… Poet with Windsor ties Judith Fitzgerald dies at 63 | Windsor News - Breaking News & Latest Headlines | Windsor Star. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon her.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Reminder …
… How a 1993 Craig T. Nelson TV Movie Predicted the Climate Change Debate - SFGate.
Of course, as the immortal Dudley Do-Right would say, "But this is a movie."
Hmm …
… Can we prove that God exists? Richard Dawkins and the limits of faith and atheism - Salon.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
As far as I know, one can't prove that anything exists.
As far as I know, one can't prove that anything exists.
The importance of family …
… The Dialectic of Love and Authority - The Baffler. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
It was not feminism but mass production, political centralization, and the ideology of endless growth and ever-increasing consumption that had placed impossible strains on the family and made psychological maturity so difficult, Lasch argued. Every organism can flourish only within limits, at a certain scale. We have, in our social relations of authority and production, abandoned human scale, and the psychic costs are great.
Something to think on …
Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred.
— Jacques Barzun, born on this date in 1907
Must-read...
...Why the Public Can't Read the Press
Offshore drilling safety was tangential, at best, to the core issues covered by the newsletter I was writing for. The law firms and companies that subscribed to us paid thousands of dollars each for a subscription, and they paid that much because we helped them stay abreast of every bit of policy minutia that came out of the government in order to identify threats to their existing investments and potential new investments, or to keep their current clients informed and attract new clients. They paid for the story I wrote, not the story I missed.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
The new liturgical year begins today …
Advent
The leaves are fallen, but the sky is clear
(Though winter’s scheduling an arctic flight).
The rumor is a rendezvous draws near.
Some say a telling sign will soon appear,
Though evidence this may be so is slight:
The leaves are fallen, but the sky is clear.
Pale skeptics may be perfectly sincere
To postulate no ground for hope, despite
The rumor that a rendezvous draws near.
More enterprising souls may shed a tear
And, looking up, behold a striking light:
The leaves are fallen, but the sky is clear.
The king, his courtiers, and priests, all fear
Arrival of a challenge to their might:
The rumor is a rendezvous draws near.
The wise in search of something all can cheer
May not rely on ordinary sight:
The leaves are fallen, but the sky is clear.
Within a common place may rest one dear
To all who yearn to see the world made right.
The leaves are fallen, but the sky is clear.
The rumor is a rendezvous draws near.
Gibbon again …
… Empire, Erudition and Entertainment - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There is no doubt that Gibbon's history is a literary masterpiece, and its scholarship is sound. But he is editorializing throughout and his views — especially regarding religion — are hardly indisputable.
There is no doubt that Gibbon's history is a literary masterpiece, and its scholarship is sound. But he is editorializing throughout and his views — especially regarding religion — are hardly indisputable.
Image vs. truth …
… Digital images can't be trusted, says war photographer Don McCullin | Art and design | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In a discussion with the artist and film-maker Isaac Julien, McCullin also talked about his discomfort at being called an artist. “I’ve always thought photography is not so much of an art form but a way of communicating and passing on information,” he said
Hmm …
… How Political Correctness Failed Liberalism — Bad Words — Medium. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I am not a leftist. Nor am I a rightist. I am that rare fool who believes that it is a careful tension between both which yields the greatest good in the most desirable social order. But because it is in tension, that order is as fragile as it is improbable. By the end of this essay, I will try to explain why I believe so, and what that means. And if you wish to burn me at the stake, by all means do so.
A vintage review …
… by Evelyn Waugh: Chesterton Everlasting | National Review Online. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Endgame …
… And Death Shall Have Its Dominion ; Theodore Dalrymple. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Catholics of my generation were taught, starting in grade school, to think one's eventual every day. And I doubt if any day has passed without some thought of mine flitting through my mind. Like Dalrymple, though, I find I think I think about it now differently than before. For now it grows ever nearer. As a person of faith, it is a greater cause for anxiety than it would be did I think it mere oblivion. That would be bad enough, of course. For "in that sleep of death what dreams may come … must give us pause."
Death will, of course, release us all of the obligation to fill our time somehow or other. But the notion of oblivion is a difficult one. Some philosophers have argued that there should be nothing difficult about it because future oblivion will only be the same as that before we were born (or had some semblance of continuous memory), and with that we have no problem. But I do not think this is quite right. The fact that we have existed and do still exist alters everything for us. The only oblivion of which we have actual experience is that of sleep, and we have experience of it only because we wake afterwards: in other words, all our oblivions hitherto have been temporary and capable of being experienced.The brings to Larkin's "Aubade."
Catholics of my generation were taught, starting in grade school, to think one's eventual every day. And I doubt if any day has passed without some thought of mine flitting through my mind. Like Dalrymple, though, I find I think I think about it now differently than before. For now it grows ever nearer. As a person of faith, it is a greater cause for anxiety than it would be did I think it mere oblivion. That would be bad enough, of course. For "in that sleep of death what dreams may come … must give us pause."
