Thursday, June 12, 2008
Drumroll, please ...
... if you look at the contributors' list you will see a new name there: Katie. Yes, my friend and former reviewer Katie Haegele has agreed to join my blog team. One of the things she is specifically going to focus on is "self-publishing, zines, and related handmade things." I think this will make the blog notably more informative. Katie is also much younger and vastly better-looking than I, so her presence here may serve as an antidote to any potential creeping codgeriness.
While I am at it, I want to take a moment to thank my Annin Street Irregulars - among them, Dave Lull, Maxine Clarke, Paul Davis, Jim Carmin, and many others - who send me links. This blog would be nothing without their steady help and support.
Well, here's an idea ...
... whose time may never come: Human-fruit tree hybrids.
Gordon and I have our disagreements, but I certainly think his blog is worth visiting even, like me, you have a hard time with some of the technical stuff.
Gordon and I have our disagreements, but I certainly think his blog is worth visiting even, like me, you have a hard time with some of the technical stuff.
Brain types ...
... for example, Swine-Brained.
I don't know what type of brain mine is. But swine-brained would be fine. I like pigs.
I don't know what type of brain mine is. But swine-brained would be fine. I like pigs.
Let's start the day ...
... in praise of librarians: `A Small, Metaphysical Quiver'.
I'll be interested to hear Patrick's reaction upon revisiting Winter Light.
I'll be interested to hear Patrick's reaction upon revisiting Winter Light.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The best is yet to come ...
... Edward Albee at 80: Still a 'Young Troublemaker'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I think this is a bit overstated ...
... but interesting nonetheless: Alzheimer’s leads atheist Terry Pratchett to appreciate God.
I just wish him well.
I just wish him well.
I'm not sure I agree entirely ...
... An apple is what you do with it. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
But is that all it is?
Obliquely pertinent perhaps is this, from Auden's "Squares and Oblongs":
Also this:
... if we try to treat art as magic, we produce, not great works of art, but only dishonest and insufferably earnest and boring Agit-Prop for Christianity, Communism, Free Enterprise or what have you.
But is that all it is?
Obliquely pertinent perhaps is this, from Auden's "Squares and Oblongs":
Two theories of poetry. Poetry as a magical means for inducing desirable emotions and repelling undesirable emotions in oneself and others, or Poetry as a game of knowledge, a bringing to consciousness, by naming them, of emotions and their hidden relationships.
The first view was held by the Greeks, and is now held by MGM, Agit-Prop, and the collective public of the world. They are wrong.Also this:
... if we try to treat art as magic, we produce, not great works of art, but only dishonest and insufferably earnest and boring Agit-Prop for Christianity, Communism, Free Enterprise or what have you.
More about gardens ...
... Roots of Civilization. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I plan to have my ashes scattered in my garden. So I guess, whenever I work there, I am tending my own grave.
Here is Andrew Marvell's The Garden.
I plan to have my ashes scattered in my garden. So I guess, whenever I work there, I am tending my own grave.
Here is Andrew Marvell's The Garden.
Words fail ...
... Improve Your Home: Kill Your Husband.
Sounds like that film I Love You to Death, which was based on a true story that took place, I believe, in Allentown, Pa.
Sounds like that film I Love You to Death, which was based on a true story that took place, I believe, in Allentown, Pa.
Where art and life meet ...
... Biography and Fiction: Somerset Maugham and Of Human Bondage. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
When I was a kid ...
... my buddies and I preferred the dangerous and inappropriate (and we turned out OK, right?): Age banding 'ill-conceived and damaging', say children's authors. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Minority report ...
... The Godfather: Overrated.
Having linked to that, I will now run for cover - especially since I tend to agree. Good enough movie, but not great.
Having linked to that, I will now run for cover - especially since I tend to agree. Good enough movie, but not great.
The Crusader papers ...
... and the Google Generation. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Gee, if no qualified researcher has given the Crusader papers any serious attention over the 800 years they've been around, how the hell do we know what we think about the Crusades is at all correct?
