It is, however, a food, not a drug. The researchers sound a little nuts.
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Popeye was right …
… Spinach chemical should be put on doping ban list, say researchers - CNN.
Urgent meandering …
… Live a Little by Howard Jacobson review – the torments of desire | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I can’t say that this review inspires me to read the book.
Inquirer reviews …
… Mark Haddon’s ‘The Porpoise’: Thrilling, electrifying tale from the author of ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’.
… The ranch that inspired beloved children’s series was damaged in a fire.
… The ranch that inspired beloved children’s series was damaged in a fire.
The lead review in today's Inquirer is of Jennifer Weiner's latest. Jennifer used to work the Inquirer. I just did a search on Philly.com and could not find it. They really ought to read the news budget, to find out what the hell is in the paper.
To each his own …
… Anecdotal Evidence: 'Perished in the Blitz of 1940'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I can think of other 20th-century writers who are more overrated than Orwell. How about Hemingway?
I can think of other 20th-century writers who are more overrated than Orwell. How about Hemingway?
Something to think on …
A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death — the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders we are not going to be judged.
— Czeslaw Milosz, born on this date in 1911
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Listen in …
… Episode 326 – Barbara Nessim – The Virtual Memories Show.
“I couldn’t imagine a more fulfilling life than being an illustrator and an artist and having people recognize and like my work for what it is.”
Q&A …
… Interview with Terry Castle - The White Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I guess I never really saw ‘writing like a man’, however, as anything dire or shameful. I took the phrase ‘writing like a man’ to mean simply writing well: clearly, intelligently, forcefully. As far as I am concerned, everybody should write like a man. Man, woman, cat, dog. In my own case the payoff for being an oddly-monikered literary androgyne was considerable. Even now, whenever some clueless reviewer falls into the chromosomal-mystery-known-as-Terry-Castle booby-trap, I feel my confidence and conceit soar anew.�
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Hmm …
… History is made from ideas — but are ideas becoming history? | Spectator USA. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
While reading this, I found myself thinking about the Tower of Babel and the expulsion from Paradise.
Refreshingly optimistic …
… Novacene by James Lovelock review – a big welcome for the AI takeover | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“We must abandon the politically and psychologically loaded idea that the Anthropocene is a great crime against nature,” Lovelock declares resoundingly. “The truth is that, despite being associated with mechanical things, the Anthropocene is a consequence of life on Earth. It is a product of evolution; it is an expression of nature.”
Young Milton …
… A Different Milton?: On A. M. Juster’s Translation of John Milton’s “The Book of Elegies” - Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“Tandem” is “at last”; “care” is “beloved friend”; “nuntia” is “news.” This is line-for-line translation, approaching word for word. Does this look easy? Maybe it isn’t too terribly difficult to render a single couplet faithfully and gracefully, but how about two or three? How about hundreds? And how about avoiding, as this translation does, any awkward enjambment? No, nothing about this achievement is easy, and A. M. Juster, who makes it seem that way, deserves great credit.
Hmm …
… Reason Without Faith is Dead. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Whatever course of thought you choose to pursue begins with an act of faith. And if you decide to do without the constraints of truth, you’re opting for make-believe.
Nietzsche went further, for rather than embracing reason at the expense of faith he rejected any confidence in reason and truth. Moral values, in his view, "derived not from faith or reason but from a will to power." Morality was the "self-created life, free from any constraints of truth."
Whatever course of thought you choose to pursue begins with an act of faith. And if you decide to do without the constraints of truth, you’re opting for make-believe.
Masters of prose …
… Anecdotal Evidence: 'This Is a Soil Very Suitable for Prose'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The Summing Up is a wonderful book.
The Summing Up is a wonderful book.
Something to think on …
The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.
— Frédéric Bastiat, born on this date in 1801
Friday, June 28, 2019
Something to think on …
There is someone who is living my life. And I know nothing about him.
— Luigi Pirandello, born on this date in 1867
Sweet …
… The White Rose by John Boyle O'Reilly - Poems | poets.org. (Hat tip, Rus. Bowden, who notes that “ John Boyle O'Reilly should be celebrating his 175th birthday tomorrow, but alas, he died on 1890 with his hand on a table near a book.)
