Is it possible ... that by emphasising the less attractive aspects of modern society and culture, by repeatedly drawing attention to the deleterious social and psychological effects of welfare dependence, by criticising multiculturalism as a doctrine and as corrupt bureaucratic opportunism, I may have contributed, if only a mite, to the poisonous, paranoid, narcissistic, grandiose and resentful brew in the mind of Breivik, who took what I wrote, even if at second-hand, in completely the wrong way and drew ludicrous but murderous conclusions from it? And if I did contribute that mite, does it mean that I should now retire into guilty silence, lest there be other Breiviks in the world?
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Examination of conscience ...
... Who Is to Blame? By Theodore Dalrymple. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Dueling Ahabs ...
... Paul Davis On Crime: Whale War: Encore Offers A Cable TV Film Based On Herman Melville's Classic Novel, 'Moby Dick'.
Debbie and just watched the Huston film the other night. Tough one to beat. This new one sounds awful.
Thought for the day ...
Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes.- Milton Friedman, born on this date in 1912
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Thought for the day ...
For the speedy reader paragraphs become a country the eye flies over looking for landmarks, reference points, airports, restrooms, passages of sex.- William H. Gass, born on this date in 1924
Friday, July 29, 2011
Hiatus ...
Between now and Monday, I plan to do little blogging. Our vacation is winding down and I want to squeeze the last drops out of it before it's over.
Fragment in the round ...
... Narrative Magazine's Friday Feature: "The Garden Of Eden At Twenty-Five". (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Oh, my ...
... 'L.A. Times' Cuts Review Freelancers. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
I would have expected greater reliance on freelancers, since they're more cost-effective.
Hey, man ...
... Beats In Time: A Literary Generation's Legacy | Literary Kicks. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thought for the day ...
God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.- Dag Hammarskjöld, born on this date in 1905
Thursday, July 28, 2011
My, my ...
... BBC News - Writer Sarah Thornton wins �65,000 damages over review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
More here: Telegraph told to pay damages to author.
Life and work keeping company ..
... Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life - Books - Night & Day - The Prague Post. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Yes and no ...
... A Commonplace Blog: Literary fiction. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I agree about literary fiction, but I don't agree about The Sea, which I think is wonderful. De gustibus ...
A good point ...
... more Sydney Greenstreet would be good: Ivebeenreadinglately: Short, round, tall, short, or, "Now that was a silly business."
Shot through with glory ...
... Film Review: Tree of Life – A Response � The Dabbler. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Radical conservative ...
... or conservative radical? Young at Heart - by David Kaufmann > Tablet Magazine - A New Read on Jewish Life. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
The Crying of Lot 49
The Crying of Lot 49...
Well, I finally read it. Can't claim, though, to have understood a thing. If this is a novel about the nature of interpretation, then so be it, but I far prefer Paul Auster's City of Glass. Now there's a book that gets at the intricacies of hermeneutics without veering toward the unreadable. And if this is a novel about the postmodern condition, well, then, I give up entirely...
Thought for the day ...
There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.- John Ashbery, born on this date in 1927
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Contentions ...
... Poetry Society annual meeting ends in no confidence vote | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Judith Fitzgerald ...
... on Amy Winehouse: MuseSplashes - The Globe and Mail. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Deeply distressed, terminally self-destructive and incomprehensibly tormented, the ne-plus-ultra-talented OneOf responsible for tunes the calibre of Stronger Than Me, Take The Box, You Know I'm No Good, Love Is a Losing Game and Back to Black ultimately proved herself incapable of either picking up the kaleidoscopic array of jagged ragged pieces or allowing the precious few around her who truly gave a damn, who did genuinely love and care for her to do something — anything — to help push her towards the kinds of care and unconditional love Winehouse so desperately craved and literally cried out to receive, to pull the emergency brake on her ever-escalating, always accelerating downward descent.
Hmm ...
