Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Appropriately strange …
… Kafka: The Decisive Years and Kafka: The Years of Insight, Reviewed | New Republic. (Hat tip,Dave Lull.)
In case you wondered …
… These Are the 21 Female Authors You Should Be Reading | TIME.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I don't think you should be reading any author because of that author's gender. I do have The Goldfinch on my Kindle.
News from India ...
NEW DELHI: In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court on Tuesday created the "third gender" status for hijras or transgenders. Earlier, they were forced to write male or female against their gender.
Subjunctive verb forms, and other notes on style ...
From the NYT's column on usage and style: "The subjunctive can be tricky to get right."
The Best of Days ...
WHEN
I WAS little, my dad used to tell me, as we ran around outside, on
spring days just like the ones we had this weekend; “these are the best
days of your lives.”
And then later, when I was trudging through the supermarket one day, three young kids in tow, my turn with them, 'cause both of us worked endlessly it seemed, with no time and no money to show for it, a little old lady saw me, and walked towards me, and I could just tell from her expression she was about to tell me the same thing, from her to me; she was about to say “these are the best days of your lives.” BUT I glared at her before she got a word out and she scurried away.
And then on Saturday, this weekend, I saw a couple I know at a park, with their little boy in tow, and the wife pregnant with another, and I told them, for now I knew it was true, “these are the best days of your lives.” Cherish and hold your kids, and each other, in the innocence and joy of the young.
And then later, when I was trudging through the supermarket one day, three young kids in tow, my turn with them, 'cause both of us worked endlessly it seemed, with no time and no money to show for it, a little old lady saw me, and walked towards me, and I could just tell from her expression she was about to tell me the same thing, from her to me; she was about to say “these are the best days of your lives.” BUT I glared at her before she got a word out and she scurried away.
And then on Saturday, this weekend, I saw a couple I know at a park, with their little boy in tow, and the wife pregnant with another, and I told them, for now I knew it was true, “these are the best days of your lives.” Cherish and hold your kids, and each other, in the innocence and joy of the young.
Furthering debate …
… The return of God: atheism's crisis of faith � The Spectator. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The new atheism has reached the limits of what it can achieve because it is attempting to renew secular humanism in anti-religious terms. This cannot be done. It’s a paltry and dishonest attempt, because it avoids reflecting on the tradition of secular humanism. Such reflection is awkward for it, due to its muddled claim that morality is just natural, and so no special tradition is needed. And yet — felix culpa! The atheists have unwittingly raised the question, which we generally prefer to evade, of what secular humanism is, how it is related to God.
A thought for today …
If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
— Anatole France, born on this date in 1844
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Indeed …
… Celebrate National Library Week! - Oxford University Press. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Of course, I have been told that librarians on the loose can be a rowdy bunch.
Of course, I have been told that librarians on the loose can be a rowdy bunch.
For your listening pleasure …
… 25 Recent Jazz Albums You Really Ought to Hear | OUPblog. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
About Last Night:
… About Last Night: Split Decision. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
All history, especially the history of the twentieth century, argues against placing ideas in the saddle and allowing them to ride mankind.I have been accused of being an intellectual myself. I don't think I am, because I think an intellectual, strictly speaking, is someone who regards ideas as ends, and I only regard them as means. I'm not sure what label I would attach to myself
℗ lemons and lemonade …
… How the actions of the Ted Hughes estate will change my biography | Culture | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… copyright only exists in the exact words of an author, not their ideas. So it was that Peter Ackroyd, writing his biography of TS Eliot, could use paraphrase to get round the Widow's Restrictions. In addition, the Copyright Act does not require a scholar to seek a licence when quoting small amounts of literary works for the purposes of research, of "criticism or review," of news reporting, or indeed in "the public interest". In all these cases, a rule of "fair dealing" applies. It is sometimes said that there is a "10% rule" or a particular restriction on word count, but in fact the concept of "fair dealing" is wonderfully vague, determined only by case law when infringement actions are brought to court.
Congratulations …
… Inquirer's Saffron, critic of the built environment, wins Pulitzer.
… see also: Novelist Tartt, composer Adams lead Pulitzer arts winners.
… and congratulations to the Pultizer people: Stories about NSA surveillance, Snowden leaks win Pulitzers for two news groups.