Inquirer reviews …
… 'Golden Age' by Jane Smiley: Sweeping, triumphant close to 'Hundred Years' trilogy.
… Cunningham's 'Swan': A great idea that could have flown further.
… Rick Moody's 'Hotels of North America': Sweet, sad, screwball magic.
… 'Brady vs Manning': Two lives, two careers, one cultural legacy.
See also: Peggy Noonan: The 'coolness' of being American.
… Cunningham's 'Swan': A great idea that could have flown further.
… Rick Moody's 'Hotels of North America': Sweet, sad, screwball magic.
… 'Brady vs Manning': Two lives, two careers, one cultural legacy.
See also: Peggy Noonan: The 'coolness' of being American.
Something to think on …
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
— C. S. Lewis, born on this date in 1898
Saturday, November 28, 2015
A real college president …
… This is Not a Day Care. It's a University! - Oklahoma Wesleyan University.
If you’re more interested in playing the “hater” card than you are in confessing your own hate; if you want to arrogantly lecture, rather than humbly learn; if you don’t want to feel guilt in your soul when you are guilty of sin; if you want to be enabled rather than confronted, there are many universities across the land (in Missouri and elsewhere) that will give you exactly what you want, but Oklahoma Wesleyan isn’t one of them.
Well worth thinking about …
… The Food Cops and Their Ever-Changing Menu of Taboos - WSJ.
At least the science isn't settled.
Many Americans have lost trust in the science behind the guidelines since they seem to change dramatically every five years. In February, for example, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee declared that certain fats and eggs are no longer the enemy and that cholesterol is “not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.” This, after decades of advising Americans to “watch their cholesterol.”
At least the science isn't settled.
Best not to …
… Do You Speak Political? | Liberty Unbound. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
My administration has been meeting around the clock and has been doing a tremendous amount of reflection on how to address these complex matters. We want to find the best way to get everyone around the table and create the safe space for a meaningful conversation that promotes change.
Anyone who speaks this way is either incapable of critical thought or believes that everyone else is. Who among us advocates change without saying what kind of change he means? Who among us wants to have conversations all day, with total strangers, or with people who don’t like us? And who thinks that what university students need is a safe space, as if they were surrounded by ravening wolves, or panzer battalions?
The answer is, I suppose, “the typical college administrator,” supposing that these people can be taken at their word, which on this showing is very hard to do. If you had something sincere and meaningful to say, would you say it like that?
What to make of this …
… A response to 'On Pandering' - LA Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Unless it’s to support someone I know or explicitly recommended, I no longer read white men. It’s not to make a political statement so much as I’m tired of seeing the world through their eyes. If you asked me to name my literary influences, it would probably take an hour before a white man appeared.Sportswriter Jimmy Cannon famously wrote of Joe Louis that "he was a credit to his race — the human race." Maybe we should pay a little attention to that human race. After all, it's the only one we all belong to.
Making the simple look easy …
… The Lightning Before Death: A Tribute to Clive James - The Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Solzhenitsyn can imagine what pain is like when it happens to strangers. Even more remarkably, he is not disabled by imagining what pain is like when it happens to a million strangers — he can think about individuals even when the subject is the obliteration of masses, which makes his the exact reverse of the ideological mentality, which can think only about masses even when the subject is the obliteration of individuals.It doesn't get more insightful than that. Good to keep an eye out for that ideological mentality. It is despicable and dangerous.
Something to think on …
I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact.
— Claude Levi-Strauss, born on this date in 1908
Friday, November 27, 2015
Indeed …
… If we’re serious about free speech, we should say ‘Je Suis Dieudonné’ | Brendan O’Neill | spiked.
Speech isn't free if it is only approved speech. This guy is an ass, but he has the right to be. Don't like what he says? Say something back.
Speech isn't free if it is only approved speech. This guy is an ass, but he has the right to be. Don't like what he says? Say something back.
Once upon a time …
… How Cartoons Helped Define The New Yorker - Nieman Reports. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, the cartoons in the New Yorker these days are not what they used to be, and neither is the New Yorker.
Well, the cartoons in the New Yorker these days are not what they used to be, and neither is the New Yorker.
Hmm …
… Caroline Alexander Takes On an Epic Challenge: ‘The Iliad’ - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
"These raids, the sacking of villages and cities, the carrying-off of plunder and women, are, then, the actions of both the men of “The Iliad” and of ISIS. I see ISIS less as a religious movement than a stark manifestation of one of the oldest phenomena in the world, i.e., young men glorying in brutality."
Well, "comparisons are odorous," as Dogberry said. This is probably a good example of history rhyming rather than repeating. And, at any rate, it hardly makes ISIS less forbidding. Books and libraries are wonderful, but there is much to be learned in the great world that does not comport with intellectual niceties.
