pynchon-l-digest V2 #2252

[Paul Mackin]

Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak

        P.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Terrance" <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
To: "Doug Millison" <millison at online-journalist.com>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2001 8:06 PM
Subject: Re: pynchon-l-digest V2 #2252


> Paul, this is no lifeboat for old men.
>  But for the young idealist and his song.
>
>  See those dying journalists, swordless pens,
>  The bombs falling, the refugee-crowded seas?
>
>  Fish, flesh, or fowl, denied all Ramadan long.
>  Oh hear the bitterness of the young idealist's song.
>
> "old men know not the politics of all neglect
>  where the Taliban is destroying monuments of unageing intellect."
>
> No, an  aged man is but a paltry thing,
>  A tattered coat upon a stick erected
> with Viagra's spell upon this boat
> and weltering in the parching wind"
>
> But  we will consume your heart away; sick with desire
>  And fastened to a dying animal
>  It knows not what it is.  we will gather it
>  Into the cyber spaces of eternity.
>
>  And once out of nature it shall never take
>  an old man's body from the life boat's wake
>  But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
>  Of hammered gold and gold enameling
>  To keep a drowsy President awake
>  Or set upon a golden bough to sing
>  To young men and little girls
>  of blue gowns and mother of pearls that were her eyes
>  and of what is past, or passing for youth in this old lifeboat world.
>
>
>
> Doug Millison wrote:
> >
> > Thanks, Paul, for providing such a good example of how, with advancing
age,
> > people can grow so certain that their convictions -- yours, apparently,
> > that this war is inevitable and right and that its critics are
inevitably
> > wrong -- are beyond question.  Thankfully, I have the opportunity to
spend
> > a lot of my time with several seniors who remain open to new ideas and
who
> > welcome discussion and debate of the issues of the day, including this
war.
> > Some of them disagree with anti-war views, but, unlike you, they don't
> > dismiss out of hand the arguments and information presented by the war's
> > critics, nor do they work so hard to discredit the war's critics through
ad
> > hominem attack without engaging any of the points offered for
discussion,
> > as you have consistently done here.  Instead, they take the time to read
> > and think about the spectrum of views regarding the war, before
accepting
> > or rejecting them.
> >
> > And, thank goodness for online journalism, which is in fact one of the
only
> > links to information and opinions about the way that have in fact been
> > systematically excluded from the corporate media in the U.S.  Ridicule
the
> > messenger if you will, but you can't prevent the message from getting
> > through.
>