Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Cosmopolitan parochial ...
... Paul Theroux, who has certainly got around, laments American, the Overfull. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
When I was 13, the woods within which the house we lived in was located was cleared so the city of Philadelphia could install a sewerage system (which would make it feasible to build more houses). We had moved there in 1949 and I walked through those woods to go to school. I got to know them very well and the many birds that came through there (lots visited during migration). It only took a morning and part of the afternoon to do the job. The woods were there when I went to school that morning and were gone when I came back. I was heart-broken. I even shed some tears. My childhood ended that day. But so did any temptation to sentimentality (though I doubt if I knew that at the time).
I knew from then on not to count on permanence - and not to get bent out of shape over change. Theroux must know that there are plenty of places in the U.S. where you can still drive and not run into much. Try North Dakota. I also don't buy his bit about Americans lacking politeness (though Philadelphians may). Not too long ago Debbie and I were taking a subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan. I was astounded at how helpful the New Yorkers were. One practically got off the subway to make sure we didn't go the wrong way when we got off.
Chill, Paul.
Let's have another big hand ...
... for the astounding Dave Lull. I ended this post yesterday lamenting that I could not find Carlin Romano's review of Harry Frankfurter's On Bullshit. Dave - and I gather it wasn't easy - managed to find it. Seems the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran it just as The Inquirer posted it on the wires: On Bullshit.
Thank you, Dave.
Thank you, Dave.
Jeff McDonald has posted ...
... a link to A couple of colorful stops along Next Blog Road ...
We already know Blue, but here you can see him.
We already know Blue, but here you can see him.
Calling all poets ...
... You Are Cordially Invited to Become a 3dpoet. (Hat tip, AnnMarie Eldon, whose The nocturnal fix-attempt I had been meaning to link to, if only because - oddly enough - it was posted on the birthdate of Berlioz and of a woman I once was infatuated with. What AnnMarie is doing in her work I find utterly fascinating.)
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
The big one today - though I had to search for it on the site, even though it's on the front of the Currents section - is Tom Lipscomb's review of The Race Beat: Insiders' view of dynamic changes.
Jen Miller reports that It's relatively easy to learn from Einstein in this fiction.
Glenn Altschuler, however, isn't entirely persuaded by Susan Cheever's American Bloomsbury: Concord's literary lions, fueled by sexual tension?
John Freeman is utterly charmed by E.B. White: E.B. White, looking askance, wryly.
Desmond Ryan thinks Neal Gabler's is probably the best book about Walt Disney so far: New bio answers many questions about Disney.
Sandy Bauers enjoyed listening to the Sweet Potato Queens: The Sweet Potato Queens ride again, this time in a novel.
Here are reviews that ran during the past week:
Joseph Blake looked at Not in My Family: Black community's response to the scourge of HIV/AIDS.
John Freeman liked Lydie Salvayre's Everyday Life: Woman might be on the verge of a breakdown.
Maribel Molyneaux found Isabel Allende's latest fascinating: Book Review A saga of Chile's founding mother.
A good mix, if I do say so myself.
Jen Miller reports that It's relatively easy to learn from Einstein in this fiction.
Glenn Altschuler, however, isn't entirely persuaded by Susan Cheever's American Bloomsbury: Concord's literary lions, fueled by sexual tension?
John Freeman is utterly charmed by E.B. White: E.B. White, looking askance, wryly.
Desmond Ryan thinks Neal Gabler's is probably the best book about Walt Disney so far: New bio answers many questions about Disney.
Sandy Bauers enjoyed listening to the Sweet Potato Queens: The Sweet Potato Queens ride again, this time in a novel.
Here are reviews that ran during the past week:
Joseph Blake looked at Not in My Family: Black community's response to the scourge of HIV/AIDS.
John Freeman liked Lydie Salvayre's Everyday Life: Woman might be on the verge of a breakdown.
Maribel Molyneaux found Isabel Allende's latest fascinating: Book Review A saga of Chile's founding mother.
A good mix, if I do say so myself.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Today's must-read ...
... John Burns's Feared and Pitiless; Fearful and Pitiable.
An excerpt:
At that instant, I felt sorry for him, as a man in distress and perhaps, too, as a once almighty figure reduced to ignominy. But the expression of that pity to the Iraqis present marked the distance between those, like me, who had taken the measure of Saddam’s terror as a visitor, shielded from the worst of it by the minders and the claustrophobic world of closely guarded hotels and supervised Information Ministry trips, and Iraqis who lived through it with no shield.
That I could feel pity for him struck the Iraqis with whom I talked as evidence of a profound moral corruption. I came to understand how a Westerner used to the civilities of democracy and due process — even a reporter who thought he grasped the depths of Saddam’s depravity — fell short of the Iraqis’ sense, forged by years of brutality, of the power of his unmitigated evil.
Read the whole thing.
Not bad ...
...
Via Hedgie, who also posts Robert Southwell's The Burning Babe.
 | My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Grand Duke Frank the Splendid of New Invention Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title |
Via Hedgie, who also posts Robert Southwell's The Burning Babe.
I hadn't known this ...
... All the shit that’s fit to print. Apparently, the New York Times wouldn't print the full title of Harry G. Frankfurt’s On Bullshit. Here's how Carlin Romano's review in The Inquirer began:
On Bullshit
By Harry G. Frankfurt
Princeton University Press. 67 pp. $9.95
"Obscenity," Bertrand Russell remarked, "is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate. "
Update: Dave Lull graciously sends along a link to the Times piece: Fighting Bull. Now if I could only link to Carlin's piece. (I could, of course, just post it here, I suppose.)
On Bullshit
By Harry G. Frankfurt
Princeton University Press. 67 pp. $9.95
"Obscenity," Bertrand Russell remarked, "is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate. "
Update: Dave Lull graciously sends along a link to the Times piece: Fighting Bull. Now if I could only link to Carlin's piece. (I could, of course, just post it here, I suppose.)
Place your bets, folks ...
... Punters back Voldemort to kill off Harry Potter. (Via The Kenyon Review Blog - lots of interesting stuff there. Just keep scrolling.)
Worth considering ....
... Achievable New Year's resolutions. I don't know, though, the Oscar Homolka statue sound pretty impressive - and I had sashimi for dinner just last night.
I couldn't agree more ...
A look at Anne Carson ...
... Magical Thinking. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A psychiatrist friend once accused me of magical thinking. But the psychiatric understanding of the term is quite different from the anthopological understanding of it. Here's a psychiatric definition: "A conviction that thinking equates with doing. Occurs in dreams in children, in primitive peoples, and in patients under a variety of conditions. Characterized by lack of realistic relationship between cause and effect."
Here's an anthropological definition: "According to anthropologist Dr. Phillips Stevens Jr., magical thinking involves several elements, including a belief in the interconnectedness of all things through forces and powers that transcend both physical and spiritual connections. Magical thinking invests special powers and forces in many things that are seen as symbols. According to Stevens, 'the vast majority of the world's peoples ... believe that there are real connections between the symbol and its referent, and that some real and potentially measurable power flows between them.' "
Note that both psychiatry and anthropology are thought to be sciences. I told my psychiatrist friend that he was right. I was engaging in magical thinking. I do it all the time. I like it. But of course I am (and was) thinking of the term in its anthropological sense.
