The advantage of the incomprehensible is that it never loses its freshness.
— Paul Valéry, who died on this date in 1945
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Something to think on …
Unwise complaint …
… as the comments demonstrate: The Millions : A Bookseller’s Elegy - The Millions.
I don't think any bookstore customer cares if the bookstore clerk approves of the book said customer is buying.
I don't think any bookstore customer cares if the bookstore clerk approves of the book said customer is buying.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
A new kind of slavery …
… Articles: Charlie Gard Is the Face of Single-Payer.
I should note that I promised myself in my college ethics class one day that I would not take any extraordinary means to preserve my life (catholic ethics does not require that I do so). But that's my choice. Not the state's. But unlike many people, I'm not a worshiper of the state.Even at this late date, with doctors and world leaders lining up to volunteer help for Charlie, the NHS still acts on the basis that it owns the child. His parents were not allowed to appeal. Only the hospital had that right.
This conceit is at the center of the single-payer controversy, but no one is willing to actually argue it. If it were debated, it would show that the "payment" idea is a diversion. Instead, single-payer advocates have taken the position that the State owns its citizens.Right now, I have been forced into Medicare. I don't like it, and I would happily take an alternative, but legally, I cannot. Further, if Medicare declares that I can't have a particular treatment, I can't even buy it for myself. That's exactly the same situation Charlie Gard's parents are in. The federal government owns me through Medicare.
Very good sense …
… The Philosophy of Book Buying - Crisis Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have plenty of books I have never read. Some of them I am sure I will get to in whatever time is left to me.
I have plenty of books I have never read. Some of them I am sure I will get to in whatever time is left to me.
Something to think on …
Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, but only saps today of its strength.
— A.J. Cronin, born on this date in 1896
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Not me …
… We’re All Guinea Pigs in a Failed Decades-Long Diet Experiment - Tonic.
But then, I don't eat processed foods. I don't eat fast food. And I still walk a lot, even with my gimpy knees. I may not be svelte exactly. But I'm far from obese.
But for a clause …
… Review: Excellent 'Dunkirk' explores heroism in innovative fashion.
The clause in question is this: "… the fact that there are only a couple of women and no lead actors of color may rub some the wrong way."
The clause in question is this: "… the fact that there are only a couple of women and no lead actors of color may rub some the wrong way."
I'm not sure if bringing this up tells us more about the reviewer or the times we live in. Either way, it's worth remembering that this was 1940, in a Europe rather different from today's. Hard to imagine who a lead actor of color (which sounds off-putting to me) would play. I also guess that but that for shortcoming the film would have been give four stars.
Yes, he is …
… Glen Campbell is the most underappreciated musician in America. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
But the most salient fact about Campbell and his career is that he was always very consciously making music for adults. If there is anything that could do with a revival in 2017, it's well-crafted, lushly produced records of men and women singing recognizable songs accompanied by traditional instruments.There is, however, this: Interview: Glen Campbell’s Wife and Daughter Discuss His Final Album, ‘Adios’.
Timely, indeed …
… Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Beat Column: The War On Cops: My Q&A With Heather Mac Donald, Author of ‘The War On Cops: How The New Attack On Law And Order Makes Everyone Less Safe'.
I make a point, when I encounter policemen, to thank them for their service, as I did yesterday at my nearby precinct HQ. My father was a cop, and so is my nephew. So you know where my loyalties lie.
I make a point, when I encounter policemen, to thank them for their service, as I did yesterday at my nearby precinct HQ. My father was a cop, and so is my nephew. So you know where my loyalties lie.
Coming up short …
… Augustine gets a makeover in new translation. He hardly needed it. | America Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… Ruden’s Augustine is a dreamer, an artist, a poet. “I maintain that the Augustine of the Confessions was a feeling man more than a thinking one,” she writes ….It is possible to think and feel. In fact, most people do both. Augustine was passionate, to be sure, but he was also quite an intellectual.
Something to think on …
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
— Jessamyn West, born on this date in 1902
Monday, July 17, 2017
Heartening …
… Pope Benedict’s SOS | The American Conservative.
