Tuesday, March 31, 2009
I'm indifferent ...
... On wanting ET to be there.
I'm afraid I'm one of those people who has never been much interested in outer space. I love the stars and planets precisely from the perspective of Earth. If there is intelligent life out there, well and good. Hope they stop by sometime for a chat. I also don't much care about being recognized. I could rest content if some poems of mine continued to attract readers, but I wouldn't care if no one one knew I had written them.
Simmer down ...
... The Looming Death of Natural Silence.
It remains wondrously free of of distracting sounds where we vacation upstate. It's a very large country. There are vast stretches where no untoward noises intrude. Of course, if a place becomes a haven for tourists and assorted well-off types looking to move where it seems all warm and fuzzily natural, well yes, they will bring the noise and other annoyances with them. It will no longer be the place it was before they flocked there.
Hey, buckaroos ...
... Yippee-ky-yo-ky-yay-ky-yeehah!
I saw Wally McRae when I was at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering back in 2005 and chatted with Tom Russell. Could have seen Ian, I suspect, but by then I had plenty of material and was getting ready to mosey on. Here, once more, is the piece I wrote: There's poetry in them thar cowboys.
And here is Ian Tyson (and a painting by Charlie Russell):
I saw Wally McRae when I was at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering back in 2005 and chatted with Tom Russell. Could have seen Ian, I suspect, but by then I had plenty of material and was getting ready to mosey on. Here, once more, is the piece I wrote: There's poetry in them thar cowboys.
And here is Ian Tyson (and a painting by Charlie Russell):
Following the script ...
... Surprise! (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
On the other hand, there is Lev Shestov's view: THE FUNDAMENTAL IDEA OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF LEV SHESTOV.
To be modern is to be torn in two. We celebrate freedom as if we can do anything we want, if we put our minds to it. At the same time, we bemoan the way our genes, our childhood, and social forces determine everything we do. When we grow bald, lose our temper, or get laid off, experts tell us that we really have no choice in the matter. Life is preordained by factors that outflank our feeble will. Yet at the same time we celebrate will power as if everything is contingent and subject to our control. The decline of providence has left us intellectually schizophrenic. We define freedom as the opposite of submission and obedience but end up feeling hardly free at all.
On the other hand, there is Lev Shestov's view: THE FUNDAMENTAL IDEA OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF LEV SHESTOV.
He was struck by the force of necessity over human life, which begets the terrors of life. The vulgar forms of necessity did not interest him, but rather the more subtle forms. The force of irreversible necessity has been idealised by philosophers, as reason and morals, as self-evident and generally-observed truths. Necessity is begotten by knowing. L. Shestov is completely caught up by this thought, that the Fall into sin is connected with knowledge, with the knowledge of good and evil. Man ceases to be nourished off the tree of life and begins to be nourished off the tree of knowledge. And L. Shestov struggles against the force of knowledge, which makes man subject under the law, in the name of the liberation of life. ... Shestov is not at all against scientific knowledge, he is not against reason in everyday life. ... He was against the pretensions of science and reason to decide questions about God, about the liberation of man from the tragic anguish of human judgement, wherein reason and rational knowledge want to circumscribe potentiality. God first of all is limitless potentialities, and this is a basic definition of God. God is not bound by any sort of truths of necessity.
Beats a debate ...
... over American Idol: Why a 17th-century novel is a hot political issue in France. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
As I recall - and I haven't looked at it in more than 40 years - Madame de Lafayette's novel is pretty good.
As I recall - and I haven't looked at it in more than 40 years - Madame de Lafayette's novel is pretty good.
The future of publishing (cont'd.) ...
... this time, magazine publishing: Do-It-Yourself Magazines, Cheaply Slick. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This should be of special interest to bloggers, I would think. Check this out, too: An interview with Bob Walkenhorst. I liked this:
This should be of special interest to bloggers, I would think. Check this out, too: An interview with Bob Walkenhorst. I liked this:
My first career in music, 1982 to 1997, was mostly driven by ambition. My second wave, 2003 to present, I consciously try to avoid anything ambition-driven. Free downloads? Sure, why not? Make good music; the rest will take care of itself. Maybe.
Be very afraid ...
... (well, not really): Frightful Kindle.
I hope it's clear that I don't view this as a good thing or something I welcome. When I had the realization I described above it felt like a sock in the gut, if perhaps a fillip on the interior decorating front. All the business model and joblessnes stuff aside, that's how I feel about physical newspapers too. There's a lot I miss about print newspapers, particularly the serendipitous magic of finding stories adjacent to the one you're reading, articles you're deeply interested in but never would have known you were if it weren't plopped down in front of you to pull you in through your peripheral vision. Yet at this point I probably read a print newspaper only a handful of times a year.
A poet's wisdom ...
... The Paris Review interviews JOHN HALL WHEELOCK.
