A Human Eye : Essays on Art in Society, 1997-2008

A. Rich

Humanitarian (and lesbian) poet Rich is a live-wire essayist, taking measure here of what she describes as a "permeable membrane between art and society." The title of her latest collection is from Karl Marx: "The eye has become a human eye only when its object has become a human, social object." And it is this human connection and vision that Rich searches for in the literature she discusses. Strong writing, Rich believes, is about "how we are with each other," and she finds this encompassing theme in the work of Muriel Rukeyser, whom Rich admires for her "poetics of historical sensibility"; James Baldwin, who was "uncanny" in his prescience; and June Jordan, who believed humor and pleasure are essential to social change. Rich deep-reads poetry written in the shadow of AIDS and during tyranny and war in Iraq, and argues that we must all be "resistant to dogma." For all Rich█s shepherding us toward compassion and solidarity with those who suffer violence and injustice, she never ceases to praise the mystery intrinsic to poetry and art.