A psychiatrist friend once accused me of magical thinking. But the psychiatric understanding of the term is quite different from the anthopological understanding of it. Here's a psychiatric definition: "A conviction that thinking equates with doing. Occurs in dreams in children, in primitive peoples, and in patients under a variety of conditions. Characterized by lack of realistic relationship between cause and effect."
Here's an anthropological definition: "According to anthropologist Dr. Phillips Stevens Jr., magical thinking involves several elements, including a belief in the interconnectedness of all things through forces and powers that transcend both physical and spiritual connections. Magical thinking invests special powers and forces in many things that are seen as symbols. According to Stevens, 'the vast majority of the world's peoples ... believe that there are real connections between the symbol and its referent, and that some real and potentially measurable power flows between them.' "
Note that both psychiatry and anthropology are thought to be sciences. I told my psychiatrist friend that he was right. I was engaging in magical thinking. I do it all the time. I like it. But of course I am (and was) thinking of the term in its anthropological sense.
Well, yes ...
... The NYTBR Version of Fiction. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Why only the other day in my office Paula Marantz Cohen and I were making the same point about ignoring popular fiction being like not reviewing the movies at the multiplexes. Is publishing the only business where the people who attract an audience are not reviewed? FYI: The Inquirer reviewed Hollywood Station just around the time it hit the stores. Here's the rveiew: Hollywood, in the black-and-white.
Scott Stein's grandmother passed away ...
... on Christmas. Our thoughts and prayers are with Scott and his family. He has posted a very moving poem: "Alzheimer's, Max and Flo"
Friday, December 29, 2006
Before you claim to be original ...
... read this Cautionary Tale by Mary Jackson. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Gathered into place ...
... the commentary on young Joseph Rago's attack on blogs: 'The Blog Mob' hits the mattresses. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Blogs are here to stay, but they will come and go. Some are good, some very good, a few are excellent. Many more are just so so. Blogging is such a large and various category, however, it is hard to generalize about beyond that.
Blogs are here to stay, but they will come and go. Some are good, some very good, a few are excellent. Many more are just so so. Blogging is such a large and various category, however, it is hard to generalize about beyond that.
Naturally ...
... the same week this happens, turns out to be a week when I am so pressed I barely have any time to blog. Thank you, Maxine.
Fortunately, Maxine has been doing yeoman's service, including catching up with the indefatigable OWL: Dave Lull's holiday selection.
But that's not all. There's this, too, which, as Maxine points out, has bearing on the FIS:
The F-word test: first class or feeble? (I confess this strikes me as a rather weak indicator of intelligence, since, if one pays attention to the letters one is ulikely to be paying attention the words, which are they conveyors of the statement's meaning, right? But then, what can you expect from a failed intellectual?)
But why should I link to one post at a time? Go to Petrona and just take a leisurely scroll.
Fortunately, Maxine has been doing yeoman's service, including catching up with the indefatigable OWL: Dave Lull's holiday selection.
But that's not all. There's this, too, which, as Maxine points out, has bearing on the FIS:
The F-word test: first class or feeble? (I confess this strikes me as a rather weak indicator of intelligence, since, if one pays attention to the letters one is ulikely to be paying attention the words, which are they conveyors of the statement's meaning, right? But then, what can you expect from a failed intellectual?)
But why should I link to one post at a time? Go to Petrona and just take a leisurely scroll.
The need to define ...
... Dave Lull sends along this link: Weak Belief, which in turn links to and comments upon this piece: Believe It or Not .
Richard Stern, author of the first piece, calls the second piece, by Joseph Epstein, "exceptionally shallow and foolish," but I think the phrase applies more to Stern's own. While neither writer specifically defines belief, it is clear from Epstein's piece that he does not mean the sort of casual beliefs Stern is referring to. In other words, Stern is equivocating. "Was Mozart a believer?" Stern asks himself - and answers, "It's beside the point." Well, no it isn't. Mozart, like every great artist, had deep beliefs about art - and his music demonstrates that. Beliefs he may have held - casually or otherwise - about things other than music may be beside the point. Though even that isn't necessarily the case.
Of course neither piece bothers to differentiate between belief and faith.
Richard Stern, author of the first piece, calls the second piece, by Joseph Epstein, "exceptionally shallow and foolish," but I think the phrase applies more to Stern's own. While neither writer specifically defines belief, it is clear from Epstein's piece that he does not mean the sort of casual beliefs Stern is referring to. In other words, Stern is equivocating. "Was Mozart a believer?" Stern asks himself - and answers, "It's beside the point." Well, no it isn't. Mozart, like every great artist, had deep beliefs about art - and his music demonstrates that. Beliefs he may have held - casually or otherwise - about things other than music may be beside the point. Though even that isn't necessarily the case.
Of course neither piece bothers to differentiate between belief and faith.
It's that time of year again ...
... and Bryan, as usual, is right on top of things: My Resolutions.
I always make only one resolution and I always keep it, because it's always the same one: I always resolve to do much the same as I always have. Never fails.
I always make only one resolution and I always keep it, because it's always the same one: I always resolve to do much the same as I always have. Never fails.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
I said we were pressed for time ...
... amd so we remain. Must head out to a dinner party. Blogging may not resume until tomorrow.
This could be useful ...
Update: Blue is right. Link doesn't work. So just go to Books, Words, and Writing .
We are pressed for time ...
... but this deserves our attention: Short Posts and World Domination. (Dave Lull also alerted me to this. Great minds at work again.)
The point about the brevity of posts is very important. I think a new form will be found emerging along those lines.
The point about the brevity of posts is very important. I think a new form will be found emerging along those lines.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Maxine is back ...
... so visit Petrona and keep scrolling. She even reveals something of the mystery behind her recent imposed silence.
Book of the Month ...
... Mike Allen's Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, which I reviewed last month, has been chosen book of the month by The Infinity Projects. Note that tomorrow night at 7 they will be chatting with Mike.
(Hat tip, Laurie Mason.)
Here's my review: Strange poetry from the dark regions.
(Hat tip, Laurie Mason.)
Here's my review: Strange poetry from the dark regions.
I know what he means ...
... Why I Read. I often find myself mimicking the style of books I review. It's a good way of conveying to the reader something of the flavor of the book.
They're here ...
... the MLA, that it, convening in Philadelphia - the worst time of year for newspaper coverage, since so many people are vacation. But here's a a report from Scott McLemee: The Philadelphia Story. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Disturbing news ...
... Competition is killing independent U.S. bookstores. (Hat tip, Roger Miller.)
Good heavens ...
... perhaps this explains Richard Dawkins: Bid a fond farewell to the English way of religion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Maxine tells ...
