Tuesday, September 30, 2014
A fabulous figure …
Hear, hear …
… Camille Paglia: The Modern Campus Cannot Comprehend Evil | TIME.
Colleges should stick to academics and stop their infantilizing supervision of students’ dating lives, an authoritarian intrusion that borders on violation of civil liberties. Real crimes should be reported to the police, not to haphazard and ill-trained campus grievance committees
A thought for today …
Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.
— Truman Capote, born on this date in 1924
Monday, September 29, 2014
A thought for today …
Cure yourself of the affliction of caring how you appear to others. Concern yourself only with how you appear before God, concern yourself only with the idea that God may have of you.
— Miguel de Unamuno, born on this date in 1864.
Out of the ashes …
… Bryan Appleyard — Germany: From Rubble to Renaissance. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Germany has risen from the rubble of the 20th century to renew the culture of Bach, Kant, Beethoven and Goethe. How did it happen? Why? And what next?Methinks they have some way to go before they catch up to those guys.
Hot, cold, and just right …
… Bryan Appleyard — Marshmallow Wisdom. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The old belief that our destinies were more or less fixed at birth or soon after has been replaced by a more flexible and consoling view. Our genes do not control our lives, rather they react in response to the environment. Similarly, our mental structures are not immutable; they can, with care, be re-engineered. As a result, Mischel says, the nature-nurture argument has become meaningless.
Q&A …
… Authors Guild vs. Google: Fair Use or Foul Play? | The Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The view from two dimensions …
… Bryan Appleyard — Graphene: Hey, It’s Just the Future. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Nevertheless, you may well be handling a smartphone with a graphene-enhanced screen in the near future. Paints and inks containing graphene should appear in the next year or two. And it is close to certain that one or more of those 500 materials is about to change your world. Why?
Sunday, September 28, 2014
A thought for today …
We are not primarily put on this earth to see through one another, but to see one another through.
— Peter De Vries, who died on this date in 1993
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Just a thought …
God is not a focus of belief. God is a focus of worship. Not servile worship. Rather the worship born of devotion to one beloved.
Bloggus interruptus …
I am scheduled to participate in a poetry reading this afternoon, so blogging won't resume until later on.
Cheap shot …
… 'Denialist' Remains a Popular Epithet in Climate Battle - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Here's the difference: Evidence for the Holocaust is overwhelming. Evidence for global warming is not. When you read of a gathering said to address the problem of climate change, you're reading bullshit. Climate change is not a problem. It is a characteristic of climate. If you think you are certain as to the direction climate change is taking, you are fooling yourself. The science is not settled, and anyone who says it is, either is lying or doesn't know much about science, which is rarely settled. In science, there is no place for quasi-religious dogma.
Religion and life …
…William James' 'Varieties of Religious Experience': Human Nature and the Fruits of Faith - WSJ. (?Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In his Gifford Lectures, James decided to exclude religious institutions or religion in its institutional settings. He chose not to argue, or even discuss, theology. He set aside the question of immortality, which he wrote about elsewhere in an essay called "Human Immortality" (1897), where he concluded that it would be "blindness" to rule it out as a possibility. He concentrated instead on the effect of religion on the individual, of its stirrings in the human heart.
A thought for today …
Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.
— Henri Frédéric Amiel, born on this date in 1821
Worrisome …
… The Threatening Meltdown That Got a Book Blogger Kicked Off Twitter.
… Is This The Most Hated Man in Books?: Twitter vs. Edward Champion.
… Is This The Most Hated Man in Books?: Twitter vs. Edward Champion.
I know Ed. He used to review for me. I like him. Sure, he can be a wild man. But he's not a bad person. In fact, he can be very caring. I am not exonerating him of his share of blame in these matters. But there has to be a better way of resolving over-heated disputes than censorship of any sort, including banning someone from Twitter or whatever. Everybody should take a deep breath and calm down. Hey, it sure has got a lot of people talking, and for writers, what Oscar Wilde said is true — the only thing worse than being talked about is … not being talked about.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Edna O'Brien
I can't remember when or how I first heard about Edna O'Brien: the context eludes me. But I've just finished (as I understand it) her major work of fiction, The Country Girls, and it's one tough book.
I mean that in the sense that the content is rough and raw: this is a coming of age story told Irish-style. There's abuse and drinking, convents and loneliness. But there are moments of clarity, too, of wonder and beauty, of a restlessness reserved for youth.
