Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Weird ...
... A few Catholics still insist Galileo was wrong - latimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The article says that these people believe the Earth is the center of the universe. So it isn't just Galileo they disagree with. He only said the Earth revolved about the sun. They're claiming everything revolves around the Earth. Pretty bizarre.
Hmm ...
... The Art of 9/11 | Bryan Appleyard. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I wonder if maybe we are asking too much of art. The idea that every great or terrible event must be somehow memorialized by art seems dubious to me, as does the idea that artists are somehow uniquely qualified to address such matters. It is another example of making art into religion, though the result is usually just editorializing.
Thought for the day ...
There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.- Georges Braque, who died on this date in 1963
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
More news from the front ..
... The Battle between eBook and Print Is Not Yet Over � Commentary Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... the format — text shimmering on the screen of an electronic deviceversus handheld codex — may have less to do with what is happening than ebook enthusiasts like to think.
No doubt ...
... How the Bible doesn't do doubt - Philosophy and Life. OHat tip, Dave Lull.)
What's required is keeping faith - faith too not being about confidently asserting metaphysical propositions but rather developing the capacity to trust yourself, others, God.
Oh, no ...
... The End of Books—This Time for Sure! � Commentary Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... to declare that books have no real future is not the same as pronouncing the death of the “commercial structure undergirding our previous method of story delivery,” as he calls it — the corporate publishing model, with a single large company in control of all post-production aspects of literature (manuscript acceptance, editing, printing, distribution, advertising). As I’ve said before, it is a vulgar error to confuse the decline of publishing with anything else, including premature announcements of the book’s demise.
Not so elegant ...
... Siris: Hume's Writing. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Students striving to emulate Hume's writing style is exactly what one doesn't want.
Bohumil Hrabal
I don't know what to say about Hrabal's I Served the King of England except perhaps to say that it's the best book I've read in a long, long time.
True, Closely Watched Trains is great, and true, Too Loud a Solitude may be even better, but King of England stands alone. Here's a novel that's so many things: sad, poignant, funny, perceptive, historical, imaginative...the list goes on.
For those with an appreciation for Czech literature, let me strongly recommend this classic: it's a work which I did not want to end.
Thought for the day ...
Art is beauty, the perpetual invention of detail, the choice of words, the exquisite care of execution.- Theophile Gautier, born on this date in 1811
Monday, August 29, 2011
In mind ...
... but out-of-print: BookFinder.com Report Fall 2011 @ BookFinder.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Canon redux ...
... Great Courses, Great Profits by Heather Mac Donald, City Journal Summer 2011. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... the company offers a treasure trove of traditional academic content that undergraduates paying $50,000 a year may find nowhere on their Club Med–like campuses. This past academic year, for example, a Bowdoin College student interested in American history courses could have taken “Black Women in Atlantic New Orleans,” “Women in American History, 1600–1900,” or “Lawn Boy Meets Valley Girl: Gender and the Suburbs,” but if he wanted a course in American political history, the colonial and revolutionary periods, or the Civil War, he would have been out of luck. A Great Courses customer, by contrast, can choose from a cornucopia of American history not yet divvied up into the fiefdoms of race, gender, and sexual orientation, with multiple offerings in the American Revolution, the constitutional period, the Civil War, the Bill of Rights, and the intellectual influences on the country’s founding. There are lessons here for the academy, if it will only pay them heed.
By the time the academy takes heed it will have lost most of its credibility.
Literary umpiring ...
... Rick Gekoski: It takes judgment, not taste, to pick a Booker winner | Books | guardian.co.uk. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I believe that readers who deny the many excellent qualities of Banville's The Sea have not read carefully enough, or thought sufficiently about it.
I would agree.
Good news ...
... Postal Service paying fewer workers to do nothing - The Federal Eye - The Washington Post.
This may explain my local post office.
Pilgrimage ...
... The Next Page / The eternal C.S. Lewis: now, more than ever.
... I found the storyline of his faith progression from atheist to advocate even more compelling than the canon of his literature. It's a story not widely known and quite improbable; it's as if the leading atheist of our age, say Richard Dawkins, also of Oxford, suddenly reversed himself to become a Christian evangelist.
Thought for the day ...
Our reason may prove what it will: our reason is only a feeble ray that has issued from Nature.- Maurice Maeterlinck, born on this date in 1862
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Weighing in ...
