Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Check out these ...
... fabulous B&W photos at This Urban Life: SUN DAY. Of course I'm a sucker for cityscapes.
A chat with a poet ...
Mary Karr is interviewed at The Cruelest Month. She has a new collection out, Sinners Welcome, which The Inquirer will review Thursday. I'm glad I found this site. It's HarperCollins's poetry blog.
Update: Dan DeLuca's Mary Karr review will run sometime next week.
Update: Dan DeLuca's Mary Karr review will run sometime next week.
The sheer cheek of it!
The clowns over at Ask Jeeves have given the famed butler his walking papers. Overlook's Elephant Walk links to the story: The butler is dead! Long live the butler!
Sorry about that ...
Don't know why the previous post repeated itself again and again. Thanks to Lynne Scanlon for pointing it out. Speaking of whom, you may want to join the discussion at The Publishing Contrarian.
A roundup ...
... of news about the Da Vinci Code kerfuffle is up at Brandywine Books: Brown, Blood, Grail, and a Lawsuit.
TV does a good turn ...
... for literature. Thanks to the series Lost, Americans are flocking to bookstores for copies of Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman. Davd McKittrick writes about The 'Lost' world of Flann O'Brien.
Happy birthday ...
... to Sir Peter Stothard, my much more distinguished counterpart at the Times Literary Supplement.
Monday, February 27, 2006
I must beg off ...
... from blogging tonight. I got home late and must finish my review book, so I can write the review tomorrow.
Bravo Dickens ...
The PBS bropdcast of Bleak House concluded last night. I'm glad I saw Maxine's recommendation at Petrona last month. I thought it was a great way to spend several Sunday nights. Gillian Anderson, best known over here as Agent Scully on The X-Files -- a series I never watched -- was superbly moving as Lady Dedlock. But the character who impressed me most was John Jarndyce, excellently done by Denis Lawson. The portrayal of goodness is extremely difficult and Jarndyce is a believably good man. His freeing Esther from her pledge to marry him is an example of true love -- bene volentia, willing good for another, even at great cost to oneself.
My kind of skeptic ...
Nassim Taleb writes about The Opiates of the Middle Classes. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
"On a personal note," Taleb writes, "I have to admit that I feel more elevated in cathedrals than in stock markets — be it only on aesthetic grounds." Which reminds me that I have throughout most of my life thought that aesthetics is as much of a determinant of truth as any other factor.
"On a personal note," Taleb writes, "I have to admit that I feel more elevated in cathedrals than in stock markets — be it only on aesthetic grounds." Which reminds me that I have throughout most of my life thought that aesthetics is as much of a determinant of truth as any other factor.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Intrepid as ever ...
... Dave Lull points me to this excellent post at Anecdotal Evidence: On Philosophical Style. This is a site I plan to revisit and add to my blogroll -- as soon as I get around to updating it.
Another week has passed ...
... and Louise Doughty has another of her novel-writing columns up: Finding your place.
Frederick Busch (1941-2006)
Novelist Frederick Busch has died -- at age64, much too soon. Here's an obit. "I'd like to be remembered as a really honest, minor writer of the 20th century," he once said. He may well do better than that.
I read this in the Spectator ...
... and am glad to have found it online: Roger Scruton's Dawkins is wrong about God.
Scruton actually is a philosopher. Dawkins, a zoologist, practices philosophy without a license. Which is why so much of what he presents as logic is actually rhetoric. Here Scruton takes apart one of Dawkins's arguments by analogy. Like Daniel Dennett, Dawkins is fond of arguing by analogy, even though it is the second weakest form of argument, after the argument from authority -- which really isn't an argument at all.
Scruton, however, does know how to reason, and also how to write:
...the truth of a religion lies less in what is revealed in its doctrines than in what is concealed in its mysteries. Religions do not reveal their meaning directly because they cannot do so; their meaning has to be earned by worship and prayer, and by a life of quiet obedience. Nevertheless truths that are hidden are still truths; and maybe we can be guided by them only if they are hidden, just as we are guided by the sun only if we do not look at it.
The question I would like to put to both Dawkins and Dennett is this:
If Almighty Evolution has shaped us to believe in God, by what right do the likes of Dennett and Dawkins challenge Her designs?
Update: I have revised this post to indicate that Richard Dawkins is a zoologist, not an entomologist.
Scruton actually is a philosopher. Dawkins, a zoologist, practices philosophy without a license. Which is why so much of what he presents as logic is actually rhetoric. Here Scruton takes apart one of Dawkins's arguments by analogy. Like Daniel Dennett, Dawkins is fond of arguing by analogy, even though it is the second weakest form of argument, after the argument from authority -- which really isn't an argument at all.
Scruton, however, does know how to reason, and also how to write:
...the truth of a religion lies less in what is revealed in its doctrines than in what is concealed in its mysteries. Religions do not reveal their meaning directly because they cannot do so; their meaning has to be earned by worship and prayer, and by a life of quiet obedience. Nevertheless truths that are hidden are still truths; and maybe we can be guided by them only if they are hidden, just as we are guided by the sun only if we do not look at it.
The question I would like to put to both Dawkins and Dennett is this:
If Almighty Evolution has shaped us to believe in God, by what right do the likes of Dennett and Dawkins challenge Her designs?
Update: I have revised this post to indicate that Richard Dawkins is a zoologist, not an entomologist.
My review ...
... of Kenneth J. Harvey's The Town That Forgot How to Breathe is up: Strange things happen in a Newfoundland town.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
If you read nothing else this weekend ...
... read Theodore Dalrymple on Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange: A Prophetic and Violent Masterpiece. What Dalrymple says about Britain is rather disturbing. Maxine, say it ain't so!
So there!
Lynne Scanlon explains in no uncertain terms What We’re About at the Publishing Contrarian. More power to her, I say. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
A good question ...
... is posed by Sandra at Book World in post titled Read out of existence. She quotes James Shapiro's A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare : 1599 -- "London's bookshops were by necessity Shakespeare's working libraries and he must have spent a good many hours browsing there, moving form one seller's wares to the next (since, unlike today, each bookseller had a distinctive stock), either jotting down his ideas in a commonplace book or storing them away in his prodigious actor's memory." Then wonders: " What did he write with? Surely he can't have had a quill and inkwell in his pocket?"
We take jotting something down for granted nowadays, without reflecting that the instruments and materials we use once weren't readily available.
We take jotting something down for granted nowadays, without reflecting that the instruments and materials we use once weren't readily available.
Speech, speech ...
The great unraveling of Communism began on this date 50 years ago, with a secret speech delivered on the final day of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union by Nikita Khruschev. No one is better qualified to discuss the matter than Robert Conquest: The Speech That Shook the World. Money quote:
To the general public, then, the speech was a revelation. In an unprecedented act of journalism, Britain’s leading liberal Sunday newspaper, the Observer, devoted an entire issue to it.
Khrushchev does not seem to have quite realized the degree of damage he might do to the Soviet Union’s image as a humanist, progressive country by speaking of official tortures and murders.
Throughout the West there was an astonishing revulsion. Those who had been totally deceived had their minds cleared (although many eventually returned to the fold, anti-Western feeling outweighing all else for those whom George Orwell described as “renegade liberals”).
Anne Applebaum also has a characteristically fine piece in the Washington Post: Happy Anniversary, Nikita Khrushchev. But Arts & Letters Daily has many more.
In An Army of Davids, Glenn Reynolds notes that, thanks to technology, workers increasingly "control the means of production, all right, but it's a far cry from communism." As Glenn is also wont to say: Heh!
To the general public, then, the speech was a revelation. In an unprecedented act of journalism, Britain’s leading liberal Sunday newspaper, the Observer, devoted an entire issue to it.
Khrushchev does not seem to have quite realized the degree of damage he might do to the Soviet Union’s image as a humanist, progressive country by speaking of official tortures and murders.
Throughout the West there was an astonishing revulsion. Those who had been totally deceived had their minds cleared (although many eventually returned to the fold, anti-Western feeling outweighing all else for those whom George Orwell described as “renegade liberals”).
Anne Applebaum also has a characteristically fine piece in the Washington Post: Happy Anniversary, Nikita Khrushchev. But Arts & Letters Daily has many more.
In An Army of Davids, Glenn Reynolds notes that, thanks to technology, workers increasingly "control the means of production, all right, but it's a far cry from communism." As Glenn is also wont to say: Heh!
I have managed to mostly ignore ...
... Ben Franklin's 300th birthday. My view of Franklin is the same as D.H. Lawrence's: "I admire him. I do not like him." But Bill Peschel has happily gathered into one place just what I needed to inspire me to wish the old boy a happy 300th and many centuries to come: 5 Things I Learned About Ben Franklin.
Friday, February 24, 2006
When authors turn bad ...