Getting down ...
.. to the bottom of things: The Reality Test. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, maybe.
Well, maybe.
... none of us perceives the world as it exists fundamentally. We do not observe the tiniest bits of matter, nor the forces that move them, individually through our senses. We evolved to experience the world in bulk, our faculties registering the net effect of trillions upon trillions of particles or atoms moving in concert. We are crude measurers. So divorced are we from the activity beneath our experience that physicists became relatively assured of the existence of atoms only about a century ago.
Something about that phrase "we evolved to experience the world in bulk" strikes me as glib. To say that we evolved the way we are doesn't tell me anything more than that we are the way we are. One might just as well say that God made us in such as way that we experience the world in bulk. It also brought to mind this question: Which is more real, the ingredients or the bread? That quibble aside, bring it on!
Something about that phrase "we evolved to experience the world in bulk" strikes me as glib. To say that we evolved the way we are doesn't tell me anything more than that we are the way we are. One might just as well say that God made us in such as way that we experience the world in bulk. It also brought to mind this question: Which is more real, the ingredients or the bread? That quibble aside, bring it on!
For your listening pleasure ...
... Bob & Ray. (You can hear clips by clicking on Listen at the top.)
The Auden perspective ...
... I have been reading from Princeton University Press's The Complete Works of W.H. Auden: Prose. I have intention of reading the three volumes I have from start to finish. These books are made for dipping into. Of course, if you dip in once, you are certain to dip in again, and sooner rather than later. Dipping into these volumes quickly becomes a daily pleasure, likely to be indulged at any spare moment. I do intend, starting with this post, to report on my dipping.
There are events which arouse such simple and obvious emotions that and AP cable or a photograph in Life magazine are enough and poetic comment is impossible. If one reads through the mass of versified trash inspired, for instance, by the Lidice Massacre, one cannot avoid the conclusion that what was really bothering the versifiers was a feeling of guilt at not feeling horrorstruck enough. Could a good poem have been written on such a subject? Possibly. One that revealed this lack of feeling, that told how when he read the news, the poet, like you and I, dear reader, went on thinking about his fame or his lunch, and how glad he was that he was not one of the victims.
One work of art did come from a response to the Lidice Massacre: Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu's Memorial to Lidice, premiered, I believe, a year after the event. It is short, simple, and deeply moving.
In common with Burke, Hegel, and that great but bad man his father, [Matthew Arnold] thought of the state as a real entity, an organic growth, embracing and consummating all the individuals within it, a conception that may describe fairly well a tribal community with an undifferentiated economy, is less than half true of a feudal social system based on agriculture, and in a centralized and industrial society has no meaning whatever. ... Indeed, today, even the picture of the State as a strata of ruled and ruling classes is ceasing to be altogether adequate; it is becoming more and more, the united professional politicians and bureaucrats versus the disunited rest.
* * *
There are events which arouse such simple and obvious emotions that and AP cable or a photograph in Life magazine are enough and poetic comment is impossible. If one reads through the mass of versified trash inspired, for instance, by the Lidice Massacre, one cannot avoid the conclusion that what was really bothering the versifiers was a feeling of guilt at not feeling horrorstruck enough. Could a good poem have been written on such a subject? Possibly. One that revealed this lack of feeling, that told how when he read the news, the poet, like you and I, dear reader, went on thinking about his fame or his lunch, and how glad he was that he was not one of the victims.
- From "Squares and Oblongs"
One work of art did come from a response to the Lidice Massacre: Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu's Memorial to Lidice, premiered, I believe, a year after the event. It is short, simple, and deeply moving.
In common with Burke, Hegel, and that great but bad man his father, [Matthew Arnold] thought of the state as a real entity, an organic growth, embracing and consummating all the individuals within it, a conception that may describe fairly well a tribal community with an undifferentiated economy, is less than half true of a feudal social system based on agriculture, and in a centralized and industrial society has no meaning whatever. ... Indeed, today, even the picture of the State as a strata of ruled and ruling classes is ceasing to be altogether adequate; it is becoming more and more, the united professional politicians and bureaucrats versus the disunited rest.