This is really worth reading. I have been a fan of Wheelock's poetry since I first discovered it in 1964.
This is really worth reading. I have been a fan of Wheelock's poetry since I first discovered it in 1964.
Today's must-read ...
... Defining the Journalism vs. Blogging Debate, with a Science Reporting angle. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This piece makes much of the Huffington Post. I think the author should look into Pajamas Media as well. Also, why eliminate what the blogger calls "pseudoscience, HIV denialist, New Age woo-mongers"? Why not just hire those "real science/nature/medicine reporters" and let readers make up their own minds based on the soundness of argument, data, etc.? I still think that free and open and full discussion of all points of view - without rancor or insult - is the best way to arrive at some measure of truth. I am suspicious whenever anybody wants to restrict access to any point of view. (Which was why, when I was editor of my college newspaper, I wanted to invite Gus Hall amd George Lincoln Rockwell to both write about an incident involving the American Communist Party and the American Nazi Party that took place in Philadelphia. My Jesuit preceptors overruled me, which was their prerogative. But I think people would have seen through both.)
Where Internet kills the traditional media is in the lack of limits. Radio or TV will have a 2-minute summary, a newspaper will have a predetermined amount of space for it. This will tell you briefly What, Who, Where, When, How and perhaps even a little bit of Why, but cannot, by definition tell the whole story. If you are not interested, this is enough for you. If you are interested, or if you are suspicious of the source, you are left hanging and unsatisfied. But online, that short summary will provide a link to something that no other medium can afford to have: the entire transcript of the session, the entire video of the whole football game, full uncut interviews instead of brief quotes, further links to additional relevant information.It is precisely because one can compare the information as reported with the primary sources of that information that the traditional media have come to seem far less reliable. They would do better to be brutally agnostic regarding the issues of the day and make sure every side of every argument is thoroughly aired.
This piece makes much of the Huffington Post. I think the author should look into Pajamas Media as well. Also, why eliminate what the blogger calls "pseudoscience, HIV denialist, New Age woo-mongers"? Why not just hire those "real science/nature/medicine reporters" and let readers make up their own minds based on the soundness of argument, data, etc.? I still think that free and open and full discussion of all points of view - without rancor or insult - is the best way to arrive at some measure of truth. I am suspicious whenever anybody wants to restrict access to any point of view. (Which was why, when I was editor of my college newspaper, I wanted to invite Gus Hall amd George Lincoln Rockwell to both write about an incident involving the American Communist Party and the American Nazi Party that took place in Philadelphia. My Jesuit preceptors overruled me, which was their prerogative. But I think people would have seen through both.)
A chat ...
... with Nicholson Baker. (Hat tip, Chris Mills, who - clever fellow - got out of The Inquirer even before I did.)
But finding what?
... Seeking Salvation. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This is an excellent review, the kind that presents among argument and evidence to enable you to decide for yourself whether you would enjoy reading the book. I'm not sure I would. I also found this interesting: "... the reader is implicitly called upon to consider what sort of creator would allow humanity to exist in a state so bereft of hope." What I find interesting is how often one sees this sort of thing: Something bad happens and the immediate impulse is to question the existence or motives of the Creator. A corresponding impulse upon experiencing the wonderful occurs far less often.
Thought for the day ...
If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable... we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar.- John Henry Newman
Monday, March 30, 2009
Lessons of a master ...
... Cunningham’s history of criticism. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I like this:
I like this:
(Cunningham asks the students for their definitions of style.) One says, “It’s the way a writer uses words.” “You might think of style as the way words use a writer,” Cunningham replies.
Way to go, Antonia ...
... Blue Met launches 2009 lineup; A.S. Byatt to be honoured.
Readers of this blog will know that I am extremely fond of Antonia Byatt. One of the great moments of my reading life was when, in Wayle, Ill., of all places, I finished reading Possession. It brought me to tears. I think it is a great novel. To meet Antonia was a privilege and a great pleasure.
Happy Birthday, Dear Darlin' Deb :)
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Happy Birthday to Our Invisible Lady of the Web;
She goes with the flow when Frank's on the Ebb.
And, although we've never seen her come around here,
It's a universal truth we hold 'er unquestionably dear.
For, without her, Frank would surely be less;
And, without her, we could never quite bless
The way this cyberworld turns head and heart;
And, each of us rises to share the better part.
It's just a birthday, eh? That's what they say;
But, Deb's Our Darling This Very Special Day.
Have a très wonderful morning, afternoon, and night:
I jes' know I speak for all of us from The Land of BITE :).
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Post bumped.
Bravo Rachel and Elly ...
... Rachel and Elly run the London Marathon for MacMillan Cancer Support.
I happen to know, thanks to an inside tip, that Elly's real last name is Irving and that she is the divine Maxine's stepdaughter. She also runs a hell of a lot better than I do.
I happen to know, thanks to an inside tip, that Elly's real last name is Irving and that she is the divine Maxine's stepdaughter. She also runs a hell of a lot better than I do.