... Book Review: The Believing Brain - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Mr. Shermer marshals an impressive array of evidence from game theory, neuroscience and evolutionary psychology. A human ancestor hears a rustle in the grass. Is it the wind or a lion? If he assumes it's the wind and the rustling turns out to be a lion, then he's not an ancestor anymore. Since early man had only a split second to make such decisions, Mr. Shermer says, we are descendants of ancestors whose "default position is to assume that all patterns are real; that is, assume that all rustles in the grass are dangerous predators and not the wind."
This doesn't look like evidence to me. It looks like pure imaginative speculation. I have no idea -- and neither does Shermer nor anybody else -- what thoughts ran through the minds of our distant ancestors. These are Shermer's thoughts. I suspect that our ancestors were far better attuned to variations among rustles in the grass than any of us can imagine. Of course, that also is pure imaginative speculation.
Thought for the day ...
Statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death.Hilaire Belloc, born on this date in 1870
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
I suppose so ...
... Historic Concert of the Day - The Daily What. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I'm not much of a Wagner fan myself, though though I do like the Siegfried Idyll.
Thought for the day ...
I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.- Carl Jung, born on this date in 1875
Monday, July 25, 2011
Well, maybe ...
... Three Golden Rules for book reviewing: What are they? - By Robert Pinsky - Slate Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I've never thought of it that way myself. My own rule is that if you accurately and precisely record your experience of the book -- with appropriate references thereunto -- the reader will know how you feel about the book. Certainly reviews that focus exclusively or even principally on Pinsky's third rule are a waste.
Separated ...
... by a common language: British Readers’ Least Favorite ‘Americanisms’ - Ideas Market - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Who knows?
... Book apps: A reading revolution, or the end of reading? - The Globe and Mail. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Here's a possibility: Lots of people who like to read will continue to, and others who don't will have a way of learning things they might not otherwise have.
Thought for the day ...
In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.- Eric Hoffer, born on this date in 1902
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The future ...
... at present: Game-Changing Technology: 3-D Printing → Washington's Blog. (Hat tip, David Tothero.)
Desire and belief ...
... and more: Nicholas Rescher - Issues in the Philosophy of Religion - Reviewed by Laura Garcia, Boston College - Philosophical Reviews - University of Notre Dame. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The cabin wherein we are currently ensconced is a fine place to reflect and ponder and I have spent a good bit of time this past week reading about Zen, which seems to encourage us to abandon words and concepts in order to (possibly) grasp reality directly. The effect of this, if I understand it -- and mere understanding is hardly the point -- is that living itself, in all its least details, would be sacramental, i.e., an outward sign of God's grace. Zen seems to understand that most talk about God is talk about an idea.
Hmm ...
... G. E. Moore on Santayana's Life of Reason. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I think that Moore's critique of Santayana's peculiar take on religion is quite to the point.
Indeed ...
... Can't top this - NYPOST.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I wrote headlines for years. In fact, my only journalism prize came for writing one. So yes, it's hard to imagine this one being topped.
Ordinarily ...
... I would not link to this, since I try to keep a certain distance from politics, but Dave Lull sent it along with a 2006 post from Peter Stothard's blog that I had forgotten about, and since Peter's blog -- along with Mary Beard's -- seems at least temporarily unreachable, I thought I'd post both: Klavan On The Culture � Demonic and The Underrated Ann.
Here is Peter's post: Ann Coulter in Latin.
The Death of the Adversary
I've read a fair number of books about the Second World War, but I can't remember reading one quite like Hans Keilson's Death of the Adversary.
I came to this novel by way of Francine Prose's review in The New York Times - a review which declared the book "a masterpiece" and Keilson a "genius." In the end, the novel - and its author - are as Prose suggests: masterful.
Death of the Adversary charts the experiences of an unnamed German Jew, who, by way of his written reflections, develops a complex emotional relationship with his "enemy." Like his adversary, however, the Jew is never properly identified. That is: we recognize, without having been told, that the Jew is Jewish and that his enemy is Hitler.
The fact that this information is never made explicit endows Keilson's novel with an ethereal quality - as if, at any moment, both characters might fade away. Death does not discriminate, he implies, though we wish it would.
