What I mean is that there is a market waiting for honest, impartial commentary, in contrast with advocates for different sides. Walter Russell Mead seems to me a good example: He seems to honestly assess the facts.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
I still like Amazon …
… but I had hoped for more from him as owner of the Post: Post Owner Makes $16.5B While Paper Whines 558 Times About ‘Income Inequality’.
In case you wondered …
… Emma’s 200th Anniversary: Why It’s Jane Austen’s Best | Flavorwire. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I just finished teaching Emma last friday. My students sat around the table and said, “We don’t understand, why is this book great?” What I said is that it’s the contrast between depth of artistry with the slenderest possible material. This is an incredibly constrained world. But Emma is all about nuance, and who can really appreciate nuance on a first reading? You have to re-read it. As a professor, I think of what I am doing as preparing students to re-read. I do the same thing with Middlemarch: set the groundwork for them to re-read it later.
My parish …
… 'Where is everyone?' In S. Philly, a Catholic flock dwindles.
I was there when Amy was interviewing my fellow communicants. But I was having a piece in the same editing of the paper, so we didn't need me to say anything. Daily Mass attendance has never been large, but it does seem smaller than ever these days. Father Large — who is a very good homilist, by the way — is right: excepting myself, the people in attendance at the 7:30 Mass are the core of the faithful.
I was there when Amy was interviewing my fellow communicants. But I was having a piece in the same editing of the paper, so we didn't need me to say anything. Daily Mass attendance has never been large, but it does seem smaller than ever these days. Father Large — who is a very good homilist, by the way — is right: excepting myself, the people in attendance at the 7:30 Mass are the core of the faithful.
Take your pick …
…The TLS blog: Who is your most overrated author? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… it now seems amusing to see Italo Calvino (chosen by Eric Hobsbawn) in the “underrated” category, given the widespread hero worship he continues to provoke, particularly among undergraduates. As in so many things, Hobsbawn was ahead of his time. So, too, was Michal Dummett, who selected Ralph Ellison for The Invisible Man – a novel that can hardly nowadays be described as overlooked.
I find it amusing to see Hobsbawm described as "ahead of his time." Tony Judt said of Hobsbawm that he "clings to a pernicious illusion of the late Enlightenment: that if one can promise a benevolent outcome it would be worth the human cost."
Something to think on …
I was eleven, then I was sixteen. Though no honors came my way, those were the lovely years.
— Truman Capote, born on this date in 1924
We link, you decide …
… No More Tirades | R. R. Reno | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… and here is the post that was taken down: Notes on a Road Show.
… and here is the post that was taken down: Notes on a Road Show.
I haven't made up my mind about Pope Francis yet. I have criticized him here, and I am by no stretch of the imagination given to papolatry, for the simple reason that I believe the Holy Spirit guides the Church, not a stand-in in Rome. I do think the Pope is too chummy with the technocrats who have brought Europe to the brink of social and economic ruin. But we shall what the Holy Spirit does.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Very human saints …
… Dorothy Day and W.H. Auden: On poetry, piety and the pope | The Economist. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
1933 was of crucial religious significance to both Day and Auden. It was in this year, when the Great Depression was at its bleakest, that Day co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement with Peter Maurin, a radical French immigrant and garrulous autodidact. The first issue of the Catholic Worker appeared on May Day. That summer, a 26-year-old schoolteacher in England was sitting on the school lawns late one evening when he had what he famously called a vision of agape. Auden felt “invaded” by a higher power and for the first time in his life “knew exactly…what it means to love one’s neighbour as oneself.”
The news industry should know thy Audience!
From Rutgers University's Media + Public Interet Initiative as reported by the CJR:
The news industry “has gone for years without needing to examine who its audience is or what they want."
For Cervantes' (presumed) birthday …
… "Beyond Eastrod": Don Quixote (not the best novel ever written).
Well, I'm on record regarding the greatest novel ever: Books editor: 'Karenina' lives up to hype as 'best' Like Oprah, he'd never read the Tolstoy tome. He was impressed.
Well, I'm on record regarding the greatest novel ever: Books editor: 'Karenina' lives up to hype as 'best' Like Oprah, he'd never read the Tolstoy tome. He was impressed.
The way we were …
… ‘Multitude, Solitude: The Photographs of Dave Heath’ Review - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
For anyone with a memory of those decades, Mr. Heath’s work functions like a time machine, sending you back to an era when photographers, folk singers, poets, novelists and filmmakers believed they could directly translate the pain and confusion of what was then portentously labeled the “Human Condition.”
No …
… Should Scientific Truth Be Subjected to a Vote? | RealClearScience.
Scientists, it should go without saying, are, like all people, fallible and subject to selfish and ideological biases. Any textbook on the history of twentieth century science will quiet any doubts on that score. A frightening number of disturbing policy prescriptions, from compulsory sterilization to racial war, at one time boasted a scientific "consensus" as justification.