... about the Holiday of the Rings: Lord of the Rings again (and again).
What a wonderful piece. (And yes, omission of Tom Bombadil was a serious lapse.)
What a wonderful piece. (And yes, omission of Tom Bombadil was a serious lapse.)
By popular demand ....
... here it is: Sir Ian McKellen in Simon Armitage's new translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Click on Thursday, and remember that you only have tonight and tomorrow before it disappears.
Report from Lowell ...
Rus Bowden sends along a trio of links from the Daily Times of Pakistan:
... Michael Wood's If you say so.
... Somerset Maugham on Of Human Bondage.
... and Dr. Johnson's Enough!
... Michael Wood's If you say so.
... Somerset Maugham on Of Human Bondage.
... and Dr. Johnson's Enough!
We have been informed ...
... that we have been named the Small Press Exchange's Pick of the Week, and you scroll down, you will see on the right that we have the logo to prove it.
Bryan Appleyard is on a roll ...
... first, there 's his link to Donald Trump's heartwarming denunciation of Rosie O'Donnell (talk about people deserving each other): Donald Trump on Rosie O'Donnell .
Then, there's the latest of his Forecasts 2007 (5).
Then, there's the latest of his Forecasts 2007 (5).
In a rare and indeed ludicrous display ...
... of loyalty - or at least failing memory - I have come into the office on a day I had scheduled off as long ago as February. Well, I'm here now, so here I'll stay - and take off next Tuesday instead.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Well, just one thing ...
... I am not - perversely, I suppose - much of a fan of It's a Wonderful Life. But I am a big fane of The Forgotten Jimmy Stewart Christmas Classic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sunday, December 24, 2006
This may be it ...
... for blogging today. After all, it is Christmas Eve (even though I have been at the office functioning as Sunday's features editor) and we must all have better things to do tonight. Enjoy!
No need, though ...
... to defend Richard Dawkins: A Mission to Convert. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
"One reason for the lack of extended argument in The God Delusion is clear: Dawkins doesn't seem very good at it. Indeed he suffers from several problems when attempting to reason philosophically. The most obvious is that he has a preordained set of conclusions at which he's determined to arrive. Consequently, Dawkins uses any argument, however feeble, that seems to get him there and the merit of various arguments appears judged largely by where they lead." Indeed.
"One reason for the lack of extended argument in The God Delusion is clear: Dawkins doesn't seem very good at it. Indeed he suffers from several problems when attempting to reason philosophically. The most obvious is that he has a preordained set of conclusions at which he's determined to arrive. Consequently, Dawkins uses any argument, however feeble, that seems to get him there and the merit of various arguments appears judged largely by where they lead." Indeed.
Today's Inquirer reviews ....
Vikram Johri looks at Tarun J. Tejpal's The Alchemy of Desire: Desire lost, desire afire, desire unto, beyond death.
Roger Miller has good things to say about Michael Hofmann's anthology of 20th-century German poetry: A tour of German poetry finds 20th century's best.
I found Simenon's The Strangers in the House quote fascinating: Fine French novel of familial estrangement. (Don't know where the copy editor got the idea that Loursat was drinking himself to death. Simenon doesn't say that. And I never suggest it. He drinks too much. It may kill him. Maybe not.)
Michael McHale is charmed by Calvin Trillin's About Alice: Trillin's story of his lovely wife, her life cut short.
Katie Haegele finds a French novel for young adults: Young Adult Reader Runaway brothers and those who glimpse their flight.
During the week ...
Carlin Romano wrote something seasonal: A Hanukkah story shines brightly once again.
Paul Davis paid a visit to Joseph Wambaugh's Hollywood Station: Hollywood, in the black-and-white.
Sheri Melnick gauged Greg Iles's latest: Illness, intrigue, homicidal spouses.
John Rooney liked a "This I Believe" anthology: Wisdom of worthies, meant to inspire.
And Fred Bortz pondered a couple of books about string theory: String theory seems to unravel.
Roger Miller has good things to say about Michael Hofmann's anthology of 20th-century German poetry: A tour of German poetry finds 20th century's best.
I found Simenon's The Strangers in the House quote fascinating: Fine French novel of familial estrangement. (Don't know where the copy editor got the idea that Loursat was drinking himself to death. Simenon doesn't say that. And I never suggest it. He drinks too much. It may kill him. Maybe not.)
Michael McHale is charmed by Calvin Trillin's About Alice: Trillin's story of his lovely wife, her life cut short.
Katie Haegele finds a French novel for young adults: Young Adult Reader Runaway brothers and those who glimpse their flight.
During the week ...
Carlin Romano wrote something seasonal: A Hanukkah story shines brightly once again.
Paul Davis paid a visit to Joseph Wambaugh's Hollywood Station: Hollywood, in the black-and-white.
Sheri Melnick gauged Greg Iles's latest: Illness, intrigue, homicidal spouses.
John Rooney liked a "This I Believe" anthology: Wisdom of worthies, meant to inspire.
And Fred Bortz pondered a couple of books about string theory: String theory seems to unravel.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
A poetic look ...
... at celebrity by Michael Creagan: On First Looking Into The Internet And Finding Paparazzi Photographs Of Celebrities Behaving Badly. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A bit of clarification ...
... in yesterday's post, What's your book of the year? , I should have made it clearer that I would like everyone to contribute, readers as well as fellow bloggers. Then we'll put them altogether and see what we have.
The future turns grim ...
... Forecasts for 2007 (4) I do think we need to be careful, Bryan, when it comes to admitting members to the FIS. After all, right now, it's a pretty exclusive club!
Friends of Richard Dawkins ...
... should send him this link: Essential books for understanding Christianity. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
After all, if you're going to sound off about something, you should first take the trouble of making sure you know what your talking about.
Glenn Reynolds alerts us ...
... that the New York Times has taken note of John Scalzi. Here is David Hiltbrand's review of The Ghost Brigades: Futuristic commandos bond in a special way. Were The Inquirer's online component less primitive I would link to David's podcast with Scalzi.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Bloggers pound ....
... Lev Grossman yet again. Ed Champion, hilarious as usual, thinks Gross Just Wants to Have Fun. Bill Peschel is a tad more blunt. (Scroll down Reader’s Almanac: 12/22 to "Being Harriet Klausner.")
I have been reading ...
... and reading Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale," quite simply because it is immensely rewarding to do so. Long before the French symbolists, Keats had achieved an almost pure linguistic music: Quite simply, he combines his words in the most perfectly melodic manner.
Consider:
O for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delvèd earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country-green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South!
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stainèd mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:
You need to say it aloud. In fact, it is best to memorize it, so that you can just say it and shape it as you would a musical composition. Consider the magical precision of the words - "a draught of vintage," "a beaker full of the warm South," "beaded bubbles winking at the brim ..."
Or this:
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs;
Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs;
Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.
