Southern Bookman

Rereading Proust's "Time Regained"

I plan to reread one of my favorite books, the final volume of Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time."

The seven-volume novel's conclusion, "Time Regained," ends with the narrator attending a party at the Guermantes home, where he encounters former acquaintances and enemies radically changed by aging.

Seeing the ravages of time, and aware of his own mortality, the narrator decides to write the novel that he has just finished.

Proust fans recently marked the 150th anniversary of the French novelist's birth, July 10. The Times Literary Supplement published literary critic Adam Watt's "Life Outside the Window," which affirmed the novel's undiminished significance. But the anniversary has received little notice in the United States.

As with "The Inferno" in Dante's "Divine Comedy," the first volume of Proust's novel receives the most attention, and readership.

The novel's beginning, "Du Cote de Chez Swann," translated as "Swann's Way" in English, has received a number of individual translations, including a lauded one by Lydia Davis.

But while the rest of the book has been translated several times, beginning with C.K. Scott Moncrieff's controversial rendition, the other volumes receive little readership. The exhaustive paragraphs and intricate mental processes dissuade most readers.

In my case, I read Moncrieff's "Swann's Way," "Within a Budding Grove" and "The Guermantes Way" but skipped "Sodom and Gormorrah," "The Prisoner" and "The Fugitive," except for bits and pieces. "Within a Budding Grove" was later changed to "In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower." In an amusing Moncrieff overreach, "The Fugitive" was once called "The Sweet Cheat Gone."

While Moncrieff's translations are considered landmarks of English prose, his Edwardian language is more ornate and mannered than Proust's original French. And he dismayed Proust by the English title, "In Remembrance of Things Past," taken from Shakespeare's 20th sonnet.

While I never finished the entire novel, I did read the final volume, "Time Regained," translated by Terence Kilmartin, who revised Moncrieff's work when new French editions were published.

"Time Regained" confirms the novel as one of the greatest works of the human imagination, whether in the original French or English translation.

The book’s unforgettable description of the Guermantes' party begins with the narrator stumbling on stones in the walkway, which takes him back to a similar incident in Venice. As with Proust’s well-known madeleines, the cobblestones trigger the past's return.

I first read "Time Regained" as a young man. Now, I will reread the book when I am old, like the characters the narrator encounters at the end of the book. Perhaps I too can regain lost time.

 

Farewell, Dusty Hill, ZZ Top's bass virtuoso

ZZ Top bass player Dusty Hill was the quiet twin brother to flashy guitarist Billy Gibbons.

Hill, whose solid lines laid the foundation for Gibbons' surging rhythm riffs and lead guitar runs, died in his sleep this week at age 72, according to an announcement from Gibbons and drummer Frank Beard. Hill had been in poor health recently after a hip replacement.

Blending urban blues of Chicago, Houston, Bakersfield and Dallas and the California surf twang of bands like the Ventures, ZZ Top's minimal lineup produced a huge, raw sound.

Their MTV-driven popularity in the 1970s and '80s brought the raucous yelps of Paul Butterfield, Howlin' Wolf and Lightnin' Hopkins to a wider audience.

ZZ Top's raw, openly sexist lyrics and droning beat spoke of Texas roadhouses, all-night drives on empty highways listening to distant radio stations and assignations in seedy hotels.

Songs like "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Jesus Just Left Chicago" gave social commentary on the shallowness of America's money- and religion-obsessed culture.

With their long beards, sunglasses and Texas cowboy hats, Hill and Gibbons looked like strange automatons with their synchronized motions and ironic dance steps.

Gibbons' guitar runs darted and floated above Hill's bass progressions and Beard's driving drums, like a drone flying above America's open highway. ZZ Top performed with a tongue in cheek insouciance, as if sharing a cosmic joke. 

Hill, a Dallas native like Beard, joined ZZ Top in 1969. His playing inspired generations of garage bass players who believed they could match him, but as he said, the blues were as difficult to master as jazz.

While Gibbons was the band's leader, performing most of the lead vocals and acting as the M.C. on stage, Hill was essential with his tenor voice, songwriting and pure rhythms.

Hill will be remembered as one of rock's most influential bass players and performers. He played with a grin, no matter how big the audience, as if he were all alone in his living room. He made it look easy, but the blues are hard.

 

 

Here's to American workers

I'm perpetually fascinated by the people I encounter pursuing different occupations

Wednesday was one of those crazy, packed mornings. First, a dentist's appointment. When I arrived home from that, the pool man was here to fix a leak in the filter. After he left, rhw plumber arrived to check on the sewer pump.

