Spinozablue: An Eclectic Journal of the Arts

Posted on: May 1, 2013

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Spinozablue wel­comes the poetry and fic­tion of A.J. Huffman and Charles Tarlton, plus new work by return­ing cham­pi­ons Donal Mahoney and Steve Klepetar.

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The Fiery Trial. By Eric Foner

I’m cur­rently read­ing a fan­tas­tic his­tory by Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial.  It’s a biog­ra­phy of Lincoln in a sense, but focuses on his rela­tion­ship to slav­ery and its abo­li­tion. Two hun­dred pages in, I’m reminded of just how far we’ve come, and how incred­i­bly, trag­i­cally long it took us to get here. I had for­got­ten, for instance, that Lincoln’s views  —  which evolved over time  —  were con­sid­ered by many to be too rad­i­cal, while actual rad­i­cals and abo­li­tion­ists con­sid­ered him far too accom­mo­dat­ing on the issue. At least until 1863. Within his own party, he was con­sid­ered a mod­er­ate, and he worked hard to assuage the fears of the South and, later, Unionist slaveholders.…

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Posted on: April 1, 2013

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April show­ers us with new poetry and fic­tion by Cameron Gearen, Damien Healy and Donal Mahoney.

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The Death of Cleopatra, by Reginald Arthur. 1892

I’m cur­rently read­ing a very inter­est­ing bio of Cleopatra, by Stacy Schiff, who also wrote a fine biog­ra­phy of Ben Franklin. She has range.

Cleopatra is a dif­fi­cult sub­ject for any biog­ra­pher, but Ms. Schiff does a good job try­ing to sort truth from leg­end, and admits when she can’t be sure about cer­tain events or years in the life of the Egyptian queen. We know when she is spec­u­lat­ing, unlike many biog­ra­phers. She actu­ally tells us.

Through page 142, Caesar and Cleopatra take up the major­ity of the book, and it’s fas­ci­nat­ing to dis­cover the var­i­ous intrigues in play.…

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Posted on: March 17, 2013

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On this day when every­one is Irish, I think it’s good to remem­ber how many of us got here, what it took, the tragedies over­come and the tri­umphs at the end of the road. Kathryn Miles has writ­ten what sounds like a mov­ing, impor­tant book. I caught part of her inter­view today on NPR:

All Standing: The Remarkable Story of the Jeanie Johnston, The Legendary Irish Famine Ship. By Kathryn Miles.

You can lis­ten to it here: On Point Interview with Kathryn Miles.

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