Monday, December 19, 2005
Colin Wilson (yet again) ...
Recently, published two posts about Colin Wilson , here and here. Now, Scott McLemmee at Cogito, ergo Zoom links to a discussion of what he had to say in his recent piece about Wilson. I make no apologies for my enthusiasm for Wilson. For one thing, Wilson writes well, and if he at times comes off as a little credulous, he never comes off as sterile. He may think indiscriminately, but he also thinks passionately. Reading him, one feels that ideas are a part of life, not just items on a syllabus.
Lion's share ...
Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis, talks about Lewis and Narna: In the name of the father ... But Lewis himself might not altogether agree with what Gresham has to say.
A late start ...
... this morning. Just got to the office in desperate need of coffee. Blogging will have to wait a bit.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Another shared enthusiasm ...
Rockslinga links to her sister's new blog Clara & Fanny, devoted to women composers. I think that's a good idea, because there are number of women composers whose work deserves to be heard more, among them Rebecca Clarke, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Germaine Tailleferre, and Lili Boulanger. Also Sofia Gubaidulina.
Rogues' gallery ...
Prufrock's Page links to a roundup of the year's most notable plagiarism. It's quite a list.
Attention, scifi fans ...
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has posted his Science Fiction Recommendations.
One more time ...
I link back to my earlier Harold Pinter link so that all can read Rus Bowden's wonderfully pertinent comment: Au contraire. Check out Rus's links, too.
Some things to look into ...
Steve Clackson at Sand Storm links to a proposed Book of the Year. Meanwhile, Suzy Prince sings the praises of British Kitchen Sink fiction in A Kind of Loving (I am myself an Alan Sillitoe fan).
Advice for the news business ...
... from William Powers at the Wilson Quarterly: The Collapse of Big Media: Seven Steps to Salvation.
A point worth pondering:
Herding young viewers and readers into little media ghettos will not win them over. Young people recognize demographic targeting—they grew up with it. Rather than patronize them with endless “youth” sections and segments, why not include young reporters and commentators throughout your pages and broadcasts? In particular, the opinion columns of America’s great newspapers are the Sun Cities of journalism, where older journalists go to live out their golden years. They need fresher perspectives. Meanwhile, because the nightly network newscasts tend to draw an older audience, the networks skew the content toward the interests of the elderly—that’s why we see all those “Your Health” segments about new cures for wrinkles and arthritis, high blood pressure and low libido. Such tactics are driving the young away from everything you do.
And another:
Only disconnect. There’s a widespread sense in the news business that contemporary audiences want their news delivered strictly in quick hits: Nothing too thoughtful or lengthy, thank you very much; who has the time? This may be true at the moment, as consumers try to adjust to the proliferation of news sources. But content that can be downloaded on a cell phone and digested in a moment isn’t very nourishing, and a day will arrive when the public hungers for more. Though this diet of news niblets is initially appetizing, people will inevitably realize that they’d do better to push away from the buzzy grid and seek more substantial nourishment elsewhere. The baby boomers are about to start retiring, and they’re going to have a lot of time on their hands. Tiny news bites won’t fill the hours or satisfy their need.
Of course, the trick is not to write in such a way as what you write seems to read long.
A point worth pondering:
Herding young viewers and readers into little media ghettos will not win them over. Young people recognize demographic targeting—they grew up with it. Rather than patronize them with endless “youth” sections and segments, why not include young reporters and commentators throughout your pages and broadcasts? In particular, the opinion columns of America’s great newspapers are the Sun Cities of journalism, where older journalists go to live out their golden years. They need fresher perspectives. Meanwhile, because the nightly network newscasts tend to draw an older audience, the networks skew the content toward the interests of the elderly—that’s why we see all those “Your Health” segments about new cures for wrinkles and arthritis, high blood pressure and low libido. Such tactics are driving the young away from everything you do.
And another:
Only disconnect. There’s a widespread sense in the news business that contemporary audiences want their news delivered strictly in quick hits: Nothing too thoughtful or lengthy, thank you very much; who has the time? This may be true at the moment, as consumers try to adjust to the proliferation of news sources. But content that can be downloaded on a cell phone and digested in a moment isn’t very nourishing, and a day will arrive when the public hungers for more. Though this diet of news niblets is initially appetizing, people will inevitably realize that they’d do better to push away from the buzzy grid and seek more substantial nourishment elsewhere. The baby boomers are about to start retiring, and they’re going to have a lot of time on their hands. Tiny news bites won’t fill the hours or satisfy their need.
Of course, the trick is not to write in such a way as what you write seems to read long.
The plays are the things ...
In Germany, Euripides is proving elusive, and Ibsen is thought to be more up-to-date than Chekhov.
All things come in time ...
... for him who knows how to wait. Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita will soon make it to Russian TV.
Before it's too late ...
... check out Booksurfer, which links to the TLS and a look at the art of the obituary.
Roll out the manuscript ...
Jack Kerouac typed On the Road on long rolls of tracing paper. Next month a portion of that manuscript scroll will go on display at the San Francisco Public Library.
More journalistic head wear ....
Not to be outdone by colleagues' outre chapeaus, Inquirer blogger extraordinaire Dan Rubin demonstrates how ideas simply blossom when he dons his thinking cap.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Let's be politically incorrect ...
... and talk about Christmas! Lars Walker at Brandywine Books has some uplifting thoughts about Charles Wesley's "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!" Foamy the Squirrel won't mind a bit.
Apologies ...
I don't know what exactly is going on but everything I've posted this month has disappeared and been replaced by much older posts. I have an email into Blogger, but who knows? So we may be out of whack for awhile.
All is lost ...
... at least so far it looks that way -- all the posts I wrote today, and all those I wrote this month. Too bad, because I had linked to some interestng stuff. Will try again later.
Don't know what's going on ...
... but all my posts for today seem to have disappeared and been replaced by my earlier ones.
Odd & ends ...
Sarah Weinman has another useful roundup posted.
Sand Storm links to a look at blogospherical growing pains.
More good advice to authors from Miss Snark.
Sand Storm links to a look at blogospherical growing pains.
More good advice to authors from Miss Snark.
About time ...
Powerline takes a break from politics to consider literature. The first book I reviewed for The Inquirer, back in 1976, was Hearing Secret Harmonies, the concluding volume of Anthony Powell's great 12-volume cycle A Dance to the Music of Time.
Introducing science fiction ...
John Scalzi thinks science fiction could use some outreach. And Glenn Reynolds thinks highly of Scalzi's latest.
Climate of opinion ...
Public discourse tends to be both intemperate and imprecise. In fact, its intemperateness is directly proportional to its lack of precision. So a lot of heat is generated, but not much light is shed.
This problem not only is not new, it would appear to be perennial. Clear definitions, sound propositions, and properly framed arguments are as rare today as they were when Socrates insisted upon them in the Athenian agora.
It is a problem that affords a wonderful opportunity for newspapers to exert a positive effect on public discourse by providing the precision that is otherwise absent. Unfortunately, newspapers have not taken advantage of the opportunity, but continue instead to make their own contributions to the problem.
On the front of this morning's Inquirer, for instance, there is a teaser to a series starting tomorrow about the Gulf Stream, which, the teaser says, "has taken center stage in research in global warming."