… see also: Novelist Tartt, composer Adams lead Pulitzer arts winners.
… and congratulations to the Pultizer people: Stories about NSA surveillance, Snowden leaks win Pulitzers for two news groups.
A thought for today …
Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.
— Henry James, born on this date in 1843
Monday, April 14, 2014
On the other hand …
… A Conservative Defense of Brandeis University - Reason.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
While Hirsi Ali is claiming to be misrepresented by her critics, however, she is at the same time going ahead making similar arguments to the ones she made back in 2007. On April 10, 2014, The Wall Street Journal published, under the headline, "Here’s What I Would Have Said at Brandeis," what it described as an abridged version of remarks she planned to deliver. "The connection between violence, particularly violence against women, and Islam is too clear to be ignored," she wrote. Not radical Islam, not fundamentalist Islam, not Islamism, but simply Islam, a religion whose faithful adherents include some hundreds of millions of women.
Personal journeys …
… beyond eastrod: Some thoughts about Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
I had always feared that, when I retired, I would find myself like the character Robert Redford plays in The Candidate, who wonders at the end, "what do we do now?" As it happens, that didn't happen. I hit the ground running. I suspect R. T. will as well.
I had always feared that, when I retired, I would find myself like the character Robert Redford plays in The Candidate, who wonders at the end, "what do we do now?" As it happens, that didn't happen. I hit the ground running. I suspect R. T. will as well.
Gaia's prophet …
… Bryan Appleyard — James Lovelock: The Epic of the Earth. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
"… The problem with the climate is none of us really knows what it’s going to do. We don’t have enough good, solid evidence, therefore one tends not to speculate. Speculators have been a bit wild, and I say that because I was one of them … That’s why I get so annoyed when unwise politicians start passing legislation to control what they think will happen in 2050. We just don’t know.”Freeman Dyson has been making the same point for years — in noting which I do not mean to make Lovelock see any less impressive than he in fact is.
It all depends …
… on what you mean by serious journalism: Serious Newspaper Journalism Is Not Over | Vanity Fair. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The problem with contemporary journalism is that, for every Bob Woodward —who really does seem to call the shots as he sees them and avoid playing favorites — there are scores of partisan hacks with bylines.
Self-appointed elect …
… Dave Shiflett: Where Atheists Meet to Evangelize - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Workshop topics will include starting your own atheist group, how to lobby politicians, and how to debate Christians and "other religious apologists." The contact page at the American Atheists website states: "Please note: we are not interested in debating or being preached at," which to some ears might sound a tad hypocritical and closed-minded, qualities often used to describe the organization's adversaries.Yesterday, in reference to an article I wrote in Sunday's Inquirer, someone wrote to tell me that, as an atheist, he knew there was no God. I wrote back and explained that "as a theist, I do not claim to know whether God exists or not. For reasons I find adequate, I have faith that he does. If, when I die, it turns out that I am wrong, at least I will never know it."
Our enemy, the state …
… Matthew Arnold’s error: the state is bad for culture | Arts & Culture | Books & Essays | review of books, April 2014 | spiked. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The key point is that directed freedom is not freedom unless it is self-directed. Culture employed to make us better expresses a degree of paternalism that runs counter to the idea that we might make ourselves better through its study and pursuit. The only other way Arnold might have argued would be to say that those ‘remnants’ of each class – the unusual ones – actually form a model for leaving culture up to individuals. That is the only reliable way for people to become more cultured: if they study and pursue it freely rather than because the state makes them.This is the position of Albert Jay Nock.
A thought for today …
The equation of religion with belief is rather recent.
— Arnold j. Toynbee, born on this date in 1889
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Recommendations .
… On my radar: Marcel Theroux's cultural highlights | Culture | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Budd Schulberg is best known for writing On the Waterfront …Interesting. I associate Budd Schulberg most with What Makes Sammy Run? I think it's a generational thing.
Throwing things in the air …
… Bryan Appleyard — Graham Vick: God and Opera. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Vick seems to have the perfect personality for opera.
Vick seems to have the perfect personality for opera.
Rescued history …
… Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS.