... The future of book reviewing and one cranky man… | The Book Haven. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
If you click on the second link, you will see the comment from Jeff Sypek. To which I will now respond, in a way that I am sure would dismay most newspaper executives. To wit:
One must understand that the position of most such executives on this is a combination of vincible ignorance and hypocrisy. Notice that they never care if the local teams advertise in the sports pages (which, of course, they do not). Also, back in the day, when newspapers were practically the only game in town as far as advertising was concerned, to work in the advertising sales department of a newspaper meant managing an account. When it became necessary to actually start flushing out some business, newspaper advertising sales departments found they really couldn't do that very well.
My predecessor as book editor at The Inquirer, Mike Schaffer, told me that he had been called upon once -- by the advertising department -- to put out an entire section devoted to children's books, being assured that the advertising department would fill it with ads. To do that sort of section is a very complex matter, believe it or not. Mike, as professional a journalist as you are likely to encounter in this fallen world, pulled it off beautifully. How many ads did the section have? None.
I once proposed to the then editorial VP of Knight-Ridder an idea for K-R Books, a book section that would appear simultaneously in all 31 K-R cities every Sunday (the basic template would have come out of Philly, but would be modified by local content as well). I was told they couldn't possibly do that, since it would be to denigrate their other book editors. No problem a couple of years later, though, when they found it expedient to fire most of said editors.
I could go on, but the point is that a book section would attract more readers to a newspaper -- even a lot of people who watch baseball read -- and the more readers you have, the more advertisers you get.
Newspapers flap their wings hoping to attract young readers by reviewing pop music, but those (theoretical) young reader don't care what newspapers think about what they're listening to. I certainly didn't care that the local pop music reviewers thought little of Elvis when I was in high school. I also wouldn't have cared if they'd thought the world of him.
But the experience of listening to music is fundamentally different from the experience of reading. Readers want to know what others have to say about what they have read. It's an extension of the reading experience. Reading about the music you have heard is not an extension of the listening experience.
Maybe if more newspaper executives did some reading of their own, they would understand.
Thought for the day ...
Only a fool expects to be happy all the time.- Robertson Davies, born on this date in 1913
Saturday, August 27, 2011
A poem ...
Poesis
In the beginning
There weren’t any words,
Only sounds and smells,
Shapes and colors,
In motion or at rest,
Weaving a pattern,
Woven into one.
Grunts and sighs prevailed,
Murmurs, cries, until
The flexible tongue warbled
A name, syllables
Designating a wonder
In a world of wonders.
Syllables begot syllables,
Wonder after wonder. Soon
There were as many
Words as wonders
And the world was cast
In doubt. Words should be
Exceptional. In the beginning …
My, my ...
... CERN: 'Climate models will need to be substantially revised' • The Register.
No surprise to those familiar with this.
Sounds almost kinky ...
... The Volokh Conspiracy � Unnatural Corn Class Action.
I am amazed at how many people don't realize that cross-pollination is also genetic modification. Rather a messy approach, given that it's hit-and-miss (mostly miss). Little that we eat today looks as it did centuries ago. One of my heroes when I was growing up was Luther Burbank.
Hmm ...
... Crime and the Great Recession by James Q. Wilson, City Journal Summer 2011. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
As the national unemployment rate doubled from around 5 percent to nearly 10 percent, the property-crime rate, far from spiking, fell significantly. For 2009, the FBI reported an 8 percent drop in the nationwide robbery rate and a 17 percent reduction in the auto-theft rate from the previous year. Big-city reports show the same thing. Between 2008 and 2010, New York City experienced a 4 percent decline in the robbery rate and a 10 percent fall in the burglary rate. Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles witnessed similar declines. The FBI’s latest numbers, for 2010, show that the national crime rate fell again.
A mixed bag ...
... James Wood on The New Atheism | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Lee Lowe.)
The opening phrase is problematic: "In the last 10 years or so, the rise of American evangelicalism and the menace of Islamist fundamentalism ..." American evangelicalism has been on the rise for a good deal longer than 10 years and to imply that it is somehow equivalent to Islamic fundamentalism is ignorant. In fact, the only thing Wood seems to know about evangelicalism is what he's read in the papers. Evangelical Christianity is not, in fact, "characterised by scriptural literalism." Scriptural literalists are a very small minority of Christians.