* * *
Matthew Arnold may have bee a prig, but he knew that there was a difference between right and wrong, and if democracy is not to be overwhelmed by an authoritarianism under which poetry will be impossible, it must listen not only to Whitman's congratulations but also to Arnold's cold accusing voice.
I don't do this often ...
... in fact, I've never done it before and am unlikely to do it again. But I was so impressed by the novel I reviewed in The Inquirer Sunday that I've decided to post the link to it again. Debbie is reading the book now and seems to be having much the same reaction I had: The intricacies of love ensnarled by loyalty, war.
Jargon vs. BS ...
... The obscurity of intellectuals: An initial taxonomy.
C.S. Lewis once made a similar point - that jargon is perfectly legitimate shorthand. But he also felt that no one should be granted a Ph.D. who could not take a paragraph of jargon-laden prose and translate it into the common tongue. This, he said, would probably end up being about three times as long as the original. But if the candidate could not do it, we had no way of knowing for sure that he understood it.
The humorless ...
... in full pursuit of the humorous: Why Did the Chicken Even Bother to Cross the Road?
Why can't we Americans simply abandon our orthographic differences with Britain? Humour looks so much more elegant than humor.
Why can't we Americans simply abandon our orthographic differences with Britain? Humour looks so much more elegant than humor.
Let's start the day ...
... with `Home to Roost'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Rather than comment, I thought I'd post my review of Kay Ryan's The Niagara River.
The Niagara River
Rather than comment, I thought I'd post my review of Kay Ryan's The Niagara River.
The Niagara River
Grove. 72 pp. $13
Much of the pleasure that comes from reading Kay Ryan involves just looking at the poem on the page and seeing how well put-together it is, how sound and sense aren't simply joined but fused. Take "Weak Forces," for instance:
I enjoy an accumulating
faith in weak forces -
a weak faith, of course,
easily shaken, but also
easily regained - in what
starts to drift: all the
slow untrainings of the mind,
the sift left of resolve
sustained too long, the
strange internal shift
by which there's no knowing
if this is the road taken
or untaken. There are soft
affinities, possibly electrical;
lint-like congeries; moonlit
hints; asymmetrical pink
glowy spots that are not
the defeat of something,
I don't think.
The title, of course, alludes to one of the fundamental forces of nature, which underlies certain kinds of radioactivity as well as some interactions among subatomic particles.
So consider, first, the subtlety of the poem's verbal music: regained rhymes with sustained, but in between them comes untrainings, one of several words in the poem containing ing. Other words harmonize with ing - pink and think, which also rhyme with each other. Nicely spaced as well are drift and sift and shift - then comes soft. Notice lint and hints, and "spots that are not. "
Next consider how the lines fit with one another. That first line - "I enjoy an accumulating" - can be taken as a statement all by itself. The "faith in weak forces" of the second line can be taken to be an example of what it takes to "enjoy accumulating," but can also be read as a continuation of the first line, so that what we are talking about is "an accumulating faith," specifically "in weak forces. " Ignoring for a moment what is said between the dashes, what one has is "an accumulating faith in weak forces . . . in what / starts to drift. "
The complex of meaning that results from how these words and lines relate to each other is what gives the poem its heft, enabling it to demonstrate, rather than merely state, its Taoist point: That a force, however weak, is still a force - a strength - and affinities, congeries, hints, and spots, however electrical, lintlike, moonlit, or asymmetrical, do not represent the defeat of anything. Faith, though easily shaken, may be easily regained by untraining the mind, losing a resolve sustained too long, no longer worrying if one has taken the right road or any road at all.
