Thursday, June 30, 2011
Homage ...
Thought for the day ...
We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory.- Georges Duhamel, born on this date in 1884
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Thought for the day ...
A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born.- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, born on this date in 1900
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Digital humanities ...
Thought for the day ...
When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.- Luigi Pirandello, born on this date in 1867
Monday, June 27, 2011
Odd case ...
Well, if they're only posing as Catholic colleges, they don't deserve to regarded as such.
Thought for the day ...
A great many things which in times of lesser knowledge we imagined to be superstitious or useless, prove today on examination to have been of immense value to mankind.- Lafcadio Hearn, born on this date in 1850
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Good for what ails you ...
It is a refreshing gathering of concentration, informed throughout by the true spirit of haiku. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I will only cite two that I especially liked:
The life of the mind
will be the death
of us all
and:
Pinching the bridge
of my glasses
for cleaning --
my father's
fingers
Thought for the day ...
I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.- Pearl S. Buck, born on this date in 1892
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Nothing lackluster ...
I know John Freeman. I am not in the least surprised that Granta, under him, is "in robust health."
Thought for the day ...
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Change ...
... See also: Self publishing writer becomes million seller. (Hat tip, Joseph Chovanes.)
Thought for the day ...
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed.- Jean Anouilh, born on this date in 1910
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Like a true symbol ...
Thought for the day ...
Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go. Like a storm-driven bird at night we fly out of the Nowhere; for a moment our wings are seen in the light of the fire, and, lo! we are gone again into the Nowhere.- H. Rider Haggard, born on this date in 1856
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
FYI ...
Blond had a deeper critique too. Putnam was insisting that it's being part of a community of faith that matters, regardless of the nature of the faith that community represents. But mightn't the reason why an American Buddhist finds they have a lot in common with an American Christian, say, be not because they are both religious, but because they areboth American. In other words, Blond continued, to be American is, in a lower case sense, to be Christian - to be ethically shaped by the religion that predominantly informed the founding of America, and has arguably championed the virtues of equality, social concern and participation more than any other. Putnam replied that research in non-Christian cultures would have to be done to determine the case.
Hmm ...
I knew Hitchens and Dawkins had taken on Islam, but hadn't realize Harris and Dennett had. Good to know they're equal opportunity critics.
Escape from the literal ...
My own problem with Karen Armstrong is that, too often, I find her tendentious.
Flaubert
What’s the story with Madame Bovary?
There’s no question that it’s one of the most celebrated novels out there - and yet, having finished it a few nights ago, I found myself wondering: really, that’s it?
All right, there’s a universe embedded in the detail; and all right, that detail amounts to portraiture of the literary variety. But come on: what is it about Madame Bovary that we are supposed to be attracted to? And another thing: where’s the sexuality? I mean, the real sexuality...
I’ve said this to Frank before, but I have serious trouble connecting with that perfected element of nineteenth century novels. Because for all the precision packed into Flaubert’s book (and others like it), there’s a curious lack of detail when it comes to the important things - like Madame Bovary’s infidelity. I mean: just because she runs her fingers against the cuff of her lover’s coat doesn’t mean that the sex was good. And if it does, well, I missed the hints, the moans.
Come on, Gustave: Madame’s driven to the ultimate act of self-destruction, and yet we’re never given access to her bedroom - and her behavior when she’s in there.
Don’t get me wrong, there were parts of this book that I greatly enjoyed (especially Flaubert’s treatment of rural France), but I found it a frustration: if there is going to be sex and sexuality there need to be ideas hovering around them. And this is where Flaubert, in the end, had me confused: what drives - I mean, what really drives - Madame Bovary toward adultery? And what is the meaning of the sex-act to which she ultimately commits herself?
Take that!
Thought for the day ...
Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.- Mary McCarthy, born on this date in 1912
Monday, June 20, 2011
Thought for the day ...
Being an artist means ceasing to take seriously that very serious person we are when we are not an artist.- Jose Ortega y Gasset
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Plus ça change ...
Thought for the day ...
I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.- Blaise Pascal, born on this date in 1623
Saturday, June 18, 2011
I'm no fan ...
I think Brecht was a genuinely bad man-- I think he treated women horrendously -- and I don't especially like his plays.
Joyce revisited ...
... Changed, but still Joycean at its core.
... Who's afraid of James Joyce? A guide to reading 'Ulysses'.
... Hero of Joyce's gem gets his 100-year due.
Thought for the day ...
Originality consists in trying to be like everybody else and failing.- Raymond Radiguet, born on this date in 1903
Friday, June 17, 2011
The quintessence ...
Surprises ...
Homer of Arabia ...
Graves is wrong about Eisenhower, however, who in his early days in the Army worked as an editor.