Again, this is language to be savored. Keats was 23 when he wrote the poem. Soon he would himself grow pale and spectre-thin and die. He had already witnessed that happen to his brother Tom, but it would be another year before he himself would cough up blood and notice its ominous color ("I know the color of that blood; it is arterial blood. I cannot be deceived. That drop of blood is my death warrant." )
There does seem to be a premonition of death in this poem:
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain ...
Keats was remarkable man, I think perhaps the sharpest thinker of all the romantics (Coleridge thought a lot and often brilliantly, but ...) He was certainly his own man:
The common cognomen of this world among the misguided and superstitious is "a vale of tears" from which we are to be redeemed by a certain arbitrary interposition of God and taken to Heaven. What a little circumscribed straightened notion!
Call the world, if you please, "the Vale of Soul Making". Then you will find out the use of the world....
There may be intelligences or sparks of the divinity in millions -- but they are not Souls till they acquire identities, till each one is personally itself.
Intelligences are atoms of perception -- they know and they see and they are pure, in short they are God. How then are Souls to be made? How then are these sparks which are God to have identity given them -- so as ever to possess a bliss peculiar to each one's individual existence. How, but in the medium of a world like this?
This point I sincerely wish to consider, because I think it a grander system of salvation than the Christian religion -- or rather it is a system of Spirit Creation...
I can scarcely express what I but dimly perceive -- and yet I think I perceive it -- that you may judge the more clearly I will put it in the most homely form possible. I will call the world a school instituted for the purpose of teaching little children to read. I will call the human heart the hornbook used in that school. And I will call the child able to read, the soul made from that school and its hornbook.
Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul? A place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways....
As various as the lives of men are -- so various become their souls, and thus does God make individual beings, souls, identical souls of the sparks of his own essence.
This appears to me a faint sketch of a system of salvation which does not affront our reason and humanity...
Call the world, if you please, "the Vale of Soul Making". Then you will find out the use of the world....
There may be intelligences or sparks of the divinity in millions -- but they are not Souls till they acquire identities, till each one is personally itself.
Intelligences are atoms of perception -- they know and they see and they are pure, in short they are God. How then are Souls to be made? How then are these sparks which are God to have identity given them -- so as ever to possess a bliss peculiar to each one's individual existence. How, but in the medium of a world like this?
This point I sincerely wish to consider, because I think it a grander system of salvation than the Christian religion -- or rather it is a system of Spirit Creation...
I can scarcely express what I but dimly perceive -- and yet I think I perceive it -- that you may judge the more clearly I will put it in the most homely form possible. I will call the world a school instituted for the purpose of teaching little children to read. I will call the human heart the hornbook used in that school. And I will call the child able to read, the soul made from that school and its hornbook.
Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul? A place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways....
As various as the lives of men are -- so various become their souls, and thus does God make individual beings, souls, identical souls of the sparks of his own essence.
This appears to me a faint sketch of a system of salvation which does not affront our reason and humanity...
The foregoing letter is quoted on this post of Dr. Ed Friedlander: Enjoying "La Belle Dame Sans Merci", which has some further information regarding the arterial blood quote. Dr. Friedlander also has an interesting comment on letter quoted:
Keats believed that we begin as identical bits of God, and acquire individuality only by life-defining emotional experiences. By doing this, we prepare ourselves for happiness in the afterlife.
You may decide for yourself (or exercise negative capability) about whether you will believe Keats. But it's significant that this most intimate explanation of the personal philosophy behind his work follows a powerful lyric about emotional devastation.
If Keats's philosophy is correct, then any intense experience -- even letting your life rot away after a failed relationship, or enduring the agony of heroin withdrawal, or dying young of tuberculosis -- is precious. (Perhaps Keats, medically trained and knowing he had been massively exposed, was foreseeing his own from TB -- he would have been pale and sweaty and unable to move easily.) Each goes into making you into a unique being.
The idea is as radical as it sounds. And if you stay alert, you'll encounter similar ideas again and again, in some of the most surprising places.
In case you forget what "negative capability" is, here is how Keats explains it:
"I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason." I should have quoted this long ago, since it is my characteristic mental outlook. Are you there, Noel?
Praising something arch ...
... in rather an arch manner: A bargain Beckett for the scholarly .
"Into the plush vaginal Sargasso of Proustian circumscription Beckett's penile hyperfocus is decisively plunged. " Wow.
"Into the plush vaginal Sargasso of Proustian circumscription Beckett's penile hyperfocus is decisively plunged. " Wow.
What's your book of the year?
Why should we let everybody else play this game? We've all read some books this year. Let's tally our favorites.
Since it's bound to come up, here are mine:
Fiction: Barry Unsworth's The Ruby in Her Navel (runnerup - Bill Pronzini's The Crimes of Jordan Wise)
Nonfiction - Francis Collins's The Language of God
Well, here's this bunch ...
... Books of the Year 2006 symposium. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Given the poem of the week on the right one may wonder ...
Given the poem of the week on the right one may wonder ...
A good point ...
... Dogma Without God . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It is curious how those decrying what they peceive as the anger and intolerance of religion so often sound angry and intolerant.
It is curious how those decrying what they peceive as the anger and intolerance of religion so often sound angry and intolerant.
Here's a good roundup ...
... of recent skirmishes bewteen bloggers and the MSM: Blogger 1, Old Media 0.
Earlier, I had thought of linking to Rago's WSJ piece, but it seemed a waste of time. Rago writes about "blogs" but seems to mean "political blogs." He makes general statements about blogs on both the left and right and cites none by name. In short, I don't think he knows what he's taking about.
Earlier, I had thought of linking to Rago's WSJ piece, but it seemed a waste of time. Rago writes about "blogs" but seems to mean "political blogs." He makes general statements about blogs on both the left and right and cites none by name. In short, I don't think he knows what he's taking about.
I find it rather encouraging ...
... that there are Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises so near the pyramids, although I agree that the latter deserve to be treated with more respect: Pissing on the Pyramids.
More on reviewing the non-existent ...
The last part of this, about the critic savaging books out of spite, is especially disturbing. To sacrifice your critical integrity on the altar of your spite would necessarily call into question your fundamental critical judgment, it seems to me.
As I grow older I am increasingly amazed by the amount of emotional capital people squander. One of the big issues in Philadelphia right now has to do with the awarding of a couple of casino licenses. One of the approved sites is not far from where we live. My wife asked me last night how engaged I was in this controversy. I told her I felt largely indifferent toward it. There are going to be two casinos in the city. I wouldn't have chosen either of the sites that have been chosen, but I wasn't asked to decide the matter. I doubt if things will turn out as bad as the opponents claim. Do they ever? And of course I don't think the benefits will be anywhere near as great as supporters claim. Are they ever?
But I can't bring myself to feel very deeply about any of it one way or another.
It will never be better ...
... than this: Forecasts for 2007 (3) . It won't get much funnier, either - unless we find that Jeffrey Archer has been ghosting Pynchon all along.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Perfect ...
... Christmastime at Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's .