Global warming, the all-purpose cause of every environmental disaster, whether it be drought or flood, hot spells or cold. Well, consider this: In May 2003, physicist Freeman Dyson, retired director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, published in the New York Review of Books a review of Vaclav Smil's The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change. It should be prominently displayed in every newsroom in the nation. Since I bought a copy from NYRB's online archives, I feel I have the right, according to fair use, to quote a couple of key passages. I highly recommend getting a copy; it's only three bucks.
Here, however, is a fine example of precision:
The physical effects of carbon dioxide are seen in changes of rainfall, cloudiness, wind strength, and temperature, which are customarily lumped together in the misleading phrase "global warming." This phrase is misleading because the warming caused by the greenhouse effect of increased carbon dioxide is not evenly distributed. In humid air, the effect of carbon dioxide on the transport of heat by radiation is less important, because it is outweighed by the much larger greenhouse effect of water vapor. The effect of carbon dioxide is more important where the air is dry, and air is usually dry only where it is cold. The warming mainly occurs where air is cold and dry, mainly in the arctic rather than in the tropics, mainly in winter rather than in summer, and mainly at night rather than in daytime. The warming is real, but it is mostly making cold places warmer rather than making hot places hotter. To represent this local warming by a global average is misleading, because the global average is only a fraction of a degree while the local warming at high latitudes is much larger. Also, local changes in rainfall, whether they are increases or decreases, are usually more important than changes in temperature. It is better to use the phrase "climate change" rather than "global warming" to describe the physical effects of carbon dioxide.
Given that Mars and other planets also show evidence of warming, it should be obvious that the phrase "global warming" is less a mental shortcut than a mental short-circuit. And though what Dyson says in this paragraph may not seem all that significant, he goes on to explain a good many other related matters -- also quite precisely -- leading him to conclude:
The biosphere is the most complicated of all the things we humans have to deal with. The science of planetary ecology is still young and undeveloped. It is not surprising that honest and well-informed experts can disagree about facts. But beyond the disagreements about facts, there is another deeper disagreement about values. The disagreement about values may be described in an oversimplified way as a disagreement between naturalists and humanists. Naturalists believe that nature knows best. For them the highest value is respect for the natural order of things. Any gross human disruption of the natural environment is evil. Excessive burning of fossil fuels, and the consequent increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide, are unqualified evils.
Humanists believe that humans are an essential part of nature. Through human minds the biosphere has acquired the capacity to steer its own evolution, and we are now in charge. Humans have the right to reorganize nature so that humans and biosphere can survive and prosper together. For humanists, the highest value is intelligent coexistence between humans and nature. The greatest evils are war and poverty, underdevelopment and unemployment, disease and hunger, the miseries that deprive people of opportunities and limit their freedoms. As Bertolt Brecht wrote in The Threepenny Opera, "Feeding comes first, morality second." If people do not have enough to eat, we cannot expect them to put much effort into protecting the biosphere. In the long run, preservation of the biosphere will only be possible if people everywhere have a decent standard of living. The humanist ethic does not regard an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as evil, if the increase is associated with worldwide economic prosperity, and if the poorer half of humanity gets its fair share of the benefits.
This is a serious matter. It deserves serious discourse, not reliance on bumper-sticker memes.
This problem not only is not new, it would appear to be perennial. Clear definitions, sound propositions, and properly framed arguments are as rare today as they were when Socrates insisted upon them in the Athenian agora.
It is a problem that affords a wonderful opportunity for newspapers to exert a positive effect on public discourse by providing the precision that is otherwise absent. Unfortunately, newspapers have not taken advantage of the opportunity, but continue instead to make their own contributions to the problem.
On the front of this morning's Inquirer, for instance, there is a teaser to a series starting tomorrow about the Gulf Stream, which, the teaser says, "has taken center stage in research in global warming."
Global warming, the all-purpose cause of every environmental disaster, whether it be drought or flood, hot spells or cold. Well, consider this: In May 2003, physicist Freeman Dyson, retired director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, published in the New York Review of Books a review of Vaclav Smil's The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change. It should be prominently displayed in every newsroom in the nation. Since I bought a copy from NYRB's online archives, I feel I have the right, according to fair use, to quote a couple of key passages. I highly recommend getting a copy; it's only three bucks.
Here, however, is a fine example of precision:
The physical effects of carbon dioxide are seen in changes of rainfall, cloudiness, wind strength, and temperature, which are customarily lumped together in the misleading phrase "global warming." This phrase is misleading because the warming caused by the greenhouse effect of increased carbon dioxide is not evenly distributed. In humid air, the effect of carbon dioxide on the transport of heat by radiation is less important, because it is outweighed by the much larger greenhouse effect of water vapor. The effect of carbon dioxide is more important where the air is dry, and air is usually dry only where it is cold. The warming mainly occurs where air is cold and dry, mainly in the arctic rather than in the tropics, mainly in winter rather than in summer, and mainly at night rather than in daytime. The warming is real, but it is mostly making cold places warmer rather than making hot places hotter. To represent this local warming by a global average is misleading, because the global average is only a fraction of a degree while the local warming at high latitudes is much larger. Also, local changes in rainfall, whether they are increases or decreases, are usually more important than changes in temperature. It is better to use the phrase "climate change" rather than "global warming" to describe the physical effects of carbon dioxide.
Given that Mars and other planets also show evidence of warming, it should be obvious that the phrase "global warming" is less a mental shortcut than a mental short-circuit. And though what Dyson says in this paragraph may not seem all that significant, he goes on to explain a good many other related matters -- also quite precisely -- leading him to conclude:
The biosphere is the most complicated of all the things we humans have to deal with. The science of planetary ecology is still young and undeveloped. It is not surprising that honest and well-informed experts can disagree about facts. But beyond the disagreements about facts, there is another deeper disagreement about values. The disagreement about values may be described in an oversimplified way as a disagreement between naturalists and humanists. Naturalists believe that nature knows best. For them the highest value is respect for the natural order of things. Any gross human disruption of the natural environment is evil. Excessive burning of fossil fuels, and the consequent increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide, are unqualified evils.
Humanists believe that humans are an essential part of nature. Through human minds the biosphere has acquired the capacity to steer its own evolution, and we are now in charge. Humans have the right to reorganize nature so that humans and biosphere can survive and prosper together. For humanists, the highest value is intelligent coexistence between humans and nature. The greatest evils are war and poverty, underdevelopment and unemployment, disease and hunger, the miseries that deprive people of opportunities and limit their freedoms. As Bertolt Brecht wrote in The Threepenny Opera, "Feeding comes first, morality second." If people do not have enough to eat, we cannot expect them to put much effort into protecting the biosphere. In the long run, preservation of the biosphere will only be possible if people everywhere have a decent standard of living. The humanist ethic does not regard an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as evil, if the increase is associated with worldwide economic prosperity, and if the poorer half of humanity gets its fair share of the benefits.
This is a serious matter. It deserves serious discourse, not reliance on bumper-sticker memes.
Friday, December 16, 2005
A column of poetry ...
Poet Laureate Ted Kooser has started something called American Life in Poetry, described as a "free column for newspapers," in which Kooser introduces readers to a poem he has selected. The Inquirer hasn't signed up yet -- though I suppose I ought to pitch the idea -- but here's a link to Column 38, which I presume is the latest.
