Saturday, March 31, 2007
Maxine is right ...
... let's all Vote for Amy at the Best of Blogs awards (I just did). (My thanks to Dave Lull for alerting me to this.)
Joan Didion (cont'd.) ...
... Howie Shapiro reviews the stage version of The Year of Magical Thinking: Overthinking of grief makes for theater of little magic.
By way of comparison, here is David Stearns's review of Franz Schmidt's Symphony No. 4: Drawing the power of a fragile work .
By way of comparison, here is David Stearns's review of Franz Schmidt's Symphony No. 4: Drawing the power of a fragile work .
Friday, March 30, 2007
Shameless pauses ...
... for a poem: Dolphin. (I just noticed that Shameless has abadoned his anonymity. Hello, Seamus.)
Another look ...
... at Joan Didion and her new play (which includes a link to Jason Brantley's review in the NYT).
I haven't read the book or seen the play.
I haven't read the book or seen the play.
Mastering the silence ...
... Colm Tóibín on Beckett’s Irish Actors. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Jack MacGowran's ine-man Beckett show Beginning to End was magnificent. I am amazed - nay, appalled - that there is no VHS or DVD version of available.
Jack MacGowran's ine-man Beckett show Beginning to End was magnificent. I am amazed - nay, appalled - that there is no VHS or DVD version of available.
But what about the Jesuits?
... Irish Words.
When I was in Dublina few years ago, I was just finishing re-reading Ulysses - Joyce was the rason I was there - and I very quickly noticed how much easier it was to read after even a brief acquaintance with the sound of Dubliners talking.
As for my cryptic lead-in, the other day Bryan told us that "I am about to fly to Dublin to lecture Jesuits - really - and I anticipate two days of pure delight. " I want to hear more.
A spotlight on newspapers ...
... in Great Britain: Newspaper Marketing Agency. (Hat tip, Peter Stothard.)
I found this so interesting, I forwarded the link to Inquirer publisher Brian Tierney (who sent me a note of thanks) .
I found this so interesting, I forwarded the link to Inquirer publisher Brian Tierney (who sent me a note of thanks) .
Terry Teachout weighs in ...
... on The Joan Didion Show. I was able to read the entire review, since I subscribe to WSJ Online. Drawing a comparison with C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed was brilliant. (See also this earlier post of mine: Good grief ...
Those who have eyes to see ...
... let them see: Charles Dickens and the Romance of Repellant Things .
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Vincible ignorance ...
... Maxine also links to this: Crude, Gruesome, and Hateful–The Politics of Theatre Review . I don't find The Cherry Orchard as uninteresting as Maxine does Michael Cacoyannis's recent film version is worth seeing), but I prefer The Seagull. I do, however, think this review is, to put it charitably, unfortunate. It is hard to imagine that the reviewer was not suffering from some sort of historical amnesia, since it difficult to believe she could be that ignorant. I think she needs to have a chat with Martin Amis.
I'll have to think about this ...
... in the aforementioned and linked to meta-post, Maxine links to this (and why have only now realized that Maxine is a Dilbert fan?): What’s Your Permanent Age?
I'm inclined to think that it's whatever age I happen to be at any given time - because rioght tends to be what interests me most at any given time.
I'm inclined to think that it's whatever age I happen to be at any given time - because rioght tends to be what interests me most at any given time.
Something else to worry about ...
... Beware the poetic politician. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Some French diplomats - Paul Claudel and Saint-John Perse - were certainly good. But I wonder if even they reached the level of Wang An-Shih:
The burner is out of incense the dripping has almost stopped
the wind comes in gusts the cold in waves
springtime disturbs me and keeps me from sleep
the moon casts shadow flowers on the balustrade
Some French diplomats - Paul Claudel and Saint-John Perse - were certainly good. But I wonder if even they reached the level of Wang An-Shih:
The burner is out of incense the dripping has almost stopped
the wind comes in gusts the cold in waves
springtime disturbs me and keeps me from sleep
the moon casts shadow flowers on the balustrade
Two for who ...
... And the winner of the £40,000 prize is . . . and £40,000 for him??? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It doesn't get better than this ...
... The Dawkins Cult and Irish Irritation. I'm not sure if the Pennsylvania Nonbelievers are really that scary, since I never heard of them before today - and I'm in Pennsylvania.
Bryan's Dennett observation is priceless.
Bryan's Dennett observation is priceless.
And the winners are ...
... Gervais triumphs over Pratchett in British Book Awards. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Richard Dawkins also won, as did Peter Kay. I think it typical of Dawkins to draw a grand conclusion from his win while ignoring whetver Kay's win might suggest. To know what mean, see this.
Richard Dawkins also won, as did Peter Kay. I think it typical of Dawkins to draw a grand conclusion from his win while ignoring whetver Kay's win might suggest. To know what mean, see this.
Geoffrey Hill live (sort of) ...
... Life in Poetry: An Evening with Geoffrey Hill (Rebroadcast). (Hat tip, Joe of New York.)
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Today is Debbie's birthday ...
... and we are going to dinner. So blogging may not resume until tomorrow. It has been scattered today because I have been very busy.
Advertising age ...
... my colleague Dan Rubin's metro column today is very much worth reading: Glossy dreams need new home.
Debbie and I visted the archive and we both found it utterly fascinating, a window onto a past we had ourselves partly lived through: The H.J. Menningen Collection. Click on the samples at the top.
Debbie and I visted the archive and we both found it utterly fascinating, a window onto a past we had ourselves partly lived through: The H.J. Menningen Collection. Click on the samples at the top.
Article of faith ...
... Was Shakespeare a crypto-Catholic? (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Weirdly enough, in article XII, he beseeched his parents to pray for his soul's delivery from purgatory, although his parents were by then dead.
No, what would be weird is praying to them if they were alive. Presumably, he thinks them in heaven and prays for their intercession, since he expects to land in purgatory himself.
Weirdly enough, in article XII, he beseeched his parents to pray for his soul's delivery from purgatory, although his parents were by then dead.
No, what would be weird is praying to them if they were alive. Presumably, he thinks them in heaven and prays for their intercession, since he expects to land in purgatory himself.
Where poetry ought to take us ...
... Let me teach you about me. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
I had some bad experiences in school but the way I look at life, I forget about the bad things that happened and I look for the good. I always look for the good. I consider it being Christian to be forgiving, not to carry injustices on your shoulder all your life.
This Hill has ayes ...
... The Long-Cherished Anger of Geoffrey Hill. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.
A few years ago, I introduced Geoffrey Hill at the 92d Street Y. He told the audience that the best way to approach his poetry was simply to read it and not bother with the allusions, that it wasn't meant to be puzzled out. I find that works.