Parts of The Country Girls have not aged well: the sexuality, in particular, seems dated and distant. (O'Brien published the book in 1960). There's a quaint quality to the intimacy with which I could not relate, and which reminded me at times of the film from a few years back, An Education.
But there were other sections of the book that captured for me what it is to be young: to live through fleeting moments of awakening and discovery. Those moments always, though, contrast in The Country Girls with others: those of despair and frustration, of knowing just enough to understand how little, in fact, you know.
It seems odd that I took on The Country Girls just after finishing Moravia's Agostino, another book about childhood. Both uncover the violence inherent in growing up, the pain of passing from one phase of our lives to the next. But both, too, get at moments of levity, of the delight of youth.
I'll leave the last word for O'Brien, whose characters encounter in adulthood an unwillingness to accept those moments of delight:
"It was always like that with Mr. Gentleman. He slipped away, just when things were perfect, as if he couldn't endure perfection."
I would like to know...
...Why does Mantel bring up the bodies?
In an interview to the Guardian, Mantel traces the origin of the story to a day in 1983 when "she spotted an unguarded Margaret Thatcher from the window of her Windsor flat and fantasised about killing her". Regrettably, Mantel converts her chance encounters into nuggets that do little justice to her protagonists. If she chose to honour her meeting with the Queen in an essay, with Thatcher she has gone one step further and drafted an entire story. She seems to possess a remarkably cool-headed notion of a writer's obligation. With regard to her Thatcher sighting, she tells the Guardian: "Immediately your eye measures the distance. I thought, if I wasn't me, if I was someone else, she'd be dead."
Take the test …
… Nigeness: Speed Reading with Flaubert.
I'm a slow reader. I like to hear the words that I read, not just look at them. Apparently, I read the paragraph at a speed of 177 words per minute. I did get the questions right. It seems that if I devoted an hour a day to Game of Thrones, I could finish it in about 150 days.
Recommended …
… Good Reading: The Thanatos Syndrome.
The fire watcher Fr. Smith sums it up in his warning, “Tenderness is the first disguise of the murderer. . . . Never in the history of the world have there been so many civilized tenderhearted souls as have lived in this century. . . More people have been killed in this century by tenderhearted souls than by cruel barbarians in all other centuries put together. . . . Do you know where tenderness always leads. . . . To the gas chambers.”Sounds like a book Zeke Emmanuel needs to read.
Contra- utilitarian .
… New feather in Marjorie Perloff’s cap, and a few words about making literature “useful.” | The Book Haven.
Want to learn something useful? Go to a training school. Want to learn how to form yourself into a person? Get an education.
Want to learn something useful? Go to a training school. Want to learn how to form yourself into a person? Get an education.
A thought for today …
Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them.
— T. S. Eliot, born on this date in 1888
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Major and minor …
… Anecdotal Evidence: `A Kind of Eccentric Attraction'.
Somerset Maugham appraised his literary position as being in the front row of the second-rate. Perhaps, when it comes to literature, we should think of major and minor as somehow corresponding to what those terms mean in music.
Surprise!!!
SO EVERY SO OFTEN I GET DEPOSED...which is the process prior to trial, and occurs when I have written a patent which may be an issue in litigation. (I wrote about being a lawyer taking a deposition and a most expensive word here.)
The other side may have one or many lawyers, and yesterday there were three opposite me, on the other side of the table asking questions, with a video camera staring at me as well, taking down every flinch, every movement to be studied in minute detail later by the lawyers and others.
The questioner here, and for the past two and a half hours, was a young, new lawyer:
LAWYER: Now, Ms. Chovanes, would you be surprised...
ME (TIRED AND CRANKY BY THIS POINT...Interrupting): My dear I am transsexual. NOTHING surprises me at this point.
She quickly moved on to another area.
She quickly moved on to another area.
Someone unknown doing we're not sure what …
… The Talmud's Mystical Revelations Are So Strong, the Rabbis Warn, That They Can Cause Death – Tablet Magazine. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Reading these pages, I couldn’t help wondering what the effect of reading Chagiga must have been on generations of Talmud students. Almost all of the Talmud, at least all that I’ve read so far, is extremely rational, lucid, and mundane. It approaches law with the tools of logic and strrives relentlessly for clear, full explanations of problems. No one could read, say, Tractate Eruvin and get carried away by spiritual raptures: You’re too busy trying to visualize right angles and calculate distances. Imagine spending years of your youth learning to think in this way and then coming upon Chagiga: It would be like entering a different world, in which logic flies out the window and all is allegory, vision, and dream. The accounts of the Creation and the Chariot feed a religious appetite that most of the Talmud seems designed to starve. What excitement these pages must have offered, what stimulus to imagination!