Time has not softened Duberman’s scalding assessment of the governmental indifference, medical politics, and prevailing homophobia that cost so many gay lives.The author also doesn’t pull back from revisiting the often-counterproductive infighting of a community overwhelmed with loss and at war with the straight world.
Faith from inside …
… Yours truly opines, sort of: New tomes shed light on our relationship to religion.
Inquirer reviews …
… Vikram reviews Gandhi Before India: The early Gandhi as a work in progress.
… Wall St. wins again, in blink of an eye.
… 'Coolie Woman' documents brutality of indentured life.
… Wall St. wins again, in blink of an eye.
… 'Coolie Woman' documents brutality of indentured life.
A thought for today …
Being a writer in a library is rather like being a eunuch in a harem.
— John Braine, born on this date in 1922
Saturday, April 12, 2014
FYI …
… PJ Media � We Are All Scientists.
Science is not a degree, or a paying job, or even (as many mistakenly believe, and sadly how it’s too often taught in school) a compendium of accumulated knowledge, but a way of thinking and learning about how the physical world works.
Reading and weeping …
… Book Review: 'Poems That Make Grown Men Cry,' edited by Anthony and Ben Holden - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Yesterday, I participated in a poetry reading at The Inquirer. One of the poems I read, Phyllis McGinley's "Ballade of Lost Objects," usually brings tears to my eyes. It didn't yesterday because I steeled myself against that happening.
Yesterday, I participated in a poetry reading at The Inquirer. One of the poems I read, Phyllis McGinley's "Ballade of Lost Objects," usually brings tears to my eyes. It didn't yesterday because I steeled myself against that happening.
From the article:
The novelist Sebastian Faulks cries over Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Frost at Midnight" (a marvelous poem—though not, I would have thought, one likely to induce tears).I have always been deeply touched by the last line — "Quietly shining to the quiet moon" — to say nothing of the thoughts Coleridge addresses to his infant son
Dancing spirits …
… Zealotry of Guerin: Yei Be Chei Dancers (Julia Guerin), Sonnet #172.
Make sure to click on the picture to see the painting better.
Make sure to click on the picture to see the painting better.
Be very afraid …
… New Statesman | Why futurologists are always wrong – and why we should be sceptical of techno-utopians. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Neuroscientists now routinely make claims that are far beyond their competence, often prefaced by the words “We have found that . . .” The two most common of these claims are that the conscious self is a illusion and there is no such thing as free will. “As a neuroscientist,” Professor Patrick Haggard of University College London has said, “you’ve got to be a determinist. There are physical laws, which the electrical and chemical events in the brain obey. Under identical circumstances, you couldn’t have done otherwise; there’s no ‘I’ which can say ‘I want to do otherwise’.”
You really should read the whole thing.The first of these claims is easily dismissed – if the self is an illusion, who is being deluded? The second has not been established scientifically – all the evidence on which the claim is made is either dubious or misinterpreted – nor could it be established, because none of the scientists seems to be fully aware of the complexities of definition involved. In any case, the self and free will are foundational elements of all our discourse and that includes science. Eliminate them from your life if you like but, by doing so, you place yourself outside human society. You will, if you are serious about this displacement, not be understood. You will, in short, be a zombie.
A thought for today …
God forgives us... who am I not to forgive?
— Alan Paton, who died on this date in 1988
Friday, April 11, 2014
Clearing the record …
… Philip Roth, Still Writing (Letters, at Least) - NYTimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Unspeakable …
… Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Here's What I Would Have Said at Brandeis - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, dave Lull.)
We need to make our universities temples not of dogmatic orthodoxy, but of truly critical thinking, where all ideas are welcome and where civil debate is encouraged. I'm used to being shouted down on campuses, so I am grateful for the opportunity to address you today. I do not expect all of you to agree with me, but I very much appreciate your willingness to listen.Brandies apparently has a policy of shouting you down before you arrive on campus.
The constant that is faith …
… Book review: ‘Why Science Does Not Disprove God’ by Amir D. Aczel — The Washington Post. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It is not the inability of science to explain some physical phenomenon that shows we cannot disprove the existence of a creative power (i.e., God). Science is a work in progress, and phenomena that science cannot explain now may be explained 100 years from now. Before the 18th century, people had no explanation for lightning. The reason that science cannot disprove the existence of God, in my opinion, is that God, as understood by all human religions, exists outside time and space. God is not part of our physical universe (although God may choose to enter the physical universe at times). God is not subject to experimental tests. Either you believe or you don’t believe.