Mixed to match ...
Bill Peschel links to a fun match game at Paperback Writer, who also has a very interesting post titled Taming the Dragon, about a voice recognition software program.
Words, words, words ...
December's OED Newsletter offers Quotable Quotes and Interesting Antedatings. And while we're at it, The OED needs your help, too: BBC Wordhunt.
Stars shake free ...
In the Book Standard Johnny Temple looks at how big-time authors like Stephen King and Walter Mosley are choosing to pass up large advances and publish with independents: Stephen King and the Continuation of the Indie Power Grab. Of course, now they can afford to.
Assaying the essay ...
Scott McLemee has a characteristically fine piece on the essay at Inside Higher Education: The Formless Form. I posted some thoughts on the subject myself a while back here.
The right to write what's on your mind ....
Boyd Tonkin in The Independent writes about Menaces to Free Speech. Hat tip: Bookninja.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Pop goes the lit again ...
Will Duquette at The View From the Foothills in a post titled I've Always Thought So links to some comments by Washington Post critic Jonathan Yardley and novelist Richard Wheeler. Key Yardly quote:
the "literary" fiction being written in this country nowadays strikes me as so jejune, self-absorbed and lifeless that I am just about unable to read it, much less pass fair judgment on it. Instead, I find myself turning more and more to what is commonly dismissed by the literati as "popular" or "genre" fiction…
Well, I mostly agree. At least when it comes to American fiction. I liked John Banville's The Sea and last year I liked Muriel Spark's The Finishing School. But a lot of so-called literary fiction in this country portrays a world that I don't seem to encounter in reality.
the "literary" fiction being written in this country nowadays strikes me as so jejune, self-absorbed and lifeless that I am just about unable to read it, much less pass fair judgment on it. Instead, I find myself turning more and more to what is commonly dismissed by the literati as "popular" or "genre" fiction…
Well, I mostly agree. At least when it comes to American fiction. I liked John Banville's The Sea and last year I liked Muriel Spark's The Finishing School. But a lot of so-called literary fiction in this country portrays a world that I don't seem to encounter in reality.
Representing reality ...
I had not re-read the last couple of chapters of Russell Brain's Mind, Perception and Science when I wrote this earlier post (which links to even ealier ones on the same subject). But I had read the book, so maybe that's why the post, which was meant to articulate some thoughts of my own, merely echoed what Brain ultimately had to say:
... if the stuff of the universe that we know directly is mind, and matter is the same thing known only by means of conceptual symbols created by mind, it would seem as reasonable to call at least part of reality mind as to call it matter. And matter, even crude matter, is not what it was. It has turned into energy, and the atom has become a pattern and the molecule a pattern of patterns, till all the different physical substances and their behaviour have come to be regarded as the outcome of the structure of their primitive components. But we have already met with pattern in the nervous system, underlying and rendering possible the most fundamental characteristics of the mind. And pattern in some mysterious way possesses a life of its own, for it can survive a change in the identity of its component parts as longs as its structure remains the same. As a wave can move over the sea and remain the same wave, though the water of which it is composed is continuously changing, a pattern can shift over the retina and therefore over the visual area of the brain and remain recognizably the same pattern. The pattern of our personality though it changes slowly remains substantially the same, though every protein molecule in the body, including the nervous system, is changed three times a year. The ingredients have altered but not the structure.
This does not, of course, address the question I raised -- from what do the symbols representing the patterns derive? Suppose the electrical impulses that are atoms and particles are elements of a grand transmission? It is not the electrical signal reaching our television set that concerns us, but rather the imagery on the screen. That imagery is the point of the transmission. This is what has always bothered me about philosophical materialism: It is as if one were trying to make sense of Hamlet by studying the carpentry of the Globe Theater.
... if the stuff of the universe that we know directly is mind, and matter is the same thing known only by means of conceptual symbols created by mind, it would seem as reasonable to call at least part of reality mind as to call it matter. And matter, even crude matter, is not what it was. It has turned into energy, and the atom has become a pattern and the molecule a pattern of patterns, till all the different physical substances and their behaviour have come to be regarded as the outcome of the structure of their primitive components. But we have already met with pattern in the nervous system, underlying and rendering possible the most fundamental characteristics of the mind. And pattern in some mysterious way possesses a life of its own, for it can survive a change in the identity of its component parts as longs as its structure remains the same. As a wave can move over the sea and remain the same wave, though the water of which it is composed is continuously changing, a pattern can shift over the retina and therefore over the visual area of the brain and remain recognizably the same pattern. The pattern of our personality though it changes slowly remains substantially the same, though every protein molecule in the body, including the nervous system, is changed three times a year. The ingredients have altered but not the structure.
This does not, of course, address the question I raised -- from what do the symbols representing the patterns derive? Suppose the electrical impulses that are atoms and particles are elements of a grand transmission? It is not the electrical signal reaching our television set that concerns us, but rather the imagery on the screen. That imagery is the point of the transmission. This is what has always bothered me about philosophical materialism: It is as if one were trying to make sense of Hamlet by studying the carpentry of the Globe Theater.
An interesting project ...
The Syntax of Things considers Underrated Writers, one of whom turns out to be Philadelphia Daily News alumnus -- and National Book Award winner -- Pete Dexter.
Pop goes the lit, or vice versa ...
The hot topic at Blogcritics is Literary vs. Popular Fiction. Hat tip: Sand Storm.
A look at Narnia
A sound appraisal of The Lion, ther Witch and the Wardrobe at Collected Miscellany.
One comment on Tolkien's objection to the allegorical aspect of Lewis's work: Tolkien, a linguist, preferred the simpler sagas such as Beowulf to the allegorical work of the High Middle Ages. Lewis, on the other hand, a specialist in medieval literature, naturally loved allegory. One of his most important scholarly works (eminently readable, though) is The Allegory of Love.
One comment on Tolkien's objection to the allegorical aspect of Lewis's work: Tolkien, a linguist, preferred the simpler sagas such as Beowulf to the allegorical work of the High Middle Ages. Lewis, on the other hand, a specialist in medieval literature, naturally loved allegory. One of his most important scholarly works (eminently readable, though) is The Allegory of Love.
Don Quixote alert ...
Bud Parr at Chekhov's Mistress alerts us that Don Quixote's 400th anniversary will be a topic of discussion on Open Source Radio tonight.
An opportunity for me to remind everyone again to take a look at this.
Update: Brian Phillips in the Hudson Review on The First-Person Don Quixote.
An opportunity for me to remind everyone again to take a look at this.
Update: Brian Phillips in the Hudson Review on The First-Person Don Quixote.
Fustest with the mostest ...
Booksquare reminds us of the invaluable resource that is Project Gutenberg.
A publishing tale ...
Readers of Instapundit will know all about John Scalzi's Old Man's War. They will also know that his previous book, Agent to the Stars, is available online in its entirety here. Scalzi's Introduction is well worth pondering on several counts.
This AP story is worth pondering, too.
This AP story is worth pondering, too.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Count your blessings ...