Recognizing the toxins of modern secularism, as well as the fragmentation caused by relativism, Benedict Option Christians look to Scripture and to Benedict’s Rule for ways to cultivate practices and communities. Rather than panicking or remaining complacent, they recognize that the new order is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be lived with. It will be those who learn how to endure with faith and creativity, to deepen their own prayer lives and adopting practices, focusing on families and communities instead of on partisan politics, and building churches, schools, and other institutions within which the orthodox Christian faith, can survive and prosper through the flood. … If we are going to be for the world as Christ meant for us to be, we are going to have to spend more time away from the world, in deep prayer and substantial spiritual training—just as Jesus retreated to the desert to pray before ministering to the people.This sounds about right to me. The contemporary world seems increasingly alien to me. I am not going to waste whatever time remains to me bothering about it.
In search of purpose
… Beyond Velvet Nihilism | R. R. Reno | First Things.
… Trump’s speech clearly conveys the opinion of his administration. Some have compared it to Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” address in Berlin in 1987. This is mistake. Reagan wished to break the will of the Soviet Union. His rhetoric was post-war: We need to overthrow authoritarian controls, to open and loosen things up. What Trump said in Warsaw was keyed to a very different threat, that of a velvet nihilism, a disposition of cultural and moral disarmament that cannot rouse itself to affirm or defend much of anything. In such circumstances—our circumstances—what’s needed are consolidating motifs, to rally people to causes that are worthy of their loyalty, even to the point of self-sacrifice.See also this, from Snopes: The Lies of Donald Trump’s Critics, and How They Shape His Many Personas.
I intend this to be the last post I shall put up having to do with politics. See the post that follows for an explanation.
July Poetry at North of Oxford …
… 2 Poems by Tony Rickaby.
… Age of Discovery by Frank Wilson.
… 2 poems by Adrian Manning.
… 2 Poems by Judy Kronenfeld.
Submissions are now open for book reviews, commentary, essays and poetry. Guidelines.
I should have drawn attention to the photos accompanying these. I very much like the shot of the stairway illustrating mine. But the others are great, too..
Post bumped.
… Age of Discovery by Frank Wilson.
… 2 poems by Adrian Manning.
… 2 Poems by Judy Kronenfeld.
Submissions are now open for book reviews, commentary, essays and poetry. Guidelines.
I should have drawn attention to the photos accompanying these. I very much like the shot of the stairway illustrating mine. But the others are great, too..
Post bumped.
It is if you believe there's a human race …
… Is Cultural Appropriation Ever Appropriate? - Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The more salient point is that Nat Turner was allowed to tell his story before he died, whereas Tom Molineaux’s story consists only in what British journalists said about him; and in both cases, a certain skepticism is advisable. Molineaux’s story, however, begs for amplification, and I, for one, believe I can speak for him as well as I could for a Jew who lived in Spain around 1600 AD or in Italy in 1935. No doubt there are any number of people who know more about the Regency than I do, and a smaller number who know more about the free black community in London around 1810, and a smaller number still who are familiar with the London Prize Ring, but I’m pretty sure that none of them knows as much as I do about all three subjects. Does this make me qualified to write about Molineaux? In a word, yes. Whether I do a good job, of course, remains to be seen.
The joke in my family is that we're Heinzes — 57 different varieties. I suspect, if I had one of those genetic tests done, I'd find a healthy racial mix. So a guy spends time abroad and decides to write a novel set in a foreign country. This will require that citizens of that country appear in said novel. Because of "cultural appropriation," I guess he can't write that novel. The only logical conclusion that those complaining of cultural appropriation can arrive at, it seems to me, is that people can only write novels in which all the characters are of the same race, ethnicity, social status, etc., as the author. Sounds pretty dull. Come to think of it, what right do young writers have to create characters who are old? What right do female authors have to create male characters? What right did Tolstoy have to create Anna Karenina?
