Sunday, July 09, 2017
Respighi again …
There is more to his music than the Roman Trilogy. It should be played more in concert halls.
Angels on the line …
… Oh let there be nothing on earth but laundry | Love Calls Us… | Flickr. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I wouldn't bet on it …
… on the nation following Yale's lead, that is: Cli-Fi.Net -- (the world's largest online 'Cli-Fi' portal for Cli-Fi, a subgenre of sci-fi): ''As Yale goes, so goes the nation".
Old-time rowdiness …
… Even in the 1700s, Book Clubs Were Really About Drinking and Socializing - Atlas Obscura. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Dave also sends this: When reading a book was a group activity.
One club, for instance, had 22 members (including Branwell Brontë, the sole brother of the literary siblings) and met for monthly dinners. “A broad hint of conviviality is given in the rules,” writes Kaufman, “which imposed fines for swearing, for being drunk ‘so that a member be offensive to the company,’ and for unseemly scrambling for books to borrow!”
Dave also sends this: When reading a book was a group activity.
Good news for literary fiction …
… Henley reveals ACE's 'concerns for literary fiction' | The Bookseller. (Hat tip, G.E. Reutter.)
Diving in …
… Top 10 books about swimming | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Swimming and reading have a lot in common: both are solitary pursuits, escapes into different worlds and different kinds of freedom.
Something to think on …
Historical methodology, as I see it, is a product of common sense applied to circumstances.
— Samuel Eliot Morison, born on this date in 1887
Saturday, July 08, 2017
A master's choices …
… Anthony Burgess: My Best 99 Novels 1939-1984 And Top 5 Dystopian Books . (Hat ti[, Dave Lull.)
Well, maybe, I suppose …
… The Word Choices That Explain Why Jane Austen Endures - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Isn't the choice of words what makes every writer's work distinctive?
Isn't the choice of words what makes every writer's work distinctive?
Something to think on …
All the brains in the world are powerless against the sort of stupidity that is in fashion.
— Jean de La Fontaine, born on this date in 1621
Friday, July 07, 2017
Surviving Beats …
… VIDEO: Driving the Beat road — Where the great poets of a lost generation have gone | Lifestyles | mankatofreepress.com. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
"The main shift, and it comes about gradually, is realizing that you really will die," Snyder laughs. "It's not a joke. You really have to die. Even though you think you know it already, you don't know it until you feel it around the corner."No lie there.
Don't forget …
… Paul Davis On Crime: Visit To San Antonio, Texas: Remember The Alamo.
I suppose the politically thing these days is not to remember the Alamo.
I suppose the politically thing these days is not to remember the Alamo.
Good bad cop …
… Paul Davis On Crime: My Washington Times Review Of Don Winslow's 'The Force'.
Whenever I encounter a police offer I make sure to thank him for his service. Of course, I would. My father was a cop, and so is my nephew.
Whenever I encounter a police offer I make sure to thank him for his service. Of course, I would. My father was a cop, and so is my nephew.
Fictional life, actual death …
… Informal Inquiries: Dr. John H. Watson's birthday (and a few questions).
I read the complete Holmes on summer in my high school years. If I were to revisit Doyle it would probably be to read TheLost World.
I read the complete Holmes on summer in my high school years. If I were to revisit Doyle it would probably be to read TheLost World.
Popular books …
… Publishers Weekly Annual Adult Bestsellers 1990-2013. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I reviewed a couple —Stephen King's and Peter Straub's Black House and Michael Crichton's State of Fear. I liked both. I also wrote about a couple of others — The Da Vinci Code and Unfit for Command. I thought the first was awful and didn't think much of the second.
I reviewed a couple —Stephen King's and Peter Straub's Black House and Michael Crichton's State of Fear. I liked both. I also wrote about a couple of others — The Da Vinci Code and Unfit for Command. I thought the first was awful and didn't think much of the second.
Something to think on …
Political tags - such as royalist, is communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
— Robert A. Heinlein, born on this date in 1907
Hmm …
… Anthony Burgess was a gifted writer, but had the theology of a lapsed Catholic bore | CatholicHerald.co.uk. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This piece seems to me to come up short on particulars. I rather like the description of Catholicism as a “kind of nationality one is stuck with forever”. And I myself often grumble over the direction of the post-Vatican II Church. They have never seemed to me to be in any way an improvement over what they replaced.
This piece seems to me to come up short on particulars. I rather like the description of Catholicism as a “kind of nationality one is stuck with forever”. And I myself often grumble over the direction of the post-Vatican II Church. They have never seemed to me to be in any way an improvement over what they replaced.
