Thursday, April 30, 2009
It's still stealing ...
... right? Another Perspective on Plagiarism?
Just tell people where you found something. What's so hard about that.?You then have the opportunity to comment thereon. And who knows? You may just say something original. If you do, and someone else picks up on it, you will want to be credited.
The best kind ...
... Ordinary Happiness. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
To the extent that he has a secret to happiness, it resides in slowing down enough to pay attention to what you might call the grammar of experience. When you take the time to examine the world around you, parsing what you see, hear and feel -- Mr. Spiegelman likens the approach to the parsing of a sentence in Latin class -- you find that the plainest occurrence is surprisingly rich.Sounds familiar (nothing like a little shameless self-promotion).
Aquinas, catalogues, and crime ...
... The Manley Arts: Mysteries. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Ralph McInerny wrote a review for me once. He is indeed brilliant. He is also a delightfully no-nonsense kind of guy. I's recommend his A First Glance at Thomas Aquinas.
Ralph McInerny wrote a review for me once. He is indeed brilliant. He is also a delightfully no-nonsense kind of guy. I's recommend his A First Glance at Thomas Aquinas.
The latest batch ...
... of TLS Letters: The Spanish Civil War, Austen editions, The also-Manns, and more.
The future of journalism ...
... Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of The Guardian, on the future of journalism. (Hat tip, Lee Lowe.)
Were the Inquirer run by someone like this, it would probably not have seen a 13 percent drop in its circulation over the past year.
Were the Inquirer run by someone like this, it would probably not have seen a 13 percent drop in its circulation over the past year.
Thought for the day ...
I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning.
- Peter De Vries
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
In this corner ...
... End the University as We Know It.
And in the other corner ... Defending Academe.
(Hat tip to Dave Lull for both links.)
And in the other corner ... Defending Academe.
(Hat tip to Dave Lull for both links.)
I am more sympathetic to Taylor, but I think both these guys are wrong. Everybody should read Albert Jay Nock's The System of Education in the United States, which pretty much diagnosed the problem 67 years ago. Our colleges and universities are training schools, not educational institutions. Education is formative and is directed toward character. Training is instrumental and directed toward a career.
Perchance to dream ...
... Brown Declares War on Darkness.
Good luck, Gordo. But be forewarned that darkness's prince can be rather formidable.
Good luck, Gordo. But be forewarned that darkness's prince can be rather formidable.
Agee at Harvard ...
... Vistas of Perfection.
The critic Dwight Macdonald, a friend and fellow Exeter alumnus who had helped Agee land the job at Fortune, later wrote that “for a writer to be given the run of Time [was] like a collector of sculpture being offered his pick of wax figures from Madame Tussaud’s Museum.”No wonder Agee was “always looking for a way out”: Guggenheim grants (he was turned down twice), leaves of absence, freelance arrangements. But he stayed at Time Inc., writing for Fortune and Time and Life, until after the Second World War—as it turned out, the majority of his adult life. Of course, working for Time was hardly a creative death sentence to all writers. Archibald MacLeish, LL.B. ’19, Litt.D. ’55, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1933 for his long poem “Conquistador” while working as Fortune’s star writer. But while MacLeish helped Agee publish his own poems, he could not teach the younger writer the secret of balancing art and commerce so resiliently. Nor, on the other hand, did Agee have the resolve to quit, as the radical Macdonald did when he got fed up with Luce’s conservative politics. Looking back, Macdonald decided that while Agee had been terribly grateful for his help getting a job on Fortune, “I didn’t do him a favor, really.”
Quite an old-boys network, actually.
Yours sincerely ...
... Philip Larkin: An extraordinary series of letters from Philip Larkin to John Shakespeare. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A bonanza ...
... first there's this, courtesy of Dave Lull: 1000 Words: Patrick Dennis.
I think I agree with this completely, but I single this out:
Then, among the bonus links that follow, is one to the incomparable Joseph Pujol (I'm not going to link to it from here, though). Do read about this extradordinary figure. I learned about him from his grandson Henry, who is a friend of ours.
Finally, right in the middle of this piece is a link to a piece by Chip McGrath about John O'Hara. It's a good read, though I wonder about this: "The O'Haras lived on Mahantongo Street, the town's fanciest address, in a mansion that formerly belonged to the Yuengling brewing family ..." Here is the house. Mansion doesn't seem the right word. The true mansions are on the other side of the street. That aside, McGrath's judgment of O'Hara's work is altogether sound.
But enough. Go read about Patrick Dennis.
I think I agree with this completely, but I single this out:
John Updike, John Cheever, and Richard Yates may be famous for nailing mid-century America, and especially the upper-middle-class Northeast. But -- though his style is dizzy and satirical where they were solemn and literary -- Patrick Dennis was as acute as any of them. That's merely my judgment, of course, but what the heck: If a young friend expressed interest in this era, I'd tell him to read Patrick Dennis (and John O'Hara) before Updike, Cheever, and Yates. He'd get as vivid a picture as he would from the LitBoys, and he'd probably have a much better reading time of it.Remember: Auntie Mame was published in 1955, right smack in the middle of those oh-so-dour- and conformist '50s - and was a smash!
Then, among the bonus links that follow, is one to the incomparable Joseph Pujol (I'm not going to link to it from here, though). Do read about this extradordinary figure. I learned about him from his grandson Henry, who is a friend of ours.