Something to think on …
The evolution of the world can be compared to a display of fireworks that has just ended: some few red wisps, ashes, and smoke. Standing on a cooled cinder, we see the slow fading of the suns, and we try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the world.
— Georges Lemaître, born on this date in 1894
Sunday, July 16, 2017
This stuff is really neat …
… The Novelty and Excess of American Design During the Jazz Age. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The cycle of life …
… Informal Inquiries: Sailing to Byzantium.
I find Yeats a dubious figure. He was hardly as accepting of old age as this poem suggests, having had a "rejuvenating" Steinach operation performed in 1934. That said, the guy wrote some great poems.
I find Yeats a dubious figure. He was hardly as accepting of old age as this poem suggests, having had a "rejuvenating" Steinach operation performed in 1934. That said, the guy wrote some great poems.
Inquirer reviews …
… Jim Remsen's 'Embattled Freedom': A Pennsylvania hamlet's role in the Underground Railroad and the Civil War.
… Matthew Quick's 'Reason You're Alive': A feel-good sociopath's story.
… No apologies from John McEnroe in 'But Seriously'.
… 'Social Life of Books': When reading was a group thing.
See also: Swarthmore native Zinzi Clemmons on her debut novel about 'sex and death'.
… Matthew Quick's 'Reason You're Alive': A feel-good sociopath's story.
… No apologies from John McEnroe in 'But Seriously'.
… 'Social Life of Books': When reading was a group thing.
See also: Swarthmore native Zinzi Clemmons on her debut novel about 'sex and death'.
Something to think on …
Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.
— Anatole Broyard, born on this date in 1920
Tom Robbins
Many years ago, a friend suggested Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. I'd not read Tom Robbins before, and so filed his name away for sake keeping. Now, all these years later, I finished Cowgirls. Here are some thoughts:
No doubt, the novel is a reflection of its time. Published in 1976, its themes hold a mirror to the era: environmentalism, women's liberation, protest, the list goes on. In some ways, this was refreshing: Robbins knew just what he wanted to say, and he leveraged popular tropes to deliver the message. But on the other hand, I found this somewhat tiresome: the theme of spiritual enlightenment, for instance, was rather cumbersome (mostly because it was so familiar).
If I had my way, Cowgirls would have been shorter -- and a lot less zany. Because there's actually something going on here: there's a premise that's interesting, there are characters who are compelling. Sissy Hankshaw, especially, emerges as an alluring protagonist, as a compelling case study in the fractured notion of freedom. Ultimately, I wish there'd been more Sissy, and less prognostication from Robbins.
Robbins had some fun writing Cowgirls, and there are moments when he veers a bit too heavily in that direction. But as I say, there are passages where his writing pops, and where Sissy's adventures take on a three-dimensional quality. It's when Robbins packs these adventures too tightly with themes of the day that the narrative takes a turn toward the predictable, and that Sissy, however alluring, however vulnerable, is reduced (regrettably) to a side story.
If you've read the novel you'll know how much I'd like to give it two thumbs up, but it would have taken more focus on those thumbs for me to willingly grant that acclaim.
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Misunderstood …
… The Judgment of Rebecca West - Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Despite its regional focus, West’s book appears to be an essentially English literary phenomenon. A complete Serbian translation, by Ana Selić, only appeared in 2004, and the book is not widely read in the Balkans. Yet it continues to describe these countries and peoples in precise and compelling ways. During my own travels, I was delighted to see that West’s poetic description of the River Drin in Struga, Macedonia — “as much brighter than water as crystal is than glass” — remains perfectly apt. In Belgrade, I walked through Kalemegdan Park, lined by the carved “busts of the departed nearly great” enumerated in West’s tome. In Sarajevo, the dress of my Bosnian friend had already been described for me: a “silk overall striped in lilac and purple and dull blue.”
Takedown …
… NY Times Goes Mac & Cheesy with Science | American Council on Science and Health.
Ms. Rabin's article cannot have simply been a result of a journalist simply misunderstanding science. From the misleading and manipulative title - "The Chemicals in Your Mac and Cheese" - to the content itself, this was designed to promote fear of chemicals.