Something to think on …
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
Monday, September 28, 2015
A really long piece about very little …
… Texts for Nothing - The Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.
A proposal …
… In Defense of Banned Books Week: A Call to Expand the Debate | Reluctant Habits.
Censorship battles aren’t limited to blinkered crusaders in Tennessee. “Prudish moms” can be found in such sanctimonious types as Francine Prose and Peter Carey, who cannot seem to comprehend a universe in which offensive and disagreeable ideas are meant to be argued against rather than silenced. The literary world has increasingly failed to understand that an awful idea — and Charlie Hedbo’s juvenile and despicably racist caricatures were indeed meretricious, to say the least — needs to be articulated rather than silenced and that accolades such as the James G. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award are vital reminders of our duty to ensure that anyone has the right to say something offensive or provocative, especially if it runs counter to our perspective, without fear of death or censorship.
Good idea …
… Scientists Should Tell Lawrence Krauss to Shut Up Already | Public Discourse. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Feser links to the following, but it is so good it should not be overlooked: On the Origin of Everything.
Feser links to the following, but it is so good it should not be overlooked: On the Origin of Everything.
Something to think on …
Words fashioned with somewhat over precise diction are like shapes turned out by a cookie cutter.
— Peter De Vries, who died on this date in 1993
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Asking the Big Questions: Who gets saved?
I came across an article here, about a man seeking to extend life using Google's billions. Since I have neither billions nor an interest in living a long time, which would just extend this vale of tears, and since I do believe in Heaven (not necessarily the floaty kind) even for someone as accursed as a transsexual (and contrary to some of the comments yelled at me by the wonderful people here for the Pope's visit this weekend as I walked the streets of Philadelphia: "Hey Caitlyn you're going to hell"; "Man in a dress you are Satan's child") I went back to von Bathasar, reportedly one of John Paul's and Benedict's favorite theologians.
Von Bathasar believes that the New Testament contains two irreconcilable series of statements about redemption:
The first series speaks of individuals being condemned to eternal torment. Those who have rejected Christ are accountable for their actions and they will be cast into “the outer darkness,” or “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:30ff.; see also Mt 5:22,29; 8:12; 10:28; 2 Pet 2:4-10; 3:7; Rev 19:20f.). The second series of texts speaks of God’s desire, and ability, to save all mankind. “God our Savior...desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). Anticipating his suffering and death, Jesus proclaims, “Now is the judgment of this world,...when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:31). “God has consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy upon all” (Rom 11:32; see also 2 Pet 3:9; Titus 2:11; Rom 5:14-21; Eph 1:10; Col 1:20).
God loves all men and all creatures, inasmuch as he wishes them all some good, but he does not wish every good to them all. So far, therefore, as He does not wish this particular good-- namely, eternal life--He is said to hate, that is to reprobate some men (ST I q 23 a 3 ad 1.))
Aquinas believed in the former -- essentially predestination -- since God Knew us before we were in the womb:
Von Bathasar believes in the latter, universalism, the tenet that we are all saved -- or at least he thinks we should all hope for it -- because the post-Good Friday Christ taught exactly that and he did not mention his earlier "teeth gnashing in Gehenna" phase. In other words, He could only see as a man while he was here -- it took the Resurrection and death for Christ to understand the redemptive value of God.
This makes sense too because one of the Seven Last Words "My God, My God why have you foresaken me" seems to contradict Christ's declaration, during His ministry, that despair is the only sin that couldn't be forgiven. "My God, My God" sounds an awful lot like despair.
This also helped me understand his words to the thief who repented on his cross next to Christ at Calvary "This day, you shall be with me before my Father in Heaven." The other thief, the one who mocked Christ though, wasn't out of options. Even after death, von Balthasar would have it I think that that thief would have another chance, and another, and another (at least the "seven times seventy" number of times a person should forgive another here on Earth.) And it would be pretty hard to deny God after death when He is standing before you. As stubborn as anyone might be, the proof would be right there.
The last is why I whispered into my brother's ear some years ago, the last day before he died, as he slipped into a coma, "Just make sure to say you believe, when you get asked, because it will count then."
Von Bathasar believes that the New Testament contains two irreconcilable series of statements about redemption:
The first series speaks of individuals being condemned to eternal torment. Those who have rejected Christ are accountable for their actions and they will be cast into “the outer darkness,” or “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:30ff.; see also Mt 5:22,29; 8:12; 10:28; 2 Pet 2:4-10; 3:7; Rev 19:20f.). The second series of texts speaks of God’s desire, and ability, to save all mankind. “God our Savior...desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). Anticipating his suffering and death, Jesus proclaims, “Now is the judgment of this world,...when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:31). “God has consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy upon all” (Rom 11:32; see also 2 Pet 3:9; Titus 2:11; Rom 5:14-21; Eph 1:10; Col 1:20).
God loves all men and all creatures, inasmuch as he wishes them all some good, but he does not wish every good to them all. So far, therefore, as He does not wish this particular good-- namely, eternal life--He is said to hate, that is to reprobate some men (ST I q 23 a 3 ad 1.))