A few years ago, I introduced Geoffrey Hill at the 92d Street Y. He told the audience that the best way to approach his poetry was simply to read it and not bother with the allusions, that it wasn't meant to be puzzled out. I find that works.
Seven answers from ...
... Michael Crichton.
... fears are a matter of fashion. Worries are like clothing styles, they come and go, rise and fall, based on what the worry fashion leaders tell the herd of independent minds to fear this year. GM is fashionable to fear. But that will change.
... fears are a matter of fashion. Worries are like clothing styles, they come and go, rise and fall, based on what the worry fashion leaders tell the herd of independent minds to fear this year. GM is fashionable to fear. But that will change.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
I had a jam-packed day ...
... and while I intended to blog a bit tonight, I wrote a letter to a friend instead - quite simply because my friend is far more important to me than my blog. Back tomorrow.
How can I not like a guy ...
... who is about to lecture Jesuits: Two Nasty Men Sit Next to Each Other Shock.
This is, in part, an unsually acerbic post, but wholly justified, I think.
This is, in part, an unsually acerbic post, but wholly justified, I think.
The blogging mortality rate ...
... is evidently quite high: Ghosts of blogging haunt net cemetery. (Hat tip, Vikram Johri.)
Why should this surprise anyone, given the huge number of bloggers? I remember climbing a small mountain in New York state one spring with a friend. On the way we saw what must have been tens of thousands of what I think were salamanders - tiny and orange. They had just made their debut on the plane of existence. My friend told me that only a week later, most would be gone, devoured by birds, other predators, and just plain privation. Blogging is an example of natural selection at work.
Why should this surprise anyone, given the huge number of bloggers? I remember climbing a small mountain in New York state one spring with a friend. On the way we saw what must have been tens of thousands of what I think were salamanders - tiny and orange. They had just made their debut on the plane of existence. My friend told me that only a week later, most would be gone, devoured by birds, other predators, and just plain privation. Blogging is an example of natural selection at work.
Maxine attempts the impossible ...
... Squaring the circle. More there on Oprah, by the way. And Twitter sounds like something to avoid - talk about having too much time on your hands.
This could be big ...
... Obligatory Oprah Book Club Speculation Post. The media ought to tout this the way it does American Idol. In fact, Oprah should take suggestions. Mine would be Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale.
Monday, March 26, 2007
An interesting blog ...
... and an interesting post: Musings.
Yet the purity of the poetic form may compare to that of the most impersonal of expositions, the mathematical proof. There is no room for anything extraneous or out of place; it is a distillation of thought, precise and rigorous.
This only gets more interesting ...
... check out the comments at Blogging and identity ... I have read "Borges and I," but I forgot. And then there's Pessoa.
All aboard for Paris ...
... and the Digital Poetry Festival. (Hat tip, Katie Haegele, who may be hinting something.)
Stop chasing me down ...
... at least for the time being, and even though The Future is Print-On-Demand (POD) . (Hat tip, Lee Lowe.)
Good grief ...
... or maybe not. It seems that a lot of readers didn't agree with the critics about Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking: Beyond Criticism. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A dispatch from the Joyce wars ...
... An Important Victory For Carol Shloss, Scholarship And Fair Use. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
One thing Stephen Joyce seems to have inherited from his grandfather is a cranky disposition.
One thing Stephen Joyce seems to have inherited from his grandfather is a cranky disposition.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
All over the world ...
... people are lamenting the passing of the bookshop: Best-seller of a job, and ignore the long tales. (Hat tip, Vikram Johri.)
You may have to register to get to the link, but it's easy - though I wasn't sure how many lakhs I make.
You may have to register to get to the link, but it's easy - though I wasn't sure how many lakhs I make.
Selves may be elusive ...
... but Biography reigns supreme. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden, who has contributed one of several interesting comments on this post about Blogging and identity ...
Another proto-blogger ...
... The Question of Karl Kraus. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This is an outstanding piece. The connection of Kraus to blogging, while interesting and pertinent, is far from being the most important point. That would be found in this passage, and those that follow it:
This is an outstanding piece. The connection of Kraus to blogging, while interesting and pertinent, is far from being the most important point. That would be found in this passage, and those that follow it:
... his biographer, who has gained a dangerous authority by the sheer magnitude of his labours, takes a lot on himself when he assumes that Kraus would have been against armed intervention in the Middle East as an example of our being led into folly by “propaganda for war”.
The phrase is of Timms’s coinage, and rings like pewter. By the time Kraus died, he knew that there could be an even bigger danger in propaganda for peace. Some of the brightest people in Europe, up to and including Bertrand Russell, preached non-violence up to and beyond the day Hitler invaded Poland. The British Labour Party, sitting in opposition to the Conservatives, denounced Fascism but also denounced any proposed armed opposition to it as warmongering. In service to the great analyst of cliché, Timms is hampered not only by his Cultural Studies jargon (the leaden word “discourse” riddles the text) but by an untoward propensity for not spotting what a current cliché is. The two drawbacks are connected, by his tin ear. Kraus, whom Timms tacitly invites to join in the widespread practice of putting jokey quotation marks around the phrase “war on terror”, might have pointed out that the quotation marks are a cliche in themselves, helping as they do to disguise a brute reality: terrorists are at war with us, and don’t care who they kill. The reason terrorists don’t use those risible cosmetic terms of ours such as “collateral damage” is that they not only have no intention of sparing the innocent, they have no more desirable target in mind.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... Carlin Romano finds himself much taken with the romantic ambivalence of Lionel Shriver's latest: Taking both paths at the fork in the road.
David Thayer finds himself fascinated by Natsuo Kirina's Grotesque: Beauty as the monster devouring family's lives.
Roger Miller finds Andrew Burstein's take on Washington Irving refreshing: An American 'Original'.
Katie Haegele looks at the effect new media is having on the form of story-telling: Does storytelling change in context of new forms of media?.
Speaking of ambivalence, Ed Sozanski likes Jonathan Wilson's take on Chagall's: Chagall, between his roots and his art .
Sandy Bauers likes listening to a (sort of) kid's tale: 12-year-old narrator sounds just right for novel about a boy.
Last week ...
Rita Giordano wasn't at all bugged by Tyler Knox's Kockroach: Book Review | Inventive, unsettling roach in man's clothing.
Charles Desnoyers was impressed with Margaret MacMillan's account of the rapprochement of China and the U.S.: Book Review | Fine account of thawing cold war with China in 1972.
Finally, in connection with this review by Suzanne Blair, Rus Bowden sends along this link: Neeta Jain discusses"Body Language" on KRON.
David Thayer finds himself fascinated by Natsuo Kirina's Grotesque: Beauty as the monster devouring family's lives.
Roger Miller finds Andrew Burstein's take on Washington Irving refreshing: An American 'Original'.