So you think it's bad for progressive intellectuals in Amerika. Check out Mother Russia. Victor Sonkin not only thinks this year's choice for the Open Russia Booker Prize is "definitely not the novel of the year," but further notes:
Adding insult to injury, the Booker committee then announced that it was parting ways with Open Russia, the foundation backed by jailed billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky that had sponsored the prize for the past four years. Open Russia is going through difficult times, what with Khodorkovsky's imprisonment, attacks in pro-Kremlin media outlets and looming new legislation that threatens the existence of NGOs.
Adding insult to injury, the Booker committee then announced that it was parting ways with Open Russia, the foundation backed by jailed billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky that had sponsored the prize for the past four years. Open Russia is going through difficult times, what with Khodorkovsky's imprisonment, attacks in pro-Kremlin media outlets and looming new legislation that threatens the existence of NGOs.
Labyrinthine ways ...
Jonathan Jones, in the Guardian, shows how, inspired by J.M.W Turner, anthropologist J.G. Frazer exerted greater influence on modern literature than either Freud or Marx: Modern Myths.
Amen, sister ...
Rus Bowden at Poetry and Poets in Rags links to Shirley Dent's "Why Polemics Are Killing Poetry" at spiked-culture. I could not agree more. I have often complained that too many people have entered journalism who would have been better off in the minsistry or social work. Now they're writing pomes!
A second opinion ...
Daniel Green at The Reading Experience takes issue with Joseph Epstein's reassessment of Edmund Wilson that I linked to in this post. I actually do not see that Epstein's objections to Wilson as a critic are grounded in his perception of Wilson as a less than admirable human being. The passage I quoted in the post I just linked to seems to me the crux of Epstein's argument.
But I find this point of Green's interesting:
Insofar as the critic is first of all a reader, he/she does experience the same emotions in reading works of literature as any other reader, but the emotional effects are inevitably particular to, and not detachable from, the reading experience itself. How exactly is it possible to "develop in thought" an emotional suggestion? How could such a "thought" be anything but incomplete and lifeless in comparison to the actual emotion? And why would we need a critic to expatiate on his/her emotional reactions in this way?
As someone whose bias is phenomenological I would answer this by saying that you cannot accurately and precisely describe a work (which I think necessitates reference to its mechanics) without also engaging its emotional implications and reflecting one's own emotional response.
But I find this point of Green's interesting:
Insofar as the critic is first of all a reader, he/she does experience the same emotions in reading works of literature as any other reader, but the emotional effects are inevitably particular to, and not detachable from, the reading experience itself. How exactly is it possible to "develop in thought" an emotional suggestion? How could such a "thought" be anything but incomplete and lifeless in comparison to the actual emotion? And why would we need a critic to expatiate on his/her emotional reactions in this way?
As someone whose bias is phenomenological I would answer this by saying that you cannot accurately and precisely describe a work (which I think necessitates reference to its mechanics) without also engaging its emotional implications and reflecting one's own emotional response.
A sequence of views ...
Arts & Letters Daily links to an interview with evangelical Darwinian Richard Dawkins at Beliefnet. There's a link at the bottom to a piece by Gregg Easterbrook that raises some questions about Dawkins's position. That piece links to another Easterbrook piece, an appreciation of the late astronomer Fred Hoyle, a scientist who did important work in his field -- notably regarding nucleogenesis -- unlike Dawkins, an entomologist (his specialty is arachnids) who preaches how wonderful science is, but doesn't seem to practice it very much. All three pieces need to be read in order to gain, I think, a proper perspective.
Start the day right ...
... and visit the BAFAB Blog BAFAB stands for Buy a Friend a Book. Sounds like a good idea to me -- and a sign of true friendship.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Another fan of Montaigne ...
Stefanie Hollmichel at So Many Books responds in a very personal (which is as it should be) to Montaigne's essay "On Conversation" in a post titled "Let's Talk". I blogged about Montaigne a while back here and here.
The way we were ...
Chekhov's Mistress notes how times have changed when it comes to poetry. It is interesting to look at what sort of books sold well in the past. You can take a look here.
Another list ...
Kirkus has its list of 2005's top books up, which includes a list of 25 we may all have overlooked. (Hat tip: Conversational Reading.)
A twofer ...
Grumpy Old Bookman makes some astute observations about the Mainstream Media and brings to our attention a most interesting book: "This book has, it seems, been online since 1997, is in its 18th revision, and 226,438 people have taken a look at it."
Writing by numbers ...
Booksquare discusses Judging Writing, with particular reference to Sam Sacks's "The Fiction Machine" in New York Press.
Recently, I was reading a book I was thinking of reviewing and, about a third of the way into it, I realized that it exemplified everything that had prompted me in 1966 to give up a fellowship and leave grad school for good. To be a good writer what you need to do is read a lot -- not in order to analyze it, but just to let it sink deep down into your consciousness -- and write a lot. Most of all you need on-the-job training in life. What you don't need is to sit around with a lot of other aspiring writers talking about writing.
Recently, I was reading a book I was thinking of reviewing and, about a third of the way into it, I realized that it exemplified everything that had prompted me in 1966 to give up a fellowship and leave grad school for good. To be a good writer what you need to do is read a lot -- not in order to analyze it, but just to let it sink deep down into your consciousness -- and write a lot. Most of all you need on-the-job training in life. What you don't need is to sit around with a lot of other aspiring writers talking about writing.
Another discovery ...
POD-dy Mouth reviews what sounds like an interesting book published by Xlibris -- in 2000. She is right: Had it been published by Random House -- which has a 49 percent share of Xlibris -- it would have been remaindered long ago. The problem of separating the wheat from the chaff in alternative publishing continues to fascinate me.
More good advice
An unsolicited plug ...
Over the weekend I got my 2006 Weekly Planner from Today in Literature. It's quite nice. In addition to the dates and facts and essays, which I love, the woodcuts by Barry Moser are exceptional.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Finishing books ...
Brandywine Books asked some bloggers if "it's appropriate to ignore or scan parts of a book which you review?"
Here is what they said.
I myself feel honor-bound to read a book I'm reviewing all the way through. Since I write a column designed to recommend books, I don't have to finish one I don't like anyway. But from time to time I have to read a book I don't think is very good -- and even some of those I recommend are not without faults. The Da Vinci Code is bad, but it goes through one eye and out the other, so it's no great effort to read, just not very rewarding -- in fact, totally unrewarding. But I remember reading a book a few years back that had patches of such dull incomprehensibility that I might as well not have read them, given that I got nothing out of them.
Here is what they said.
I myself feel honor-bound to read a book I'm reviewing all the way through. Since I write a column designed to recommend books, I don't have to finish one I don't like anyway. But from time to time I have to read a book I don't think is very good -- and even some of those I recommend are not without faults. The Da Vinci Code is bad, but it goes through one eye and out the other, so it's no great effort to read, just not very rewarding -- in fact, totally unrewarding. But I remember reading a book a few years back that had patches of such dull incomprehensibility that I might as well not have read them, given that I got nothing out of them.
Some good advice ...
Something else we missed ...
The Millions posted A Year in Reading: An Emerging Best of List compiled by Dan Wickett, who runs Emerging Writers Network, where he just has posted a list of What to Look Forward to in 2006.
Something to think about ...