Finally, right in the middle of this piece is a link to a piece by Chip McGrath about John O'Hara. It's a good read, though I wonder about this: "The O'Haras lived on Mahantongo Street, the town's fanciest address, in a mansion that formerly belonged to the Yuengling brewing family ..." Here is the house. Mansion doesn't seem the right word. The true mansions are on the other side of the street. That aside, McGrath's judgment of O'Hara's work is altogether sound.
But enough. Go read about Patrick Dennis.
Meanwhile ...
... up north: Quebec's Pierre DesRuisseaux named parliamentary poet laureate. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
A dissenting opinion ...
... The empty name of God. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I would wish people to live without superstition, to govern their lives with reason, and to conduct their relationships on reflective principles about what we owe one another as fellow voyagers through the human predicament – with kindness and generosity wherever possible, and justice always.Any reason why, other than personal preference?
Thought for the day ...
The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.-Plutarch
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The foxes have it ...
... The Era of Adapting Quickly. (Hat tip, Greg Ippolito.)
There seems to be fashion these days for books that amount to something on the order of potted thought. This one sound like Black Swan lite. Also, it would be nice to know what predictions the foxes made that were so much better than the ones the hedgehogs made. Finally, wasn't the so-called surge in Iraq a strategic and tactical adaptation?
The Literature of World War I
On the recommendation of Ron Rosbottom, I read - and recently completed - Rebecca West's Return of the Soldier, the story of a shell-shocked veteran who returns from the Front convinced that he is in love with a woman he has not seen in fifteen years. This tale of loss, but ultimately of redemption, was quite moving, and reminded me in many ways of E.L. Carr's quiet, and unusually stirring, Month in the Country. I'd suggest both works as (overlooked) masterpieces of the First World War.
From the concluding pages of Return of the Soldier (1918):
"...he would go back to that flooded trench in Flanders, under that sky more full of flying death than clouds..."
From the concluding pages of Return of the Soldier (1918):
"...he would go back to that flooded trench in Flanders, under that sky more full of flying death than clouds..."
Self-importance ...
... vs. common sense: Between Experience and Reflection. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... the self-descriptions of the people who place the personal ads are revealing of the tastes, worldview, and ideals of a sector of the population that is important well beyond its demographic size. Readers of the Review are, of course, likely to be members of the liberal intelligentsia. Their ads give a powerful impression not so much of hypocrisy as of lack of self-knowledge. The ads’ authors claim to be profoundly individual, yet there is an underlying uniformity and conventionality to everything that they say about themselves. Their desire to escape convention is deeply conventional. ... Contented with, and even complacent about, their position in the world, they somehow see themselves as enemies of the status quo. They are ideologically egalitarian, but psychologically elitist: Lord, make everyone equal, but not just yet.
Almost sinister ...
... Mystery for the left hand.
While no amount of money could buy Paul a new right arm, he could buy an entire repertoire of left-hand-only piano works. Today, we hear in Hindemith's Klaviermusik mit Orchester logically molded musical ideas, plus a gorgeous slow movement with one of the most beautiful wind solos this side of the still-to-come Ravel Piano Concerto in G. As the Curtis recording shows, the world was deprived of significant loveliness during the piece's 79-year eclipse. Paul worked long and hard, Waugh reports, before declaring it incomprehensible. And that's not the worst.
Good news from Nige ...
... The Dead Language Lives.
My own grasp of Latin, never terribly secure, has so rusted by now that I really ought to take a refresher course.
My own grasp of Latin, never terribly secure, has so rusted by now that I really ought to take a refresher course.
Science and blogs ...
... Scientists take a page from online journalists.
As the distance between a science journalist acting as a kind of translator to the general public of science and scientists doing that translation narrows, maybe science itself will be reshaped by a feeling of urgency to communicate findings to the public. Maybe science itself will become more journalized.
Critic at large ...
... The province of Manhattan.
That's the stop-press news about American theater. You don't have to go to New York to see first-rate shows. You can see them in the place where you live, or in a city not too far from your home town--but save on the rarest of occasions, you can't read about them in Time or Newsweek or the New York Times. You've got to pick up a copy of the Friday Journal and see where I went last week.
Best served cold ...
... Research Subjects Sue Jared Diamond, the Author and Professor, for $10-Million.
Well, yeah. Otherwise, what you have is an academic version of colonialism.
In a post on Wednesday at Savage Minds, an anthropology blog, Alex Golub, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii-Manoa who does field work in New Guinea, suggested that this affair was emblematic of “a fundamental ethical issue that anthropologists will have to face for decades to come.” The rise of the Internet means that whatever scholars write about their field informants—no matter how remote those people might seem—will inevitably be read by the communities they have described.
Well, yeah. Otherwise, what you have is an academic version of colonialism.
Tough guy ...
... Samurai Critic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“A critic who does his job,” Logan observes, “must be a good hater if he’s to be a good lover, because if he likes everything he reads he likes nothing well enough.”
He must also be a good reader, able to explain what it is in the work he does not like that causes it to come up short. He must also be able to explain, using the evidence of the work that he likes, why he likes it.
Thought for the day ...
If you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.- Heraclitus
Monday, April 27, 2009
For your viewing pleasure ...
... Ursula K. Le Guin, Wall-E, Patrick Ness And Nisi Shawl Sweep SF Awards. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Practiced improvisation ...