Hmm …
… A Truthy Critique of American Higher Ed | The Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This review would have been much better if the reviewer had spent less time telling us what he thinks about the book and more about what the book has to say. The reviewer also seems guilty of what he accuses Deresiewicz of:
This review would have been much better if the reviewer had spent less time telling us what he thinks about the book and more about what the book has to say. The reviewer also seems guilty of what he accuses Deresiewicz of:
Deresiewicz, indeed, seems to be operating under a model he (falsely) associates with the fields he maligns. Studying the liberal arts, he writes, teaches us that “there is no ‘information,’ strictly speaking; there are only arguments.” But this is quite wrong. High school students often come to college under this misapprehension — like Deresiewicz, they often confuse opinion for argument — and much of the work in lower-division courses is designed to teach them otherwise. An argument, I’ve just finished telling my first-year writing students, is an assertion bolstered by evidence.Well, actually, argument is a mode of discourse characterized by a line of reasoning designed to demonstrate the truth or falsehood of a given proposition. Evidence figures, of course, but so does logic, both inferential and deductive. Deresiewicz's book may not be all that good, but there is plenty of evidence that American higher education is increasingly less than meets the eye.
Feel free to weigh in …
… beyond eastrod: Pondering obscene death in the twisted world of radical Islam.
Beheading is bad enough. Using a knife to do it is far worse. A skillful executioner caused minimal suffering. Also, killing is one thing. The deliberate infliction of pain quite another. Unfortunately, the monsters of ISIS would probably only back off if you did unto theirs what they so gleefully do unto others.
A thought for today …
The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it.
— William Faulkner, born on this date in 1897
Art and gardening …
… The Gardens of Their Dreams by Robin Lane Fox | The New York Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… Martyn Rix acutely observes that “though we have fewer botanists, we have more botanical artists than ever before.” These artists are today’s close observers of flowers and fruits, now that “plant scientists” have moved inward to study cells and genes. Most plant scientists are ignorant about gardening. Artists do more for susceptible gardeners’ fantasies. Electronic reproduction is reaching ever higher standards and before long, we will be able to gaze in the winter months on our own images of the world’s finest flower paintings without too much loss of their depth and texture. Botanical artists often aim to be exact, scientific, and even analytic, but as Rix’s book shows, they too are caught up by the beauty of what they “record.”
Well, yes …
… Ideas: Adam Smith on the Subject of Laptops in the Classroom. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, sure. Because it is hierarchical arrangement. The master is in charge. He may be good or not. But whether good or not, a certain degree of order must prevail.
Well, sure. Because it is hierarchical arrangement. The master is in charge. He may be good or not. But whether good or not, a certain degree of order must prevail.
The Vatican Moves Ahead...
The Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who has
been accused of paying underage boys there to engage in sexual acts...Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, has already been
defrocked by the Vatican, the harshest penalty under the church’s canon
law short of excommunication. Beyond that, the Vatican has also said
that it intends to try Wesolowski on criminal charges – the first time it will hold a criminal trial for sexual abuse.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Easeful death …
… How Sigmund Freud Wanted to Die — The Atlantic.
The Atlantic really has a thing about death these days. Especially the death of older folks. They ran Ezekiel Emmanuel's piece about his wanting to die at 75 (giving the distinct impression that the rest of us ought to consider doing the same). I'm only a couple of years away from 75, and have no plans to skip out. I'd rather hang around for another 18 years and see what Zeke actually does.
Remembering …
… On Scott Fitzgerald’s Birthday: “Some Day You’ll Be Old Enough to Read This” | Town Topics.
(Hat tip, Virginia Kerr.)
(Hat tip, Virginia Kerr.)
Why Freud Still Haunts Us...
...From The Chronicle:
"Sigmund became a Freudian when he created the model of an interpreter who showed how our actions and words indirectly expressed conflicts of desire of which we were unaware. The conflicts among our desires never disappeared; they became the fuel of our histories. Making sense of those conflicts, understanding our desires, he thought, gave us an opportunity to give our stories—our histories—meaning."