Maxine Clarke sends me a another link (this one to Booksquare) about the British Book Awards, which appear to have turned ugly: Fisticuffs and Conga, What Will The British Think of Next?
During my wild years I once had a most heated discussion with another fellow that resulted in the two of us crashing through the bannister of a second-floor landing and soaring through the air to the floor below -- just like in a Western.
During my wild years I once had a most heated discussion with another fellow that resulted in the two of us crashing through the bannister of a second-floor landing and soaring through the air to the floor below -- just like in a Western.
Well, I guess a lot of us ...
... would like to have these. Check out Bill Peschel's My Own Private Batcave.
Cross-pollinating forms ...
Finn Harvor is writing a novel in the form of a screenplay: The Screenplay-novel Manifestos.
We've considered the problems ...
... facing newspapers. Maybe we should turn our attention to the schools. Dr. Helen ponders: I'm Not Really Talented and Gifted, I Just Play One for the PC Crowd.
My wife taught gifted classes before she retired. I actually don't think they're such a good idea. The schools I went to (all parochial) had classes with a mix of kids, some interested in academics, others less so. Among other things one discovered that indifference to academic subjects is no indication that a person isn't smart (and certainly no indication that a person isn't interesting). And learning to get along with a variety of people is good. The problem really is the assumption that what is good for anybody must be good for everybody. The assumption is false.
My wife taught gifted classes before she retired. I actually don't think they're such a good idea. The schools I went to (all parochial) had classes with a mix of kids, some interested in academics, others less so. Among other things one discovered that indifference to academic subjects is no indication that a person isn't smart (and certainly no indication that a person isn't interesting). And learning to get along with a variety of people is good. The problem really is the assumption that what is good for anybody must be good for everybody. The assumption is false.
Rather than blog last night ...
... my wife and I joined some friends at Le Bec-Fin, Philly's best restaurant, and one of the best anywhere. I have much work to catch up on at the office, so blogging will resume later.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Another short list ...
... and you can vote! Maxine Clark links to the British Book Awards. I cannot begin to improve on Maxine's comments.
A paean to slyness ...
... at Grumpy Old Bookman, who has wonderful things to say about Muriel Spark and her novel Aiding and Abetting, which is about the long-vanished Lord Lucan: Muriel Spark: Aiding and Abetting.
Does anyone remember Black Box Recorder's "Lord Lucan Is Missing"?
Does anyone remember Black Box Recorder's "Lord Lucan Is Missing"?
Anniversaries ...
Diarist Samuel Pepys was born on this date in London in 1633. A characteristic quote:
Thanks be to God. Since my leaving the drinking of wine, I do find myself much better, and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle company.
Also on this date, in Rome, poet John Keats died:
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed casket of my soul.
Thanks be to God. Since my leaving the drinking of wine, I do find myself much better, and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle company.
Also on this date, in Rome, poet John Keats died:
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed casket of my soul.
Men of good will ...
... we are often told, may disagree. But they may also agree. Alan Dershowitz and William Bennett have found common ground regard A failure of the press.
We two come from different political and philosophical perspectives, but on this we agree: Over the past few weeks, the press has betrayed not only its duties but its responsibilities. To our knowledge, only three print newspapers have followed their true calling: the Austin American-Statesman, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Sun. What have they done? They simply printed cartoons that were at the center of widespread turmoil among Muslims over depictions of the prophet Muhammad. These papers did their duty.
We two come from different political and philosophical perspectives, but on this we agree: Over the past few weeks, the press has betrayed not only its duties but its responsibilities. To our knowledge, only three print newspapers have followed their true calling: the Austin American-Statesman, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Sun. What have they done? They simply printed cartoons that were at the center of widespread turmoil among Muslims over depictions of the prophet Muhammad. These papers did their duty.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Little blogging tonight ...
... which I suppose is obvious. I am working on an article about cassoulet. Here is a picture of the one I made for New Year's Eve.
Lego, lego ...
Maxine Clarke alerts us to the Lego Brokeback Mountain and the Lego Deadeye Dick Cheney (who says we conservatives don't have a sense of humor?).
An honest author ...
Glenn Reyonolds answers email queries about his forthcoming book.
My favorite:
Why should I buy your book?
Aside from the obvious reason -- to make me money -- I think it offers an interesting and coherent take on what's going on in the world. It's true that if you read this blog and my other stuff, you've already been exposed to that in a way, but it comes across rather differently in book form than in disconnected bits here and there, which is how it comes across on the blog, etc. In fact, when I was writing the book I was surprised at how coherent it became, and how many disconnected bits turned out to fit together. I hope you'll think so, too. In the meantime, you can read what these folks have to say.
My favorite:
Why should I buy your book?
Aside from the obvious reason -- to make me money -- I think it offers an interesting and coherent take on what's going on in the world. It's true that if you read this blog and my other stuff, you've already been exposed to that in a way, but it comes across rather differently in book form than in disconnected bits here and there, which is how it comes across on the blog, etc. In fact, when I was writing the book I was surprised at how coherent it became, and how many disconnected bits turned out to fit together. I hope you'll think so, too. In the meantime, you can read what these folks have to say.
In praise of java ...
Balzac prompts Bud Parr to wonder: Could Coffee Be the Key to Becoming a Poet?
Spelling it out ...
Leon Wieseltier does a job on Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell in the New York Times Book Review: The God Genome. (Hat tip, Brandywine Books.)
Key quote:
Like many biological reductionists, Dennett is sure that he is not a biological reductionist. But the charge is proved as early as the fourth page of his book. Watch closely. "Like other animals," the confused passage begins, "we have built-in desires to reproduce and to do pretty much whatever it takes to achieve this goal." No confusion there, and no offense. It is incontrovertible that we are animals. The sentence continues: "But we also have creeds, and the ability to transcend our genetic imperatives." A sterling observation, and the beginning of humanism. And then more, in the same fine antideterministic vein: "This fact does make us different."
Then suddenly there is this: "But it is itself a biological fact, visible to natural science, and something that requires an explanation from natural science." As the ancient rabbis used to say, have your ears heard what your mouth has spoken? Dennett does not see that he has taken his humanism back. Why is our independence from biology a fact of biology? And if it is a fact of biology, then we are not independent of biology. If our creeds are an expression of our animality, if they require an explanation from natural science, then we have not transcended our genetic imperatives. The human difference, in Dennett's telling, is a difference in degree, not a difference in kind — a doctrine that may quite plausibly be called biological reductionism
Key quote:
Like many biological reductionists, Dennett is sure that he is not a biological reductionist. But the charge is proved as early as the fourth page of his book. Watch closely. "Like other animals," the confused passage begins, "we have built-in desires to reproduce and to do pretty much whatever it takes to achieve this goal." No confusion there, and no offense. It is incontrovertible that we are animals. The sentence continues: "But we also have creeds, and the ability to transcend our genetic imperatives." A sterling observation, and the beginning of humanism. And then more, in the same fine antideterministic vein: "This fact does make us different."
Then suddenly there is this: "But it is itself a biological fact, visible to natural science, and something that requires an explanation from natural science." As the ancient rabbis used to say, have your ears heard what your mouth has spoken? Dennett does not see that he has taken his humanism back. Why is our independence from biology a fact of biology? And if it is a fact of biology, then we are not independent of biology. If our creeds are an expression of our animality, if they require an explanation from natural science, then we have not transcended our genetic imperatives. The human difference, in Dennett's telling, is a difference in degree, not a difference in kind — a doctrine that may quite plausibly be called biological reductionism
I actually had never heard of ...
... "disintermediation" until last night when I settled into to read Glenn Reynolds's An Army of Davids, which I plan to review on March 5. But an example of why it's a good thing can be found this morning at -- where else? -- Instapundit.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Work in progress ...
I just discovered that Greg Sandow is writing a book online on a subject I am much interested in: The Future of Classical Music.
This gives me an opportunity to air one of my favorite ideas. When people think of classical music, they tend to think of large forms -- symphonies, concertos, tone poems. But a vast quantity of classical music is as short as any popular song. And I have long thought that a radio station that specialized in broadcasting only those shorter pieces might surprise people by its success. I think that quite a few people might prefer to drive to work while listening to Couperin or Praetorius or Grainger or Lou Harrison than Howard Stern or Aerosmith (bear in mind, I have myself seen Aerosmith in concert -- Stern I can do without).
This gives me an opportunity to air one of my favorite ideas. When people think of classical music, they tend to think of large forms -- symphonies, concertos, tone poems. But a vast quantity of classical music is as short as any popular song. And I have long thought that a radio station that specialized in broadcasting only those shorter pieces might surprise people by its success. I think that quite a few people might prefer to drive to work while listening to Couperin or Praetorius or Grainger or Lou Harrison than Howard Stern or Aerosmith (bear in mind, I have myself seen Aerosmith in concert -- Stern I can do without).