Something to think on …
Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self.
— Iris Murdoch, born on this date in 1919
Friday, July 14, 2017
Hmm …
… This eight-legged creature could be Earth's sole survivor -- and help search for aliens | Fox News.
According to Wikipedia, "evolution by means of natural selection is the process by which traits that enhance survival and reproduction become more common in successive generations of a population." Tardigrades have been around for 530 million years. Their survival skills are obviously impressive. But it seems that as species become more complex, their survival capacity declines. Now, I think it pretty obvious that species have evolved over time. But I wonder if the survival of the fittest dimension of Darwin's theory perhaps needs some refinement. I suspect that Teilhard de Chardin's notion of complexification may be nearer the truth.
Q&A …
… A Guardian of Good Usage and Grammar - Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, I’m very Fowlerian in my turn of mind, but the big change I’ve added to the literature on English usage is an overlay of empiricism — that is, I’ve placed a greater emphasis on how the language is actually used. Fowler, Partridge, Bernstein, and Follett had to guess about what they thought was the predominant usage for a given linguistic problem. But I’m able to use big data to buttress the judgments — and to really tie linguistic prescriptions to how edited English actually appears in print. So that’s something new in English usage.
What faith is like …
… "On The Avenue" by Rhina P. Espaillat - E-Verse RadioE-Verse Radio. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
And sad …
… Tru Life | Humanities. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The summer after I finished college, I had a job that kept me on the campus, and one day I borrowed from the library Capote's first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. I started reading it on my way home — a long ride on two buses and the subway-elevated. By the time I got home I had nearly finished it. It is wondrously written. As the quotes in this article demonstrate, Capote wrote extremely well. And that is what he should be remembered for.
The summer after I finished college, I had a job that kept me on the campus, and one day I borrowed from the library Capote's first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. I started reading it on my way home — a long ride on two buses and the subway-elevated. By the time I got home I had nearly finished it. It is wondrously written. As the quotes in this article demonstrate, Capote wrote extremely well. And that is what he should be remembered for.
Well, yes, unfortunately …
… 'Climate change angst' is a global anxiety, and borderless | Danny Bloom | The Blogs | The Times of Israel.
God knows, enough effort has been put into stirring up the anxiety, though the solution always appears to be to raise taxes and to give tax revenue to alternative energy enterprises that end up achieving far less than advertised. (Following the money works for this, too.)
If you cannot reflexively name the geologic epoch Earth is currently in, you really have no right to an opinion in this matter. And, by the way, I am quite convinced that human activity has been a driving factor in the longevity of Earth's current geologic epoch. And I am grateful for that, though I do not believe it will prove enough in the long run.
Those who stir up the anxiety should forgo riding in private jets and should live in modest dwellings. They should support fracking for natural gas, which produces 50 to 60 percent less CO2 and they may want to revisit nuclear power.
God knows, enough effort has been put into stirring up the anxiety, though the solution always appears to be to raise taxes and to give tax revenue to alternative energy enterprises that end up achieving far less than advertised. (Following the money works for this, too.)
If you cannot reflexively name the geologic epoch Earth is currently in, you really have no right to an opinion in this matter. And, by the way, I am quite convinced that human activity has been a driving factor in the longevity of Earth's current geologic epoch. And I am grateful for that, though I do not believe it will prove enough in the long run.
Those who stir up the anxiety should forgo riding in private jets and should live in modest dwellings. They should support fracking for natural gas, which produces 50 to 60 percent less CO2 and they may want to revisit nuclear power.
Something to think on …
There is only one way to degrade mankind permanently and that is to destroy language.
— Northrop Frye, born on this date in 1912
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Blogging …
I am the canine stage of my recovery from surgery — sleeping away like an old dog. I have some things to do, but will be posting again shortly. But tonight Debbie and I are going to watch Lost Horizon on the tube.