All turned out well. The dental technician - a young mother of two boys -  the friendly pool man and affable plumber - both named Neil - carried out their work with cool professionalism.

While politicians bluster, American workers like them carry out their duties each day, keeping the country going.

 

Harper's noted Washington journalist Andrew Cockburn exposes Joe Manchin's desire for power

Harper's magazine writer Andrew Cockburn's article on Joe Manchin's sabotage of progressive Democratic politics in West Virginia is a classic of old-fashioned political reporting.

"The Enemy Within" details how the Democratic senator gives little support to West Virginia's Democratic Party, instead cultivating ties to the state's coal industry and the GOP establishment. With the Senate divided between Democrats and Republicans, Manchin has thwarted President Joe Biden's most progressive programs.

Manchin grasped power after losing badly to progressive Charlotte Pritt in the 1996 Democratic governor's primary. According to Cockburn's article, Manchine undermined Pritt's campaign against Republican Cecil Underwood, to whom she lost by less than 40,000 votes. That was the end of progressive politics in West Virginia, which has lost population and suffered widespread poverty and opioid addiction.

After losing to Pritt, Manchin won races for secretary of state and governor before his election to the U.S. Senate. He gained power by building ties to the coal industry and GOP leaders. While the state supported Donald Trump, Manchin won another term.

Cockburn's well-reported, balanced article was different from the left-wing firebombs of his late brother Alexander, whose work I relished reading for years in the Nation, the New York Review of Books and other publications. A socialist and anarchist, Alexander presented a bracing alternative view on national politics.

Late in his career, Alexander Cockburn launched a bitter feud with his former ally Christopher Hitchens over Hitchens' support for the Iraq War and other shifts from his early leftist beliefs. The dueling polemicists from a more combative era of left-wing journalism both succumbed to cancer.

Along with Harper's articles by Andrew Cockburn, the father of actress and director Olivia Wilde and husband of journalist Leslie Cockburn, I also value his brother Patrick Cockburn's work. Writing on the Mideast for the London Review of Books, Patrick Cockburn gives deep background information not found in The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

Their father, Claud Cockburn, was a notorious left-wing British journalist whose novel, "Beat the Devil," was made into a 1953 cult movie directed by John Huston, co-written by Truman Capote and starring an improbable lineup of Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida, Jennifer Jones, Peter Lorre and Robert Morley. A number of writers have examined the crew's antics during the film's production in Italy as a lurid display of Hollywood excess.

An anecdote from Andrew Cockburn's expose of Joe Manchin reflects that decadence. Cockburn reports that Manchin lives on a luxurious houseboat in Washington, where he hosts parties attended by lobbyists and politicians from both sides. The booze and music never stop at "Almost Heaven," Cockburn says.

At age 74, Cockburn makes Harper's Washington coverage indispensable.

 

Rumaan Alam's "Leave the World Behind" falls short of critical acclaim

Rumaan Alam's social satire/diaster novel "Leave the World Behind" drew widespread praise in 2020 for capturing the pandemic zeitgeist.

Former President Barack Obama recently placed "Leave the World Behind" on his summer reading list, although an accomplished black man in the book demeans himself before a "magical white" character seen as the model of competent American manhood.

While the book has a best-selling thriller's narrative drive and passages of splendid literary fiction, its series of set pieces don't coalesce. Several of the chapters misfire, and overall the novel doesn't live up to the extravagant praise it received.

The plot veers from 1950s disaster movie melodrama to sitcom stereotypes.

A typical liberal family from Brooklyn heads to rural Long Island for a vacation at an Airbnb house with a swimming pool and up-to-date furnishings, but not that close to the beach.

The father, Clay, is a professor of media studies at City College, and the mom, Amanda, an advertising executive whose main duties are sending and answering e-mails. Their children are the teenaged Archie and 13-year-old Rose or Rosie.

After a day enjoying the pool, meals, a perfunctory trip to the beach and the parents' middle-aged lustful sex, they are disturbed by a late night knock on the door.

A black couple, in their 60s, George (GH) and Ruth Washington, announce that they own the house and have come from New York City, which has suffered a mysterious blackout. They desire to stay at the house until the disaster passes.

Amanda quickly loses her liberal outlook, viewing the couple with racist suspicion. Clay is more welcoming, and George and Ruth stay.

Their uneasy relationship slowly develops in scenes of varying credibility. Although the home's power remains, the Internet goes out, and they lose contact with the outside world, whose apocalyptic destruction is reported by an omniscient narrator who alternates with the characters' individual viewpoints.

The characters resort to stereotypes; I'm surprised that women critics haven't decried Alam's misogynistic portrayal of Amanda.