Something to think on …
How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. So far, so much between, you can never go home again. You can go home, it's good to go home, but you never really get all the way home again in your life. And what's it all for? All I tried to be, all I ever wanted and went away for, what's it all for?
— James Agee, born on this date in 1909
The petulance of poets …
… British Beef — Partisan. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I like Larkin and Hill, so God knows where that puts me. But I think that D. H. Lawrence got to the key point of literature when he said, “Never trust the teller, trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.” Writers can rattle on all they want about theories and tradition and the like. I doubt if any of it ever has much bearing on what they're writing when they're writing. And mean-spirited sniping is unbecoming, however entertaining it may be to the rest of us. I love Brahms and Tchaikovsky, who detested each other's music. So what?
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Beethoven gives thanks …
The title Beethoven gave to this movement is "Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode."
The business of creation …
… Creators of the World Unite — The Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free provides a helpful thumbnail sketch of the history of these struggles over who benefits from creative production. Here’s how it works, in miniature: The piano roll business got started back in the 1880s by pirating sheet music. Sheet music investors objected, and a form of compulsory license arose, obliging the piano rollers to pay a set fee. The piano rollers went legit, and became the recorded music business. Then, in the 1920s, radio came along and began pirating recorded music. The music publishing investors objected, and a compulsory license arose, obliging radio stations to pay a set fee to play each song. The radio stations went legit, and became the broadcasting industry.
More for the occasion …
… 6 Thanksgiving Poems About Giving Thanks To Recite Over Your Turkey Dinner | Bustle. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Have a look …
… Every Frame A Painting Explain Why Buster Keaton Is Still A Classic. (Hat tip, David Tothero.)
Crime talk …
… Top 10: the best dialogue in crime fiction | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
Everything that has been will be, everything that will be is, everything that will be has been.
— Eugène Ionesco, born on this date in 1909
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Damned little, I'd say …
… How Much Learning Can Occur in Safe Spaces? | Foundation for Economic Education. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
And who the hell wants to be safe all the time anyway?
And who the hell wants to be safe all the time anyway?
A kind viewpoint …
… The American Scholar: The Trouble at Yale - Paula Marantz Cohen. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Paula would think this way, because she is very nice person. I am not so nice. You want a homey place? Stay home.
Paula would think this way, because she is very nice person. I am not so nice. You want a homey place? Stay home.
Clever …
… Judas painting survived Reformation by being turned around | Art and design | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Religion of peace at work …
… Saudi Arabia: Poet Sentenced to Death for Apostasy | Human Rights Watch. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Something to think on …
Few people have ever seriously wished to be exclusively rational. The good life which most desire is a life warmed by passions and touched with that ceremonial grace which is impossible without some affectionate loyalty to traditional form and ceremonies.
— Joseph Wood Krutch, born on this date in 1893
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Something to think on …
I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.
— William F. Buckley, Jr., born on this date in 1925
In praise of Kay Ryan …
… Something Wild. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
One poet who legitimately stands apart from others of her generation is Kay Ryan, who comes from outside the academic and literary establishments. Ryan, a two-time Poet Laureate, has honed the techniques of her latest book, Erratic Facts, for decades, but the eclectic themes of this book are darker and more metaphysical than much of her previous work.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Q&A …
… KO Filmmaker Feature Esther Löwe - Katrina Olson - Fashion | Film | Art.
I was a filmmaker long before I decided I was one. For me, making music and visual art was always about creating a narrative structure from an early age. Whether it was composing a soundtrack for someone else’s film or designing a set for Puccini’s Tosca at home.
Away again …
I have two appointments today, both of which I am very much looking forward to, and so will not be blogging again until later.
Just wondering …
What did things look like before we came up with words for them, and to what extent do words get in the way of things?
It's past time to fight back …
… The Tyranny of the Sensitive | Liberty Unbound. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
According to Greg Lukianoff, executive director of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), fully 47% of 18–34 year olds said they think the First Amendment goes too far. “That’s terrifying to me,” Lukianoff says.It should be terrifying to all of us. Penn Jillette observes, “Outrage has become a powerful political tool for shutting down dissenting voices.” Comedian Jim Norton adds, “There is a strange sense of empowerment in being offended.” Jonathan Rauch of the Brookings Institute warns, “One of the first ways you know a society is turning authoritarian is the comedians start to worry. When they start going for the comedians, everyone else needs to sweat.”
Something to think on …
Reality is not simply there, it must be searched and won.
— Paul Celan, born on this date in 1920
Worth pondering …
… 7 Quotes from René Magritte on his Birthday - artnet News. (Hat tip, David Tothero.)
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Yes, indeed …
… Moe Lane —Tweet of the Day, Professional Courtesy Is Important edition.
Notice that the robbers get what some of our politicians and journalists don't seem to.