Definitive …
… May Sinclair: Poems of H.D. —The Fortnightly Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Talents have died before now of their own growth for lack of a form that allows expansion. I don’t want to raise again the question whether good verse is, as Mr. Flint and Wordsworth maintain, nothing but good prose. Only whereas with the writer of good prose, however uninspired, language and meaning go evenly together, the purely lyric poet who rhymes and metres is apt to be overtaken by a dark rush of winged words before he is aware of his meaning. For he is at the mercy of rhyme and metre. Not so the vers librist. He is free to follow his thoughts in their own movement. Instead of twisting themselves in unnatural inversions or halting for the cadence and the rhyme, his thoughts are free. Before the dangerous inspiration is upon her, “H.D.” has clarified her thought to its last transparency, and her future work should stand as high or higher than her past.These are fighting words nowadays, but they remind that thought is fundamental to great verse. This review is the most comprehensive and spot-on treatment of H.D.'s work that I have read. I have lved her poetry since I discovered it in the Holmesburg Library many decades ago. I was in my early teens. I felt, reading her poems, that poetry was the way to truth. I owe her much.
Something to think on …
A well-thought-out story doesn’t need to resemble real life. Life itself tries with all its might to resemble a well-crafted story.
— Isaac Babel, born on this date in 1894
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Nothing is safe …
… Jazz Profiles: The Birth {and Death} of the Cool. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Gioia deftly argues that what began in the Jazz Age [Bix Beiderbecke] and became iconic in the 1950s with Miles Davis, James Dean, and others has been manipulated and stretched, and pushed to the breaking point – not just in our media, entertainment and fashion industries, but also by corporations, political leaders, and special institutions.
Something to think on …
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
— Henry David Thoreau, born on this date in 1817
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Blogging note …
Blogging will resume sometime tomorrow. I have another dental appointment tomorrow morning and I have to take my wife to a doctor's appointment sometime after that. Right now, I'm just sore from the surgery. It's bearable, but distracting.
Simply outstanding …
… From What Is Left Over by Rémi Brague | Articles | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
These are large questions, so we do best to end by returning to the simple practice of plainsong. This sort of singing epitomizes the vocation of song, which is to celebrate and praise. Now, obviously, we can sing, hence praise, only what is good. We enter into praise, which is the condition of culture, if and only if there is something praiseworthy. In the last analysis, there can be culture if and only if we are convinced that, in the teeth of evil, that which is is intrinsically good. To give priority to the praiseworthy is an ontological choice. This choice is presupposed by any culture-grounding activity.Read the whole thing. I am looking to see what book by Rémi Brague I should start with. One of the best philosophical essays I have ever read.
Blogging note …
I am off to have a bit (well, more than a bit) of oral surgery. Blogging will resume sometime later.
A worthy exhibition …
… Octavia Butler: Writing Herself Into The Story : Code Switch : NPR. (Hat tip, Virginia Kerr.)
"Octavia Butler: Telling My Stories" is an exhibit currently at the Huntington Library, in the Pasadena suburb of San Marino, Calif. Curator Natalie Russell went through some "8,000 manuscripts, letters and photographs, and an additional 80 boxes of ephemera" to create an exhibition that shows, in chronological order, how Butler's career was born and evolved, and what influenced her.
Forensics and Joyce's Ulysses …
… Joyce in Court and The Ulysses Trials review – the law, murder and obscenity | Books | The Guardian.(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
[Hardiman] is scathing and scrupulously mean about the English: “To a reader in the early 21st century, what is very striking about the English official correspondence concerning Ulysses is the total self-confidence of politicians and bureaucrats who were still expounding and enforcing high Victorian values in the 1920s and 30s.” And on the objections to Molly Bloom’s soliloquy, he writes: “Equally striking is the elitism they manifest: what possible value could the ‘memoirs’ of ‘an Irish chambermaid’ have?”
Hmm …
… Craig Brown on why it's time for literary Q&As to die | Daily Mail Online. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Seems to me it depends. Some are good. Some not. Like most things.
Seems to me it depends. Some are good. Some not. Like most things.
