The two best movies about Iowa are “The Music Man” and “Field of Dreams” for their wry and subtle understanding of our culture. No arguments about it. Don’t even bring up “State Fair” or “Bridges of Madison County,” each dreadful in different ways. I have not seen “Cedar Rapids” the movie but I hear it smells good.
Jul 13, 2023·edited Jul 14, 2023Liked by Art Cullen
When I was in Catholic high school in my blue collar, racially diverse but largely segregated, unionized manufacturing community in the early '70s, we learned about 1619. In religion class we read from "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison. In English class we read "To Kill a Mockingbird." Our modern lit class included George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" as well as "Wheels" by "Airport" author Arthur Hailey (which was pretty racy and not just for the cars) and "Babi Yar" by A. Anatoly Kuznetzov on the Nazi slaughter of Jews near Kyiv in the Ukraine and how the attempt by Vladimir Putin's Soviet mentors to literally cover it up caused a fatal mudslide (another Russia hoax?).
You'd see students with copies of "Catcher in the Rye," "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" and highly scandalous and impure works like former Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" and Erich Segal's "Love Story."
In history class we learned about "gunboat diplomacy," how Teddy Roosevelt helped a revolution to get Panama to secede from Columbia so we could build the Panama Canal and how the Caribbean was regarded as "an American lake." Oh yeah, and "The Ugly American" by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick also was a modern lit offering. It was an eye opener for a kid who was raised on "Sgt. Rock" comic books and watched "Combat!" and "Garrison's Guerillas" on TV.
We had one religion teacher, Father Joe Fagan, who helped found Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, left the priesthood and got married. He was on TV one night and said, "What's religion? Eating a cookie and getting a good feeling? You have to do something with it." To which my dad said, "Well he turned out to be one helluva priest."
We also had a presidential straw poll in my sophomore homeroom in 1972. I and one other student were the only ones who voted for President Nixon. Virtually everyone voted for George McGovern. Our 37th president barely edged out write-ins for Gilbert Giddyup from the Hardee's hamburger commercials and The Incredible Hulk to claim second place in the voting. A lot of us had older siblings who were in service and had or knew someone who'd been in Vietnam.
In short, there was all kinds of literature and thoughts some might say were dangerous. It was called critical thinking -- essentially, asking the questions, do we practice what we preach, and how can we do better.
No wonder school vouchers didn't pass then. Buncha hippies.
Greetings from a UNESCO City of Literature, where the grandson went trick or treating as Prof. Harold Hill and his grandmother thoroughly enjoyed your post.
In the belief that we should have the individual choice of what we do and do not read, I took the time to learn how to block a headache inducing voice among your responders.
It’s not in our tradition, a tradition that has produced a fine culture. The culture came about in part due to our deep belief in education and the moral development of children. Exposing young children to sexual acts was not and is not in our cultural tradition. It puts education bureaucrats between parents and their children. Hate to be pedantic but that is not in our tradition and it isn’t for good reason. It’s an offensive and twisted idea not founded in science. There is no reason to change our culture in this way. To insist that hate some how plays a part in false and offensive.
You’re a great writer, Art. You do have a tendency toward knee jerk liberalism. I understand your readers expect this from you and I understand that. Just so everyone understands this isn’t objective truth. You know that. Sometimes your fans forget.
Read your book. May I suggest a follow up? Write another about poverty. Poverty that crushed unionized packing plants all over the state. Ruined lives, entire towns Explain how the virtues of diversity out weigh the descent into poverty that you and your readers fervently support. Start with the contempt felt by the educated middle class feels for workers of any ethnic back ground.
Some Iowans do not fear greenwashing ideas. They are pushing hard to take billions of IRA Dollars using eminent domain to take Century Farmers land for unsafe, unproven, fossil fuel industry extensions called CO2 pipelines.
Without ethanol the economy in Iowa will suffer, maybe collapse. It’s easy to rally round an ideology. I know the concerns of the workers in this state and in this country are dismissed with eye rolling indifference. It’s sexy in the faculty lounge and the country club to dismiss their dim witted concerns, like feeding their children, paying a mortgage, having some hope for the future. Don’t they KNOW of the urgency of climate change? How the LGBTQ population is suffering?
