The Cherry Orchard

I’m glad to hear I’ve got some faithful readers here at the Orchard. A few friends have asked me why I’ve posted so infrequently, and in fact there’s a good reason. I’m doing a special project on LitKicks, an inquiry into the question “Does Literary Fiction Suffer from Dysfunctional Pricing?“. It’s been a very lively debate, so lively that it’s really sapped my stamina for the kind of politically-minded or philosophical debates we often have here. I also haven’t been able to pay attention to some recent news developments and subjects I would usually cover.

For instance, I didn’t post anything about this year’s United Nations General Assembly, even though it had been one of my original intentions here to blog about the United Nations (well, hell, somebody’s got to). This doesn’t mean I have lost interest in that subject; it just means I couldn’t pay close enough attention this year to have anything useful to say.

If you’ve found the political inquiries and discussions we’ve had in the past here interesting, though, I’d suggest you pop over to LitKicks and check out the very intense discussion we’re having about book pricing, book industry habits and hardcover vs. paperback demographics. In a way, I’ve begun this project because I want to see how such an organized inquiry proceeds, and the mission of this literary project is very much aligned with the mission of the political inquiries we’ve conducted here.

Which is all meant to say: don’t worry that Levi Asher has abandoned the Cherry Orchard. I’m just busy in a different orchard for the moment, but I’ll be back soon, and there’s plenty to talk about.

I just announced the plans for this site on LitKicks. So I’m really doing this? As I put the final touches on my initial (and very primitive) WordPress theme, I feel strangely dizzy. Why on earth am I creating a new blog? I’m not busy enough already? Then I turn on the TV news and I remember why.

Somebody said this to me: “Why do we need another political blog saying the same old stuff?” Strangely, I don’t hear anybody saying much at all. Of course there are many well-written political blogs (I hope to engage with some of them here) but only a few have broken out to a larger readership. There’s The Huffington Post, which I like a lot — but the Huffington Post has a fast-moving, fast-talking style that is not conducive to in-depth political discussion. I sometimes post to Daily Kos, and of course I admire this blog’s flair for organization and activism. But Daily Kos is very much about electoral politics, and the site is currently so focused on the 2006 midterm elections you can’t get a good conversation about the war in the Middle East going there if your life depends on it (Israelis and Palestinians don’t vote in Tennessee).

I’d like to search for great political writing and link to it here, and I promise to link to the best pieces I can find, whether or not I agree with their points of view. I’m hoping to find the same level of intelligence, individuality and taste for controversy that I’ve already found within the online literary scene, where I have spent a lot of time. I’ll probably write a few essays and maybe an occasional history review (or History Channel review) or opinion piece, but most often I plan to use this space to respond to other political commentators and journalists, both online and off.

And I guess that’s why I’m not worried that this blog will take up too much of my time, because I already spend a lot of time commenting on what other political analysts say or write. But, until now, my commenting has taken the form of screaming at my television, pounding my mouse angrily on the surface of my desk or shaking my head in silent disbelief as I peruse the New York Times. Starting now, I’m going to put my reactions into words. And that, I guess, is why I need another blog.

Thanks for visiting, and please be patient with me as I figure out exactly what this place is supposed to be.

Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard is a hilarious and bitter play about a magnificent house filled with foolish people. During the last years of Tsarist rule, this noble family is facing poverty and ruin due to a financial downturn, but nobody in the house knows how to begin to deal with the problem (save a friendly former servant, who is utterly ignored). Chekhov’s brilliant satire ends with the noise of cutting crews destroying the famous cherry orchard that surrounds the estate.

I created TheCherryOrchard.org because I need to speak about the foolishness I see around me in the Middle East, in Africa, in the Americas, Asia, in Europe — even in Australia, even in Antarctica the people must be fools, because in every corner of the world it seems that moderate, humane and peace-loving voices speak only in timid whispers about the violence, injustice and militant propaganda that dominates our world. I intend to use this website to talk about politics, news and history, but I won’t toe any party lines. I stand against stupidity, complacency and conformity, and other than that the only thing I’m sure of is that ice cream tastes good on a summer day.

I run a literary website, LitKicks.com, and I guess I created this new blog to allow me to write about a wider array of topics while keeping that site focused on books and literature. So this is my place where I can talk about whatever the hell I want to talk about, and I plan to talk a lot. I plan to do some listening too. Have a seat, my friend, and join me as we begin this expedition into the heart of human ignominy.