Hmm …
… From Taboo to Common Sense — Taki's Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Today, the extremism of our culture’s demands for attestations of faith in equality and transparency is a mask for the movement back toward censorship and esotericism. We live in a society in which the fundamental truths—such as, that talents are distributed unequally by genetics—are increasingly considered unfit for public discussion, and careers as eminent as that of as James D. Watson, codiscoverer of the structure of DNA, are destroyed for letting slip a lack of fidelity to the reigning taboos.I recall one of Plato's letters — to Dionysius of Syracuse, I think — in which he concludes by saying that, as to what he himself thinks, no one will ever know that, presumably because he keeps it to himself.
Remembering poetry …
… Think of a poem: what poetry do you know by heart? | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
A thought for today …
I like people and I like them to like me, but I wear my heart where God put it, on the inside.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, born on this date in 1896
Well, maybe …
… Remembering the Real Fifties | Library of Congress Blog.
I certainly remember Look. But did the people putting together the book live in the '50s? If not, then how can they know what it was like then? That said, it looks like a good choice for my annual holiday book roundup.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Hear, hear …
… When Humans Lose Control of Government - The Atlantic.
Modern government is organized on “clear law,” the false premise that by making laws detailed enough to take in all possible circumstances, we can avoid human error. And so over the last few decades, law has gotten ever more granular. But all that regulatory detail, like sediment in a harbor, makes it hard to get anywhere. The 1956 Interstate Highway Act was 29 pages and succeeded in getting 41,000 miles of roads built by 1970. The 2012 transportation bill was 584 pages, and years will pass before workers can start fixing many of those same roads. Health-care regulators have devised 140,000 reimbursement categories for Medicare—including 12 categories for bee stings and 21 categories for “spacecraft accidents.” This is the tip of a bureaucratic iceberg—administration consumes 30 percent of health-care costs.
There used to be a cartoon in the Sunday papers called "There Oughta Be a Law." Actually, nearly always, there ought not to be. A healthy society is one with few, clearly expressed, widely promulgated laws. As has been pointed out by others, the good Lord Himself managed to get by with a mere 10. The ludicrously detailed laws we suffer under today are make-work for lawyers. We no longer have government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We have government of the lawyers, by the lawyers, and for the lawyers. Which is why I think lawyers should be banned from holding office and the Supreme Court should have at least one non-lawyer on it to remind his colleagues from time to time about common sense.
Getting used to things …
…Anecdotal Evidence: `A Loyalty Long Before He Has Any Admiration'.
"A man belongs to this world before he begins to ask if it is nice to belong to it."Chesterton as existential phenomenologist.
Hmm …
… Siris: The Dividing Line Between Competent and Incompetent Critics. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
If you cannot identify what the author is trying to do, your opinion about the work is of no importance at all.
But the only way you can identify what an author was trying to is by accurately and precisely describing what he in fact did do. The only evidence regarding his intentions is the work itself. Of course, I'm only a reviewer, not a critic, and review is simply an exercise in reading comprehension. The commentary in a review has value only insofar as the reading has been accurate.
A thought for today …
I have always maintained that the one important phenomenon presented by modern society is — the enormous prosperity of Fools.
— Wilkie Collins, born on this date in 1824
Diana Athil at 96...
...It’s silly to be frightened of being dead
The contributor to the programme I remember with the most pleasure is the man who said that not existing for thousands and thousands of years before his birth had never worried him for a moment, so why should going back into non-existence at this death cause him dismay? Everyone laughed when he said that and so did I, and as I laughed I thought: “Dead right!”
Monday, September 22, 2014
The talented Mr. Ives …
… The TLS blog: The unanswerable Charles Ives.
I think connecting The Unanswered Question to the Cold War is ridiculous, and the piece has been a favorite of mine since I first heard it — during the Cold War, in the '50s. Eugene Ormandy made a fine recording of Ives's third symphony, by the way, and few other Ives recordings well.
Getting attention …
… Does Neil deGrasse Tyson make up stories? — The Washington Post.
Note that the claims Davis contests are not casual remarks in conversation or responses to questions, but planned and repeated accounts. The various stories Davis challenges are regularly repeated in Tyson’s lectures, and the Bush anecdote is highlighted on the Hayden planetarium Web site. They are the sorts of claims someone of Tyson’s stature should not be making in public lectures unless they are, in fact, true. Politicians are routinely flayed for less — and we know Tyson is much smarter than the average politician. He should not be held to a lower standard.
Tyson certainly doesn't know as much as he pretends to about Giordano Bruno, about whom I happen to know quite a bit: The Mage.
So to get things moving..
In my absence from here, PA and other states permitted gay marriage. What I find most fascinating about some of the "anti-" arguments grounded in Catholic theology is that the arguments are based on the doctrine that marriage is a sacrament between a man and a woman, and for procreation as God intended.
