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October 2008 · Previous · Next   PDFPDF

Standoff in Columbus:
Guns, dogs and the language of totality

By Frederick Busch

Frederick Busch, a longtime friend of Harper’s Magazine, passed away on February 23, 2006. He was the author of twenty-seven books, including The Night Inspector (Harmony) and A Memory of War (Norton).

Language breaks out. Language, a shouted word, or a silent, metaphoric act, will insist itself into notice like the thyme that pushes up through the layered shale of the earth. In early spring, as the ice beneath the frost line on the hill across from our house begins to melt, the hillside seems for days to sweat. Then, finally, it pours. Water rushes down and the gray-blue stone runs with darkness. That’s how language arrives.

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SEE ALSO: Biography; Columbus; Busch, Frederick; Hate crimes; Ku Klux Klan (1915- ); Labrador retriever; Sociolinguistics; Violent crimes
Response: March 2009, page 6
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November 2009

FINAL EDITION
Twilight of the American Newspaper
By Richard Rodriguez

THE INTELLIGENCE FACTORY
How America Makes Its Enemies Disappear
By Petra Bartosiewicz

PROSPEROUS FRIENDS
A story by Christine Schutt

Also: Frederick Seidel and Mark Kingwell

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