Something to think on …
What matters in literature in the end is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor or the color of a particular human suffering.
— Harold Bloom, born on this date in 1930
Collected interviews …
… Conversations with Vladimir Nabokov - edited by by Robert Golla. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Since the pieces begin with Nabokov's success with Lolita, many of the conversations, especially the earlier ones, focus heavily on that. Aside from the familiar topics about it, it's interesting to see the obvious rivalry between this book and the other big by-a-Russian novel of the day (which also had an unusual publishing history abroad), Dr. Zhivago, a book Nabokov repeatedly bashes. He calls it: "false, melodramatic, badly written" -- even" "vilely written" -- and while he allows: "Pasternak is not a bad poet. But in Zhivago he is vulgar".
Since the pieces begin with Nabokov's success with Lolita, many of the conversations, especially the earlier ones, focus heavily on that. Aside from the familiar topics about it, it's interesting to see the obvious rivalry between this book and the other big by-a-Russian novel of the day (which also had an unusual publishing history abroad), Dr. Zhivago, a book Nabokov repeatedly bashes. He calls it: "false, melodramatic, badly written" -- even" "vilely written" -- and while he allows: "Pasternak is not a bad poet. But in Zhivago he is vulgar".
Monday, July 10, 2017
I guess I stand corrected …
… Edward Feser: Aquinas watches Glengarry Glen Ross. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I detested the film when I saw it years ago, because I didn't think it reflected the actual business world as I knew it from experience. It seemed an intellectual's unsympathetic imagining of the business world. Looked at it this way, though, it might just work. Guess I'll have to see it again.
I detested the film when I saw it years ago, because I didn't think it reflected the actual business world as I knew it from experience. It seemed an intellectual's unsympathetic imagining of the business world. Looked at it this way, though, it might just work. Guess I'll have to see it again.
Hmm …
… Informal Inquiries: Calvin, TULIP, and freedom.
I have always found it amazing that so repulsive a creed should prove so alluring. I am with Meister Eckhart: "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough." The God I have faith in is the God of Love.
I have always found it amazing that so repulsive a creed should prove so alluring. I am with Meister Eckhart: "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough." The God I have faith in is the God of Love.
Something to think on …
Do not wait for life. Do not long for it. Be aware, always and at every moment, that the miracle is in the here and now.
— Marcel Proust, born on this date in 1871
Hmm …
… Informal Inquiries: Confessions of an incompetent English teacher.
I taught for one semester as a teaching assistant in grad school (at the end of the semester I quit grad school). I was, however, by that time a published writer and had been earning my living as an editor. I had been taught rhetoric and public speaking in college, and I am not known for a lack of self-confidence. What I taught that semester was English composition. I taught my students what I had learned as an editor. I later heard that they all turned out to do well when they had to write something. Hardly surprising. The basics of writing are not that hard to master. I enjoyed teaching, but it took a lot of work to do it well. I felt I needed the time for other things.
Sunday, July 09, 2017
Good choices …
… Fourteen Books to Replace Progressive Propaganda in College.
Students who had read these could give just about any indoctrinating prof a run for his money — might even prove he isn't as well-educated as he claims.
Students who had read these could give just about any indoctrinating prof a run for his money — might even prove he isn't as well-educated as he claims.
Hmm …
… UNLV professor taking new US export to Cuba: poetry – Las Vegas Review-Journal. (Hat tip, G.E. Reutter.)
… a UNLV professor is about to bring to a new product of immeasurable value to the Caribbean island nation: poetry.I should think they could use a bit more freedom.
Literary destinations …
… Your Guide to the Great American Literary Road Trip | Reader's Digest. (Hat tip, G.E. Reutter.)
Anniversary …
… Informal Inquiries: Hemingway is wounded.
I think anyone who kills himself must have some great sadness to contend with. I think I know whereof I speak, since I have had an uncommon acquaintance with suicide.
I think anyone who kills himself must have some great sadness to contend with. I think I know whereof I speak, since I have had an uncommon acquaintance with suicide.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)