Notice that the robbers get what some of our politicians and journalists don't seem to.
Probably …
… The Most Important Film of All Time: 26.6 Seconds by Abraham Zapruder - The Daily Beast. (Hat top, Dave Lull.)
Inquirer reviews …
… New bio celebrates Sam Phillips, rock-and-roll pioneer, discoverer of Elvis.
… Roger Angell's 'This Old Man': Optimistic, with high points, and low.
… 'Paris at War' documents survival, uncertainty in Nazi-occupied City of Lights.
… Mary Gaitskill's 'The Mare': Nonverbal speech, person to person, person to animal.
… Kate Morton's 'Lake House': Skillful, suspenseful, surprising.
… Roger Angell's 'This Old Man': Optimistic, with high points, and low.
… 'Paris at War' documents survival, uncertainty in Nazi-occupied City of Lights.
… Mary Gaitskill's 'The Mare': Nonverbal speech, person to person, person to animal.
… Kate Morton's 'Lake House': Skillful, suspenseful, surprising.
Something to think on …
The want of logic annoys. Too much logic bores. Life eludes logic, and everything that logic alone constructs remains artificial and forced.
— André Gide, born on this date in 1869
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Hmm …
… Better ways to help | TLS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
If the aim is to do good as effectively as possible, a measure of value is needed to compare the effects on people’s lives of different acts or policies designed to help them. In the calculations of the effective altruism movement this measure is sometimes provided by the concept of the quality- adjusted life year, or QALY – a concept developed originally to compare the effects of treatments for debilitating medical conditions. A year of life in good health has a value of one QALY. So if you save from death an adult with a life expectancy of thirty years in good health you have produced thirty QALYs. And if you cure someone of a disease that would otherwise reduce the quality of his life by 25 per cent over the next eight years, you have produced two QALYs. (The 25 per cent reduction is established if the victim would be willing to accept a treatment that would free him from the disease for four years, but shorten his life by one year.) This metric, though crude, can be extended to compare the value of other material benefits and disadvantages that affect the quality of life. The point, taken from utilitarianism, is to have a single measure for all value.I can't shake the feeling that there's something nuts about this, rational to the point of insanity.
Magical …
… Jorge Luis Borges, “Music Box” … “what vigils by an unknown sea” | sam of the 10,000 things.
(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Journalism as short story …
… Gay Talese: The author who nailed Sinatra. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
He returned to New York and, through his friend Jilly Rizzo, who owned a bar favoured by Sinatra, secured an introduction to Sinatra’s mother, Dolly. He interviewed the singer’s son, Frank Jr, whose place in the Sinatra clan seemed somewhat tenuous. In short, he did whatever was necessary to complete the story, wrote it, handed it in, and moved on to something else without giving it a second thought. He never did meet Sinatra.
Something to think on …
The essence of religion consists in the feeling of an absolute dependence.
— Friedrich Schleiermacher, born on this date in 1768
Friday, November 20, 2015
Also, war is peace …
… Official Iranian and Palestinian Media Claim Israel Orchestrated Paris Attacks – Tablet Magazine. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Yeah, these guys are really trustworthy.
Daring to discern happiness …
… Nigeness: Anne Tyler: Stepping off assuredly. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Though she's a rare combination of a genuinely popular novelist and one hugely admired by her fellow writers, Tyler has never been fashionable, and never a critics' darling.
Educating Yale …
… The BBC’s Answer to PC - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I tremble to think what the BBC would do with “All in the Family” videos. Torch them, probably. Nevertheless, the network has now decided to allow similar shows of its own to be purchased online, accompanied by warning labels proclaiming that each one is “an un-PC product of its time but remains a cherished piece of vintage comedy.” Note, by the way, that political correctness is a good thing in the BBC’s Orwellian lexicon. Even so, it is still deigning to let individual viewers choose (for now) what they want to watch in the privacy of their own homes.None of my former colleagues at The Inquirer will be surprised at the side I've come down on in this matter.
Something to think on …
The ways of Providence cannot be reasoned out by the finite mind ... I cannot fathom them, yet seeking to know them is the most satisfying thing in all the world.
— Selma Lagerlöf, born on this date in 1858
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Homer alive …
… Letter of Recommendation: Christopher Logue, ‘War Music’ - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
‘‘Day after day,’’ Logue wrote in his memoir, ‘‘I sat at my bench working on ‘Achilles and the River’ ’’ — a section in Book XXI where Achilles slaughters a battalion of Trojans hiding down among the reeds and then has to fight the river Scamander itself, furious with the demigod for spilling so much blood between its banks. ‘‘The sweat ran out of me,’’ Logue tells us of his experience translating. ‘‘I forgot myself entirely for hours on end.’’
Something to think on …
Serious poetry deals with the fundamental conflicts that cannot be logically resolved: we can state the conflicts rationally, but reason does not relieve us of them.