Aquinas believed in the former -- essentially predestination -- since God Knew us before we were in the womb:
Von Bathasar believes in the latter, universalism, the tenet that we are all saved -- or at least he thinks we should all hope for it -- because the post-Good Friday Christ taught exactly that and he did not mention his earlier "teeth gnashing in Gehenna" phase. In other words, He could only see as a man while he was here -- it took the Resurrection and death for Christ to understand the redemptive value of God.
This makes sense too because one of the Seven Last Words "My God, My God why have you foresaken me" seems to contradict Christ's declaration, during His ministry, that despair is the only sin that couldn't be forgiven. "My God, My God" sounds an awful lot like despair.
This also helped me understand his words to the thief who repented on his cross next to Christ at Calvary "This day, you shall be with me before my Father in Heaven." The other thief, the one who mocked Christ though, wasn't out of options. Even after death, von Balthasar would have it I think that that thief would have another chance, and another, and another (at least the "seven times seventy" number of times a person should forgive another here on Earth.) And it would be pretty hard to deny God after death when He is standing before you. As stubborn as anyone might be, the proof would be right there.
The last is why I whispered into my brother's ear some years ago, the last day before he died, as he slipped into a coma, "Just make sure to say you believe, when you get asked, because it will count then."
Prophet of our age …
… Joseph Conrad: anticipating terrorism | Prospect Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Conrad knew that unarmed goodwill is useless against armed malice. It was to be a lesson that the coming century would teach over and over, and so on into the present century: peace is not a principle, it is only a desirable state of affairs, and can’t be obtained without a capacity for violence at least equal to the violence of the threat. Conrad didn’t want to reach this conclusion any more than we do, but his artistic instincts were proof against the slightest tinge of mystical spiritual solace, and so should ours be. Our age of massacres has also been an age of the intellectual charlatan, when people claiming to interpret events can barely be relied upon to give a straightforward account of what actually happened. Conrad was the writer who reached political adulthood before any of the other writers of his time, and when they did, they reached only to his knee.
Tales from Shakespeare …
… Jeanette Winterson and Howard Jacobson on retelling Shakespeare's plays. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This sounds like a good idea to me.
This sounds like a good idea to me.
Inquirer reviews …
… Joyce Carol Oates' 'Lost Landscape': Superlative essays on childhood, writing.
… 'Why Not Me?' by Mindy Kaling: Refreshing, lighthearted, authentic.
… Peter Collier's 'Choosing Courage': Ordinary people, extraordinary things.
… 'Bamboo Stalk' by Saud Alsanousi: Penetrating look at Arab world's issues of race and class.
… 'Why Not Me?' by Mindy Kaling: Refreshing, lighthearted, authentic.
… Peter Collier's 'Choosing Courage': Ordinary people, extraordinary things.
… 'Bamboo Stalk' by Saud Alsanousi: Penetrating look at Arab world's issues of race and class.
Something to think on …
Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy.
— Henri Frédéric Amiel, born on this date in 1821
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Conversation …
… A Prophet in Reverse by Jorge Luis Borges and Osvaldo Ferrari | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… if the books were written by hand, it was only natural that they be read aloud. Aside from that point, I think that if you’re reading silently, and you come to a powerful passage, a passage that moves you, then you tend to read it aloud. I think that a well-written passage demands to be read aloud. In the case of verse, it’s obvious, because the music of verse needs to be expressed even if only in a murmur—it has to be heard. On the other hand, if you’re reading something that’s purely logical, purely abstract, it’s different. In that case, you can do without reading it aloud. But you can’t do without that reading if you’re dealing with a poem.
Roundup …
… Utne Reader Fall 2015 Book Sampler. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The first review is by our friend Katie Haegele.
The first review is by our friend Katie Haegele.
Something to think on …
Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
— T. S. Eliot, born on this date in 1888
Friday, September 25, 2015
J. L. Carr
I can't say enough for A Month in the Country - what a perfect little book...Glad that Another Look is taking it on. Good choice!
Rather depressing, this …
… Poll: One-Third of Americans Would Refuse to Hide a Jew During the Holocaust - Hollywood Reporter.
I would feel obligated to, of course, and would like think I'd have the courage. It's the sort of thing I would be likely to do, probably because I'd think I could get away with it.
I would feel obligated to, of course, and would like think I'd have the courage. It's the sort of thing I would be likely to do, probably because I'd think I could get away with it.
Unmitigated anger...
...After Charleston
“That was Charleston,” he said. “That was accommodating white feelings and white superiority. It was ‘Yes, Massa, can I have another?’ But, at the same time, it was spiritual fortitude forged in a crucible of terrorism. It speaks of a spiritual level that I haven’t attained. What it also meant to Charleston was that, without the families’ backing, we couldn’t demonstrate at the pitch we wanted. Walter Scott’s mom said the same thing. When the families give these signals, and the pastors instill in the families a sense of grace and forgiveness, the anger never reverberates. No leadership arose demanding to have this pain recognized. Again, it’s let me accommodate you so you’re not scared, we’ll just get on the bridge and hold hands, Jesus is good, we’re over it. There has been an arrangement here, created over generations, to be able to endure terrorism. At this point, this is the way it is. We endure. We don’t ask for more.”