Katie Haegele looks at the effect new media is having on the form of story-telling: Does storytelling change in context of new forms of media?.
Speaking of ambivalence, Ed Sozanski likes Jonathan Wilson's take on Chagall's: Chagall, between his roots and his art .
Sandy Bauers likes listening to a (sort of) kid's tale: 12-year-old narrator sounds just right for novel about a boy.
Last week ...
Rita Giordano wasn't at all bugged by Tyler Knox's Kockroach: Book Review | Inventive, unsettling roach in man's clothing.
Charles Desnoyers was impressed with Margaret MacMillan's account of the rapprochement of China and the U.S.: Book Review | Fine account of thawing cold war with China in 1972.
Finally, in connection with this review by Suzanne Blair, Rus Bowden sends along this link: Neeta Jain discusses"Body Language" on KRON.
A transcendent truth ...
... perhaps even, in a way, inconvenient. Joe (of New York) has kindly sent a link to the trailer for Into Great Silence.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
I'm not sure I agree ...
... in fact, I'm sure I don't: ‘A writer is first a citizen'. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Soyinka's proposition, that "the writer is first and foremost a citizen" is fundamentally the same as that of any totalitarian regime, according to which individual human beings are principally units of the state. In the immortal words of Sam Goldwyn, "Include me out." I am first and foremost my individual self. As a social being I have social responsibilities, among them the responsibilities of citizenship. But they are far from being the be-all and end-all of my existence. I would put over against Soyinka's proposition, the concluding words of D.H. Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature:
What my soul loves, I love.
What my soul hates, I hate.
When my soul is stirred with compassion, I am compassionate.
What my soul turns away from, I turn away from.
That is the true interpretation of Whitman's creed: the true revelation of his Sympathy.
And my soul takes the open road. She meets the souls that are passing, she goes along with the souls that are going her way. And for one and all, she has sympathy. The sympathy of love, the sympathy of hate, the sympathy of simple proximity; all the subtle sympathizings of the incalculable soul, from the bitterest hate to passionate love.
It is not I who guide my soul to heaven. It is I who am guided by my own soul along the open road, where all men tread. Therefore, I must accept her deep motions of love, or hate, or compassion, or dislike, or indifference. And I must go where she takes me, for my feet and my lips and my body are my soul. It is I who must submit to her.
This is Whitman's message of American democracy.
The true democracy, where soul meets soul, in the open road. Democracy. American democracy where all journey down the open road, and where a soul is known at once in its going. Not by its clothes or appearance. Whitman did away with that. Not by its family name. Not even by its reputation. Whitman and Melville both discounted that. Not by a progression of piety, or by works of Charity. Not by works at all. Not by anything, but just itselœ The soul passing unenhanced, passing on foot and being no more than itself. And recognized, and passed by or greeted according to the soul's dictate. If it be a great soul, it will be worshipped in the road.
The love of man and woman: a recognition of souls, and a communion of worship. The love of comrades: a recognition of souls, and a communion of worship. Democracy: a recognition of souls, all down the open road, and a great soul seen in its greatness, as it travels on foot among the rest, down the common way of the living. A glad recognition of souls, and a gladder worship of great and greater souls, because they are the only riches.
Love, and Merging, brought Whitman to the Edge of Death! Death! Death!
But the exultance of his message still remains. Purified of MERGING, purified of MYSELF, the exultant message of American Democracy, of souls in the Open Road, full of glad recognition, full of fierce readiness, full of the joy of worship, when one soul sees a greater soul.
The only riches, the great souls.
Blogging and identity ...
"In any net interaction we can pretend to be somebody else. Interactivity is now spreading through all media. The ontological transformation involved is seldom noted. Interactivity extends the self and offers alternatives. I, for example, recently started a weblog, thinking it was just another form of writing. It isn't, it is a performance in which the performer is constantly in flux, modifying himself with each response. I have begun to feel that Bryan Appleyard the blogger is not I. Or perhaps the flesh-and-blood I has become the blogger I. My Singularity is, indeed, near; it may already have happened."
- Bryan Appleyard, How to Live Forever or Die Trying
I wonder, though. Isn't writing also a kind of performance? Are we ever not performing? Of course, as I have frequently pointed out, I am myself a blissfully shallow individual.
Unsettling news ...
... Blogspot is 75% Spam. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I don't expect to be on Blogspot once out new platform is up.
I don't expect to be on Blogspot once out new platform is up.
Free or not ...
... that is the question: I think therefore I am, I think. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... the American neuroscientist Benjamin Libet has shown that before every such movement, there is a distinctive build-up of electrical activity in the brain. And this build-up happens about half a second before your conscious ”decision” to move your arm. So by the time you think, ”OK, I’ll move my arm,” your body is halfway there. Which means your conscious experience of making a decision - the experience associated with free will - is just a kind of add-on, an after-thought that only happens once the brain has already set about its business. In other words, your brain is doing the real work, making your hands turn the pages of this magazine or reach over for your cup of tea, and all the time your conscious mind is tagging along behind.
This will come as no surprise to those of who subscribe to Georg Groddeck's notion of the It, that, as Freud summarized it, "what we call our ego behaves essentially passively in life, and that, as [Groddeck] expresses it, we are 'lived' by unknown and uncontrollable forces."
Or, as Groddeck himself put it: "Who draws the conclusion, that I mentally medicate a human who has broken his leg, is very true – but I adjust the fracture and dress the wound. And then – I give him a massage, make exercises with him, give a daily bath to the leg, with water of 45 centigrade for half a hour and I take care, that he does neither gorge nor booze, and every now and then I ask him: Why did you break your leg, you yourself ?"
In other words, just because my conscious ego is following the prompts of my It, doesn't mean that my It isn't free. What has Libert demonstrated other than that I respond to things even before I am conscious of doing so?
This will come as no surprise to those of who subscribe to Georg Groddeck's notion of the It, that, as Freud summarized it, "what we call our ego behaves essentially passively in life, and that, as [Groddeck] expresses it, we are 'lived' by unknown and uncontrollable forces."
Or, as Groddeck himself put it: "Who draws the conclusion, that I mentally medicate a human who has broken his leg, is very true – but I adjust the fracture and dress the wound. And then – I give him a massage, make exercises with him, give a daily bath to the leg, with water of 45 centigrade for half a hour and I take care, that he does neither gorge nor booze, and every now and then I ask him: Why did you break your leg, you yourself ?"
In other words, just because my conscious ego is following the prompts of my It, doesn't mean that my It isn't free. What has Libert demonstrated other than that I respond to things even before I am conscious of doing so?
You can stop thinking now ...
... because the New York Times is now doing it for you: NY Times Cultural Commissar Comes Clean. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Is it wrong ...
