Peas, please …

 … I’ve done it all my life

With apologies to Emily Dickinson …

 … Because I could not stop for death…

The political scene …

… Run, Writer, Run! - The American Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I never met Vidal or Mailer, but I got to know Bill Buckley pretty well. A remarkably nice man.

Barefoot in the frosty grass …

 … Walk through the garden’s dormant splendor

A poem …

 I love you, dying man under a train,

Your pretty, pretty face bored with ennui.

I won't think: “Can I save you from this dream?”

My love is like a moth flying near flame.

I love you bug that always goes upside-down.

I will keep righting you and righting you.

You are like my pretty, pretty beau.

Who thinks of his demise at slightest let down.

He has died, but maybe he was right.

Maybe things should be perfect beyond belief:

Gorge on ambrosia and filet mignon,

While climaxing wonderfully all day and night.

Yes, everything should be perfect beyond belief.

Or maybe not being bothered easily is key.

Jennifer Knox

People need to rise early …

 … His brightness seldom lasts the day through

Interesting indeed …

… Poem by Diane Sahms-Guarnieri - oddball magazine.

Departed …

 … All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

Someone besides me born on this date …

 … someone fae more imortant than I.

Short bio of president long on leadership skills

Plus ça change …

 Today I officially reached the age of 83. Yes, it’s my birthday. I feel the same as I did yesterday, which may not be great, but isn’t all that bad either. Since you inherit your longevity from your mother and mine made it to the cusp of 90,:I may be around for a bit. But I’ll leave all that to God. 

Lest we forget …

… Instapundit � Blog Archive � HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY: Many in the West will demonstrate their fierce originality and intellectual inde.

Some hard truth …

… Paul Davis On Crime: An ICE-Cold Report On Illegal Immigrant Criminals In The U.S.

Did he smile his work to see?

 Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Just released …

… (25) Gimme A Cowboy - Diamond Dixie (OFFICIAL AUDIO) - YouTube.

Today’s poem …

 … Joseph Ceravolo Stars of the Trees and Ponds.

Give earth yourself, go up for gain above …

 … That is the doctrine, simple, ancient, true…

RIP …

Gratitude, sorrow, suffering and mercy: R.I.P. Greg Hillis | America Magazine,  (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

More voice poems …

 … From Voca Me (2)

Just so you know …

 … The Biggest Climate Whopper Ever Told.

Staying focused …

 … The angle of the sun does not confuse them—

And why we all should …

… Why I stand with Amy Wax - The Spectator World. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A poem …

 … Today’s Poem: Gerontionl. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes …

 … Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official 

approval.  (Hat tip, Dave Lull.’

It’s like a schoolhouse of little words …

 … How everything shines in the morning light.

RIP …

… Obituary: Leading NZ poet Fleur Adcock dies | RNZ News. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) 

Anniversary …

… Bobby Short at 100: A Swinging Steward of the American Songbook - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

He was truly great.

And the winner.is …

… South Korean author Han Kang wins the 2024 Nobel prize in literature | Books | The Guardian. 

(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Looking forward in life …

 …And so it goes in God’s waiting room.

Under the sun…

 …I will be the gladdest thing …

Rachel Cusk

 

I've written about Rachel Cusk before on the blog, but having recently finished another of her novels -- Kudos -- I wanted to offer some additional commentary. 

Cusk seems to have been located within the contemporary genre of auto-fiction: that space carved out, most notably, by Knausgaard. And to a certain extent, that is right: the thin line between character and self is certainly blurred. 

But I think Cusk has developed her own literary space, too: her narrative style -- which has a primary character recount the story of another, more tangential figure -- is very effective. Often, her way of constructing this sort of narration reads like a novel by Sebald: the central character speaks to the reader about a story involving a second character, whose story is invoked by way of memory, or by way of Cusk's signature "he said" or "she said" construction, which regularly appears in the midst of an extended sentence. 

Like Knausgaard, Cusk takes as her content the banal or the expected, but she has a way of universalizing it: of turning it into something existential, or transnational, or profound. Cusk does this in the most unassuming fashion: she recounts a dialogue between one character and another -- and then, before long, the discussion has assumed a quiet gravity, a sense in which what's being discussed between the characters is actually an exchange between the reader and the ideas being invoked. 

What Kudos is about seems beside the point: it is a novel comprised of a series of discussions, which reveal a range of characters, who are themselves ephemeral. This is a novel about ideas, and the ways we, as people -- as characters -- interact with them. There are not many books like this one, and I heartedly recommend it -- as a fresh angle into what literature can be. 

