{"id":341,"date":"2007-07-30T11:16:06","date_gmt":"2007-07-30T16:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/07\/30\/perspective-in-southern-light\/"},"modified":"2007-08-07T22:08:34","modified_gmt":"2007-08-08T03:08:34","slug":"perspective-in-southern-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/07\/perspective-in-southern-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Perspective in Southern Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were talking Sunday over coffee about the Demzette<\/em> publishing a conversational yet solid-punching essay by UA’s Mohja Kahf as the lede piece<\/a> in the Perspective (editorial) section. Under her name is printed The Washington Post<\/a><\/em>, where the piece first ran a week ago.<\/p>\n

We were proud. Mohja is one of us. Not just a “Fate-ville” gal, as she might put it, but we are friends with many of the same people. Doesn’t mean she recognizes me. There’s a handful of people who over the years mutual friends introduce me to, over and over again. I remember, they don’t. Doesn’t matter. If Mohja gives a reading I will try to attend, whether poetry or fiction, The words are precise, the delivery just theatrical enough. You can hear her voice in this weekend piece, it’s that good.<\/p>\n

My conversation partner said, “Isn’t that just like the Little Rock paper, not recognizing Mohja until someone big like the Post<\/em> runs something by her then they take it for their own.”<\/p>\n

I recognize this attitude, it’s uniquely Arkansas, proud and persecuted all at once. It’s what made the old Gazette<\/em> unbearable at times. Not just it but individual Arkies, the better-dressed and well-educated ones, embarrassed by their tribe until they believe it’s being attacked. (Maybe I mean Jewish.) But the speaker at the table is not a native but a Midwesterner; guess she’s been here enough years for the shod-Arkansas attitude to infect her.<\/p>\n

I don’t know why the Demzette<\/em> ran the piece but I have a strong guess, which I offered, and my coffee companion accepted as, well, a possibility: If Prof. Kahf offered a guest column to the Demzette,<\/em> its editors would have jumped on it. But as pleasant as she is, Mohja is too big for that. Her novel The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf<\/em> is published by a major house. Her poetry has run in The Paris Review<\/em>. If a great writer wants to tell the world about how Christianity and Judaism can and must find commonality with Islam, she goes to the big leagues. And the majors take her.<\/p>\n

It’s not our loss. It’s everyone’s gain. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were talking Sunday over coffee about the Demzette publishing a conversational yet solid-punching essay by UA’s Mohja Kahf as the lede piece in the Perspective (editorial) section. Under her name is printed The Washington Post, where the piece first ran a week ago. We were proud. Mohja is one of us. Not just a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-body-home-street"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":357,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/09\/get-right-with-lucinda\/","url_meta":{"origin":341,"position":0},"title":"Get Right with Lucinda","author":"Ben S. 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The NPR reporter did open her piece with a warning that the writer spoke provocatively and that some comments were edited out. Sorry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":266,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/01\/death-by-editing\/","url_meta":{"origin":341,"position":2},"title":"Death by Edit","author":"Ben S. 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It's more unreasonable to feel let down by a non-performer's performance. Alas, several of us did; I asked around afterward. Writer Joyce Carol Oates, 75, still teaching at Princeton and other campuses, was fascinating for her 45 minutes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Joyce Carol Oates.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/JCOonline3-247x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1741,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/01\/positive-positions-perhaps\/","url_meta":{"origin":341,"position":4},"title":"Positive Positions Perhaps","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Think, men, think.\u201d \u2014 Prof. Harold Hill, The Music Man New Year's Resolution No. 1 for 2010 is modest: Keep a book list. Then in a year there'll be a better best books Brick. One could say that if the books I read were memorable then I'd remember 'em. It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5740,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2017\/08\/crystal-clear-strategy\/","url_meta":{"origin":341,"position":5},"title":"Crystal Clear Strategy","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY -- \"All it takes is patience, Ben. When you're right, sooner or later the world sees things your way,\" Crystal Britches said of Fayetteville. I set up an interview to hear what she thought of the football stadium's new clear bag rule. 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