A UN of the spirit ...
... `Hearty, Jovial Aristocrats of the Heart'.
Bearing, of course, no resemblance whatever to the UN we actually have.
Bearing, of course, no resemblance whatever to the UN we actually have.
Poems and the poet ...
... on Intruder, poems by Jill Bialosky (Knopf) – and an interview with the poet. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A bunch of reviews ...
... from Publishers Weekly, including reviews of John Updike's presumably final collections of stories and poems. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
True nonbelievers ...
... Still a Believer: James F. Sennett Responds to Questions About His Faith. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A good many of the commenters sound as confident in their new-found unbelief as I am sure they were in their former belief. Increasingly, I find these debates tedious and not worth engaging in. My own experience of faith seems greatly different from what is usually being discussed.
Take two Chopins ...
... and call me in the morning: Composing Concertos in the Key of Rx. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Lead of the day ...
... probably the lead of the week, maybe the lead of the month, possibly the lead of the year: "The Kindly Ones, not to be confused with Anthony Powell's novel, is contemporary literature's answer to the Bataan Death March." But read the whole thing: It's hard out there for a Nazi. See also “The Worst Book I Have Read in the Past Three Years.” (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A couple of things ...
... I missed yesterday.
First, John Timpane's piece about Aleaxander McCall Smith: Author rooted in 2 continents, inspired by an African woman.
Second, Jonathan Storm's piece about HBO's adaption of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency: Jonathan Storm: A gem from Africa.
First, John Timpane's piece about Aleaxander McCall Smith: Author rooted in 2 continents, inspired by an African woman.
Second, Jonathan Storm's piece about HBO's adaption of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency: Jonathan Storm: A gem from Africa.
Thought for the day ...
My sentiments exactly.Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.- Albert Camus
A couple from Nige ...
... Great Boots 2: Van Gogh.
... what does seem extraordinary is that works regarded barely a century ago as so challenging that they could hardly be looked at are now 'easy' default art for money-burners, and hang on a million suburban living room walls.... In the Busy Traffic's Boom...
To the eye, all was glorious, convincingly 'unspoilt' countryside - but the ear told another story, the sad truth that we live in a car-dominated, car-connected, car-ravaged land.
Nicholson Baker
While I've always enjoyed the work of the Haverford College educated Nicholson Baker, I've never had a complete grasp for his reputation among critics. I'd be interested to hear how people feel about his early novels, particularly The Mezzanine, which I found unusually witty.
NPR on Baker
NPR on Baker
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The new Puritans ...
... Morality and Public Space.
I think we would all agree that, if there really is to be a distinction made between moral and legal wrongdoing and between the sphere of private freedom and that of public control, there must be some principle or procedure for determining what the law can and cannot forbid. If we don't have that procedure, or if we can chop and change, invoking liberty when liberty goes in our favour and "public morality" when it goes the other way, we are only pretending to distinguish law from morality. And recent experience of the UK Parliament, which is peopled by a new breed of puritans who are every bit as keen to impose their views on the rest of us as their 17th-century forebears, and every bit as keen as those forebears to claim the exemptions required by their own way of life, suggests that there is a real temptation among those who find themselves able to make laws for the rest of us, to be guided not by the love of freedom but by the morally-inspired desire to extinguish it.
The puritan is a human type - unfortunately - and to think that puritans include only churchgoers is naive in the extreme. These days, you're likely to find more true puritans at a political rally than at Mass. Political true believers can get hung up on dogmas as much as anybody, with similar results.
The joys of serendipity ...
... In Pursuit of the Unknown. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I can't help thinking - but then I am approaching old age and old men are predisposed to think such thoughts - that this utilitarian attitude, this inability to understand the joys of serendipity, will lead in the long run to an inability to make and understand allusions and to a loss of mental flexibility. Browsing is a manifestation of multiculturalism in the best possible sense. By browsing, you realise that what you previously did not know existed interests you deeply. The internet, by contrast, is the instrument of monomaniacs.
Marilynne Robinson delivers ...
... the Dwight H. Terry Lectures at Yale. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There are video streams of the first two.
There are video streams of the first two.
Majority report ...
... Matters Arising. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What is in dispute is whether matter itself is the fundamental nature of reality or an increasingly mysterious abstraction from the real, intelligible and value-filled world of our experience. It is worth remembering that most major philosophers have thought, and most living philosophers now think, that consciousness and thought are irreducibly real, and cannot be explained or described in purely material terms.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... Floyd Skloot on The enduring Cheever story.
... Jessica Schneider on Short river's long shadow on England.
... Yours truly on Romance and bloody battle. ( I notice a change was made that has resulted in something misleading: the treacherous knight mentioned at the end of the fourth paragraph betrayed both the town and the archers, from who Nick did not have to rescue Melisande.)
