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The PEN/Faulkner fundraiser included a rousing exorcism of America's demons
Don’t be surprised if everything seems better this morning. An epic exorcism took place last night in Washington. Nobody expected it, but members of both political parties participated in a cosmic assault against the forces of darkness.
A binding spell was cast by James Hannaham at the annual PEN/Faulkner gala in the Folger Shakespeare Library on Monday night. Hannaham was one of 12 writers invited to deliver a brief reading on this year’s subject: magic. Other fiction writers, such as Karen Joy Fowler and Michael Cunningham, remarked on the miraculous elements of the natural world or the magic of creating fiction.
Hannaham, author of the novel “Delicious Foods,” took an entirely different, explicitly spellbinding approach. Towering over the lectern, he told the audience of bookworms, wealthy donors and political leaders to join hands. Honorary benefit committee members Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) weren’t sitting in the same row, but by the transitive power of hand-holding, they were joined, too.
“Oh hear this spell, thou who wilt and especially thou who wilt not, upon this, the September full harvest moon of the year 2018,” Hannaham intoned. “Hear this spell, a spell made of language, activity of most obscure origin, most mystical of human endeavors. I call not upon angels nor upon demons, I call not upon the many gods, I call not upon the ancestors, I call upon the people!”
A binding spell was cast by James Hannaham at the annual PEN/Faulkner gala in the Folger Shakespeare Library on Monday night. Hannaham was one of 12 writers invited to deliver a brief reading on this year’s subject: magic. Other fiction writers, such as Karen Joy Fowler and Michael Cunningham, remarked on the miraculous elements of the natural world or the magic of creating fiction.
Hannaham, author of the novel “Delicious Foods,” took an entirely different, explicitly spellbinding approach. Towering over the lectern, he told the audience of bookworms, wealthy donors and political leaders to join hands. Honorary benefit committee members Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) weren’t sitting in the same row, but by the transitive power of hand-holding, they were joined, too.
“Oh hear this spell, thou who wilt and especially thou who wilt not, upon this, the September full harvest moon of the year 2018,” Hannaham intoned. “Hear this spell, a spell made of language, activity of most obscure origin, most mystical of human endeavors. I call not upon angels nor upon demons, I call not upon the many gods, I call not upon the ancestors, I call upon the people!”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-penfaulkner-fundraiser-included-a-rousing-exorcism-of-americas-demons/2018/09/25/730f0ad4-c0cb-11e8-90c9-23f963eea204_story.html