It is, I think, still fashinable to denigrate Longfellow. But I would suggest looking carefully at these poems. I would especially recommend reading them aloud (but get them right, practice them, don't just sight read). Take a look, for instance, at
Not the sweet, new grass with flowers
Is this harvesting of ours;
Not the upland clover bloom;
But the rowen mired with weeds,
Tangled tufts from marsh and meads,
Where the poppy drops its seeds
In the silence and the gloom.
That is subtle metrical composition.
It is, I think, still fashinable to denigrate Longfellow. But I would suggest looking carefully at these poems. I would especially recommend reading them aloud (but get them right, practice them, don't just sight read). Take a look, for instance, at
Not the sweet, new grass with flowers
Is this harvesting of ours;
Not the upland clover bloom;
But the rowen mired with weeds,
Tangled tufts from marsh and meads,
Where the poppy drops its seeds
In the silence and the gloom.
That is subtle metrical composition.
Talk about dystopias ...
... take a look at Bryan Appleyard's Forecasts for 2007 (1) and Forecasts for 2007 (2) . Cheer up, Bryan. Always look on the bright side of life! (Actually, I think I'd feel right at home in Lousy Bastards.)
The lack of light ...
... seems to be getting the GOB down: Even gloomier Tuesday .
Like Michael, I didn't get a chuckle out of A Confederacy of Dunces. I can't even remember the protagonist's name now, but I remember thinking he was really just a royal pain in the old gluteus maximus. But then I could never figure out what people saw in Holden Caulfield, either.
Like Michael, I didn't get a chuckle out of A Confederacy of Dunces. I can't even remember the protagonist's name now, but I remember thinking he was really just a royal pain in the old gluteus maximus. But then I could never figure out what people saw in Holden Caulfield, either.
Our favorite snail-keeper ...
... Passion and Precision: An Interview with Clare Dudman. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Season's greetings ...
... from Jessica Schneider: For All Cynics: (I too am one of you), But Don't You Dare Skip Over This Review!
I agree ...
... both about Believing in Santa and The Truth Delusion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I do wish those given to sweeping statements about religion would do a little homework. They could start by reading The Idea of the Holy. It is also worth mentioning, I think, that to equate truth with what is merely provable and quantifiable is to opt for a rather pale and narrow idea of truth.
I do wish those given to sweeping statements about religion would do a little homework. They could start by reading The Idea of the Holy. It is also worth mentioning, I think, that to equate truth with what is merely provable and quantifiable is to opt for a rather pale and narrow idea of truth.
An excellent poem ....
... by an excellent poet Jane Hirschfield's In Praise of Coldness . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
A sad tale indeed ....
... Death of the Mirabelle .
This reminds me of something I have heard attributed to William Buckley, though I don't believe it originated with him: The trouble with communism was communism - it was an unsound theory disastrous in practice. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists.
This reminds me of something I have heard attributed to William Buckley, though I don't believe it originated with him: The trouble with communism was communism - it was an unsound theory disastrous in practice. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists.
More on "The Messiah" ...
... from Dana Gioia: Handel's Many Messiahs. Notice that Dana likes Beecham's version.
Well, at least he didn't like it ...
... Writer sacked for faking book review. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Perhaps he can get brother Christopher ...
... to come along: Peter Hitchens on A religious revival for people who are not really religious. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sir Thomas and ...
... The Messiah. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I have Beecham's recording, complete with cymbals, and I know how "inauthentic" it is - and I don't care!
I have Beecham's recording, complete with cymbals, and I know how "inauthentic" it is - and I don't care!
But first, this just in ...
... don't give away your winter clothes just yet: 2006: probably the coldest year in the last five years.
This fits in nicely with the discussion about sloganeering attached to this post: A fresh perspective ...
This fits in nicely with the discussion about sloganeering attached to this post: A fresh perspective ...
You can't go wrong ...
... starting the day with a piece about George Gershwin: Fascinating schism.
"... Gershwin's chutzpah, the sheer brazenness of his aspirations, produced musical gold. It remains a mystery why so few other composers have even attempted such alchemy." Indeed.
"... Gershwin's chutzpah, the sheer brazenness of his aspirations, produced musical gold. It remains a mystery why so few other composers have even attempted such alchemy." Indeed.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Design for living ...
... Being George Devine's Daughter by Harriet Devine. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I should have linked to these earlier ...
.... On News Management .
" ...call me a sentimental old fool, but I'd still quite like to believe that the insulting of truth is not a necessary adjunct to democratic politics." This sentimental old fool agrees, Bryan.
Also: Ipswich and Diana: In Pursuit of the Surreal .
" ...call me a sentimental old fool, but I'd still quite like to believe that the insulting of truth is not a necessary adjunct to democratic politics." This sentimental old fool agrees, Bryan.
Also: Ipswich and Diana: In Pursuit of the Surreal .
Carla Blumenkranz writes ......
............about a long-forgotten incident involving Robert Lowell - or as she so aptly describes him, the "as yet undiagnosed manic depressive" Robert Lowell - during the years of the Red Scare.
"Ahh, but the strawberries that's...
... that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with... geometric logic... that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist ..."
Not so fast, Captain Queeg. Geometric logic may not be as foolproof as you think. Moreover, "Kurt Gödel proved ... that if you insist on consistency, there are true statements you can't prove at all." Mathematical proof is foolproof, it seems, only in the absence of fools .
Not so fast, Captain Queeg. Geometric logic may not be as foolproof as you think. Moreover, "Kurt Gödel proved ... that if you insist on consistency, there are true statements you can't prove at all." Mathematical proof is foolproof, it seems, only in the absence of fools .
Monday, December 18, 2006
I am back ...
... from voting on the new labor contract, but am a bit under the weather. Blogging will resume tomorrow, I hope.
If I am reading this correctly ...
... God has finally granted an interview: The Complete Blogging the Bible. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Oh, we are in a contrarian mood today ...
... An interview with Elizabeth Kantor, author of The Politically incorrect Guide to English and American Literature: Three Cheers for the Patriarchy. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Rennie D. links ...
... to Sermons by Mark Long. I just listened to Advent 3. One of my favorite quotes from my patron saint is cited - that we should preach the Gospel always, and if necessary use words.
Speaking of crime ...
... you may just want to pop over to Detectives Beyond Borders and start scrolling.
Report from Lowell...
... Rus Bowden sends along some links:
Shisa Poet's "Must Be The Way She Pours A Beer".
Charles Bernstein posts about Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan.
Art Durkee's Winter Diptych .
Deb Powers wonders Where Will People Get Their Poetry?
Finally, Kwansabas for Maya Angelou CFS extended to January .
Shisa Poet's "Must Be The Way She Pours A Beer".
Charles Bernstein posts about Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan.
Art Durkee's Winter Diptych .
Deb Powers wonders Where Will People Get Their Poetry?
Finally, Kwansabas for Maya Angelou CFS extended to January .
More on Judith Regan ...
... 'Offensive' phone call by publisher preceded her firing. Must have been really offensive for people like this to have even noticed.
Oh, and there's also this ....
