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

Volume XXVIII, Number 3

Late Winter 2001 - 2002

 
NEW LISTINGS
Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Gambling,
The U. S. Occupation of Haiti - 1915 - 1934, and
H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds.


REVIEWS
The Tragic History of the Sea
"The mortality rates for the trips,
typically going from Lisbon to Goa,
were astounding: an outward bound vessel
with 600 or 700 on board would often return
with 200 or so wracked souls."

Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere
"Those of us in the Fourth World
need a capital, our own nation.
What would it be called?
It is the nation of nowhere,
and I have come to think that its
natural capital is Trieste."

The Fun of It
"There was that long-winded lady we hear from occasionally
who was, indeed, long-winded --- a sexist bit of caricature
which the magazine would never indulge in today,
no more than they would report Marian Anderson making
her first concert appearance when she was six years old
with another picaninny."


Great Reviews of the Past
Inside the "New" Las Vegas
"Who are we idolizing here?
A humorless Mormon and a failed furniture salesman.
Two who had the bestial hunger to sacrifice everything
to be rich (they regularly appear in that pantheon
of the Acme of Vulgarly Rich Americans ---
the Fortune 400)."


BRIEF REVIEWS
The Bostons,
Insight Meditation, and
Round-Trip to Deadsville


ARTICLES
Sin Nombre
"She has eyes bigger than my own,
skin of fine mahogany,
a nose they used to call 'button'
and a mouth given to much smiling and little crying.
She's exactly a year old,
and she was offered to me yesterday."

Ducks
"Exactly twenty-eight days later,
twelve of them were, as they say in Spanish,
dierón a luz --- given to the light. Three of them
succumbed to what I believe was excessive quackery.
The other nine have grown at an alarming rate,
and now stand six foot three."


READINGS
American Television --- 1931

"A set, as you may know, is like a radio cabinet,
dials and all, except that in place of a sound-emitter
it has a lens the size of a pie pan.
You sit in a chair, twirl the dials,
look through the lens, and if all goes well
images appear on a screen
about eight inches square
on the other side of the lens."

Dostoyevsky and Gran Mal
"This really was a sky, nocturnal almost
and filled with stars which for some reason
were enormous, like the sun, each of them
radiating a golden light, although it was perfectly possible
to look at them, because they did not blind your eyes,
and breaking away from the earth,
he flew freely between them in space."


POETRY
The End The End
"And so, you and I Jesus are assigned the task
To be the last of the caring Jews, pulling
Babes from their graves by dawn
(They've told us we can have them all)."

Loving the Earth
"And when I penetrate ---
The diamond mountains
Will begin to shiver, winds sigh
Across the flat spaces, seas will roil,
Giant spurts as the fire-dragons
Erupt in dark wet caves."


LETTERS
Homosexuality and
The U. S. Military
In the '30s


A PITHY SAMPLE
Of our most notorious reviews
as collected in the hard-copy
"FOLIO"


TABLE OF CONTENTS
All books reviewed in RALPH
since 1994
arranged chronologically.


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THE OFFICIAL RALPH
Paradox-of-the-Month

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
Describing the good works of RALPH's official godparent

Lolita Lark, Editor-In-Chief
Post Office Box 16719
San Diego CA 92176

poo@cts.com


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