And I got to thinking...
The Holy Family wasn't set up for procreation at all -- in fact Mary is always a Virgin in Catholic doctrine. You could in fact say the Holy Family shows the opposite -- family is what is built for God's purposes (the same message by the way that a grown up Christ conveyed: Who is my brother?
And I got to thinking...
The Holy Family wasn't set up for procreation at all -- in fact Mary is always a Virgin in Catholic doctrine. You could in fact say the Holy Family shows the opposite -- family is what is built for God's purposes (the same message by the way that a grown up Christ conveyed: Who is my brother?
Hi Again!
I have been off for a little while. Frank was kind enough to understand as I needed a kind of sabbatical -- some aspects of the change I have gone through really challenged my communication habits...which hopefully you will hear about in time to come!
Learning without knowing...
...Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, and a Case of Anxiety of Influence
Like May’s, in “The Age of Innocence,” Mrs. Ramsay’s role as prime mover in the lives of those around her is not fully understood until her passing, and the novel’s final pages, like those of “The Age of Innocence,” resound with the ghostly echo of her offstage death, even as the reader’s mind is cast back over the book to spy out the influence she had on all the other characters when she was alive.
First reader …
… Letters to Véra by Vladimir Nabokov, review: 'beauty out of the banal' — Telegraph. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Until Nabokov’s death in 1977, Véra was his lover, wife, the mother of his son, his editor, researcher, translator, administrator, champion, protector and his collaborator. She indulged his passion for the hunting and cataloguing of butterflies. When she filled out her American tax return, she described herself as his assistant. When he decided to burn the manuscript of Lolita, she saved it from the flames. When Nabokov kept a dream diary in the Sixties he recorded one in which he played the piano while Véra turned the pages of the score.
Feel free to weigh in …
… beyond eastrod: English composition and the hideous scourge of cellphones in the classroom (and elsewhere).
A classroom is a designated space where a group of students engages in learning. The individual is subsumed under the rubric of the group. Private matters are off limit there. Exceptions can occur, of course, but they can also be dealt with — precisely because they are exceptions. You turn cell off while you are in class.
Comedy and misery …
… Anecdotal Evidence: `Able to Do the Best that Remains to Do'.
“I will only give you the outlines. My poor dear dearest sister in a fit of insanity has been the death of her own mother. I was at hand only time enough to snatch the knife out of her grasp. She is at present in a mad house, from whence I fear she must be moved to an hospital. God has preserved to me my senses, — I eat and drink and sleep, and have my judgment I believe very sound. My poor father was slightly wounded, and I am left to take care of him and my aunt.”
Who knew …
… The Secret Yiddish History of Scotland – Forward.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… “Scots Yiddish” has a charm that the English of Orchard or Delancey Street never had. “Vot time’s yer barmitzvie, laddie?” Daiches recalls being asked by a fellow synagogue-goer shortly before his 13th birthday. “Ye’ll hae a drap o’bramfen. Ye ken: Nem a schmeck fun Dzon Beck.” Bronfn is Yiddish for liquor (in Eastern Europe it generally meant vodka, but Edinburgh is whisky land), while “Nem a shmek,” Yiddish for “Have a taste,” is, as Daiches points out, a clever translation that preserves the rhyme of the first half of the advertising slogan “Take a peg of John Begg.”
A much riskier protest march …
… hence, a much braver one: Russian peace march draws tens of thousands in support of Ukraine — The Washington Post.
A thought for today …
Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.
— Lord Chesterfield, born on this date in 1694
Sarah Waters returns...
...Behind Closed Doors
Perhaps Waters’s most impressive accomplishment is the authentic feel she achieves, that the telling — whether in its serious, exciting, comic or sexy passages — has no modern tinge. Not just that no one heats up the cauliflower cheese in a microwave or sends a text message, but that the story appears not merely to be about the novel’s time but to have been written by someone living in that time, thumping out the whole thing on a manual typewriter.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Feel free to weigh in …
… beyond eastrod: Shakespeare and the canon — fodder for thought.
If English is your language, and you are not familiar with Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Milton, not only are you uneducated, but you also have missed out on some supreme aesthetic highs. If you're a professor arguing against Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Milton, you are a charlatan.
Writers and homicide…
… The Assassination Of Hilary Mantel � Hooting Yard. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
More here: Dueling Assassins. (Also from Dave.)
More here: Dueling Assassins. (Also from Dave.)