On the other hand, Wood is quite right that "it would be more interesting to examine what might be called the practice of propositional beliefs." A literalist approach to doctrine can be just as constricting as a literalist approach to scripture.
As for whether "the resurrection happened or it didn't," I once saw John Polkinghorne (who knows a good deal more about physics than Richard Dawkins does) explain by means of quantum mechanics and chaos that the resurrection would by no means violate the nature of the physical universe as we currently understand. Polkinghorne was very careful to make plain that this did not constitute a proof that the resurrection happened, only a refutation of the proposition that it could not have happened.
Worth noting ...
... RealClearPolitics - Traveling Back to the Future on Intercity Buses.
When Debbie and I go to New York, we take the Chinatown bus. Twenty bucks a piece round trip. And we can walk to Chinatown.
Well?
... Har du Norges fineste bokhylle? - Litteratur - NRK Nyheter. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.) Click the button and Google will translate.
Joseph Epstein wonders ...
... What Killed American Lit. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... through the magic of dull and faulty prose, the contributors to "The Cambridge History of the American Novel" have been able to make these presumably worldly subjects seem parochial in the extreme—of concern only to one another, which is certainly one derogatory definition of the academic. These scholars may teach English, but they do not always write it, at least not quite. A novelist, we are told, "tasks himself" with this or that; things tend to get "problematized"; the adjectives "global" and "post"-this-or-that receive a good workout; "alterity" and "intertexuality" pop up their homely heads; the "poetics of ineffability" come into play; and "agency" is used in ways one hadn't hitherto noticed, so that "readers in groups demonstrate agency." About the term "non-heteronormativity" let us not speak.
Thought for the day ...
Being, belief and reason are pure relations, which cannot be dealt with absolutely, and are not things but pure scholastic concepts, signs for understanding, not for worshipping, aids to awaken our attention, not to fetter it.- Johann Georg Hamann, born on this date in 1730
Friday, August 26, 2011
Cathedrals and earthquakes ...
... Quid plura? | “Look, a golden-winged ship is passing my way…” (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Among the Inuit ...
... When Falls the Coliseum � An extraordinary gentlemen.
It is 1930. Maurice is 16. The Great Depression looms. Fatherless and dependent on the meager kindness of a grandmother for a home along with his mother, brother’s and sisters, our hero answers the call of the Hudson’s Bay Company for trainees to man the trading posts of arctic Canada. The adventure begins.
Thought for the day ...
Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled by God.- John Buchan, born on this date in 1875
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Easy ride ...
... Beyond me - Philosophy and Life. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Whilst it may be very hard to say what an ‘I’ is – and it is surely multiple and porous – it is foolish to rush to concluding there’s no ‘I’ at all. It is less reactionary, surely, to rest with the notion that we are something of a mystery to ourselves – a mystery deepened in meditative analysis, not dissolved in it.
FYI ...
... Google doodle celebrates Jorge Luis Borges' 112th birthday - latimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Just in time ...
... Complete Annotated Guide to 9/11 Novels � Commentary Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thought for the day ...
The Internet offers authors and their readers a new diversity of opportunities and freedom.- Frederick Forsyth, born on this date in 1938
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Time out for a poem ...
Earthquake
Eppur si muove. And so
It does, and not only
Round and about, but deep
Inside, a floating island adrift
On its own fiery heart. Ground beneath
Murmurs and gives way,
Walls about shake and sway,
Revealing in a trice
Solidity’s fragility.
Hmm ...
... Confessions of an Ex-Moralist - NYTimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In my most recent published book, I defended a particular moral theory – my own version of deontological ethics – and then “applied” that theory to defend a particular moral claim: that other animals have an inherent right not to be eaten or otherwise used by humans.
But why just humans? Why don't they have an inherent right not to be eaten, period? Humans are not the only species that eats animals. And why do plants not have a similar right?
The shape of words ...
Resurrection ...
... Back From the Dead: The State of Book Reviewing | Poets & Writers. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sharp pen ...
... Flavorwire � Our Favorite Lines from Dorothy Parker’s Most Scathing Reviews. (Hat tip, Rud Bowden.)
Agendas ...