This is Kay Ryan's sixth collection. All have been small gatherings of short poems. But though the poems are short, they are, invariably, as concentrated as diamonds. They tend to be about exactly what their titles say they are about - "Tired Blood," "Atlas," "The Elephant in the Room" - just not in the way one expects.
So the blood isn't tired, "so much as freighted. " And "there is so little / others can do" for Atlas, since "they can't / lend a hand / with Brazil / and not stand / on Peru. " As for that elephant, "it isn't so much . . . as an elephant / sense . . . mostly a guess . . . not something / we feel we have to / announce. "
Ryan helps us see afresh the world we tend to take for granted. She is exactly what John Hall Wheelock said a genuine poet always is: "an eye that watches in secret, an ear that would / Listen for what can only be overheard / A mouth to tell us something we have forgotten. "
Monday, June 09, 2008
Brief glory ...
... Spartans of the Plains.
The modern academic is compelled by peer pressure to write prose spangled with jargon, academy-speak and gobbledygook. I suppose Hämäläinen is not to blame, because if he wrote in plain English, instead of larding his text with the rebarbative language used by his colleagues, they would doubtless accuse him of being a mere journalist. And so we get totally unnecessary discussion of various academic models - differential spaces, cultural hegemons. At one point Hämäläinen defines a horse as 'a transportation device that compressed spacial units into conquerable size'.
I sure hope not ...
... Suffering From Social Networking Anxiety Disorder (SNAD). (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
So you want to be a writer ...
... well consider The "Hamster Wheel" of Writing a Book A Year. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I miss working with Sarah. She clued me in to so many things I would have otherwise missed.
I miss working with Sarah. She clued me in to so many things I would have otherwise missed.
More Bond ...
... Why the immortal agent James Bond will never go out of fashion.
As visitors to blog will know, not everyone is a fan. But those who are not seem to be in the minority - which is fine. I'm in many minorities myself.
As visitors to blog will know, not everyone is a fan. But those who are not seem to be in the minority - which is fine. I'm in many minorities myself.
Reprise ...
... I linked to another story like this awhile back, but I don't think it was this one that Art Durkee just sent me a link to: Blogging--It's Good for You.
Reading and writing both are active enterprises - you image the scene and the characters and the action that the novelist describes. This has to be better for you than just sitting in front of a TV or a movies screen and having stuff presented to you pre-fabricated as it were. OK from time to time, for sure, but apt to atrophy the imagination if done too much.
As it happens, as Dave Lull reminds me, I did link to this earlier, and had something else say:
Reading and writing both are active enterprises - you image the scene and the characters and the action that the novelist describes. This has to be better for you than just sitting in front of a TV or a movies screen and having stuff presented to you pre-fabricated as it were. OK from time to time, for sure, but apt to atrophy the imagination if done too much.
As it happens, as Dave Lull reminds me, I did link to this earlier, and had something else say:
If this be so ...
Lots of good stuff ...
... over at Nigel Beale's Nota Bene.
First, an Audio Interview with Critic Edward Pettit on Edgar Allan Poe.
Then a serious question is raised: The dilemma facing Newspaper and Magazine blogs. I think Nigel is on to something here.
Some indication as to how and why Nigel is so prolific: Attention Orotund Patrons, lovers of Perspicuous Prose.
And a link to a piece about Milan Kundera: Kundera on the novel, curiosity, truths and human life as a whole.
First, an Audio Interview with Critic Edward Pettit on Edgar Allan Poe.
Then a serious question is raised: The dilemma facing Newspaper and Magazine blogs. I think Nigel is on to something here.
Some indication as to how and why Nigel is so prolific: Attention Orotund Patrons, lovers of Perspicuous Prose.
And a link to a piece about Milan Kundera: Kundera on the novel, curiosity, truths and human life as a whole.
Don't forget ...
... When falls the Coliseum.
I have fallen behind in everything, and have a couple of pieces due ... today! So blogging will be light - maybe over the next few days even. But I will catch, restore order, etc.