... Peter Rozovsky on Matt Rees: Crime novel offers insight into history of Palestinians.
... Jessica Schneider on Short river's long shadow on England.
... Yours truly on Romance and bloody battle. ( I notice a change was made that has resulted in something misleading: the treacherous knight mentioned at the end of the fourth paragraph betrayed both the town and the archers, from who Nick did not have to rescue Melisande.)
... Peter Rozovsky on Matt Rees: Crime novel offers insight into history of Palestinians.
Thought for the day ...
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.- Meister Eckhart
Saturday, March 28, 2009
A Global View: What People Power Can Do
Beginning at 8:30, from timezone to timezone, anyone interested in watching the lights go out around the globe may do so by clicking on the subject line on this post; hope I'm not too late for many of you; but, I'm already practising since I'm generally in the dark anyway :). Um, enjoy? Have sex? Do yoga? Take a nap? Lard knows, there are still some exciting things to explore when you pull the plugs and flip the switches.
p.s. Sorry, forgot to mention you must hit "F-5" or click "Refresh / Reload" in order to watch the action . . .
p.s. Sorry, forgot to mention you must hit "F-5" or click "Refresh / Reload" in order to watch the action . . .
Shopping for fresh ...
... A Novelist Takes Aim. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
All vigorous pursuits bring real change. As I keep track of my dogs in broken country I notice that my memory improves, particularly short-term memory -- no small thing at my age. The hills that at the beginning of the season seemed so laborious roll beneath me. One does not set about doing these things as a salute to the Protestant Ethic but rather by noticing the land, the weather and the dogs and by allowing a sympathetic chord to rise to the hunt.
Irresistible ...
... Pun for the Ages. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I like puns. One the most admired headlines I ever wrote - for a review of a biography of Heidegger - was a pun: Dasein for living.
Reappraisal ...
... Underrated: Lionel Trilling. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There seems to be something of a Trilling boomlet happening. And that's good.
There seems to be something of a Trilling boomlet happening. And that's good.
Sisters ...
... Why Margaret Drabble is not A S Byatt's cup of tea. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sir Michael Holroyd, Miss Drabble's husband, tells me, however, not to read too much into it. "People think the feud is a lot worse than it really is," he says.I think Sir Michael is right. When I interviewed A.S. Byatt some years ago I was warned not to bring her sister up. I didn't, but later on, when we had dinner together, she did. My impression was that, while the two weren't great friends, neither was there any great animosity toward Margaret on Antonia's part.
You say you want ...
...a revolution: For Christ and For the World. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“The rather extraordinary inference to be drawn from this doctrine is that personality is somehow transcendent of nature. A person is not merely a fragment of some larger cosmic or spiritual category, a more perfect or more defective expression of some abstract set of principles, in light of which his or her value, significance, legitimacy, or proper place is to be judged.” ... no human person should be sacrificed to supra-personal (or more accurately sub-personal) notions such as Fatherland or Racial Purity or Utility or History or the Triumph of the Proletariat.
What I want to know ...
... is what has it got to do with economics? Is the School of Economic Science a cult? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Reilly's latest ...
... a flower Debbie's 4-year-old granddaughter sent her as a birthday card. Debbie's birthday is today.
Thought for the day ...
Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.- Vladimir Nabokov
Friday, March 27, 2009
Escape from enchantment ...
... Reality and the Postmodern Wink. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This notion of “escapism” seems to be accepted by everyone almost as the reason for the movies’ existence in the first place. Read any history of the medium and it will tell you that Depression-era Americans went to see the lavish movie musicals of Busby Berkeley and similar glamorous stuff to escape from the bitter hardships of their daily lives. Reality was getting them down, so they sought out a fantasy. I don’t believe it. Speaking as a naïve viewer of the sort that is supposed to have a taste for escapism, I feel quite sure that what those audiences wanted from the pictures was not escape from what they thought of as the real world but a cinematic reality that they could regard as superior to it and that was therefore more real than the world outside it. To us it may look as if poverty and failure were the reality and love and happiness mere fantasies, but I don’t think it looked that way at the time.
Odd couple ...
... the strange music. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... the sacred is not merely a force external to humanity (as it seems in Aeschylus); it is also inexplicably present in language. In the right hands, human language can become sacred. The gods speak to us in speech itself.
Heavy lifting ...
... Multiverses, Possible Worlds, and God.
This argument discussed in this post appeared in a comment on this post of mine: More on d'Espagnat ...
This argument discussed in this post appeared in a comment on this post of mine: More on d'Espagnat ...
I continue to feel uneasy over references to God as the intelligent designer of the world. The Nicene Creed calls God ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς, which we could translate as poet of heaven and earth. I certainly think the idea of God as a maker in the sense that a poet is makes more sense than the notion of God as a maker in the sense that a carpenter is. I also think that it is important to understand God as creating now, not sometime in the past. Creation is what God does.