... Writing in the realm of fire: August Kleinzahler. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Others have wondered whether Kleinzahler, whose father worked in real estate and sent his son to the elite Horace Mann school in New York, assumes a bad-boy mask shaped for the authentically pock-marked features of Charles Bukowski or Gregory Corso. To Kirsch, the "roughneck persona" appears to be "the product of a persistent American neurosis about poetry and art being unmasculine. To compensate for their presumed loss of masculine status, certain writers make alcohol and fighting part of their literary persona."I don't know. Low places also have an appeal all their own, and friends in low places are at least valuable as those in high places, and often more trustworthy.
I'm sold ...
... Critical Revival. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I think I have mentioned here before that my family moved to the Torresdale section of Philadelphia a few years after Wilfrid Sheed moved away. I wonder if his memories of that lost world are as fond as mine. By the way, I just ordered a copy of Essays in Disguise.
I think I have mentioned here before that my family moved to the Torresdale section of Philadelphia a few years after Wilfrid Sheed moved away. I wonder if his memories of that lost world are as fond as mine. By the way, I just ordered a copy of Essays in Disguise.
Back from Damascus ...
... Why I believe again.
A materialist Darwinian was having dinner with me a few years ago and we laughingly alluded to how, as years go by, one forgets names. Eager, as committed Darwinians often are, to testify on any occasion, my friend asserted: “It is because when we were simply anthropoid apes, there was no need to distinguish between one another by giving names.”This credal confession struck me as just as superstitious as believing in the historicity of Noah’s Ark. More so, really.
Up to a point ...
... Does evolution explain human nature? Except where it matters. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It just seems silly to say that all aspects of this rich variety of human activity have direct analogues in the behaviour of other animals. Next time the evolutionary biologist lights their bunsen burner, they might reflect that even chimps don't light fires.Indeed.
A Nige roundup ...
... Quote of the Day. God bless Sir Michael.
... Horse Chestnuts.
... Aristotle's Masterpiece. This will surprise you.
... Horse Chestnuts.
... Aristotle's Masterpiece. This will surprise you.
Thought for the day ...
... I lay inhaling the warmth and sweetness of the pillow upon which her dark head had been resting: watching the long bereft Greek face, with its sane pointed nose and candid eyes, the satiny skin that is given only to the thymus-dominated, the mole upon her slender stalk of the neck. These are the moments which are not calculable, and cannot be assessed in words; they live on in the solution of memory, like wonderful creatures, unique of their kind, dredged up from the floor of some unexplored ocean.- Lawrence Durrell
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Let's have a pity party ...
... Bad Memories, Hard Feelings.
So Queenan's old man was a prick. Mark it in the life ledger and move on. Or write a novel about the guy. That'll force you to get inside his skin and see what you looked like from where he stood.
So Queenan's old man was a prick. Mark it in the life ledger and move on. Or write a novel about the guy. That'll force you to get inside his skin and see what you looked like from where he stood.
Works and days ...
... Dave Lull sends along some Alain de Botton links:
... Office affairs.
... The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton: review.
... A difficult business.
... Philosopher king: Alain de Botton finds glamour and drama in the world of work.
... Office affairs.
... The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton: review.
... A difficult business.
... Philosopher king: Alain de Botton finds glamour and drama in the world of work.
Pity the lit'ry snobs ...
... With Kindle, Can You Tell It’s Proust? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Anne Fadiman, the author, was relieved to learn that her essay collection, “Ex Libris,” was not available on Kindle. “It would really be ironic if it were,” she said of the book, which evokes her abiding passion for books as objects.I would think it was paradoxical.
Nicholson Baker, who writes fiction and nonfiction books, feels much the same way, even though he defines himself by the contents of his (physical) library. Years ago, he walked into a temporary job with a copy of “Ulysses.” “I wanted people to know I wasn’t just a temp,” he said, “but rather a temp who was reading ‘Ulysses.’ ”Pathetic. And what's with this thing about identifying Fadiman as an author and Baker as writing fiction and nonfiction? Who the hell do they think would read this piece?
Phily's gift ...
... to England: The Roots of a Gardening Obsession. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
We live only a short drive from Bartam's Garden. It's a wonderful place to visit. I am writing this, by the way, at shortly after noon. The post will appear a 4 this afternoon. I will, in the meantime, be gardening.
Writers explain ...
... Why we read. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Why do I read? I was sent to school at an early age and was taught there how to read. I discovered that there are a lot of interesting things to read. I have been reading ever since.
Why do I read? I was sent to school at an early age and was taught there how to read. I discovered that there are a lot of interesting things to read. I have been reading ever since.
Letters from Greeneland ...
... The Man Within: Graham Greene and his correspondence. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
And the winners are ...
... the LA Times's 2008 Book Prize Winners and Finalists. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Dave points out the winner of the poetry prize is Frank Bidart, whose Watching the Spring Festival I reviewed for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Dave sends along the review, noting that the title of the book is never mentioned (the Inquirer always lists the book, author, etc. above the review, so I got out of the habit of mentioning the title of books I was reviewing): Remembering, reconnecting, Bidart reveals himself.
Changing of the guard ...
... Carol Ann Duffy tipped as new Poet Laureate.
... Poet Laureate Andrew Motion laments burden of recession in new poem.
(Hat tip to Rus Bowden for both links.)
... Poet Laureate Andrew Motion laments burden of recession in new poem.