Talk about losing faith in your material …
… A Facelift for Shakespeare - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Another bunch worth laughing at. Where do they find these clowns?
Another bunch worth laughing at. Where do they find these clowns?
First kill all the administrators (please note Shakespearean allusion) …
… Huntington Beach High School student Cody Pine who defended blind classmate is SUSPENDED | Daily Mail Online.
At the very least, the people who made this decision must be mercilessly shamed. How dumb do you have to be to get one of these jobs?
At the very least, the people who made this decision must be mercilessly shamed. How dumb do you have to be to get one of these jobs?
My prayer and plea...
My editorial from the local paper (Chestnut Hill Local - electronic version not up yet):
Archbishop Chaput recently threw me out of his church.
We were scheduled to have a workshop at a local Catholic church on transgender people during the Pope’s visit, about sharing our life and challenges. The Archbishop saw the brochure, saw my face, and decided our message, in my case how I have lived my life and met those challenges with love and belief in the Lord, was incompatible with the church’s teachings.
Being transgender isn’t about sex or sin or anything but being a person. It is about having a biological condition that is mocked and cursed by so much of the world. It is about being rejected by family, friends and society:
- Trans unemployment is twice the rate of the general population, with rates for people of color up to four times the national unemployment rate;
- 90% of us are harassed, mistreated or discriminated against on the job, or simply have to hide who we are at work;
- 53% of us are harassed or disrespected in places of public accommodation, including hotels, restaurants, buses, airports and government agencies;
- 57% of us experience significant family rejection;
- 41% of us attempt suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population, with rates higher for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had low household income, or were the victim of physical assault (61%) or sexual assault (64%);
- and African American transgender respondents – in Philadelphia, a truly underprivileged class – fare far worse than all other races in every single category. (2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, available at http://endtransdiscrimination.org/report.html)
Being trans is about having a biological condition, with Dr. Robert Sapolsky, professor of neuroscience at Stanford, summarizing it best after reviewing the over 300 studies about the neurobiology of the trans brain:
The results show that when individuals of Sex A—despite having the chromosomes, gonads and sex hormones of that sex—insist that they're really Sex B, the gender-affected parts of the brain typically more closely resemble what's usually seen with Sex B …
The issue isn't that sometimes people believe they are of a different gender than they actually are. Remarkably, instead, it's that sometimes people are born with bodies whose gender is different from what they actually are. (http://www.wsj.com/…/SB100014240527023048548045792340305326…)
Being trans is about survival in a hostile world. Being trans is about survival in a world that thinks you are the lowest of the low. It’s not about sex and sin, the way the Archbishop would have it. It is sad how everything has turned into sex and sin in the Catholic Church, which is exactly the opposite of its professed intent. Mercy is the Pope's personal motto and Christ kicked no one out -- for anything -- from His Church. Being trans is about being a child of God first. Sex is part of trans people, just like every other child of God. But it isn't all of any of the trans people that I know, just like it isn't with any person.
But sex and sin is all we get reduced to in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and so bans us from Christ’s Church. The Archbishop, who controls over 100 million dollars in public and private charitable funding, lifts not a finger to help us. Christ saved His strongest condemnation for those people: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others.” (Matt: 23:4-5)
We are people first, children of God and deserving of being welcomed in Her Church with the same dignity and humanity as every other child of God. Pope Francis said that exact thing: “The call of Jesus pushes each of us never to stop at the surface of things, especially when we are dealing with a person. We are called to look beyond, to focus on the heart to see how much generosity everyone is capable. No one can be excluded from the mercy of God; everyone knows the way to access it and the Church is the house that welcomes all and refuses no one.” (http://www.zenit.org/…/pope-francis-no-one-is-excluded-from…)
The Pope is living his words. He invited a trans man to the Vatican, calling the man a “son of God.” The pope has met with prisoners, LGBT people, broke bread with them and brought Divine Mercy.
Not here Pope Francis. Not here. None of us asked for this, this biological condition that makes us suffer society’s discrimination and hatred. Your Archbishop lifts not a finger to help us but condemns us, and has his people condemn us and throw us out of his church.
Archbishop Chaput recently threw me out of his church.
We were scheduled to have a workshop at a local Catholic church on transgender people during the Pope’s visit, about sharing our life and challenges. The Archbishop saw the brochure, saw my face, and decided our message, in my case how I have lived my life and met those challenges with love and belief in the Lord, was incompatible with the church’s teachings.