Hmm …
… 1984, by George Orwell: On Its Enduring Relevance - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… many on the left now share an unacknowledged but common assumption that a good work of art is made of good politics and that good politics is a matter of identity. The progressive view of a book or play depends on its political stance, and its stance—even its subject matter—is scrutinized in light of the group affiliation of the artist: Personal identity plus political position equals aesthetic value. This confusion of categories guides judgments all across the worlds of media, the arts, and education, from movie reviews to grant committees. Some people who register the assumption as doublethink might be privately troubled, but they don’t say so publicly. Then self-censorship turns into self-deception, until the recognition itself disappears—a lie you accept becomes a lie you forget. In this way, intelligent people do the work of eliminating their own unorthodoxy without the Thought Police.Packer, unfortunately, seems to take it for granted that our “elites” are indeed elite. But being taught what to think — and thinking accordingly — is not the same as learning how to think.
Something to look forward to …
… Jewish district inspires Tom Stoppard in 'personal' new play | Stage | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In what way it is personal, audiences will have to wait and see. “There’s so much I want to say but don’t feel I can just yet,” she said. “It will feel very relevant, very timely, very pertinent.”
In case you wondered …
… A Meditation on Exclamation Marks in Contemporary Poetry (!) - The Millions. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thursday, June 27, 2019
Eternal rest grant unto him …
… Justin Raimondo, RIP (1951-2019) - Antiwar.com Original. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Samuel Butler
The Way of All Flesh is not a novel I thought I would read: it's big and intimidating, and interspersed with appraisals of Anglican theology. But having now finished Samuel Butler's celebrated novel, I can confidently say there's more going on here than meets the eye.
As V. S. Pritchett notes in the epilogue to the Penguin edition, The Way of All Flesh was launched as a grenade -- and landed like one, too. This is novel, I came to discover, offering an unyielding critique of Victorian society, and nothing is immune: family structure, religion, music -- everything is made a target by Butler, who uses his central character, Ernest Pontifex, as a vehicle to expose just how unloving the nineteenth century had become.
Pritchett makes a reasonable point, I think, that Flesh is a novel set against itself, and succeeds most powerfully when casting father against son, faith against reason. Pontifex's quest is to overcome his father, and to pursue what he considers a more genuine attempt at happiness. It follows, however, that when Pontifex reaches this moment -- this sort of psychological enlightenment -- he suddenly appears flat, as if the wind has evaporated from his and Butler's sails. Without the father, the son is nothing at all.
To this extent, there's an anger -- a sense of resentment -- unpinning Butler's novel. Here, too, I took a great deal from Pritchett's observation that Butler was one of the first writers to inject an element of the unconscious into the English novel: because there's no doubt that part of Pontifex's triumph is his ability to reconfigure his outlook: to replace Victorian habits around religious custom, for instance, with more modern concepts of rationality and economy.
Pritchett does not ultimately find Flesh a fully successful novel, and I agree that there are parts which are overwhelmed by Butler's philosophizing. But as critiques of an entire era go -- of an entire ethos, really -- I can't think of many novels with this much bite, and with this much to say about the hypocrisy embedded in a nation's social structure. Butler's novel really is, then, a bridge to the twentieth-century: not in its style, of course, but in its uncomfortable pursuit of honesty.
Good news …
… 12 Trends Killing College.
If what you're offering isn't what it used to be — namely, what I got, a classical education (in my case, Jesuit, when you could trust them)— then why waste the money. That colleges have let the administrators, with their bien-pensant notions, take over, tells us everything we need to know. The more they are subject to ridicule and contempt by all and sundry, the better for education.
Blogging note …
I am about to take off and meet up with my sister-in-law. We are going to pay a visit to my brother’s grave at the Washington Crossing Military Cemetery. So I have pretty much finished blogging for the day.
Hmm …
… Orwell and Religion | Chronicles Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
He was, however, at his own request, buried in accordance with the Anglican rite.
Something to think on …
People make a grievous error thinking that a list of facts is the truth. Facts are just the bare bones out of which truth is made.