Ho-hum ...
... Confessions of a newspaper junkie.
Mr. Smith is apparently unfamiliar with Michael Yon or Michael Totten. He also doesn't seem aware that Ed Champion was onto the story of David Foster Wallace's death before practically anybody else. Hell, I alerted The Inquirer about John Updike's passing (thanks to an alert from Dave Lull.) The idea that only newspapers can investigate things for us is crap.
A good idea ...
... and Judith comments: UK poet laureate swears off 'no-good poems'.
Update: Someone posting as Rosenkrantz Guildenstern offers this comment: " As practiced in modern times, poetry is a discredited means of (supposedly) communicating aesthetic thoughts or feelings in verbal form." Does anyone have any thoughts about this that they'd like to share?
Update II: See Motion passed. And check the comments here.
Post bumped again.
Update: Someone posting as Rosenkrantz Guildenstern offers this comment: " As practiced in modern times, poetry is a discredited means of (supposedly) communicating aesthetic thoughts or feelings in verbal form." Does anyone have any thoughts about this that they'd like to share?
Update II: See Motion passed. And check the comments here.
Post bumped again.
We link ...
... you decide: The Internet: Foe of Democracy? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... Sunstein worries that the conception of free speech emerging in today’s communications market emphasizes “an architecture of control…by which each of us can select a [customized] free-speech package.” ... The resulting self-segregation creates numerous small republics of like-minded individuals of the sort Montesquieu preferred, but the founders considered “destructive of self-government….”So how does this differ from the time when there were Republican papers and Democratic papers and some people read only one and others only the other one.? Or the people I met recently whose only sources of news were the NYT, PBS News, and MSNBC? Self-segregation hardly began with the internet.
The substance of text ...
... A book’s material condition.
There are books I still have that I can pick up and smell and be vividly reminded of the time when I first read them. One will never have such an experience reading a Kindle. Which doesn't mean one may not have a great experience reading something on a Kindle that will stay with you forever. But other factors will have to decorate the memory.
Thought for the day ...
God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.- Jean Paul Richter
Thursday, March 26, 2009
High priest ...
... The Pianist's Passions: Constant, Recent and Renewed.
I'd love to hear him play Brahms's Handel Variations and Fugue.
I'd love to hear him play Brahms's Handel Variations and Fugue.
Shades of Gray ...
... John Gray on The Way of All Debt. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I felt, after I read this, that it was a long way round to some fairly conventional reviews. I mentioned this an email to Dave, who then sent me this piece by my former colleague Carlin Romano, which makes explicit - along with evidence and argument - the dubious feeling have had about Gray: The Triumph of 'Smugism'.
I felt, after I read this, that it was a long way round to some fairly conventional reviews. I mentioned this an email to Dave, who then sent me this piece by my former colleague Carlin Romano, which makes explicit - along with evidence and argument - the dubious feeling have had about Gray: The Triumph of 'Smugism'.
His own man ...
... The Civil Heretic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
But what he liked about growing up in England was the landscape. The country’s successful alteration of wilderness and swamp had created a completely new green ecology, allowing plants, animals and humans to thrive in “a community of species.” Dyson has always been strongly opposed to the idea that there is any such thing as an optimal ecosystem — “life is always changing” — and he abhors the notion that men and women are something apart from nature, that “we must apologize for being human.” Humans, he says, have a duty to restructure nature for their survival.
This week's batch ...
... of TLS Letters: The Cobbe Portrait, Maurice Bowra, Godfrey's Cordial, and more!
Epic read!
It took me months, but I've finally finished it - Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa. And while I can't claim that I loved this massive (at times tedious) meditation on life in Kenya, I certainly came by the end to appreciate Dinesen's timeless, rhythmic narration. There's a consistency to this work (one which mirrors seasons and cycles) that I admire. Below, a few choice offerings from the concluding section of the book:
"Till then I had been part of it, and the drought had been to me like a fever, and the flowering of the plain like a new frock. Now the country disengaged itself from me, and stood back a little, in order that I should see it clearly and as a whole." (317)
"As I stood and looked at them a fancy came back to me that had taken hold of me before: It was not I who was going away, I did not have it in my power to leave Africa, but it was the country that was slowly and gravely withdrawing from me, like the sea in ebb-tide." (365)
...And like the waves, the reader retreats, having been lulled - finally - to sleep.
Food for thought ...
... Some choice reads. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Mark's own piece is of course worth reading, but do follow his link to the Alva Noë interview, in which the following occurs:
Mark's own piece is of course worth reading, but do follow his link to the Alva Noë interview, in which the following occurs:
Instead of asking how the brain makes us conscious, we should ask, How does the brain support the kind of involvement with the world in which our consciousness consists? This is what the best neuroscientists do. The brain is not the author of our experience. If we want to understand the role of the brain, we should ask, How does the brain enable us to interact with and keep track of the world as we do? What makes a certain pattern of brain activity a conscious perceptual experience has nothing to do with the cells themselves, or with the way they are firing, but rather with the way the cells' activity is responsive to and helps us regulate our engagement with the world around us.
