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Weekend Butler: It’s not “the battle of the sexes,” it’s bigger than that. Patti Smith’s excellent advice for 2023. Two weekend movies, a delightful poem, a toothsome recipe.

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Feb 09, 2023
Category: Weekend

IT’S NOT “THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES.” IT’S BIGGER THAN THAT.

I posted my review of Lessons in Chemistry on Facebook. On 2 accounts, 150 “likes.” That’s a lot. More to the point:  50 comments. 98% of them were from women.

I asked the friend who pushed the novel on me if she read the book as historical fiction — that is, if the indignities that resonated in the book were in the distant past for her – or if she read it as contemporary fiction. “Both,” she said, and there was heat in her voice.  Why? How directly did unfair biases, judgments, misogyny, degradation, and abuse touch her — and when? The answer surprised me. Yes. Even now. But her present comforts didn’t blind her to the troubles of her sisters. She felt, and strongly, that as long as one person is oppressed, we’re all in chains. I admire her active conscience and her financial support of her causes. And I thought of other women…

If you watched the State of the Union address, you got a close-up look at some women who have not only been elected to the House of Representatives but who have been appointed to important committees. [Photo, above.] They wanted to be seen, and they were. They wanted to be heard, and they were. And they were proud of their shouted disruptions. The Times reports:

“If that had been in the British House of Commons, it would have stopped at the word ‘liar,’” said Sean Haughey, a lecturer in political science at the University of Liverpool. “The speaker would have immediately intervened, giving the person the opportunity to withdraw their remark, and if they refused, escorted them out.”

I don’t see this behavior as an example of women’s “empowerment.” Just the opposite. These women strike me as operatives of the patrimony. They’re proud to be in the inner circle. They don’t see whose interests they’re serving.

Naturally, I thought of a book that explains this far more eloquently than I can. The author is Philip Slater, best known for The Pursuit of Loneliness. His last book – he died in 2013 – is The Chrysalis Effect: The Metamorphosis of Global Culture. It’s an analysis of two cultures: One is the patriarchy, “control” culture. The other is collaborative, feminized, evolutionary. They’re in an epic battle, with nothing less than the survival of life on this planet at stake.

When old cultural assumptions are challenged, innovations are not seen as mere novelties but as a social ill, a critical moral infection, and attacked as such by the upholders of tradition.

Slater says we’re now in “the resistance phase.” The old culture kills new cells — the feminist movement, the spread of democracy, the global economy, quantum physics, minority movements, the peace movement, the sexual revolution — as fast as possible, yet innovations continue. What this means for the near future: “more Nazi-type movements…the last convulsive attempt to hang on to the Controller era.” (Reminder: He wrote this in 2008!)

How does the story end? Consider the caterpillar:

A caterpillar happily consumes leaves — hundreds of times its weight every day. It begins to eat less. It spins a chrysalis. New cells begin to appear in its body. Its immune system attacks these cells and destroys them. But more appear. They overwhelm the caterpillar’s immune system — they liquefy the caterpillar. And they use that liquefied mass to create a new organism. 

The caterpillar is Control Culture. It wants to stop time, to build walls, to dominate or kill anything or anyone different. The butterfly is Integrative Culture — collaborative, progressive, harmonious.

Which culture will prevail?

To a great degree, it depends on how women are treated. Right now, it’s a coin toss, don’t you think?

PATTI SMITH’S MOST EXCELLENT ADVICE FOR 2023

The song is a bonus. Click here.

WEEKEND MOVIES: RICHARD BRODY’S RECOMMENDATIONS

Richard Brody, film critic of The New Yorker, is always interesting and challenging. In this video, he discusses his three best films of 2022. Two of them are on my list to see. Both are on Amazon Prime.

THE WEEKEND POET: LINDA PASTAN

Linda Pastan, beloved and unknown to me. There were two generous obituaries, in the Washington Post and the Times. To watch her read “A Perfect Circle of Sun,” click here.

 “A Perfect Circle of Sun”

Strapped down,

victim in an old comic book,

I have been here before,

this place where pain winces

off the walls

like too bright light.

Bear down a doctor says,

foreman to sweating laborer,

but this work, this forcing

of one life from another

is something I signed for

at a moment when I would have signed anything.

Babies should grow in fields;

common as beets or turnips

they should be picked and held

root end up, soil spilling

from between their toes —

and how much easier it would be later,

returning them to earth.

Bear up … bear down … the audience

grows restive, and I’m a new magician

who can’t produce the rabbit from my swollen hat.

She’s crowning, someone says,

but there is no royalty here,

just me, quite barefoot,

greeting my barefoot child.

THE WEEKEND RECIPE.

from At Home with May and Axel Vervoordt: Recipes for Every Season

PEARS WITH CITRUS FRUITS AND CINNAMON

serves 4

Preparation Time   30 minutes

4 small pears
1 orange
1 lemon
2 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
1 TBS chopped fresh ginger root
1 pinch of saffron powder
½ cup agave syrup

Peel the pears and cut them in half lengthwise. Cut the orange and lemon into ¼ inch strips, retaining the skin.

To make the syrup, boil 2 cups water. Add the cinnamon stick, ginger, saffron, lemon and orange strips, and let infuse for 10 minutes. Poach the pears in this liquid, heated to 175-195 degrees, for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the pears to cool in the pan.

Remove the pears from the pan. Strain the juice. Pour the juice over the pears and serve.

These pears are good complements with a chocolate dessert, or with muesli for breakfast.