(Hat tip to Rus Bowden for both links.)
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... Judith reviews Elie Wiesel: Asking ever greater questions.
... Little glamour in this gangster saga.
... Engrossing action full of surprises on the city's gritty side.
... Historical novel of social taboos and enduring art.
... Two tales, sharp-eyed, hilarious.
... Tracking down Eichmann.
... Little glamour in this gangster saga.
... Engrossing action full of surprises on the city's gritty side.
... Historical novel of social taboos and enduring art.
... Two tales, sharp-eyed, hilarious.
... Tracking down Eichmann.
Thought for the day ...
It seems that an essential condition for crises is to be found in the existence of a highly developed system of communications and the spreading of a homogenous mentality over vast areas.But when the hour and the right material are at hand, the contagion spreads with the speed of electricity over hundreds of miles, and affects the most diverse populations, which hardly know each other. The message flies through the air and they all suddenly agree on that one issue, if only a sulky admission that "there's got to be a change."Talk about prescient. Burckhardt died in 1897.- Jakob Burckhardt
Saturday, April 25, 2009
A discovery ...
.. two, in fact - bookstore and book: The best French novel you’ll probably never read.
Joseph Fox is a wonderful bookstore.
Joseph Fox is a wonderful bookstore.
Roses are most fragrant ...
.. in autumn, or so it has always seemed to me: A Late Bloom From a Master. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, well ...
... Where resignation is an upbeat attitude.
Nice to see some attention paid to Brand Whitlock. I haven't read any of his novels, but I have his autobiography, Forty Years of It. He and Albert Jay Nock were good friends.
Nice to see some attention paid to Brand Whitlock. I haven't read any of his novels, but I have his autobiography, Forty Years of It. He and Albert Jay Nock were good friends.
Phonics forever ...
... Y U Shuldnt H8 Txting. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
I think it's kind of clever. I just don't want to be bothered learning it.
I think it's kind of clever. I just don't want to be bothered learning it.
Thought for the day ...
All that passes is raised to the dignity of expression; all that happens is raised to the dignity of meaning. Everything is either symbol or parable.- Paul Claudel
Friday, April 24, 2009
Certainly up there ...
... Cinema this Week: The greatest director of all time.
One truly great Kurosawa film that is not mentioned in this piece is Dersu Uzala. Dreams is another great one. Then there's Ikiru. Yes, a great director.
One truly great Kurosawa film that is not mentioned in this piece is Dersu Uzala. Dreams is another great one. Then there's Ikiru. Yes, a great director.
Off to the opera ...
... to see a pair of one-acters, Gianni Schicchi and L'Enfant et les sortileges. The latter is on YouTube. It is a marvelous, magical work.
What was once ...
... and what's to come (cont'd.): The Future of Book Coverage, Part III: The Kindle Land Grab. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I should linked to this other day, when Dave sent it to me, but didn't get around to it. I link to it because, oddly enough, I think it has some bearing on this discussion: PBS Launches New Online Video Channel.
Soon, I won't have to turn on my TV to watch what's on. I'll be able see it right here on my desktop - or on my laptop. The process of change regarding media and information is far from over. I suspect that those who end up making money in spite of or because of the changes that are taking place will do so because they have simply pursued an interest for its own sake and hit upon a quality product people can't get from another source and are willing to pay for. If everybody can make wine, but one guy and one guy only can make a particularly fine vintage, that guy is going to be able to charge. And people will buy. Amazon is making great strides toward controlling the book market - and other markets. But such control, it seems to me, contains within it an inherent instability. If Amazon charges more than people are willing to pay or imposes restraints people do not like, someone will come along and challenge Amazon and the challenge will pay off. In the book field, I'd keep my eye on ABE.
Soon, I won't have to turn on my TV to watch what's on. I'll be able see it right here on my desktop - or on my laptop. The process of change regarding media and information is far from over. I suspect that those who end up making money in spite of or because of the changes that are taking place will do so because they have simply pursued an interest for its own sake and hit upon a quality product people can't get from another source and are willing to pay for. If everybody can make wine, but one guy and one guy only can make a particularly fine vintage, that guy is going to be able to charge. And people will buy. Amazon is making great strides toward controlling the book market - and other markets. But such control, it seems to me, contains within it an inherent instability. If Amazon charges more than people are willing to pay or imposes restraints people do not like, someone will come along and challenge Amazon and the challenge will pay off. In the book field, I'd keep my eye on ABE.
Question of the day ...
... Should Literary Novels Be More Like The Wire? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have no idea. I've never seen The Wire, and probably never will. (This is not snobbery. I dropped my HBO subscription years ago and doubt if I will ever subscribe again. I just don't spend enough time watching television to care.)
I have no idea. I've never seen The Wire, and probably never will. (This is not snobbery. I dropped my HBO subscription years ago and doubt if I will ever subscribe again. I just don't spend enough time watching television to care.)
And while we're at it ...
... E-Book Reader Roundup: Samsung's Papyrus Joins the Crowd.
... The Next Generation of eReaders.
(Hat tip to Dave for both links.)
... The Next Generation of eReaders.
(Hat tip to Dave for both links.)
And again ...
... the future of publishing (cont'd.): HarperStudio: A New Book Publishing Model That Pays Authors 50-50. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Any roundup ...
... that includes Ernie Kovacs can only be great: “Working on his ark, working all by himself…”
The future of publishing (cont'd.) ...
... Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine launches in London. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Whither Europe?
... Heirs to Fortuyn? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
More and more Western Europeans, recognizing the threat to their safety and way of life, have turned their backs on the establishment, which has done little or nothing to address these problems, and begun voting for parties—some relatively new, and all considered right-wing—that have dared to speak up about them. One measure of the dimensions of this shift: owing to the rise in gay-bashings by Muslim youths, Dutch gays—who ten years ago constituted a reliable left-wing voting bloc—now support conservative parties by a nearly two-to-one margin.
Thought for the day ...
A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries, elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance.- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Something I missed ...
... and shouldn't have. Maxine sent it in plenty of time: Your Clement Freud Reader.
Time consuming ...
... Up from slush.
I linked to something about Susan Boyle, but had not mentioned her, either - until now.
I linked to something about Susan Boyle, but had not mentioned her, either - until now.
Sounds good to me ...
... Against Readings. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I wasn't actually what was being talked about when I started this piece. We didn't do "readings" when I was in school. We just tried get at what the author was saying. Why anyone would want to read on book in terms of another escapes me. Nothing would interest me less than a Marxist reading of Blake. Or a free market reading, for that matter.
This week's batch ...
... of TLS Letters: The Spanish Civil War, Vaughan Williams, Praying, smoking, and more!
I agree with correspondent Nick Chadwick about the Vaughan Williams letters. The price really is prohibitive. And I believe that Chadwick is right - the audience for such a book may be larger than OUP may think.
I agree with correspondent Nick Chadwick about the Vaughan Williams letters. The price really is prohibitive. And I believe that Chadwick is right - the audience for such a book may be larger than OUP may think.
Digital lit ...
... Making The Short Story Popular In The Digital World.
Once upon a time, The Inquirer had a column devoted to monitoring the impact the internet and related technologies were having on literature. The people currently in charge didn't get it, of course.
What was once ...
... and what's to come (cont'd.): The Future of Book Coverage, Part II: Amazon.com and the Revenue Question. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sharp eye ...
... A.J. Liebling Saw This Coming. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
[I]t is evil that men anywhere be forced to depend, for the information on which they govern their lives, on the caprice of anyone at all. There should be a great, free, living stream of information, and equal access to it for all.
Redlining art ...
... Cezanne may be great, but who can afford him? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Presumably, if the price were lower, more people would attend, which would mean either the same amount of money would be brought in, or perhaps more. So: Does the museum doubt that more people would come if the price of admission was affordable to more people, or do they want to keep the number of visitors down while making as much money as they would otherwise?
Happy birthday, Will ...
... the best of the Bard: Words, Words, Words. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
My personal favorites are King Lear, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest.
My personal favorites are King Lear, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest.
An interview ...
... with William Gass. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
If you are glib you end up merely following the latest fashion among teenagers who always have to have a lingo of their own, but should not carry it past seventeen without seeming silly. The good writer has to grasp the lasting quality, rather than the passing changes, of the language.
Thought for the day ...
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.- Andre Gide
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Another conservative ...
... Beckett, that is:`The Integrity of the Printed Work'.
On quite another note: `Keep Me from Burning'.
I hope Patrick will some day gather all the posts he writes about his current job and publish them as a book.
On quite another note: `Keep Me from Burning'.
I hope Patrick will some day gather all the posts he writes about his current job and publish them as a book.
For the creative reader ...
... Poetry Through the Ages.
I have only had time to skip through this a bit, but it looks to be fascinating. So spend some time exploring. I plan to.
Start to finish ...
... Opening Lines Book Quiz.
And here's something about last lines: Connections.
And here's something about last lines: Connections.
Curiously, two of my favorite last lines make reference to the sun. The last line of Walden: "The sun is but a morning star." And the last line of D.H. Lawrence's Apocalypse: "Start with the sun, and the rest will slowly, slowly happen."
Categories ...
... Conservative, essentialist.
If David subscribes to this account - and it has much to recommend it - he is definitely an existentialist, not an essentialist (as am I) on this question. As for what is literature and what is not, I'm still thinking.
(Politically, though I am often thought to be conservative, I like to think of myself as more of a 19th-century liberal. I am suspicious of concentrated, centralized power. As Lord Acton observed, "The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern." That, of course, could regarded as a conservative sentiment. I definitely do not look to the government - which makes nothing and sells nothing - as the principal means of ameliorating society's discontents. I think of it rather as another - and major - factor contributing to those discontents.)
The only account that I have been able to devise that subsumes all the different selections of prestigious works made at different times and in different places by different critics is this: Literature is good writing, where by definition ‘good’ yields no fixed definition.
If David subscribes to this account - and it has much to recommend it - he is definitely an existentialist, not an essentialist (as am I) on this question. As for what is literature and what is not, I'm still thinking.
(Politically, though I am often thought to be conservative, I like to think of myself as more of a 19th-century liberal. I am suspicious of concentrated, centralized power. As Lord Acton observed, "The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern." That, of course, could regarded as a conservative sentiment. I definitely do not look to the government - which makes nothing and sells nothing - as the principal means of ameliorating society's discontents. I think of it rather as another - and major - factor contributing to those discontents.)
A quick, unfussy end ...
... Jane Welsh Carlyle.