The story is not really about Margaret Thatcher, but Hilary Mantel. Which is why she has to name Thatcher—it’s a way to draw attention to herself and her politically-correct attitude. It’s a species of exhibitionism. “Look at me!” Mantel is demonstrating how much she’s always hated Thatcher—used as a symbol—and so, this demonstrates to the intellectual elite her credentials as one of them. The story is merely the excuse used to make the demonstration. It might as well be a painting; Margaret Thatcher with a sour expression on her face; examples of her social crimes depicted behind her. Waiting assassin off to the side.
A thought for today …
The doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was the main teaching of Jesus, is certainly one of the most revolutionary doctrines that ever stirred and changed human thought.
— H. G. Wells, born on this date in 1866
Saturday, September 20, 2014
FYI …
… Not All Creationists Are Created Equal | RealClearScience.
Augustine goes on to warn Christians about mishandling the Bible by using it to support theories about the natural world. These Christians, he says, “understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion”.
Cosmic matters …
… Final Incal | The Comics Journal.
There is … in Final Incal, no hint of a dulling of the edge, nor any softening of Jodorowsky’s aesthetic. The maestro still delights in shocking his audience; he still loves mutations and deformity, but he is also willing to be utterly brazen in delivering an alarmingly naïve message (only true love can save us from turning into unfeeling metallic beings, man) just as he was completely unembarrassed about introducing us to a giant golden god-baby at the end of the original Incal, or dressing like this in The Holy Mountain.
Sad trail of beauty …
… Book Review: 'Tennessee Williams' by John Lahr - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The romance of "The Glass Menagerie" (1944) and the sexual passion of "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1947) announced a playwright whose lyrical realism and mastery of character challenged the dramatic conventions of the day—overturning both the social protest of Clifford Odets and the "well-made" plays of Terence Rattigan. What followed—"The Rose Tattoo" (1951), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1955), "Orpheus Descending" (1957), "Suddenly Last Summer" (1958), "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1959) and "The Night of the Iguana" (1961)—remains an unparalleled series of American theatrical masterpieces.
How about that …
Climate Science Is Not Settled - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A transparent rigor would also be a welcome development, especially given the momentous political and policy decisions at stake. That could be supported by regular, independent, "red team" reviews to stress-test and challenge the projections by focusing on their deficiencies and uncertainties; that would certainly be the best practice of the scientific method. But because the natural climate changes over decades, it will take many years to get the data needed to confidently isolate and quantify the effects of human influences.
A thought for today …
The famous saying 'God is love', it is generally assumed, means that God is like our immediate emotional indulgence, not that the meaning of love ought to have something of the 'otherness' and terror of God.
— Charles Williams, born on this date in 1886
Friday, September 19, 2014
A favorite afresh …
… This new translation of Crime and Punishment is a masterpiece � The Spectator. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Tempest, meet teapot …
… Henry James and the Great Y.A. Debate - The New Yorker. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A thought for today …
The writer probably knows what he meant when he wrote a book, but he should immediately forget what he meant when he's written it.
— William Golding, born on this date in 1911
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Very nice …
… Meet John Ashbery - Open Road Presents - Open Road Media Video Archive. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, good for him …
… U2's Bono Once Wrote A Poem For Billy Graham: 'The Journey From Father To Friend'.
(Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
(Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Hits and misses …
… ‘Lovely, Dark, Deep’ by Joyce Carol Oates — The Boston Globe. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Contemporary journal …
… Forget black masses for a moment: Some journalists need to check facts on the Mass — GetReligion.
With its emphasis on narrative and blurring of opinion and reporting, journalism is coming to seem more like a game of Chinese whispers. As for the black mass people, they'll impress me more when they decide to mock Islam.
A thought for today …
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
— Samuel Johnson, born on this date in 1709
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Chronicling the overrated …
… Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Science of Smug Condescension.
If Tyson seems bemused about criticism of his fabrications and doesn’t take it seriously, he’s telling us that he sees himself as a showman. We’re not supposed to ask whether the events he talks about are real, fictional, or embellished, we’re just supposed to enjoy the show
It’s that crucial scientific principle of suspension of disbelief.
Mark thy calendar …
THE GREEN LINE CAFE POETRY SERIES
And
THE MISHER FESTIVAL OF
FINE ARTS & HUMANITIES
PRESENT:
An Open Poetry Reading
For Poets, Students, Everyone Welcome
Prizes Awarded
You will be given 5 minutes to read your poetry.