Well, true ...
... Raymond Chandler Would Have Been 120 Years Old Today. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
But he would also have been 120 years old yesterday. The 120th anniversary of his birth was last July 23rd. Today is the 50th anniversary of his death.
But he would also have been 120 years old yesterday. The 120th anniversary of his birth was last July 23rd. Today is the 50th anniversary of his death.
Missing the boat ...
... A hype letter that didn't work (file under "publishing history"). (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Too good to be true?
... eBay Offers the Sale of the Century eBooks? (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I'm not exactly sure what this is about, but it sounds intriguing.
Happy anniversary ...
... Since '79, Library of America has safe-guarded nation's literature. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Money in the mail ...
... Orwell's letters sell for £84,000. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Also from the BBC: Mark Twain rises again. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
Also from the BBC: Mark Twain rises again. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
Thought for the day ...
Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.- Hermann Hesse
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Predictable after all?
... Emerging Technological Black Swans. (Via Instapundit.)
People who were deeply involved in an area were usually well aware of the potential of what they and others in the field were working towards.
Late Bonnard ...
... The Violent Beauty of Color. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Alberto Giacometti said that he could not get over "the violence of Bonnard," a quality he found lacking in Jackson Pollock when he compared the two. And, certainly, "violence" gets at the heart of Bonnard's paintings and drawings. Seductive, mystical and lovingly brutal could also describe the intensity of Bonnard's gorgeously clashing hues -- iridescent lemons, limes, crimsons and violets that shimmer like precious metals and gems; blacks and whites taken to the extremes of the spectrum; and deep purples and blues, no less than reds, oranges and yellows, that burn every color of fire.
Dave also sends: Complicated Bliss.
The installation, which is not strictly chronological, emphasizes Bonnard's tendency to move back and forth between relatively greater and lesser degrees of naturalism and abstraction. This gives the show something of the quality of a meditation, which is appropriate for Bonnard. His late self-portraits, two of which are included at the Metropolitan, suggest the asceticism of a Chinese sage, with close-cropped hair and long, narrow, all-seeing eyes. In the canvases of his last twenty years, which Bonnard did in his studio rather than from direct observation, the Impressionist insistence on working in front of the motif gives way to memories of the motif, so that perception turns out to be not so much a reality as a dream.
Slightly bizarre ...
... In times of trouble, fiction thrives. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What's bizarre is the headline. For one thing, a headline should never swipe the lead. And this story may begin with a somewhat facile correlation between bad times and the writing of fiction, but the story itself establishes no connection between the current economy and what the people mentioned are doing. They all seem to be writing in order to satisfy a deep, longtime need. So the headline, by swiping the lead, in fact gives a false impression of what the story - which is quite interesting - has to say. But headline and lead do reflect a common narrative in today's media. (There's something else that might help newspapers - drop the one-size-fits-all common narratives that serve as substitutes for thought.)
Library expansion ...
... The Bodleian's books get a new home as millions of volumes move to Swindon. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thought for the day ...
When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.- Luigi Pirandello
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
And finding a great one ...
... In search of poetry in Chile. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Gabriela Mistral was the genuine article.
Gabriela Mistral was the genuine article.
Colorful diplomats ...
... Talleyrand and his biographer: Charm Offensive.
Arguably a turncoat, possibly a degenerate (his last mistress was his niece by marriage and the daughter of a former lover), certainly a shameless flatterer and world-class bribe-taker, Talleyrand was also the most skillful and farsighted diplomat of his age and a man of arresting grace, wit, and style. No wonder that during his American sojourn he developed an intense friendship with that most glamorous, coolly intelligent, and winning of the Founders, Alexander Hamilton (years after his return to France, Talleyrand kept Hamilton’s portrait over his mantelpiece). Like Hamilton, he had a rare rapport with and understanding of women—he counted many of the most intelligent, attractive, and influential of them as his friends or lovers, though one suspects they often adored him despite themselves.
Bugs and Dumbo ...
... to the rescue: The joy of street arts: giant spiders and elephants could cure our woes. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I don't know about the spiders.
I don't know about the spiders.
Attention, ladies and gentlemen ...
... today is Ada Lovelace Day.
I will celebrate by saluting Maxine: May her blogging always be as wonderful as it always has been.
See also Find The Lady.
I will celebrate by saluting Maxine: May her blogging always be as wonderful as it always has been.
See also Find The Lady.
Chekhov and God ...