I had forgotten that the Jenny of Hunt's poem was Jane Carlyle. Hunt's father was born in Barbados, but practiced law in Philadelphia. Hunt's mother was a Philadelphia Quaker.
One more reason ...
... why Rome fell: The Emperor Left Town. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The shortcomings of human nature and the corruption of power seem to have been primary factors. The polisphere, like the biosphere, is continuously changing. It is a process, not a state.
What was once ...
... and what's to come: The Future of Book Coverage, Part I: R.I.P., NYT? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have a warm spot in my heart for readers as reviewers. There are passionate, common readers who are quite capable of providing a lucid, insightful account of their reading experience.With its privileging of print, the NYTBR has tended to assign books to authors rather than to critics; if the NBCC is to be believed, however, there's now a great untapped pool of the latter out there, just waiting for the next call to arms.
Well worth seeing ...
... Poetry Reading and Exhibition:
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
6:00pm
Join the Rosenbach Museum & Library in celebrating National Poetry Month as we honor the life and work of poet Elizabeth McFarland.
Rosenbach poet-in-residence Nathalie Anderson and internationally-recognized poet Daniel Hoffman will read from Over the Summer Water by poet and editor Elizabeth McFarland. Ms. McFarland was the poetry editor of Ladies' Home Journal from 1948 to 1962, publishing such poets as W.H. Auden and Marianne Moore. Much of her correspondence with Moore, thanks to Mr. Hoffman and Ms. McFarland’s generosity, is preserved in the Rosenbach’s renowned Marianne Moore Collection. Mr. Hoffman is a former Poet Laureate & the Felix Schelling Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania.
An exhibition illustrating Ms. McFarland’s career will be on display from April 18-26, 2009.
The event is FREE with museum admission.
Click here to RSVP or call 215-732-1600, ext 123
A thought experiment ...
I have been reading - re-reading, actually - Josef Pieper's The Silence of St. Thomas.
According to Pieper, St. Thomas Aquinas would have agreed to a large extent with the presumption common among modern philosophers from Bacon to Kant, "that truth can be predicated not of what really exists but, in the strict and proper sense, only of what is thought." Aquinas would have simply pointed out that "real things are thought." In fact, he would add, "they are real precisely because they are thought."
Of course, what Aquinas meant was that they are real because they are thought by God. Pieper points out that this thesis won a good measure of support from of all people Jean-Paul Sartre: Both Aquinas and Sartre, Pieper observes, "start with the same 'major premise,' namely ... things have an essential nature only in so far as they are fashioned by thought." Only, for Sartre, "because there exists no creative intelligence which could have designed man and all natural things - and could have put an inner significance into them - therefore there is no "nature" in things that are not manufactured and artificial." Sartre himself puts it this way: "There is no such thing as human nature because there exists no God to think it creatively."
Discussions of God as creator usually have to do with an event several billion years ago that got the world going. But that actually misses the point. As Aquinas understands it, God as creator is creating now. There is being because God is creatively thinking it. This would include one's own being.
Before assenting to or dissenting from a proposition, it is not simply useful, but actually necessary to make sure you understand what that proposition entails. So I have found it interesting to imagine that my being here, doing what I am doing, feeling and thinking as I am, takes place because God is imagining me. That is the thought experiment referred to in the title of this post.
The title of Pieper's book, by the way, refers to Aquinas's self-imposed silence toward the end of his life. The Summa Theologica is not finished because Aquinas chose not to continue writing it: "All that I have written seems to me nothing but straw ... compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me."
Of course, what Aquinas meant was that they are real because they are thought by God. Pieper points out that this thesis won a good measure of support from of all people Jean-Paul Sartre: Both Aquinas and Sartre, Pieper observes, "start with the same 'major premise,' namely ... things have an essential nature only in so far as they are fashioned by thought." Only, for Sartre, "because there exists no creative intelligence which could have designed man and all natural things - and could have put an inner significance into them - therefore there is no "nature" in things that are not manufactured and artificial." Sartre himself puts it this way: "There is no such thing as human nature because there exists no God to think it creatively."
Discussions of God as creator usually have to do with an event several billion years ago that got the world going. But that actually misses the point. As Aquinas understands it, God as creator is creating now. There is being because God is creatively thinking it. This would include one's own being.
Before assenting to or dissenting from a proposition, it is not simply useful, but actually necessary to make sure you understand what that proposition entails. So I have found it interesting to imagine that my being here, doing what I am doing, feeling and thinking as I am, takes place because God is imagining me. That is the thought experiment referred to in the title of this post.
The title of Pieper's book, by the way, refers to Aquinas's self-imposed silence toward the end of his life. The Summa Theologica is not finished because Aquinas chose not to continue writing it: "All that I have written seems to me nothing but straw ... compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me."
Problematic ...
... Argument and monologue. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have not been following this dispute, so I will confine my comments to what popped into my mind while reading David's post.
What is literature? Jesuit product that I am, I would start with particulars we can all agree upon. Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Dickens - I think everyone would agree that what they wrote is literature. I suspect Plato, Montaigne and Charles Lamb would make muster, too, though they all wrote nonfiction. So it is easy to see how The Origin of Species could be accounted literature. It's well-written and accessible. I would say that Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra and Schopenhauer's Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung are also literature. Kant and Hegel, on the other hand, I don't think brought a literary dimension to their philosophical writing. So their writing qua writing lacks some quality evident in Nietzsche's, Schopenhauer's and also Kierkegaard's.