— Allen Tate, born on this date in 1899
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Immortal Paris …
… Paris Shines On: Lou Reed at the Bataclan, Rimbaud on the Boulevards | Town Topics. (Hat tip, Virginia Kerr.)
Anticipating history …
… Mizzou and the Master of Our Universe - Washington Free Beacon. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
[I Am Charlotte Simmons] was released more than a decade ago. Yet its portrait of university life as an orgy of hormones and physical and intellectual posturing remains both vivid and prophetic. It’s why the 85-year-old Wolfe is more than the greatest living journalist and satirist in America. He’s the most important writer of the twenty-first century, full stop.
Something to think on …
Poetry proceeds from the totality of man, sense, imagination, intellect, love, desire, instinct, blood and spirit together.
— Jacques Maritain, born on this date in 1882
University or insane asylum …
… Univ. of Vermont holds privilege retreat for students who 'self-identify as white'.
I have actually never self-identified as white, though I have naturally been aware of my complexion. Nor have I ever thought of being white as granting me any privilege, but that may be because I was raised by my factory-working mother and grandmother. I remain immensely grateful to both. I also never expected to live in a world that had gone daft.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Travel expenses …
… Monday Roundup: Paris Praise, Brooks's Trip and Steinem-Ginsburg - The New York Times.
A comment here yesterday raised the question as to who footed the bill for David Brooks's now notorious column about a $120,000 trip. The piece linked to here says that "The Times’s standards editor, Philip B. Corbett, assured me late Friday that the company had paid for the portion of that trip for which Mr. Brooks was present," whatever that means.
A comment here yesterday raised the question as to who footed the bill for David Brooks's now notorious column about a $120,000 trip. The piece linked to here says that "The Times’s standards editor, Philip B. Corbett, assured me late Friday that the company had paid for the portion of that trip for which Mr. Brooks was present," whatever that means.
Skip the movie …
… John O’Hara’s “Pal Joey” at 75: Still an Exemplary Novella. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The recipient of Joey’s letters is Ted, a bandleader friend whose replies we never see but who, unlike his correspondent, is actually going somewhere. We can feel Joey, amid his protestations of pleasure, choking on the news that Ted has been booked at the Paramount in Manhattan and written up in Down Beat. Joey himself is no further along at the end of the book than he was at the beginning, and O’Hara’s small fictional gem would be unbearable if it were twice as long as it is. The author knew when to stop—late in his career he wouldn’t exhibit such restraint—and Pal Joey remains one of the books that makes John O’Hara an even greater master of the novella than he was of the short story.
Science fiction and the Jesuits …
… Why Are There So Many Catholics in Science Fiction? - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This past August, American author Mary Doria Russell announced that Random House is planning a 20th anniversary edition of The Sparrow, the 1996 book that won her the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The plot centers on a certain holy order that decides to send a unilateral mission to an alien world. “The United Nations took years to come to a decision,” the book’s prologue explains, “that the Society of Jesus reached in ten days.”
Music hath charms …
… Cry Melodies - Image Journal. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
We know best what music can do to the here and now. Suspected, but not as well understood, is the connection between music and the past—music’s role in memory-making and memory-retention, and even more remarkable, its connection with the future, in language acquisition.
Groundbreaker …
… Opening of the American Mind - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
And that seemed to be that until the spring of 1953, when there appeared a revelatory book of intellectual history by an unknown assistant professor at, of all places, Michigan State. The book was “The Conservative Mind,” the author was Russell Kirk, and political thought in modern America was never the same. Liberals no doubt snickered when they received copies of the book—thinking, “what a perfect oxymoron!”—but they stopped laughing when they began reading about a rich and varied conservatism that had existed in America since the founding of the Republic and that reached back into the tested traditions of British political thought
Something to think on …
If you want to study writing, read Dickens. That's how to study writing, or Faulkner, or D.H. Lawrence, or John Keats. They can teach you everything you need to know about writing.
— Shelby Foote, born on this date in 1916
First contact …
… John Fowles's Peculiar UFO Novel. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
As Fowles grasps, the notion of ‘first contact’ is much older than sci-fi.The four canonical
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John could very well be described as ‘first contact’ literature. The same is true of the Old Testament. When I was a child, I was taught the religious hymn "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel (Way Up in the Middle of the Air)." For the prophet Ezekiel, this uncanny appearance in the sky marked avisitation by angels, but nowadays people who see flying saucers get written up
in The National Enquirer, not holy scripture.
As Fowles grasps, the notion of ‘first contact’ is much older than sci-fi.The four canonical
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John could very well be described as ‘first contact’ literature. The same is true of the Old Testament. When I was a child, I was taught the religious hymn "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel (Way Up in the Middle of the Air)." For the prophet Ezekiel, this uncanny appearance in the sky marked avisitation by angels, but nowadays people who see flying saucers get written up
in The National Enquirer, not holy scripture.