Being transgender isn’t about sex or sin or anything but being a person. It is about having a biological condition that is mocked and cursed by so much of the world. It is about being rejected by family, friends and society:
- Trans unemployment is twice the rate of the general population, with rates for people of color up to four times the national unemployment rate;
- 90% of us are harassed, mistreated or discriminated against on the job, or simply have to hide who we are at work;
- 53% of us are harassed or disrespected in places of public accommodation, including hotels, restaurants, buses, airports and government agencies;
- 57% of us experience significant family rejection;
- 41% of us attempt suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population, with rates higher for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had low household income, or were the victim of physical assault (61%) or sexual assault (64%);
- and African American transgender respondents – in Philadelphia, a truly underprivileged class – fare far worse than all other races in every single category. (2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, available at http://endtransdiscrimination.org/report.html)
Being trans is about having a biological condition, with Dr. Robert Sapolsky, professor of neuroscience at Stanford, summarizing it best after reviewing the over 300 studies about the neurobiology of the trans brain:
The results show that when individuals of Sex A—despite having the chromosomes, gonads and sex hormones of that sex—insist that they're really Sex B, the gender-affected parts of the brain typically more closely resemble what's usually seen with Sex B …
The issue isn't that sometimes people believe they are of a different gender than they actually are. Remarkably, instead, it's that sometimes people are born with bodies whose gender is different from what they actually are. (http://www.wsj.com/…/SB100014240527023048548045792340305326…)
Being trans is about survival in a hostile world. Being trans is about survival in a world that thinks you are the lowest of the low. It’s not about sex and sin, the way the Archbishop would have it. It is sad how everything has turned into sex and sin in the Catholic Church, which is exactly the opposite of its professed intent. Mercy is the Pope's personal motto and Christ kicked no one out -- for anything -- from His Church. Being trans is about being a child of God first. Sex is part of trans people, just like every other child of God. But it isn't all of any of the trans people that I know, just like it isn't with any person.
But sex and sin is all we get reduced to in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and so bans us from Christ’s Church. The Archbishop, who controls over 100 million dollars in public and private charitable funding, lifts not a finger to help us. Christ saved His strongest condemnation for those people: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others.” (Matt: 23:4-5)
We are people first, children of God and deserving of being welcomed in Her Church with the same dignity and humanity as every other child of God. Pope Francis said that exact thing: “The call of Jesus pushes each of us never to stop at the surface of things, especially when we are dealing with a person. We are called to look beyond, to focus on the heart to see how much generosity everyone is capable. No one can be excluded from the mercy of God; everyone knows the way to access it and the Church is the house that welcomes all and refuses no one.” (http://www.zenit.org/…/pope-francis-no-one-is-excluded-from…)
The Pope is living his words. He invited a trans man to the Vatican, calling the man a “son of God.” The pope has met with prisoners, LGBT people, broke bread with them and brought Divine Mercy.
Not here Pope Francis. Not here. None of us asked for this, this biological condition that makes us suffer society’s discrimination and hatred. Your Archbishop lifts not a finger to help us but condemns us, and has his people condemn us and throw us out of his church.
Shaping "Reality"
That’s what molecular biologist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard and Buddhist-raised astrophysicist Trinh Thuan explore in The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet (public library) — an infinitely mind-bending conversation at the intersection of science and philosophy. The contemporary counterpart to Einstein’s conversation with Tagore, it takes apart our most elemental assumptions about time, space, the origin of the universe and, above all, the nature of reality.
Getting to know Hume …
… Hume's 'Treatise' And The Problem Of Early Success | Standpoint. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The mystery of faith …
… Book explores persecution of early Japanese Christians. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Finally, Silence asks us to examine our own core beliefs. What do we hold most dear in our hearts? What, if anything, are we willing to die for? What happens when those things we hold most dear are in conflict with one another? How much are we willing to sacrifice to uphold those beliefs? And what do we do with ourselves when we fail to meet the hurdles of belief and honor that we have erected?
God's plenty …
… Michael Dirda: W.H. Auden, Complete - Book Review - Truthdig. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Auden’s journalism and criticism, like his stints as a lecturer and teacher, were mainly undertaken to pay the bills, but he never became a hack. When in 1966 Life magazine offered the enormous sum of $10,000 for 6,000 words on the fall of Rome, he turned in a heavily researched piece that compared the 3rd century with the 20th and duly predicted that our world would soon go smash. When the editors balked and asked for a rewrite, Auden stood his ground. As Mendelson notes, “The essay was rejected and he was paid nothing.” On another occasion, when an anthologist asked to reprint some early poems, including the famous “Spain” and “September 1, 1939,” Auden agreed but insisted on this printed stipulation: “Mr. W.H. Auden considers these five poems to be trash which he is ashamed to have written.”
Getting things backwards …
… What the Fear of Death Does to Your Beliefs | RealClearScience.
The assumption here seems to be that fear of death somehow prompts people to believe in God. Actually, it's the other way around: Belief in God leads one to think that one will be judged after death, which makes death scarier.
The assumption here seems to be that fear of death somehow prompts people to believe in God. Actually, it's the other way around: Belief in God leads one to think that one will be judged after death, which makes death scarier.