... to boil babies for fun? I think so, and probably you do as well. Philosophers - at least some of them - have a harder time making up their minds: Knowing Right and Wrong. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This begins as follows:
“Two things,” Immanuel Kant wrote in the late 18th century, “fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we meditate upon them: the starry firmament above and the moral law within.”
Then comes this observation:
The quotation suggests, misleadingly, that the astronomical and moral realms are wholly separate—the former is “above” and the latter is “within.” But they aren’t: as Moby correctly sings, “We are all made of stars.” The heavens and human beings are composed from the same physical stuff, and are governed by same physical principles. The starry firmament isn’t really “above”—it’s everywhere. We, along with lobsters and the rest, are part of it.
Everything, in short, is a natural phenomenon, an aspect of the universe as revealed by the natural sciences. In particular, morality is a natural phenomenon. Moral facts or truths—that boiling babies is wrong, say—are not additions to the natural world, they are already there in the natural world, even if they are not explicitly mentioned in scientific theories.
This begins as follows:
“Two things,” Immanuel Kant wrote in the late 18th century, “fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we meditate upon them: the starry firmament above and the moral law within.”
Then comes this observation:
The quotation suggests, misleadingly, that the astronomical and moral realms are wholly separate—the former is “above” and the latter is “within.” But they aren’t: as Moby correctly sings, “We are all made of stars.” The heavens and human beings are composed from the same physical stuff, and are governed by same physical principles. The starry firmament isn’t really “above”—it’s everywhere. We, along with lobsters and the rest, are part of it.
Everything, in short, is a natural phenomenon, an aspect of the universe as revealed by the natural sciences. In particular, morality is a natural phenomenon. Moral facts or truths—that boiling babies is wrong, say—are not additions to the natural world, they are already there in the natural world, even if they are not explicitly mentioned in scientific theories.
Interesting to compare this, I think, with this passage from Edmund Wilson's Axel's Castle:
The scientists of the seventeenth century who presented the universe as a mechanism had caused people to draw the conclusion that man was something apart from nature, something introduced into the universe from outside and remaining alien to all that he found. But a romantic poet like Wordsworth has come to feel the falsity of this assumption: he has perceived that world is an organism, that nature includes planets, mountains, vegetation and people alike, that what we are and what we see, what we hear, what we feel and what we smell, are inextricably related, that all are involved in the same great entity. Those who make fun of the Romantics are mistaken in supposing that there is no intimate connection between the landscape and the poet's emotions. There is no real dualism, says Whitehead, between external lakes and hills, on the one hand, and personal feelings, on the other: human feelings and inanimate objects are interdependent and devloping together in some fashion of which our traditional notions of laws of cause and effect, of dualities of mind and matter or of body and soul, can give us no true idea. The Romantic poet, then, with his turbid or opalescent language, his sympathies and passions which cause him to seem to merge with his surroundings, is the prophet of a new insight into nature: he is describing things as they really are: and a revolution in the imagery of poetry is in reality a revolution in metaphysics.
Thanks to Christmas present from a dear friend - of a calendar of the Lake District - I have been inspired to rope off a bit of time every day to re-read Wordsworth's The Prelude. I get it better now that I am old. I think it is worth noting that most contemporary environmentalism (James Lovelock is presumably an exception) seems premissed, not on the Romantic notion, but on the earlier, mechanistic one, that separates man from nature.My question is ...
... what kind of a picture would a tetrachromatic woman paint? Or: Was That Car Really Blue?
This brief post demonstrates once again what a skillful explainer of things Bryan is.
This brief post demonstrates once again what a skillful explainer of things Bryan is.
Friday, March 23, 2007
And you thought Philly was dull ...
... well, it sure didn't used to be: Monks, Devils and Quakers. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The pace of blogging ...
... will pick up later. I have been doubling this week as fine arts editor, which is to say I have been pretty overextended. But I am about to leave the office for home, because I've been fighting off a cold all week and I'm tired. Later.
Not to worry ...
... over Sightings of Worried Man in Blue Car .
"...an aged and anxious casualty of the sixties ..." Come now, Bryan. Wait to you get to my age.
"...an aged and anxious casualty of the sixties ..." Come now, Bryan. Wait to you get to my age.
Richard Dawkins and I ...
... agree on this: The Case for Teaching The Bible. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The Bible so pervades Western culture ... that it's hard to call anyone educated who hasn't at least given thought to its key passages.
And Shakespeare would almost surely have agreed. According to one estimate, he alludes to Scripture some 1,300 times.
The Bible so pervades Western culture ... that it's hard to call anyone educated who hasn't at least given thought to its key passages.
And Shakespeare would almost surely have agreed. According to one estimate, he alludes to Scripture some 1,300 times.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Debbie and I ...
... are going with some friends to the orchestra tonight: Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Elgar's Enigma Variations. My kind of program.
Back tomorrow.
Back tomorrow.
Today's must read ...
... Prairie Mary on self-publishing.
Like so many other things, we have a tendency to define something a particular way and then judge it from that point of view, rather than saying to oneself, “I’m going to look at this from at least six points of view.”
Precisely.
Like so many other things, we have a tendency to define something a particular way and then judge it from that point of view, rather than saying to oneself, “I’m going to look at this from at least six points of view.”
Precisely.
Attention local writers ...
... earlier today, I got this email from Mike at philadelphiawriters.com (which he has given me permission to reproduce - and which I reproduce in full):
Surprise!I Got you to open my e-mail again!
AHA!
Come to Hinge Cafe tonight at 7:45 p.m., at 2652 Somerset Avenue to the Acoustic Philly Songwriters Night.
I am going to tell everybody how to get there from Center City (see below). But first, let it be known that people who come to Acoustic-Philly shows experience the following benefits:
1) An improved nervous system.
2) Better circulatory condition.
3) Less dental plaque.
4) More dates (because dames dig folk musicians, and guys can't resist a chick with a guitar!).
Here's who's playing, but sorry--- you can't date them unless they say so over the microphone:
:-PMayor Street's underwear will not be seen tonight (and I think we're all better off).
Here's who's playing:
Dan Goberwww.dangober.com
Lili Añelwww.lilianel.org
Shelby Charnoffwww.myspace.com/dopefolk
Geremiah Giampa (he once dated a turnip) www.theparsniprevolt.com
Directions from Center City:
to I-676 EAST BOUND to I-95 NORTH TRENTON. Follow I-95 NORTH BOUND to GIRARD AVE / LEHIGH AVE EXIT #23. Merge far right and follow sign for RICHMOND ST. Travel North on Richmond St. approximately 0.6 miles. Turn LEFT onto SOMERSET ST (one block after traffic light). End one and a half blocks on the left.
More at Acoustic Philly.
