legal?) i did think twice about the gender switch- "took that chance" as
>you say, but i'm still not totally convinced it should go- you're the only
>person to comment on the piece so far- i'd like to hear from the masses
>before i start my rewrite ;)
Funny, when I saw Banker, I expected "he". That's social realism. Twenty or
thirty years from now, someone might read that poem and wonder why the "he"
because by then most bank presidents will be women - but not today.
mgg
Michael I. Lichter
|Stephanie, this poem may be subtler than my reading of it, but I'll take
|that chance. I liked it; it was a fun read; but the gender switch to male
|at the banker was social realism, honey. It was as inspiring as a polished
|Marine band farting out a hail to the chief... Or equivalent, in Havana.
|
|It's Rewrite Time, baby!!!!!! Big RT!!! (per Dick Vitale's voice on ESPN)
ste...@aem.umn.edu (Stephanie Steele) replies:
|marek, i think you mean "socialist realism," which in fact refers to a
|literary period that occured in soviet russia during the '30's,
|characterized by the sectarianism of stalin's communist party. the party
|dictated what and how literature should be written and for whom. liter-
|ature, in short, must always carry the party line, basically, all art
|must reaffirm the communist ideal.
|
|but *social* realism, as you state above, is precisely what i was going
|for- how many women bank presidents do you know marek? and do you equate
|a feminist theme with communism?
|
|at any rate, all of your nasty *snorting* above aside (are double prepositions
|legal?) i did think twice about the gender switch- "took that chance" as
|you say, but i'm still not totally convinced it should go- you're the only
|person to comment on the piece so far- i'd like to hear from the masses
|before i start my rewrite ;)
Without trying to guess what Marek (social/socialist), I
(speaking as one "mass element") like the poem the way it is.
Since when is subtlety the measure of all things, anyway?
On the topic of socialist realism, which really came into vogue
as early after Lenin's death in 1924, I didn't even realize
that it had a literary component. Having studied the visual
arts, especially film, I know mainly of the unprecedented
creativity of a generation of Russian artists who directly or
indirectly took their energy and inspiration from the 1917
revolution (and the idea of building a new society), most of
whom were silenced or marginalized as Stalinism took hold.
So, here's a poem dedicated to a couple filmakers, a couple
of painter/architects, and the few years they had.
advent of the cage of steel
-----------------------------------------
the brittle ice shattered leaving
sergei eisenstein gazing
inland from the deck of the
potemkin, startled to be
holding maggot-infested meat again,
these his strike wages,
his sharp kino-eye on
dziga vertov, the man with
the movie camera, stuck between
a tripod and a baby carriage
atop the odessa steps,
spun before the grey soldiers
who yesterday were red and
to the east, vladimir tatlin's
spiral explosion of
iron and glass crumpled in
despair, the third international's
betrayal whistling through
its open heights while
kasimir malevich surfaced
through white on white past
blocky peasants and cylindrical hay
to see the now-colorless red brigade
riding his horizon
with the message
lenin is dead
Michael Lichter
December 3, 1992
A couple notes: Lenin and Stalin were pseudonyms, Lenin = ice
and Stalin = steel (not a reference to Stephanie). The
differences between Lenin and Stalin are probably much
overplayed, and I do nothing here to combat that. There are
numerous references made to the works of Eisenstein, Dziga
Vertov ("spinning top", another pseudonym), Tatlin and Malevich
which are probably not worth spelling out but that you could
probably figure out by looking in decent art and film history
texts.
Stephanie Steele
lic...@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Michael I. Lichter) writes:
> Without trying to guess what Marek (social/socialist), I
> (speaking as one "mass element") like the poem the way it is.
> Since when is subtlety the measure of all things, anyway?
> On the topic of socialist realism, which really came into vogue
> as early after Lenin's death in 1924, I didn't even realize
> that it had a literary component. Having studied the visual
> arts, especially film, I know mainly of the unprecedented
> creativity of a generation of Russian artists who directly or
> indirectly took their energy and inspiration from the 1917
> revolution (and the idea of building a new society), most of
> whom were silenced or marginalized as Stalinism took hold.
michael,i wish i could find my old class notes from oxy on the course
i took on socialist realism in the soviet union (i didn't take the
course in the soviet union, bad syntax there) anyway, i'm awful at
remembering dates, but our pal marek apparently has a dictionary with
socialist realism in it, maybe he'll provide the cite for us, and *He*
says that the literary movement began in the forties, which seems right.
the problem for me is that we spent a lot of time reading the reactions
to socialist realism, soviet writters in the 50's and 60's and actually
only read one true socialist realist text, fortunately. but *yes* it
most definitely was a literary 'movement' (really a lack thereof) which
affected all arts in the soviet union.
i don't think the art work pre/post and on 1917, mayakovsy, rodchenko,
etal would be classified as socialist realism though, mayakovsky was
part of the Futurists movement, even though all these cats were big
propaganda artists for lenin's and later stalin's communist party, and
yes, you either played the game the way stalin wanted it played or you
didn't play at all, as in, you didn't play anything at all, as in you
wuz dead.
hey- *awesome* poem by the way.
steph.