This sounds about right to me. Of course, if God does choose to enter the universe and someone has experience of this, then the evidence of that experience (such as it may) must be taken into account. It is also possible, and is often claimed, that God did enter the universe and did so in order to reveal something to us. It has been said often that the big question is why is there something and not nothing. But the question of why an eternal being would create time seems just as interesting.
The search for evidence …
… The Millions : You’ve Got Mail: On the New Age of Biography. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In his end notes to his biography of David Foster Wallace, D.T. Max of The New Yorker, writes that “David may have been the last great letter writer in American literature” and that “with the advent of email [Wallace’s] correspondence grew terser, less ambitious.” Burn echoes the same view, observing that “the major difference probably stems from the more rigidly linear format of some of his emails. Some of the great letters look like spiderweb art: in these notes, Wallace has written over the top of the letter he’s replying to, with comments between the lines, spiralling into the margins, running up to headers and down to the footers.”
A thought for today …
The writer wants to be understood much more than he wants to be respected or praised or even loved. And that perhaps, is what makes him different from others.
— Leo Rosten, born on this date in 1908
RIP...
...Sue Townsend, creator of hapless and much-loved Adrian Mole, dies aged 68
The toughness of that time is something she never underplayed. She remembered making pea soup for her children out of one Oxo cube and a tin of garden peas. Although her books later made her fortune, she said that no amount of "balsamic vinegar or Prada handbags" would make her forget what it was like to be poor.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Q&A …
… Alive to the World of Literature: Biographer Adam Begley on John Updike | Biography | Biographile. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
He would get into a funk about religion and he would also get into a funk about being married to [his first wife] Mary. He loved Mary for many years, and continued to love her after they were no longer married. But he didn’t always want to be married to her. So it could be hard to tell which was bothering him.Perhaps he was regarding himself as a sinner. That would have brought the two of them — religion and adultery — together for sure.
A thought for today …
Rules and models destroy genius and art.
— William Hazlitt, born on this date in 1778
Wednesday, April 09, 2014
Endangered species …
… American Library — The Morning News. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I heard some politician say recently that closing libraries is no big deal, since the kids now have the Internet to do their reading and schoolwork. It’s not the same thing. As any teacher who recalls the time when students still went to libraries and read books could tell him, study and reflection come more naturally to someone bent over a book. Seeing others, too, absorbed in their reading, holding up or pressing down on different-looking books, some intimidating in their appearance, others inviting, makes one a participant in one of the oldest and most noble human activities. Yes, reading books is a slow, time-consuming, and often tedious process. In comparison, surfing the Internet is a quick, distracting activity in which one searches for a specific subject, finds it, and then reads about it—often by skipping a great deal of material and absorbing only pertinent fragments. Books require patience, sustained attention to what is on the page, and frequent rest periods for reverie, so that the meaning of what we are reading settles in and makes its full impact.
Celebrating the humdrum...
This talent for finding light in life’s shadows first earned Mr Eno serious attention in 2005, with the New York debut of “Thom Pain (based on nothing)”. An extended monologue, delivered by a “skinny, wounded” man in a shabby suit, it is full of the patter of someone who is just old enough to be burdened with regrets but not so old as to be without hope. “You really are very forgiving”, Thom Pain tells the audience, “to let me get lost like this.” In a breathless review, Charles Isherwood of the New York Times anointed Mr Eno “a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation”. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize, marking a turning point in Mr Eno’s career. Yet he still lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and helps support himself by painting houses and other odd jobs.
Evolving into fiction …
… When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow by Dan Rhodes – review | Culture | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… the star of his ninth book is a cantankerous, rude, self-important evolutionary biologist by the name of Professor Richard Dawkins.
A thought for today …
I place no hope in my strength, nor in my works: but all my confidence is in God my protector, who never abandons those who have put all their hope and thought in him.
— François Rabelais, who died on this date in 1553
Inclusive, except when not …
… Brandeis University withdraws planned honorary degree for Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali | Fox News.
