Monkey Puzzle Press

If you look at the laws passed in the United States from the very beginning of the American republic down to the present day, you’ll find that most of the legislation passed is class legislation that favors the elite, that favors the rich. You’ll find huge subsidies to corporations all through American history. You’ll find legislation passed to benefit the railroads, the oil companies, and the merchant marine and very little legislation passed to benefit the poor and the people who desperately need help. So the Law should not be given the holy deference that we are all taught to give it when we grow up and go to school, and it’s a profoundly undemocratic idea to say that you should judge what you do according to what the Law says – undemocratic because it divests you as an individual of the right to make a decision yourself about what is right or wrong and it gives all of that power to that small band of legislators who have decided for themselves what is right and what is wrong.

- Howard Zinn -

If I were a Henry James or Jane Austen sort of guy, writing only about toffs or smart college folks, I’d hardly ever have to use a dirty word or a profane phrase; I might never have had a book banned from America’s school libraries or gotten a letter from some helpful fundamentalist fellow who wants me to know that I’m going to burn in hell, where all my millions of dollars won’t buy me so much as a single drink of water. I did not, however, grow up among folks of that sort. I grew up as a part of America’s lower middle class, and they’re the people I can write about with the most honesty and knowledge. It means that they say shit more often than sugar when they bang their thumbs, but I’ve made my peace with that. Was never much at war with it in the first place.

- Stephen King -

Event Poster designed by Olatundji Akpo-Sani

Front cover of Jonathan’s book – now available – $14.95 – Monkey Puzzle Press Books

“It’s a crime story,” Michael Moore says of his latest documentary. “But it’s also a war story about class warfare. And a vampire movie, with the upper 1 percent feeding off the rest of us. And, of course, it’s also a love story. Only it’s about an abusive relationship.” Yes, that’s right, the lightning-rod filmmaker whose previous movies have tackled such hot-button issues as gun control (Bowling for Columbine), terrorism (Fahrenheit 9/11), and the health-care crisis (Sicko) will be taking on the entire free-market economy in his archly titled new film, Capitalism: A Love Story. Moore started shooting about six months before the economy melted down last fall — talk about a lucky break! — but sees the film as a culmination of his life’s work. “It’s not about an individual, like [former GM CEO] Roger Smith, or a corporation, or even an issue, like health care,” he says. “This is the big enchilada. This is about the thing that dominates all our lives — the economy. I made this movie as if it was going to be the last movie I was allowed to make.” Oh, and by the way, Moore adds, “it’s a comedy.” – Benjamin Suetkey, Entertainment Weekly.

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“How shall we earn our bread is a grave question; yet it is a sweet and inviting question. Let us not shirk it, as is usually done. It is the most important and practical question which is put to man. Let us not answer it hastily. Let us not be content to get our bread in some gross, careless, and hasty manner. Some men go a-hunting, some a-fishing, some a-gaming, some to war; but none have so pleasant a time as they who in earnest seek to earn their bread. It is true actually as it is true really; it is true materially as it is true spiritually, that they who seek honestly and sincerely, with all their hearts and lives and strength, to earn their bread, do earn it, and it is sure to be very sweet to them. A very little bread – a very few crumbs are enough, if it be of the right quality, for it is infinitely nutritious. Let each man, then, earn at least a crumb of bread for his body before he dies, and know the taste of it – that it is identical with the bread of life, and that they both go down at one swallow.”

- Henry David Thoreau -

“The idea of saviors has been built into the entire culture, beyond politics. We have learned to look to stars, leaders, experts in every field, thus surrendering our own strength, demeaning our own ability, obliterating our own selves.”

- Howard Zinn -

On July 31st, an interview with the Founder of Monkey Puzzle Press, Nate Jordon, aired on KGNU Radio. Check it out:

Nate Jordon’s Interview on KGNU

Every now and then go away,
have a little relaxation,
for when you come back
to your work
your judgment will be surer;
since to remain constantly at work
will cause you to lose power
of judgment…

Go some distance away
because the work appears smaller
and more of it
can be taken in at a glance,
and a lack of harmony
or proportion
is more readily seen.

- Leonardo Da Vinci -

“Sit in a room and read – and read and read. And read the right books by the right people. Your mind is brought onto that level, and you have a nice, mild, slow-burning rapture all the time. This realization of life can be a constant realization in your living. When you find an author who really grabs you, read everything he has done. Don’t say, ‘Oh, I want to know what so-and-so did’ – and don’t bother at all with the best-seller list. Just read what this one author has to tell you. And then you can go read what he had read. And the world opens up in a way that is consistent with a certain point of view. But when you go from on author to another, you may be able to tell us the date when each wrote such and such a poem – but he hasn’t said anything to you.”

- Joseph Campbell -