I wanted to quote at length some passages from Berry's Fidelity, the title story of his fine collection of five short stories, but dadgumitall, I didn't highlight any of them and I can't find them. Essentially the story concerns an old man's death and the act of love that his son performs. Additionally, it contains some of Berry's thoughts on the medical establishment and the (joyful) burdens of community. I had posted previously about another story, but I think that four out of the five stories are simply wonderful and it would behoove you to find this collection and read it.
During breakfast today I was reading an excerpt from a play in The New York Times Magazine (I know, I was a day behind and read Saturday's edition yesterday) entitled Rust . The play, written by a professor at Grand Valley State University, here in Michigan, is a nonfiction drama about the closing of a GM plant in Wyoming, MI. The play itself sounds interesting and I enjoyed the excerpt, but what caught my eye was something a character said. The character is "Academic" and plays a historian and guide to the playwright, also a character. He is explaining the rise of the automobile factories and the effect of the car on American culture. He says, "Women became independent, they go from producers of food and clothing to consumers of food and clothing." This was meant as an earnest, praiseworthy point. I would counter with "How far we've fallen." To say that a woman (or a man) is independent because she has m...
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