G.H. is a successful financial planner, yet he emasculates himself before a white working class contractor named Danny, to whom G.H. has deferred in the remodeling of the house. Danny's dominance supports the validity of white supremacy.

As scenes of a global disaster mount, the book spins out of control. The most complex character, the young girl Rose, doesn't quite salvage the novel with a hopeful final chapter told from her point of view.

The book's cinematic qualities have been rewarded; it's being made into a Netflix movie starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. Good casting; the novel mentions that G.H. resembles Denzel, although he lacks the actor's heroic fortitude.

Streaming offers possibilities; the book is really a TV show with a series of not quite coherent episodes.

 

Oklahoma, Texas move to SEC would change college sports forever

Texas and Oklahoma jumping to the Southeastern Conference would blow up the college sports landscape.

The Longhorns and Sooners joining the rich and arrogant SEC would begin a total realignment. Many observers believe that four 16-team super-conferences will emerge from the ruins of the old NCAA-ruled collegiate empire.

But why would the SEC stop with Texas and Oklahoma? The ACC's Clemson, Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech look well-matched to the SEC football-dominant model. Why not 20 teams instead of the 16 that Texas and Oklahoma would make?

At least Clemson and Florida State are really in the Southeast. Not that geography still makes a difference.

Texas and Oklahoma's exit would leave the Big 12 without a dominant football power. Oklahoma State has never reached the level of the Sooners, and Baylor's intermittent football success is overshadowed by the school's basketball championships.

The SEC's Vanderbilt, South Carolina and basketball-dominated Kentucky will find it tougher to compete in football with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma.

Many believe that 30 football powerhouses will form their own national super-conference. With players receiving pay, college football would turn into a semi-pro operation, no longer associated with schools, as ESPN's Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon asserted on their Pardon the Interruption show Thursday.

The shakeup in football might also sound the death knell for college basketball and other sports. Basketball schools like the ACC's Duke and the Big 12's Kansas would not have a place in a 30-team football league. Without money from football, women's basketball, baseball, track, gymnastics and softball will need to support themselves.

Lesser football powers like Baylor, Kansas State, West Virginia, Stanford, Virginia, Michigan State, Northwestern, Iowa, Purdue and so on might keep the student-athlete concept going. Proud Notre Dame will have to come in from the cold.

But will teams like Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, USC, Florida, Oklahoma, and Clemson lose their college football traditions? Will alums still get as excited about semi-pro teams? Will traditional rivalries like Michigan-Ohio State or Alabama-Auburn mean anything anymore?

Money and gambling rule now. Old school ties matter less and less.

Mississippi writer Wright Thompson uncovers buried secrets of Emmett Till murder case

ESPN writer Wright Thompson reveres his Mississippi heritage.

Known for pieces on Ole Miss football and Southern traditions, Thompson in a wrenching, deeply reported article in the Atlantic indicts his native state for seeking to evade guilt over the Emmett Till murder on Aug. 28, 1955.

Thompson reveals that Till, a black 14-year-old from Chicago visiting relatives in rural Mississippi, was tortured and killed by a group of white men in a barn near Drew, Miss. Most accounts say that Till was killed in Money, Miss., where he enraged the killers by reportedly whistling at a young white woman named Carolyn Bryant who was working as a cashier in a grocery store, located about 40 minutes away from where the murder occurred.

The article recounts Thompson's visits to the barn on property owned by a dentist, who lives in a home on the site with his family. Till's survivors hope to buy the barn as part of a memorial to him, including sites where he lived in Chicago.

Till walked with two of his cousins to the grocery store in Money. Thompson talked to Till's cousin, Wheeler Parker, now in his 80s. In a surprising revelation, Parker told Thompson that Till did whistle at the woman, and that the young boys immediately realized that Till was in deep trouble.

Parker also was at the home of his grandfather, Moses Wright, Till's great-uncle, when Roy Bryant, the women's husband, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, kidnapped Till. Milam reportedly held a gun to Till's head, and later beat the child with the weapon.

Thompson also spoke to an elderly witness who as a young black walked by the barn and heard Till's screams. The youth testified in Bryant and Milam's murder trial, along with Moses Wright, but an all-white jury acquitted Bryant and Milam. After torturing and killing Till, they and likely several others dumped Till into the Tallahatchie River, weighed down by a cotton gin fan.

Till's mother, Mamie, insisted that Till's ravaged body lie in an open casket. Photos in Jet magazine enraged the nation, and galvanized the civil rights movement.

Thompson's article documents Mississippi's effort to erase the memory of the Till case. State textbooks all but ignore the murder, and documents such as the original court transcript have disappeared. Following the trial, respectable Mississippians sought to present the case as an atypical violation of the state's norms.