I'm sure there would have been no problem had she been critical Christianity or religion in general.
I'm sure there would have been no problem had she been critical Christianity or religion in general.
A vintage review …
… Review-a-Day - Edgar Allan Poe and the Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments by Elizabeth Bishop, reviewed by The New Republic Online - Powell's Books. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
It will be argued that Bishop could have burned all these pieces of paper if she did not wish them to see publication. (I am told that poets now, fearing an Alice Quinn in their future, are incinerating their drafts.) But burning one's writings is painful, and Bishop kept her papers, as any of us might, because the past was precious to her. Bishop did not expect to die when she did, in 1979, at the age of sixty-eight; her death was sudden and unforeseen. … Had Bishop been asked whether her repudiated poems, and some drafts and fragments, should be published after her death, she would have replied, I believe, with a horrified "No."
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
Just a thought — a continuation …
In the Bible, from the start, God is a given. He precedes everything, but also coincides with everything. What he creates first is a beginning, or rather the beginning. A start implies a finish. Between them lies the vastness of time.God creates the beginning by separating earth from heaven and light from darkness, thus establishing the fundamental complements of night and day. Sounds rather Taoist, actually.I suspect there is more, both metaphysically and psychologically, to the account that follows of God's staging and casting of the world he has made, but it seems clear that the point of the narrative is God's involvement with the creature he makes in his own image."Male and female he created them," and in that order. Speaking of order, it is definitely worth noting that God warns Adam off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (a catchphrase for everything, its moral implication ambiguous) before making Eve.Also interesting is that, while they are told they will die if they eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, it is not until they have done so that they are told what this means, that they will "return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."They were reduced to materialists.
The talented Mr. Updike …
… ‘Updike,’ Adam Begley’s Look at a Novelist’s Career - NYTimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It’s one of the achievements of Mr. Begley’s book, however, that it so acutely demonstrates how it all, in fact, didn’t come so easily. We witness Updike’s will in the face of repeated early rejections, rebuffs that would have squelched the drive of a less determined artist.
E tu, Instapundit?
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, is also a blogger of some renown at his site www.Instapundit.com. Glenn is a libertarian/conservative I think, and blogs on, among other things, nonsense associated with the left, like liberal woman at colleges complaining about male aggression.
Recently he had a blog entry that said this:
And I thought it was little nasty...what a study (the link) about older women's concerns has to do with some of the liberal craziness isn't really clear; and otherwise it's just kind of a mean comment by Glenn.
So I put this up in the comments section:
And these comments on my comment rapidly followed (mostly by anonymous commentors) some rather funny in their rudeness, like this one:
And all I wanted to do was point out that Glenn had taken a nasty turn...
Recently he had a blog entry that said this:
SO THIS IS GOOD NEWS, RIGHT? ESCAPE FROM “THE MALE GAZE” AND ALL THAT? Women begin feeling invisible to men ‘when they turn 51.′
And I thought it was little nasty...what a study (the link) about older women's concerns has to do with some of the liberal craziness isn't really clear; and otherwise it's just kind of a mean comment by Glenn.
So I put this up in the comments section:
Wow -- a little bit of a nasty preamble there Glenn...
And these comments on my comment rapidly followed (mostly by anonymous commentors) some rather funny in their rudeness, like this one:
Thanks for proving the point.
And all I wanted to do was point out that Glenn had taken a nasty turn...
Master of twisty lines …
… Walton Goggins of "Justified": The best kept secret in American acting? | Balder and Dash | Roger Ebert. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Boyd was originally intended to appear on the show's first episode, but it says something about what Goggins brought to the role that the show's creators decided that they had something special. Boyd, who was a small-time con artist specializing in blowing black churches, would go through a conversion of sorts after being shot in the chest by Raylan. The first few seasons of "Justified" got a lot of mileage out of watching Boyd doing his best to go straight. He said getting shot made him see the error of his ways, but we were never completely certain if he was pulling the long con. The beauty of the way Goggins plays Boyd is that he's both sincere and a con artist. It turns out Boyd Crowder is the most honest man in Harlan County.