I have fallen behind in everything, and have a couple of pieces due ... today! So blogging will be light - maybe over the next few days even. But I will catch, restore order, etc.
Another problem solved ...
... Insomnia - The Lack Of. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
And here I had thought he had somehow passed it on to me. I had a couple of weeks of it recently. But it passed - and I'm now back to sleeping the sleep of the blessed.
And here I had thought he had somehow passed it on to me. I had a couple of weeks of it recently. But it passed - and I'm now back to sleeping the sleep of the blessed.
Not so fast ...
... The meaning of the butterfly.
In 1990's "Havana," Robert Redford, a math-wise gambler, tells Lena Olin, "A butterfly can flutter its wings over a flower in China and cause a hurricane in the Caribbean. They can even calculate the odds."
Well, no, they can't: '... a principal lesson of the butterfly effect is the opposite of Redford's line: It is extremely hard to calculate such things with certainty. There are many butterflies out there. A tornado in Texas could be caused by a butterfly in Brazil, Bali, or Budapest. Realistically, we can't know. "It's impossible for humans to measure everything infinitely accurately," says Robert Devaney, a mathematics professor at Boston University. "And if you're off at all, the behavior of the solution could be completely off." When small imprecisions matter greatly, the world is radically unpredictable.'
A good reason to be very, very careful before taking steps to "solve" any problem involving a complex system.
In 1990's "Havana," Robert Redford, a math-wise gambler, tells Lena Olin, "A butterfly can flutter its wings over a flower in China and cause a hurricane in the Caribbean. They can even calculate the odds."
Well, no, they can't: '... a principal lesson of the butterfly effect is the opposite of Redford's line: It is extremely hard to calculate such things with certainty. There are many butterflies out there. A tornado in Texas could be caused by a butterfly in Brazil, Bali, or Budapest. Realistically, we can't know. "It's impossible for humans to measure everything infinitely accurately," says Robert Devaney, a mathematics professor at Boston University. "And if you're off at all, the behavior of the solution could be completely off." When small imprecisions matter greatly, the world is radically unpredictable.'
A good reason to be very, very careful before taking steps to "solve" any problem involving a complex system.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
More great minds ...
Nigel Beale culls from Somerset Maugham Criteria for what constitutes a good novel.
Great minds ...
... no sooner had I finished reading this, than I clicked on my email and saw that Dave Lull have sent me a link. Good piece: The Escape Artist: John Banville on Georges Simenon.
Some other reviews ...
.... A couple of thrillers (one of which is review by Paul Davis, who used to review for me).
... plus Jennifer Weiner and Anita Shreve: 'Certain Girls,' 'Body Surfing'.
... plus Jennifer Weiner and Anita Shreve: 'Certain Girls,' 'Body Surfing'.
Good idea ...
"It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and understand everything. The stupider they are, the wider they conceive their horizons to be. And if an artist decides to declare that he understands nothing of what he sees — this in itself constitutes a considerable clarity in the realm of thought, and a great step forward."
- Anton Chekhov
A most interesting review ...
... Paradox Among the Petals. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What is interesting about it is that Rosen is able to recommend the book in spite of the ninnyish opinions scattered like weeds throughout. 'He alleges that capitalism has been "the most powerful force of social, political, economic and cultural destabilization the world has ever known"...' Harrison should read Volume I of Henri Pirenne's History of Europe. Come to think of it, everyone should - and Volume II as well. It was written from memory while Pirenne was interned by the Germans during World War I.
What is interesting about it is that Rosen is able to recommend the book in spite of the ninnyish opinions scattered like weeds throughout. 'He alleges that capitalism has been "the most powerful force of social, political, economic and cultural destabilization the world has ever known"...' Harrison should read Volume I of Henri Pirenne's History of Europe. Come to think of it, everyone should - and Volume II as well. It was written from memory while Pirenne was interned by the Germans during World War I.
Underwhelming ...