Surprise!I Got you to open my e-mail again!
AHA!
Come to Hinge Cafe tonight at 7:45 p.m., at 2652 Somerset Avenue to the Acoustic Philly Songwriters Night.
I am going to tell everybody how to get there from Center City (see below). But first, let it be known that people who come to Acoustic-Philly shows experience the following benefits:
1) An improved nervous system.
2) Better circulatory condition.
3) Less dental plaque.
4) More dates (because dames dig folk musicians, and guys can't resist a chick with a guitar!).
Here's who's playing, but sorry--- you can't date them unless they say so over the microphone:
:-PMayor Street's underwear will not be seen tonight (and I think we're all better off).
Here's who's playing:
Dan Goberwww.dangober.com
Lili Añelwww.lilianel.org
Shelby Charnoffwww.myspace.com/dopefolk
Geremiah Giampa (he once dated a turnip) www.theparsniprevolt.com
Directions from Center City:
to I-676 EAST BOUND to I-95 NORTH TRENTON. Follow I-95 NORTH BOUND to GIRARD AVE / LEHIGH AVE EXIT #23. Merge far right and follow sign for RICHMOND ST. Travel North on Richmond St. approximately 0.6 miles. Turn LEFT onto SOMERSET ST (one block after traffic light). End one and a half blocks on the left.
More at Acoustic Philly.
Dark thoughts ...
... from Bryan: PlayStation 3 and the Sadness of Blogging.
The are ways in which my day job is much sadder than blogging.
The are ways in which my day job is much sadder than blogging.
To have read ...
... or not to have read: Huckleberry Who? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Not a good idea to teach or write about a book you haven't read all the way through. Which may mean re-reading one you read a long while ago. (I didn't have that problem when I wrote about J.B. Priestley's Literature and Western Man recently because I've re-read so many parts of it so often.)
Not a good idea to teach or write about a book you haven't read all the way through. Which may mean re-reading one you read a long while ago. (I didn't have that problem when I wrote about J.B. Priestley's Literature and Western Man recently because I've re-read so many parts of it so often.)
The future of publishing (cont'd.) ...
... A new chapter for books on the web. (Hat tip, Vikram Johri.)
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
An interesting debate ...
... Dennis interviews American Fascists author Chris Hedges. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Check this out ...
...From John Vick's Blog: New Lisa Zaran up at The Adroitly Placed Word .
Other interesting stuff there, too.
Other interesting stuff there, too.
On a more serious note ...
... Amy also does a little Looking Back at Poetry and Libel From the Time of the Stuarts.
Faith and begorrah ...
Another figure ...
... from back in thedays when I thought of majoring in German literature: The Touch of Truth. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A contrarian start ...
... Luvvie Rage . The link to Trashing Theatre is essential reading. I'm not as down on theater as Bryan, but I do think a lot of contemporary drama is the merest - and dullest - sermonizing. I also think that the little Pinter had to say wasn't especially worth saying and, at any rate (thank God), was said long ago. But Bryan is absolutely correct in saying that "The contrived contemporary concoctions [of Shakespeare] are the worst of all ..."
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Live around here?
... then put this on your calendar: Prof to tape special on Pennsylvania poets. (Hat tip to Rus Bowden and Dan DeLuca for jogging my memory.)
How true ...
... Hard Work Is Not a Guarantee of Quality. (Gee, I should have nominated Art for a Thinking Blogger Award. He deserves one, that's for sure.)
We, too, are late to this ...
... but we've been running behind quite a bit lately: Late to the Game.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... Carlin Romano writes about Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel: Muslim girlhood forged a fighter against oppression.
And Rita Giordano like Kockroach: Book Review | Inventive, unsettling roach in man's clothing .
And Rita Giordano like Kockroach: Book Review | Inventive, unsettling roach in man's clothing .
A free for all perhaps ...
... Veterans and newcomers contend for 2007 Orange prize. (Hat tip, Vikram Johri.)
Also, there's this: Orange overdose: spare me the longlist. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Also, there's this: Orange overdose: spare me the longlist. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Another debt ...
... to be repaid: From Epigrams: A Journal by J.V. Cunningham. (Hat tip, Dave Lull, who also sends this link to other work by Cunningham.)
I once received a very nice note from J.V. Cunningham, thanking me for a review of his poems that I had written, telling me that it was nice to be praised for the things one had hoped to be praised. He later very kindly read some of the poems I was writing at the time and told me, quite correctly, that I had perfected a style but hadn't yet figured out what to do with it. The single most imprtant piece of criticism I have ever received. May perpetual light shine upon him.
I once received a very nice note from J.V. Cunningham, thanking me for a review of his poems that I had written, telling me that it was nice to be praised for the things one had hoped to be praised. He later very kindly read some of the poems I was writing at the time and told me, quite correctly, that I had perfected a style but hadn't yet figured out what to do with it. The single most imprtant piece of criticism I have ever received. May perpetual light shine upon him.
I pay a debt ...
... to an author, for a book that has meant much to me. Norm Geras graciously asked me to write about a book that has been a major influence one me. The result is here: Writer's choice 94: Frank Wilson. My thanks to Norm for the opportunity.
Monday, March 19, 2007
A different sort of dialogue ...
... "Global warming NOT a crisis", IQ2 audience decides.
What is interesting here is the transcript of the debate. For the record, my position on this issue is much the same as Glenn's
What is interesting here is the transcript of the debate. For the record, my position on this issue is much the same as Glenn's
In case you've been wondering ...
... Who the Hell is Troy Jollimore?
Moreover, here are some Poems from Tom Thomson in Purgatory, by Troy Jollimore.
Moreover, here are some Poems from Tom Thomson in Purgatory, by Troy Jollimore.
And what about us ...
... or rather the U.S.? Michael Barone on The Blame-America-First Crowd.
In connection with this, The Gospel of John & Yoko: The Origins of Mad Morality is worth a look, too, considerinmg that the author has seen it from the other side.
In connection with this, The Gospel of John & Yoko: The Origins of Mad Morality is worth a look, too, considerinmg that the author has seen it from the other side.
Oops ...
... seems that, despite being such deep thinkers, we've been duped: Thinking Blogger Award.
Update: As Maxine indicates, we weren't duped after all: Bluestalking Reader: Thinking Blogger Awards.
Update: As Maxine indicates, we weren't duped after all: Bluestalking Reader: Thinking Blogger Awards.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Happy birthday ...
... to John Updike. Hard to believe he's 75. I can remember when The Poorhouse Fair was published. Anyway, here, compliments of Dave Lull, are some links:
... from The Centaurian.
Updike's 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from Christianity and Literature.
And his Life and Times. (This really has a lot.)
... from The Centaurian.
Updike's 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from Christianity and Literature.
