Emily Gordon writes:
We’re all in a whirlwind—or, in my case, a state of advanced humility barely distinguishable from a blue funk—after the inauguration’s pomp and stirring addresses, in plain speech, rhetoric, verse, and song. While you’re coming down from the high—or, in my case, shooting for neutral—here are some links to savor and explore.
Jill Lepore: “Our Better History,” an “In the News” post on newyorker.com about Obama’s inauguration speech today, and a long piece written before today, “Have Inaugural Addresses Been Getting Worse?“ Is there anything Jill Lepore can’t write about, I wonder? She is my current favorite contributor to the magazine. I’m reading her piece now on the possibly exaggerated death of newspapers, and while I might add a footnote about doomsaying bloggers’ mixed motives (Vanessa Grigoriadis has a good handle on the panicked retaliation of the “creative underclass,” many of whom were probably editors of their high school or college papers), I am, as ever, all admiration. Her sprightly, scholarly sentences brighten the pages, and she teaches, too. I’d read anything by her, and thanks to the editors’ ever more frequent inclusion of her pieces, I intend to.
All the newyorker.com inauguration coverage, which includes…
Various responses to the George Packer post (and Packer’s post-post) on the choice of Elizabeth Alexander as inaugural poet, including this one from Book Bench writer Jenna Krajeski.
Elizabeth was my teacher when I was a graduate student at NYU, and I was thrilled to see her at the podium, calm and dignified. At the Irish bar where my workmates and I watched the inauguration telecast, the crowd was as alert and contemplative during her poem as it was during the most solemn, lively, and challenging moments of the prayers and speeches, if that’s any indication of how a poem goes over with a populace that persists in believing it doesn’t like poetry, the same populace that delights in song lyrics, nursery rhymes, rhyming slogans, hip-hop, and so on and so forth. I did a quick look around the web for the printed poem, but ran out of time; let me know if you spot it anywhere. (Update: Here’s one; thanks, reader!)
If you haven’t read much of Alexander’s poetry, you can read some in The New Yorker; here (via Digital Edition) are “Autumn Passage,” “When,” and “Smile,” which is perhaps particularly riveting reading today.
Finally, remembering hopeful inaugurations past, here’s a terrific White House concert from 1980 to download for free. It’ll either make you happy, or keep you happy, I swear it. (Then, if you like, you can read Philip Hamburger on Jimmy Carter’s inauguration on your Digital Edition.) From Jesper Deleuran of the Facebook fan group “Doc Watson Rules!!!” (which you should join, since he does):
Here is a link to a site, where you, among other things can find this live recording from 1980, where president Jimmy Carter had invited Doc Watson and Bill Monroe to play on the lawn of the White House. It is possible to download the 16 tracks from the concert. First 6 with Doc, then 7 with Bill Monroe and his band, and last but not least 3 tunes where Doc and Bill play together alone. This is a must for a Doc Watson fan.
Happy inauguration day, all, and before tomorrow, let’s all start by doing something small to honor the service Obama spoke of so passionately. Vain musclemen who never seem to notice the mothers struggling up the subway stairs with bags and carriages, I’m looking at you. Right after I finish looking at me, of course.