Munca in progres
A queer thing about those waters: there are no
Birds there, or hardly any.
I did not miss them, I do not remember
Missing them, or thinking it uncanny.
The beach so-called was a blinding splinter of limestone,
A quarry outraged by hulls.
We took pleasure in that: the emptiness, the hardness
Of the light, the silence, and the water’s stillness.
But this was the setting for one of our murderous scenes.
This hurt, and goes on hurting:
The venomous soft jelly, the undersides.
We could stand the world if it were hard all over.
(Donald Davie)
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(http://boston.com/community/moms/blogs/parent_buzz/2012/07/davis_square_artbeat_festival_somerville_july_20-21.html)
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I came over this photo by chance, browsing the web in a very undisciplined way, and my own memories of Somerville and Davis Square woke up immediately. I wasn't there too often, actually no more than three times.
First time it was in October 2002. I had been that morning to the INS in Boston, spending several hours there, and I came then to Somerville, to the Social Security office that was located on Elm Street, in the proximity of the square.
I was pretty new in America and actually that was the very day of starting my path to immigration. I remember I entered in a small deli or something in Davis Square and the seller, he was an old guy, noticed my accent and asked me where I was from. I told him I had come from Romania and that I had decided to remain in America and start a new life. Oh, it will be hard, he said, you'll need a lot of courage. He told me that he had come from Italy, thirty years back.
I wasn't alone, all my family was accompanying me, including my granddaughter Bianca (the other one, Daria, was not yet born). Actually Bianca was only two years old.
(posted in Facebook by Dirty Old Boston)
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image by Catherine Vitagliano
(http://www.diesel-cafe.com/diesel-gallery/)
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There was also a coffee house there in Davis Square, it was a very interesting spot, good for students and older guys still students in spirit, looking kind of a student club, or kind of a studio for a poor artist. I was there several times, when I stayed first time at my son. Then I moved to NY, then to DC area, when I found my job. When I moved back to my son, to prepare my return to Romania, I was once at Davis Square again. The old coffee house was no more. There was a Starbucks instead.
(New England)
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O carte pe care am gasit-o absolut intamplator, la mall, cu un numar mic de pagini (140) si un pret modic. Evident in traducere romaneasca.
Sara Antonelli este profesor de literatura americana la o universitate din Roma (Universita di Roma Tre) si raspunde de programele culturale ale Centrului de Studii Americane din Roma. Este o carte in care este prezentata foarte condensat evolutia Statelor Unite incepand cu anii 60 pana in zilele noastre, in paralel cu evolutia culturii americane. O perioada in care s-au intamplat multe si in care societatea americana s-a schimbat in mod dramatic, schimbari reflectate de evolutia la fel de dramatica a culturii americane. O privire retrospectiva mai intai asupra anilor cincizeci - aparent ultimul deceniu de echilibru in viata societatii americane (vezi de exemplu romanul Pastorala Americana scris de Philip Roth), dar in care au aparut germenii transformarilor revolutionare de mai tarziu (generatia Beat a acelor ani, romanul lor emblematic On the Road al lui Jack Kerouac). Si aici o scurta poveste la care revin in final. Apoi anii 60 si tot ce a urmat. Kennedy si Noua Frontiera, Johnson si The Great Society pe de o parte, Vietnamul pe de alta, New Left, Black Power, Manifestatiile dela Chicago, etc, Nixon, incercand sa se bazeze pe un consens al "Americii Tacute", pacea dela Paris, deschiderea spre China si URSS, esuarea in afacerea Watergate, epoca lui Carter, apoi Reagan, si tot ce a urmat. Transformari dramatice, reflectate cum zic fidel de transformarile dramatice din cultura, postmodernismul ca expresie a societatii postindustriale si cu diparitia brutala a vechii societati industriale (crearea unei societati a autostrazilor, fizice si informatice, care leaga intre ele centre urbane in decadere, odata cu decaderea industriei - reflectare in pop art, in minimalism, si asa mai departe). Toate astea prezentate foarte condensat, dar consistent. Iti trebuie in orice caz sa ai guts ca sa citesti cartea asta in care dela o pagina la alta te lovesti de beat generation si Kerouac, de off-off-Broadway si Woodstock, de Black Panthers si Malcolm X, de procesul dela Chicago, de Watergate, mai tarziu de Rauschenberg, Warhol si Jasper Johns, de Al Gore si proiectul autostrazii informationale si de atatea altele care s-au intamplat. Am citit azi aproape jumatate din carte. Numarul personalitatilor si evenimentelor la care se face referire e mult mai mare.
Si in fine, intorcandu-ma la "scurta poveste". In octombrie 1951 finala campionatului de baseball a opus doua echipe new-yorkeze, Dodgers si Giants, fiecare cu masele lor de suporteri inflacarati. Peste cativa ani, fiecare din aceste doua cluburi au fost cumparate de "moguli" care le-au mutat foarte departe de New York, iar finala din 1951 avea sa fie memorata cu nostalgie, expresie a unui timp apus in care suporteri si jucatori alcatuiau o comunitate superba de mod de viata si de idealuri. Un film facut in 1995 (Blue in the Face) avea sa povesteasca despre aceste timpuri fericite care se terminasera de mult. Ei bine, in 1997, Don DeLillo reia acest eveniment in roamnul sau Underworld si il citeste in cheie diferita: data finalei din 1951 a fost si data in care sovieticii au facut al doilea test nuclear. Acelasi eveniment inteles diferit: pe de o parte nostalgia unui timp "pastoral" (revin aici la romanul Pastorala Americana), pe de alta parte decelarea in acel timp "pastoral" a ceea ce era "inceputul sfarsitului". Insist asupra acestei dihotomii pentru ca vorbim zilele acestea despre cum il citeste (si cum il intelege) fiecare epoca pe Hamlet (sau Jocul de-a vacanta al lui Sebastian).
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Dai Sixties a Bush Jr.: La Cultura USA Contemporanea, a book that I found absolutely by chance at the mall, in a pile of many other books, completely unrelated each other in content or style or category of targeted readers or anything else, while sharing the same sizes (100 - 150 pages) and price. The author, Sara Antonelli, is teaching Anglo-American literature at Università degli Studi Roma Tre and is in charge with the cultural programs at the American Studies Center in Rome.
A book about the evolution of American society starting with the 1960's and going toward our days, and in parallel the evolution of American culture: fifty years of dramatic changes that completely reshaped everything there. All this presented in a very condensed form while nothing is left aside, and you need guts to read the book, as paragraph after paragraph is filled with consistent information. The way the changes in society and culture are paralleled and put in sync is remarkable, perhaps the main merit of this book. I was particularly impressed by the way Post-Modern Art and Post-Industrial Society were traced together in the book: a civilization of superb highways linking failed cities, a network of global knowledge versus lost local businesses and opportunities.
Well, to talk consistently in only about 140 pages about Kerouac and Beat Generation, New Frontier, Great Society and Vietnam, New Left, and The Feminine Mystique, off-off-Broadway and Woodstock, Black Power and Black Panther, Watergate, Reaganomics, Minimalism and Pop Art, Information Superhighway and so many other things, that's challenging for the reader, while rewarding if you keep the pace. And I did my best to keep the pace.
(A Life in Books)
posted by Pierre Radulescu at 2:32 AM
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