... Free Ride: The Price of Google | Bryan Appleyard. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Like Google, Robert Levine’s book has an agenda but it is the opposite of Eric Schmidt’s. Levine, an American technology and music journalist, is on the side of the decently rewarded creators against the utopians. Free Ride is flatly written and hard going, but it is important, not least because it concludes by offering some possible solutions to the problem.
Art and life ...
... Eudora Welty's Jackson: 'The Help' In Context : NPR. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Critics and fans of The Help question whether a white woman in 1963, like the main character Skeeter Phelan, would be brave enough to rebel against the white establishment. But there were women like Skeeter, though they were few and far between. In the same year in which The Help is set, Eudora Welty wrote "Where Is the Voice Coming From?" bravely capturing the feelings that were in the air in Jackson that year. They were feelings unspoken by many at the time, just as they were missing on-screen in The Help.
Thought for the day ...
Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter.- Max Beerbohm, born on this date in 1872
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The earthquake ...
So I was sitting in my living room doing an interview and all of a sudden I feel this this funny something -- like a wave, actually -- under the sofa, then I notice the paintings on the wall are shaking and Frank Stepnowski, the guy I'm interviewing, looks at me and says, "Do you notice that?" And I said, "Yeah, and I just saw the walls sway. I think we just had an earthquake." Very bizarre experience.
Thought for the day ...
I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn't write anything without hope.- Oscar Hammerstein II, who died on this date in 1960
Monday, August 22, 2011
Have a listen ...
... Marilynne Robinson on Poetry and the Soul | To the best of our KNOWLEDGE. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The Dante Marathon ...
... and more: Elif Batuman in Hell and Paradise | The Book Haven. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Elif’s saga takes her through Florence, to Pisa, where she meets the forensic paleontologist Francesco Mallegni, who has reconstructed a facial likeness of Dante based on a “bootleg model” of the poet’s skull when the skeleton was exhumed in 1921. Mallegni also found and studied the body of the Inferno‘s imprisoned Count Ugolino, presumed cannibal who devoured the bodies of his own children in hunger. His conclusion? “The septuagenarian count, not having a tooth in his head, couldn’t possibly have eaten a child, let alone four grown men,” Elif writes.
Return of The King ...
... A poem for The Pelvis - The Globe and Mail. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A fine poem, and a fine example of just how great a singer was.
Thought for the day ...
Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.- Ray Bradbury, born on this date in 1920
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... my review of Rachel Hadas's Strange Relation: Poetry as balm in dealing with dementia.
Thought for the day ...
Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.- Francis de Sales, born on this date in 1567
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Jose Saramago
I've just finished José Saramago's Death with Interruptions, a novel which I didn't consider as strong as Blindness, but which I felt, nevertheless, accomplished what it set out to do: which is to transform death into a human experience.
Like Blindness, which captures the shock of a community confronting a sudden plague of sightlessness, Death with Interruptions takes as its subject a cataclysmic shift: in a remote nation, death takes a holiday, and for seven months, not a single member of this country expires.
The first half of the novel depicts the immediate social, political, and economic effects of this unprecedented situation. Saramago appears particularly interested at this point, however, in the economy - the economics - of death, and goes to considerable lengths to remind us of the industry surrounding our own transience.
The second half of the novel, which flows from death's reemergence, follows a cellist, whose expiration date, as it were, has passed without consequence. It was this part of the book which, I felt, was most effective in terms of Saramago's ability to capture death both as a process as well as a figure (that is, Death writ large).
All told, I enjoyed this novel, but didn't feel it as penetrating (or frightening) as Blindness. I think this is a result, as I suggest, of Saramago's reluctance - in the first half of the book - to follow a character, or set of characters, as they navigate death's departure. In Blindness, the opposite is the case, as we follow a single woman's journey through horror itself.
It's interesting, Saramago's fascination with crisis - if only because it serves to reinforce the power, and permanence, of humanity.
What????
... The week in pictures: 19 August 2011 - Telegraph.
The caption reads: "The cast and crew of a zombie film starring Brad Pitt are on location in Glasgow, which is standing in for Philadelphia." Standing in for Philadelphia! They jest, of course. Nothing can stand in for Philadelphia. Like you can get a hoagie in Glasgow.
Amis on Larkin ...