... which jells nicely with what Bryan has to say about the New Atheism: Welcome to the new holy land. (Hat tip, Vikram Johri.)
But first ...
... Bryan Appleyard interviewing Michael Crichton is a must-read: Genetic disorder.
Bryan also assays the big ideas of 2006: Eureka!.
Bryan also assays the big ideas of 2006: Eureka!.
I am at the office ...
... tryin to restore order to the book room. So blogging will resume tonight.
Today's Inquirer reviews ....
... include these ...
Glenn Altschuler pays a visit to Richard Burgin's Conference on Beautiful Moments: From interior monologues to exquisite, aching stories.
Bernhardt Blumenthal discovers heroism in Villa Air-Bel: In Europe's darkest time, they were unlikely heroes.
I was very much taken with Michael Creagan's True Love and Other Poems: Mining medicine, striking upon beauty.
Carlin Romano waxes eloquent over a newly published work co-authored by Primo Levi: Primo Levi's 'Auschwitz Report' to his liberators
Elizabeth Fox is mostly underwhelmed by Eric Van Lustbader's The Testament: A 'Da Vinci' copycat falls flat on plot.
Sandy Bauers listens to Carl Hiaasen and Diane Setterfield: A female narrator cranks up Hiaasen's collection of crazies.
Glenn Altschuler pays a visit to Richard Burgin's Conference on Beautiful Moments: From interior monologues to exquisite, aching stories.
Bernhardt Blumenthal discovers heroism in Villa Air-Bel: In Europe's darkest time, they were unlikely heroes.
I was very much taken with Michael Creagan's True Love and Other Poems: Mining medicine, striking upon beauty.
Carlin Romano waxes eloquent over a newly published work co-authored by Primo Levi: Primo Levi's 'Auschwitz Report' to his liberators
Elizabeth Fox is mostly underwhelmed by Eric Van Lustbader's The Testament: A 'Da Vinci' copycat falls flat on plot.
Sandy Bauers listens to Carl Hiaasen and Diane Setterfield: A female narrator cranks up Hiaasen's collection of crazies.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Correcting an oversight ...
... I can't believe I forgot to link to David Stearns's review of a couple of Orson Welles biographies: Pinning down the slippery Citizen Welles .
Simon Armitage on translating ...
... Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: The Knight's Tale. (Hat tip, Hedgie.)
There's a link ...
... in Maxine's crimefic post to Marydell's post about Ray Bradbury. Maxine also has this about Ray: The 50-year pause.
It's that time of week ...
... in that time of year, and so I am pressed for time. Luckily, here is Liz Lopatto's Short Takes.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Debbie and I are back ...
... from dining out and I am about to curl up with the Simenon novel I plan to write about. Later.
A thoughtful post ...
... Notes towards an egoless poetry 9: Mental Illness & Poetry . Actually, I recommend visiting Dragoncave and browsing through the posts there. Lots and lots of good stuff.
Odd-gotten gains ...
... Rewarded for Simpson sleaze.
Update: Judith Regan, however, has been fired: Editor Fired After Uproar Over Simpson. Methinks she'll survive.
Update: Judith Regan, however, has been fired: Editor Fired After Uproar Over Simpson. Methinks she'll survive.
Speaking of Amy ...
... she also offers An Introduction to the Literature of the Fantastic. I am very fond of Algernon Blackwood's stories. I think "The Willows" is as scary as they come.
I have long suspected this ...
You Should Learn French |
 C'est super! You appreciate the finer things in life... wine, art, cheese, love affairs. You are definitely a Parisian at heart. You just need your tongue to catch up... |
(Hat tip, Amy Nelson-Mile at Books, Words, and Writing .)
The GOB ...
... looks at the way "the internet has transformed the used-book market": The Home-Based Bookstore .
I happen to have written something about this nearly 10 years ago: Out of print, but Online. Interloc is now Alibris, and Advanced Book Exchange is now AbeBooks.
Steve Trussell's Books & Book Collecting is as good as ever.
I happen to have written something about this nearly 10 years ago: Out of print, but Online. Interloc is now Alibris, and Advanced Book Exchange is now AbeBooks.
Steve Trussell's Books & Book Collecting is as good as ever.
Once again ...
... Bryan hits the bull's-eye: The Ipswich Murders 2 . This is the sort of thing that gives the news business a bad name.
Friday's OWL report ...
... Omnipresent Wisconsin Librarian Dave Lull sends along these dispatches:
Philip Hefner comments on the symposium entitled "Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason, and Survival": Going Beyond Belief. I pretty much agree.
A very good poem by Kingsley Amis: Matin.
Also, Patrick Kurp looks at a couple of poems by Stevie Smith: `All This Looks Easy But Really It Is Extraordinary'.
Something about religion even Richard Dawkins approves of: The English Bible has made us.
La lingua pura (as Leigh Teabing would have it): Fowler’s 'Modern English Usage'.
A poem by Clive James: Status Quo Vadis.
Guy Davenport on Ezra Pound: Making Pound New.
That should certainly occupy everyone for a while.
Philip Hefner comments on the symposium entitled "Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason, and Survival": Going Beyond Belief. I pretty much agree.
A very good poem by Kingsley Amis: Matin.
Also, Patrick Kurp looks at a couple of poems by Stevie Smith: `All This Looks Easy But Really It Is Extraordinary'.
Something about religion even Richard Dawkins approves of: The English Bible has made us.
La lingua pura (as Leigh Teabing would have it): Fowler’s 'Modern English Usage'.
A poem by Clive James: Status Quo Vadis.
Guy Davenport on Ezra Pound: Making Pound New.
That should certainly occupy everyone for a while.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Almost forgot this ...
... Karen Heller's review of Sebastian Faulks's Human Traces: Author's mind-set: Science, not drama.
And this - Jon Caroulis's review of The Great Bookof Philadelphia Sports Lists: For Phila. sports fans, a volume to fight over.
And this - Jon Caroulis's review of The Great Bookof Philadelphia Sports Lists: For Phila. sports fans, a volume to fight over.
A passionate librarian ...
... and A Triumph in a Garage: Mayme Clayton's Trove of Black History Gathers Dust, and Momentum. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
King definitely has a point ...
... about Novels - namely, about "ingenues like Marisha Pessl receiving a million dollars for stuporous crap." Indeed.
Hear, hear ...
As Vice Failure I second the Supreme Failure's suggestion: Proceedings of the FIS: Naomi Campbell .
Ms. Campbell's gnomic utterance reminds me of how George Romney tried to explain his remark about being "brainwashed" over Vietnam: "I didn't say that I didn't say it. I said that I didn't say I said it. I want to make that clear."
Ms. Campbell's gnomic utterance reminds me of how George Romney tried to explain his remark about being "brainwashed" over Vietnam: "I didn't say that I didn't say it. I said that I didn't say I said it. I want to make that clear."
The newspaper of record ....
... strikes again: The Iranian ‘Scholars’: Times Bends Backwards for Holocaust Deniers . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A free market Christmas ...