Concluding words …
… Living on the Edge of Life: A Final Interview with Peter Matthiessen |. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Fiction allows you to go deeper. You use your imagination. You can shape the world to make it more valid. When I’m writing fiction, I’m exhilarated. And by the end of the day, I’m hyper. You end up with something that’s unexpected and that’s the real thrill. That’s why I’m more passionate about writing fiction than nonfiction. Nonfiction began for me as a livelihood. I wasn’t making enough money as a fiction writer and I got married too young and had kids. I had to support my family. I was doing better as a commercial fisherman than as a writer.
Oops …
… Classicist says quote of Virgil's inscribed on 9/11 Memorial is "shockingly inappropriate" � MobyLives. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
As the New York Times ‘ David W. Dunlap points out, Virgil’s “you” actually refers to the characters, Nisus and Euryalus, two warrior-lovers who “have just slaughtered the enemy in an orgy of violence, skewering soldiers whom [they] ambushed in their sleep.” And for this massacre, Nisus and Euryalus are killed, their heads impaled on spears. Of the inscription at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Helen Morales, a classicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told the Times, “If we take into account its original context, the quotation is more applicable to the aggressors in the 9/11 tragedy than those honored by the memorial…So my first reaction is that the quotation is shockingly inappropriate for the U.S. victims of the 9/11 attack.”Yet another reason to get a classical education.
Time to talk back …
… The Culture of Shut Up — Jon Lovett — The Atlantic.
…what happens next—how we face the downside of so much connectedness—will determine whether or not this revolution empowers us, or once again empowers [the] gatekeepers. And I don’t want that to happen, because those gatekeepers suck. They’re arrogant and easily swayed by big, nice-sounding dangerous ideas; they’re ambitious and careerist and forgetful and unimaginative and shortsighted; they’re subject to groupthink, beholden to corporate interests, and enamored of fame and power.
Soundings …
… Elite Violinists Fail to Distinguish Legendary Violins From Modern Fiddles | Science/AAAS | News. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The consistency of results from session to session showed that soloists could definitely distinguish one violin from another. However, the soloists seemed to prefer the new violins, the researchers report online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In their lists of favorites, new violins outnumber old ones roughly 3-to-2, and the most popular violin by far was a new one, denoted N5. Musicians rated qualities of new instruments higher, too. And when it came to telling old violins from new, the soloists did no better than if they had simply guessed.
Sitting on the cusp …
… Paranormalia: An Incomplete Mystical Experience. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Why does [Ehrereich] think that the meaning she derives from her experience is valid, when the meaning that others have derived from theirs – clearly in the same class as hers - is not? She seems to imply that in other people such an experience can still lead to wrong ideas, not to say religious delusions. That doesn’t add up to me.
A thought for today …
We would be in a nasty position indeed if empirical science were the only kind of science possible.
— Edmund Husserl, born on this date in 1859
Bess Lovejoy
I've just finished Bess Lovejoy's book about death and dying. But don't worry, it wasn't too bleak. Lovejoy entertains with a range interesting stories focused on the unexpected afterlives of famous corpses - those belonging, for instance, to D.H. Lawrence, Edgar Allan Poe, Descartes, Moliere, and more. I'm interviewing Lovejoy for a piece in Rain Taxi and will post that link when the interview is complete. For now, be reminded that the tomb of Joseph Haydn actually contains two skulls, and that, even in death, Lord Byron was thought to be "built like a pony." The legend persists...
Monday, April 07, 2014
Old news, but real intelligence …
… News that’s not news: CIA funded Dr. Zhivago | The Book Haven.
“Thanks to the fact that Pasternak won the Nobel Prize, Pasternak wasn’t arrested,” [Ivan] Tolstoi told Radio Free Europe … . “This deed by the CIA served to ennoble and save Pasternak. The actions of American intelligence saved a great Russian poet.”
Practical faith …
… The Trick of Life — NYTimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… I got up from the sofa and walked down to the Hudson River, which I live not far from. I sat on a bench by the river and rested. I stared across it to the tall apartment buildings in New Jersey. Thinking of how people were living out their lives in those buildings comforted me somehow. I looked at the gray rushing water and its movement, the fact that it was coming from someplace and going someplace else also consoled me. It was then that I realized that I needed somehow to always be outside myself. My mind had become uninhabitable.
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