... an unshowy compassion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... it is Chekhov who seems to me close to god, precisely because he does not set himself up as a vatic authority, a Nobodaddy figure dispensing violent judgements and condemnations and blessings. It is his discretion that is god-like, his ability to withold himself from the tale, to allow things and people to be as they are in what we call real life: manifold and, finally, just themselves. One could argue that God is otherwise - that He sees all and judges accordingly; but since Chekhov is only a man, to mimic God would be to show himself up as only a man; it is by leaving such judgements (whether implicit or explicit) out of the tale, that Chekhov comes to seem god-like, seeing all.But what's this? "Chekhov was wasted on me in my youth ..." Trust me, elberry: You're still young.
Equal time ...
... to the global warming side: The right honourable Nigel Lawson. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I can't help thinking that Ball's description of the Centre for Policy Studies as "a right-wing think tank" may betray some "left-wing" bias of his own. But maybe not.
At any rate, he could well be right that a lawyer's brief on matters of climate may be of dubious utility. And Ball's final graph is certainly honest and worthwhile.
On a lighter note: The 'Global Warming Three' are on thin ice.
I can't help thinking that Ball's description of the Centre for Policy Studies as "a right-wing think tank" may betray some "left-wing" bias of his own. But maybe not.
At any rate, he could well be right that a lawyer's brief on matters of climate may be of dubious utility. And Ball's final graph is certainly honest and worthwhile.
On a lighter note: The 'Global Warming Three' are on thin ice.
Don't cry for them ...
... The time for mourning is over. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Surveys revealed that what readers really wanted were anecdotal trend stories, whimsical lifestyle pieces and 20-minute recipes.
Well, the reader survey business was certainly dumb, but the grandeur of investigative journalism is also something of a myth. Last summer, I was chatting with a former colleague, who told me how surprised he had been, years before, when he was working on one of those big investigative series, at how dismayed the editor in charge was when the facts unearthed did not strongly support the thesis that had served as the working hypothesis for the series - and how the editor made sure those particular facts were played down. Had newspapers been impartial and dispassionate in their investigations, letting the chips fall where they might, then those series would really have been indispensable. Their tendentiousness, however, has long been obvious.
Of swans and bailouts ...
... Listen to Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the Financial Crisis. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
On the money ...
... On the Nature of faith: Part 2. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This is an outstanding post. I particularly agree that many of the religious do not understand theology. The notion of God entertained by creationists and ID proponents has long struck me as rather crude, a kind of celestial Edison. Also, the term translated as day in English translations of Genesis actually means simply a period of time. And, as I have pointed out before, if you're going to insist that every word of the Bible be taken literally (an unusual way of reading anything, to say the least), then be consistent: It was a serpent that tempted Eve, not the Devil. The text makes no mention of the Devil. Don't read things into it.
Thought for the day ...
We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.- Marcus Aurelius
Monday, March 23, 2009
The future of publishing (cont'd.) ...
... Major Book Publishers Start Turning To Scribd. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Speak , Lord ...
... Mr. Herbert’s Sunday Morning Service. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I can't say about contemporary religious verse, but there is plenty of recent religious verse that passes muster - R. S. Thomas's and Elizabeth Jennings's, to name just two.
I can't say about contemporary religious verse, but there is plenty of recent religious verse that passes muster - R. S. Thomas's and Elizabeth Jennings's, to name just two.
All points bulletin ...
... Scandinavian Crime Fiction survey - help needed. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
What do we know ...
... and how do we know it? The responses to Tom Clark. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
See also: Tom Clark's Getting Along: Civil Disagreements with a Thinking Christian. (Also from Dave.)
It seems worth noting that there is nothing "real" that does not in some way appear to be, and no "appearance" - not even a mirage, which is a real optical illusion - that is not in some way "real."About the most crucial distinction we can make as cognitive creatures is between appearance and reality, between how things seem and how they really are, between subjectivity and objectivity.
See also: Tom Clark's Getting Along: Civil Disagreements with a Thinking Christian. (Also from Dave.)
Thought for the day ...
I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does.- Jorge Luis Borges
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Something I missed ...
... and shouldn't have. Ed Voves is a friend of mine, a former colleague who used to review for me. I also saw this exhibition and plan on seeing it again before it closes: George Tooker at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Maxine, Part II ...
... Sunday Salon: Review of Shadow, by Karin Alvtegen.
Make sure to click on Maxine's review. Here's a snippet:
Make sure to click on Maxine's review. Here's a snippet:
One often reads the word "unputdownable" to describe a book – it is certainly a true description of this one. As the novel reaches its climax, I was on the edge of my seat, my heart was pounding, and by the end I felt wrecked. It has strong parallels with Wuthering Heights, in which two "normal" people (Gerda as Nelly Dean and Marianne as Lockwood) are the filter through which the reader experiences elemental, horrifically tragic and passionate events that are beyond the witness-narrators' comprehension.
Good advice ...
... and worrisome recollections: Crime fiction clichés to avoid.
This is not good.