And his Life and Times. (This really has a lot.)
A lively discussion ...
... to say the least: Genre Wars from a Different Angle. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
The future of newspapers ...
... according to Warren Buffett, who owns one. This is from his Annual Letter to Berkshire Hathaway Stockholders. (Hat tip, Roger Miller.)
But this is the money quote, and I think the old boy is pretty much right:
But this is the money quote, and I think the old boy is pretty much right:
Not all of our businesses are destined to increase profits. When an industry’s underlying economics are crumbling, talented management may slow the rate of decline. Eventually, though, eroding fundamentals will overwhelm managerial brilliance. (As a wise friend told me long ago, “If you want to get a reputation as a good businessman, be sure to get into a good business.”) And fundamentals are definitely eroding in the newspaper industry, a trend that has caused the profits of our Buffalo News to decline. The skid will almost certainly continue.
When Charlie and I were young, the newspaper business was as easy a way to make huge returns as existed in America. As one not-too-bright publisher famously said, “I owe my fortune to two great American institutions: monopoly and nepotism.” No paper in a one-paper city, however bad the product or however inept the management, could avoid gushing profits. The industry’s staggering returns could be simply explained. For most of the 20th Century, newspapers were the primary source of information for the American public. Whether the subject was sports, finance, or politics, newspapers reigned supreme. Just as important, their ads were the easiest way to find job opportunities or to learn the price of groceries at your town’s supermarkets.
The great majority of families therefore felt the need for a paper every day, but understandably most didn’t wish to pay for two. Advertisers preferred the paper with the most circulation, and readers tended to want the paper with the most ads and news pages. This circularity led to a law of the newspaper jungle: Survival of the Fattest. Thus, when two or more papers existed in a major city (which was almost universally the case a century ago), the one that pulled ahead usually emerged as the stand-alone winner. After competition disappeared, the paper’s pricing power in both advertising and circulation was unleashed. Typically, rates for both advertisers and readers would be raised annually – and the profits rolled in. For owners this was economic heaven.
(Interestingly, though papers regularly – and often in a disapproving way – reported on the profitability of, say, the auto or steel industries, they never enlightened readers about their own Midas-like situation. Hmmm . . .)
As long ago as my 1991 letter to shareholders, I nonetheless asserted that this insulated world was changing, writing that “the media businesses . . . will prove considerably less marvelous than I, the industry, or lenders thought would be the case only a few years ago.” Some publishers took umbrage at both this remark and other warnings from me that followed. Newspaper properties, moreover, continued to sell as if they were indestructible slot machines. In fact, many intelligent newspaper executives who regularly chronicled and analyzed important worldwide events were either blind or indifferent to what was going on under their noses.
Now, however, almost all newspaper owners realize that they are constantly losing ground in the battle for eyeballs. Simply put, if cable and satellite broadcasting, as well as the internet, had come along first, newspapers as we know them probably would never have existed. In Berkshire’s world, Stan Lipsey does a terrific job running the Buffalo News, and I am enormously proud of its editor, Margaret Sullivan. The News’ penetration of its market is the highest among that of this country’s large newspapers. We also do better financially than most metropolitan newspapers, even though Buffalo’s population and business trends are not good.
Nevertheless, this operation faces unrelenting pressures that will cause profit margins to slide. True, we have the leading online news operation in Buffalo, and it will continue to attract more viewers and ads. However, the economic potential of a newspaper internet site – given the many alternative sources of information and entertainment that are free and only a click away – is at best a small fraction of that existing in the past for a print newspaper facing no competition. For a local resident, ownership of a city’s paper, like ownership of a sports team, still produces instant prominence. With it typically comes power and influence. These are ruboffs that appeal to many people with money. Beyond that, civic-minded, wealthy individuals may feel that local ownership will serve their community well. That’s why Peter Kiewit bought the Omaha paper more than 40 years ago.
We are likely therefore to see non-economic individual buyers of newspapers emerge, just as we have seen such buyers acquire major sports franchises. Aspiring press lords should be careful, however: There’s no rule that says a newspaper’s revenues can’t fall below its expenses and that losses can’t mushroom. Fixed costs are high in the newspaper business, and that’s bad news when unit volume heads south. As the importance of newspapers diminishes, moreover, the “psychic” value of possessing one will wane, whereas owning a sports franchise will likely retain its cachet.
Unless we face an irreversible cash drain, we will stick with the News, just as we’ve said that we would. (Read economic principle 11, on page 76.) Charlie and I love newspapers – we each read five a day – and believe that a free and energetic press is a key ingredient for maintaining a great democracy. We hope that some combination of print and online will ward off economic doomsday for newspapers, and we will work hard in Buffalo to develop a sustainable business model. I think we will be successful. But the days of lush profits from our newspaper are over.
When Charlie and I were young, the newspaper business was as easy a way to make huge returns as existed in America. As one not-too-bright publisher famously said, “I owe my fortune to two great American institutions: monopoly and nepotism.” No paper in a one-paper city, however bad the product or however inept the management, could avoid gushing profits. The industry’s staggering returns could be simply explained. For most of the 20th Century, newspapers were the primary source of information for the American public. Whether the subject was sports, finance, or politics, newspapers reigned supreme. Just as important, their ads were the easiest way to find job opportunities or to learn the price of groceries at your town’s supermarkets.
The great majority of families therefore felt the need for a paper every day, but understandably most didn’t wish to pay for two. Advertisers preferred the paper with the most circulation, and readers tended to want the paper with the most ads and news pages. This circularity led to a law of the newspaper jungle: Survival of the Fattest. Thus, when two or more papers existed in a major city (which was almost universally the case a century ago), the one that pulled ahead usually emerged as the stand-alone winner. After competition disappeared, the paper’s pricing power in both advertising and circulation was unleashed. Typically, rates for both advertisers and readers would be raised annually – and the profits rolled in. For owners this was economic heaven.
(Interestingly, though papers regularly – and often in a disapproving way – reported on the profitability of, say, the auto or steel industries, they never enlightened readers about their own Midas-like situation. Hmmm . . .)
As long ago as my 1991 letter to shareholders, I nonetheless asserted that this insulated world was changing, writing that “the media businesses . . . will prove considerably less marvelous than I, the industry, or lenders thought would be the case only a few years ago.” Some publishers took umbrage at both this remark and other warnings from me that followed. Newspaper properties, moreover, continued to sell as if they were indestructible slot machines. In fact, many intelligent newspaper executives who regularly chronicled and analyzed important worldwide events were either blind or indifferent to what was going on under their noses.
