literature
Political literature hunted from the best-seller list or the recesses of online. Our favorite stories showcase politicians from both sides of the aisle and beyond.
- Top Story - March 2022
The Heart of the Issue
I'm up late reading when I get the Apple news app notification. Ukraine is under attack. My first thought is, "when words fail..."
This Little Black Book Inspires Powerful World Leaders
I challenge you to imagine how the most powerful world leaders can singularly be influenced by one little black book. A little black book that was authored over 2,000 years ago in ancient China.
Eleanor GraysunPublished 2 years ago in The SwampOf Maus & Morality
On January 27, 2022, (International Holocaust Rememberance Day) the news broke of a unanimous 10-0 vote by Tennesee's McGinn County School Board to remove Art Spiegelman‘s graphic novel, Maus, from the shelves of their school libraries & the curriculum of their English/Litrarature classes; due to concerns pertaining to the use of oscene language and depictions of nudity. As someone of German heritage, who was also lucky enough to be exposed to the history of the Holocaust & Holocaust literature throughout my school years & well into college (including Anne Frank's The Diary of A Young Girl, John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Elie Wiesel's Night, & Abbey Mann's Judgement at Nuremberg) I find myself in a state between perplexed, appalled, and offended to learn of this decision. To have a work like this be banned by a school board is the same sort of ignorance that the Nazis themselves are guilty of when they censored and set giant piles of books aflame for the sake of their own political gains; to control the mindset of the general population & regulate what materials and topics were taught to the nation's youth as they develop into adulthood. The same scenario applied to the fields of history & archeology (as discussed in another Vocal piece I wrote, entitled Discomfort & Intolerance). Even today, the fields of history & literature come under scrutiny by political entities, with the controversial teachings of Critical Race Theory. Though, to combat these issues through censorship & legal action, is only the continual cycle of sowing the seeds of ignorance that will only grow into the future harbingers of destruction, and leave us all horribly perplexed; wondering "How could this happen?", "Where did we go wrong?", and "What could we have done to stop it before it came to this?".
Jacob HerrPublished 2 years ago in The Swamp'You know my methods, Watson'
I've recently re-read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories and was going to write a review, but tuning into the news at any given time has given me a different idea. Think of this as an advice column for the media. A response from a hypothetical 'Dear Sir Arthur,' if you will.
Matty LongPublished 3 years ago in The SwampMuckrakers the super heroes of journalism
Muckrakers were investigative reporters and writers during what is known as the Progressive Era which lasted from 1890–1920. These individuals wrote about injustice and corruption in order to bring much needed changes in society. You could call them whistleblowers who published articles in magazines like Cosmopolitan and McClure's and also in books. The January 1903 issue of McClure's is considered to be the official debut for muckraking journalism.
Cheryl E PrestonPublished 3 years ago in The SwampBook Review: "The Red Prince" by Helen Carr
I have read many books on history in my life and honestly, some of them are far better than others. I find that there is a technique to writing a book of historical nonfiction that is set on exploring person and personality simultaneously with politics and contextual items. Be that as it may, many books often fail to provide the former for the hope that the over-explanatory of the latter may compensate as a ‘I bet you did not know this [insert ideology here]…’. But, it can make the book dry and insensitive and often, we as readers have a hard time enough imagining that these people who lived in the distant past were real at all so that just adds to it. The reader would be far more interested if the book was more personal, had more character and made us really think that we knew this person from the distant past properly as we do our own friends. Context, character and plot must go hand-in-hand to make a great nonfiction history book and in the book “The Red Prince” by Helen Carr, I can say that they definitely do. They fuse together perfectly to not only give us a personal portrait of John of Gaunt, but also plays on various things that the reader may have already seen such as the portrayal of John of Gaunt in Richard II and his own child and grandchild getting their own plays with “Henry IV” and “Henry V”.
Annie KapurPublished 3 years ago in The SwampRacism, Homophobia, Violence and Literature
Édouard Louis, the 28-year-old French writer, is considered the new "enfant terrible" of French literature. One Saturday last August, we were talking animatedly in a busy restaurant on the island of Aegina. He had chosen this Greek island near the capital Athens to spend his summer vacation. Even at our first meeting there, I recognized a kind of contradiction when I unconsciously compared his gentle and calm current aura with his fierce and angry literary writing.
George KarouzakisPublished 3 years ago in The Swamp5 News Stories from March 2021 — A Quick Look
While many of these stories made headlines across America in March, some might have missed updates on these stories. Photo by Guilherme Rossi from Pexels
Stephen DaltonPublished 3 years ago in The SwampMr. President
Mr. President Published by Nadira Grey Copyright ©2021 NADIRA GREY. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher/author, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
Nadira GreyPublished 3 years ago in The SwampThe Diary
I never thought my nosing around would get me anywhere. I had been searching for answers about my birth since the beginning. As soon as I was old enough, I began asking my mother questions. My name is Nicholas Pennington and the year was 1876. By that time, I had waited almost twenty years for the answers about my birth.
Amberly HenningPublished 3 years ago in The SwampThe right to bear one less arm.
Sam Gregor was loved by everyone and known by no one. The year started on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. It was 1989. Two years before the fall of the Berlin wall and two years after The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed for the first time above 2,000, gaining 8.30 to close at 2,002.25. It had been a long year in a busier decade. It was the year U.S. President George H. W. Bush banned the importation of certain guns in the United States. The guns banned were classified as assault weapons. Semi-automatic rifles. George H W Bush had given the people the right to bear one less arm.
Briana CharlesPublished 3 years ago in The SwampSystemic Racism is Real
There is an article going around from the New York Times about Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a Classics professor at Princeton (specifically history of Rome).
Abby SiegelPublished 3 years ago in The Swamp