The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities www.ralphmag.org   Volume XII, Number 4 Winter, 1996 - 1997

THE NEWEST RALPHThis link takes you directly
to the most recent issue of our magazine

---

REVIEWS
Mrs. Caliban"We have to love him too: who can resist the tall staid green giant
who dotes on avocadoes, who wants to "borrow a baby"
so he can see what it looks like?"

Helen Levitt: Mexico City "She had the advantage, in that macho world,
of being a gringa. No Mexican, male or female,
would take a white woman seriously, especially one with a camera."

Subway"The back-and-forth as the electric motor whined up to top speed...
with the walls closing in, the south-bound A-Train screaming past,
it made us feel like we were going at Mach-3."

Seeking God's Wisdom About Christian Homosexuality "He that is wounded in the stones,
or hath his privy member cut off,
shall not enter into the congregation..."
Deuteronomy 23:1

---

BRIEF REVIEWSBrothers Grimm, Exposed Poets, Nabokov,
A Novel of Replays, and CIA Numbers Stations

---

THE WEEKLY RALPH The Branding (and Baptism) of Slaves "The South Sea Company later branded its slaves
with the distinctive mark of the port in the Spanish empire
to which they were being shipped --- Cartagena, Caracas,
Veracruz, and so on --- this new brand being made
of gold or silver: preferably the latter,
because it made a sharper scar."

---

ARTICLESIndians in Their Birthday Suits "In less than a century,
the Indianswho roamed Baja California would be reduced
to 2,000 in number by a corruption of flesh presented, gratis,
by Padre Serra and his followers.
This is the man they want to canonize."

Sailing from Tijuana on the Titanic "It should be setting sail shortly,
and I hope to be on board at the launching.
The grand ship, filled with lights and music and glamour,
setting sail to another Byzantium."

The Red Car of Passion
"With my driving cap and hounds-tooth jacket,
I might even have looked like a sporty sports car driver ---
despite braces, crutches, orthopædic corsets and wheelchairs."

---

READINGS Robert Browning
"There is black blood in him somewhere,
that is why he was called Browning ---
it comes out in the tom-tom of his verse."

Vignettes of a Tragic Century
"There was a stillness, a beauty, a sense of infinite, elegiac sadness
and timelessness such as I have never experienced...Here all the
measureless tragedy of the Second World War --- the millions
of dead, the endless seas of bereavement and sorrow,
the extinction of a whole great complex of life
and belief and hope --- had its perpetuation."

Dual Micturation in Dublin
"Alone, what did Bloom hear?
The double reverberation of retreating feet
on the heavenborn earth, the double vibration
of a jew's harp in the resonant lane.
Alone, what did Bloom feel?
The cold of interstellar space,
thousands of degrees below freezing..."

Dirty Artists and The Clean Rich
"...and didn't Manet and Monet talk about their theories of art
until the sky rained pink tears and the grass turned purple ---
didn't Pissarro chop the trees into little bits of glass.
And Seurat put his poor old mother through the sausage machine
and roll her into linoleum."

---

POETRY I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee
"I see her standing in the hall,
Where the mirror's lashed to blood and foam,
And the black flukes of agony
Beat at the air till the light blows out."

The Mess of Love
"It is not love any more, it's just a mess.
And we've made a great mess of love,
mind-perverted, will-perverted,
ego-perverted love."

Death is Sitting at the Foot of my Bed
"Ms. Death is sitting at the foot of my bed.
This wretched Lady Death has got the hots for me
and wants to suck me drier than a fig plucked off a tree."

Avalanche
"I was on top, pressed into the scent
you left at night on the shabby
bed. We were both on acid..."

Moon Dog Song
"Once, when I was too young by far, you and I
Beastly drunk on a train to Madrid, stayed up
All night, our lips like blood red wine
As the night hills white spooks wheeled outside."

---

NEW LISTINGS
Books that have been sent to us
within the last fortnight or so.

---

HELP US SURVIVE
For $10 a year, you get our love, our thanks,
and the knowledge that we will be around
to haunt you and yours in the future.

ARCHIVESThe previous issue of RALPH. Which (in turn),
will lead you into the far, dangerous (and possibly damp)
frontiers of endless RALPHings.

 

T H E  F A C T SSubmitting BooksThe best way to get books to RALPH for review.Submitting ReviewsSuggestions for would-be reviewers --- and payment schedule. HistoryRALPH 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 FundOther activities of RALPH's godparents, includingMho & Mho Works

Ralph R. Doister, Editor-In-ChiefPost Office Box 16719
San Diego CA 92176poo@cts.com

---

THE OFFICIAL RALPH
PARADOX-OF-THE-MONTH

---

Go to the Previous RALPH    Go to the Current RALPH    Go to the Upcoming RALPH