Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums1986 Interview Of Nat Hentoff: Good Stuff From A Complex, Influential Writer
http://www.csmonitor.com/1986/0502/bhent-f1.html"IN ``Boston Boy'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, $15.95), Nat Hentoff tells of the time, as a teen-ager, he slipped and fell on the ice on Elm Hill Avenue. When he looked up, a gang of Irish kids were standing around him. Was he Jewish, they wanted to know? Desperate, the decidedly Jewish Nat decided to pretend he was Greek. After all, this was Boston around the late '30s, a time when gangs of Irish toughs stalked the neighborhood like wolf packs, looking for Jewish prey; a place where Father Coughlin's newspaper, Social Justice -- sold each Sunday throughout the city -- warned constantly of the Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.
Later, Nat was less fortunate and had a tooth punched out when Irish youths caught him unprotected. But this time his Greek tactic allowed him to escape unscathed. What's more, a pop-music record he was clutching somehow remained unbroken.
Potent vignettes like these -- recalled from a mellow distance by a clear-eyed journalist -- trace the roots of Hentoff's social views as he tells of his life in Boston until the time he left for New York at age 28 to write about jazz in Down Beat magazine.
Hentoff's name was later to become virtually synonymous with fiercely independent stands -- on First Amendment rights, Middle Eastern politics, and many other social issues -- taken in his Village Voice and Washington Post columns, his books, and elsewhere. And that pop record he was clutching was an early sign of his other lifelong interest -- jazz -- which, in ``Boston Boy,'' serves as a frequent metaphor both for life and for the freedom of expression that means so much to him: Hentoff became a renowned jazz critic whose pieces are seen on the Leisure & Arts page of the Wall Street Journal and in other publications. Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and other jazz greats strengthened his ``life as heretic, a tradition I kept precisely because I am a Jew,'' he says in the book. These jazz musicians were ``my chief rabbis for many years.''
..."
-----------------------------------------------------
A great mid-week break, or so I think.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
5 replies, 900 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (0)
ReplyReply to this post
5 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
1986 Interview Of Nat Hentoff: Good Stuff From A Complex, Influential Writer (Original Post)
HuckleB
Jan 2016
OP
I know him mostly from his anti-choice activism and his loud support for the Iraq War, Tony Blair
Bluenorthwest
Jan 2016
#4
Chef Eric
(1,024 posts)1. There's a great documentary about Nat Hentoff.
It's called "The Pleasures of Being Out of Step."
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_pleasures_of_being_out_of_step/?search=pleasures%20of%20being%20out%20of%20step
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)2. It's good stuff!
tishaLA
(14,176 posts)3. he's a great jazz writer
and an anti-choice activist and an apologist for the invasion and occupation of Iraq who, despite all the deaths it caused, purports to be pro-life.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)4. I know him mostly from his anti-choice activism and his loud support for the Iraq War, Tony Blair
and his denigration of Democrats and others who opposed that invasion and who doubted the intel that was used to instigate that war. He believed Bush about the WMD and attacked those who did not.
So your theory is that sometimes such a man is correct about something?
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)5. So you agree with everything every person in your life thinks all of the time?
You've never made a mistake?
Interesting.