Barbara Guest (1920-2006)
Poet Barbara Guest has died. Here is an obituary from the San Francisco Chronicle. Every Other Day has links and quotes. Just scroll down.
The importance of enjoyment ...
Today in Literature reminds us that on this date in 1825 Coleridge wrote "Work Without Hope." It is an odd sonnet, the sestet coming before the octave.
WORK WITHOUT HOPE draws nectar in a sieve,
And HOPE without an object cannot live.
Coleridge was 51 when he wrote it.
Today in Literature also notes that on this date in 1931 F. Scott Fiztgerald's "Babylon Revisited" was published in the Saturday Evening Post.
WORK WITHOUT HOPE draws nectar in a sieve,
And HOPE without an object cannot live.
Coleridge was 51 when he wrote it.
Today in Literature also notes that on this date in 1931 F. Scott Fiztgerald's "Babylon Revisited" was published in the Saturday Evening Post.
And speaking of enjoyment ...
... Glenn Reynolds over at TechCentral also considers the power of blogs: Blogger Buzz-Kill?
Money quote:
Even if the biggest, richest, and most popular blogs are hugely successful financially -- and more importantly, even if they're not -- there will be millions of people out their generating and publishing their own content. Regardless of what happens, the vast majority will be doing it without being paid (they already are) and they'll be doing it because, as I noted last week, it's fun. Which is what should really worry the Big Media people, because it's something that doesn't change with the financial markets. From four years ago comes this advice: "Beware the people who are having fun competing with you!" Because it's hard to put them out of business, so long as it stays fun.
Indeed.
Money quote:
Even if the biggest, richest, and most popular blogs are hugely successful financially -- and more importantly, even if they're not -- there will be millions of people out their generating and publishing their own content. Regardless of what happens, the vast majority will be doing it without being paid (they already are) and they'll be doing it because, as I noted last week, it's fun. Which is what should really worry the Big Media people, because it's something that doesn't change with the financial markets. From four years ago comes this advice: "Beware the people who are having fun competing with you!" Because it's hard to put them out of business, so long as it stays fun.
Indeed.
Izaak Walton, orthography and education ...
... again at Power Line: The compleat footnote.
I share the view that "education is enjoyable in itself, even if it has no other use." It is enjoyable because it enriches one's life. To know something and to understand it enlarges one's being.
I share the view that "education is enjoyable in itself, even if it has no other use." It is enjoyable because it enriches one's life. To know something and to understand it enlarges one's being.
The power of blogs ..
Grumpy Old Bookman ponders the FT item linked to here yesterday: The impact of blogs. I loved this:
... the status of blogging was made abundantly clear to me by an 86-year-old aunt, only the other other day. The conversation went like this:
Auntie: How do you fill up your time now that you're retired?
Me: Well, I do quite a lot of writing. I run a thing called a blog, on the internet.
Auntie: Oh. And is that very remunerative?
Me: No. I've never earned a penny from it.
Auntie: Oh. Well in that case it doesn't count.
... the status of blogging was made abundantly clear to me by an 86-year-old aunt, only the other other day. The conversation went like this:
Auntie: How do you fill up your time now that you're retired?
Me: Well, I do quite a lot of writing. I run a thing called a blog, on the internet.
Auntie: Oh. And is that very remunerative?
Me: No. I've never earned a penny from it.
Auntie: Oh. Well in that case it doesn't count.
Wall Street irrationality ...
... hits Amazon. Ed Christman at the Book Standard looks at Street Smarts? Not So Much. Why Analysts Are Wrong to Kick Amazon to the Doghouse. It's about time people starting being a little more skeptical about these Wall Street analysts, who seem to be about as reliable as touts at the track.
A reader discovers Dickens ...
... at Book of the Day: Great Books: David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. Regarding Freud, recommend the chapter on him in The Great Betrayal.
Monday, February 20, 2006
A scathing review ...
... of the Sunday Times (of London) by Maxine Clarke: Sunday papers, for once.
I'm not sure ...
... this is a good idea: Holocaust Denier Gets Three Years in Jail. I hold no brief for Holocaust deniers, but jailing a person because of what he thinks or writes just doesn't sit well with me.
Uh-oh ...
... looks like we have been too busy blogging to notice that blogging is on the way out: Time for the last post.
I found this remark by Choire Sicha interesting:
"As for blogs taking over big media in the next five years? Fine, sure,” he added. “But where are the beginnings of that? Where is the reporting? Where is the reliability? The rah-rah blogosphere crowd are apparently ready to live in a world without war reporting, without investigative reporting, without nearly any of the things we depend on newspapers for. The world of blogs is like an entire newspaper composed of op-eds and letters and wire service feeds. And they’re all excited about the global reach of blogs? Right, tell it to China.”
Blogs will give us "a world without war reporting"? Choire should click on here or here.
I found this remark by Choire Sicha interesting:
"As for blogs taking over big media in the next five years? Fine, sure,” he added. “But where are the beginnings of that? Where is the reporting? Where is the reliability? The rah-rah blogosphere crowd are apparently ready to live in a world without war reporting, without investigative reporting, without nearly any of the things we depend on newspapers for. The world of blogs is like an entire newspaper composed of op-eds and letters and wire service feeds. And they’re all excited about the global reach of blogs? Right, tell it to China.”
Blogs will give us "a world without war reporting"? Choire should click on here or here.
Making sure authors can stay at home ...
Margaret Atwood may have done just that: Booker winner's robot brainwave may spell the end of the book tour.
Confessions of love ...
... of poets, that is. Ron Hogan has a new essay series, "Poets on Poets." Here's Reb Livingston on Amy Gerstler: Reb Livingston's Literary Crush
Life imitates art (again) ...
... in the form of a web-spawned literary species known as "slash fiction": Slashing through the undercult.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Criminal royalty ...
Ruth Rendell and P.D. James, queens of crime fiction, talk about Whodunnit and why we do it.
For history buffs ...
Maxine Clarke tells us the Cheney hunting kerfuffle hasn't made much news in Britain, but given that the guy he shot was named Whittington, it's worth noting that a namesake of his has been well-known in Britain for centuries. Introducing Dick Whittington.
Updated: I got the name of Cheney's hunting partner wrong in my orginal version of this post. He's Harry -- but maybe he's a descendant of Dick.
Updated: I got the name of Cheney's hunting partner wrong in my orginal version of this post. He's Harry -- but maybe he's a descendant of Dick.
Just so you don't miss it ...
... here's the link Dave Lull sent in a comment appended to my post below about "Schools, education, and thought": American Education.
It used to be ...
... we took it for granted that there's nothing to be done about the weather. Not anymore. President Bush is frequently criticized for (allegedly) not reading enough. Unlike me, of course, he's not paid to read, and I'm not sure what "enough" means exactly in this case. At any rate, he does meet and talk with writers from time to time and some people are upset now that they've learned about his chat with Michael Crichton: Bush's Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists (are environmentalists ever not alarmed?) I reviewed Crichton's State of Fear and liked it. I would also recommend Ronald Bailey's excellent Two Sides to Global Warming. Follow the links if you want to get a pretty comprehensive overview of the issue.
Schools, education, and thought ...
MetaxuCafe looks at What majors promote "thought"?
The transmogrification of America's educational institutions into training centers has been going on for a very long time. For reading most tonic, consider Wendy McElroy's Albert Jay Nock on Education.
The transmogrification of America's educational institutions into training centers has been going on for a very long time. For reading most tonic, consider Wendy McElroy's Albert Jay Nock on Education.
Worth considering ...
Bill Peschel lists 5 phrases I would ban if I were dictator.
I warned my salivating colleagues at a news meeting last Monday that overplaying the Cheney hunting gaffe would backfire, especially in a state boasting the second-largest number of licensed hunters -- and I believe I have been proved right.
I hope this is the first and last time I encounter "cuddle puddle."
Anything shallower than Dan Bown's prose has a problem.
Well, I did see Brokeback, but have to confess it was not as entertaining as the Brokeback shopping lists emailed me by a colleague last week.
I think it may be too late to do anything about "blog," but why don't we try?
I warned my salivating colleagues at a news meeting last Monday that overplaying the Cheney hunting gaffe would backfire, especially in a state boasting the second-largest number of licensed hunters -- and I believe I have been proved right.
I hope this is the first and last time I encounter "cuddle puddle."
Anything shallower than Dan Bown's prose has a problem.
Well, I did see Brokeback, but have to confess it was not as entertaining as the Brokeback shopping lists emailed me by a colleague last week.
I think it may be too late to do anything about "blog," but why don't we try?