Monday, November 16, 2015
Well-rounded man …
… Jacques Barzun's "William James as Artist" | New Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Note the conjunction of philosopher and poet. But whatever its extent or quality, the human point of view, according to James, is controlled by subjective interests, instinctive or emotional in origin, and out of which all rationality grows. The degree to which these interests are coordinated squared with fact and truly expressed measures the success of the individual’s reason, or if he is a philosopher of his system. Experience is thus carved out by each man in accordance with his temperament, and his vision has the shape of his imaginative powers. All these statements need but slight translation to turn them into the creed of the artist, whose work grows out of his instinctive and emotional resources, and seeks to express in adequate form something that will have the status of truth.
Something to think on …
Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.
— Jose Saramago, born on this date in 1922
Forecast: fiction …
… Talk About the Weather - The New Yorker.
See also: The Cli-Fi Report.
Twain died in 1910, too soon to discover that his joke turned out to be borderline prophetic. After maintaining its centrality in Western literature for millennia, weather, while by no means vanishing entirely, faded in importance in the twentieth century. Only in our own time are we seeing it return in significant ways to our stories—thanks, as it happens, to the same forces that drove it away in the first place.
See also: The Cli-Fi Report.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
At least in Britain …
… Miles Davis voted greatest jazz artist - BBC News. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I like Miles, but I think I would have gone with Louis.
Q & A …
… Even Bank Robbers Decide What Tie To Wear: The Essence Of Elmore Leonard. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… Dutch used to pick up Hemingway short stories at random and start reading, to get the juices flowing. He loved Hemingway but thought he had no sense of humor. Which is why Richard Bissell's novels, particularly High Water and A Stretch on the River, caught his attention. Bissell's stories had a natural humor that Hemingway lacked.
Good for them …
… Girl Scouts' Science-Based GMO Stance Worth Cookies' Dollar Price Increase - Forbes.
That juicy tomato and those large ears of sweet corn have all been genetically modified — by the primitive method known as cross-pollination.
That juicy tomato and those large ears of sweet corn have all been genetically modified — by the primitive method known as cross-pollination.
Prophetic words …
… René Girard on terrorism: “We have to radically change the way we think.” Have we?
Of course, there is resentment in its attitude to Judeo-Christianity and the West, but it is also a new religion. This cannot be denied. Historians of religion, and even anthropologists, have to show how and why it emerged. Indeed, some aspects of this religion contain a relationship to violence that we do not understand and that are all the more worrying for that reason. For us, it makes no sense to be ready to pay with one’s life for the pleasure of seeing the other die. We do not know whether such phenomena belong to a special psychology or not. We are thus facing complete failure; we cannot talk about it and also we cannot document the situation because terrorism is something new that exploits Islamic codes, but does not at all belong to classical Islamic theory. Today’s terrorism is new, even from an Islamic point of view. It is a modern effort to counter the most powerful and refined tool of the Western world: technology. It counters technology in a way that we do not understand, and that classical Islam may not understand either.
Chill out …
… Tangled Up In Thucydides — EIDOLON — Medium. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I guess it's worth wondering why Dylan's editor didn't fact-check his memories. Maybe the idea was that his account would be more authentic if the inaccuracies were left in. But all Dylan is really saying is that he had an opportunity to thumb through some classics. He isn't claiming to have gone off and taken up classics as an avocation. Dylan's a smart fellow. I'm sure he learned something from his browsing.
I guess it's worth wondering why Dylan's editor didn't fact-check his memories. Maybe the idea was that his account would be more authentic if the inaccuracies were left in. But all Dylan is really saying is that he had an opportunity to thumb through some classics. He isn't claiming to have gone off and taken up classics as an avocation. Dylan's a smart fellow. I'm sure he learned something from his browsing.
Talk of the end times …
… Beyond Eastrod: "The Second Coming," radical Islamic terrorists and their malignant clones, and a call for Mandatory Military Service . . .
I pretty much agree, though I am not sure bringing back the draft is necessary. I think there are plenty of people ready to volunteer for the service and I think we might get better quality recruits that way. But the question is certainly worth raising. Of course, we could start with finding a commander in chief who at least rubs elbows with reality when it comes to the nature of the problem, instead of one who on the very day of the Paris attacks was assuring us that ISIS has been contained.
The outer depths …
… Zealotry of Guerin: Galaxy PGC 6240 (Hubble Telescope), Sonnet #270.
Apologies for forgetting to post this yesterday. The mind ages.
Apologies for forgetting to post this yesterday. The mind ages.
Literary commentary …
… one by me: His work of fiction is a work of faith.
… another by my friend Paula Marantz Cohen: Holmes character is a sign of the times.
