Category Archives: oceans
Octopus for Christmas
December 25, 2013 No, not salmon, that eminently respectable candidate for a fishetarian dinner. Octopus instead, still exotic and dubious-looking in this part of the world, but a common food staple in Japan and throughout the Mediterranean: in Spain, Portugal, … Continue reading
Ann Petry, Katharine Hepburn: the 1938 Hurricane
September 25, 2014 I found out only quite recently that Ann Petry had a second novel, very different from her first. And I bet I’m not alone — another version of the Invisible Man syndrome. Except that Country … Continue reading
Beyond a Boundary: C. L. R. James in Glasgow
May 13, 2013 Scotland and the Caribbean? The architecture of Glasgow tells a dramatic story. Here, in the center of town, is the many-pillared Gallery of Modern Art, monumental even for a museum, which used to be the … Continue reading
Linda Hogan, Herman Melville: People of the Whale
April 10, 2013 The Native Americans have always been there, of course. The very name of the ship brings up their ghostly presence, for “Pequod, you will no doubt remember, was the name of a celebrated tribe of Massachusetts … Continue reading
Edward Weston, Walt Whitman: Grass
November 7, 2012 Whitman, poet of New Jersey and New York. Also poet of grass, the force of demographics, what comes up from the ground. He would have been unsurprised by Hurricane Sandy, or by the rising sea levels … Continue reading
Unending Katrina: Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun
October 31, 2012 I never made it to the World Humanities Forum, a small story in a big storm. New Orleans and New York: this is the tale of two cities that is now unfolding. I wish I could say: … Continue reading
Atlantic Sound: Caryl Phillips, Thomas Pynchon, Richard and Mimi Fariña
August 22, 2012 At the end of The Atlantic Sound, Caryl Phillips is in Israel, visiting a community of Black Hebrews, almost 2000 of them, African-Americans who emigrated from the United States. They have given up their U.S. citizenship, but … Continue reading
Oceanic Archives, Hong Kong University 2012
June 5, 2012 At least I’ve heard Elizabeth DeLoughrey before. She’s been working on this stuff for years, it’s always a pleaure to get a new installment — in this case, the ocean in danger of being reterritorialized by “seasteading” and … Continue reading