by Judi Curry
02.17.2013
Books & Poetry
Written by Harold Jaffe, Published December 2012
I met Dr. Jaffe several months ago and was intrigued by his writings and background. He is the author of 20+ volumes of fiction, “docufiction” novels and essays. His writings have been translated into numerous languages, and has been the recipient of several awards. He is the editor of Fiction International” and is currently a Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at San Diego State University.
Dr. Jaffe, in this book, explores the changes of millennial culture. He deplores what is happening to earth in a variety of ways. It is an intellectual and philosophical look at the changes technology is making – has made – today and how we are unable to “reconstruct ourselves”.
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by Jim Miller
02.11.2013
Books & Poetry
It’s the Monday before Valentine’s Day and merchants across America are happily preparing for our annual romance-driven consumer frenzy. Indeed this schmaltzy commodification of love is worth around $14.7 billion dollars a year with much of it ending in the predictable disappointment that comes when we realize that our frantic, frequently anxious lives just don’t measure up to the prepackaged saccharine dreams we are sold.
Valentine’s Day is the sanctification of an empty, soul-killing romance narrative, a celebration of the notion that the most precious and intangible human emotion can be summoned by the magic of the sexless dollar. In sum, as currently constituted, Valentine’s Day is where real love goes to die.
The roots of what we think of when we think about buying something to signify love are as American as apple pie, and we might trace the origins of the total commercialization of romance to 1913 when Hallmark began to mass market Valentine’s Day cards as we know them. This commercial landmark was preceded by the work of Esther Howland who, in 1850, first started to produce and sell Valentines, starting the move away from exchanging personally crafted cards or even poems to trading commodities made by someone else.
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