Daniel Green's Rieff review I rather like. I am not sure if I would agree with his conclusions were I to read the book, and his review would not dissuade me from reading it. But I can see why he didn't like it. I do think a writer's work should be judged on its own terms and not in terms of the writer's biography, though I see nothing wrong with learning as much as one can about the author of books one finds interesting. Often, it is the work that helps explain the author, rather than the other way around.
Disputes like this would proceed better, I think, if the disputants first laid out what it is they agree about. For if they do not agree at all on certain key points there really is no basis for discussion.
Update: I have bumped the post to draw attention to the latest comments.
What is literature? Jesuit product that I am, I would start with particulars we can all agree upon. Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Dickens - I think everyone would agree that what they wrote is literature. I suspect Plato, Montaigne and Charles Lamb would make muster, too, though they all wrote nonfiction. So it is easy to see how The Origin of Species could be accounted literature. It's well-written and accessible. I would say that Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra and Schopenhauer's Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung are also literature. Kant and Hegel, on the other hand, I don't think brought a literary dimension to their philosophical writing. So their writing qua writing lacks some quality evident in Nietzsche's, Schopenhauer's and also Kierkegaard's.
Daniel Green's Rieff review I rather like. I am not sure if I would agree with his conclusions were I to read the book, and his review would not dissuade me from reading it. But I can see why he didn't like it. I do think a writer's work should be judged on its own terms and not in terms of the writer's biography, though I see nothing wrong with learning as much as one can about the author of books one finds interesting. Often, it is the work that helps explain the author, rather than the other way around.
Disputes like this would proceed better, I think, if the disputants first laid out what it is they agree about. For if they do not agree at all on certain key points there really is no basis for discussion.
Update: I have bumped the post to draw attention to the latest comments.
Durrell on Durrell
INTERVIEWER: There is still quite a lot of violent anti-bourgeois England in your early things.
DURRELL: I think part of it I may have got from my heroes of that time—Lawrence, as I said, and Aldington, and so on—but it’s more than just a fashionable thing. I think that, as I say, in England, living as if we are not part of Europe, we are living against the grain of what is nourishing to our artists, do you see? There seems to be an ingrown psychological thing about it; I don’t know why it is. You can see it reflected even in quite primitive ways like this market business now—the European Common Market. It’s purely psychological, the feeling that we are too damned superior to join this bunch of continentals in anything they do.
For the complete interview, see: The Paris Review
DURRELL: I think part of it I may have got from my heroes of that time—Lawrence, as I said, and Aldington, and so on—but it’s more than just a fashionable thing. I think that, as I say, in England, living as if we are not part of Europe, we are living against the grain of what is nourishing to our artists, do you see? There seems to be an ingrown psychological thing about it; I don’t know why it is. You can see it reflected even in quite primitive ways like this market business now—the European Common Market. It’s purely psychological, the feeling that we are too damned superior to join this bunch of continentals in anything they do.
For the complete interview, see: The Paris Review
Thought for the day ...
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.- Hector Berlioz
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Lay off, Johannes ...
... Open season on Brahms? Not quite.. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
That's quite a performance by Karajan. He was a better conductor in the '50s, not the fussy, cold perfectionist he became. I have his 1957 version of the Brahms fourth with the Philharmonia. One of the best ever. Beautifully proportioned and forceful.
What can I say ...
... but thank you, Maxine? Frank Wilson and the beauty of brevity. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I am reminded of something Hector Berlioz said: “At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings.”
I am reminded of something Hector Berlioz said: “At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings.”
A public service ...
... announcement, for our Green friends: Help save the planet, choose used books.
I speak as one with an especially dainty carbon footprint (and also as someone who is distinctly agnostic on the issue of global warming - no "climate change" obfuscation here).
I gather that tomorrow is Earth Day.
Regarding which, Dave sends along (in the comments) this: To Hell with Earth Day; Long Live Arbor Day!
I gather that tomorrow is Earth Day.
Regarding which, Dave sends along (in the comments) this: To Hell with Earth Day; Long Live Arbor Day!
... Earth Day has become a bloodless holiday for pallid urbanites, the sort of technology-dependent yuppies whose rare encounters with the unregulated outdoors usually end in paralyzing fears of Lyme disease. Earth Day is about as green as a $100 bill.
Golden blather ...
... America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
Well, I can assure you that I have my price.
Well, I can assure you that I have my price.
His own man ...
...The Establishment Outsider: An Interview with Roger Scruton. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
"The danger is that people will just get lost in a morass of addictive pleasures and not ask themselves the questions about the meaning of their own lives and not make the effort to make themselves interesting to others, so that human relations begin to crumble. I think we’re actually seeing that. If you look round the society in which we are, it’s not in a happy state. Although it has everything materially, people are finding it very difficult to make themselves interesting to each other.”
Dangerous friends ...
... A Plan To Help Newspapers That Will Hasten Their Demise? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Color me skeptical, too.
Color me skeptical, too.
Thought for the day ...
I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.- J.B. Priestley
Monday, April 20, 2009
Seek and you shall find ...
... or maybe not: The searcher's goal, the finder's freedom. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Searching may be preferable to finding because finding may make it necessary to decide.
But Mark's point about contemplation brings to mind Aquinas's insight that, as Josef Pieper puts it, "it is part of the very nature of things that their knowability cannot be wholly exhausted by a finite intellect."