... the Library of Liberty's Quote of the Month. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I think this should be used for a Christmas card.
I think this should be used for a Christmas card.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Apropos of nothing in particular ...
... except, I suppose, my own personal pleasure, I have just finished listening to Sir Thomas Beecham's recording of Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben. I just got it in the mail today. I first had it not long after it came out, which was not long after Sir Thomas's death. It was his last recording. And it is probably the best recording of Ein Heldenleben ever. This piece usually needs a bit of irony to make it come off. Beecham takes it altogether seriously, though, and pulls it off. The finale seems like Beecham's own farewell. God, he was a great conductor.
And with that, I am signing off for the night. I just got some Simenon in the mail. Do I have a great job or what?
And with that, I am signing off for the night. I just got some Simenon in the mail. Do I have a great job or what?
Maxine links ...
... to today's must-read: Radical transparency at Wired. Read Maxine's post first, though.
Appetitive man ...
... David Hiltbrand reviewed Hannibal Rising in this morning's Inquirer: How he got that appetite (yes, we know the Kozinski book should be The Painted Bird.)
... and David Montgomery has some thoughts, too: Musings on Thomas Harris' "Hannibal Rising".
... and David Montgomery has some thoughts, too: Musings on Thomas Harris' "Hannibal Rising".
Sounds like he needs sprezzatura ...
... Another word on the ordinary. Jesse is extraordinary, but his "overarching ambition is to be as unnoticeable as possible." Sprezzatura is mastery that looks like second nature. See Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier.
I've done my writing for the day ...
... but maybe you're up for The 50-word challenge. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
From one far more knowledgable than I ..
... Peter Stothard on Ann Coulter and the custodians. And thank you, Peter, for the kind mention.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Better late than never ...
... I would have linked to this earlier had I known of it: From our bulging How not to do statistics file.
Definitely click on the two follow-ups at the bottom. This is really quite a story, given the absolute worhtlessness of the "study."
Definitely click on the two follow-ups at the bottom. This is really quite a story, given the absolute worhtlessness of the "study."
Fans of Heathcliff and Catherine ...
... will want to check out Perspectives on Wuthering Heights. What think you of Cathy now?
Maxine weighs in ...
... on Strunk & White, sensibly as always: Horses for Courses.
" ... S&W's advice is, I believe, of great practical use for people trying to convey complex information in the clearest way. " Indeed.
" ... S&W's advice is, I believe, of great practical use for people trying to convey complex information in the clearest way. " Indeed.
A good question ...
... What's a poet?
I seem to recall that Kenneth Rexroth once determined how large a number of 20th-century poets had committed suicide. Poetry is a dangerous undertaking, apparently.
I seem to recall that Kenneth Rexroth once determined how large a number of 20th-century poets had committed suicide. Poetry is a dangerous undertaking, apparently.
Here's what I need ...
... a Rotary reading desk - for the reading of multiple books at once. But where would I put it?
A fresh sort of list
... Prospect's Books of the Year - the underrated and the overrated. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I see that The God Delusion is among the most overrated - though Matt Ridley calls it underrated, saying the "dreadful" reviews are just "snobbish and inaccurate drivel from fans of superstition." Apparently, he failed to notice how much drivel there is in Dawkins's book, and how much Dawkins's view of science amounts to superstition. It is a poor book judged simply by the standard of Dawkins's other books.
Correcting an oversight ....
... I have linked from time to time to Mary Beard's blog A Don's Life. Now I have added it to the blogroll (as Mary Beard).
I would especially draw your attention to Come Back, Baby Jesus (I understand fully, Mary) and one I should have immediately linked to: "Let them learn Latin". Yes!
How sad ...
... 'Truthiness' Is Named Word of the Year. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It's a stupid word coined by a professional dimwit.
It's a stupid word coined by a professional dimwit.
Quite worth watching ...
... an interview with Aldous Huxley. (Hat tip, Andrew Kenneally.) Note there are two other parts to this. I shall have more to say about these sometime later, after I've had time to watch all of them.
I think I've met my quota this year ...
... having reviewed both War and Peace and The Three Musketeers, which together added up to more than 2,200 pages: A Doozy of A Reading Challenge for 2007.
Update: I should have added that I think Amy will enjoy The Virgin in the Garden. Then she can move on to Still Life, Babel Tower, and A Whistling Woman.
Update: I should have added that I think Amy will enjoy The Virgin in the Garden. Then she can move on to Still Life, Babel Tower, and A Whistling Woman.
A sour outlook ...
... in case you're looking for one: Thomas Bernhard for life. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
This sounds like good advice ...
... Omit Needless Books of Advice on Writing. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It's easy - and seems to have become fashionable - to make fun of Strunk & White. But the best comment I know about the book is a fairly old one - Robertson Davies's (note my punctuation) observation that S&W enables one to build the prose equivalent of a good sound chicken coop, but that many of us want to build something more elaborate. Still, knowing how to build a good sound chicken coop is a good start if you want to build things. You just don't have to stop there. (And, speaking as an editor, it is amazing how often one finds needless words that must be omitted.)
Update: Dave further sends along this: "...rules given by Professor Quirk and his colleagues in their A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. 'One may pronounce Mr Jones' car as Jones or Joanzez: where a name ends in a letter s sounding like a z (i.e. a voiced s), an apostrophe only should be used; where a name ends in a written s sounding like an s (i.e. it is not voiced), an apostrophe s is required. Hence Mr Jones' book is great, but Mr Davis's book is even better.' (From
Worse than failure ...
... The death of intellectualism - An evening in Paris. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Something to look forward to ...
... UNESCO names 2007 ‘Year of Rumi’. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Insufficient attention is paid to Sufism.
Insufficient attention is paid to Sufism.
Great minds ...
... even if we are founding members of the FIS (and gee, I have been distracted of late: look at that thread!): Bryan Appleyard's Why I Love America .
"... the yearning for the myth to be true. ... the magnificent late poetry of Wallace Stevens. There is, in the American soul, this urgent longing for the best and the highest to be true and, of course, the longing becomes the truth." (Emphasis mine, and I conflate, of course - but you can read the whole thing.)
"... the yearning for the myth to be true. ... the magnificent late poetry of Wallace Stevens. There is, in the American soul, this urgent longing for the best and the highest to be true and, of course, the longing becomes the truth." (Emphasis mine, and I conflate, of course - but you can read the whole thing.)
Monday, December 11, 2006
I have had ...
... an especially wearying day. I opened a few hundred books and still have to shelve them. So blogging will resume tomorrow.
Visitor to Bryan Appleyard's ...
... splendid Thought Experiments will be familiar with the very informative comments frequently posted by Gordon McCabe. Gordon has now decided to join the blogosphere in a more direct way - by blogging. Introducing: McCabism. (Oh, I think I'm going to spend a lot of time there.)
Well, this certainly sounds interesting ...
... and rather tasty, too, I suspect: Green Pea Ice Cream.
I have never met ...