— Shelby Foote, who died on this date in 2005
And how about our poet laureate …
… JOY HARJO – USHERING IN A NEW AGE IN AMERICAN POETRY | The Norwich Radical. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
I suppose …
… 21st-Century Poetry If we must have a Poet Laureate, then let it be Simon Armitage | Morning Star. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden,)
Farewell to Google …
… RTD’s Reviews & Marginalia : Project Veritas reveals Google plot for 2020 election.
I am going to let powers greater than I deal with Google, which I am sure will happen.
Worth noting …
… In Defense of Naomi Wolf - LewRockwell. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Arguing for gay rights is hardly an issue I’ve spent much time researching or writing about. But this story is about disrespecting an author who granted an interview in good faith. Of course, criticism is fine and should be welcomed by every writer. But this was about a completely understandable misinterpretation of a hardly common historical term, and how a journalist attempted to discredit a best-selling author’s book in the middle of a live interview. Certainly Matthew Sweet is a lot better known than he was before talking with Naomi Wolf.
In case you wondered …
… Why Do People Say "Jesus H. Christ," and Where Did the "H" Come From? | Mental Floss. (Hat tip, David Tothero.
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
RIP
…Language Log — Finland's national radio broadcaster pulls the plug on the news in Latin. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hmm …
… The best books to read at every age, from 1 to 100 - Washington Post.
Looks like I’m supposed to read Gilead. Well, I reviewed Home and didn’t like it. By all accounts, Gilead is very good. But I still think I’ll pass.
Hmm …
… It’s our elites who are driving America’s divisions. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
They are not elite and they are not educated. They are schooled. But the schools are clubs with connections.While the misperceptions that Republicans harbor about Democrats don’t improve with higher levels of education, the misconceptions Democrats have regarding Republicansonly get worse with every additional degree they earn.“This effect is so strong,” the study’s authors note, “that Democrats without a high-school diploma are three times more accurate than those with a postgraduate degree.”
Speaking of Puritans …
… Secular Puritanism and the Bladensburg Cross.
The atheist organization’s decision to make a federal case out of its purported offense at the very sight of a cross on public land suggests that its members are either snowflakes or zealots, fragile or fanatical. Or both. The case illustrates the increasingly imperialist nature of secularism, which for some is itself taking on the attributes of a faith. H.L. Mencken characterized puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” Today’s secularism is increasingly assuming a zealous character that cannot tolerate the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be devout.
On the one hand …
… Harvard made the right call on Kyle Kashuv. I should know. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
On the other: Harvard is Dumber Than Twitter. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
On the other: Harvard is Dumber Than Twitter. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
No matter which side you take, one fact is impossible to shake off: America’s premiere educational institution has just declared that, moving forward, it will be in the business of scrutinizing the personal correspondence of all applicants to assure that only those who hold correct views are allowed in.Well, Harvard is named after a Puritan.
Hmm …
… Middle-aged lust is, I have come to realise, a protest against death. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I seem to lack affect when it comes to thinking about death. When it happens will be another matter, I guess.
The art of reading …
… Inner Demons: An Interview with Steve Almond by Curtis Smith | JMWW. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Our favorite books are part of what allow us to peel back the layers of our own selfhood, to reflect on our experiences. The more we do this, the more we discover in those books. When I first read Stoner, I took it to be about literature as a form of redemption. A few years later, it was a book about how we engineer and escalate feuds. Then it was a book about the sacred mission of teaching, then the beautiful rigors of marriage, then the joys and terrors of being a parent, and finally a book about death. This is why I refer to our favorite novels as manuals for living.
Independent thinker …
… James Lovelock at 100: the Gaia saga continues. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
On 26 July, Lovelock will be 100; his long career has sparkled with ideas. His first solo letter to Nature — on a new formula for the wax pencils used to mark Petri dishes — was published in 1945. But, unusually for a scientist, books are his medium of choice. He has written or co-authored around a dozen; the latest, Novacene, is published this month.