Now, however, almost all newspaper owners realize that they are constantly losing ground in the battle for eyeballs. Simply put, if cable and satellite broadcasting, as well as the internet, had come along first, newspapers as we know them probably would never have existed. In Berkshire’s world, Stan Lipsey does a terrific job running the Buffalo News, and I am enormously proud of its editor, Margaret Sullivan. The News’ penetration of its market is the highest among that of this country’s large newspapers. We also do better financially than most metropolitan newspapers, even though Buffalo’s population and business trends are not good.
Nevertheless, this operation faces unrelenting pressures that will cause profit margins to slide. True, we have the leading online news operation in Buffalo, and it will continue to attract more viewers and ads. However, the economic potential of a newspaper internet site – given the many alternative sources of information and entertainment that are free and only a click away – is at best a small fraction of that existing in the past for a print newspaper facing no competition. For a local resident, ownership of a city’s paper, like ownership of a sports team, still produces instant prominence. With it typically comes power and influence. These are ruboffs that appeal to many people with money. Beyond that, civic-minded, wealthy individuals may feel that local ownership will serve their community well. That’s why Peter Kiewit bought the Omaha paper more than 40 years ago.
We are likely therefore to see non-economic individual buyers of newspapers emerge, just as we have seen such buyers acquire major sports franchises. Aspiring press lords should be careful, however: There’s no rule that says a newspaper’s revenues can’t fall below its expenses and that losses can’t mushroom. Fixed costs are high in the newspaper business, and that’s bad news when unit volume heads south. As the importance of newspapers diminishes, moreover, the “psychic” value of possessing one will wane, whereas owning a sports franchise will likely retain its cachet.
Unless we face an irreversible cash drain, we will stick with the News, just as we’ve said that we would. (Read economic principle 11, on page 76.) Charlie and I love newspapers – we each read five a day – and believe that a free and energetic press is a key ingredient for maintaining a great democracy. We hope that some combination of print and online will ward off economic doomsday for newspapers, and we will work hard in Buffalo to develop a sustainable business model. I think we will be successful. But the days of lush profits from our newspaper are over.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
Patrick Kurp praises the work of Zbigniew Herbert: The impersonal poet, sharing rays of light.
Edward Champion finds a surfeit of plurality in Joshua Ferris's latest: Unusual, one could say singular, look at work.
Scotia MacRae is utterly charmed by The Lady in the Palazzo: Memoir of a life resettled in Italian romance.
Elizabeth Fox is swept away by Laura Restrepo's Delirium: Memoir of a life resettled in Italian romance.
Sarah Weinman is impressed by Charity Girl: Moral crusade sweeps up a young girl.
Katie Haegele thinks this young adult book is perfect for adults, too: Young Adult Reader | A mother's quick death, but daughter's sweet remembrance.
During the past week ...
Dan DeLuca reviewed Chris Abani: Poems, a novel with language most luminous.
Suzanne Blair reviewed a volume of poems by doctors-to-be: Trying their hand at medicine and poetry.
And I reviewed some fine poems by John McNamee: How faith looks to one who lives it.
Gee, just think: In one week The Inquirer reviewed four books of poetry.
Postscript: The Inquirer is in the process of changing over to a new online platform. In the course of making the change the books page seems have been left behind. You can still link to it from this blog, however (right below my currently non-existent picture).
Edward Champion finds a surfeit of plurality in Joshua Ferris's latest: Unusual, one could say singular, look at work.
Scotia MacRae is utterly charmed by The Lady in the Palazzo: Memoir of a life resettled in Italian romance.
Elizabeth Fox is swept away by Laura Restrepo's Delirium: Memoir of a life resettled in Italian romance.
Sarah Weinman is impressed by Charity Girl: Moral crusade sweeps up a young girl.
Katie Haegele thinks this young adult book is perfect for adults, too: Young Adult Reader | A mother's quick death, but daughter's sweet remembrance.
During the past week ...
Dan DeLuca reviewed Chris Abani: Poems, a novel with language most luminous.
Suzanne Blair reviewed a volume of poems by doctors-to-be: Trying their hand at medicine and poetry.
And I reviewed some fine poems by John McNamee: How faith looks to one who lives it.
Gee, just think: In one week The Inquirer reviewed four books of poetry.
Postscript: The Inquirer is in the process of changing over to a new online platform. In the course of making the change the books page seems have been left behind. You can still link to it from this blog, however (right below my currently non-existent picture).
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Nothing like not liking ...
... what you don't read: To Heck With You, Richard Schickel! (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A couple of these guys ...
... have been visiting out backyard. The fox sparrows (below right) are rather plump and agressive, I might add. The juncos seem to be permanent winter visitors.
This is terrific ...
... Juxtaposition. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
It's not that far off the mark. The last cassoulet I made had goose and goose confit in it. And somehow it works - just like cassoulet.
It's not that far off the mark. The last cassoulet I made had goose and goose confit in it. And somehow it works - just like cassoulet.
Joe of New York ...
... has posted on an earlier post of mine a comment that is so interesting that I have decided to reproduce it here as a separate post. I'd love to see this film.
Maxine looks ...
... at some Ghosts from the past in crime novels.
She also alerts us to this: Win Kate Pepper's newest thriller.
She also alerts us to this: Win Kate Pepper's newest thriller.
Leave it to Bryan ...
... to make sense of Susan Sontag.
Like Bryan, I have never been a fan. Many years ago, I concluded a review of I, Etcetera, her collection of stories, by saying that it was great book to curl up with in front of the fire and use as kindling. But the insight Bryan has extracted from this essay is right on the money.
Today's must read ...
... is from the TLS: Evolution myths.
Morse Peckham was one of my teachers when I attended Penn's graduate school many years ago. He was very good.
Morse Peckham was one of my teachers when I attended Penn's graduate school many years ago. He was very good.
Something to take ...
... to heart:`Look Into Everything, Keep the Best'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull, who notes that Patrick forgot to mention that Ormsby "was a librarian (MLS, Rutgers): Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, director of libraries, 1983-86; McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, director of libraries, 1986-96.")
Interestingly, I find that I am not open, either, to most of what Patrick says he is not open to. The pop music I like is not today's (except when I get a chance to hear a country station). I watch baseball now and then and go to a game occasionally. I play the ponies a couple of times a year - after all, I used to do the racing charts at The Inquirer. Otherwise, pretty much not interested.
Interestingly, I find that I am not open, either, to most of what Patrick says he is not open to. The pop music I like is not today's (except when I get a chance to hear a country station). I watch baseball now and then and go to a game occasionally. I play the ponies a couple of times a year - after all, I used to do the racing charts at The Inquirer. Otherwise, pretty much not interested.
Friday, March 16, 2007
I had trouble with Blogger today ...
... which explains the blogging gap. Can't resume again until tonight, though, since I have an appointment to go to. Later.
At first, I thought it had to do ...
