Saturday, March 19, 2005

WAM And Other News



I just returned from the Women And Media conference in Boston. The topics were very interesting, the cinnamon buns were good and we hatched many cunning plots to take over most of the so-called liberal media, "we" being progressive women and goddesses. I had a very good time and I'm usually quite allergic to networking. You will all benefit from the information I acquired today and yesterday, though it will trickle into my posts slowly over time.

In other news, the National Book Critics Circle prizes were announced yesterday. Marilyn Robinson's Gilead won the fiction prize. You can read about her and the other prize winners here. What's sad about these prizes is that they don't contain any money. They should at least have sent the winners some cinnamon buns.

I have not read Gilead yet but I have read Robinson's earlier book Housekeeping which is full of metaphors. Too full of them for me though it is exquisitely constructed. Perhaps also too full of mentally deranged characters which makes the book far too realistic in some ways.

If you are starved for more of my exquisitely constructed political commentary you can get it on American Street today as on all Saturdays.