"The Battle of Khartoon"
As promised, here is Inquirer Book Critic Carlin Romano's review of Bruce Bawer's While Europe Slept: Author sees growing Muslim enclaves hoping to rule Europe. Money quote:
Accept his analysis or not, Bawer and his details startle, since American tourists rarely visit the Muslim communities that now ring many European cities, and American journalists rarely cover them. Apart from the heinous killings by angry Muslims of prominent Europeans such as Dutch professor and politician Pim Fortuyn (after publication of his book Against the Islamicization of Our Culture) and Dutch artist and filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who dared to question Islamic brutalization of women, Bawer describes a landscape of dysfunction.
Accept his analysis or not, Bawer and his details startle, since American tourists rarely visit the Muslim communities that now ring many European cities, and American journalists rarely cover them. Apart from the heinous killings by angry Muslims of prominent Europeans such as Dutch professor and politician Pim Fortuyn (after publication of his book Against the Islamicization of Our Culture) and Dutch artist and filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who dared to question Islamic brutalization of women, Bawer describes a landscape of dysfunction.
My review ...
... of Kate Bernadette Benedict's Here From Away is up: Poet performs acts of devotion in calibrated observance of life.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
I guess I would like ...
... Robert Ferrigno's Prayers for the Assassin, since I am "a fan of instapundit politics." The Instapundit himself links here to Hugh Hewitt's interview with Ferrigno. And here is David Montgomery's review: Intrigue in Islamic States of America.
Very good, sir ...
Couldn't pass up posting this: Why India fell for the code of Wodehouse. (Via Arts & Letters Daily.)
Light blogging ...
... actually none, for most of the day. A lunch date and other things to do. Back later.
The future of books ...
Grumpy Old Bookman looks at Cory Doctorow on Google and the future of books. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Friday, February 17, 2006
Since I qualify ...
... not only as a geezer, but also as someone who used to have quite a few friends in distinctly low places (Frank's wild years), I'm looking forward to this: Writers Who Are Damn Near Dead. Of course, as John Maynard Keynes sagely observed, "In the long run, we're all dead."
Eternal vigilance ...
... remains the price of liberty. Galley Cat wonders: Mashup Culture Strangled in the Crib? I sure hope not. The more voices, the better for all of us. My free market bona fides are as good as anyone's, and I have become increasingly suspicious of corporatiions -- principally because I see them as a threat to free enterprise. They also tend to strangle initiative and innovation. Instead, they institute ever more layers of procedural protocol in a misguided attempt to exercise greater and greater central control. What they could use -- including the one I work for -- is less restraint and more improvisation, along with the risk-taking that entails.
Friday quiz ...
Paperback Writer makes a couple of observations about the publishing industry and wants to know what you think : Friday 20
'Streetcar' had a bumpy road ...
... as the playwright's letters demostrate: How Tennessee Williams fought to stage his finest work.
Streetcar is an extremely and peculiarly moral play, in the deepest and truest sense of the term.
Streetcar is an extremely and peculiarly moral play, in the deepest and truest sense of the term.
"Are there no workhouses?"
What exactly what Scrooge referring to? Nothing pleasant, that's for sure: Georgian England exposed.
Frank Campbell writes:
Historian John Waller takes our powdered illusions and strips away the make-up. We see Georgian England through the experience of a "workhouse orphan bastard", Robert Blincoe (pictured). Four-year-old Blincoe was dumped in St Pancras Workhouse in 1796. Blincoe wasn't his real name. He never knew what that was. And DNA testing of his descendants shows that he wasn't related to any Blincoes.
Frank Campbell writes:
Historian John Waller takes our powdered illusions and strips away the make-up. We see Georgian England through the experience of a "workhouse orphan bastard", Robert Blincoe (pictured). Four-year-old Blincoe was dumped in St Pancras Workhouse in 1796. Blincoe wasn't his real name. He never knew what that was. And DNA testing of his descendants shows that he wasn't related to any Blincoes.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
In defense of ...
... romantic fiction: The language of love.
The best romantic novels are those in which the sexual act is barely, if ever, described, which places yet more obstacles in the way of the modern writer labouring under the legacy of Lady Chatterley's Lover on the one hand, and the Literary Review's Bad Sex Prize on the other.
The best romantic novels are those in which the sexual act is barely, if ever, described, which places yet more obstacles in the way of the modern writer labouring under the legacy of Lady Chatterley's Lover on the one hand, and the Literary Review's Bad Sex Prize on the other.
You can never get enough ...
... good advice about writing. Bill Peschel passes on A garland of writing advice.
You may not have seen ...
... David Montogomery's review of Richard Hawke's Speak of the Devil in yesterday's Inquirer. So here it is. And here's another review of David's as well.
The state of publishing ...
Lynne Scanlon has a suggestion for the publishing industry: Publishing & Google & The 10% Imperative. (Hat tip again to Maxine Clarke. This is what's so good about blogging. On a day when the Arts & Entertainment section is closing and visitors are arriving at my office and I'm terribbly busy and distracted, Maxine comes along and does a Dave Lull for me. Thank you, thank you.)
The economics of publishing ...
Maxine Clarke alerts us to these links about author royalties: Galley Cat's Um, you just don't do that and think you can't get in trouble and Richard Charkin's Valentine's Day .
Last summer ...
... I reviewed Robert Conquest's The Dragons of Expectation. So I feel altogether qualified to recommend Christopher Hitchens's Robert Conquest's realities and delusions in the TLS. (Via Arts & Letters Daily).
A fresh angle ...
... to Brokeback Mountain is provided by Vikram Johri: Weighs heavy on the heart . I found this particularly interesting:
Critics have hailed Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the brooding protagonist. Frankly, I didn’t think much of the performance. Ledger seemed to be only playing a cowboy version of himself, with a drone that was hard to decipher.
I confess to being one of those who thought much of Ledger's performance -- I thought it the best screen acting I had seen since Russell Crowe's turn in A Beautiful Mind, and for the same reason: both actors, it seemed to me, didn't just play their parts; they inhabited them. But Vikram, I gather, has seen Ledger in other performances. I haven't, so I have no way of comparing this performance with others he has done.
But I also wonder if I was moved by the performance simply because it was a class version of a classic role: the strong silent Western hero? It's a role -- Gary Cooper perhaps personified it -- that resonates with me, and lots of other American males. One reason I write poetry is that it lets me say things I would ordinarily not talk about.
Critics have hailed Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the brooding protagonist. Frankly, I didn’t think much of the performance. Ledger seemed to be only playing a cowboy version of himself, with a drone that was hard to decipher.
I confess to being one of those who thought much of Ledger's performance -- I thought it the best screen acting I had seen since Russell Crowe's turn in A Beautiful Mind, and for the same reason: both actors, it seemed to me, didn't just play their parts; they inhabited them. But Vikram, I gather, has seen Ledger in other performances. I haven't, so I have no way of comparing this performance with others he has done.
But I also wonder if I was moved by the performance simply because it was a class version of a classic role: the strong silent Western hero? It's a role -- Gary Cooper perhaps personified it -- that resonates with me, and lots of other American males. One reason I write poetry is that it lets me say things I would ordinarily not talk about.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Something else I missed ...
... but you shouldn't: Ron Silliman's nice piece on Robert Kelly. Nice to know Kelly is a John Cowper Powys fan.
Another sci-fi alert ...
... from Glenn Reynolds. There is obviously a large number of passionate readers who never get near books like Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections.
One I missed ...
... a characteristically off-beat Valentine's post: A Very Volokh Valentine. (This, in my view, is why history should be taught more and better in the schools -- and yes, I think dates and names and places should be committed to memory, because it makes for more convenient discussion if you don't have to look up Thermopylae or Leonidas.)
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
For what's worth ...
... here's the latest J.D. Salinger rumor: Wheelock Wire Services Reports On What Some Say May Be The First J D Salinger Novel For 55 Years.
While it's still Valentine's Day ...
... I must link to Maxine's post at Petrona: Having Fun on Valentine's Day, Scientifically.
Also at Petrona there's a person to go with the words: OK, this is me really (as opposed to this earlier post: What I look like). I definitely prefer the real Maxine.
Also at Petrona there's a person to go with the words: OK, this is me really (as opposed to this earlier post: What I look like). I definitely prefer the real Maxine.
The future of criticism ...
... Joel Weishaus's latest Digital Critique is up. The subject is Linda Hogan's The Book of Medicines.
Casanova may have been a great lover ...
... he was certainly a master of the memoir: Affairs to remember.
What a thing to find out ...
... on Valentine's Day -- that you're older than dirt. I got 18 out of 20: Valentines Day and Older Than Dirt!
Attention parents ...
... the Carnival of Children's Literature is up at here in the Bonny Glen. (Hat tip, Brandywine Books.
And what better day ...
... than Valentine's Day to launch the RomanceWiki? Booksquare announces A Side Project.
The look of love ...
... as portrayed in "the intimacy and tranquillity of reading." Patricia Storms draws our attention to Reading Women -- "a woman is never lonely or alone when she is in the company of a good book!"
