Robert Lowell
Scott McConnell is at work on a project for which he’s spending a lot of time in the archives. He sent me this gem today.
From a letter from the American poet Robert Lowell (1917-1977) to poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), June 14, 1967:
Did the late war scare you to death? It did me while it was simmering. We had a great wave of New York Jewish nationalism, all the doves turning into hawks. Well, my heart is in Israel, but it was a little like a blitzkrieg against the Commanches—armed by Russia. Nasser is like a Mussolini ruling some poverty stricken part of India. I never saw a country I would less like to stay in, yet the Egyptians were mostly subtle and sad and attractive.
“All the doves turning into hawks” and poor Peter Beinart’s love affair with Israel not even on a sound footing yet! And today the chicken coop (West Bank division) is so full of foxes (settlers) that the army, poor dears, cannot protect a few bike riders and must shut down a bike ride for reason of safety (of the bike riders, one supposes). Perhaps if the army were ready to smash some Jewish faces (as they seem ready to smash (presumed) non-Jewish faces, the foxes would calm down or even leave the chicken coop.
no mistake, a check.
From Wikipedia:
“Lowell was a conscientious objector during World War II and served several months at the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. He explained his decision not to serve in World War II in a letter addressed to President Franklin Roosevelt on September 7, 1943, stating, “Dear Mr President: I very much regret that I must refuse the opportunity you offer me in your communication of August 6, 1943 for service in the Armed Force.” In the letter, he goes on to explain that after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, he was prepared to fight in the war until he read about the United States’ terms of unconditional surrender which he feared would lead to the “permanent destruction of Germany and Japan.” Before Lowell was transferred to the prison in Connecticut, he was held in a prison in New York City which he later wrote about in the poem “Memories of West Street and Lepke” from his book Life Studies.”
But describing Nasser as “Mussolini” shows Lowell as politically misinformed/uninformed. The sad and beautiful Egyptians he’s empathizing with would take great and deep offense at his description, considering they affectionately regarded Nasser, as they still do, as a revolutionary and national hero – and for good reason.
The latest news on the Grass affair: the writer has been hospitalized. Heart problems. Those who have slandered him as Hitler, Nazi, anti-semite, lunatic or senile old fool may want to pray that this is not serious, or it will reflect very poorly on them
http://www.focus.de/kultur/buecher/hamburg-guenter-grass-mit-herzproblemen-in-klinik_aid_738473.html
“all the doves turning into hawks …”
Reminds me of the 2006 attack on Lebanon. (“We will turn Lebanon’s clock back twenty years.”) I remember the Jewish community organizations out demonstrating from Manhattan to Seattle, screaming for more Arab blood. Whenever I hear the claim that the Jewish community has been hijacked by an old-school leadership, that it doesn’t reflect their true values, I think of that and worry that the problem goes much deeper.