... The Larkin puzzle - FT.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
His greatest stanzas, for all their unexpectedness, make you feel that a part of your mind was already prepared to receive them – was anxiously awaiting them. They seem ineluctable, or predestined. Larkin, often, is more than memorable. He is instantly unforgettable.
Thought for the day ...
Faith is an act of a finite being who is grasped by, and turned to, the infinite.- Paul Tillich, born on this date in 1886
Friday, August 19, 2011
Founding father ...
... Green’s Heroes of Slang: 5. John Taylor the Water Poet � The Dabbler. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
He was a superb self-publicist, one of the earliest of literary entrepreneurs. When one of The Sculler verses poked fun at the more established poet Thomas Coryate, the pair became embroiled in a pamphlet war. There were rival petitions to the King and one of Taylor’s pamphlets was burnt by the common hangman. It was all good for the Taylor brand.
In search of ...
... On the trail of Alan Sillitoe's angry young man | Culture | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Roy Orbison as shaman ...
... or The Secret Afterlife of Roy Orbison - The Dabbler.
This makes perfect sense to me. But then, I'm old enough to remember seeing Roy on Bandstand. Hell, I'm old enough to remember when Bandstand was hosted by Bob Horn. In fact, I remember when it was just clips of big bands playing.
Tax dollars at work ...
... Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists | Science | The Guardian.
(Hat tip, Lee Lowe, whose accompanying question -- "These are scientists?" -- seems to the point.
The Medici of Merion ...
... Outsmarting Albert Barnes - Philanthropy Roundtable.
... the full value of Barnes’ collection would not be apparent for years. As he was putting it together, Barnes suffered a stinging humiliation from Philadelphia’s establishment art critics. In April and May of 1923, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts hosted an exhibit for some 75 of Barnes’ pieces, including sculptures by Lipchitz and paintings by Soutine, Modigliani, Matisse, Pascin, and Picasso. Critical reaction was almost uniformly brutal. It was a “series of seemingly incomprehensible masses of paint, known as landscapes” (Philadelphia Inquirer). “It is as if the room were infested with some infectious scourge” (the North American). “It is hard to see why the Academy should sponsor this sort of trash” (Philadelphia Record).
With good reason ...
... John Wilson: No One Reads the Bible Literally - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, take Genesis. If you're going to take that literally, you can only conclude that a serpent tempted Eve, because that's what it says. No mention of Satan.
And so he was ...
... Dylan engaged and frisky in Philadelphia gig | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/19/2011.
And Dan notwithstanding, so was Leon. Our friend, the adorable Betsy Green, who came down from Tunkhannock to join Debbie and me at the concert, described Dylan's voice as a combination of "sandpaper and satin." Exactly. It seemed part of the instrumental combo.
Thought for the day ...
Death in itself is nothing; but we fear to be we know not what, we know not where.- John Dryden, born on this date in 1631
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Literary genome ...
... Can 32,000 Data Points Yield The Perfect Book Recommendation? | mocoNews. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Who is Richard Bachman? In early tests, Book Genome Project researchers noted that he kept popping up as a match for readers who liked Stephen King. Turns out that Richard Bachman is the pen name that Stephen King used to publish the “Running Man” series of science fiction books between 1977 and 1982. “He wanted to see if he could recreate breaking into the mainstream,” Stanton said. “He sold maybe 30,000 copies as Richard Bachman. When he became public as Stephen King, he sold millions. From our perspective, if you’re looking for a perfect Stephen King-like book, Richard Bachman would be the best possible match. But a social network would never have recommended it. That is an ideal use case.”
Thought for the day ...
A new form will always seem more or less an absence of any form at all, since it is unconsciously judged by reference to the consecrated forms.- Alain Robbe-Grillet, born on this date in 1922
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
In spite of all ...
... really fine: A Momentary Taste of Being: Washington's Lady--Nancy Moser.
... Moser's book struck me as much more like Georgette Heyer than it did Barbara Cartland. And even the Heyer comparison does justice to neither author because this book is emphatically NOT a romance in any define sense--it is the story of a person.
Yeah, right ...
... Study: 1 hour of TV can shorten life by 22 minutes - Health - msnbc.com.
Oh my God! And I watched a whole baseball game last night. Woe is me.
Rumors of decease ...
... Commentary: The Slow Death of Europe | The National Interest.