... with drinking, but apparently not: Red Nose Day and Immortality .
Judging by the people Bryan profiles in his book, a sense of humor is one path to immortality they don't seem to be exploring.
Judging by the people Bryan profiles in his book, a sense of humor is one path to immortality they don't seem to be exploring.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
I have had a wearying week ...
... and am fighting off a cold. So that's going to be it for tonight. I'm going to curl up with a good book - Giulio Leoni's The Mosaic Crimes, which Maxine brought to my attention and that seems pretty good so far.
Believe or not, I should be back in regular blogging form by tomorrow.
Believe or not, I should be back in regular blogging form by tomorrow.
Bluestalking Reader got there first ...
... else I would surely have nominated Petrona myself, but here are Maxine's picks.
The future of newspapers (cont'd) ...
... 24/7 Newsroom management principles for the Guardian and the Observer. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sounds about right to me.
Sounds about right to me.
Well, thank you, Steve ...
... for the kind words and the nomination.
The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).
Anecdotal Evidence is simply one of the best literary blogs around, precisely because it is so thoughtful.
I don't see that anyone has nominated the Grumpy Old Bookman yet, so I will. Even though he has cut back a bit, Michael remains must reading.
Clattery MacHinery on Poetry always gets me thinking afresh about one of my favorite topics.
Hard to think of a blog that gets you thinking more than Peter Stothard's.
And I just have to pick one of my favorite blogs, period: Books, Words, and Writing . The games and quizzes alone that Amy links to keep my mind from stagnating.
Material well-being's nothing to sneeze at, either ...
... Philosopher Wins Templeton Prize for Spiritual Matters . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
So you want to be a writer ...
... well, then take a look inside Balzac's boiler room. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A couple of reviews ...
... Dan DeLuca looks at a novel and some poems by Chris Abani: Poems, a novel with language most luminous.
And I review something in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day: How faith looks to one who lives it.
And I review something in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day: How faith looks to one who lives it.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
A look at ...
... Bad Published Writer Photos. Of course they can't really be that bad when you're really good looking. But they are funy.
A primer on lives ...
... Biography: the Highest Form of Cannibalism? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Nothing cannibalistic about John Heilpern's splendid biography of John Osborne (I jnow, I know, I've said this already).
Nothing cannibalistic about John Heilpern's splendid biography of John Osborne (I jnow, I know, I've said this already).
Oddly, I believe ...
... that Richard Dawkins might agree: We live in the land of biblical idiots. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Today's must read ...
... 2+2=5.
... abundant events are real to those who experience them, who absolutely know them not to be dreams, hallucinations, delusions, or other kinds of sensory error, even though others around them may and often do contest this. All languages provide such categories of unreality and all cultures define boundaries among the real, the not-as-real, and the unreal, but people explicitly reject these words in describing the abundant event. They experience the abundant event as something outside themselves, really in the world, and out of their control. Indeed, they may, and often do, experience themselves as being in the control of the abundant event.
Or, as I am fond pointing out, experience trumps all theories.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Congratulations ...
... Poet Laureate Chooses Two New Voices in American Poetry for 10th Annual Witter Bynner Award and Reading, March 29.
One of them, David Tucker, used to be The Inquirer's city editor. Way to go, Dave.
One of them, David Tucker, used to be The Inquirer's city editor. Way to go, Dave.
Big game ...
... Daniel Dennett Hunts the Snark. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Like Hart, I have never "got" Daniel Dennett, and Hart's reasons are virtually identical to my own:
Like Hart, I have never "got" Daniel Dennett, and Hart's reasons are virtually identical to my own:
I have thought all his large books-especially one entitled Consciousness Explained-poorly reasoned and infuriatingly inadequate in their approaches to the questions they address. Too often he shows a preference for the cumulative argument over the cogent and for repetition over demonstration. The Bellman’s maxim, "What I tell you three times is true," is not alien to Dennett’s method. He seems to work on the supposition that an assertion made with sufficient force and frequency is soon transformed, by some subtle alchemy, into a settled principle. And there are rather too many instances when Dennett seems either clumsily to miss or willfully to ignore pertinent objections to his views and so races past them with a perfunctory wave in what he takes to be their general direction-though usually in another direction altogether. Consider, for example, this dialectical gem, plucked from his book Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: "Perhaps the most misguided criticism of gene centrism is the frequently heard claim that genes simply cannot have interests. This . . . is flatly mistaken. . . . If a body politic, or General Motors, can have interests, so can genes." At moments like this, one feels that something has been overlooked.
Today's must read ...
... Time capsules. Like Terry, I have long been a fan of Percy Grainger's music.
"Once you put this book down ...
... you just can't pick it up again." That's how Mark Twain once reviewed a Henry James novel. Some readers just don't connect to some books: On the shelf: the books you can't finish. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Monday, March 12, 2007
Blogging has been spotty ...
... and is likely to remain so for a couple of days, because I have a terrific backlog of work
Over the weekend ...
... I rented the film Get Carter because I wanted to see John Osborne's performance. I hadn't seen the film in years and, as it happened, the only part of I remembered was the scene at the end where Michael Caine forces his brother's killer to drink a bottle of whiskey. I certainly didn't notice when I saw it the first time that John Osborne was in it. According to John Heilpern in his recent, great biography of Osborne, the playwright was no great shakes as a stage actor. But judging by his performance in Get Carter he could have had a career as a screen actor. In character roles - I don't know that he could have carried a film by himself. He certainly is heartwarmingly evil in Get Carter.
This has got me thinking ...
... in my sub-Mensa sort of way: Microsoft and Immortality .
I confess to harboring a wish that a couple of my poems survive me, though I don't care whether anybody knows that I wrote them or who I was. It is that moment of authenticity that I hope the poem represents I would like to echo on as it were and make some connection with another person.
Father Richard John Neuhaus wries in First Things:
Russell Hittinger of Tulsa University and a frequent contributor to First Things was in town this week, and he persuaded me to go see the film Into Great Silence. It is nearly three hours of nearly silent filming of the life of the monks at Grand Chartreuse, the Carthusian monastery founded by St. Bruno in 1084 in the Swiss Alps near Grenoble.
The film was a big hit in Europe but is showing here in only one theater, the Film Forum over on West Houston (For non-New Yorkers, that’s Howston.) It was scheduled for a week, then held over for another week, and is now held over indefinitely. The lines to get in are long and steady, and let’s hope theater owners elsewhere will recognize its potential. I understand it will be out in DVD in a few months, but this is something that should, if possible, be seen in the theater.
The packed house was almost preternaturally silent as people were caught up into a way of life radically directed to the transcendent, to God. For me, the film made a deep and, I expect, lasting impression. If you have the opportunity, I suggest you not miss it.
Joe(New York)