... for sure. Instapundit links to The Death of Traditional Publishing, on Working Smart, Michael Hyatt's blog. Hyatt is the president and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. Read the comments, which are also very interesting.
One slight correction: It's wan't Yogi Berra who made the remark about predicting being hard, though it sounds like the sort of thing he would have said. It was, however, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr: "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."
That's something to keep in mind, especially in connection with all the prediction you encounter in the media. Sometimes it seems as if the entire newspaper is a subset of the horoscope column.
One slight correction: It's wan't Yogi Berra who made the remark about predicting being hard, though it sounds like the sort of thing he would have said. It was, however, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr: "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."
That's something to keep in mind, especially in connection with all the prediction you encounter in the media. Sometimes it seems as if the entire newspaper is a subset of the horoscope column.
Odds & ends
Some interesting best books of the year lists at Ghost Word.
Confessions of an Idiosycratic Mind notes -- and registers -- some high dudgeon over the Crime Writers Association's growing cozy with filthy lucre.
Today in Literature reminds us that on this date in 1976, Saul Bellow delivered hi Nobel Prize acceptance speech: "...there is no simple choice between the children of light and the children of darkness," Bellow said. "Good and evil are not symmetrically distributed along political lines." (Tell that to Cary Tennis.)
Read Bellow's whole speech here.
Confessions of an Idiosycratic Mind notes -- and registers -- some high dudgeon over the Crime Writers Association's growing cozy with filthy lucre.
Today in Literature reminds us that on this date in 1976, Saul Bellow delivered hi Nobel Prize acceptance speech: "...there is no simple choice between the children of light and the children of darkness," Bellow said. "Good and evil are not symmetrically distributed along political lines." (Tell that to Cary Tennis.)
Read Bellow's whole speech here.
Something new about Orwell ...
An interesting piece about George Orwell in the Guardian. Seems some previously undisovered letters reveal some things we didn't know. (Hat tip, Sand Storm.
The joy of serendipity (again) ...
I have been spending a lot of my time exploring lit blogs, as should be obvious from the links I have been posting. I hope tonight to get around to posting something of my own again, though I plan to do that less than I have -- not because I don't have the time or the inclination, but because this blog exploration is turning out to be so much fun. Today's first discovery, over at Gumball Poetry, is The Last Expedition.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Verbal pedigree ...
Reader Murray Wilson emails me in reference to a word I used in my review of Claire Harmon's Myself & the Other Fellow: A Life of Robert Louis Stevenson:
I checked your usage of "fey" on the internet and found only one dictionary
which gave it, which suggests it is quite new and not generally accepted.
What is its pedigree?
Turned out to be an interesting question. The word originally meant "fated to die." Then it started to morph, coming to mean "visionary" and "having a certain otherwordly air," then "a tad precious" and even "campy." Oddly, all of these senses could be applied to Stevenson, who was thought -- and thought himself to be -- fated to die young (which he did, though not for the reason anticipated), who had certain otherworldly air about him and could be -- even in his writing -- a tad precious. Harmon remarks that Stevenson's manner was "gay," though Stevenson himself was straight.
I thought fey worked, and my editor did not object.
I checked your usage of "fey" on the internet and found only one dictionary
which gave it, which suggests it is quite new and not generally accepted.
What is its pedigree?
Turned out to be an interesting question. The word originally meant "fated to die." Then it started to morph, coming to mean "visionary" and "having a certain otherwordly air," then "a tad precious" and even "campy." Oddly, all of these senses could be applied to Stevenson, who was thought -- and thought himself to be -- fated to die young (which he did, though not for the reason anticipated), who had certain otherworldly air about him and could be -- even in his writing -- a tad precious. Harmon remarks that Stevenson's manner was "gay," though Stevenson himself was straight.
I thought fey worked, and my editor did not object.
Get me rewrite ...
... wait, no, I am rewrite -- at least I am if it's my book we're talking about.
Catherine Bush posts a discussion on Bookninja of her own extensive revisions of her novel Claire's Head.
Catherine Bush posts a discussion on Bookninja of her own extensive revisions of her novel Claire's Head.
Reality challenges fiction ...
The Box o' Truth looks at whether shooting a lock off is as easy as books and movies make it out to be. (Hat tip to Bill Peschel.)
And don't miss Sarah Weinman's Conquering Weekend Update.
And don't miss Sarah Weinman's Conquering Weekend Update.
Another good answer ...
Kate Greenstreet at every other day also addresses the question of poetry's usefulness.
Last call ...
Only last month, the Whitbread Book Awards 2005 shortlist was announced. Now the Sunday Times is reporting that Whitbread -- once Britain's best-known brewer -- has decided it's closing time. Not to worry if you're one of those nominated for the 2005 prize: Whitbread's not reneging on that one, which will be announced next month.
(I notice that Hugh Grant was a judge last year. Well, why not? The guy's an Oxford grad, for God's sake -- and he played a book shop owner in Notting Hill.)
(I notice that Hugh Grant was a judge last year. Well, why not? The guy's an Oxford grad, for God's sake -- and he played a book shop owner in Notting Hill.)
Saturday, December 10, 2005
A good answer ...
Lisa Janice Cohen at Blue Muse Poetry proposes a fine answer to a frequently posed question:
What Good is Poetry?
(For Gary B)
It buys us nothing, will not
fill empty bellies bloated
with endless promises
or excise a bullet
from an accidental wound
unravel time to force
the trigger to untrip.
But it is the copper penny
spent, redemption
from the poverty of language
that sucks the marrow
from the bones of our misfortune.
The only thing of value
I can offer.
What Good is Poetry?
(For Gary B)
It buys us nothing, will not
fill empty bellies bloated
with endless promises
or excise a bullet
from an accidental wound
unravel time to force
the trigger to untrip.
But it is the copper penny
spent, redemption
from the poverty of language
that sucks the marrow
from the bones of our misfortune.
The only thing of value
I can offer.
A bit of light verse ...
Melville Goodwin, a frequent visitor to this blog, posted some very clever light verse as a comment on my most recent fashion statement. This has inspired me to post some light verse that I wrote last spring in honor of the Royal wedding. The Inquirer's fine arts editor, Jeff Weinstein, who edits my "Editor's Choice" column -- and is the best editor I've ever worked with -- suggested it, and luckily some ideas actually floated to the surface of my consciousness. Here's what appeared on the day of the nuptials:
Perhaps the most important task of a British poet laureate is to celebrate royal weddings with an epithalamium, a poem in honor of the bride and groom to be. Of course, this particular nuptial has been downscaled, postponed - and the Prince has been asked by the Church of England to apologize to his beloved’s former husband.
But poet laureate Andrew Motion has put off his task for other reasons. He was extremely fond of the previous royal bride, and it’s been reported that he’s having trouble coming up with adequate rhymes for "Camilla. "
So, in his place, our resident laureate offers the couple his poetic gift (having tried and rejected "vanilla," "chinchilla," "sarsaparilla" and, in an American vein, "bridezilla").
Royal Couplets
Of marriage, matron, prince, and bard I sing,
And of delays the fates seem bent to fling
Into the way of true love’s unsmooth course.
Who wouldn’t swap his kingdom for a horse
When called upon to first acknowledge sin
To gain the church’s pardon, just to win
A Town Hall wedding scheduled on the day
That Papal obsequies get in the way?
