The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary

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Brownlow

1 Sep, 2015

P.G.Wodehouse and the Word-Warriors of WW II

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When the German army overran France and Belgium in the spring of 1940, it acquired a fair number of surprised aliens, among them Mr. and Mrs. P.G. Wodehouse.  After the outbreak of war, the Wodehouses had stayed on at their home in Le Touquet, P.G. working on a book, Mrs. P.G. doing her bit for the war effort by entertaining the members of the local RAF squadron.  The British military and civil authorities in the area had assured them there was no immediate cause for fear, and so, refusing to imitate what seemed to them unworthy panic in those who...

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Film / Olson

1 Sep, 2015

Real-life Work in the Movies by Ray Olson

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Real-life Work in the Movies By Ray Olson Since my post on William Wister Haines, I’ve seen the 1937 adaptation of his novel (first and best of the four of his I’ve read), Slim (1934), about a young electric lineman; his sweetheart, Cally; his mentor, Red; his friend, Stumpy, a grunt or ground worker; and the foreman of his line crew, Pop. I’m exceedingly happy to say that it’s a minor classic. Reducing the novel to a screenplay, Haines conflates several incidents in the book; for instance, Slim is injured twice in the novel, only once on screen, and Cally nurses him...

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Fleming

27 Aug, 2015

Properties of Blood: Preface

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Praefatio Praefationis Many decent men and women feel instinctively that their world has gone wrong and is going still wronger every day.  Whether the subject is marriage laws, immigration, crime, moral and aesthetic standards in the arts, or even decisions of war and peace, discussions are reduced to an exchange of slogans and sound bites crafted, cobbled, and propagated by opposing political factions.  Conservatives and liberals with common sense, when they are confronted with the ideas and projects of the revolutionary left, are so confused that they concede point after point to their opponents, and, before too long, they have...

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Fleming / From Under The Rubble

25 Aug, 2015

ISIS Punks and USA Vandals

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When the Islamic State blows up the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, the UNESCO (the cultural arm of the United Nations) condemns the act as a war crime.  UNESCO’s director-general declared that in destroying ancient monuments, IS was “seeking to deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, its identity and history.” In America, when political activists and legislators call for the removal of Confederate flags and symbols from public places, the destruction of Confederate monuments, and the desecration of the graves of Confederate officers, we do not hear a peep out of UNESCO.  Indeed, the entire world of right-thinking men...

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Fleming / From Under The Rubble

24 Aug, 2015

Triumph or Trompe l’Oeil?

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  Triumph or Trompe l’Oeil? By Thomas Fleming This article is, for a limited time, being offered gratis to readers of this website. “What’s in a name?”  When Juliet Montague famously asked this question, she concluded that the mere fact of Romeo having the last name of Capulet could make no difference to her future happiness.  Her mistake would prove to be fatal. In normal societies, names are meaningful, either because they convey the essence of the person or because they are an identity badge that tells others where he fits into the society.    American Indians often acquired their...

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Autodidact / FF / Fleming

19 Aug, 2015

Sophocles’ Antigone 4

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The Parodos of the Antigone begins with a lyric ode and concludes with a brief anapaestic passage (a meter for marching and walking, not singing and dancing) that serves as a transition to the first episode.

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Essays / Fleming

12 Aug, 2015

Trump and the Gentlemen of the Press

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The campaign season has hardly begun, but the press is already prowling the world looking for Republicans to destroy.  Their first intended victim is Donald Trump, whose first mortal sin  was a casual allusion to the number of illegal aliens who have rewarded America’s careless generosity by committing major felonies against its citizens.  He went on to impugn the valor of John McCain, and, most recently, to lash back at Megyn Kelly for her malicious and unprofessional style at the first GOP debate. Trump’s allegations are either true or false, and it should be the job of the press to...

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Fleming

30 Jul, 2015

Annals of Trebizond, Part II

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The Annals of Trebizond, Part II Thomas Fleming The history of Trebizond is compounded in equal parts of Byzantine exotic history, American soap opera, and the political morality of the English television show, House of Cards.  (Parenthetically, I had a conversation with a TV-watcher so dumb he actually preferred the Kevin Bacon series to Sir Ian Richardson!) Much of the charm of Trapezuntine history lies precisely in how much, comparing great things with small, our own institutionalized culture of pettiness and betrayal. When “Emperor” Alexios I died at the age of 40, the throne passed not to his son but...