The FBI reopened the Till investigation in the 1990s, seeking to indict Carolyn Bryant for manslaughter. Now in her late 80s, she was not charged by a grand jury.

With his deep Mississippi ties, Thompson understands the light and darkness of his native state. His searing examination of the Emmett Till case and Mississippi's shame shows that courageous journalism still matters.

 

Paul McCartney examines inner workings of Beatles, Wings songs in "McCartney, 3,2,1"

Paul McCartney's bandmates George Harrison and John Lennon are ghostly presences on "McCartney, 3,2,1."

In the Hulu docu series, McCartney and producer Rick Rubin look at the inner workings of Beatles recordings, forever preserved on their original tapes.

During the six half-hour episodes, Rubin feeds tapes into a mixing board, pushing controls to play separate parts of selected songs. McCartney recalls how a bass progression, guitar riff or vocal harmony was produced.

The series also examines several songs McCartney recorded with his band Wings and during his solo career after the Beatles broke up in 1970.

The 79-year-old McCartney, his youthful spirit still fresh, recalls Harrison and Lennon's songwriting and musical ideas. As the songs recorded so many years ago play, he seems transported back to his youth, a wistful look on his face.

While McCartney gives full credit to Lennon and Harrison, he inevitably emerges as the group's dominant creative force. McCartney acknowledges that much of the band's innovative studio productions after they stopped touring in 1966 came from producer George Martin's ability to translate McCartney's raw ideas into music.

McCartney's familiar stories about his childhood friendships with Harrison and Lennon in hardscrabble Liverpool hold their Dickensian power. As McCartney says, back then he was playing guitar with a bloke named John. Now, he looks back at writing songs with John Lennon.

Warm reminisces of Ringo Starr reveal the drummer's underrated contributions. Along with his "Ringoisms" giving the impetus to songs like "A Hard Day's Night," and "Tomorrow Never Knows," Starr was the essential element that transported the band to stardom, McCartney affirms. Meeting Starr in Hamburg, where the Beatles served a grueling apprenticeship, and Starr replacing Pete Best as the group's drummer energized the band's sound, he says.

While Starr's role in solidifying the group is a familiar story, McCartney steps forward in extolling Starr's ability as a drummer, citing his innovative technique.

Yet in one of the few anecdotes that highlight tensions among the band before their breakup, McCartney recalls Starr's irritation when McCartney gave detailed instructions on how to perform on "Back in the U.S.S.R." Starr steamed off, and McCartney ended up playing drums on the song.

London's 1960s music and art scene shines brightly in McCartney's anecdotes, such as hearing Jimi Hendrix play in a small London club. McCartney says that Hendrix performed that night before a sparse crowd, but word of mouth acclaim resulted in a packed house the next week.

McCartney looks back at other musical superstars. Harrison's generosity is cited in allowing Eric Clapton to play the lead solo on Harrison's "My Guitar Gently Weeps." When Rubin asks if Clapton was McCartney's friend, he shakes his head and says he was Harrison's friend.

When Rubin asks if other groups influenced the Beatles, McCartney cites Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" as challenging the Beatles to record "Sgt. Pepper." He also expresses the band's admiration of the Kinks and associating with Pink Floyd at the famed Abbey Road Studio during the recording of "Dark Side of the Moon."

Tellingly, no mention is made of the Beatles' greatest rival, the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the other Stones must have occupied a separate sphere in the Beatles' estimation.

In an amusing aside when Rubin inexplicably plays "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," McCartney recalls that Moog synthesizer inventor Robert Moog was at the studio when the novelty number was recorded, and lent a hand.

A segment on the polarizing "Yesterday," viewed as a masterpiece by some but disparaged by others as overly sentimental, reveals that the other Beatles wanted nothing to do with the song. McCartney recorded it alone with his guitar, and Martin added schmaltzy strings.

A young McCartney is shown performing the song alone in concert, batting his eyes with Barry Manilow sincerity.

McCartney’s hard-rock authenticity is paramount in a dissection of “Maybe I’m Amazed” from his brilliant self-recorded solo album following the Beatles’ breakup. The searing guitar solos, pulsing drums and bass, and aching vocals, all performed by McCartney, blaze like a comet.

Rubin goes too far in manipulating the tape machine, often ruining a song by cutting away to just the bass and drums. His admiration of McCartney at times crosses the line into fawning.

While Lennon before his tragic death discounted the Beatles' fame, McCartney expresses pride at the band's positive influence in the world. Images of  his famous cherubic face through the years testify to his presence in world culture. His visage shows a serene wisdom, but his eyes still shine as they did when the Beatles first burst upon the scene

McCartney never learned to read or write music. In one scene in "McCartney 3,2,1," he sits at a piano and shows Rubin how he created his music from a few simple chords.

