A book that is/is not a book

A tip of the beret to Octavio Roca for flagging this fascinating article from Hyperallergic.com about the first English translation (by Sylvia Gorelick) of Stephane Mallarme's La Livre (The Book), a long poem that Octavio notes is not in the Pleiade edition of the poet's works. Mallarme (1842-1898) famously declared that "Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book," and he spent 30 years compiling this sprawling, unfinished visual poem to prove that point.

Viewing "Every Act of Life"

The PBS "American Masters" program linked in Steve's "Remembering Terrence McNally" post below is for a short time easily viewable! I heartily recommend it for anyone interested in theater or gay life or American culture in general.

Remembering Terrence McNally

The Washington Post and New York Times are reporting the death of playwright Terrence McNally at the age of 81, due to complications from coronavirus. The winner of four Tonys, McNally was a prolific dramatist throughout his long career, but is probably best known for his plays, Love! Valor! Compassion! (1995) and Master Class (1996), and his books for the musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993) and Ragtime (1998).

I'm chagrinned to see that the list of 300+ books we've read (faithfully updated by our blogmaster, Tim Walton) does not include any of McNally's works. Perhaps that's an omission we might wish to rectify when we conduct our next nomination/voting process? I was planning to do that this spring, by the way, but since we still have plenty of titles from our last balloting left to schedule, and Lord only knows when we'll be able to resume meeting, I'm inclined to wait until the fall.

Our friend Ken Jost notes that "Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life," a documentary about the playwright's life and career, aired on PBS on June 14, 2019, as part of the network's "American Masters" series. And here are Post theater critic Peter Marks' lovely tribute, and a roundup of some
Times reviews of McNally's creations over the years.

None but the Lonely...

Several of you have told me you've finished, or at least started, the selection we were scheduled to discuss on April 1: Olivia Laing's Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone.  

If you haven't checked out that book yet, here's an op-ed by Ms. Laing from today's New York Times to whet your appetite: "How to Be Lonely." 

Bookmen DC will not meet in April

Mayor Bowser has extended the current state of emergency through April 27, so that knocks out both our meetings next month.  I'll revise the schedule once there is a firm date for reopening D.C. government facilities.

A Coronavirus Reading List

I'm not sure whether it's the imp of the perverse that put the idea into my head, but I've ordered four books that I hope will give me some perspectives on the current crisis:

The Decameron  by Giovanni Boccaccio

A Journal of the Plague Year  by Daniel Defoe

The Plague  by Albert Camus

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Epidemic in History
by John M. Barry

I welcome other suggestions.

Learning from History?

Politico has published a fascinating roundup of 30 short (1-2 paragraphs) responses by experts to the question, "How will the coronavirus change the world permanently?" They're all worth reading (IMHO), if not equally compelling. But Jonathan Rauch's take, harkening back to our recent discussion of Randy Shilts' And the Band Played On, stands out for me:

"One group of Americans has lived through a transformational epidemic in recent memory: gay men. Of course, HIV/AIDS was (and is) different in all kinds of ways from coronavirus, but one lesson is likely to apply: Plagues drive change. Partly because our government failed us, gay Americans mobilized to build organizations, networks and know-how that changed our place in society and have enduring legacies today. The epidemic also revealed deadly flaws in the health care system, and it awakened us to the need for the protection of marriage--revelations which led to landmark reforms. I wouldn't be surprised to see some analogous changes in the wake of coronavirus. People are finding new ways to connect and support each other in adversity; they are sure to demand major changes in the health care system and maybe also the government; and they'll become newly conscious of interdependency and community. I can't predict the precise effects, but I'm sure we'll be seeing them for years."