And now, the charge to praise love’s true devotion
Has England’s Laureate in a commotion.
The scribe dear late Diana’s charms inspired
Has found his rhyming muse is sick, and tired.
What’s to be done, but take our pen in hand,
Declaring even messy love is grand?
All vain and pompous circumstance aside
It’s just another hopeful groom and bride.
Therefore we wish poor Charles and his Camilla
Full wedded bliss, down to the last scintilla.
Perhaps the most important task of a British poet laureate is to celebrate royal weddings with an epithalamium, a poem in honor of the bride and groom to be. Of course, this particular nuptial has been downscaled, postponed - and the Prince has been asked by the Church of England to apologize to his beloved’s former husband.
But poet laureate Andrew Motion has put off his task for other reasons. He was extremely fond of the previous royal bride, and it’s been reported that he’s having trouble coming up with adequate rhymes for "Camilla. "
So, in his place, our resident laureate offers the couple his poetic gift (having tried and rejected "vanilla," "chinchilla," "sarsaparilla" and, in an American vein, "bridezilla").
Royal Couplets
Of marriage, matron, prince, and bard I sing,
And of delays the fates seem bent to fling
Into the way of true love’s unsmooth course.
Who wouldn’t swap his kingdom for a horse
When called upon to first acknowledge sin
To gain the church’s pardon, just to win
A Town Hall wedding scheduled on the day
That Papal obsequies get in the way?
And now, the charge to praise love’s true devotion
Has England’s Laureate in a commotion.
The scribe dear late Diana’s charms inspired
Has found his rhyming muse is sick, and tired.
What’s to be done, but take our pen in hand,
Declaring even messy love is grand?
All vain and pompous circumstance aside
It’s just another hopeful groom and bride.
Therefore we wish poor Charles and his Camilla
Full wedded bliss, down to the last scintilla.
The future of book reviews ...
Steve Clackson of Sand Storm has a very interesting post today about book reviewing. A key point: "Reviews should after all be geared to market the book not the reviewer or the magazine/newspaper..." I'm not sure reviews should be geared to marketing a book -- I think reviews function more along the lines of Consumer Reports -- but they definitely should not be geared to marketing the reviewer or the publication.One of the good consequences of space cuts is that reviewers have been forced to focus on the book under consideration and not other books by the same or differnt authors that the reviewer thinks are comparable: While the comparisons may be apt, they also seem to exist primarily for the purpose of displaying the reviewer's erudition.
Reviewing a book is not as easy as many people seem to think it is. Though reviewing involves criticism, it is not the same as criticism, the principal difference being that criticism presumes the reader has read the work or works being discussed, whereas reviewing presumes just the opposite. The most valuable thing any reviewer can do is bring to the public's attention a worthwhile bit of writing that might otherwise be overlooked.
I also think Steve is right that the future of reviewing is online -- and I think the nature of the Internet will eventually bring about a new form of review.
Feedback, please!
Reviewing a book is not as easy as many people seem to think it is. Though reviewing involves criticism, it is not the same as criticism, the principal difference being that criticism presumes the reader has read the work or works being discussed, whereas reviewing presumes just the opposite. The most valuable thing any reviewer can do is bring to the public's attention a worthwhile bit of writing that might otherwise be overlooked.
I also think Steve is right that the future of reviewing is online -- and I think the nature of the Internet will eventually bring about a new form of review.
Feedback, please!
"Fantastic Variations on a Knightly Theme" ...
That's the subtitle of Richard Strauss's tone poem Don Quixote. It has obvious bearing on what I'm about to link to.
This year is the 400th anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote. My colleague Eric Mencher and I proposed to The Inquirer that he and I go to Spain and follow the rueful Don's wanderings, in much the same way as, the year before, we had strolled in Dublin where Leopold Bloom wanders in Ulysses (the Rosenbach Library and Museum in Philadelphia, which has the manuscript of Ulysses, also has the best first edition of Cervantes's great novel). For various reasons -- these are tight times for newspapers -- the proposal never took off. But Eric and his wife Kass just spent the past few weeks in Spain, and Don Quixote was eveidently still on Eric's mind. One of his ideas was to take this Don Quixote figure he had bought at the Reading Terminal Market and use it as a stand-in for the actual Don. The photo shown is an example of what you would have seen had our proposal been accepted. You can see more HERE.
Friday, December 09, 2005
Fashion progress ...
As you can see, the headwear I modelled just the other day is already catching on in the news room. Further evidence may be seen here.
Yours truly, of course, has already moved on to a grander design.
(Thanks to Ted Adams at Heudnsk Log.)
Remembering James Hilton ...
James Hilton was a very popular novelist in the '30s and '40s. He wrote Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Lost Horizon, and Random Harvest, all made into successful films (two with the great Ronald Colman). He even won an Oscar -- for the screenplay for Mrs. Miniver. I don't know whether anyone reads his books today -- though they are certainly worth reading. Ron Hogan, at Beatrice, recently posted some interesting remarks by Carolly Erickson about Hilton's Lost Horizon.
A chance to speak out ...
Naxos AudioBooks has a competition for Voice of the Year: "The Male Poetry Reader of the Year and the Female Poetry Reader of the Year will headline a 2-CD set – Poetry for the Winter Season – to be released in October 2006."
Many years ago -- I was in college -- one of the three major networks -- I don't remember which -- broadcast during prime time a program of poetry reading. It was a sort of cavalcade, one poem seguing into another. The one I remember best was Hurd Hatfield, the actor who had the title role in the classic film of The Picture of Dorian Gray, reciting T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of JU. Alfred Prufrock," strolling among the ladies in a drawing room. It was mesmerizing. I am convinced if more such were done more people would discover the power that poetry can have.
UPDATE: Here's a link to the Lannon Audio Archives.
Many years ago -- I was in college -- one of the three major networks -- I don't remember which -- broadcast during prime time a program of poetry reading. It was a sort of cavalcade, one poem seguing into another. The one I remember best was Hurd Hatfield, the actor who had the title role in the classic film of The Picture of Dorian Gray, reciting T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of JU. Alfred Prufrock," strolling among the ladies in a drawing room. It was mesmerizing. I am convinced if more such were done more people would discover the power that poetry can have.
UPDATE: Here's a link to the Lannon Audio Archives.
Worth noting ...
ScottMcLemee, over at Cogito, ergo Zoom, links to a piece he wrote a few years ago in the Chronicle of Higher Education, about the C.S. Lewis Wars.
Chicken Spaghetti links to a CJR Daily analysis of the NYT Book Review's 100 "notable" (no "best" for the august Times, I guess) books of the year. Seems the Times prefers its own.
Thane at Book Clan looks at some Silly Book Titles.
Chicken Spaghetti links to a CJR Daily analysis of the NYT Book Review's 100 "notable" (no "best" for the august Times, I guess) books of the year. Seems the Times prefers its own.
Thane at Book Clan looks at some Silly Book Titles.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Things we missed ...
Martyn Everett at Booksurfer links to a piece about the Bad Sex Award.
David Montgomery at Crime Fiction Dossier has his Holiday Gift Suggestions posted.
King Wenclas at Attacking the Demi-Puppets looks Into the Literary Future.