What better day ...
... than Valentine's Day for poetry? Appropriately enough, I am at home reviewing a collection of poems for my Sunday column. Meanwhile the Guardian serves a couple of pieces suitable for the occasion: Love poetry moodmatcher and Matters of the heart.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Get ready to rumble ...
This is great! Maxine at Petrona links to GoogleFight: Make a fight.
Some results: Ontology got clobbered by evolution, but design wiped out evolution, and impressionism KO'd cubism. Also God demolished the devil and made short work of atheism.
Some results: Ontology got clobbered by evolution, but design wiped out evolution, and impressionism KO'd cubism. Also God demolished the devil and made short work of atheism.
Searching for a book club ...
... or a reading group? Reader's Circle may have what you're looking for.
I think it is worth noting ...
... that Daniel Dennett appears to be actually evolving into Charles Darwin.
Government patronage ...
... of the arts seems a dubious undertaking -- even in Britain: Social work.
Collecting art is itself a kind of art and requires talent as well as money. If you visit the Phillips Collection in Washington, the part put together by Duncan Phillips himself is uniquely impressive. Get to the new wing, where the curators' choices are on display, and the drop-off in quality is palpable. Scholars, as Yeats observed, are likely to "think what other people think" and "know the man their neighbor knows." This doesn't make for what it takes to put together a first-rate art collection.
I suspect the same is true when it comes to literature and music. In fact, I'm sure it is.
Collecting art is itself a kind of art and requires talent as well as money. If you visit the Phillips Collection in Washington, the part put together by Duncan Phillips himself is uniquely impressive. Get to the new wing, where the curators' choices are on display, and the drop-off in quality is palpable. Scholars, as Yeats observed, are likely to "think what other people think" and "know the man their neighbor knows." This doesn't make for what it takes to put together a first-rate art collection.
I suspect the same is true when it comes to literature and music. In fact, I'm sure it is.
Blurb inflation ...
Steve Clackson highlights Damien Horner's contrarian view of reviews and blurbs: Sentenced to death.
No laughing matter ...
The ediotiral staff of the New York Press resigned last week when owners intervened to prevent them from publishing the Danish cartoons poking fun at Mohammad. Here they explain why and print the editorial that would have run had they been left alone: Without Apology . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Lost in translation ...
... maybe note entirely. A.S. Byatt on How poetry can be found in translation.
A brief personal note: Philadelphia is tonight blanketed in snow. Some years ago, A.S. Byatt came to the city for a reading and one of the worst snowstorms ever to hit the city came along as well. Then, a few years afte vthat, she was scheduled to be hear again on her tour promoting A Whistling Woman. I interviewed her by phone a week before her arrival. We had such a pleasant chat we agreed to get together after her reading. And so we did. And right on time the snow arrived. We ended up closing one of the restaurants in the Four Seasons at 2 a.m. It will remain in my memory as one of the pleasantest nights of my life. She is, in my view, a great novelist, and a fascinating woman.
A brief personal note: Philadelphia is tonight blanketed in snow. Some years ago, A.S. Byatt came to the city for a reading and one of the worst snowstorms ever to hit the city came along as well. Then, a few years afte vthat, she was scheduled to be hear again on her tour promoting A Whistling Woman. I interviewed her by phone a week before her arrival. We had such a pleasant chat we agreed to get together after her reading. And so we did. And right on time the snow arrived. We ended up closing one of the restaurants in the Four Seasons at 2 a.m. It will remain in my memory as one of the pleasantest nights of my life. She is, in my view, a great novelist, and a fascinating woman.
If you haven't got a prayer ...
... you now have a chance to win one: Secret Dead Blog Contest: Win a Prayer!
I go with shorter ...
Maxine Clarke at Petrona discusses Alain de Botton, Scott Turow and Stephen King: Saturday party. Of de Botton on revision, she says "I was surprised to read his surprise that his revised version of his book was shorter than his original, as surely the revision process would tend to make a piece shorter not longer?" I am too, but then, like Maxine, I spend a lot of my time making things shorter for publication. I know shorter is harder and longer is often simply looser, not fuller.
Life imitates science fiction ...
... either that, or science fiction is a lot nearer the truth than James Frey ever gets: Mind Control by Parasites. Creepy. (Hat tip, Deputy Dave Lull.)
As a kind of preview ...
... to Carlin Romano's review of Bruce Bawer's While Europe Slept, which will appear in next Sunday's Inquirer, I link to Bawer's All the Rage.
Since my wife ...
... is a redhead , I feel I should link to Bill Peschel's Red alert. Or maybe I shouldn't.
At last ...
... my review of War and Peace is up.
And here are the other reviews in Sunday's Inquirer:
Maile Meloy's A Family Daughter
David Traxel's Crusader Nation
N.M. Kelby's Whale Season
Graham Marks's Tokyo
And here are the other reviews in Sunday's Inquirer:
Maile Meloy's A Family Daughter
David Traxel's Crusader Nation
N.M. Kelby's Whale Season
Graham Marks's Tokyo
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Let it snow ...
... since it's going to anyway. In the meantime, some may wish to take another look at John Greenleaf Whittier's "Snowbound." It's really a good poem and Whittier is an unfairly neglected poet. "The Henchman," for instance, is not what you expect from him and is wonderfully charming.
Maybe Bertelsmann ...
... should buy Knight Ridder: Why German, French, and British companies are devouring American publishers. Consider this:
For American companies, book publishing is a slow-growth niche business. For the Europeans, it's something quite different. These foreign companies that now own U.S. publishers generally lack the scale of U.S. media conglomerates. Pearson and Lagardère have market capitalizations of about $10 billion and $11 billion, respectively. And French and German companies operate in home markets that lack much in the way of organic growth. To them, a near-stagnant U.S. market represents a rich, comparatively rapidly growing market. For a French or German manager, a business that grows by 2.5 percent a year is handily beating the pace of domestic economic growth.
But consider this, too, -- especially if you're looking to make a killing from your next book -- from the Grumpy Old Bookman: Das Book.
For American companies, book publishing is a slow-growth niche business. For the Europeans, it's something quite different. These foreign companies that now own U.S. publishers generally lack the scale of U.S. media conglomerates. Pearson and Lagardère have market capitalizations of about $10 billion and $11 billion, respectively. And French and German companies operate in home markets that lack much in the way of organic growth. To them, a near-stagnant U.S. market represents a rich, comparatively rapidly growing market. For a French or German manager, a business that grows by 2.5 percent a year is handily beating the pace of domestic economic growth.
But consider this, too, -- especially if you're looking to make a killing from your next book -- from the Grumpy Old Bookman: Das Book.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Michael Gilbert (1912-2006)
Michael Gilbert, the grand old man of British crime writers, has died at age 93. Here are two obituaries, one from the Telegraph, the other from the Times.
Saint Oscar?
Last Sunday, my wife and I went to see A Good Woman, the new film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan starring Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson. It reminded me once again of how Catholic a writer Wilde is, and the thought occurred to me that, if the Church were more imaginative, it might consider canonizing Wilde. The cynical witticisms are in the end always confounded in Wilde's work and his fairy tale "The Selfish Giant" is more orthodox than The Chronicles of Narnia. Moreover, it is hard not to see Wilde's sad end as a punishment he brought on himself. Sin, of course, is a very private affair, something strictly between oneself and God. Still, one may fall from from grace time and again and continue to have faith in redemption. There is an excellent book on the subject of Wilde and his fellow aesthetes by Ellis Hanson called Decadence and Catholicism. Let us keep alert for a miracle.
It's always nice ...
... when someone confirms something you have said -- and does so more convincingly than you ever could yourself. Last month, I wrote the following here:
The great biologist of the 19th century wasn't Darwin, who may have devised a grand, grand theory, but whose contribution to practical biology seems to have been negligible. The really great 19th-century biologist was Gregor Mendel, who spent his time patiently and persistently gathering evidence and drawing sound inferences therefrom.
Hiram Caton, in An Article of Faith, also notes that "Darwin made no discovery of Nobel Prize calibre," and goes on to say this:
The correct conception of inheritance was published in 1866 by Gregor Mendel. His carefully controlled experiments on hybrid peas enabled him to formulate two laws of inheritance. It was the beginning of genetics and the beginning of mathematical analysis in biological studies.
Defintely read the whole thing.
The great biologist of the 19th century wasn't Darwin, who may have devised a grand, grand theory, but whose contribution to practical biology seems to have been negligible. The really great 19th-century biologist was Gregor Mendel, who spent his time patiently and persistently gathering evidence and drawing sound inferences therefrom.