Critique ¬
… What’s Missing In Naomi Wolf’s ‘Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love’ | Public Seminar. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Outrages would have been more successful if Wolf had not been quite so determined to overturn conventional wisdom. She is at her strongest when she is either synthetic or autobiographical, writing in her characteristically urgent style while building on others’ specialist knowledge. The broad strokes of her account of the late-Victorian gender order and the emergence of male homosexuality as a stable identity category within it do not look that different from my undergraduate lecture on the same subject. But her forays into the legal history, particularly of the first half of the nineteenth century, go desperately off-piste, and she lacks wider contextual knowledge that would help her to make better sense of the man at the center of her story.
Something to think on …
One cannot ignore half of life for the purposes of science, and then claim that the results of science give a full and adequate picture of the meaning of life. All discussions of 'life' which begin with a description of man's place on a speck of matter in space, in an endless evolutionary scale, are bound to be half-measures, because they leave out most of the experiences which are important to use as human beings.
— Colin Wilson, born on this date in 1931
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
A need for renewal …
… The Catholic writer yesterday, today, and tomorrow – Catholic World Report.
My review of Dana Gioia's The Catholic Writer Today and Other Essays.
My review of Dana Gioia's The Catholic Writer Today and Other Essays.
Who knew?
… John Milton, Latin Love Poet | The Russell Kirk Center. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… Juster’s edition is not only for the Latin student or undergraduate. Any devotee of good poetry will find plenty to delight them in Juster’s translation of the seven long elegies that constitute the bulk of Milton’s little book. The themes are an excellent introduction to the full gamut of two millennia of Latin elegy. We find a couple of mournful elegies, one on the death of a Oxford beadle and another on a Westminster bishop. Three epistolary elegies put his work in context with Latin verse production of the time, especially Elegy 4, which Milton directed to his tutor Thomas Young, who was then in Hamburg. Did Milton imagine this as a possible means of raising himself to international attention?
Service beyond the call of duty …
… 110 Journalism Movies, Ranked | Quill. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I cannot imagine watching that many films about journalism, probably because I'm journalist.
Q&A …
… ‘It’s easier to write a hard truth than to speak it’. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
US poet and writer Maggie Smith in conversation with Irish-Australian poet and writer Anne Casey on what makes their writing tick.
Appreciation — and well-deserved ……
… A One-Man Archive of Baseball History - Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“He watched Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig belt home runs in Yankee Stadium, and he blogged the 2017 postseason,” Joe Bonomo writes in No Place I Would Rather Be: Roger Angell and a Life in Baseball Writing. His longevity is impressive, but as Bonomo demonstrates, it’s not the primary reason why many believe Angell is our greatest living baseball scribe. According to Bonomo, “[n]o other writer has written about the game as elegantly, artfully, thoughtfully, and memorably.”
Hmm …
… Roll Out Those Lazy, Hazy, SNOWY Days of Summer.
It’s not just the Colorado high country, but Midwest low country, too. Chicago is also waiting for summer, “On Sunday, temperatures reached 60 degrees setting a record for the coldest high temperature in late June, according to the NWS Chicago. The last time it was this cold in June was 1992.”
Hmm …
… PBS NewsHour Arts/CANVAS on Twitter. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Library of Congress responds to PBS NewsHour inquiry about the new poet laureate’s being the first Native American in that post.
Experientia docet …
… Love and Other Disabilities – Tablet Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The situation of this young U.K. woman is analogous. Her mother supports her decision to carry the baby to term. Perhaps, with appropriate accommodations, she herself can raise the child. Even if not, there are ways to ensure that the woman remains a part of the child’s life. It is notable that the attending social worker also supports the woman’s decision, against the decision of the doctors. Doctors are not trained to evaluate the psychosocial factors and family dynamics most relevant to this case; they also, studies show, frequently underestimate the abilities of disabled people and devalue their very lives. The social worker’s expertise should be privileged. This is particularly the case because this expertise supports the woman’s own expressed desire.
Something to think on …
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
— George Orwell, born on this date in 1903
Monday, June 24, 2019
A worthy choice indeed …
… The pick of Appleyard | Comment | The Sunday Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Bryan represents all that anyone wanting to be a journalist should aim at — though Bryan is much more than just a journalist.
Bryan represents all that anyone wanting to be a journalist should aim at — though Bryan is much more than just a journalist.