Thought for the day ...
Men want recognition of their work, to help them to believe in themselves.- Dorothy Richardson, who died on this date in 1957
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Sorry, I cannot agree ...
Whipping a person is cruel. It is an infliction of pain. If I saw someone flogging somebody, I'd rip the whip out of his hand and beat the shit out of him. But that's just me. (Oh, and if you think that's just bluster, well, you're wrong, because you don't know me.)
Thought for the day ...
If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence and no matter what you are doing, driving a car or walking or doing housework you can still be writing, because you have that space.- Joyce Carol Oates, born on this date in 1952
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The art of acceptance ...
Like Nige, "I hope the trend catches on."
Just plain dumb ...
Try this thought on for size: Reason serves more than one purpose, can be used correctly or incorrectly, even misused. Ever notice you can do a lot of different things with your hands. Well, you can do a lot of different things with reason, too, some useful, some not.
This says it all ...
... the best hope lies in greatly improved palliative care and a more liberal hand with the morphine.
This was also the view of Pope Pius XII.
Thought for the day ...
a single bamboo shoot,
a willow branch
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Poetry collections ...
Thought for the day ...
I couldn't claim that I have never felt the urge to explore evil, but when you descend into hell you have to be very careful.- Kathleen Raine, born on this date in 1908
Monday, June 13, 2011
Historical Musings
As a history teacher, I’ve always found it interesting to discuss with high schoolers the complicated idea of ‘causation’ (that is, what caused, what contributed to, past events).
What’s striking about conversations involving this topic is the extent to which students are willing (often through no fault of their own) to attribute events to ideologies - as if Nazism itself were responsible for the Holocaust.
Regarding Nazism (and Fascism, too), I stress that, without Nazis, Nazism (as an ideology) would have been unable to do, well, to do anything.
This, I think, is key: that students confront the idea that systems of belief are not, in and of themselves, capable of destruction. Ideology becomes dangerous - in a historical sense - when individuals activate their core tenets.
At the high school level, conversations involving causation can lead in other directions as well. Most rewarding, I think, are those which involve the idea of ‘attribution.’
Continuing for a moment with the example of the Second World War: students must address in their thinking the notion that Germany (with a capital ‘G’) was not in itself responsible for the Holocaust.
True, that country initiated the events which conspired against Europe's Jews, but again, a nation cannot act without individuals. To attribute to Germany (as many text books do) blame for the Holocaust seems, therefore, as irresponsible as attributing that same umbrella of blame to Nazism.
After discussions involving ideology and attribution, students, I find, are more effectively positioned to handle the crux of the issue involving causation - that is, that individuals, and individual action, trigger historical events. To get at the Holocaust, students need to wrestle with documents which reflect the mindset, the priorities, of the German people.
While it can be an awkward process for students - to say nothing of nations - to come to terms with who, exactly, ‘became’ a Nazi, or a Fascist, or a Collaborator (in France), these discussions are important - vital, even - in our ability to accurately recreate the past in American classrooms today.
Thought for the day ...
Paradoxical as it may seem, to believe in youth is to look backward; to look forward we must believe in age.- Dorothy L. Sayers, born on this date in 1893
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Eulogy ...
Thought for the day ...
The priceless galaxy of misinformation called the mind.- Djuna Barnes, born on this date in 1892
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Thought for the day ...
It was a time when only the dead smiled, happy in their peace.- Anna Akhmatova, born on this date in 1889
Friday, June 10, 2011
Mr. Kink ...
Thought for the day ...
A playwright must be his own audience. A novelist may lose his readers for a few pages; a playwright never dares lose his audience for a minute.- Terrence Rattigan, born 100 years ago today.
Thursday, June 09, 2011
About time ...
David Tothero is the guy who made The General, who graces out patio garden and makes my every morning interesting.
Quite interesting ...
Of course, it is by the great Joseph Epstein. My only contribution is to note, once again, a key distinction: One may be bored, but it is not boring.
Born on this date ...
Thought for the day ...
An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.- Charles Dickens, who died on this date in 1870
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Greatest app ever ...
But does it let you see fear in a handful of dust?
RIP ...
Hmm ...
But is opposition to academic knowledge necessarily anti-intellectual? It is ahardly the only approach to knowledge and it may well not be the best. Professors of philosophy are not necessarily philosophers.
Thought for the day ...
A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print.- Marguerite Yourcenar, born on this date in 1903
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
For once I am stunned ...
Camden town ...
I completely agree ...
The problem, of course, as Cynthia indicates, is that people who say "I take full responsibility" simply have no idea what responsibility is.
Remembering ...
World citizens ...
In a sense, maybe.