When I was in Catholic high school in my blue collar, racially diverse but largely segregated, unionized manufacturing community in the early '70s, we learned about 1619. In religion class we read from "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison. In English class we read "To Kill a Mockingbird." Our modern lit class included George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" as well as "Wheels" by "Airport" author Arthur Hailey (which was pretty racy and not just for the cars) and "Babi Yar" by A. Anatoly Kuznetzov on the Nazi slaughter of Jews near Kyiv in the Ukraine and how the attempt by Vladimir Putin's Soviet mentors to literally cover it up caused a fatal mudslide (another Russia hoax?).
You'd see students with copies of "Catcher in the Rye," "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" and highly scandalous and impure works like former Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" and Erich Segal's "Love Story."
In history class we learned about "gunboat diplomacy," how Teddy Roosevelt helped a revolution to get Panama to secede from Columbia so we could build the Panama Canal and how the Caribbean was regarded as "an American lake." Oh yeah, and "The Ugly American" by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick also was a modern lit offering. It was an eye opener for a kid who was raised on "Sgt. Rock" comic books and watched "Combat!" and "Garrison's Guerillas" on TV.
We had one religion teacher, Father Joe Fagan, who helped found Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, left the priesthood and got married. He was on TV one night and said, "What's religion? Eating a cookie and getting a good feeling? You have to do something with it." To which my dad said, "Well he turned out to be one helluva priest."
We also had a presidential straw poll in my sophomore homeroom in 1972. I and one other student were the only ones who voted for President Nixon. Virtually everyone voted for George McGovern. Our 37th president barely edged out write-ins for Gilbert Giddyup from the Hardee's hamburger commercials and The Incredible Hulk to claim second place in the voting. A lot of us had older siblings who were in service and had or knew someone who'd been in Vietnam.
In short, there was all kinds of literature and thoughts some might say were dangerous. It was called critical thinking -- essentially, asking the questions, do we practice what we preach, and how can we do better.
No wonder school vouchers didn't pass then. Buncha hippies.
Greetings from a UNESCO City of Literature, where the grandson went trick or treating as Prof. Harold Hill and his grandmother thoroughly enjoyed your post.
In the belief that we should have the individual choice of what we do and do not read, I took the time to learn how to block a headache inducing voice among your responders.
A double thank you!
It’s not in our tradition, a tradition that has produced a fine culture. The culture came about in part due to our deep belief in education and the moral development of children. Exposing young children to sexual acts was not and is not in our cultural tradition. It puts education bureaucrats between parents and their children. Hate to be pedantic but that is not in our tradition and it isn’t for good reason. It’s an offensive and twisted idea not founded in science. There is no reason to change our culture in this way. To insist that hate some how plays a part in false and offensive.
You’re a great writer, Art. You do have a tendency toward knee jerk liberalism. I understand your readers expect this from you and I understand that. Just so everyone understands this isn’t objective truth. You know that. Sometimes your fans forget.
Read your book. May I suggest a follow up? Write another about poverty. Poverty that crushed unionized packing plants all over the state. Ruined lives, entire towns Explain how the virtues of diversity out weigh the descent into poverty that you and your readers fervently support. Start with the contempt felt by the educated middle class feels for workers of any ethnic back ground.
Some Iowans do not fear greenwashing ideas. They are pushing hard to take billions of IRA Dollars using eminent domain to take Century Farmers land for unsafe, unproven, fossil fuel industry extensions called CO2 pipelines.
Without ethanol the economy in Iowa will suffer, maybe collapse. It’s easy to rally round an ideology. I know the concerns of the workers in this state and in this country are dismissed with eye rolling indifference. It’s sexy in the faculty lounge and the country club to dismiss their dim witted concerns, like feeding their children, paying a mortgage, having some hope for the future. Don’t they KNOW of the urgency of climate change? How the LGBTQ population is suffering?