R  A  L  P H
  The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities

Volume XXI, Number 4

Very Very Late Summer, 2000

 
NEW LISTINGS
Ghetto Photographs of Roman Vishniac,
Wonders of the Natural Mind, and
Circumcising Your Babe


REVIEWS
Fishers of Men, by Kate Gale
"None of this Jorie Graham wispishness,
none of the Guggenheim summer-in-Livorno stuff,
none of those show-off references to
Ulysses, Shakespeare, Agamemnon.
It's here-and-now fist-in-the-nuts poetry."


The Ethics of Homelessness
"It is irresponsible for an editor
to ignore the central cause of
Homelessness in America.
Namely, a sterile economic determinism
that keeps those who havevery little
from gaining anything more than
a kick in the pants."


The Architecture of the Shakers
"A gorgeous volume
like this captures us through sentiment,
makes us harken to a time
when people weren't murdering each other nightly on television,
or indulging in drive-by shootings;
reminds us of a time whenthe sky
was blue, not brown, and when you and I could
ask a neighbor for a cup of sugar
without their thinking of us
as rapists or free-loaders."


Great Reviews of the Past
The Innocents Within

Obersturmbannfìhrer Gerhard Gruber
"was thirty-seven years old, tall and thin though a bit hippy."
A bit hippy? Does that mean he smoked dope
and wore beads in bed when he wasn't out
murdering people in the streets?


BRIEF REVIEWS
The BIA Enculturates Native Americans,
The Secret Knowledge of Water, and
The Personal War between Hitler and Stalin


RALPH'S TOP POP HITS
In more than five years of its existence,
RALPH has published hundreds of reviews and articles.
Some of these have gotten (and continue to get)
an inordinate number of hits.
We list herein those which during the course
of this month, for no reason at all that we can fathom,
appear again and again on our Daily Hit List.


ARTICLES
I'm Dying
"My death sentence is sitting on my body now.
It lets me know when I try to garden,
or to save a rose, or plant lettuce.
I even gave up turning over the dirt a while back.
Even when I am tethered to my oxygen tank, I huff. "


READINGS
The Lolos
Part I
"We shared the spit-off challenge:
I voided mucus on their feet,
and they did the same for me, like Tom Sawyer or
Gilgamesh assaulting the senses of a potential buddy
before the all-important male bonding process could begin."

Part II
"Nobody was supposed to be aware of the modern theory
of where babies come from. The assumption was
that women produced them in their bellies through
an awesome, single-handed act of will and grace."


POETRY
Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías
"The bull or the fig don't know you, neither do
the horses --- nor the ants in your house.
Neither the children nor the evening know you
Because you have died forever."

Trapping Rats and Other Problems
"You're better off sleeping under the bed or in a chair.
Forget personal hygiene and the telephone.
Just crouch gnome like on the green carpet with brown stains
or the brown carpet with green stains by the television,
swimming in your own private glass blue world."


LETTERS
Cows, Nazism, Internet Waste-Piles,
From Here to Fraternity,
and "Take me off your list."


THE OFFICIAL RALPH
Paradox-of-the-Month


HELP
Perpetuate honest, noisy, pesky book reviews.
Subscribe, and get a free copy of one of the newest titles from
Mho & Mho Works
along with a print-out of some of our most pithy reviews, in
The Folio


THE PREVIOUS ISSUE OF RALPH
This will lead you back to the last RALPH, and,
if you persist, all the way back, through forty or so issues
to the very first one, conceived in
the dark and wet Winter of
1994 - 1995.


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Titles, authors, and publishers
of all books reviewed in RALPH ---
arranged chronologically.

T H E  F A C T S
Submitting Books
The best way to get books to RALPH for review.
Submitting Reviews
Suggestions for would-be reviewers --- and payment schedule.
History
RALPH didn't spring full-blown from the brows of the gods:
     We've been around (in different guises) for over twenty-five years.     
The Fessenden Fund
Other activities of RALPH's godparents, including
Mho & Mho Works

Lolita Lark, Editor-In-Chief
Post Office Box 7272, San Diego CA 92167
poo@cts.com


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