... San Tanenhaus, btu I reviewed his biography of Whittaker Chambers and it's as good as any biography I have read. It should have won the Pulitzer: Talk to the Newsroom. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A pair of fine links ...
... at Bud Bloom Poetry: Mary and The Maid, cleaning up the place and Some Embers & Sonnets of Gilbert Parker .
Sounds reasonable to me ...
... Fact is we need a better name for 'digital fiction'. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
On this date ...
... in 1918, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk, Russia. Here is An Interview with Alexander Solzhenitsyn from 2003.
"I am deeply convinced that God is present both in the lives of every person and also in the lives of entire nations."
"I am deeply convinced that God is present both in the lives of every person and also in the lives of entire nations."
A worthy opponent ...
... for Ann Coulter: Christopher Hitchens on Godless. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I beg to differ with Hitchens on conflating Creationism with Intelligent Design theory (Geneticist Francis Collins points out the salient differences in The Language of God.) Which is not to say that I approve of teaching Intelligent Design theory in biology class. I do not.
I beg to differ with Hitchens on conflating Creationism with Intelligent Design theory (Geneticist Francis Collins points out the salient differences in The Language of God.) Which is not to say that I approve of teaching Intelligent Design theory in biology class. I do not.
More on Darwin and religion ...
... A man who believes in Darwin as fervently as he hates God.
and The Atheist's Pulpit.
(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
and The Atheist's Pulpit.
(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Good heavens ....
... I get distracted and neglect a thread for a few days and miss all the goings on. Take another look at Mark this date on your calendar ....
Well, I like Tom Waits ...
... and of course Wallace Stevens. But I have spent quite a bit of time in front of quite a few Mark Rothkos and been unmoved. Nor has Simon Schama ever moved me. But, Bryan Appleyard declares that Simon Schama Moves Me.
In his Waits piece, Schama refers to ' the juvenile rhetoric of the "American dream".'
As I never tire of pointing out, the phrase "American Dream" was coined by a particular person at a particular and has a specific meaning. Here is how the coiner, James Truslow Adams, put it:
The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
You will notice that it is this that Martin Luther King had in mind when he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. I myself do not find the rhetoric particularly juvenile, Mr. Schama.
In his Waits piece, Schama refers to ' the juvenile rhetoric of the "American dream".'
As I never tire of pointing out, the phrase "American Dream" was coined by a particular person at a particular and has a specific meaning. Here is how the coiner, James Truslow Adams, put it:
The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
You will notice that it is this that Martin Luther King had in mind when he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. I myself do not find the rhetoric particularly juvenile, Mr. Schama.
The problem with newspapers ...
... condensed into a sentence (which, admittedly, does not even make mention of them, but is still, I think, applicable to them): "The boomers, naturally, think they are in touch with youth, which is probably why all marketing, PR and almost all advertising is like watching your dad trying to get down and boogie or make a pass at your girlfriend."
From Bryan Appleyard's A bunch of old softies.
None of this applies to me, of course. I arrived five years earlier than the first of the Boomers - though I remember their arrival. They were different from the start. (Don't know why Bywater would bring Rumsfeld into it. He's even older than I am.)
From Bryan Appleyard's A bunch of old softies.
None of this applies to me, of course. I arrived five years earlier than the first of the Boomers - though I remember their arrival. They were different from the start. (Don't know why Bywater would bring Rumsfeld into it. He's even older than I am.)
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... I was much taken with Barry Unsworth's The Ruby in Her Navel: A stroll toward havoc in 12th century.
And John Rossi is taken with H.W. Crocker's Don't Tread on Me: A 400-year foray through the thickets of American war.
The misleading headline notwithstanding - no, I don't write them - C.E. Chaffin has much good to say of Leonard Gontarek's Deja Vu Diner: A slight volume of poetry nonetheless is heavy going. (It is, after all, a compliment to call someone a poet's poet.)
Carlin Romano weighs some heavy reading: Worthy of coffee table and reading, too.
Katie Haegele also has some recommendations: Young Adult Reader Works delight, from covers to what's inside.
Last week ...
Elizabeth Fox praised Gordon Dahlquist's The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters: Intriguing, intelligent, and page-turning fantasy world.
John Freeman was impressed by Timothy Egan's the Worst hard Time: Dust Bowl: Human contributions to a natural disaster.
And, in case you missed it in an earlier link, David Montgomery liked Michael Crichton's Next: Crichton's focus turns to stem cells.
And John Rossi is taken with H.W. Crocker's Don't Tread on Me: A 400-year foray through the thickets of American war.
The misleading headline notwithstanding - no, I don't write them - C.E. Chaffin has much good to say of Leonard Gontarek's Deja Vu Diner: A slight volume of poetry nonetheless is heavy going. (It is, after all, a compliment to call someone a poet's poet.)
Carlin Romano weighs some heavy reading: Worthy of coffee table and reading, too.
Katie Haegele also has some recommendations: Young Adult Reader Works delight, from covers to what's inside.
Last week ...
Elizabeth Fox praised Gordon Dahlquist's The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters: Intriguing, intelligent, and page-turning fantasy world.
John Freeman was impressed by Timothy Egan's the Worst hard Time: Dust Bowl: Human contributions to a natural disaster.
And, in case you missed it in an earlier link, David Montgomery liked Michael Crichton's Next: Crichton's focus turns to stem cells.
Bush, Blair and Juvenal ..
... If Bush is a turbot, what is Blair? I have actually advanced the highly heretical notion that the nearest thing to Juvenal these days is Ann Coulter. She's no poet, of course, but her perspective, like Juvenal's, is conservative and she is every bit as acerbic and over-the-top as he can be. Of course her targets consider her an extremist and unfair. Well, she is unfair - that's the name of the satire game, though, isn't it?
A writer I think ...
... I need to look into: An interview with Victor Pelevin. (Hat tip, Andrew Kenneally.)
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Another myth ...
...bites the dust, in this case the myth "that America was once filled with wildly varied business establishments." In Praise of Chain Stores .
A couple of years ago ...
... I bought this orchid from my butcher, Sonny D'Angelo, who has a prize-winning collection. This is the first it has bloomed since I bought it. In fact, it's the first time I managed to get an orchid to bloom
At Critical Mass ...
... a Poetry Round-Up. (Hat tip, Dave Lull, who draws my attention especially to Kay Ryan's Journal.)
Great minds ...
... readers of this blog know I'm a big Willa Cather booster. So, apparently, is Antonia Byatt: American Pastoral . (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Of course, Cather did write a book called My Antonia.
Of course, Cather did write a book called My Antonia.
It's about time ...
... A Poetry Meme.
Update: Cam writes that "how something like this wends its way through the internet is interesting, what I found even more interesting is that there are so many poetry lovers out there." And she sends a link that demonstrates her point: Poetry is Like.
Update: Cam writes that "how something like this wends its way through the internet is interesting, what I found even more interesting is that there are so many poetry lovers out there." And she sends a link that demonstrates her point: Poetry is Like.
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