In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

SWANN 47 by selling bonds to pay for welfare and the cops. When the bonds come due, sell some more. A man once asked John Maynard Keynes if we should get anxious about the long run. He just said, "Don't worry. In the long run well all be dead." BRIAN SWANN ISTANBUL I wonder why I've returned to this place that behaves as if a city is cinder-blocks and planks, sheepskins nailed to sides of houses, forgotten, going rank. Where the people live in coal-smoke and kids swim in wide slicks of garbage after work. And I remember when I was a boy, seeing older kids like a foreign race, black with pit or shipyard, drifting through coal-smoke, crumbling streets; and thinking: that is how things are, that's real life, the sizing of a sharp look, the thick gob of spit, the stub of cigaret, the breath that takes in foul air like a joke. ...

pdf

Share