I remarked recently that Siddhartha was the Hesse novel I liked least. This quote makes me want to give it another look.
I remarked recently that Siddhartha was the Hesse novel I liked least. This quote makes me want to give it another look.
European Literature
Books that deserve to be paired:
Hrabal, Too Loud a Solitude
Lindgren, Hash
For what they have to say about the act of writing (and reading), both novels are worthy of praise.
Hrabal, Too Loud a Solitude
Lindgren, Hash
For what they have to say about the act of writing (and reading), both novels are worthy of praise.
From the bench ...
... Justice Stevens Renders an Opinion on Who Wrote Shakespeare's Plays. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Justice Stevens mentions that Lord Burghley, guardian of the young de Vere, is generally accepted as the model for the courtier Polonius in "Hamlet." "Burghley was the No. 1 adviser to the queen," says the justice. "De Vere married [Burghley's] daughter, which fits in with Hamlet marrying Polonius's daughter, Ophelia."I don't think the Burghley-Polonius connection is at all "generally accepted." It would certainly be an odd tribute, given that Polonius is a garrulous fool.
Bunny paws and more ...
... Questions About Religion and Superstition. Superstitious Materialism.
"But brains just are semantic engines; they have the intentional power!" If the materialist can get away with that little outburst, then the religionist can get away with imputing to a plastic icon on a dashboard the power of averting automotive mishap.
Maybe too late ...
... J-Schools Play Catchup. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Maybe it's the J-School model that is outmoded. Maybe the academicization of all and sundry is a bad idea. Here is something Gide said:
Maybe it's the J-School model that is outmoded. Maybe the academicization of all and sundry is a bad idea. Here is something Gide said:
It is certain that the man who wonders as he takes up his pen: what service can be performed by what I am about to write? is not a born writer, and would do better to give up producing at once. Verse or prose, one's work is born of a sort of imperative one cannot elude. It results (I am now speaking only of the authentic writer) from an artesian gushing-forth, almost unintentional, on which reason, critical spirit, and art operate only as regulators.
Mark your calendars ...
...Karin Alvtegen's U.S. Tour: Chicago, Houston, New York. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Thought for the day ...
Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal.- Plato
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Nothing like this one ...
... that's for sure: AS Byatt interview: Nothing like the Dame. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
High courage ...
... The ‘Bridge’ to literary renown.
Thornton Wilder's star is on the rise again. I think it will continue to rise.
Thornton Wilder's star is on the rise again. I think it will continue to rise.
On time ...
... Online Literary Journals: Coming of Age.
When Valparaiso Poetry Review was begun in 1999, I imagined universal acceptance of online literary journals would take a number of years, and I considered the possibility that a decade might pass before electronic literary magazines would come of age. With the general recognition today, by almost all poets and most short-fiction writers, of such journals as satisfactory locations for publication, as well as the nearly universal presence of print journals in some online form, perhaps the maturation of online journals has happened just as I had hoped would occur.
This week's ...
... Maxine roundup:
... Kingston Readers' Festival 2009.
... Michael Walters on series of books.
... Narnia Code revisited.
... The science of stealing. (Always good to know.)
... Chinese twhispering. (Great post title.)
... Suffer the Children by Adam Creed.
Compared to Maxine, I am slothful.
... Kingston Readers' Festival 2009.
... Michael Walters on series of books.
... Narnia Code revisited.
... The science of stealing. (Always good to know.)
... Chinese twhispering. (Great post title.)
... Suffer the Children by Adam Creed.
Compared to Maxine, I am slothful.
And it's sound ...
... Advice for journalists on the faith beat.
"I don't expect journalists who track the church to agree with everything she teaches. But I do think reporters should have a working knowledge of her traditions and teachings," he said. "I do think editors should have the basic Catholic vocabulary needed to grasp what we're talking about and why we're talking about it."
An appetite ...
... for free enterprise: Good Grub and the Spirit of Capitalism. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Afterthoughts ...
... Tinkering With the Ideal. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Most artists, of course, are perfectly happy to leave well enough alone, secure in the knowledge that they got it right the first time (even if they didn't). On the other hand, revised versions of well-known works of art are quite a bit more common than you might suppose, and it turns out that more than a few great artists were near-compulsive tinkerers.
Mournful, exasperated glee ...
... meets mournful, exasperated glee: Bryan ponders Little things that matter.
Fantasy with soul ...
... Interview with Lars Walker, Viking fantasy author and Christian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There's a future in this ...
... for sure: Robin of Sherwood, 2009. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
At last I attain orders - without having to go through all those distracting preliminaries.
At last I attain orders - without having to go through all those distracting preliminaries.
Good for him ...
... Geoffrey Hill wins 2009 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... A first novel, ringingly aware.
... 'The guy who coached Wilt' looks back.
... Lyrical poetry in which death lives on. (Once again, a bizarre editorial change has been made in my text. The second sentence should read: One not only feels as if one is overhearing the speakers in these poems; one also feels like an invisible presence shadowing them.)
... Stories of American Indians told with gorgeous absurdity.
... 'The guy who coached Wilt' looks back.
... Lyrical poetry in which death lives on. (Once again, a bizarre editorial change has been made in my text. The second sentence should read: One not only feels as if one is overhearing the speakers in these poems; one also feels like an invisible presence shadowing them.)
... Stories of American Indians told with gorgeous absurdity.