... Has philosophy responded adequately to big events? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Given the largely pedestrian nature of the responses, I suppose we should be grateful that "philosophy" hasn't responded to any greater degree. This, of course, is philosophy as an academic discipline. A professor of philosophy is not necessarily the same thing as a philosopher.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... Karen Heller like Lauren Groff's debut: A museum town's haunted portrait.
... I like Tan Twan Eng's - a lot: The intricacies of love ensnarled by loyalty, war. (Wish the copy desk had caught my repetition of word "debut.")
... and Susan Balée likes David Guterson's latest: Retreating after crisis in the wild.
... also:
It takes a nerd to pen a history of nerdism.
... I like Tan Twan Eng's - a lot: The intricacies of love ensnarled by loyalty, war. (Wish the copy desk had caught my repetition of word "debut.")
... and Susan Balée likes David Guterson's latest: Retreating after crisis in the wild.
... also:
It takes a nerd to pen a history of nerdism.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
More BEA ...
... that I missed:
Here in Sunny LA.
Back from LA.
Fellow Bookseller Coverage of BEA.
Also check out Linkarama.
Here in Sunny LA.
Back from LA.
Fellow Bookseller Coverage of BEA.
Also check out Linkarama.
Check out ...
... Call Him a Plutocrat, But He’s not from Pluto.
David is one person who has succeeded in turning the blog post into an art form.
David is one person who has succeeded in turning the blog post into an art form.
Paper wars ...
... Weekend Read: Roth’s (Justified) Complaint, or “Document Dated July 27, 1969.” (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The Kindergarchy ...
... Every child a dauphin.
Interesting comment: Socially broken. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Interesting comment: Socially broken. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
" ... child-like nonsense and opacity are accepted as successful poetics. John Ashbery comes particularly to mind." This reflects a common view of Ashbery that I do not share. When I read Ashbery, I immediately think of all the art openings I have gone to (and Ashbery, as an art critic, must have gone to vastly more). If you stand off by yourself at an art opening and just listen to the snippets of conversation going on all around you, it will start sounding remarkably like an Ashbery poem. And if you read his poems with that experience in mind, they tend to seem far less opaque.
Describing a problem ...
... Science Fiction, literature, and the haters.
I like Michael Crichton's books better than Jake does, though I don't think they are intended as literature. Crichton is very clever in the way he sketches a character in terms of certain generalities (e.g., the Martin Sheen-like actor in State of Fear) in such a way that the reader fills in much of the detail on his own. Compare any Crichton thriller with The Da Vinci Code and it becomes immediately apparent that, whatever else you may think of Crichton and his books, he is a real pop thriller pro.
Friday, June 06, 2008
This is very interesting ...
... Standing Up For What You Don't Believe. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Lest anyone forget, I do not myself subscribe to ID theory. I am also skeptical of a too-wide application of Darwinism. I think Richard Dawkins's meme idea (it hardly deserves to be called a theory) is rubbish.
All theories of wide explanatory scope in science are eventually shown to be empirically false, usually because they overreach their grasp. From that standpoint, Darwinists appear to be postponing the inevitable. Of course, that doesn’t make ID true, but ID may be well-positioned to point out the deep systemic flaws in Darwinism that Darwinists themselves have no incentive to recognise, let alone explore.
Lest anyone forget, I do not myself subscribe to ID theory. I am also skeptical of a too-wide application of Darwinism. I think Richard Dawkins's meme idea (it hardly deserves to be called a theory) is rubbish.
Profile in courage ...
... Why We Need More Leaders Like Vaclav Havel. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It is a mark of Havel’s character that when Czechoslovak officials, eager to be rid of him (one of the country’s leading troublemakers), actually offered to let him move to the West and take a dream job he had been offered with the New York Shakespeare Festival, Havel, who at the time was working in a brewery, refused. “The solution to this human situation,” he wrote, “does not lie in leaving it.”
That reminds me of someone.
That reminds me of someone.
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