Sounds like Lionel at her best …

 … Lionel Shriver and the Resistance to Satire. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Well, Bob is in a class by himself …

 

… Author Geoff Dyer on Bob Dylan: ‘The songs pour off his records like they’re written in my soul from him to me’.

Learning to look at any empty sky …

 … Were all stars to disappear or die…

Blogging note …

 I am currently in a rehab facility. This involves going to gym and other activities relating to my getting well. Friends and family come to visit from time time. I will blog when I can.

Place your bets …

 … Here are the bookies’ odds for the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Warm debate …

 … Pondering the origins of cheese.

Today’s Poem …

 … Fire and Ice. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Decisions …

 … I must answer the difficult question

A poem for today …

 … Sharon Olds — Blossom Trees.

I will arise and go now …

 … And I shall have some peace there

Honoring the day …

 … A Look Back At The Classic James Bond Film 'Goldfinger' On International James Bond Day.

Remembering …

 … The Young Immigrunts, by Ring Lardner . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Entertained but puzzled …

 Cricket seems to be a baffling and challenging game

Voices poems

 … from Voca Me.

For skies of couple-colour …

 … Glory be to God for dappled things —

Getting Scrooged again …

 …  Dickens and Christmas.

Hmm …

… Trump Calls Upon Saint Michael for Strength in 2024 Presidential Bid - American Voter Polls News.

Three new poems …

 at Wilderness House Literary Review.

Notable debut …

 … Willie Gillis first appears on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post

Slow, slow! …

 … O hushed October morning mild

I don’t get this …

… Garth Brooks Sued By Former Makeup Artist Who Claims He Raped Her In Hotel Room.

If someone does this sort of thing to you, why wait. Why not call the police. It’s a crime

Where my Sun-flower wishes to go …

 … Where the travellers journey is done

Compelling antidote to pessimism …

 … Sometimes controversial and always provocative

Fourteen lines …

 … For the chipmunk in my yard

In memoriam …

… Paul Davis On Crime: On This Day In History Techno-Thriller Novelist Tom Clancy Passes Away At Age 66.

Nature …

 … Being too full of sleep to understand.

Take me out to the ballgame …

 … First professional baseball World Series game.

Let us pray …

… to the Little Flower —Miraculous Invocation to St. Therese- Full Prayer.

Today is her feast day. 

In memoriam …

…130) In Loving Memory of Alexander Waugh - YouTube. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A bird came down the walk …

 … With rapid eyes like frightened beads

RIP …

… Kris Kristofferson, Country Singer, Songwriter and Actor, Dies at 88 - The New York Times.

Espionage is a dangerous business …

 …. This was a bad day in 1780 for British spy John Andre.

Read and listen …

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Night melts into day …

 … Fly, dragonfly! Fly!

Wistful stars with white faces …

 … A touch of cold in the Autumn night—

At the edge of the crater …

 … My involvement with a murderous secret society.

Poetry and painting …

… Zealotry of Guerin: Poetry and Fiction by Christopher Guerin: My Dear Udnie, Part Three of Three.

… My Dear Udnie, Part Three of Three

RIP …

… Actress Dame Maggie Smith dies at 89.

Preparing for the inescapable harvest …

 … In Autumn at the fall of the leaf

Our town …

… Paul Davis On Crime: Dangerous Car Stops Claim Another Cop.

Hmm …

 …‘The Logical Conclusion’ (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Choices …

 … Doves and Butterscotch.

What is man?

 … Demanding all, deserving nothing.

The shadow of the valley …

 … Llyfr Geirfa fy Nhad / My Father’s Vocabulary Book by Gwyneth Lewis.

Untroubling and untroubled …

 … I am—yet what I am none cares or knows.

Please to tell a little Pilgrim …

 … Where the place called “Morning” lies!

A word for today …

…Paleography | Word Genius.

I’m complaining again…

 … Well, that decision was four years too late for me

Knocking on the moonlit door …

 … https://themiscellaneousmusingsblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/is-there-anybody-there-said-traveller.html

A word for today …

…De rigueur - Word Daily.

A word for today …

… Viridescent - Word Daily.

Disturbing history …

 … “The Mormons must be treated as enemies”

Just so you know …

 I happen to be in the hospital. My legs sort of gave out yesterday and the aide who cleans my apartment called the ER people. Seems there were some serious issues. But I appear to be on the mend.