Hiram Caton, in An Article of Faith, also notes that "Darwin made no discovery of Nobel Prize calibre," and goes on to say this:
The correct conception of inheritance was published in 1866 by Gregor Mendel. His carefully controlled experiments on hybrid peas enabled him to formulate two laws of inheritance. It was the beginning of genetics and the beginning of mathematical analysis in biological studies.
Defintely read the whole thing.
There's an election on the way ...
... and The Bookseller has the details: Snorting soil and old starch. It's an impressive field of candidates, I must say. Even those that didn't make the cut are impressive.
A vintage reminder ...
... of what scientific journalism is supposed to be. Richard Charkin links to Nature's Mission.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
I am weary ...
... from putting in a 15-hour day Tuesday to finish writing about War and Peace. Then, yesterday and today, had to make all those little adjustments that have to be done before something sees the light of print. (Right now, I am in that stage when the only thing I am sure of is that I could have done it better.)
So that will be it for blogging until tomorrow morning.
So that will be it for blogging until tomorrow morning.
This may be an overreaction ...
... but who knows?
Barry Manilow's return to the charts has certainly impressed the Times of London's Gerard Baker: It's a miracle! Old Blow Dries is back and the whole of the US is singing. What I think is interesting is that his new album features covers of hits ... from the '50s! There may just be something to this.
Barry Manilow's return to the charts has certainly impressed the Times of London's Gerard Baker: It's a miracle! Old Blow Dries is back and the whole of the US is singing. What I think is interesting is that his new album features covers of hits ... from the '50s! There may just be something to this.
The spoken word ...
Lisa Coutant writes about InterAct Theatre Company's Writing Aloud: The "Writes" Of InterAct. This should done with poetry als0, I think. Poets are not always the best readers of their poems. Just because you can write words doesn't mean you have the voice or the technique to speak them effectively in public.
Strictly personal ...
Ron Hogan notes a rash of reviewer disclosures. Lucy Ellman's elicits comment from Mark Bertrand and Brandywine Books.
My reaction to Ellman's admission was a stifled yawn. As for the others, here goes:
Megan Marshall's -- thanks for sharing.
Toni Bentley's -- are you serious?
Dave Itzkoff''s -- yeah, sure.
Dick Teresi -- Do as you're told.
My reaction to Ellman's admission was a stifled yawn. As for the others, here goes:
Megan Marshall's -- thanks for sharing.
Toni Bentley's -- are you serious?
Dave Itzkoff''s -- yeah, sure.
Dick Teresi -- Do as you're told.
Who you are ...
... and who you know are often decisive factors in life -- and in publishing, as Steve Clackson notes in Getting Published is easy if you are a Rich! I have long thought that someone should do an article, maybe even a book, about America's growing hereditary aristocracy -- the Fondas and Penns and Bridges in Hollywood, the Cheevers and Vonneguts among writers. All of the people mentioned are genuinely and deeply talented, but family connections certainly smoothed their way. (One might mention the Bushes and Gores and Dodds in politics, but they still have to run.)
The problem I have ...
... with Daniel Dennett is complex and would require more time that I have at my disposal just now to explain adequately. But I can offer an example. In a piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled "Common-Sense Religion," Dennett delivers himself of the following:
... the Catholic movie star Mel Gibson ... was interviewed by Peter J. Boyer in a 2003 profile in The New Yorker. Boyer asked him if Protestants are denied eternal salvation.
"There is no salvation for those outside the Church," Gibson replied. "I believe it." He explained: "Put it this way. My wife is a saint. She's a much better person than I am. Honestly. She's, like, Episcopalian, Church of England. She prays, she believes in God, she knows Jesus, she believes in that stuff. And it's not fair if she doesn't make it, she's better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair. I go with it."
Such remarks deeply embarrass two groups of Catholics: those who believe it but think it is best left unsaid, and those who don't believe it at all — no matter what "the chair" may pronounce. And which group of Catholics is larger, or more influential? That is utterly unknown and currently unknowable, a part of the unsavory miasma.
Which group of Catholics is larger is unknown? Not really. All informed Catholics know that Gibson's statement only demonstrates that while Gibson may be a first-rate actor and director, he is ignorant of his own church's teaching. Regarding the formula "extra ecclesiam nulla salus" -- "outside the church there is no salvation" -- the Catholic Encyclopedia (the old, pre-Vatican II one) says:
This saying has been the occasion of so many objections that some consideration of its meaning seems desirable. It certainly does not mean that none can be saved except those who are in visible communion with the Church. The Catholic Church has ever taught that nothing else is needed to obtain justification than an act of perfect charity and of contrition. Whoever, under the impulse of actual grace, elicits these acts receives immediately the gift of sanctifying grace, and is numbered among the children of God. Should he die in these dispositions, he will assuredly attain heaven.
Dennett doesn't know what he's talking about anymore than Gibson does. But he ought to. Which is one reason why he strikes me as a mere polemicist rather than a deep thinker.
Further evidence for this is provided by Adam Kirsch in the New York Sun: If Men Are From Mars, What's God.
... the Catholic movie star Mel Gibson ... was interviewed by Peter J. Boyer in a 2003 profile in The New Yorker. Boyer asked him if Protestants are denied eternal salvation.
"There is no salvation for those outside the Church," Gibson replied. "I believe it." He explained: "Put it this way. My wife is a saint. She's a much better person than I am. Honestly. She's, like, Episcopalian, Church of England. She prays, she believes in God, she knows Jesus, she believes in that stuff. And it's not fair if she doesn't make it, she's better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair. I go with it."
Such remarks deeply embarrass two groups of Catholics: those who believe it but think it is best left unsaid, and those who don't believe it at all — no matter what "the chair" may pronounce. And which group of Catholics is larger, or more influential? That is utterly unknown and currently unknowable, a part of the unsavory miasma.
Which group of Catholics is larger is unknown? Not really. All informed Catholics know that Gibson's statement only demonstrates that while Gibson may be a first-rate actor and director, he is ignorant of his own church's teaching. Regarding the formula "extra ecclesiam nulla salus" -- "outside the church there is no salvation" -- the Catholic Encyclopedia (the old, pre-Vatican II one) says:
This saying has been the occasion of so many objections that some consideration of its meaning seems desirable. It certainly does not mean that none can be saved except those who are in visible communion with the Church. The Catholic Church has ever taught that nothing else is needed to obtain justification than an act of perfect charity and of contrition. Whoever, under the impulse of actual grace, elicits these acts receives immediately the gift of sanctifying grace, and is numbered among the children of God. Should he die in these dispositions, he will assuredly attain heaven.
Dennett doesn't know what he's talking about anymore than Gibson does. But he ought to. Which is one reason why he strikes me as a mere polemicist rather than a deep thinker.
Further evidence for this is provided by Adam Kirsch in the New York Sun: If Men Are From Mars, What's God.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
I'm not so sure ...
... I entirely agree with what Chad Post says in Entertainment Weekly vs. Oprah at Words Without Borders:
Great literature isn’t meant to heal. Great literature doesn’t change your life, or make you a better person, or send a message. Great literature is beautiful. It’s a work of art, which is the point. If you’re looking for something else, something to fix your life, check out Are You Fired Up?
If great literature is beautiful it may well change your life -- because great beauty can move you to the depths of your being. Why place limits on the effect beauty may have. I have just finished reading -- and writing about -- Anthony Briggs's new translation of War and Peace. I found it profoundly affecting. It made me look at the world and life differently. I don't think many will deny that War and Peace is an example of great literature. But what does it mean to call it beautiful? Throughout the book Tolstoy is clearly trying to get across to his readers something besides aesthetic contemplation. He is very much concerned about how human beings live their lives. And he makes the problems and passions of living palpable. To dismiss all that, it seems to me, is to trivialize the book. Is beauty nothing more than a harmonious arrangement of carefully selected details? Or does it too have a moral dimension? I am the person I am to a large extent because of the books I have read.
Great literature isn’t meant to heal. Great literature doesn’t change your life, or make you a better person, or send a message. Great literature is beautiful. It’s a work of art, which is the point. If you’re looking for something else, something to fix your life, check out Are You Fired Up?
If great literature is beautiful it may well change your life -- because great beauty can move you to the depths of your being. Why place limits on the effect beauty may have. I have just finished reading -- and writing about -- Anthony Briggs's new translation of War and Peace. I found it profoundly affecting. It made me look at the world and life differently. I don't think many will deny that War and Peace is an example of great literature. But what does it mean to call it beautiful? Throughout the book Tolstoy is clearly trying to get across to his readers something besides aesthetic contemplation. He is very much concerned about how human beings live their lives. And he makes the problems and passions of living palpable. To dismiss all that, it seems to me, is to trivialize the book. Is beauty nothing more than a harmonious arrangement of carefully selected details? Or does it too have a moral dimension? I am the person I am to a large extent because of the books I have read.
Carpentry and cataracts ...