While Adversary takes the Second World War as its subject, it is distinct, for instance, from Sebald’s Austerlitz. The darkness embedded in Keilson’s book is built on pyschological distress; it is a novel that exists in the mind and tangled thoughts of its nameless central character. Austerlitz functions in a similar fashion, it’s true, but for Sebald, that darkness is a function of plot, of action, of tortured discovery.
In the end, Death of the Adversary is a novel in search of oblivion - which is where it finds itself when Keilson concedes that beauty is as ordinary as enmity.
The last word is reserved for him:
“Enemies will never die out in this world," he writes. "They are recruited from former friends.”
A day late ...
... but I am on vacation: Paul Davis On Crime: Happy Birthday, Raymond Chandler.
See also: Happy Birthday, Raymond Chandler, Part Two.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... Books - philly.com ... including my review of Julian Barnes's Pulse: Unions, undertaken and ended.
Thought for the day ...
All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.- Alexandre Dumas, born on this date 1802
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Reminding the reader ...
... of what the writer is doing -- or intending to do: An Academic Author’s Unintentional Masterpiece - NYTimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Irresistible ...
... Barzun on Maugham: I can't resist - The Best American Poetry. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What I was waiting for ...
... Judith Fitzgerald on Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911-Dec. 31, 1980) - The Globe and Mail. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The sacrament of the moment ...
... Robert Ellsberg: Remembering Dorothy Day. (Hat tip, Cynthia Haven.)
And yes, I do think Dorothy Day deserves to be canonized.
Thought for the day ...
Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic.- Raymond Chandler, born on this date in 1888
Friday, July 22, 2011
FYI ...
... Russian translations get a shot at the Joseph Brodsky/Stephen Spender Prize and Ms. magazine celebrates its 40th with an essay contest | The Book Haven.
I once had a brief, but very pleasant conversation with Stephen Spender. He seemed to be a very nice man.
I wish him well ...
... Paul Davis On Crime: A Writing Detective Retires To Focus On Books.
Conlon's a nice guy and a damned good writer. I have no doubt at all that he is also good cop.
I'm not surprised ...
... Who's knowledgeable about science, technology, history and literature? : Confessions of a Science Librarian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Information science is the field more young people -- especially those who want to write -- ought to be looking into.
FYI ...
... The Hunter S. Thompson You Don't Know - Hampton Stevens - Entertainment - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Of a mind ...
... Dave Lull and I agree that this video is the best way to celebrate my having notched a million page loads (which I discovered yesterday while trying to figure out why PayPal is having such a hard time renewing my StatCounter subscription).
Thought for the day ...
Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.- Stephen Vincent Benet, born on this date in 1898
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Characters ...
... Ivebeenreadinglately: Old favorites.
I think the character I most identify with is François Seurel, the narrator Le grand Mealnes.
Favorites, though, would include Captain Ahab, Martin Eden, Rat in The Wind and the Willows, Widmerpool in A Dance to the Music of Time (grotesque, but fascinating).
Classic adventure ...
... Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini.
I rather like the Grainger film, which I saw when it came out in theaters. It boasts, I believe, the longest sword fight in films.
Thought for the day ...
An administrator in a bureaucratic world is a man who can feel big by merging his non-entity in an abstraction. A real person in touch with real things inspires terror in him.- Marshall McLuhan, born on this date in 1911
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Once again ...
... Nige and I are of a mind: Alma-Tadema – ‘the worst painter of the 19th Century’ � The Dabbler.
Nige is right. Alma-Tadema is not a great painter. But he's not a bad one, either. In fact, technically, he's quite impressive. And he created an alluring world, a sort of "classical" dreamscape.
FYI ...
... Mythbusting 101: Organic Farming > Conventional Agriculture | Science Sushi, Scientific American Blog Network.
I was a subscriber to Organic Gardening & Farming back when it started up in the 1950s, and I have a nice composter in my patio garden at home, but I have long thought the claims were exaggerated, and that it poses its own dangers to the environment.
Thought for the day ...
There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.-Petrarch, born on this date in 1304
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Stories and stories ...
