Meredith Sue Willis's Blog, page 7

New Issue of Books for Readers # 212

 

New Issue of Books for Readers # 212Reviews by Donna Meredith and Carrington HatfieldBooks by Octavia Butler, Madison Smartt Bell, Yxta Maya Murray, Sidney Schama, Wallace Stegner, Timothy G. Huguenin, Cobb & Seaton, and more.

One America News Network is scary....

 

Do you have four minutes to get a glimpse into one source of information for a lot of Americans?  Here is a clip from One America News Network.  They describe themselves as "owned by Herring Networks, Inc. Herring Networks, Inc.... a family owned and operated, independent media company focused on providing high quality national television programming to consumers via its national cable networks. The for-profit company was established in 2004 and has its primary production operations in California and Washington, DC." 

The main page of their website has pieces on slow mail for Christmas, buttons for sports and entertainment– the sorts of things we expect from the news, and everything  has pretty high production values.  The video clip I watched is this:

https://www.oann.com/scotus-ruling-could-resolve-2020-election-in-president-trumps-favor/

An attractive, dark eyed young woman with a cityscape and a Christmas tree for a backdrop introduces a short interview between two white men in suits talking about the Supreme Court decision (that was decided a day ago).  The guys sound smart and talk about how the SCOTUS decision (remember, already decided yesterday) is going to throw the presidential election into the House of Representatives because it is highly unlikely either candidate will get 270 electoral college votes.  For support of this opinion, there are video clips of people who seem to be counting votes and voting, and lots of innuendo about illegal and improper voting.

Everything looks very much like network news and high end cable news.

I have a simple point: if this is the "information" you have, you are thinking and making political decisions in an alternative world to this one.

Why They Vote for DT....

Kwame Anthony Appiah who writes "The Ethicist" column in the New York Times  is always interesting, and today's column includes  a letter from someone who is thinking of stopping communication with her friends who voted for DT.  She feels she can't be friends with people who share the president's values.

 Appiah's answer is worth reading in whole, but the meat of it, to my mind, is  "...perhaps the gulf between you and these friends arises from differences in your epistemic capacities — the ability to gain reliable information. Our beliefs depend not just on our own brains but also on the social worlds we live in....people can be epistemically disadvantaged by gaining their beliefs from social networks that are radically unreliable. We get many of our false beliefs in the same way we get true ones: by listening to the views of people we trust.....the misjudgment here may not reflect bad moral values."

I've been talking a lot about why they vote for him with friends  (do people who vote for DT have those conversations?).  I've come up with these major reasons:

1) We are all influenced deeply by the people around us and what they believe/how they see the world.

2) Some people see most of DT's failings, but are willing to accept them as long as he is the best chance for stopping abortion. One-issue people set aside a lot to support their cause.

3) Some people see DT as giving the finger to the establishment, and identify with this.

Appiah's "epistemic" argument, to which my 1) is obviously related, is about the people around us, but also the ways we've fallen into for getting our information.  I read The New York Times and The Nation, rarely watch television news, but do occasionally listen to radio news: NPR  or 1010 WINS, if I'm in the car.  

I'd also add that while my liberal and left-wing friends are at least as intolerant of their opposites as the Trumpsters, I do feel that their relatively high level of education is significant.  Obviously there are people who went to college and those who didn't on all sides, but people who are formally educated (or seriously self-educated) have access to everything the people who rarely read have plus a lot more, as well as often some training in how to look at sources.  I'm struck by some of my high school Facebook friends who are religious Christians who adore DT.  One man alternates Facebooks posts of Biblical quotes with short lessons that seem quite thoughtful with reposts of the most godawful screeds with little basis in fact.  

I suspect that people who didn't go to college (or in the case of this friend, went to Bible college) tend to look at what they do read as texts to be accepted and shared as they do the Bible.  This doesn't mean they worship right-wing pundits, but that they are perhaps too respectful of the written word.  If you are trained in memorizing and searching texts for enlightenment and life-lessons, it may be carrying over to anything else you read.

