VACATION INTERRUPTUS

Fidel Castro with his brother, Raul [Alejandro Ernesto/European Pressphoto Agency]The news from Havana brings to mind Verging on Cuba, an item posted way back on Nov. 10, 2003, about a panel discussion of what might happen after Fidel Castro dies. The panelists included Russell Banks, the novelist, who had recently spent an unusual amount time with Castro.

Asked why the U.S. embargo has failed after 40 years to accomplish its goal of forcing Castro from power, Banks said the single, most important factor was the creation of a proud, unshakable national mythology equalled by that of only two other nations in post-colonial history: the United States and Israel.

The national mythology developed in Cuba since the Revolution was and still is such a cohering force that despite any and all the disappointments, setbacks, miscalculations and brutalities visited upon them by Castro, by the Soviet Union's ill-fated support and by U.S. antagonism, Cubans believe in themselves as an identifiable people with an ingrained independence of spirit sturdier than any acquired ideology.

For anyone half familiar with Cuba, that's not a revelation perhaps, but it does crystalize an idea worth remembering. Banks pointed out that without the national mythology formed in the 40 years following the American Revolution -- much of it having coalesced around the heroic figure of George Washington before and after his death -- the U.S. might have been forced back under the rule of England or possibly come under the sway of France. The symbolic role of Che Guevera, especially since his martyrdom, has played out in a similar way in Cuba.

Some of the other panelists had equally interesting things to say, especially Achy Obejas, a Cuban-American author and journalist living in Chicago. She pointed out that regardless of who takes over from Castro ...

the single, most important factor will be what the U.S. government does. A Cuban government recognized by the United States would be much different from one that is not, whether it's headed by Fidel's designated successor, Raul Castro, or by someone else. The greatest influence on daily life in Cuba, therefore, will depend on American politics more than its own.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. I've been waiting for Robert Fiske's comments on the war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.

August 1, 2006 8:36 AM |

Categories:

Me Elsewhere

'WILD SIDE' STILL ROCKS 

Nelson Algren was one of the great American authors of the 20th century, it is no exaggeration to say, and among the most neglected. Consider his underrated classic, "A Walk on the Wild Side." The title -- popularized and co-opted as an idiomatic phrase by Hollywood and Madison Avenue (institutions Algren loathed) -- is familiar to most anyone who speaks English or knows Lou Reed's lyrics. But the novel itself? Hardly.

BUSTER KEATON REVISITED 
Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat is not a biography. "This book is merely a fan's notes," Edward McPherson writes in the introduction, although his publisher ignores the disclaimer and calls it a biography on the cover. In fact, the book is a bit of both, a difficult combination to bring off unless you're David Thomson, who set the standard with Rosebud, his penetrating rumination on the life and career of Orson Welles, which was nothing if not a distillation of every obsessive thought he ever had about the myth and the man and all his movies.
LAUREN BACALL, STILL SALTY AT 80 
When Lauren Bacall writes that her singing voice ranges "somewhere between B minus sharp and outer space," she's being candid and funny. It's not every stage star with two Tony Awards for best actress in a musical whose vocal talent offers so little promise. (OK, Harvey Fierstein excepted.) Still less would one admit it.
THE STARS ACCORDING TO BOGDANOVICH 
Peter Bogdanovich's superb collection of movie-star profiles and interviews -- a sequel to Who the Devil Made It, his interviews of top film directors -- begins with an affectionate tale about Orson Welles that reminds us just how intimate the author's connection to Hollywood's greatest has been. But contrary to what we've come to expect from dime-a-dozen celebrities and celebrity interviews not worth two cents, the tale avoids bromidic egotism and journalistic platitudes.
SAMMY'S WHITE DREAMS 
Four decades ago Lenny Bruce sentenced Sammy Davis Jr. to "30 years in Biloxi," stripping him of "his Jewish star" and "his religious statue of Elizabeth Taylor." Now we have two new biographies of Davis that spring him from ridicule, if not from doubts about his legacy, and restore a measure of dignity to a black entertainer whose huge fame and success never overcame his devout wish -- indeed his lifelong effort -- to be white.
more picks

Sites to See

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Straight Up | published on August 1, 2006 8:36 AM.

AS THE WORLD BURNS was the previous entry in this blog.

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Creative Commons License
This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.