... Has plot driven out other kinds of story? | Books | guardian.co.uk. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Bottoms up ...
... F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'On Booze': America's Drunkest Writer - The Daily Beast. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thought for the day ...
A human life is a schooling for eternity.- Gottfried Keller, born on this date in 1819
Monday, July 18, 2011
Once and future ...
... The Elegant Variation: COMPARE AND CONTRAST: ARTHUR THROUGH THE AGES. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
On men without chests ...
... Philosophy Weekend: C. S. Lewis and the Abolition of Man | Literary Kicks. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Does no one remember that Lewis was a professor of medieval and renaissance literature, and that The Allegory of Love and A Preface to Paradise Lost are still well worth reading? Nice to see that Chris Matthews remembered who Lewis was. As for getting divine inspiration out of Lewis's work, what's so odd about that? You can get divine inspiration from a leaf floating downstream or from a frog leaping into a pond (ask Basho).
Phone readings ...
... Poet creates 'buzz' around work by reading over phone to potential buyers | Books | guardian.co.uk. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Much in what he says ...
... AttackingtheDemi-Puppets: Spotting the Pseudo-Intellectual. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I'm not too keen on intellectuals, period, though I have from time to time been accused of being one. Sure, I like ideas, but I don't think the intellect is most important faculty of consciousness. That, in my view, would be imagination. I'm also not sure if we've lost any real intellectuals to the academy, which has certainly bred a bumper crop of the pseudo variety. But then, so has journalism.
Thought for the day ...
Normal science does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none.- Thomas Kuhn, born on this date in 1922
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Normal blogging ...
... resume shortly. On Friday, I re-entered retirement, having completed my temporary part-time gig editing the letters to the editor at The Inquirer. But today Debbie and I are driving to the mountains for a two week vacation. One we settle in there, blogging will resume.
Too bad...
... Why has Britain turned into a giant rubbish bin? - Telegraph. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The cause is people's thinking that public property is no one's, when actually it's everyone's.
Thought for the day ...
Every work of art should give utterance, or indicate, the awful blind strength and the cruelty of the creative impulse, that is why they must all have what are called errors, both of taste and style.- Christina Stead, born on this date in 1902
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Who knew ...
... The Excellence of the Latin Novus Ordo | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Through whom flashed forth today the transaction of the healing of our nature, because, when our frailty is received by thy Word, not only does human mortality pass across to everlasting honor, but it also, by a wonderful fellowship, renders us eternal
Can't say I've ever come across anything this good in the translation they've been using, doubtless because there isn't anything that good. The new translation is supposedly better, or at least more accurate. The lectionary choices in the vernacular missal that is used are frequently unimpressive. Then there's Owen Alstott's godawful music.
Thought for the day ...
Life... is not simply a series of exciting new ventures. The future is not always a whole new ball game. There tends to be unfinished business. One trails all sorts of things around with one, things that simply won't be got rid of.- Anita Brookner, born on this date in 1928
Friday, July 15, 2011
Hmm ...
... On Experts and Global Warming - NYTimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
From the comments: "Anyone who seriously makes the claim that 'science is best left to the experts' fails to understand science (and the true nature of expertise, which must be demonstrated, not merely claimed)."
Aquinas couldn't have put it better. It isn't just that scientists can be wrong. It is rather that scientific consensuses have been, and quite often. Most of the scientists who signed the IPCC's famed petition years ago had no expertise regarding climate. Your doctor is a scientist, but he may know less about climate science than you do. And one does not need to be a specialist to spot specious arguments, weak correlations, etc.
Thought for the day ...
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.- Richard Armour, born on this date in 1906
Thursday, July 14, 2011
This week's batch ...
... TLS Letters: ‘Betrayal’ in context, Defoe’s politics, Libraries, and more!
Sibling rivalry ...
... Margaret Drabble: 'It’s sad, but our feud is beyond repair’ - Telegraph. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Individuation ...
