Paint it Black

I was going to post about how things are better, etc. and etc. but then I read`Warren Ellis' blog and found out that Mike Wieringo passed away yesterday. All life (except Bryan's) being precious, this blows and my heart goes out to his family, friends and fans (self included).

'Ringo drew some of my favorite comics of the last fifteen years; he co-created one of my favorite characters, and was half of the team to make the Fantastic Four at all interesting to me since Simonson was at the helm. He's already missed.

Paint it Black

50 Book Challenge #10: What Lies There by Adrienne Rich. I likely screwed up the title, which serves me right for blogging at school instead of home. This is the new edition of the book (2003) which includes a new preface and a ne essay not present in the original version published in 1993.

The book's major focus is poetics and the art of poetry and role of the poet. A lot of attention is paid to the role of the poet and the need for activist poetry to be at and stay at the fore. I have to agree with this notion. America is the only nation that pretty much universally devalues poetry and the arts, whereas being a poet in many other countries could lead to political incarceration due to the nature of a person's activist poetics. She argues for an increase in such poetic activism in the US, which I tend to agree with.

Format-wise, given this message of the book, I found her new essay, tacked on at the end of the book, to be less impactful than the previous essay (the one that closed the book originally) and wish that it had been placed somewhere else in the book (like right before the preceding essay) in order to keep the flow of the book pushing towards the blatant call for revolutionist poetry that ends her essay "What if." Being the most recent essay doesn't mean it should necessarily be placed last due to chronology. Ruminating on the post 9-11 political climate is good and necessary, but less resonating as far as its message than it could have been.