Tracking the decline …
… We tried to publish a replication of a Science paper in Science. The journal refused.
We believe that it is bad policy for journals like Science to publish big, bold ideas and then leave it to subfield journals to publish replications showing that those ideas aren’t so accurate after all. Subfield journals are less visible, meaning the message often fails to reach the broader public. They are also less authoritative, meaning the failed replication will have less of an impact on the field if it is not published by Science.Sounds reasonable to me. From now on, I’ll take anything I read in Science with the proverbial grain of salt.
Telling sounds …
… Deep Water: ‘Fathers and Sons’ by David Stankiewicz - Portland Press Herald. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Hmm
… In Praise of Religion’s Dark Side | Front Porch Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“I am a man of unclean lips” is the cry that bursts forth from every one of us, the Jewish theologian Will Herberg writes, “whenever the force of existence smashes through the hard crust of egocentric self-deception.”I' not sure it is a dark side. It just isn't sentimental. Otto's The Idea of the Holy is a great book.
Something to think on …
You must find your own quiet center of life, and write from that to the world.
— Sarah Orne Jewett, who died on this date in 1909
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Clearing the record …
… Wodehouse’s Anti-Semitism in Context by Elliott Milstein – Plumtopia. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Here is Ivry's piece: How Lovely P.G. Wodehouse Was — Such A Shame About The Anti-Semitism.
An here are two other related pieces:
… Church of England should abandon plans to honour antisemite P.G. Wodehouse with memorial stone at Westminster Abbey.
… Wodehouse memorial at Westminster Abbey is criticised.
All links are courtesy of Dave.
So, what out of context looks like a complaint about the sudden vocalness and pushiness of Jews, is, in context, a prelude to Wodehouse’s offer to promote Townend’s book about Jews. This is hardly the action of an anti-Semite.
Here is Ivry's piece: How Lovely P.G. Wodehouse Was — Such A Shame About The Anti-Semitism.
… Church of England should abandon plans to honour antisemite P.G. Wodehouse with memorial stone at Westminster Abbey.
… Wodehouse memorial at Westminster Abbey is criticised.
All links are courtesy of Dave.
In case you wondered …
… The Best Song From Every Allman Brothers Band Album. (Hat tip, Jon Caroulis.)
Hmm …
… *Talking to Strangers*, the new Malcolm Gladwell book - Marginal REVOLUTION. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Robert Frost
I don’t seem to have any trouble talking to strangers, and strangers don’t seem to have any trouble talking to me, at least judging by the conservation struck up with two people in a waiting room last week. As for poets dying young, many have, certainly. But I just compiled off the top of my head a list of some who didn’t. The first group made it into their 80s and beyond, the second into their 70s. I don’t think this proves anything one way or another, but then I’m not trying to advance any grand theory.
Robert Frost
Carl Sandburg
William Jay Smith
R. S. Thomas
Marianne Moore
Ezra Pound
John Masefield
Walter de la Mare
Robert Bridges
Alfred Tennyson
John Hall Wheelock
Maya Angelou
Eugenio Montale
Mario Luzzi
Gwendolyn Brooks
John Ashbery
Adrienne Rich
Edgar Lee Masters
Stephen Spender
John Betjeman
William Carlos Williams
Walt Whitman
Wallace Stevens
Denise Levertov
John Betjeman
William Butler Yeats
H. D.
Walt Whitman
J v. Cunningham
Contemporary journalism …
… That Story About Kids Growing Horns Because of Smartphones Is Fake News – Reason.com.
Only a few reporters could be bothered to note that at no point did the researchers directly, actually link the "horns" to cellphone use.
Hmm …
… Devastating Rain Spells Are on Their Way. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“If global warming progresses as climate model projections predict, we had better plan for dealing with frequent heavy rain right now.
Maybe he should read Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror. The so-called Little Ice Age began with devastating spells of rain. I think we may well be in for such, but I suspect it has more to do with the sun than with global warming. In temperate regions, it tends to be cooler when it rains.