… and yet another by my former colleague Frank Fitzpatrick: Frank's Place: A fictional hoops hero who will endure. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… and yet another by my former colleague Frank Fitzpatrick: Frank's Place: A fictional hoops hero who will endure. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.
— Franklin P. Adams, born on this date in 1881
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Not exactly communication …
… The perils of political speechwriting | Prospect Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It's not pretty …
… In search of the zeitgeist | spiked review of books. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
The book speaks to our post-political times. Heitmann does not see the political zeitgeist in terms of a struggle between left and right. Party politics are meaningless in a world that rejects change and makes the state the auditor of human agency. For Heitmann, the zeitgeist is a consensus, a worldview that rejects freedom in favour of security – with deleterious effects. The sense that people are incapable of making the right decisions for themselves paves the way for the undermining of democracy. ‘The idea of democracy’, Heitmann writes, ‘is built on the fundamental belief in the intelligence of the democratic individual, the belief that every individual is capable of winning the struggle against his self-incurred immaturity’. Without that belief in the ‘democratic individual’, the way is clear for the tyranny of the regulative state.
Begging to differ …
… The New Yorker & Me: In Praise of John Updike's Poetry (Contra Dan Chiasson). (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The agon of being human …
… Moby-Dick, the relentless agon, a Christian malgre lui, radical Islamic terrorism, and my reading of works by "writers of faith".
My own agon has always been to cooperate, far better than I usually do, with God in becoming whoever He it is intends me to be.
As for a writer of faith who deals with the human agon, I would probably choose Georges Bernanos's Diary of a Country Priest.
In case you missed this …
… How Trigger Warnings Are Hurting Mental Health on Campus - The Atlantic.
This new climate is slowly being institutionalized, and is affecting what can be said in the classroom, even as a basis for discussion. During the 2014–15 school year, for instance, the deans and department chairs at the 10 University of California system schools were presented by administrators at faculty leader-training sessions with examples of microaggressions. The list of offensive statements included: “America is the land of opportunity” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”Well, if you don't think the best-qualified person should get the job, who the hell do you think should? Dimwits/
At Mass this morning …
… we prayed for the victims of the horrendous events in Paris yesterday and their families. So should we all. On this day, every person of good will should proclaim Vive la France.
Something to think on …
Each age tries to form its own conception of the past. Each age writes the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost in its own time.
— Frederick Jackson Turner, born on this date in 1861
Friday, November 13, 2015
Something to think on …
Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.
— Robert Louis Stevenson, born on this date in 1850
Terrible …
… ‘India’s Daughter’ Review: A Crime That Rocked the World - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Bravo to NDTV India.
“India’s Daughter” is no ranting diatribe. It’s a relentlessly penetrating excavation of facts and attitudes in a single case, though one, clearly, that speaks for a multitude of others. The film’s great strength is the product of that potent combination—ambition and persistence. The filmmaker pursued and won near miraculous access to every side of this history, including one of the rapists, also driver of the bus, who speaks in his prison cell—a man of still unshaken confidence in his views of women. “A girl is far more responsible for a rape than the boy,” he tells his interviewer. “About 20 percent of women are good,” he further informs her. And, “a decent girl wouldn’t be roaming around nine o’clock at night.”
Bravo to NDTV India.
The real deal …
… Greek Life — Partisan. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
WHAT DO YOU get from reading Homer in Greek? As a start, you get what no translation can offer you: the thing itself. Writing in general, and poetry in particular, is, at its most basic level, a matter of word choice. It’s impossible to say you truly know a work that you have read only in translation because you don’t know the actual words that the author chose to write.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
A vocation of service …
… Waiting for the Past by Les Murray review – matter-of-fact extravagance | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
The density of the material (both actual and verbal) is accommodated by the plainness of the sentence structure. When reading aloud, where some poets aim for glory, Murray can sound almost impatient of his own work, and in these lines the eventual resolving rhythm has to make a case for itself among solid, intransigent objects. It is almost but not quite too much.
A love letter to his homeland …
… A Strangeness in My Mind - Book Review - Truthdig. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
The need for metaphysics …
… The Paradox We Face When We Use Science To Explain Science. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Reality gives science a goal and a purpose. Taking part in the practice of science without any idea of a truth that sometimes lies beyond our grasp is like playing soccer without having any goal to aim at. The game will become pointless, and so will science. Science has to be in the business of discovery. Just because reality includes human beings, it is not centered on them any more than the earth is the center of the universe. It often transcends both actual and possible human knowledge.
For no other reason …
… than that I love it, and think it should be heard far more often than it is. Ormandy genuinely liked this work. Yannick Nézet-Séguin should listen to it. Vincent himself said of it that it expressed “the growing consciousness of joy … my thankfulness for a rich and full life.”
Be philosophical, professors …
… Siris: Philosophers and Welders. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A philosopher may well be neither a philosophy professor nor someone with a degree in philosophy. Eric Hoffer was neither and he was certainly a philosopher. (Hell, I left college with more credits in philosophy than in English literature, which was my major.)
