{"id":106165,"date":"2016-12-23T15:31:36","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T20:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=106165"},"modified":"2017-05-02T17:17:34","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T21:17:34","slug":"all-this-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/23\/all-this-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"All This Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our new, redesigned website marks the debut of our complete digital archive: now subscribers can read every piece from\u00a0The Paris Review<\/em>\u2019s sixty-three-year history.\u00a0Subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0and you can start reading our\u00a0back issues\u00a0right away; you can also try\u00a0a free ten-day trial period<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was surprised when I found Dabney Stuart\u2019s poem \u201cSanta Claus in the Desert<\/a>\u201d in\u00a0our Winter 2002\u20132003<\/a>\u00a0issue.\u00a0That issue is host to a number of crime pieces: a\u00a0feature by Russian detective novelist Boris Akunin; an exquisite-corpse murder story written by Michael Cunningham, Manil Suri, Joanna Scott, and others; and crime-scene photos by Maria Levitsky. Santa\u2019s not really known for his crime-busting skills. But\u00a0Dabney\u2019s Father Christmas\u00a0goes against the grain of the jolly holiday archetype; the poem offers a\u00a0pensive encounter with Santa as he flies westerly over the empty expanse of American desert, feeling bittersweet about the cyclical nature of a role that requires \u201cgreat harvests of emptiness\u201d:<\/p>\n

He stands here, this rotund, ruddy
\nfoolishness with the white thresh on his chin,
\nhis bag of surprises riding uncertainly
\nover his shoulder, in spite of everything
\nreducing him to the size of a saguaro spine
\nseen from a mesa five hundred miles off\u2014
\nstands here in the infinite repetition
\nof his exposures: pure hokum, a rampant ghost,
\na wheezing, bibulous department-store bum
\na bell ringer fondling his kettle, our favorite
\nregression in colloquial robes,
\nsomeone\u2019s father.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read \u201cSanta Claus in the Desert\u201d in full here<\/a>; and\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0for digital access to every short story, poem, portfolio, and essay from\u00a0The Paris Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our new, redesigned website marks the debut of our complete digital archive: now subscribers can read every piece from\u00a0The Paris Review\u2019s sixty-three-year history.\u00a0Subscribe now\u00a0and you can start reading our\u00a0back issues\u00a0right away; you can also try\u00a0a free ten-day trial period.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1188],"tags":[16304,1442,26439,15241,5028,3539,165,1593],"class_list":["post-106165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-archive","tag-archive","tag-christmas","tag-dabney-stuart","tag-desert","tag-holiday","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-santa-claus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the Archive: Dabney Stuart\u2019s \u201cSanta Claus in the Desert\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 23, 2016 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