Marek Lugowski
>
>lic...@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Michael I. Lichter) writes:
>
>> Without trying to guess what Marek (social/socialist), I
>> (speaking as one "mass element") like the poem the way it is.
>> Since when is subtlety the measure of all things, anyway?
>
>> On the topic of socialist realism, which really came into vogue
>> as early after Lenin's death in 1924, I didn't even realize
>> that it had a literary component. Having studied the visual
>> arts, especially film, I know mainly of the unprecedented
>> creativity of a generation of Russian artists who directly or
>> indirectly took their energy and inspiration from the 1917
>> revolution (and the idea of building a new society), most of
>> whom were silenced or marginalized as Stalinism took hold.
>
>michael,i wish i could find my old class notes from oxy on the course
>i took on socialist realism in the soviet union (i didn't take the
>course in the soviet union, bad syntax there) anyway, i'm awful at
>remembering dates, but our pal marek apparently has a dictionary with
>socialist realism in it, maybe he'll provide the cite for us, and *He*
>says that the literary movement began in the forties, which seems right.
marek aristotle 69: webster "socialist realism"
DEFINITION 0
socialist realism n
(ca. 1943)
:a Marxist aesthetic theory calling for the didactic use of literature,
art, and music to develop social consciousness in an evolving
socialist state
-- socialist realist n
Philip Nikolayev
> A couple notes: Lenin and Stalin were pseudonyms, Lenin = ice
^^^^^^^^^^^
> and Stalin = steel (not a reference to Stephanie).
Where did you get this? There are two versions about Ulianov's
nom-de-guerre; according to the official Soviet one, he took
it after the 1912 (?) shooting of rebellious workers on the
river Lena; but I believe it is documented that he had used
the name before the event. The more plausible hypothesis is
that he assumed the name to please his mistress Elena Stasova.
Lenin = "Elena's." This, however, is unproven.
As to Stalin, his pseudonym is simply a translation of his real
name, Jugashvili. 'Juga' is an archaic Georgian word for steel.
Philip Nikolayev
nik...@husc.harvard.edu
Philip Nikolayev
Maxim Gorky in 1934 (I think), and first uttered at the first
congress of Soviet writes.
Philip Nikolayev
nik...@husc.harvard.edu
Stephanie Steele
marek, do you believe everything mr. webster tells you? that definition
SUCKS. socialist realism has nothing to do with marxism, marx would probably
be turning over in his grave right now if he saw this- marx only spoke
briefly on art, but his ideas of aesthetics was definitely more inspiring
than webster's poor excuse for research above.
steph.
Marek Lugowski
>
>>marek aristotle 69: webster "socialist realism"
>>DEFINITION 0
>>socialist realism n
>>(ca. 1943)
>>:a Marxist aesthetic theory calling for the didactic use of literature,
>> art, and music to develop social consciousness in an evolving
>> socialist state
>>-- socialist realist n
>
>marek, do you believe everything mr. webster tells you? that definition
>SUCKS. socialist realism has nothing to do with marxism, marx would probably
>be turning over in his grave right now if he saw this- marx only spoke
>briefly on art, but his ideas of aesthetics was definitely more inspiring
>than webster's poor excuse for research above.
I beg to differ. The people who came up with this doctrine and made it
stick called themselves Marxists and did so in good faith. I don't think
it is fair to rob them of that self-appelation. Just because there are
dilletante Marxists at Oxy and everywhere in the West does not change the
fact that socialist realism was an era in a political history of states
that followed some form of Marxist dogma.
I like the Merriam-Webster definiton, which is concise, elegant and on the
mark. You are splitting hairs, implying that what we saw in the USSR and
eastern Europe was not *true* Marxism. Forgive me, Stephanie, but I don't
care to see true Marxism. The engineer in me is twitching at the very
thought -- while you sound like enthusiastic high management. :)
-- Marek
John McCarthy
social realism. The 15th edition of the Britannica has
Social Realism, trend in American art originating around
1930 and referring in its narrowest sense to paintings
dealing with social-protest themes. In a broader sense, the
term may be taken to include the more general renderings of
American life usually categorized as American Scene painting
and Regionalism, which may or may not manifest subtle
critical comment.
The origins of Social Realism lie in the "Ashcan
School" of painters, who, in the first decades of the 20th
century depicted the unglamorous reality of city life. ...
Doubtless later social realism was influenced by socialist realism.
Our Webster program has
socialist realism n (ca. 1943)
:a Marxist aesthetic theory calling for the didactic use of literature,
art, and music to develop social consciousness in an evolving socialist
state-- socialist realist n
I don't understand the 1943, and my memory agrees with the Britannica
article on socialist realism.
Socialist Realism, thoery and method of literary composition
established in the Soviet Union in 1932 as the sole
criterion of measuring literary works. Defined and
reinterpreted over years of polemics, it remains a vague
term, a fact attested by the numerous loyal Communist
writers who often inadvertently fail to comply with its
tenets.
(The Britannica goes on with history.)