... to say nothing of ants, Joyce and Borges. Alain-Paul Mallard's Ameising at Words Without Borders. (Via Chekhov's Mistress.)
Feeling down?
Things could be worse. You could be a Windsor: Peter Stothard on Her Royal Barley Water.
A unusual pilgrimage ...
... to Holcomb, Kansas, where the Clutter family was murdered: Ron Franscell's Holcomb, Capote and me.
Come on, get happy ...
Start blogging. Maxine at Petrona links to findings that blogging raises the spirits -- and to some other things as well.
I liked this:
Lastminuteliving.com, which commissioned the study, managed to drop in the fact that they have a lot of bloggers: "Creating a blog can be a way to get more out of your life. Judging by the amount of users we have, people like sharing their photos, videos and personal thoughts with others."
I liked this:
Lastminuteliving.com, which commissioned the study, managed to drop in the fact that they have a lot of bloggers: "Creating a blog can be a way to get more out of your life. Judging by the amount of users we have, people like sharing their photos, videos and personal thoughts with others."
More on truth and fiction ...
... as the Grumpy Old Bookman looks at I, an Actress. This is a great post. Don't miss the link to Uberbelle.com.
Update: I forgot the specific link. Here it is: Contemporary Press
Update: I forgot the specific link. Here it is: Contemporary Press
Poetic real estate (cont'd) ...
More on Verlaine and Rimbaud's London digs: A landmark of literary hedonism may be lost.
In theory ...
... colleges and universities ought to be preserving our literary heritage and showing students how to derive maximum benefit therefrom. But in practice Theory has displaced literature.
Question : If "texts are radically indeterminate and inevitably self-subverting," if "no author can successfully inscribe his or her intention in a text or convey meaning through literature," then why bother writing? If the aforementioned premises are correct, then the presumed aim of a text -- to communicate something -- is by definition impossible to reach. This would of course apply to texts expounding theory also.
Question : If "texts are radically indeterminate and inevitably self-subverting," if "no author can successfully inscribe his or her intention in a text or convey meaning through literature," then why bother writing? If the aforementioned premises are correct, then the presumed aim of a text -- to communicate something -- is by definition impossible to reach. This would of course apply to texts expounding theory also.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
I must take time, though ...
... to note this AP story, principally for this:
In Iraq, the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, decried the drawings but did not call for protests.
"We strongly denounce and condemn this horrific action," he said in a statement posted on his Web site and dated Tuesday.
Al-Sistani, who wields enormous influence over Iraq's majority Shiites, made no call for protests and suggested that militant Muslims were partly to blame for distorting Islam's image.
He referred to "misguided and oppressive" segments of the Muslim community and said their actions "projected a distorted and dark image of the faith of justice, love and brotherhood."
"Enemies have exploited this ... to spread their poison and revive their old hatreds with new methods and mechanisms," he said.
Bully for him! He is a Grand Ayatollah.
In Iraq, the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, decried the drawings but did not call for protests.
"We strongly denounce and condemn this horrific action," he said in a statement posted on his Web site and dated Tuesday.
Al-Sistani, who wields enormous influence over Iraq's majority Shiites, made no call for protests and suggested that militant Muslims were partly to blame for distorting Islam's image.
He referred to "misguided and oppressive" segments of the Muslim community and said their actions "projected a distorted and dark image of the faith of justice, love and brotherhood."
"Enemies have exploited this ... to spread their poison and revive their old hatreds with new methods and mechanisms," he said.
Bully for him! He is a Grand Ayatollah.
A late start ...
... to what will probably be a day of light blogging. The reason is I am nearing the finish line of War and Peace and must then set about writing about it for Sunday's paper. And I think the only way to write about it well is to establish a tempo comparable to the one most suitable for reading the book -- which is to say "andante," a walking tempo.
Monday, February 06, 2006
If you want to check for yourself ...
... about what I said in my previous post, Jonathan Brown takes a look at Highbrow erotica.
The truth about sex scenes ...
... as revealed by Dana Carroll: Word Salad. (Via Conversational Reading.)
I remember when Lady Chatterly's Lover became legal -- I was 15, I think -- and I couldn't wait to get to the notorious parts (so, naturally, I skipped through the book). Now, after more than 40 years of professional reviewing, the sex scenes are the ones I am most likely to skip, period. They rarely move the story along and are often unintentioanlly risible. In fact, they tend to work best when a comic effect is aimed at (e.g., Tropic of Capricorn).
I remember when Lady Chatterly's Lover became legal -- I was 15, I think -- and I couldn't wait to get to the notorious parts (so, naturally, I skipped through the book). Now, after more than 40 years of professional reviewing, the sex scenes are the ones I am most likely to skip, period. They rarely move the story along and are often unintentioanlly risible. In fact, they tend to work best when a comic effect is aimed at (e.g., Tropic of Capricorn).
Take a look at these ...
Dave Lull -- who I feel I ought to officially deputize -- sends along a link to Esther Bubley, photojournalist (1921 - 1998). Check out the shots of Einstein and Marianne Moore.
He also sends this and this. Thanks, Dave.
He also sends this and this. Thanks, Dave.
True to fiction ...
Brandywine Books links to an interesting of "how much truth should we allow in a work of fiction."
I think we have a terminological problem here. Fact and truth are not equivalent terms. Facts may be true, but truth encompasses more than facts. Fiction fails when it proves false.
I think we have a terminological problem here. Fact and truth are not equivalent terms. Facts may be true, but truth encompasses more than facts. Fiction fails when it proves false.
Trouble in paradise ...
Fulton Sheen famously defined the intelligentsia as "those who have been educated beyond their intelligence." I am usually reminded of this after listening to members of the American intelligentsia gabble on about how god-awful this country is compared to ... Europe.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am probably more appreciative of European culture than most contemporary Europeans. A few years ago, my wife and I spent some time in Tuscany. It was like a visit to paradise. But we are both sane enough to know that our perspective as tourists was skewed. The few conversations we had with Italians about their domestic politics revealed a powerful undercurrent of discontent.
I mention all this by way of introduction to Theodore Dalyrmple's Is “Old Europe” Doomed?
Now, don't get me wrong. I am probably more appreciative of European culture than most contemporary Europeans. A few years ago, my wife and I spent some time in Tuscany. It was like a visit to paradise. But we are both sane enough to know that our perspective as tourists was skewed. The few conversations we had with Italians about their domestic politics revealed a powerful undercurrent of discontent.
I mention all this by way of introduction to Theodore Dalyrmple's Is “Old Europe” Doomed?
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Depicting Mohammed ...
Gee, looks like a good many genuinely Medieval Muslims didn't have a problem visually portraying the Prophet: Mohammed Image Archive. (Via Instapundit.)
In thrall to Tolstoy ...
... I shall do little blogging today. (Yes, I am still reading War and Peace.) But I am in stretch and loving every page of it.
A thoughtful post (as usual) ...
... from Maxine at Petrona: Things to say, and Wordsworth & co. (Funny. Just the other day I was blogging about Hazlitt myself.)
My gloss on what Maxine says is that youthful radicals ought really (usually) to be described as adolescent reactionaries -- i.e., their positions tend to be adopted in reaction to whatever views seem currently established. (As Maxine notes, "when people are young, they are 'against' the established order, wanting to bring it down to create something better.")
True radicals are much rarer -- after all, the word derives from radix, meaning root. Few people, it seems to me, have the energy, inclination, and doggedness it takes to think down to the roots of things.
Every morning, on my way to work, I walk past this city's University of the Arts. The students standing outside seem remarkably alike to me. They remind me (perhaps unfairly) of the lines from Yeats's "The Scholars":
All think what other people think;
All know the man their neighbour knows.
Yeats, of course, was writing about much older people. But the need to conform is greater among the young. (Which may also explain why some retain their "youthful radicalism" -- as a way of feeling forever young.)
I confess that my own youthful conservatism was in part a reaction to all the liberalism around me (there is also a real thrill in dissenting from your age peers). But I also have have always tried to think things through. Thanks to which, I have learned that the more carefully you think about things the more mysterious they become and the less likely you are to settle for simple explanations or solutions.
My gloss on what Maxine says is that youthful radicals ought really (usually) to be described as adolescent reactionaries -- i.e., their positions tend to be adopted in reaction to whatever views seem currently established. (As Maxine notes, "when people are young, they are 'against' the established order, wanting to bring it down to create something better.")
True radicals are much rarer -- after all, the word derives from radix, meaning root. Few people, it seems to me, have the energy, inclination, and doggedness it takes to think down to the roots of things.
Every morning, on my way to work, I walk past this city's University of the Arts. The students standing outside seem remarkably alike to me. They remind me (perhaps unfairly) of the lines from Yeats's "The Scholars":
All think what other people think;
All know the man their neighbour knows.