Hmm …
… Should Tyler Cowen Believe in God? - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Just a few comments: Cowen's remarks about the heritable aspect of religion overlooks its importance as a part of one's facticity. If one has been raised in a faith, that process has exerted a great deal of influence on who you are and should not be abandoned lightly. Regarding God and Bayes's Theory, Cowen may want to check out Stephen Unwin's The Probability of God . The best way to get to know God is to pray, to spend some quality time "alone with the alone." Whatever God may be, He is certainly not primarily the terminus ad quem of a reasoning process.
Just a few comments: Cowen's remarks about the heritable aspect of religion overlooks its importance as a part of one's facticity. If one has been raised in a faith, that process has exerted a great deal of influence on who you are and should not be abandoned lightly. Regarding God and Bayes's Theory, Cowen may want to check out Stephen Unwin's The Probability of God . The best way to get to know God is to pray, to spend some quality time "alone with the alone." Whatever God may be, He is certainly not primarily the terminus ad quem of a reasoning process.
Thursday, July 06, 2017
Hmm …
… On the Validity of NOAA, NASAand Hadley CRU Global AverageSurface Temperature Data.
The conclusive findings of this research are that the three GAST data sets are not a valid representation of reality. In fact, the magnitude of their historical data adjustments, that removed their cyclical temperature patterns, are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data. Thus, it is impossible to conclude from the three published GAST data sets that recent years have been the warmest ever –despite current claims of record setting warming.
The way we were …
… Browse a Collection of Over 83,500 Vintage Sewing Patterns | Open Culture. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Graphic poetry …
… Turning rhyme for the ears into rhythm for the eyes: It's 'Concrete Poetry' at the Getty - LA Times. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
I guess these are the descendants of emblem poems.
I guess these are the descendants of emblem poems.
Something to think on …
What part soever you take upon you, play that as well as you can and make the best of it.
— Thomas More, who died on this date in 1535.
Color me skeptical …
… The Most Anthologized Short Stories of All Time | Literary Hub. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I do not doubt that those listed have been frequently anthologized. But "of all time"?
I do not doubt that those listed have been frequently anthologized. But "of all time"?
Wednesday, July 05, 2017
Growing menace...
...Report calls for public inquiry into Gulf funding of British extremism
The attempt by several states to influence Islamic communities and advance an illiberal – and at times anti-western – version of the Islamic religion appears to have been an intentional and systematic policy, with the level of funding allocated to this effort believed to have grown in recent years.
Out of our heads …
… Religion has no monopoly on transcendent experience | Aeon Essays. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Maybe religion doesn't have a monopoly on it, but it's hard to discuss it without reference to religion. And once you get past thinking of religion as having to do primarily with creeds and the like — it has to do primarily with how you live — a lot of problems disappear.
Maybe religion doesn't have a monopoly on it, but it's hard to discuss it without reference to religion. And once you get past thinking of religion as having to do primarily with creeds and the like — it has to do primarily with how you live — a lot of problems disappear.
In case you wondered …
… About Last Night | The purpose of panning.
If my review stopped anybody from spending several hundred dollars to hear Bette Midler sing really, really badly, then I rejoice. If, on the other hand, it caused even one of my readers to stop seeing theater, I think it’s safe to say that the reader in question didn’t much care for theater in the first place.
Clean poetry, messy life …
… Philip Larkin exhibition in Hull offers fresh insights into poet's life | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
For Farthing, the exhibition is about exploring a side of Larkin that goes against expectation. The theme throughout is pink, which was Larkin’s favourite colour, and it focuses in on the scribblings, the unpublished thoughts and scratched out writings that are never seen in his sparse, clean poems. At the end of the show, people are also invited to pen their own letter to Larkin, which will then be pinned on to the wall.
Something to think on …
Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.
— Jean Cocteau, born on this date in 1889
Tuesday, July 04, 2017
Influential fellow
… Informal Inquiries: William Strunk's birthday and English Composition 101.
Post bumped.
Robertson Davies said of Strunk & White that it teaches you to build the prose equivalent of a good sound chicken coop, but that many of us want to build something more elaborate. Which is true enough, but it is also wise to make sure you can build that chicken coop before undertaking anything more elaborate. I found S&W very helpful during my college years.Somerset Maugham's The Summing Up was also helpful to me in learning how to write. John Burke, one of my English teachers in college, pointed out once that in the chapters on writing in that book Maugham not only tells you about good writing, but is also at the same demonstrating it to you. I remain an admirer of Maugham's work.
Post bumped.
Listen in …
…Episode 225 – Howard Chaykin | Virtual Memories.
“I want to be loved; I just don’t work too hard at it.”
Hard times …
… Greek Poetry in the Shadow of Austerity | The New Yorker. (Hat tip, G.E. Reutter.)
