The people have spoken

If you want to call a voting rate of around 4% of eligible voters (the number of visitors for the week), speaking. I can only hope you have a better record for important matters like government and American Idol. The vote came in at a strong majority of 71% in favor of opening it. Best of all I got an email from Mr. Phelps himself giving his blessing.

The book, Baghdad Suite, is all that I anticipated. Beautiful images that avoid heavy handed accusation but serve as compelling metaphors and powerful witness. A short essay at the back by Benjamin Glahn closes with this:

"All the doors are locked. And now, is there really any chance of getting out? Is there really any chance of returning to that intoxicating sense of consolation that was promised? The design, the construction, the sense of destiny, has it all come to reflect nothing more than a landscape of predictable defeat? Destiny and mythology, that intoxicating brine, have fallen into ruin. The mental construct dissolved, a complicated pile of destruction lies in revelation.

All that remains now are the credits. There will be no awards."

I would recommend ordering it, but a check of Dashwood Books indicates they are sold out.....