With all its importance, the economic crisis is only part of our sad story—and probably not even the decisive one. For the present debacle is also one of an apparent lack of a common European identity and values, of national interests prevailing over a shared European interest. It is a crisis of lack of solidarity, leadership and—perhaps above all—political will. It is a crisis of internal tensions, of failed integration at home (as shown, for instance, by recent events in Britain). For many years European elites lived in a state of denial; they wanted more democracy but were unprepared for the erosion of authority that led to anarchy.
Another golden age ...
... bites the dust: The Myth of Pristine Nature - Reason Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
So many ecologists set the historical baseline as the condition of ecosystems before Europeans arrived. Why? The fact is that primitive peoples killed off the largest species in North and South America, Australia and Pacific Islands thousands of years ago. For example, after people showed up about 14,000 years ago, North America lost 60 or so species of tasty mammals that weighed over 100 pounds, including giant ground sloths, mammoths, mastodons, cheetahs, camels, and glyptodonts.
Bryan on the riots ...
... One Hot Breath | Bryan Appleyard. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... another effect of the Blair-Brown years has been a huge increase in inequality. The same thing has happened in America where working and middle class incomes have been falling for years and all the fruits of growth have gone into the hands of the rich.
I thought Blair and Brown, as leaders of the Labor Party, were left of center. As for the situation here, one problem has been that public sector employees are making more than the private sector employees whose taxes support the public sector. Also, in this country, nearly 50 percent pay no income tax at all. I also saw some reports that among those arrested for rioting were some fairly well-off people. I'd love to see Bryan interview Anthony Daniels on this issue. Please note: I am here, and not in the UK. I do not pretend to understand the dynamics of UK society. I do live in a place that has seen some mob violence lately. I agree with our mayor: Mayor Nutter takes church pulpit on teen mobs.
Supplemental. And here is some more: The top 5 percent earned 34.7 percent of the nation's adjusted gross income, but paid approximately 58.7 percent of federal individual income taxes. Debbie and I, next year for sure, will be in the top 10 percent. The average income of the bottom 50 percent would appear to be $33,000. That would be the poverty level for a 7-member household.
Thought for the day ...
All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.- V. S. Naipaul, born on this date in 1932
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
In memoriam ...
... Elvis died on this date in 1977. I believe it was the last time all the newspapers in Philadelphia sold out. I can still remember the Sunday afternoon I first heard this on the radio.
Hmm ...
... The Elusive Big Idea - NYTimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
But is a big idea necessarily a good one?
How much is too munch?
... When Falls the Coliseum � Thresholds: The essence of artistic opinion?
Watching this little puppet play, it occurred to me that all artistic appreciation and criticism comes down to personal thresholds. This is one of those ideas that makes me fear I am flirting with the obvious or with something that has already been said a hundred times. But this idea makes sharing artistic opinions a bit complicated, if not ineffective. It is really the measure of what “taste” is. Can there be “good taste” when we all have different thresholds for elements of art?
The first instant book ...
... Daniel Defoe | The Storm | Writing Up a Storm | Masterpiece by John J. Miller - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Defoe's eyewitness account is valuable, but his real innovation was to collect the observations of others. Journalism was then in its infancy, and there was nothing like systematic and objective reporting on contemporary events. Within a week of the storm's strike, however, Defoe was running newspaper ads that asked readers to submit stories. He and his publisher, John Nutt, must have regarded this invitation as an investment, knowing that they would absorb the cost of correspondence: In those days, the recipients of mail paid for postage.
Thought for the day ...
An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.- Charles Bukowski, born on this date in 1920
Monday, August 15, 2011
Weary ...
Just spent most of the day getting examined, x-rayed, and shot up with cortisone. Treatment, though, was outstanding. I'm just tired.
Indeed ...
... A Different Stripe — Happy Birthday, E. Nesbit!
I seem to recall that my stepdaughters, Gwen and Jen, loved her books.
The limits of panic ...
... To Boldly Go Where Lots Have Gone Before | Via Meadia.
Panic doesn’t turn an unworkable policy agenda into something that people can actually do. It can waste a lot of energy and time and cause otherwise capable people to sink months or years of their lives into leprechaun chases, and it can cause pandering politicians to gesture in the direction of your agenda without ever actually doing anything significant — but that is all. And it is not much.
Take your pick ...
... Five Best Books: Decadent Writing of the 19th Century - WSJ.com.
