Please complete this form to add your event to the Briefing and Live Calendar.
The weather is sunny. In the afternoon, there is a chance of showers and thunderstorms. peaks in the lower nineties. 5 to 10 mph winds from the south. Rain is 70% likely.Tuesday evening: partly overcast. There’s a risk of showers after midnight, followed by thunderstorms and showers in the evening. lower 70s at its lowest. 5 to 10 mph winds from the southwest. Rain is 70% likely.
A Quick Look at Today:
The Palm Coast City Council convenes at City Hall at 6 p.m. Click here for meeting agendas, minutes, and audio access. Click here for meeting agendas, audio, and video.
Due to insufficient agenda items, the Flagler Beach Planning and Architectural Review Board meeting has been canceled.
At the Government Services Building, located at 1769 East Moody Boulevard in Bunnell, the Bunnell Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board convenes at 6 p.m. Carl Lilavois, the chair, Manuel Madaleno, Nealon Joseph, Gary Masten, and Lyn Lafferty make up the board.
The Flagler Beach Writers Club meets at the library, located at 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach, at 5 p.m.
Daytona Beach’s Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, will host Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy at 8 p.m. It costs $8.50 for general entry. The Random Acts of Insanity Comedy Improv Troupe specializes in delivering fast-paced improvised comedy on Tuesdays and the first Saturday of each month.
Byblos:Returning to The Memory of Old Jack, who was last seen here on Saturday: The novel is what we now refer to as a celebration of life, a term that did not exist when Berry wrote it (the New York Times first used it in a headline over a 1960 review of a biography of the dancer Isadora Duncan, whose Art Was a Dionysian Celebration of Life). It was also not written with the meaning we currently ascribe to it, which is a reversal of ancient Egyptian customs of mummifying death as a joyful continuation of life by other means, or a counterpoint to the inevitable.The land, not the afterlife, is the source of the faith found in this book. Jack’s memory seeks to honor, defend, pardon, confess, make amends, and settle some scores. Like all life celebrations, it may be poignant and extremely depressing, which is in line with Berry’s elegiac tone. However, it can also be maudlin, a little absurd, and occasionally harsh, as in his description of his daughter Clara and her husband, the wealthy banker Glad Pettit, whom he chooses to call Irwin. Jack’s didactic disdain for those and things he disapproves of is unmistakable. To secure the farm’s future, he wishes to sell it to Pettit. Pettit will gently refuse to accept it.The final verdict: Glad was no longer the young, athletic man he had been before getting married. Now he was a little bent in the shoulders and fat; the last fifteen years had weakened him more than the last fifty had weakened Jack. However, his unnecessary weight, disguised by a well-fitting suit, contrasted with his graying hair, a diamond ring, and a fine cigar, somehow gave him a more affluent, substantial, and dignified appearance than before. Clara had become fat and luxurious as his consort. Even though she was still attractive, her appearance had somehow devolved into ornamentation. She had turned herself into a kind of transportable event for her husband’s extravagant presents, a kind of bodyless ghost dressed in exquisite clothing that was, as far as Jack could see, unusable for either work or love. The author’s meanness is the most rich, the prose is rich, and the polemic is richer. These are assessments of value: In the city, Pettit made it wealthy. Jack makes his daughter pay since he doesn’t like him for it. (Using the terms “plump and opulent” and “her husband’s consort” to describe Clara reminded me of Updike’s portrayal in Wife-Every wrinkle and sickly shade is a comfort and a form of retaliation for the wife’s drabness and the sorrowful yellow that lies between her breasts. These are assessments of value.Even though he is not at fault, he is not friendlier to Ruth. He is passionate and earnest in his courting. He believes his beloved is as well. However, we are to understand that Ruth wants to change Jack to reflect her family’s image, and that we are informed—not shown—that he has a violent side. He had been a fighter, a wencher, a dancer, and a drinker, all of which Ruth mummifies in a marriage founded on the stipulation that he improve upon himself. He was used to an adventurous manhood. Therefore, Jack did not exactly fill a void when he became her suitor and then her husband; rather, he took the place of a young, educated priest, lawyer, or doctor whose name and face the mother and daughter may not have yet recognized but whose position had been filled. She used this fictitious, enigmatic figure as a benchmark with Jack.
P.T.
Now, this:
Local and regional political, civic, and cultural events are compiled in the Live Calendar. If approved, of course, you can enter your own calendar events exactly how you want them to appear on the website. Please complete this form in order to have your event listed in the Live Calendar.
Click here to view the entire calendar.
He worked alone during the planting and harvest seasons when he collaborated with neighbors. His isolation guaranteed that his writing would reflect his personality.
from The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry (1974).
The Archive of Cartoons and Live Briefings.