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers-- #...

 New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers-- #211 with reviews by by Deborah Clearman, Ed Davis, Rebekah Ferrell, Ingrid Hughes, Eddy Pendarvis and others of books by Lillian Smith, Donna Meredith, Lavie Tidhar, Henry James, Octavia Butler, Deborah Clearman, J.K. Jemisin, Penelope Lively, Walter Mosley and others, with poems by Hilton Obenzinger.! 

See https://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive211-215.html#issue211

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Reader...

 New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers-- #211 with reviews by by Deborah Clearman, Ed Davis, Rebekah Ferrell, Ingrid Hughes, Eddy Pendarvis and others of books by Lillian Smith, Donna Meredith, Lavie Tidhar, Henry James, Octavia Butler, Deborah Clearman, J.K. Jemisin, Penelope Lively, Walter Mosley and others, with poems by Hilton Obenzinger.! 

See https://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive211-215.html#issue211

October 2020Meredith Sue Willis News Two new books: A s...

 

October 2020Meredith Sue Willis News 

Two new books:  A science fiction novel
and a novella set in Southern West Virginia:

Publicity and Fun Online: Youtube interview of MSW by Carter Seaton about Soledad  at 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqIrgCKE2eg&feature=youtu.beDiscussion of Soledad in the Desert   with Tyler Chadwell,
Eddy Pendarvis, Donna Meredith, Phyllis Wilson Moore -- and MSW at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z-tgU-BPUc&feature=share&fbclid=
IwAR31D10TsUdpz-BmOwNOdet0eZrQnMdBGvWcI0VKtkk2mo7cg64lwOtYPps.MSW talks about revision on Commaful.com-- Youtube talk on revision at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yCrTkUrvYc One Day Writing Workshop with Meredith Sue Willis  ONLINE at NYUSaturday November 14, 2020
1:00 PM to 5:00 PM Online (Zoom)  Sign up now! Jump Start Your Novel WRIT2-CS9002at NYU SCPS!  

Comments on Saving Tyler Hake:

 Meredith Sue Willis figuratively returns home in this unique novella!                                                                                                    ~Phyllis Wilson Moore, West Virginia’s literary maven  Saving Tyler Hake is a realistic story told by English teacher Robin Smith about how she and other educators reached out to help a student following a family tragedy. Willis is a master story-teller and honestly reveals the same challenges faced by educators and families in Appalachia today. Great read!                                                            ~ Kathy Manley, author of Don’t Tell’em You’re Cold: a Memoir of Poverty and Resilience  Meredith Sue Willis’s vividly drawn characters pull you into their small town in the mountains of southern West Virginia where hurts, jealousies, and secrets won’t lie buried . . .                                                                    ~ Anna Eagan Smucker, author of Rowing Home Meredith Sue Willis is a masterful storyteller who never gives too much away, but uncannily gives just enough to keep me always eager for the next page. This novella is superbly nuanced with not a word misplaced. Meredith reveals the inherent selfishness in even the best of people, without judgment, an accomplishment few of her contemporaries can do as well.                          ~Marc Harshman, Poet Laureate of West Virginia and author of Woman in Red Anorak, Winner of the Blue Lynx Prize.   Comments on Soledad in the Desert:Reading Soledad in the Desert now, the loss of worlds Willis imagines does not seem entirely of the realm of fantasy, but rather a parable of loss, along with a hope for regeneration, that we should heed.                                                            ~ Diane Simmons The enjoyment of this story is all about a unique style of writing that works. It is the tale of a group of people re-inventing their culture on an alien world, seen through the eyes of one of the children. So, the story starts with simple and childlike writing, which develops as the child matures and society grows.
                                                                  ~ Gordon A. Long   (Renaissance Writer)    Both books available from the usual online suspects.  Or, order Soledad  in the Desert from the publisher
at Montemayor Press.  Order Saving Tyler Hake from the publisher
at  Mountain State Press. 

