tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616769513702255459.post8576403112156479042..comments2024-03-01T20:23:59.717-03:00Comments on The Southern Yankee: A Writer's Log: PAUL TOTH: SCINTILLATING STORIES FROM THE BRINK Dan Newlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01054536465220812092noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616769513702255459.post-23692219906681827242013-08-29T04:50:42.969-03:002013-08-29T04:50:42.969-03:00This is cool!This is cool!Cheriehttp://bestmetaldetectorreviews.us/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616769513702255459.post-62137112452657160012013-08-13T09:23:50.366-03:002013-08-13T09:23:50.366-03:00Thanks for your, as always, clear analysis, Sylvia...Thanks for your, as always, clear analysis, Sylvia. <br />And I think you're quite right. Following the financial meltdown of 2007 and its aftermath in which people who'd lost their life savings found out that it wasn't because of some enigmatic economic misstep, but because they had basically been robbed by their stock markets and their governments,people of the older generations as mostly confused and disappointed, feeling that the world they once believed in is all a sort of Truman Show farse. Young people, for their part, are mainly indifferent--no chants, no slogans, blank banners waving in the wind--because if corruption runs so deep and everything is a lie, what's there for them to believe in but themselves and their circle of friends? The rest simply doesn't exist. <br />Clearly, Paul Toth is a visionary writer, who deserves a great deal more broad-ranging recognition than he has received to date.<br />Dan Newlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01054536465220812092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616769513702255459.post-84284218569474426092013-08-13T03:37:29.234-03:002013-08-13T03:37:29.234-03:00Hi Dan, your deft review of Paul Toth's book o...Hi Dan, your deft review of Paul Toth's book of striking short stories makes me want to read it right away. Paul has evidently struck on a present day malaise that's partly represented in these lines I'm quoting:<br /><br />"...that pauses in the semi-metropolis of Bay City, Michigan, where he and his constituents demonstrate without chants or slogans, their blank banners flying to spread the word of their message-less message. It’s a story of lost identity and loss of trust in an amnesiac leadership."<br /><br />Judging by what one reads about and sees in the U.S. and European countries, an increasing amount of people are suffering this lack of trust and loss of identity that is pervading their lives. It can no longer be denied. And it's getting truly absurd, i.e., the garbage bins recently installed in London with Wi-Fi mechanisms that record everything about the passers by. Even what kind of cell phone is in their pockets. This is snatching one's identity away... and who gets to store all this data? And have access to it? Londoners are told it's for "intelligent publicity"...Going back to Paul Toth, I believe his "empty banners" are a bleakly visionary portrayal of something we're not entirely conscious of yet, but is upon us. Powerful stuff, albeit with a touch of humor to allow the reader to retain some sort of sanity. <br />A great read, Dan. Saludos!<br />Sylviahttp://poemaspatagonicos.com.arnoreply@blogger.com