Yeats, of course, was writing about much older people. But the need to conform is greater among the young. (Which may also explain why some retain their "youthful radicalism" -- as a way of feeling forever young.)
I confess that my own youthful conservatism was in part a reaction to all the liberalism around me (there is also a real thrill in dissenting from your age peers). But I also have have always tried to think things through. Thanks to which, I have learned that the more carefully you think about things the more mysterious they become and the less likely you are to settle for simple explanations or solutions.
A list of spys ...
... fictional, of course. In yesterday's WSJ Charles McCarry listed his favorite tales of espionage. Glad to see Maugham's Ashenden stories included. Maugham is a much greater writer -- with wide range, broad sympathies, and grace of style and form -- than many critics are willing to admit.
And speaking of hypocrisy ...
... Mark Steyn notes that NBC is no slouch in that department, either: 'Sensitivity' can have brutal consequences.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Speaking of Instapundit ...
Glenn Reynolds has put together a pretty comprehensive roundup of news and commentary on the Danish Cartoon controversy. Shame on the Boston Globe and its hypocrisy (see this post from Eugene Volokh).
Life gruesomely imitating art...
Read Austin Bay's The Ferry Disaster: It Is Joseph Conrad’s LORD JIM. (Via Instapundit.)
I rather like these comments ...
... on Kafka's "Metamorphosis" over at Book of the Day. "The intrinsic surface message of Gregor's transformation" may well be "far more interesting and poignant."
Hear, hear ...
Ibn Warraq, author of What the Koran Really Says, courageously -- and inspiringly -- addresses the cartoon controversy: Democracy in a Cartoon. Key point:
How can we expect immigrants to integrate into western society when they are at the same time being taught that the west is decadent, a den of iniquity, the source of all evil, racist, imperialist and to be despised?
Read the whole thing.
How can we expect immigrants to integrate into western society when they are at the same time being taught that the west is decadent, a den of iniquity, the source of all evil, racist, imperialist and to be despised?
Read the whole thing.
Friday, February 03, 2006
In case you're interested ...
... in seeing them, here is a link to those controversial Danish cartoons. (You have to scroll down a bit.)
I have problems with Google ...
... but not the one Maxine at Petrona links to and discusses: Clueless Newspaper Owners?
By the way, there is much, much else of interest today at Petrona. So link to the Main Page and scroll down.
By the way, there is much, much else of interest today at Petrona. So link to the Main Page and scroll down.
A writer's writer ...
William Hazlitt was one of the great English prose stylists. His dying words alone make him admirable: "Well, I have had a happy life." He certainly had a difficult one. But he knew where and how to get away from it all: William Hazlitt: The lion in Winterslow
I have been remiss ...
... in my duty by not addressing Google's complicity in the Chinese government's censorship policies. But Thomas Lipscomb hasn't. Here's his E&P piece from last week: The Real Cost of Google's Sellout to China. And here's a follow-up piece of his as well: Congress Should Impose Trade Sanctions on Google-China Deal.
To be fair and balanced, though, here's James V. DeLong's Google Is Right on China.
But here, too, is Bruce Kessler's Can’t We All Get Along?!!!!!!!!!
My problem with DeLong's thesis is that it seems premissed on the assumption that the Chinese Communist Party is primarily concerned with liberalizing Chinese society and not primarily conerned with retaining its hold on power.
To be fair and balanced, though, here's James V. DeLong's Google Is Right on China.
But here, too, is Bruce Kessler's Can’t We All Get Along?!!!!!!!!!
My problem with DeLong's thesis is that it seems premissed on the assumption that the Chinese Communist Party is primarily concerned with liberalizing Chinese society and not primarily conerned with retaining its hold on power.
Gee, how could I ...
... have missed this? Poetry Out Loud. It does require RealPlayer.
Update: Ed at Shandygaff alerts me to The Poetry Archive.
Update: Ed at Shandygaff alerts me to The Poetry Archive.
Freebies available ...
... The Elegant Variation: TEV Friday Giveway. East coasters may have an advantage.
I meant to link to ...
... this post on Power Line the other day, but got caught up with other things -- which happens in this job: Newspapers Fight Back. Money quote:
At the end of the day, of course, there is no doubt that commentary sites like this one and aggregators like Google and Yahoo rely on other media to do original news gathering. Ultimately, the newspapers and other news media who fulfill this function need to develop a business model that will work in an era of mostly electronic communication. If they don't, the demand for raw news will be filled by someone else.
My own feeling. for what it's worth, is that a mere electronic version of the newspaper will not work in the log run. What will work is rethinking the concept of newspapers in electronic-specific terms. A blog, for instance, shouldn't be thought of merely as a newspaper column online. Why? Because a newspaper column is not interactive in the way that a successful blog is.
At the end of the day, of course, there is no doubt that commentary sites like this one and aggregators like Google and Yahoo rely on other media to do original news gathering. Ultimately, the newspapers and other news media who fulfill this function need to develop a business model that will work in an era of mostly electronic communication. If they don't, the demand for raw news will be filled by someone else.
My own feeling. for what it's worth, is that a mere electronic version of the newspaper will not work in the log run. What will work is rethinking the concept of newspapers in electronic-specific terms. A blog, for instance, shouldn't be thought of merely as a newspaper column online. Why? Because a newspaper column is not interactive in the way that a successful blog is.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
An executor exonerated ...
The author of Flaubert's Parrot looks at Lost fragments from the life of Flaubert.
The future of poetry ...
... seems dire to some, even in England: Poetry? It'll soon be about as popular as morris dancing.
Oddly, I just answered a questionaire today from a student at Penn State, and the first question was about why poetry was becoming so popular. Certainly a lot of people seem to be writing it. But is anybody reading it? I wonder if Daisy Goodwin's show, mentioned in the article linked to, is available in any form Stateside.
Oddly, I just answered a questionaire today from a student at Penn State, and the first question was about why poetry was becoming so popular. Certainly a lot of people seem to be writing it. But is anybody reading it? I wonder if Daisy Goodwin's show, mentioned in the article linked to, is available in any form Stateside.
A word on Oprah ...
... several actually, all worth reading. Scott McLemee's Dysfunction Junction, What's Your Function?
A thank you ...
... to Michael Allen at Grumpy Old Bookman for some kind words. GOB is very worth whatever time it takes read every day. I will cite just Underneath the Bunker because of this wonderful observation:
"...the whole of 'serious intellectual life' -- or whatever it calls itself -- is pretty hilarious ..."
But go to the main page and keep scrolling.
"...the whole of 'serious intellectual life' -- or whatever it calls itself -- is pretty hilarious ..."
But go to the main page and keep scrolling.
"Action + philosophy ...
... What more could a science fiction fan ask for?" So asks Mapletree7 at Book of the Day.
Another opening line ...
Dave Lull proposes that in any list of great opening lines the one from Dr. Johnson's Rasselas ought to be included:
Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue
with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform
the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day
will be supplied by the morrow; attend to Rasselas, the prince of
Abyssinia.
I agree.
Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue
with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform
the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day
will be supplied by the morrow; attend to Rasselas, the prince of
Abyssinia.
I agree.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
A literary property ...
... is for sale: The house in Camden Town where Rimbaud and Verlaine lived is on the block: The house at poets' corner.
If you never saw ...
... The Red Shoes or The Tales of Hoffmann, you may not appeciate how sad it is to see an obituary of Moira Shearer.
Speaking of Overlook Press ...
... they just sent me a link to their Elephant Walk blog. Elephant Walk? I remember the movie with Elizabeth Taylor.
Attention, fans ...
... of Masterpiece Theatre's Bleak House mini-series. In the 1930s, Britain's Nonesuch Press brought out what is widely considered to be the defintive edition of Dickens. Last year, Nonesuch Press was acquired by Overlook Press. Overlook's John Mark Boling informs me that books from the 1930s edition go for upwards of $30,000 on the collectors' market. Which is why it's nice to know that Overlook-- in partnership with Barnes & Noble -- has printed replicas of that edition. So if you want one, you don't have get a second mortgage to have one.
Happy Birthday ....
... to the Book Standard, which is 1 year old today. To celebrate, they're offering a week's free access.
More literary fraud?
Book Standard reports another case of literary deception. This time it's a children's book: 'Snake' Bit.
A preview ...
... of the Library Journal's list of the most borrowed books in U.S. libraries is available here.
Update: The intrepid Dave Lull sends along a link to previous Library Journal lists.
Update: The intrepid Dave Lull sends along a link to previous Library Journal lists.
Home on the range ....
... virtually. The Western Folklife Center, which is hosting the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV -- the event started Monday and continues through Saturday -- is planning to broadcast performances live from the Elko Convention Center starting tonight at 7.
What series authors have succeeded ...
... in maintaining quality over time? Mapletree7 at Book of the Day wants to know: Sustaining a series.
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