A philosopher may well be neither a philosophy professor nor someone with a degree in philosophy. Eric Hoffer was neither and he was certainly a philosopher. (Hell, I left college with more credits in philosophy than in English literature, which was my major.)
To say the least …
… The Talented Mr. Huxley | Humanities. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
His voice, preserved in recordings easily sampled online, was also part of his charm. Huxley spoke like Laurence Olivier—with exacting British diction and an unerring verbal accuracy that few people, then or now, possess in casual conversation. He talked in silver sentences, treating conversation as a form of theater, or even literature.Here is such sample:
Something to think on …
The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.
— G. K. Chesterton
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Something to think on …
Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often.
— Paracelsus, born on this date in 1493
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Quite a brawl …
… Bill O’Reilly makes a mess of history - The Washington Post.
… The Truth about President Reagan.
… The Truth about President Reagan.
The late, great Jim Naughton, one-time executive editor of The Inquirer, told me a story he had from a major reporter who had interviewed Reagan right after the Iran Contra controversy. During the interview he got the impression Reagan might in fact be senile, since he did at times seem to drift off and lose the thread of what he was talking about. It wasn't until the interview was over that he realized this had only happened when he raised the question of Iran Contra. Otherwise, he had been sharp as a tack. "The son of a bitch was acting, Jim."
Not so informative, after all …
… The Problem with Pew’s Science & Religion Poll | Religion Dispatches.
… it’s a shame that this vague question is the centerpiece of a major new survey from the Pew Research Center. It suffers from serious methodological flaws, and seems formulated to fuel internet hot-takes rather than productive public discourse.
Plus two questions …
… The Simple Art of Murder: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, the ultimate crime writer, and every book-addicted reader's race-against-time endgame and "bucket list" dilemma.
My favorite Shakespeare play is The Tempest, but the one I know best is Much Ado About Nothing, for the simple reason that I was the prompter for an entire weekend run of it once.
As for what I might regret on my deathbed, probably nothing. I never bother with regrets.
My favorite Shakespeare play is The Tempest, but the one I know best is Much Ado About Nothing, for the simple reason that I was the prompter for an entire weekend run of it once.
As for what I might regret on my deathbed, probably nothing. I never bother with regrets.
Indeed not …
… Michigan Quarterly Review|The Novella Is Not The Novel's Daughter: An Argument in Notes. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Master of the simile …
… Raymond Chandler Didn’t Care About Plot ‹ Literary Hub. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Story construction and the tying up of loose ends never bothered him. When director Howard Hawks was filming The Big Sleep, he cabled Chandler: “Who killed the chauffeur?” Chandler cabled back: “No idea.”
One last gamble...
...Why Karl Ove Knausgaard Can’t Stop Writing
“I have to write—maybe I can write for 20 more years, that’s maybe four or five novels; and that’s not much, so I can’t waste my time. I know where my fascinations lie, I try to go there. You can write about anything—you don’t need a subject or a story. You can just write, everything will show itself, the story will come and the things you are really interested in will be in the book, no matter what you are writing about.” He lights another Chesterfield and adds, “I’m not looking for something to write about, ever. If it is valuable, it will be inside of me, so I’ll write about it one day.”
Listen in …
… Episode 142 – Rupert Thomson | Virtual Memories.
“I often think that my ideas are exaggerations that are on the brink of disbelief, but just this side of that, so the suspension of disbelief is a challenge in my books. I like to push things as far as they can go.”
Something to think on …
When I'm writing a novel, I'm dealing with a double life. I live in the present at the same time that I live in the past with my characters. It is this that makes a novelist so eccentric and unpleasant.
— John P. Marquand, born on this date in 1893
Monday, November 09, 2015
Inquirer reviews …
… John Irving's 'Avenue of Mysteries': A hard fall from a high wire.
… Steinem's 'My Life on the Road' rambles, but with purpose.
… Jennifer Wright's 'It Ended Badly': Good topic, fair execution.
There's also a review of Stacy Schiff's The Witches in the paper, but I can't find it online, not least because Philly.com's search engine is not working again.
In the meantime, there's this: Lisa Randall talks dark matter, dinosaurs, and cosmic interconnectedness.
I just learned that Schiff review was a wire review that expressly forbade online duplication.
Post bumped.
… Steinem's 'My Life on the Road' rambles, but with purpose.
… Jennifer Wright's 'It Ended Badly': Good topic, fair execution.
There's also a review of Stacy Schiff's The Witches in the paper, but I can't find it online, not least because Philly.com's search engine is not working again.
In the meantime, there's this: Lisa Randall talks dark matter, dinosaurs, and cosmic interconnectedness.
I just learned that Schiff review was a wire review that expressly forbade online duplication.
Post bumped.