A prophet of sorts …
… Charles Reich, R.I.P. – American Greatness. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In his classic book The Pursuit of the Millennium, the historian Norman Cohn noted that “at the core” of certain Medieval millenarian sects was the adept’s belief that “he had attained a perfection so absolute that he was incapable of sin. . . . Every impulse was experienced as a divine command.” Cohn also noted that, translated into political terms, the presumption of such “new knowledge” is a recipe for totalitarian arrogance. Hannah Arendt observed in The Origins of Totalitarianism that the claim to special insight is closely related to “totalitarian movements’ spurious claims to have abolished the separation between public and private life and to have restored a mysterious wholeness in man.”I never read the book, and never bought the hype. But I’m not a joiner. Like Groucho, I wouldn’t join any club that would accept me as a member.
Inquirer reviews …
… ‘Rough Magic’ by Lara Prior-Palmer: Unready rider in a long race, with myth and ambivalence.
… ‘Coders’ by Clive Thompson: A delightful intro to the quietly influential architects of our moment.
… ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ by Ocean Vuong: A stunningly lyrical exploration of familial love and language.
… ‘Coders’ by Clive Thompson: A delightful intro to the quietly influential architects of our moment.
… ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ by Ocean Vuong: A stunningly lyrical exploration of familial love and language.
In case you wondered …
… Why Christians Need a Poetic Imagination. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
n his book Scripture and the English Poetic Imagination, David Lyle Jeffrey—distinguished professor of literature and the humanities at Baylor University—offers a key to understanding God’s words. Jeffrey argues, “Jesus implies that his purpose in using fictive, figural, and enigmatic discourse is to conceal as well as reveal, so that only one who truly seeks his meaning will find it.” To hear God speak, we must attune our ears to poetry.
Good …
…Activist priest Michael Pfleger says Yo-Yo Ma bailed on concert over Farrakhan speech - Chicago Sun-Times.
The padre should go back to practicing religion instead of playing politics.
Saturday, June 22, 2019
Controlling the agora …
… Social Media and Other Diseases. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Social media encourages reactions to content far more than it encourages actual content, and the companies' algorithms promote posts that cause the audience reaction of "likes" and "shares." As the algorithms for deciding which to promote grow more sophisticated and more hidden from users, the super-virus grows stronger. "Social media not only makes informed debate more difficult on their platforms," Reynolds argues, but also "rewires people's brains in such a fashion as to make such debate more difficult everywhere else."
Centenary …
… The Lonely Hearts of the Algonquin Round Table | JSTOR Daily. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There were lonely hearts beating beneath the wit.
And the winner is …
… Alice Oswald elected Oxford professor of poetry by huge margin | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Oswald will be the first woman to serve in the role, established three centuries ago.Talk about taking your time.
Something to think on …
Without imagination of the one kind or of the other, mortal existence is indeed a dreary and prosaic business... Illumined by the imagination, our life, whatever its defeats — is a never-ending unforeseen strangeness and adventure and mystery.
— Walter de la Mare, who died on this date in 1956
Friday, June 21, 2019
Blogging note …
This day is filled with appointments, the first an hour from now. So Blogging won't resume until much later.
Wonderful …
… Poem of the Week: ‘This Poem has Won No Prizes’ – TheTLS. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Begging to differ: A.M. Juster on Twitter.
I think the poem is slight, but amusing. I don't think it's intended to be more than that.
Begging to differ: A.M. Juster on Twitter.
I think the poem is slight, but amusing. I don't think it's intended to be more than that.
Hmm …
… Keats on Depression and the Mightiest Consolation for a Heavy Heart – Brain Pickings. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Having witnessed clinical depression up close, I think it worth pointing out that circumstances often play less of a role in it than one might think. A genuinely depressed person will still feel depressed even if he wins the lottery. Admittedly, though, the connection between circumstance and depression is hard to gauge. Benjamin Robert Haydon could hardly have been in a good mood when he committed suicide. But he also was facing debts of more than £3,000.
Tracking the decline …
… When did calorie counting become offensive? | Spectator USA. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
You’d think that a math exam would be dry enough to escape demands for a trigger warning, but no.
Something to think on …
Humor is a prelude to faith and laughter is the beginning of prayer.