Something to think on …
The purpose of art is the lifelong construction of a state of wonder.
— Glenn Gould, born on this date in 1932
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Something to ponder …
… "Beyond Eastrod": Does God Exist? -- a not so simple question for you and a simple announcement from me.
To the extent that we can know, it seems that our remotest ancestors, as they emerged into self-consciousness, retained a sense of a dimension and a Presence prior to and in charge of this so-called material world and its inhabitants. The belief in tutelary spirits, for instance, seems to have been universal. The Presence our forebears were certain they experienced is what has come to be called God. But for us this is no longer an experience. It is just an idea. Indeed, we have come to experience our world in terms of what we think about it. We don't really have a world or even a life anymore. We have an environment and an ecology. So is there a God? Well, if you mean the living God of the religious person, you are talking about an Altogether Other that is present to all being by virtue of calling it into being. This Other is nearer to you than you are to yourself, Meister Eckhart says. This Other loves you. That is why He has called you into being. And that is why the question as to whether there is a God cannot be answered by thinking about it. It can only be answered by making the question a part of your life, including your shortcomings and failures, especially one's failure to be the creature you were meant to be (in contrast to the one you have made yourself into). It is not logic that leads to God. It is prayer, the lifting up of the mind and heart to God, and being ready for anything.Post bumped.
The triumph of Humpty Dumpty …
… Down the Rabbit Hole | The New Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What makes a good an notator? … This is a question that Genius, whose slightly megalomaniacal slogan is “Annotate the world ,” is still grappling with. The site launched in 2009 as Rap Genius, devoted to the explication of rap lyrics. These origins have been the occasion fora lot of dismissive jokes , but it makes perfect sense that an annotation web site would orient itself toward such a dense, allusive art form. Rap, like Carroll’s writing, is full of mysteries that cry out for explanation: Think ofthe Wu-Tang Clan ’s mix ofFive Percenter lingo, references to kung fu films, and drug trade slang, for instance, orKendrick Lamar ’s brash collages of personal confession and black history. It’s also, as with children’s literature, an often disrespected genre that inspires a passionate devotion in highly intelligent people who are ready to sound the depths of their pleasures in order to prove the skeptics wrong.
Hobnobbing with tyrants …
… When Francis Came to Cuba | Carlos Eire | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
When four dissidents somehow managed to get close to Pope Francis, despite the efforts of church and state to keep all such Cubans away from him, they were quickly attacked by plain-clothed state security agents and whisked away to prison. Has Pope Francis denounced these injustices, which amount to religious persecution? Has he voiced concern over the compliance of his bishops in this persecution? No. Not a word. His silence is deafening.The bottom line about any Pope is that he is just another priest and, except when pronouncing ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals, is every bit as fallible as the rest of us.
Sage observations …
… 14 Enlightening Quotes By Lao Tzu That Are Life Lessons. (Hat tip, David Tothero.)
Something to think on …
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he isn't. A sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.
— Horace Walpole, born on this date in 1717
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Hanging on …
… How to Endure - The Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… The Dead Ladies Project is less a series of pilgrimages than an exercise in what might be called “lived criticism,” the hidden thesis being that the stakes of our intellectual lives are high — life and death — and that the way to survive, to go on, is to embody the lives and ideas that make our own lives seem worth living. Which is another way of saying, I suppose, that even though The Dead Ladies Project is very much a book about books, it would be a mistake to say that it’s a book about reading. Rather, it’s a book about being — but to be, according to Crispin, you must read. Being requires a companion, a text, and texts also need a companion, a context — and that’s why a “lived critic” must venture out into the world.
Something to think on …
Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much.
— Walter Lippmann, born on this date in 1889
RIP …
… 'It's over': Baseball great Yogi Berra dies at 90 | Fox News.
… Some of the more widely quoted philosophy of Yogi Berra. (Hat tip, David Tothero.)
… Some of the more widely quoted philosophy of Yogi Berra. (Hat tip, David Tothero.)
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Something to think on …
The greatest things are accomplished by individual people, not by committees or companies.
— Fay Weldon, born on this date in 1931
Literary furnishings
… Sofa.com | What to Read on Your Sofa. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It’s a wonderfully readable tale, elegantly told by a witty, engaging and good-humoured narrator, with no illusions about humanity, but with a generous, forgiving and sympathetic nature.
Reality is superior to ideas says the Pope
"Certain realities of life we only see through eyes cleansed by our tears,” he said. He spoke for some time about the harmony of using three languages of mind, heart, and hands: “think well, feel well, and do well.” He apologized for not delivering his prepared text, and ended by saying, “but there is a phrase that consoles me: that reality is superior to ideas. The reality that you have is superior to the paper I have in front of me"
Half in US say Gov't is a threat - Gallup poll
Almost half of Americans, 49%, say the federal government poses "an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens," similar to what was found in previous surveys conducted over the last five years. When this question was first asked in 2003, less than a third of Americans held this attitude.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Sad news …
… Award-winning poet C.K. Williams dies at 78 - LA Times. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
I remember when Charlie Williams used to hang out at Dirty Frank's bar.
