Monthly Archives: January 2022

Our Ending Age

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

There are ruins strewn across the length and breadth of this world. Tiwanaku, sitting high and sterile in the fastness of the Bolivian Altiplano protected by its Andean ring of mountains and the highland oxygenless lake filled during the last … Continue reading →

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The Pleasure of Ruins

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

There is something wondrously nostalgic about Rose Macaulay’s “Pleasure of Ruins”. Perhaps it is her tremendous learning. The book just drips arcane knowledge about a past long lost to us, but extraordinary in its power. We all love ruins, though … Continue reading →

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To Talk of Many Things… (Vol. #13 – Afghanistan)

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

“Now if you’re ready, Oysters dear,We can begin to feed.’But not on us!’ the Oysters cried,Turning a little blue.After such kindness, that would beA dismal thing to do!” I still deal with Afghanistan almost every day. Today it was a … Continue reading →

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Harsh Times

Posted on January 24, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

There’s a tragedy in Mario Vargas Llosa’s writing that is hard to endure. A brutality that is too common; a ridiculousness which might be funny if it were not so harsh and wicked. They are joyless novels, at least the … Continue reading →

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Musa Dagh

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Musa Dagh is a tabletop mountain on the Mediterranean in southern Turkey or northern Syria where 5000 Armenians set to be marched to their deaths in the 1915 genocide decided to make a stand. It is a true story, and … Continue reading →

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