The Playgoer: more from Walter Davis

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Wednesday, April 19, 2006

more from Walter Davis

Since many of you enjoyed reading (and/or kicking around) Walter A. Davis' March essay on "Rachel Corrie" and other matters, you may want to check out his new website, fittingly walteradavis.com. There you'll find, among other writings, his latest take, Beyond The Corrie Controversy: Manifesto for a Progressive Theatre.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let me second this. I've also just finished reading Death's Dream Kingdom, Davis's exploration of the American psyche since 9-11. It's really good. Its understanding of the psychology of religious fundamentalism and its take on evil really jarred me -- I've never read anything like it. There's a link on the website to purchase the book. Just as Davis draws our attention to progressive theatre beyond Rachel Corrie, his book focuses attention on the psyche, beyond the red state/blue state dichotomy. Especially exciting is seeing that David continuously refers to drama and literature in Death's Dream Kingdom, even though his explicit focus is on politics and philosophy. He sees how we can't have an understanding of the latter without taking an honest look, as best we can, at the mystery and horror the psyche presents us with.

Anonymous said...

In terms of typeface, Davis's new website is easier to read, and I'm glad you alerted us to it. But his manifesto has been up for a while in another location, and I struggled to digest it. I keep getting distracted from his ideas by my wish that he'd given it a polishing and clarifying rewrite. (A manifesto that genuinely hopes to win followers needs to be a lot more clear than this; I half suspect he doesn't care whether anyone's persuaded.) However, I should go back to it and try again to reach the end. Thanks for the tip.