Comments for Crossing the Border

Comment on Joyce Carol Oates on Shirley Jackson by mcnamara catherine

mcnamara catherine — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:21:46 +0000

in oates book “little bird of heaven” on page 216 line 20 I noticed typo concerning the word “rung”. Shouldn’t it be “wrung”? I enjoy all of her books and look foward to her next.

Comment on Ford and Showalter on JCO’s Marriage by Olivia Eva

Olivia Eva — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:47:49 +0000

Congratulations,

my best wishes for a happy marriage.

olivia Eva

Comment on Joyce Carol Oates on Ted Kennedy by Jo Neace Krause

Jo Neace Krause — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:58:20 +0000

Oates is one of the people who matter. I hope she bags the Nobel Award.

Comment on Joyce Carol Oates on Ted Kennedy by Jo Neace Krause

Jo Neace Krause — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:55:09 +0000

Wonderful comment on JCO and Kennedy. I understand the Kennedy’s Foundation paid Mary Jo’s family 50,000. Think of thowing 50,000 into the brackish waters off the Chappaquiddick Bridge. Shine on Ms Oates.

Comment on Joyce Carol Oates on Ted Kennedy by michael

michael — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:19:53 +0000

What Ted Kennedy did was unforgivable, cowardly and self-serving and for this his name will forever be blackened in the eyes of history – and rightly so!

Comment on Joyce Carol Oates on Ted Kennedy by Michael

Michael — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:21:53 +0000

You seem to have completely misunderstood the import of Joyce Carol Oates’s remarks on Senator Kennedy. She is not asking us to weigh the senator’s life as more meaningful or valuable than Mary Jo Kopechne’s life. Rather, she is asking how someone who allowed her to die can have managed to be eulogized as the greatest democratic senator in history. She is also asking us to question whether his many accomplishments in some way balance out this irreversible tragedy.
As always, Joyce Carol Oates refuses to simplify or back away from difficult, morally ambiguous situations. That’s why she is so vitally important to our nation’s literature and its conscience.

Comment on Joyce Carol Oates on Ted Kennedy by Joyce Carol Oates reflects on the life of Ted Kennedy who passed away last week « interLitQ

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:55:20 +0000

[...] Filed under: Authors, Fiction, Issue 7, The International Literary Quarterly, Writing | In her “Celestial Timepiece” blog, the U.S. novelist Joyce Carol Oates, a contributor to Issue 7 of “The International [...]

Comment on Joyce Carol Oates on Ted Kennedy by Olivia Eva

Olivia Eva — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:52:23 +0000

I believe that every human being has a right to live and to survive, no matter whether he or she is shining, outstanding or fascinating in any way.

Even if this young woman in the novel Black Water was the dullest person in the world, the man driving her into the marshes had no right to let her die. He is described as an alcoholic, a liar, a murderer, a cheap guy with an inflated ego.

I greatly appreciate Joyce Carol Oates’ ethical approach to life in her writings and find her one of the best writers worldwide, worthy of the next literary Nobel Prize for Literature.

Comment on Joyce Carol Oates on Ted Kennedy by christine

christine — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:55:57 +0000

I have always loved the way JCO writes–with such ease and elegance. However, her elegant words about the fascinating and flawed Edward Kennedy can not erase their disturbing and vile meaning. Her insinuation that the privileged life of a powerful politician(who sometimes displayed incoherent rhetoric and logic) far out-weighed the stolen life of a young woman is deeply troubling. We will never know what Mary Jo’s potential could have been. Could it, or that of her future offspring, have outshone Kennedy’s uneven legacy? We will never know the answer to that nor should we have the hubris to pretend such knowledge. We will never know because the weakness in Kennedy’s character denied us the answer.

Shame on you Ms. Oaks. I can no longer read your words after reading your Kennedy eulogy.

Comment on Joyce Carol Oates on Ted Kennedy by Olivia Eva

Olivia Eva — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:36:59 +0000

I loved reading her novel Black Water, the drowning victim’s point of view is breath-taking.

I also agree with Joyce Carol Oates’ opinion of Ted Kennedy wholeheartedly. This man has been overestimated, both as a human being and as a politician.