... Maverick Philosopher: Does Classical Theism Require Haecceitism? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It may well be that classical theism does not require haecceitism. But obviously it doesn't exclude it, either, and I think may be strengthened by it. If the essence of a thing is that which makes it what it is, then what makes this particular thing what it is in particular must be something it does not have in common with anything else. It is that indefinable something that I think is what we call the image of God, who is also indefinable. (This is very roughly put, because it is early in the morning and I have to start getting ready for work. Also, I am not a professional philosopher.)
Not for the funkless ...
... Back Where I Belong – Joshua Tree | Bryan Appleyard. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Books aboard ...
... A bookshop going places | Books | guardian.co.uk. (Hat tip, Lee Lowe, who thinks it a grand idea, as do I.)
Thought for the day ...
Just as a new scientific discovery manifests something that was already latent in the order of nature, and at the same time is logically related to the total structure of the existing science, so the new poem manifests something that was already latent in the order of words.- Northrop Frye, born on this date in 1912
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Yes!
... Critique ll � Colin Wilson. (Hat tip, Dave Lull)
He remains so well worthy of being taken seriously as a philosopher precisely because – unlike 98.9% of other writers/philosophers - he actually does concentrate on questions of supreme importance – what is the meaning of life? Why are we here? What should we be doing about it?
Wilson is messy, inconsistent, and contradictory. So is life. And anyone who tries to deal with life will be also. Wilson is much more of a philosopher than most professors of philosophy.
So does Debbie ...
... Paul Davis On Crime: I Love Those Wildwood Days.
I'm not much a shore guy myself. I prefer the mountains.
Thought for the day ...
As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can.- Julius Caesar, born on this date in 100 B.C.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Hmm ...
... Climate Change and Confirmation Bias - Reason Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, I am skeptical of it because I was trained in criteriology and the evidence is dubious. It has, for instance, been warmer in the past than it is now. There have also been times when atmospheric CO2 was vastly higher than it is now. A computer model is not reality. And if it is as serious as people like Al Gore tell us it is, why is his carbon footprint so gargantuan?
Cultural spring ..
... Beckett's Berlin - The Irish Times - Sat, Jul 09, 2011. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thought for the day ...
God is a verb, not a noun.- R. Buckminster Fuller, born on this date in 1895
Monday, July 11, 2011
Self-expression ...
... How Handwriting Builds Character - Edward Tenner - National - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Most interesting ...
... at least to me: Bruce Charlton's Miscellany: Clarification - Christian denominations, my ideal and in practice.
I also try to regard The Church as a mystical institution, and not as an organization or a collection of organizations.
Me, too.
An odd mix ...
... Mark Adams talks about Machu Picchu, adventure travel and guinea pigs | Bill Peschel.
Join in the fun ...
... What are the most beautiful words in the English language? | The Book Haven.
I've always been fond of lavender.
Thought for the day ...
Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.- E. B. White, born on this date in 1899
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Sounds sound ...
... that business about chaotic, that is: Why We Need the New News Environment to be Chaotic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In case you wondered ...
... Maverick Philosopher: Were the Greatest Philosophers Theists or Atheists? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Passing the time ...
... A life in writing: Cynthia Ozick | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull,)
Thought for the day ...
Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself.- Marcel Proust, born on this date in 1871
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Hmm ...
... Writing is bad for you | Rick Gekoski | Books | guardian.co.uk. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I read because I love to read, because, in the company of a book, I am happy, engaged, and inexorable.
Me, too.
Friday, July 08, 2011
The unbegun ...
... The greatest books that never were - Laura Miller - Salon.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Getting in the way ...
... Hemingway: Has his death eclipsed his work? - Obit-Mag.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
FYI ...
... Local Literary Voices | Philadelphia Stories.
Note in particular: Issue No. 84 of the Painted Bride Quarterly.
Thought for the day ...
A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.- Jean de La Fontaine, born on this date in 1621
Thursday, July 07, 2011
The right guy ...
... Memories of Chekhov by Peter Sekirin | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Congratulations, Katie ...
... Glengoyne Comment of the Month winner – June � The Dabbler. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thought for the day ...
I'm very aware how many distractions the reader has in life today, how many good reasons there are to put the book down.- David McCullough, born on this date in 1933