While many of the poets in “Austerity Measures” carry this activist tradition forward, one of the most striking features of the collection is its refusal to pin down what writing is and isn’t political. Van Dyck opts for a wider picture, including plenty of “work which doesn’t directly address the political situation,” thereby aiming “to provide deeper and more various answers” to questions of a poet’s responsibility in the political process. The book’s forty-nine poets are grouped into six loose areas of influence. This scheme, though inevitably imprecise, provides contours to a generation of poets who are largely unknown to English-speaking audiences.
Under-appreciated …
… The Bruegel of Bendel’s. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Despite the apparent frivolity of her subjects, Stettheimer—represented by over fifty paintings, drawings, and theatrical designs in an elegant show at New York’s Jewish Museum—was an ambitious, deadly serious artist who has never gotten the attention she deserves. Her varied, probing self-portraits—palette in hand and red shoes on her feet, accompanied by a Nijinsky-ish faun; or floating in space on a magical red cape, like some exotic deity; or reclining in the nude, à la Olympia—convey a sophisticated self-awareness of the confining assumptions facing a hardworking woman artist between the wars.This seems definitely worth a trip to New York.
Something to think on …
The thing you set your mind on is the thing you ultimately become.
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, born on this date in 1804
Monday, July 03, 2017
Hmm …
… Study Philosophy to Improve Thinking—A Case of False Advertising?
I think it depends on the kind of philosophy being taught. I had two years of philosophy courses — logic, metaphysics, rational psychology, existentialism, aesthetics, and the history of philosophy (the text was Copleston, the course took two years). I also studied under an outstanding professor — Edward Gannon, S.J., for whom philosophy was practice, not just logic-chopping and idle speculation. So for me the study of philosophy has proved invaluable
Irony of history …
… BBC - Culture - The 1,000-year-old lost Arab poetry that lives on in Hebrew. (Hat tip, G.E. Reutter.)
Something to think on …
All that you are seeking is also seeking you.
— Franz Kafka, born on this date in 1883
Sunday, July 02, 2017
Something to think on …
Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.
— Hermann Hesse, born on this date in 1877
Pilgrims' progress …
… Turning Pages: The lure of sleeping where great writers once slept. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Q & A …
… Don Share — Matador Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There are people who aren't getting what they need from journalism alone, or from social media alone, or from various other sources of information. They find that they need to go beyond the information into something deeper, something that's more illuminating and consoling, and that's where poetry falls right in, just as it always has.Or, as William Carlos Williams put it:
Look at
what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
despised poems.
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack of what is found there.
Hmm …
… Waugh’s Dystopia | The Evelyn Waugh Society. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… while not achieving full dystopian status, Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union shared some goals and are creepiliy similar, although starting from different ends of the political spectrum.
But did they really start "from different ends of the political spectrum"? Hitler's party was called National Socialist. It was a blend of socialism and nationalism. Ostensibly, the Soviet Union was the exemplar of international socialism (remember the full name was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). But Soviet foreign policy was identical to the Czars' nationalist foreign policy.
Saturday, July 01, 2017
Touching …
… Paul Davis On Crime: Praying For Hemingway.
It is easy to forget that reason for our being is that God loves us, and is surely more likely to forgive than condemn.
It is easy to forget that reason for our being is that God loves us, and is surely more likely to forgive than condemn.
Sorry folks …
Even though it's Saturday, I'm busy as hell and must be out and about. Even my email must wait.
Hmm …
… The New York Times Is Killing Its Soul. (Ht tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, I think the Times's soul died awhile back but this is certainly true:
Well, I think the Times's soul died awhile back but this is certainly true:
The ugly secret of newspapers is that copy editors do a great deal of what non-journalism people think reporters or other editors, with fancier titles, do. They have for generations caught typos; deleted potentially horrifying factual errors; made 20 inches of bloated copy into a tight, bright, and juicy 12; noticed inconsistencies in a narrative and put a reporter on the phone to walk through fixing them; pushed back against the use of empty political jargon; made sure the photos matched the story; made sure stories get to the point before readers become bored; and done what is easily one of the most important jobs of all—crafting the headlines that make people read the stories.I was, for quite a few years, a copy editor.
Something to think on …
There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly.
— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, born on this date in 1742
Thomas Sowell...
...The Education of an American Sage
An idea has taken root “that you’re entitled to certain things, that you don’t necessarily have to earn them,” he says. “There’s a belief that something’s wrong if you don’t have what other people have—that it’s because you’re ‘disadvantaged.’ A teenage dropout mother is told she has a disadvantage. But if you’re going to call the negative consequences of chosen behavior ‘disadvantage,’ the word is corrupt beyond repair and useful only for propaganda purposes.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)