Monday, October 06, 2008

The U.S. Election Campaign through a Literary Lens

There's a very interesting article in the current issue of the New York Review of Books by Colm Tóibín which draws parallels between James Baldwin and Barack Obama. Click here to read it.

And so long as I'm recommending articles related to the U.S. election, don't miss James Woods on "the Republican War on Words", or George Saunders' brilliant satire of Sarah Palin's war on words.

4 comments:

Suko said...

This article highlights some of the similarities and differences between Baldwin and Obama. Interesting, too, that Kennedy "predicted" an African American presidential candidate about now.

While we're on this subject, I'll share Obama's eloquent words which urge us to be more active: "Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn't matter what it is--improving the school system, developing strategies to wean ourselves off foreign oil, expanding health care for kids. We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result."
~Barack Obama

Rebecca H. said...

I loved both the Toibin and the Saunders article (and now I'll have to read the Wood one too). I've always meant to read more Baldwin, and that article reminded me of that. And I can't speak highly enough of Saunders's essay collection The Braindead Megaphone. I'm afraid I sound like a Saunders publicist or something.

Anonymous said...

My first time visiting your blog. You have a great range of topics. Excellent blog!

Anonymous said...

Great collection of articles, Kate. I really enjoyed reading them. Thanks for finding them.