See also: C. K. Williams, Poet, Dies at 78; Pulitzer Winner Tackled Politics and Morality.
I remember when Charlie Williams used to hang out at Dirty Frank's bar.
See also: C. K. Williams, Poet, Dies at 78; Pulitzer Winner Tackled Politics and Morality.
Dysrationalia and IQ
I coined the term “dysrationalia” (analogous to “dyslexia”), meaning the inability to think and behave rationally despite having adequate intelligence, to draw attention to a large domain of cognitive life that intelligence tests fail to assess.
FYI …
… With Freeman’s, Former Granta Editor John Freeman Plants His Flag - Vogue. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Freeman’s doggedness and focus is a recurring theme. “He’s different from other editors, who good as they may be, they’re in offices in New York somewhere, exchanging emails,” says the Chicago-based writer and Freeman’scontributor Aleksandar Hemon by phone. “The man goes out in the field and meets people.” Hemon, whom Freeman also published in Granta, wrote his essay “In Search of Space Lost,” about how his Bosnian parents created a new home as refugees in Canada, after casually telling Freeman a story about the raccoons who wreak havoc on his father’s beloved beehives. “He commissioned a piece on the spot,” Hemon says. It was the second or third time that’s happened in their friendship. “I told him I won’t tell him anything anymore.”
In case you wondered …
… How Many Drafts Must a Writer Draft? | BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog.
Luckily, I'm a journalist. I just write the stuff on time and to size.
Luckily, I'm a journalist. I just write the stuff on time and to size.
And he does it pithily …
… Sticks and Stones may Break your Bones, but Aaron Haspel Draws Blood. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… if you’re looking for the kind of writer beloved of avid readers of The New Yorker—the kind who knows how to make his educated liberal audience feel superior to all of those yahoos in the sticks who hunt, pray, vote Republican, and believe in weird stuff—don’t buy this book. Seriously, don’t. Because you’ll hate it. Haspel holds up a mirror, and, trust me, you’re not going to like everything you see. I know I didn’t. If Haspel has an overarching message that he wants to impart it’s that we’re not exempt from the follies of our day, even (and perhaps especially) when we think we are …
Twenty-five out of 26 crime writers …
… think she's great: Agatha Christie: genius or hack? Crime writers pass judgment and pick favourites. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A kerryosity …
… From a Banned Writer to a Banned Singer: Mr. James Joyce gives his impressions of his friend, Mr. Sullivan of the Paris Opera, in several of his leading roles. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Who is this that advances in maresblood caftan, like Hiesous in Finisterre, his eyeholes phyllistained, his jewbones of a cross-backed? A little child shall lead him. Why, it’s Strongman Simpson, Timothy Nathan, now of Simpson’s on the Grill! Say, Tim Nat, bald winepresser, hast not one air left? But yeth he hath. Regard! Auscult! He upbraces for supremacy to the potence of Mosthigh and calls upon his baiters and their templum: You daggones, be flat!
Something to think on …
Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.
— Arthur Schopenhauer, who died on this date in 1860
Q&A …
… Martin Amis: Mario Puzo’s prose rewritten by Nabokov | The New Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hmm …
…The decline of the French intellectual – POLITICO.
The decline started with the death of Camus.
The ultimate symbol of the Left Bank intellectual was the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who took the role of the public intellectual to its highest prominence. The intellectuel engagé had a duty to dedicate himself to revolutionary activity, to question established orthodoxies, and to champion the interests of all oppressed groups. Integral to Sartre’s appeal was the sheer glamor he gave to French intellectualism — with his utopian promise of a radiant future; his sweeping, polemical tone, and his celebration of the purifying effects of conflict; his bohemian and insouciant lifestyle, which deliberately spurned the conventions of bourgeois life; and his undisguised contempt for the established institutions of his time — be they the republican State, the Communist party, the French colonial regime in Algeria, or the university system.Well, there might well be the problem. Sartre's Being and Nothingness is as bad a book as I have ever read, incomprehensible claptrap from beginning to end. It was Sartre, I believe, who gave us the phrase mauvaise foi. He would have known about that. He embodied it.
The decline started with the death of Camus.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Salomo Friedlaender
I've just finished my review for Rain Taxi of Salomo Friedlaender's The Creator. What a book! I'll post a link here when the essay is published, but for now, just a quick word to say that this novella is unlike any I can remember reading: part of philosophy, part fiction, it reminded of Nietzsche, Borges, and Kafka rolled into one. And that's saying something. For a fabulist treatment of free will, let me suggest The Creator: it was tremendous.
Something to think on …
If the highest things are unknowable, then the highest capacity or virtue of man cannot be theoretical wisdom.
— Leo Strauss, born on this date in 1899
Pathetic …
… NYGASP Cancel Production of THE MIKADO; Regret 'Missed Opportunity' to Adapt.