I've read the first three. I think À rebours is best understood within the context of certain novels that followed it, in particular Là-Bas, En route, La Cathédrale, and L'Oblat.
Thought for the day ...
Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone and leave it alone.- Thomas de Quincey, born on this date in 1785
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Art and life (again) ...
... “My diligently constructed narrative” | Mark Athitakis’ American Fiction Notes.
It’s hard to tell, taking those quotes together, whether Goldman played loosely with the facts or is just such an honorable stickler for accuracy that he’s more comfortable calling his memories a fiction. The book itself suggests that something closer to the latter is going on.
More from the northland ...
... Crime fiction from Sweden | Petrona.
What I ... intend to write about is the more typical Swedish crime fiction (in my experience), which is not usually a genre of breathlessly exciting, casually expressed thrillers, but is a more suspenseful, psychological and, yes, often gloomy world.
The endless apprenticeship ...
... The Book Reviewer’s Downgraded Credit Rating.
Lutz’s biggest oversight — a blunder likely inadvertent, but one nevertheless insulting to the many journalists currently toiling online for free — was his failure to acknowledge the countless outlets that have sprouted up in response to a diminishing book reviewing climate.
Roses and magic ...
... George R. R. Martin and the Rise of Fantasy - NYTimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Martin possesses two virtues in abundance. First, he’s unapologetically coldblooded. Westeros is a dangerous place governed by the whims of men, not the rule of law, and the first novel in his series is famous for (spoilers follow!) dispatching a thoroughly admirable major character with whom readers have been identifying for most of the book. ... Martin’s second virtue is a nearly supernatural gift for storytelling. All of his hundreds of characters have grace notes of history and personality that advance a plot line. Every town has an elaborately recalled series of triumphs and troubles. Moreover, historical asides are inseparable from the books’ larger narratives, so as you’re propelled through the story, the sensation is like riding a wave that’s somehow moving away from shore, with the water beneath you growing deeper and more shadowed as your speed increases.
I opine ...
... in today's Inquirer: Abandoning discussion for mere assertion | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/14/2011.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... Peter Rozovsky on Benjamin Black: Ireland, with sleuth Quirke, stars in tale of tycoon's death.
... also Paul Davis on A clean P.I. in a corrupt city.
Thought for the day ...
A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do. Nothing else.- John Galsworthy, born on this date 1867
Saturday, August 13, 2011
I'm a bit skeptical ...
... A Commonplace Blog: The tyranny of suspense. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I'd rather read a good thriller than a bad tragedy. I guess what I'm skeptical of is literary taxonomy.
My, my ...
... Anecdotal Evidence: `And Be Not Queasy To Praise Somewhat'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I suppose Patrick is mostly right in his roster of "overrated" poets. But even an overrated poet may write poems that are quite good. I certainly think that Kenneth Patchen and Frank O'Hara wrote some pretty good poems, and Patchen was a very reader of his work. As for Cunningham he once wrote me, after I had reviewed his Collected Poems, to tell me that "it is always nice to be praised for what one would wish to be praised for."
Not so fast ...
... BBC News - The Great Gatsby: What it says to modern America. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
As the US's first small steps out of recession appear to falter, with 9% unemployment, the lowest rate of home ownership for decades, a downgrading of its credit rating and a growing Chinese challenge to US global supremacy, this tale of frustrated ambition, lost love and death seems to strike a chord.
But, as Mark Twain did not say, history doesn't repeat itself. It rhymes. The U.S. happens to be experiencing a few bad rounds. It has before. But I expect it will bounce back this time, as before. I'm certainly not counting it out yet. A little bit of adversity never hurt anybody.
Thought for the day ...
A religion without mystery must be a religion without God.- Jeremy Taylor, who died on this date in 1667
Friday, August 12, 2011
FYI ...
... The TLS blog: Coming soon at the TLS: New bloggers for old. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I am sure I am not alone in hoping that Peter blogs as much as ever, whether alone or in consort.
The Nothing strikes again ...
... Wow. Oh wow. Slash-and-burn time at The Washington Post Book World | The Book Haven.
(Those familiar with The Neverending Story will recognize the "Nothing" reference.
Meanwhile, Cynthia has more on the Camus and the KGB: Nobel prizewinner Albert Camus – snuffed by the KGB?
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