TUESDAY, Sept. 23. at 7 PM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 7 PM
HOSTED BY LEONARD GONTAREK
Sign Up In Advance:
gontarek9@earthlink.net
THE GREEN LINE CAFE IS LOCATED
AT 45TH & LOCUST STREETS
(Please note the address, there are
other Green Line Café locations.)
greenlinecafe.com
This Event Is Free
POST BUMPED. Date was omitted.
And
THE MISHER FESTIVAL OF
FINE ARTS & HUMANITIES
PRESENT:
An Open Poetry Reading
For Poets, Students, Everyone Welcome
Prizes Awarded
You will be given 5 minutes to read your poetry.
TUESDAY, Sept. 23. at 7 PM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 7 PM
HOSTED BY LEONARD GONTAREK
Sign Up In Advance:
gontarek9@earthlink.net
THE GREEN LINE CAFE IS LOCATED
AT 45TH & LOCUST STREETS
(Please note the address, there are
other Green Line Café locations.)
greenlinecafe.com
This Event Is Free
POST BUMPED. Date was omitted.
Getting with it …
… References, Please by Tim Parks | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Simply, it’s time to admit that the Internet has changed the way we do scholarship and will go on changing it. There is so much inertia in the academic world, so much affection for fussy old ways. People love getting all the brackets and commas and abbreviations just so. Perhaps it gives them a feeling of accomplishment. Professors torment students over the tiniest details of bibliographical information, when anyone wishing to check can simply put the author name and title in any Internet search engine. A doctoral student hands in a brilliant essay and the professor complains that the translator’s name has not been mentioned in a quotation from a recent French novel, though of course since the book is recent there is only one translation of the novel and in any event anyone checking the cited edition will find the translator’s name in the book.
Poetry and death …
… Edward Hirsch: ‘Many of us carry the dead around with us. We shouldn’t feel ashamed of that’ | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
On 26 August 2011, on the night that Hurricane Irene screamed into New York, Hirsch’s only son, Gabriel, aged 22, went out to meet a friend for a drink. He ended up at a party in New Jersey, following a lead on the website Craigslist. At the party it seems he was given a club drug, GHB, probably in a drink. Gabriel, who had been diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome as a child, and who was at the independent end of the autistic spectrum, became violently sick and had a seizure. An ambulance took him to a hospital, where he died, shortly after six in the morning, from cardiac arrest. Hirsch and his ex-wife, Janet Landay, did not know these facts for three days. Hurricane Irene and its fallout was occupying the city police who had no time to search for missing 22-year-olds with known nocturnal tendencies. The poet himself wandered the storm-battered city in search of his lost son before eventually finding him at the hospital morgue.
Graceful to the end …
… Clive James adds new poem to valedictory work | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A thought for today …
Forget all rules, forget all restrictions, as to taste, as to what ought to be said, write for the pleasure of it — whether slowly or fast — every form of resistance to a complete release should be abandoned.
— William Carlos Williams, born on this date in 1883
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
On the block …
… Newly discovered Jack Kerouac letters to be auctioned - LA Times. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Publishing Martin Amis's New Novel
From the NYT:
"In France, they say they’re puzzled by the humor. In Germany, they say it will be difficult to market. Martin Amis’s latest novel, “The Zone of Interest,” a satire set in a concentration camp during the Second World War, is having trouble gaining traction in Europe, where his longtime French and German publishers have rejected it."
Grim preoccupation …
… Boswell’s postcards from a hanging | spiked review of books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Unresolvable ambiguity …
… Bryan Appleyard — Schrodinger’s Mob Boss. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The desire to Agatha-ise the show is a sign of literal mindedness, a phenomenon I noticed while reading some of the commentaries. There was, for example, a discussion of the ‘symbolism’ of the cat in the last episode. This suggested poor education. Writers do use symbols, of course, but only sparingly because a fixed connection between an object and a meaning is an awkward and rather ugly concept.
Instapundit � Blog Archive � HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: US campus 2014: No booze, no sex, no laughing, & totalitarian polit…
… Instapundit — HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: US campus 2014: No booze, no sex, no laughing & totalitarian polite…
So far, though, they're not sawing off people's heads.
So far, though, they're not sawing off people's heads.
Imperfectly phrased …
… The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker, review: 'waffle and bilge' — Telegraph. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
If you had to boil down Pinker’s advice into two main points, they would be: “Keep it snappy” and “Keep it simple”. Unfortunately, he proves wholly incapable of abiding by his own rules. Rather, he’s a colossal windbag, never using three words when 35 can be rammed into the breach, and frequently writing sentences so tortuous that they seem to be eating themselves. He even manages to define what a coherent text is in a way that made my eyeballs rotate in opposite directions: “A coherent text is one in which the reader always knows which coherence relation holds between one sentence and the next.”
