Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Something to think on …
To be simple is no small matter.
— Gustave Flaubert, born on this date in 1821
Monday, December 11, 2023
In case you wondered …
… The Rotten Core Of College Campuses.
The "gotcha" questions about whether a call for genocide is anti-semitic largely misses the mark. The deeper question is why are elites, in every civilization, drawn to theories that antagonize the Jews. Whether it is Hamas, Hitler, Hadrian, the Hellenists, or Harvard, the root cause is always the same: the Jews are different. The wise people of the day can always make up some rationale to get to that conclusion.
Something to think on …
You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, born on this date in 1918
Sunday, December 10, 2023
For the season …
… Mongolian version of Jingle Bells, played by The Altai Band. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
For an author nothing is as dead as a book once it is written.
— Rumer Godden, born on this date in 1907
Moral clarity …
… Ivy League Presidents and the Collapse of Moral Reasoning - Word on Fire.
… may I observe that we should not miss this moment? That appalling Congressional testimony served to blow the lid off of an increasingly dysfunctional culture on the campuses of our universities, which have become, sadly, not places where truth is sought, but hotbeds of woke ideology. Donors, parents, alumni—wake up. Do we want to be sending our kids to schools whose presidents cannot muster the intestinal fortitude to resist calls for genocide?
Saturday, December 09, 2023
Something to think on …
Write about what you know and care deeply about. When one puts one's self on paper - that is what is called good writing.
— Joel Chandler Harris, born on this date in 1845
Appreciation …
… I Loved Norman Lear - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics. (Hat tip, Dave Lul.)
Friday, December 08, 2023
Pondering s masterpiece …
… The Lamp Magazine | Style Betrays Us. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
To a modern reader, Burton’s Anatomy may seem to be the ravings of a man crazed by extended isolation in a well-stocked library. This is not a collection of essays, or anything else that fits into any current literary category. Nor does it feature many of the characteristics that we have come to expect from academic writing of any sort. Part of our problem with this work is really a problem with ourselves that begins from the artificial twentieth-century division between literary activities
Hear, hear …
… (14) The Day The Empress' Clothes Fell Off - by Andrew Sullivan.
End DEI in its entirety. Fire all the administrators whose only job is to enforce its toxic orthodoxy. Admit students on academic merit alone. Save standardized testing — which in fact helps minorities, and it’s “the best way to distinguish smart poor kids from stupid rich kids,” as Steven Pinker said this week. Restore grading so that it actually means something again. Expel students who shut or shout down speech or deplatform speakers. Pay no attention to the race or sex or orientation or gender identity of your students, and see them as free human beings with open minds. Treat them equally as individuals seeking to learn, if you can remember such a concept.
Sound advice …
… Learning to Read by Ear | John Wilson | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave. Lull.)
The words on the page—well, yes; but what I remember most about my Amherst English teachers is the way they took words off the page and brought them to life through the speaking voice.
That’s for sure …
… Reverse Speech Codes Aren't the Answer.
But think how much easier the life of these administrators would be if they and their institutions had just had some principles. If they had a record of allowing student and faculty speech on everything without punishment, they could point to that record and say, sure, some of our students are saying monstrous things, but we believe in free speech and that the best way to deal with monstrous ideas is by discussing, and refuting, them in the open.
Something to think on …
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.
— James Thurber, born on this date in 1894
Lest we forget …
… When the Culture Wars Came for Monty Python’s Life of Brian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The controversy faded after a year. By the 1980s, the film was syndicated on television and aired on weekend afternoons in several markets—and nobody seemed to care.
Thursday, December 07, 2023
Something to think on …
It takes a great deal of experience to become natural.
— Willa Cather, born on this date in 1873
In case you wondered …
… Why won't governments reduce immigration? - The Spectator World. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Wednesday, December 06, 2023
D. H. Lawrence
Let me say at the start that I am by no means comparing the good people of Nottinghamshire to mud, but man, reading The Rainbow felt a lot like wading through endless descriptions of, well, of mud. I mean, how many ways can you reasonably describe the mud? How many synonyms are there for brown, for wet, for dirty? There's an organic quality to the writing of D. H. Lawrence which refuses to yield: and maybe this is why all I could think of by the end of this novel was the mud. Lawrence focuses on a few themes and encircles them until they can be described no more. But my point is that there are only so many ways to describe mud, and so there are also only so many ways to describe the frustration of love.