— Reinhold Niebuhr, born on this date in 1892
Thursday, June 20, 2019
I’ll second this …
… Two Cheers—At Least—For Cultural Appropriation | The American Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Like Wikipedia’s “non-Native person wearing a Native American war bonnet,” Armstrong—non-white, non-Jewish, non-European, and descended from a race and a place in which none of the elements in the picture and the performance existed—was a cultural criminal by today’s warped standards. Yet, somehow, I didn’t feel violated in the least. Nor did I believe that Armstrong’s stylistically “black” phrasing and pronunciation of the English-language lyrics in any way “fetishised” them. Quite the contrary. They illustrated how cultures can often cross-pollinate for the better, how there is an instinct for beauty and goodness, often dormant but never dead, that is a part of our common humanity.Armstrong said that he modeled his trumpet playing on the singing of the tenor John McCormick. He was a Mahler fan before there were many such. And he spoke glowingly of opera singers, such as Amalita Galli-Curci, who are scarcely remembered by most people.
The miracle at every Mass …
… Corpus Christi: Three Sonnets on Communion | Malcolm Guite. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Somthing to think on …
All the people I have written about remain with me — perhaps they are my closest friends.
— Claire Tomalin, born on this date in 1933
Centenary …
… American music’s forgotten master | About Last Night.
This year marks the centennial of Charles T. Griffes’s sudden—and no less suddenly brief—ascent to musical stardom. A small-town music teacher at a boys’ prep school in suburban New York, he was catapulted into celebrity when Pierre Monteux and the Boston Symphony gave the world premiere of “The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan,” his first large-scale orchestral piece, inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1797 poem about an opium dream.
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Bringing back the salon …
… The Successful Soirée | BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog.
Back in the '70s and '80s, my house in Germantown was a regular gathering place and watering hole for a good many artists, writers, and composers. But I don't think anyone would have called a salon.
Congratulations …
… Joy Harjo becomes first Native American named U.S. poet laureate | CANVAS Arts. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The head of the Library of Congress’ poetry and literature center, Robert Casper, told the AP that laureates are encouraged to focus on “poems and the way they work,” including politically. During her interview, Harjo declined to talk about Trump directly, and said instead that “everything is political.”
Well. for her and a lot of others. But some of us think politics pollutes just about everything it comes into contact with. I rather like her poems, though. She should stick to poetry, and let politics fend for itself. After all, being a poet hardly makes one an expert on statecraft.
The real world …
… First Known When Lost: Repose.
All is well with the World. Meanwhile, in this odd and wonderful country of mine, land that I love, there are those who are already in the thrall of next year's presidential election. Every four years we witness a battle to the death between Absolute Good and Absolute Evil, with the Fate of the Republic at stake. I have now lived through sixteen of these contests for the Soul and the Destiny of the nation. I continue to wait for the sky to fall.
Wonderful …
… Bert Stratton's Reflections on Father’s Day. (Hat tip Dave Lull.)
His Dad really does sound like a hell of a guy.
Even goats were suspect …
… How the Soviet Literary Establishment Censored Vasily Grossman | The New Yorker. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
These days it is worth remembering that U.S.S.R. stood for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Something to think on …
Don't try to add more years to your life. Better add more life to your years.
— Blaise Pascal, born on this date in 1623
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Hmm …
… Not Everybody Must Get Stoner - Book and Film Globe. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… I find I must point out, again, that Stoner, the character, is a rapist, that Williams is a mediocre and outrageously prejudiced writer, and that the book’s success is a jewel-perfect example of the culture celebrating white male mediocrity well beyond its true value. But I wrote about all that elsewhere, and this review is about Almond’s book.
I don’t remember Stoner raping anybody, but I’m old and my memory isn’t what it used to be. But I suppose I do qualify as a white male mediocrity, and I didn’t sense from the book that such was being celebrated. I read it as an accurate account of a more or less unexceptional life. Stoner’s one triumph is near the end, when he puts his academic rival in his place. The characters in the book are like many people one encounters. The book has no heroes. What does Ms. Coldiron think of the young lady Stoner has the affair with? That young lady seems fond of the old boy. Doesn’t she dedicate her dissertation to him? I don’t think Stoner has any ax to grind. True, the characters are mediocrities, and they are white. But there are many such, and there’s no reason not to write about them. If you don’t like such people — and I gather Ms. Coldiron doesn’t, at least if they're male— well you’re not going to like a novel about them. But other people might.
