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I’ve Discovered Gold.

March 31, 2018 by Exangel

by David D. Horowitz

The golden mean is a rainbow, and, oh, how it glows! The rainbow’s colors complement one another, and they include the brightest colors, not simply “neutral” colors like gray, tan, and beige. And rainbow colors, representing diverse customs and values, suggest goodness and happiness can coexist and in many varieties of each. Indeed, a group of scholars can exchange ideas about difficult texts—and then, over sandwiches and beer, watch a televised basketball game at a sports bar. And that’s perfectly consistent! I could participate in a poetry reading tonight, work in a downtown office tower tomorrow morning, and after work attend a jazz concert. And that could be perfectly consistent: indeed, I could write a poem about walking to a jazz venue after a day at the office. Why not? Why couldn’t such a balance work for me or you?

Again, “mean” need not mean mealy middle: tan, gray, beige, and timidly conforming. Think complementarity of scarlet, gray, and black—or white, blue, and gold. Choose your own colors and create your own balance. Blend a business career with yoga and meditation; a teaching career with raising a family; a part-time job as a nurse with a night gig as a romance writer. Synthesize your particular complexity into energizing coherence. And, in the public sphere, consider how a principled politician discusses and researches details with peers, experts, and constituents to develop a responsible policy. That’s innovative and risky, not bland—especially as the golden mean is not a yellow brick road reliably routed to an emerald city. No journey is without a Scylla and Charybdis. Finding the mean requires deep, continual engagement with the world. Indeed, adhering to the golden mean feels more like walking a tight rope than standing on safe ground, and one misstep could cause a fatal fall.

Balance! Red passion, blue aspiration, green health, yellow joy, tan patience, brown warmth, black depth, white openness, pastel nuance. Hard work, then relaxing vacation. Long day at the office, then refreshing walk in the park. And all blended to complement and nurture. The golden mean is an ancient concept that maintains contemporary credibility. Surely, some ancient customs do not suit modern life—the nationalistic city-state, collective racial and gender disparagement, imperial rule, messianic worship of self-proclaimed prophets of God. The golden mean, though, still suggests wisdom. It might not be a yellow brick road, but it isn’t pie in the sky either. It’s as tangible as my friend’s maple desktop, on which she’s placed her favorite book of poems, a maroon mug of honied jasmine tea, a plate of fresh Greek salad, a fond letter from her best friend, a brochure about how to apply for a passport, and a generous check she’s about to mail to her favorite charity.

But the work of navigating, of balancing, of adding and winnowing, is never done. And that’s the richness of it.

Filed Under: EAP: The Magazine, Spring 2018: Coloring., Uncategorized

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In This Issue.

  • Who Was Dorothy?
  • Those Evil Spirits.
  • The Screaming Baboon.
  • Her.
  • A Tale of Persistence.
  • A Conversation with Steve Hugh Westenra.
  • Person Number Twelve.
  • Dream Shapes.
  • Cannon Beach.
  • The Muse.
  • Spring.
  • The Greatness that was Greece.
  • 1966, NYC; nothing like it.
  • Sun Shower.
  • The Withering Weight of Being Perceived.
  • Broken Clock.
  • Confession.
  • Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse.
  • Sometimes you die, I mean that people do.
  • True (from “My Life with Dogs”).
  • Fragmentary musings on birds and bees.
  • 12 Baking Essentials to Always Have in Your Poetry.
  • Broad Street.
  • A Death in Alexandria.
  • My Forked Tongue.
  • Swan Lake.
  • Long Division.
  • Singing against the muses.
  • Aphorisms from “What Remains to Be Said”.

In The News.

That cult classic pirate/sci fi mash up GREENBEARD, by Richard James Bentley, is now a rollicking audiobook, available from Audible.com. Narrated and acted by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio, you’ll be overwhelmed by the riches and hilarity within.

“Captain Sylvestre de Greybagges is your typical seventeenth-century Cambridge-educated lawyer turned Caribbean pirate, as comfortable debating the virtues of William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, and compound interest as he is wielding a cutlass, needling archrival Henry Morgan, and parsing rum-soaked gossip for his next target. When a pepper monger’s loose tongue lets out a rumor about a fleet loaded with silver, the Captain sets sail only to find himself in a close encounter of a very different kind.

After escaping with his sanity barely intact and his beard transformed an alarming bright green, Greybagges rallies The Ark de Triomphe crew for a revenge-fueled, thrill-a-minute adventure to the ends of the earth and beyond.

This frolicsome tale of skullduggery, jiggery-pokery, and chicanery upon Ye High Seas is brimming with hilarious puns, masterful historical allusions, and nonstop literary hijinks. Including sly references to Thomas Pynchon, Treasure Island, 1940s cinema, and notable historical figures, this mélange of delights will captivate readers with its rollicking adventure, rich descriptions of food and fashion, and learned asides into scientific, philosophical, and colonial history.”

THE SUPERGIRLS is back, revised and updated!

supergirls-take-1

In The News.

Newport Public Library hosted a three part Zoom series on Visionary Fiction, led by Tod.  

And we love them for it, too.

The first discussion was a lively blast. You can watch it here. The second, Looking Back to Look Forward can be seen here.

The third was the best of all. Visions of the Future, with a cast of characters including poets, audiobook artists, historians, Starhawk, and Mary Shelley. Among others. Link is here.

In the News.

SNOTTY SAVES THE DAY is now an audiobook, narrated by Last Word Audio’s mellifluous Colby Elliott. It launched May 10th, but for a limited time, you can listen for free with an Audible trial membership. So what are you waiting for? Start listening to the wonders of how Arcadia was born from the worst section of the worst neighborhood in the worst empire of all the worlds since the universe began.

In The News.

If you love audio books, don’t miss the new release of REPORT TO MEGALOPOLIS, by Tod Davies, narrated by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio. The tortured Aspern Grayling tries to rise above the truth of his own story, fighting with reality every step of the way, and Colby’s voice is the perfect match for our modern day Dr. Frankenstein.

In The News.

Mike Madrid dishes on Miss Fury to the BBC . . .

Tod on the Importance of Visionary Fiction

Check out this video of “Beyond Utopia: The Importance of Fantasy,” Tod’s recent talk at the tenth World-Ecology Research Network Conference, June 2019, in San Francisco. She covers everything from Wind in the Willows to the work of Kim Stanley Robinson, with a look at The History of Arcadia along the way. As usual, she’s going on about how visionary fiction has an important place in the formation of a world we want and need to have.

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