Karl Ove Knausgaard

 

I've written before on the blog about Karl Ove Knausgaard -- in particular about his seasonal quartet, which, taken together, amounts to an excellent read. I've also written about his essays on Edvard Munch, which have lots of interesting things to say about that tormented painter. Recently, I've made my way through another of Knausgaard's works of non-fiction, In The Land of the Cyclops, a collection of essays focused on philosophy, literature, and art. 

I should say at the start that, for me, Cyclops doesn't hold a candle to the seasonal quarter: I recognize, of course, that they are different in terms of tone, structure, and objective, but there was something about Cyclops which felt less convincing: as if this were just one man's sense for a book or painting. And it is. But in other essays or reflections by Knausgaard, that sense, that observation, assumes an oddly universal quality: and while Knausgaard may be writing about an apple, say, or a trip through Norway, the effect is one of transcendence: as if that journey, that piece of fruit, were the center of the universe. This experience was often missing from Cyclops.

That said, there are essays here which are to be celebrated, including those on Cindy Sherman and Gustave Flaubert. Another, on the Norwegian novelist, Knut Hamsun, features a number of unexpected and illuminated insights. Don't get me wrong, there were moments of revelation in some of these essays, and I walked away with a greater understanding, say, for Sherman than when I started the book. But I was expecting something more: perhaps more intimate, perhaps more lasting. Still, I'll continue to read Knausgaard because I think his approach to writing and to the contemporary moment is something worthy of exploration.

Another 9/11 …

 … Full-scale attack launched on 9/11 in Pennsylvania

Something to think on …

The great tragedy of atheists is that they walk through this world and have no one to thank.

— Leo Tolstoy, born on this date in 1828

Let us pray …

 … to the Little Flower — Miraculous Invocation to St. Therese.

Blogging note …

 I took a fall today and had use the emergency device on my wrist to have them get me off the floor. They also  gave me pretty good checkup, which proved ver encouraging. Anyway, I won’t b blogging much today,

A word for today …

… Vexillology - Word Daily.

In case you wondered …

 … Manhattan Transfers.

Divine plan …

 … Submit all hopes and fears to overruling Providence.

Short and very sweet …

… Zealotry of Guerin: Poetry and Fiction by Christopher Guerin: Haiku: Moon.

I have been sick in bed all day …

 … hence blogging has been spotty. Please bear with me.

On Henry James

 This is too good -- from the LRB: 

"Imagine a typical Jamesian plot (or imbroglio as he preferred to call it, ‘plot’ being a ‘nefarious name’): an innocent American comes to Europe and is befriended by a Europeanised American and an older European woman (almost certainly a contessa or a princess, but titles are optional). The innocent American falls half or three-quarters in love with the contessa, and/or a shade homoerotically with the Europeanised American, or with the relationship between the two. Much conversation follows, and much ‘flirtation’ as we might be tempted to call it, in which the American is ‘seduced’ (culturally) by his hosts and maybe wants to be ‘seduced’ (physically) by the ambient culture. (Are you noticing all these adverbs and inverted commas, by the way?) Then the American sees the contessa with the Europeanised American arm in arm in the park or, perhaps, in the Soane Museum, when they have said they will be elsewhere. And at this point the climax of the Jamesian imbroglio occurs, a point of recognition at which a more vulgar author might have the Innocent American exclaim: ‘OMG. They’re fucking?’ At that moment the ‘centre’ does not hold, realising as it does that what it had admiringly thought to be the case is, ‘really’, not the case at all. James talks of the ‘original grossness of readers’. But there is an ‘original grossness’ at the heart of most of his exquisite fables: there is a thing going on, and probably a dirty thing, that the people in the fiction won’t or can’t see because their window is smeary or they are looking in the wrong direction."

Civics 101…

 … Required reading before the November election

Altered consciousness …

 … The singular sleuth and his “seven-per-cent solution”

Something to think on …

You cannot imagine at all how much you interest God; He is interested in you as if there were no one else on earth.

— julian Green, born on this date in 1900p

Let us pray …

 … to the Little Flower —Miraculous Invocation to St. Therese

Cromwell and English History...

...There's more still to say about the period between kings 

A poem …

Your Octopussy

With eight arms I could love you better.

You could call me your Octopussy.

With eight arms things would go swimmingly.

And how intriguing, if we would boogie.

If I was a blow-fish I could do it better.

Of any sex-fish I could do it best.

With ocean beings it's much more juicy

In fact, in fiction, and in jest.

With a fish tail you could catch me better.

Reel me in hook, line, and sinker.

Could you love me transmogrified?

We all do change, with a flop, and a whimper.

Never a dull moment when your out to sea.

For now, be happy with your Octapussy.

                                            by Jennifer Knox

Love,