The Interboard Poetry Community's Poetry Competition winners for November have been posted. Congratulations all!
Jerry Jazz Musician has a competition to determine who will be the next Accent on Youth columnist. It could be you!
And check out Bill Peschel's posts on David Allen's Getting Things Done system. (I must look at this more carefully myself.)
David Montgomery at Crime Fiction Dossier has his Holiday Gift Suggestions posted.
King Wenclas at Attacking the Demi-Puppets looks Into the Literary Future.
The Interboard Poetry Community's Poetry Competition winners for November have been posted. Congratulations all!
Jerry Jazz Musician has a competition to determine who will be the next Accent on Youth columnist. It could be you!
And check out Bill Peschel's posts on David Allen's Getting Things Done system. (I must look at this more carefully myself.)
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
A little more about Colin Wilson ...
Scott McLemee adds some info to his column about Colin Wilson (scroll down).
Editor as dandy ...
I took time out the other day to model some vintage headwear. I think it's quite becoming, actually.
Sic transit gloria mundi ...
Essayist extraordinaire Joseph Epstein weighs critic Edmund Wilson in the balance and finds him wanting. Key paragraph:
Wilson was impressed by the two idea systems of Freudianism and Marxism, my own view is, because he was insufficiently impressed by life’s mysteries; as a professional explainer, he preferred problems that had solutions, questions for which there were answers, and in Freudianism and Marxism he found no shortage of both. I suspect his difficulty with Joseph Conrad and Franz Kafka, two major writers whose power he could never quite comprehend, stemmed from the fact that each took as his subject, precisely, the complex mystery of life: Conrad on the cosmic level, asking why we are put on earth; Kafka on the level of human nature, asking why we are as sadly and comically limited as we are.
Indeed.
Wilson was impressed by the two idea systems of Freudianism and Marxism, my own view is, because he was insufficiently impressed by life’s mysteries; as a professional explainer, he preferred problems that had solutions, questions for which there were answers, and in Freudianism and Marxism he found no shortage of both. I suspect his difficulty with Joseph Conrad and Franz Kafka, two major writers whose power he could never quite comprehend, stemmed from the fact that each took as his subject, precisely, the complex mystery of life: Conrad on the cosmic level, asking why we are put on earth; Kafka on the level of human nature, asking why we are as sadly and comically limited as we are.
Indeed.
A good question ...
... is raised in column by Bill Wineke in the Wisconsin State Journal, a link to which was sent to me by Roger Miller, who reviews for The Inquirer and was once a book editor himself. Wineke's piece is headlined Narnia comes from another academic world.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
One-stop shopping ...
Sarah Weinman offers a copious roundup of reviews.
And, as perhaps a corollary to thoughts on The State of Fiction, Bill Peschel recounts how Everybody Goes to Remaindertown.
And my colleague Richard Barron emails me a link to The House of Blogs, where you can find lots and lots of reviews -- and which I will now add to my blogroll.
And, as perhaps a corollary to thoughts on The State of Fiction, Bill Peschel recounts how Everybody Goes to Remaindertown.
And my colleague Richard Barron emails me a link to The House of Blogs, where you can find lots and lots of reviews -- and which I will now add to my blogroll.
The trouble with expertise ...
Theodore Dalrymple write about Shakespeare and much besides in "Truth vs. Theory" in the City Journal (hat tip to Arts & Letters Daily. Once again, cause for caution when it comes to experts and expertise.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Out of the depths of psychology ...
Harvard psych prof Daniel Gilbert recently posted a piece about "The Vagaries of Religious Experience" at Edge. It seems mostly an attempt to refute William Paley's proto-intelligent design argument (though Paley was not, as Gilbert would have it, a "naturalist" -- he was an Anglican priest, theologian and philosopher) by arguing that "highly ordered phenomena can and do emerge from random processes." But the example he uses -- coin tosses -- seems somewhat bizarre. "If we toss a coin for long enough, we eventually observe some highly ordered strings such as 'head, head, head, head, head, head' or 'head, tail, head, tail, head, tail.'" What highly ordered phenomena are these supposed to be? No predictable sequence will ever emerge. Even if one grants the premise -- that "highly ordered phenomena can and do emerge from random processes" -- the point would be to demonstrate that a given phenomenon has emerged from such processes.
Gilbert says that "statisticians have sophisticated techniques that can help determine whether a particular pattern of coin flips is so unlikely that it (like Paley's watch) can only be explained by a non-random process. But research in psychology has shown that people have rather poor intuitions in this regard, and that they tend to mistake the products of random processes for the products of non-random processes but not the other way around." OK, so people are unlikely, using their intuition, to arrive at a correct determination of whteher something emerged out of randomness. So skip the intuition, and use those "sophisticated techniques that can help determine" it. Stephen D. Unwin, a theoretical physicist turned risk analyst, wrote a book a couple of years ago called The Probability of God. Unwin makes skillful use of one of those sophisticated techniques statisticians have: Bayes's Theorem. Gilbert should take a look at Unwin's book.
Gilbert says that "statisticians have sophisticated techniques that can help determine whether a particular pattern of coin flips is so unlikely that it (like Paley's watch) can only be explained by a non-random process. But research in psychology has shown that people have rather poor intuitions in this regard, and that they tend to mistake the products of random processes for the products of non-random processes but not the other way around." OK, so people are unlikely, using their intuition, to arrive at a correct determination of whteher something emerged out of randomness. So skip the intuition, and use those "sophisticated techniques that can help determine" it. Stephen D. Unwin, a theoretical physicist turned risk analyst, wrote a book a couple of years ago called The Probability of God. Unwin makes skillful use of one of those sophisticated techniques statisticians have: Bayes's Theorem. Gilbert should take a look at Unwin's book.
A shared enthusiasm indeed ...
On Saturday I wrote a bit about Colin Wilson. Dave Lull sends me a very interesting piece about him by Scott McLemee: "A Killing Concept".
Year' s worst book ...
Robert Conquest, a poet who actually knows something about international relations (being also a historian and a former diplomat), thinks he's found the "Worst Book of the Year". (I'm not sure, but this may be available only to subscribers.)
Score one for me ...
The other day I opined in this post that "the recent surge in [oil] profits is neither typical nor sustainable." Now along comes the International Herald Tribune with this piece, in which John Browne, chief executive of BP, is quoted as calling current [oil price] levels "unsustainably high."
To return to the theme of that original post: Why are high gas prices front page news, but a 30 percent drop in gas prices isn't? Why is it news when the price of crude rises, but not when it falls (and it's fallen about $12 a barrel since the summer high)? Could this selectivity have anything to do with a drop in newspapers' credibility (essential to their survival, if anything is)? Here is another take on the selectivity theme -- note Columbia Journalism Review editor Steve Lovelady's singularly silly response.
And why is this of interest to a book review editor? Because book revewing is one of the principal areas in which newspapers have chosen to short-change readers. At least as many people read books as watch TV. But you'd never know that from reading newspapers.
To return to the theme of that original post: Why are high gas prices front page news, but a 30 percent drop in gas prices isn't? Why is it news when the price of crude rises, but not when it falls (and it's fallen about $12 a barrel since the summer high)? Could this selectivity have anything to do with a drop in newspapers' credibility (essential to their survival, if anything is)? Here is another take on the selectivity theme -- note Columbia Journalism Review editor Steve Lovelady's singularly silly response.