Part of the problem in defining socialist realism is related to the fact
that some of the initial users of the phrase as a slogan were later
shot for quite different reasons. However, anyone who was shot was
thereby shown to have been a traitor all his life, and nothing he
wrote could be taken as authentic.
Another problem is that "socialist realism" was the slogan used about
1932 by the literary officials connected with Stalin to establish
control over their rivals who had dominated literature in the 1920s
under names like proletcult, workers' <something>, etc. It also involved
suppressing the downright unsocialist writers like Bulgakov of
_The Master and Margarita_.
Here's a nice item from the Library of Congress's collection of
Communist Party documents. I suppose the date was sometimes
in the 1930s. The reason why the Central Committee resolved only
to inform Comrade Krupskaia of her error rather than do something
more drastic is that Nadezhda Krupskaia was Lenin's widow. It
probably was somewhat later that Stalin said that if Krupskaia
didn't behave, the Party could get Lenin a new widow. My father
mentioned that one in the late 1930s, probably before Krupskaia
died in 1939. It has appeared in print.
Regarding Marietta Shaginian's novel, Ticket to history,
part one, the Ul'ianov family
...the Central Committee has determined that as a
biographical-documentary novel about the life of the
Ul'ianov family, and also about the childhood and youth of
Lenin, it appears to be a politically harmful, ideologically
hostile work. One should consider it a gross political
error on the part of the book's editor, Comrade Ermilov, and
those in charge who permitted Shaginian's novel to be
printed.
One condemns the behavior of Comrade Krupskaia, who
having received a draft copy of Shaginian's novel not only
did not prevent the novel's publication, but instead,
encouraged Shaginian in every way possible, reviewed the
draft positively and advised Shaginian on the facts of the
Ul'ianov family's life. One should also consider Comrade
Krupskaia completely responsible for this book.
One should consider the behavior of Comrade Krupskaia
all the more intolerable and tactless, since Comrade
Krupskaia was in charge of Shaginian's task of writing a
novel about Lenin without the knowledge and approval of the
Central Committee, behind the back of the Central Committee,
turning the very same all-party matter of composing a
literary work about Lenin into a private and family affair,
appearing in the role of sole exploiter of the circumstances
of the social and personal life and works of Lenin and his
family, for which the Central Committee never granted anyone
exclusive rights.
The Central Committee resolves
1) to remove Comrade Ermilov from the position of editor of
"Krasnaia Nov'" 2) to announce the reprimand of the director
of GIKhL [State Publishing House of Belle Lettres]
Comrade... 3) to apprise Krupskaia of her error 4) to
prohibit anyone from submitting a literary work about Lenin
without the knowledge and permission of the Central
Committee 5) to question Shaginian's party membership in the
KPK (Control Commission of the Communist Party).
I don't know whether the complete collection of 25 party documents
is still available by anonymous ftp. This is the only one that
concerns literature so far as I recall.
The Bolshaya Sovyetskaia Entsiklopedia (Large Soviet Encyclopedia)
has a 5 1/2 column article on socialist realism. The edition I
subscribed to was issued between 1968 and 1978, a volume at a time.
Therefore, the S volume probably came out in something like 1974
or 1975 and was therefore politically correct as of that time.
The bibliography at the end of the article has only one reference
from the 1930s, an article by Maxim Gorky entitled "On disputes
about method" published in 1934. I suppose the people who first
advanced the slogan had not been rehabilitated enough by the
time the references were chosen.
Here's my tranlation of the first paragraph. I claim that not
all of its obscurity is due to my poor knowledge of Russian.
Socialist Realism, an artistic method of literature and art,
involving the esthetic expression of socialist realization
of concepts of the world and man, conditioned by the epoch
of struggle for the establishment and creation of socialist
society. Depiction of life in the light of the ideals of
socialism is conditions also the content of socialist
realist art. Its arising and development is connected with
the spread of sociialist ideas in different countries and
with the development of the revolutionary workers' movement.
(At that time Brezhnev was referred to as a leader of the
international workers' movement.)
The antecedents of socialist realism are declared to be international
going back to the second half of the 19th century. The article
refers to an English chartist poet E. Ch. Jones. (Translations
of initials back into English from Russian are often uncertain.
Also I thought chartism was in the 1830s.)
The origin of the term "socialist realism" is dated to an article
appearing in the Literary Gazette on May 23, 1932 about a dispute
with an older literary mafia called RAPP. They don't give the
author of the article, so I suppose he was killed in the purges
and not quite found to be an authority by 1975.
Well, that's probably more than you want to know about socialist
realism.
--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
John W. Woolley
: The origin of the term "socialist realism" is dated to an article
: appearing in the Literary Gazette on May 23, 1932 about a dispute
: with an older literary mafia called RAPP.
The mind simply boggles.
--
Fr. John Woolley (j...@evolving.com); vastly enthusiastic about Augustine,
Austen, babies, Bach, backgammon, baseball, beer, the Bible, Botticelli, Burke,
Chesterton, Dante, Dixieland, hardboiled, Hitchcock, Dr Johnson, Latin, Mozart,
Shakespeare/de Vere, St Teresa, Tolkien, Trollope, Fats Waller, and Washington