On one level, I have no idea, really, what to make of D. H. Lawrence or The Rainbow. The structure of the novel seems to fall in on itself: every time Lawrence creates some moulding, some foundation, he rips it down with an endless stream of adjectives -- descriptors which often contract each other. The water was warm, but icy, but also fast moving, but then also prone to freezing. Sentences like this come often.
And then there's the sexuality -- which, to be candid, seems tame: oddly tame. We all come to Lawrence with an expectation that he will be at least as salacious as someone like Henry Miller or Anais Nin, but he's not even close. There were moments in The Rainbow when I had to confirm with the critics whether I was reading only about a kiss, or whether that kiss was something more. The very fact that I was confused by the description of sexuality in the novels speaks, I think, to a larger frustration: namely, what are these characters so unhappy about?
This, perhaps, was my largest critique of The Rainbow: every love affair, every relationship starts hot, and then recedes into banality, or frustration, or sorrow, or all of these things. There are many other novels which get at these themes in a more effective fashion. And so I did wonder what more at points Lawrence had to say beside: love is distinct from passion or infatuation, and these conditions leave a different imprint. I thought this was self-evident?
All told, there are parts of The Rainbow which are effective and which, in their own organic, natural way, effectively describe the coming of the Industrial Age and the shifting mores of the British population. But wow, it's a slog getting through some of this, and if the rainbow suggests a clarity of vision and the potential for a new world order based on rationality and opportunity -- then there are less circuitous ways of getting there. With respect to Lawrence, this, I think, will be the last of his novels that I attempt.
Kicking his enemies …
… ‘Everywhere an Oink Oink’ Review: Ticked Off in Tinsel Town.
Mr. Mamet has a fine cache of Hollywood quips and one-liners, passed along from one smart-aleck to the next. They were once common joshing, then became politically incorrect and are now career-endingly toxic.
Something to think on …
God is acting on your soul all the time, whether you have spiritual sensations or not.
— Evelyn Underhill, born on ths date in 1875
Tuesday, December 05, 2023
Getting to know them …
… The Sociopathic Generation.
These protestors have come of age in or become accustomed to living in a bubble in which their needs are always met and their whims are always accommodated. And if those demands are not met quickly enough, a tantrum or outburst will ensure compliance. Be that as it may, they know what they are saying and what those words mean, and they don't care.
Friends in the faith …
… The Vampire and the Pope: Remembering My Brief, Beautiful Catholic Friendship with Anne Rice | www.splicetoday.com.
I interviewed her once. A very nice person.
This doesn’t sound good …
…London on the brink: a 1970s New York-style fate is just a step away..
As a result of this mass exodus from the inner city, whole districts remain ghost towns. Tourists who still come to London find there is less of a buzz than five years ago.
Sure seems so …
… Revenge of the feudalists - spiked:
Let’s be frank: this year’s COP is a grotesque spectacle. On the backs of badly paid workers, the insanely wealthy will gather to lament the industrial world. In a monarchical statelet made filthy rich by oil, global influencers will lecture us little people about why it’s better to cycle than to drive
Quite a tale …
… How the Poet Christian Wiman Keeps His Faith | The New Yorker. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.j
Something to think on …
It will never be possible by pure reason to arrive at some absolute truth.
— Werner Heisenberg, born on this date in 1901
Words of wisdom …
… Escapism: A Letter from Willa Cather | Commonweal Magazine. (Hat tip, dave Lul.)
Monday, December 04, 2023
Something to think on …
Your preparation for the real world is not in the answers you’ve learned, but in the questions you’ve learned how to ask yourself.
— Rainer Maria Rilke, born on this date in 1875
Sunday, December 03, 2023
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