A thought for today …
The artist tries to see what there is to be interested in... He has not created something, he has seen something.
— T. E. Hulme, born on this date in 1883
Monday, September 15, 2014
Q&A …
… Interview: Leonard Maltin’s Final “Guide” Marks the End of an Era | Interviews | Roger Ebert. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sayre's Law at work again …
… Shakespearean academics clash over 'conspiracy theories' —Telegraph. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The one fellow's defense of his Holocaust-denier analogy is disingenuous. The comparison has become a loathsome cliché. And there are plenty of other ways of making his point about research. He also, obviously, doesn't want views published that disagree with his own, and the moment who could keep such a view from being publish, he made sure it wasn't.
I think the fellow from Stratford wrote the plays, but I'm open to hearing those who think otherwise.
I think the fellow from Stratford wrote the plays, but I'm open to hearing those who think otherwise.
A tall task...
...Rebranding Republicans in California
Mr Kashkari presents himself as a different kind of Republican. The son of Indian immigrants and a practising Hindu, he grew up in Ohio, bagging groceries and mowing lawns before pursuing a degree in engineering and a career in finance. He is a social moderate, pro-gay marriage and pro-choice on abortion. This summer he marched in a gay-pride parade in San Diego, and he routinely speaks in black churches. In July he spent a week living like a homeless man in Fresno—sleeping on park benches, looking for work and eating at shelters—to highlight California’s poverty rate, the worst in America if you account for the cost of living (see chart).
A thought for today …
Every man owes it to himself (and to his friends) to get away entirely alone in an isolated shack every so often, if only to find out just what bad company he can be.
— Robert Benchley, born on this date in 1889
Contrasting viewpoints …
… The Myth of Catholic Social Teaching.
… Zmirak on Usury.
(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, there certainly is something called Catholic social teaching. I studied it in high school and college. But it has nothing to do with "sacramentally married to every assertion on economics and politics by any pope."
The human dilemma …
… The Inexhaustible Hamlet by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal Summer 2014. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hamlet the character and Hamlet the play elucidate the inevitable and insoluble paradoxes of human existence, the very heart of our mystery, which no technical sophistication will ever pluck out: a mystery that explains why puzzlement at our own situation is the permanent condition of mankind.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Clarification …
… not a fascist after all: Follow-Up: U.C. Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks Gets Free Speech Right This Time | Popehat.
Bravo to Chancellor Dirks for clearing matters up, and I apologize for my rudeness.
Bravo to Chancellor Dirks for clearing matters up, and I apologize for my rudeness.
Sad news …
… Tony Auth, 72, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, died Sunday.
I had my share of laughs with Tony.
I had my share of laughs with Tony.
Sehnsucht …
… First Known When Lost: Harbors.
I realize that I am constructing a dream-world: how can I possibly say that I have been in "a vague 1920s mood this week" when I have no conception of what the 1920s were like in England, across the sea? But escapism is what it is. I confess: at times I long for a different world entirely.
Ah, yes …
… 20011: "Emblematic" Come Back, All Is Forgiven.
Pop singers are often referred to as iconic, I guess because fans revere them.
Pop singers are often referred to as iconic, I guess because fans revere them.
The society of books …
… Anecdotal Evidence: `Part of This Camaraderie'.
The walk under the live oaks is bracing but I never confuse the hike with anything so mundane as cardiovascular health. Walking is its own reward – an allegory in miniature of life -- and I feel no need to justify it philosophically.
Literal monsters …
… Quid plura? | “Mais nous pouvons faire ce que nous voulons…” (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A thought for today …
Ours is the age of substitutes: instead of language, we have jargon: instead of principles, slogans: and, instead of genuine ideas, bright ideas.
— Eric Bentley, born in this date in 1916
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Artful words …
… that night there was no question of moon, nor any other light, but it was a night of listening, a night given to the faint soughing and sighing stirring at night in little pleasure gardens, the shy sabbath of leaves and petals and the air that eddies there as it does not in other places, where there is less constraint, and as it does not during the day, when there is more vigilance, and then something else that is not clear, being neither the air nor what it moves, perhaps the far unchanging noise the earth makes and which other noises cover, but not for long.
— Samuel Beckett, Molloy