And why is this of interest to a book review editor? Because book revewing is one of the principal areas in which newspapers have chosen to short-change readers. At least as many people read books as watch TV. But you'd never know that from reading newspapers.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
The joy of serendipity ...
Yesterday I googled a phrase in a poem by Conrad Aiken and so came upon this, which led me to Kate Benedict. I particularly commend, for poets both aspiring and practcing The Rule of Benedict. I also liked the poetry that I read there enough to buy her book. But the way, she's right:
"Conrad Aiken’s poems deserve a much wider readership than they currently enjoy."
"Conrad Aiken’s poems deserve a much wider readership than they currently enjoy."
The state of fiction ...
Sand Storm reprints a piece in the Toronto Globe & Mail entitled "The Great Fiction Crash of 2005".
This is strictly from a Canadian perspective, so I don't know if it reflects things in this country, though I note that one of the publishers interviewed says that Canadian best-seller lists tend to be dominated by American writers. A few years ago, at BookExpo America, the annual confab of the publishing industry, many publishers reps I talked to said that things semed to be trending in the direction of strongly narrative nonfiction. That didn't surprise me, given how often critically approved fiction tends toward atmospherics rather than action and incident.
The lead of the Globe & Mail piece notwithstanding, I don't think The Da Vinci Code has had anything to do with this. Doubleday bent over backwards to publicize The Da Vinci Code and reaped the benefits. That even people with Ph. D.'s found the book plausible proves only that people can actually be educated beyond their intelligence. Had Scribners done for Anthony O'Neill's The Lamplighter what Doubleday did for The Da Vinci Code, I suspect O'Neill's book would have met with similar success. I still think it will be around decades after Dan Brown's tripe has been mercifully forgotten.
But I have a review to get to work on. Here's the Globe & Mail's Top 100 Books of 2005.
This is strictly from a Canadian perspective, so I don't know if it reflects things in this country, though I note that one of the publishers interviewed says that Canadian best-seller lists tend to be dominated by American writers. A few years ago, at BookExpo America, the annual confab of the publishing industry, many publishers reps I talked to said that things semed to be trending in the direction of strongly narrative nonfiction. That didn't surprise me, given how often critically approved fiction tends toward atmospherics rather than action and incident.
The lead of the Globe & Mail piece notwithstanding, I don't think The Da Vinci Code has had anything to do with this. Doubleday bent over backwards to publicize The Da Vinci Code and reaped the benefits. That even people with Ph. D.'s found the book plausible proves only that people can actually be educated beyond their intelligence. Had Scribners done for Anthony O'Neill's The Lamplighter what Doubleday did for The Da Vinci Code, I suspect O'Neill's book would have met with similar success. I still think it will be around decades after Dan Brown's tripe has been mercifully forgotten.
But I have a review to get to work on. Here's the Globe & Mail's Top 100 Books of 2005.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
A shared enthusiasm...
I know I'm not supposed to like Colin Wilson -- or at least I'm not supposed to take him seriously. But I've enjoyed a lot of his books. Poetry and Mysticism, for instance, turned me on to the poetry of Elizabethan scholar A. L. Rowse. I also think there is much to Wilson's insistence on the importance of peak experiences. John Morgan has mounted an excellent Colin Wilson Page and Morgan's Brief Introduction to Colin Wilson's Thought is excellent. Wilson will turn 75 next June. I am already planning to write something about him to honor the occasion.
In the meantime, here's an interview with him.
I also just bought some of Wilson's books. They were out of print, which gives me the opportunity to correct an oversight and introduce people to what I think is one of the best book sites on the Internet: Books & Book Collecting, a subset of Trussel's EclectiCity.
In the meantime, here's an interview with him.
I also just bought some of Wilson's books. They were out of print, which gives me the opportunity to correct an oversight and introduce people to what I think is one of the best book sites on the Internet: Books & Book Collecting, a subset of Trussel's EclectiCity.
Taking a closer look ...
... at the Carnival of Poetry, which I didn't have a chance to do yesterday at work -- because I had a lot of work to do -- I'm impressed by what I see. I haven't read through everything yet, but think it worth noting a few that especially appealed to me:
Six Stories by Sara Goudarzi
Night Blues by Ned Nedful
November Song by Jessamyn of Thereomorph
Vibe by Trebuchet of Legwarmers
The Song by Liz of Letting Me Be
Highway Hymn V by Ed of Life and Times (a very interesting modified sestina)
and
Grenadilla Tone by Garnet of Glittering Muse
As I say, these are just some that especially grabbed me upon first encounter. Do take a look. Find what you like.
Six Stories by Sara Goudarzi
Night Blues by Ned Nedful
November Song by Jessamyn of Thereomorph
Vibe by Trebuchet of Legwarmers
The Song by Liz of Letting Me Be
Highway Hymn V by Ed of Life and Times (a very interesting modified sestina)
and
Grenadilla Tone by Garnet of Glittering Muse
As I say, these are just some that especially grabbed me upon first encounter. Do take a look. Find what you like.
Friday, December 02, 2005
A paradox to ponder ...
Newspapers delight in denouncing any industry that appaears to be making unreasonably high profits -- witness all that's been in the papers recently about oil industry profits. In fact, over time, the average rate of profit in the oil and gas industry is something on the order of 8 cents on every dollar. The recent surge in profits is neither typical nor sustainable.
Newspapers, on the other hand, generally average profits in double-digits. Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., which owns The Inquirer, pulls in about 13 percent profit annually. This is thought to be insufficient. Parent Knight Ridder and Wall Street investors want something nearer to 20 percent. Newspapers have managed to maintain double-digit profit margins by cutting staff and space (newsprint is expensive). In fact, they have been consistently offering customers less of a product, but at the same price. If any other industry did that sort of thing, newspapers would be all over them.
Perhaps if newspapers functioned like other businesses and spent some of those profits enhancing rather than diminishing the product, they might find circulation and advertising increasing. Perhaps the margin of profit would be less, but the long-term health of the industry might improve.
Newspapers, on the other hand, generally average profits in double-digits. Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., which owns The Inquirer, pulls in about 13 percent profit annually. This is thought to be insufficient. Parent Knight Ridder and Wall Street investors want something nearer to 20 percent. Newspapers have managed to maintain double-digit profit margins by cutting staff and space (newsprint is expensive). In fact, they have been consistently offering customers less of a product, but at the same price. If any other industry did that sort of thing, newspapers would be all over them.
Perhaps if newspapers functioned like other businesses and spent some of those profits enhancing rather than diminishing the product, they might find circulation and advertising increasing. Perhaps the margin of profit would be less, but the long-term health of the industry might improve.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
More odds & ends ...
Lynn Viehl takes a look at the NYT's 100 best books of 2005 -- and isn't exactly thrilled by what she sees. (Hat tip to Bill Peschel.)
On Sunday, at the Manayunk Art Center, they're having an Artists' Co-op Show, featuring work by Luke Harris, followed by a reading by poets included in Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania.
On Sunday, at the Manayunk Art Center, they're having an Artists' Co-op Show, featuring work by Luke Harris, followed by a reading by poets included in Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania.
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