California Fires - Big Sur

I've been reading stories that some of the fires in California are threatening Big Sur. This is very sad. There are many priceless historical cabins and buildings there, not to mention the beautiful landscape. Let's all keep the residents and firefighters in our prayers.

Here is a link to a webpage providing updates on the fires in the Big Sur area:
Big Sur Fire Status


And a link to the Henry Miller Library (which was apparently threatened by fire)Webpage: Henry Miller Library, Big Sur

Excuse my absence

[insert obligatory on summer vacation excuse for not posting here]

Jack London's concluding notes from Abyss

"If Civilization has increased the producing power of the average man, why has it not bettered the lot of the average man? There can be one answer only -- MISMANAGEMENT. Civilization has made possible all manner of creature comforts and heart's delights. In these the average Englishman does not participate. If he shall be forever unable to participate, then Civilization falls. There is no reason for the continued existence of an artifice so avowed a failure. But it is impossible that men should have reared this tremendous artifice in vain. It stuns the intellect. To acknowledge so crushing a defeat is to give the death-blow to striving and progress. One other alternative, and one other only, presents itself. Civilization must be compelled to better the lot of the average man." (London, 314).

Once again we are up against this lie of progress.

Also in this vein, here is a link to George Orwell's essay on Henry Miller, entitled Inside the Whale,
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/essay/insidewhale_1.html

More from London's East End...

MORE FROM Jack London's The People of the Abyss

"The unfit and the unneeded! The miserable and despised and forgotten, dying in the social shambles. The progeny of prostitution -- of the prostitution of men and women and children, of flesh and blood, and sparkle and spirit; in brief, the prostitution of labor. If this is the best that civilization can do for the human, then give us howling and naked savagery. Far better to be a people of the wilderness and desert, of the cave and the squatting-place, than to be a people of the machine and the Abyss." (London, 288).

Is London's "howling and naked savagery" a sly comment on
Thomas Hobbes who comments in his book Leviathan (to paraphrase) that life without government is "nasty, brutish and short?"

I also came across a couple of poems by the English poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold, and one specifically about the East End.

After skimming through a fairly comprehensive Wikipedia article on The East End of London, I believe my next purchase will be a book by the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, entitled In Darkest England and the Way Out.

More from The People of The Abyss...

"The application of the Golden Rule determines that East London is an unfit place in which to live. Where you would not have your own babe live, and develop, and gather to itself knowledge of life and the things of life, is not a fit place for the babes of other men to live, and develop, and gather to themselves knowledge of life and the things of life. It is a simple thing, this Golden Rule, and all that is required. Political economy and the survival of the fittest can go hang if they say otherwise. What is not good enough for you is not good enough for other men, and there's no more to be said." (London, 212-213).

Here is a link to the full text of the book, including pictures, online:
http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/PeopleOfTheAbyss/