                                                  

 

 

 

 

   

 

MSW Home 

 

October 2020Meredith Sue Willis News Two ...

 

October 2020Meredith Sue Willis News 

Two new books:  A science fiction novel
and a novella set in Southern West Virginia:

Publicity and Fun Online: Youtube interview of MSW by Carter Seaton about Soledad  at 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqIrgCKE2eg&feature=youtu.beDiscussion of Soledad in the Desert   with Tyler Chadwell,
Eddy Pendarvis, Donna Meredith, Phyllis Wilson Moore -- and MSW at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z-tgU-BPUc&feature=share&fbclid=
IwAR31D10TsUdpz-BmOwNOdet0eZrQnMdBGvWcI0VKtkk2mo7cg64lwOtYPps.MSW talks about revision on Commaful.com-- Youtube talk on revision at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yCrTkUrvYc One Day Writing Workshop with Meredith Sue Willis  ONLINE at NYUSaturday November 14, 2020
1:00 PM to 5:00 PM Online (Zoom)  Sign up now! Jump Start Your Novel WRIT2-CS9002at NYU SCPS!  

Comments on Saving Tyler Hake:

 Meredith Sue Willis figuratively returns home in this unique novella!                                                                                                    ~Phyllis Wilson Moore, West Virginia’s literary maven  Saving Tyler Hake is a realistic story told by English teacher Robin Smith about how she and other educators reached out to help a student following a family tragedy. Willis is a master story-teller and honestly reveals the same challenges faced by educators and families in Appalachia today. Great read!                                                            ~ Kathy Manley, author of Don’t Tell’em You’re Cold: a Memoir of Poverty and Resilience  Meredith Sue Willis’s vividly drawn characters pull you into their small town in the mountains of southern West Virginia where hurts, jealousies, and secrets won’t lie buried . . .                                                                    ~ Anna Eagan Smucker, author of Rowing Home Meredith Sue Willis is a masterful storyteller who never gives too much away, but uncannily gives just enough to keep me always eager for the next page. This novella is superbly nuanced with not a word misplaced. Meredith reveals the inherent selfishness in even the best of people, without judgment, an accomplishment few of her contemporaries can do as well.                          ~Marc Harshman, Poet Laureate of West Virginia and author of Woman in Red Anorak, Winner of the Blue Lynx Prize.   Comments on Soledad in the Desert:Reading Soledad in the Desert now, the loss of worlds Willis imagines does not seem entirely of the realm of fantasy, but rather a parable of loss, along with a hope for regeneration, that we should heed.                                                            ~ Diane Simmons The enjoyment of this story is all about a unique style of writing that works. It is the tale of a group of people re-inventing their culture on an alien world, seen through the eyes of one of the children. So, the story starts with simple and childlike writing, which develops as the child matures and society grows.
                                                                  ~ Gordon A. Long   (Renaissance Writer)    Both books available from the usual online suspects.  Or, order Soledad  in the Desert from the publisher
at Montemayor Press.  Order Saving Tyler Hake from the publisher
at  Mountain State Press. 

                                                  

 

 

 

 

   

 

MSW Home 

 

News about MSW & her new science fiction book SOLEDAD IN THE DESERT!

Check out Instagram "Pandemic Profile" about MSW and Soledad in the Desert

Review of Soledad in the Desert at Renaissance Writer! 


Review of Soledad by Diane Simmons 

Summer Announcements!

MSW's Summer Announcements

Meredith Sue Willis's new novel
from Montemayor Press!

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS #209

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS #209

Books by Cassandra Clare, Lissa Evans, Suzan Colón, Damian Dressick, Madeline Ffitch, Dennis Lehane, William Maxwell, and more. Reviews by Eddy Pendarvis, Ed Davis, Donna Meredith, and Joanna Ezekiel!See it at https://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive206-210.html#issue209.