The Beatles' rise might have been miraculous. Yet, as the docu-series proves, they built their career note by note.

 

 

Anti-vac hostility, delta variant's rise show decline in America's collective intelligence

Smallpox and polio wouldn't have been eradicated if today's anti-vaccine idiocy had existed in the 1950s, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on the Sunday talk shows.

When I was in first grade in the 1950s, our class lined up and marched to the gym to receive shots from a public health official. No one protested.

I believe we received Dr. Salk's polio vaccine; I was given a smallpox shot, and its signature scar, during a regular visit to Dr. Van Gelder, our pediatrician.

But I didn't receive a measles shot; I actually suffered a case of the disease, along with chicken pox and the mumps. Only later was measles considered serious enough to warrant a widespread vaccine effort.

Smallpox vaccinations began in the late 18th century when Dr. Edward Jenner observed that milkmaids who'd suffered from the milder cow pox didn't get the dreaded smallpox.

Jenner, who took the name vaccine from the Latin term for cow, inoculated a small boy with material taken from a woman's cow-pox sore. The child never contracted smallpox, and vaccinations gained acceptance. American Revolutionary War soldiers received crude shots taken from cow pox sores.

Today's anti-vac hostility and the rise of the corona delta variant show the decline of America’s collective intelligence. Once public health measures were widely supported. Now, even wearing masks stirs right-wing resistance.

As the virus surges again, The Wall Street Journal continues its pro-corona stance. Don't worry, just live with the disease, the newspaper advised Tuesday. It's nothing worse than colds. The newspaper had no criticism for its fellow Murdoch-owned Fox News' spread of anti-vaccine propaganda, or GOP governors' criminal undermining of vaccine programs.

The new corona outbreak threatens the Olympics, where a number of athletes have received positive tests. The low vaccination rate in Tokyo is shocking; Japan has a reputation for efficiency and widespread social compliance.

Stocks plunged Monday over fears the virus' resurgence will torpedo the economic rebound. Britain threw a premature party after Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared "Freedom Day," despite a rise in cases.

In the United States, Republican resistance is undermining President Biden's efforts to increase vaccines and halt the disease's spread.

In the 1950s, a massive campaign stopped polio. Now, polio would likely win.

 

 

British Open shows benign effects of climate change

Amid wildfires, scorching temperatures, floods and drought across the globe, the British Open produced more benign evidence of climate change.

The tournament played at the Royal St. George's links course had none of the howling winds, ocean squalls and cold temperatures associated with the event. On Sunday's last day, temperatures reached a balmy 81 degrees, boosting sales of sunscreen.

Without high winds, the course near England's iconic White Cliffs of Dover wasn't much of a challenge, even with its undulating greens and punitive rough. Scores in the low 60s were common.

American 24-year-old phenom Collin Morikawa won in his first time competing in the Open with a score of 16 under, drawing raves for how quickly he adapted to "linksland" golf. But while the funky old course has unusual bumps and swales he had to master, the mild weather made it more like a course in Moriwaka's native California instead of Sandwich, England, which is on the same latitude as Canada.

Climate change might make the harsh weather associated with the Open a relic of the past. Or, it could bring even more extreme storms to the event.

A full gallery basked in the sunshine and gentle breezes as the Open returned after its cancellation in 2020 because of Covid. The other major tournaments were rescheduled and played without fans present.

Morikawa won one of those events, the PGA at Harding Park in San Francisco, without cheers and applause. After accepting the Open's "Claret Jug" as the "champion golfer of the year," the gracious Morikawa expressed gratitude for the presence of fans.

Next year, the Open will mark its 150th playing with a return to St. Andrews, the cradle of golf.

Continuing the practices of Covid-era broadcasting, NBC announcers Dan Hicks and Paul Azinger called the Open from Stamford, Conn. The network had several on-course reporters following the players.

Perhaps the network will carry out a similar remote platform for its coverage of the Tokyo Olympics, at which Morikawa will compete for the United States.

With the Delta variant surging, Covid is threatening the Olympics. Several Olympics athletes have received positive covid tests, and events will be conducted without fans.

A few weeks ago, the United States and the world declared victory over covid. Anti-vaccine obstinance in American right-wing states has brought a resurgence of the disease’s Delta variant, dismaying the Biden administration and public health officials.

The anti-vaccine South and Midwest are gearing up for a full return to college football stadiums this fall. To halt Covid, colleges should require fans to show proof of vaccination to attend games.