Guess we'll have to shelve Madama Butterfly from now on, too.
Guess we'll have to shelve Madama Butterfly from now on, too.
Inquirer reviews …
… 'The Story of the Lost Child': Triumphant finale to Elena Ferrante's 'Neapolitan Novels'.
… 'Above the Waterfall' by Ron Rash: Beautiful writing, haunting themes.
… Thomas Mallon's 'Finale': Vivid, nasty, impressive novel of Reagan years.
… Paul Davis reviews DeMille's 'Radiant Angel': A thrill ride with a loose cannon.
… 'Above the Waterfall' by Ron Rash: Beautiful writing, haunting themes.
… Thomas Mallon's 'Finale': Vivid, nasty, impressive novel of Reagan years.
… Paul Davis reviews DeMille's 'Radiant Angel': A thrill ride with a loose cannon.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
...maybe their Angels
Let’s start with the basics: Is there really angelic activity in a near but unseen realm? Yes. I believe angels are active in our world today — more than we realize. They were active in biblical times and there’s no indication to suggest their activity has ceased.
Angels populate the Bible in vast numbers, and they were prominent in the book of Acts as the apostles began taking the Gospel to the world. Why should they cease their work with the writing of the last book of the New Testament?
Hearing Voices...
[V]oices were essentially leached out of madness with the rise of psychiatric medicines in the 1960s and ’70s, when the brain and all it contained became far more consequential than the most assiduously recorded patient history.
Over the past decade, however, a counter-movement has gained force. An increasing number of researchers and practitioners have gone from dismissing hallucinated voices as worthless ravings symptomatic of psychosis to listening carefully to what they say.
The pity-party generation …
… Inflatable doll draws protests at WCU.
What humorless twits, always on the look-out for something to feel aggrieved over. They don't belong in college. They belong in a nursery.
What humorless twits, always on the look-out for something to feel aggrieved over. They don't belong in college. They belong in a nursery.
A book with an app …
… Bryan Appleyard — Iain Pears: Arcadia by a Chap. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The book is 180,000 words long, but there are a total of 250,000 words in the app, which overcomes the problem of staying on top of a complex plot by offering the reader different ways of moving back and forth. You can choose any of the seven main characters to view the action, and you can dig down and find further information, such as the geography of Anterworld. In effect, you get 10 novels, all with the same plot, and all ending up at the same place, but which, when read on the app, become significantly different thanks to the different characters’ points of view.
Something to think on …
My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.
— William Golding, born on this date in 1911
Friday, September 18, 2015
A new blog …
… by my friend and colleague: John Timpane: Here Comes Everything!: WONDERS IN THE STACKS: A BOOKS BLOG, #1.
Just wondering …
Do the roses, branches clipped as soon as
Flowers fade, appreciate the amputation?
Probably not, ignorant their hybrid seeds go
Nowhere, and they are kept alive only
For their blossoms’ sterile beauty.
Smile!
[S]miling behavior predicts a surprisingly large number of outcomes that people care about. What explains the link? That's an open question.
Why Disney heroines don't have mothers...
I’ll give you two stories that are the reasons. I never talk about this, but I will. One reason is practical because the movies are 80 or 90 minutes long, and Disney films are about growing up...The other reason—and this is really odd—Walt Disney, in the early 1940s, when he was still living at this house, also bought a house for his mom and dad to move into. He had the studio guys come over and fix the furnace, but when his mom and dad moved in, the furnace leaked and his mother died. The housekeeper came in the next morning and pulled his mother and father out on the front lawn. His father was sick and went to the hospital, but his mother died. He never would talk about it, nobody ever does.
Something to think on …
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
— Samuel Johnson, born on this date in 1709
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Something to think on …
By listening to the language of his locality the poet learns his craft. It is his function to lift, by the use of his imagination . . . his environment to the sphere . . . where they will have a new currency.
— William Carlos Williams, born on this date in 1883
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Attractive women in politics...
Female politicians' success can be predicted by their facial features, especially in conservative states where women with more feminine faces tend to do better at the ballot box, a Dartmouth College-led study finds.
Authors getting poorer
a survey by the Authors Guild said Tuesday.
The survey said income for full-time US authors in 2015 fell 30 percent from 2009 to $17,500, and part-time authors saw a 38 percent drop in income to $4,500.From the comments:
It seems to me that we are simply returning to the origins of art and expression in this country. Artists of all types have been caught up in capitalist "industries" that created a few mass market winners, and left unknowns.... well unknown except to family and friends. The corporate monopoly created to make us all believe their is a shortage of talent is falling apart. What will be left exposed is that there are great artists in every small town in america, doing what they love, for the love of it. Every community has great painters, singers, sculpters, and architects.....credentialed or otherwise. Technology has destroyed the stranglehold and selection process imposed by the music industry, art industry, and publishing industry. Keep on doing your thing, you do it cause you love it.
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