I once saw someone die by jumping into a canal. The police reaction to this event was the opposite of fiction. In novels, the police rush to the scene, a battery of high-tech forensics is used, a pathologist is called and examines the body in situ, and all hands are on deck in professional, efficient manner. In my real-life example, they did not care. Less dramatic cases are treated with similar lack of interest - for example I was once knocked off my bike by a motorist turning right across me. He initially stopped to see how I was, then drove off. A witness wrote down his numberplate. I reported the incident to the police, but by the time I got home from the station about an hour later, there was a message on my answering machine saying that they could not trace the number so were closing the case. Some years later, I had a much more serious accident caused by a hit and run driver. The police were notorious by their absence. [I have had many positive experiences with the police over the years, but not so far as observing them trying to solve actual crimes.]
This is not good.
Bryan times two ...
... Jobs and Geoff.
Bryan's piece on Peter Ackroyd is a must read. No one does this sort of thing better than Bryan - or even as well.
I had not realized how much I had in common with Ackroyd. He despises secularism, finds TV pundits revolting, and doesn't put any stock in self-expression. Bryan is right when he says that Ackroyd "buries himself alive in his subjects, fictional or nonfictional." That is why The Plato Papers and The Hosue of Dr. Dee are such good novels. His biography of Blake, by the way, is superb.
I had not realized how much I had in common with Ackroyd. He despises secularism, finds TV pundits revolting, and doesn't put any stock in self-expression. Bryan is right when he says that Ackroyd "buries himself alive in his subjects, fictional or nonfictional." That is why The Plato Papers and The Hosue of Dr. Dee are such good novels. His biography of Blake, by the way, is superb.
The awakening of spring ...
... Luminists: John Frederick Kensett and Mark Strand.
These American artists arrested an ideal and tranquil, yet momentary, glance at an aspect of this nation’s nature, perhaps as a measure of meditative pleasure, in much the same way Ralph Waldo Emerson recommended in his well-known essay, “Nature,” written in the late 1830s: “In the pleasure of nature a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says—he is my creature, and maugre all impertinent grief’s, he shall be glad with me. Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields in tribute to delight, for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight.”
A must see for me ...
... and for you, if you're in these parts: The Art of Edward Gorey on View at the Brandywine River Museum. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Who knew ...
... Secret Poems from the Times Literary Supplement. ( I would have missed this, but for Dave Lull.)
This is a fascinating site. I was, naturally, much taken with TLS 5526 - 20 Le Flaneur.
This is a fascinating site. I was, naturally, much taken with TLS 5526 - 20 Le Flaneur.
Swing over ...
... to Nigeness and just scroll and read. Lots of interesting stuff.
I don't have the screen problems Nige mentions and I've been working in front of one on a daily basis since 1980. But then, my eyes went after an accident at 5. And I always break up the work. I get up, do something different for a while, and so on. It is true that a long, uninterrupted stint at the computer is peculiarly exhausting.
Crossover authors ...
... Exploring the Hills. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Actually, I suspect the results are more likely to satisfying when a "genre" writer deepens and expands his work in a more "literary" direction than the other way around (when the "literary" writer tries his hand at "genre." What do you think?
A standout ...
... this is one of today's Inquirer reviews, but it deserves a post of its own: Voices of the past, in shimmering new translations.
David Hinton has been translating Chinese poetry for more than a decade. His new anthology gives us, for the first, best time, the sweep of this tradition in excellent English poetry. As Hinton writes, this may be the longest unbroken literary tradition that exists, starting around at least 1400 B.C. and still going. We know Chinese poetry through the efforts of Pound, who helped supercharge modern poetry. It should be said, though - someone has to say it - that Pound's renderings of Chinese verse were idiosyncratic and, in some respects, misleading.
Hinton's are neither
Thought for the day ...
Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.- Thomas Aquinas
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Dated and confused ...
... Our Two Cultures. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The Industrial Revolution, [Snow] writes, occurred “without anyone,” including intellectuals, “noticing what was happening.” But at the same time, he argues that 20th-century progress was being stymied by the indifference of poets and novelists. That’s why he wrote “The Two Cultures.” So which is it? Is science an irrepressible agent of change, or does it need top-down direction?
Well, it would be a good idea if those in the humanities had a better grasp of science and if those in the sciences were better acquainted with the humanities, especially philosophy. My principal objection to The God Delusion wasn't that it argued against the existence of God, but that it argued against it so incompetently.
Well, it would be a good idea if those in the humanities had a better grasp of science and if those in the sciences were better acquainted with the humanities, especially philosophy. My principal objection to The God Delusion wasn't that it argued against the existence of God, but that it argued against it so incompetently.
Attraction and repulsion ...
... Maurice Bowra, the great Oxford gossip.
He developed a carapace of layers of wit, laid down like sheets of armour to protect his inner weaknesses. According to Mitchell, the three principal concerns of his life were Greece, poetry, and sex. A chapter is devoted to each of these themes, and we learn how in each area Bowra met with profound disappointment.
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