Stoner probably has been overpraised, but taken on its own unsentimental terms, it isn’t a bad book. In fact, it’s a pretty good one.
In case you wondered …
… 10 Most Controversial Books of All Time | Owlcation. (Hat tip, Jon Caroulis.)
Remembering bumblers …
… Celebrating the six men who played the 3 Stooges | PhillyVoice.
This summer a number of area theaters are hosting Stooge festivals and the museum itself will be holding special open houses, giving new generations an opportunity to discover the guys who perfected physical comedy before Steve Carrell, Jim Carrey or Melissa McCarthy.
Longing for someone …
… Forgotten Poems #62: "Somewhere or Other," by Christina Rossetti.
… whenever I read "Somewhere or Other," which is about the sense that someone out there is meant for us (even if we haven't met them yet and may never meet them), I feel and know that yearning for that still-unknown person who must be "somewhere or other." I find myself thinking, along with Rossetti's speaker: surely such a person must exist in the world? Isn't it just an accident that we haven't encountered each other yet?*
Something to think on …
We should imitate the great classics. We would miss, and that miss would be our originality.
— Raymond Radiguet, born on this date in 1903
Listen in …
… Episode 325 – Boris Fishman – The Virtual Memories Show.
“Cooking is the only thing in my life that creates the same exalted transport that writing does.”
Monday, June 17, 2019
Indeed …
… “Doxxing” of a Bronx Man Shows News Media at Its Worst | MediaVillage.
Pulitzer Prize winner and Intercept co-founding editor Glenn Greenwald didn’t like what The Daily Beast did, so he tweeted: “Can't believe (honestly) that journalists don't see why it's so repellent to unleash the resources of a major news outlet on an obscure, anonymous, powerless, quasi-unemployed citizen for the crime of trivially mocking the most powerful political leaders.” Greenwald was joined by former Democratic strategist Yashar Ali: "I gotta say, it sets a really bad precedent when a private citizen, particularly someone who is working a blue collar job, has their identity publicly revealed simply because they made a video of a politician appearing to be drunk.”
The elusive Word …
… Why Judaism and Christianity Interpet the Bible Differently | Time. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… the relation of the Bible to its faiths is elliptical, not direct: “Scripture alone” does not work for either Christianity or Judaism as an explanation of what is actually believed or done. Nevertheless, both faiths find it hard to believe that the Bible does not in some way have a point-by-point correspondence with their religion.
Drumroll, please …
… World's largest database uncovers Australia's secret reading passions. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Kindred spirits …
… “Just One Way to Go”: Marianne Moore and Zinaida Gippius – Boris Dralyuk. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Listen in …
… The Biblio File hosted by Nigel Beale: Irish Novelist Eimear McBride on her work and getting it published.
Eimear McBride is an Irish novelist whose debut novel, A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, won the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize in 2013 and the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. She wrote the book in six months, but it took nine years to get it published. Galley Beggar Press of Norwich finally picked it up in 2013. The novel is written in a stream of consciousness-like style and tells the story of a young woman's complex relationship with her family.
Lovely …
… The story of Mrs. T and me—in a hundred words | About Last Night. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Let us keep Mr. and Mrs. T in our prayers.
The mystery of inheritance …
… 23andMe Confirmed My Mother's Suspicions - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The man who raises you with love is your real father; but if there is a man who allowed that man to become a father, I believe he deserves a place of honor in the family tree as well. He’s the man behind the story, without whom the story could never have been born.
Take your pick …
… Puppets and Portraits: Two Victorians | Front Porch Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I'll take both.
I'll take both.
Something to think on …
To be a writer is to sit down at one's desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write; not waiting for the little jet of the blue flame of genius to start from the breastbone - just plain going at it, in pain and delight. To be a writer is to throw away a great deal, not to be satisfied, to type again, and then again, and once more, and over and over...
— John Hersey, born on this date in 1914