Sunday, September 22, 2013
Saturday, September 21, 2013
A classic turns 60 …
… Shane, a one-man cavalry in the lawless West. - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This is interesting …
This was sent me by my godson, Ben Knox, who is 12. Warning: As the title should make plain, the language can be pretty strong. I think what is missing is romance.
Post bumped. I didn't notice that the embed had dropped off.
Centenary …
… Celebrating 100 years of the Lincoln Highway – CNN Photos - CNN.com Blogs.
Eric was the photographer for The Inquirer's Bloomsday centenary special report. It was his idea, actually. I just went along to do some reporting.
Eric was the photographer for The Inquirer's Bloomsday centenary special report. It was his idea, actually. I just went along to do some reporting.
TxtngHiku
Mashing
up two totally contradictory things...one a timeless art form;the other
a transient method of communicating:
I
C U B & I B
U 2; 4 U &
I = 1; not W
U 2; 4 U &
I = 1; not W
In
compressed form:
ICUB&IB
U2; 4U&
I=1;notW
I=1;notW
or
ICUB&U2IB4U&I=1notW
Come
to think of it, ancient Geek had no punctuation...and ancient Hebrew lacked
punctuation and vowels...compressed writing there too...and I am not sure that
all the witting since has approached the glory of the best of their works.
.I m sur u can do beter -- comnts r opn... ;)
Look and listen …
… Richard Rodriguez at "In the Logos of Love", University of Dayton 9/20 on Vimeo. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Once upon a time, I was a teaching assistant at the University of Dayton.
Once upon a time, I was a teaching assistant at the University of Dayton.
In case you wondered …
… Go To Hellman: Booksmash's Lust-O-Meter Shows How Innovation Happens. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Where it all went wrong …
… Twitter / BananaKarenina: Now that is what I call a ... (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Man without qualities?
… The Inner Life of James Bond - James Parker - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Was James Bond—neck-snapper, escape artist, serial shagger—the last repudiation of his creator’s cultural pedigree? Take that, fancy books; take that, whiskered shrinks. I, Ian Fleming, give you a hero almost without psychology: a bleak circuit of appetites, sensations, and prejudices, driven by a mechanical imperative called “duty.” In Jungian-alchemical terms, 007 is like lead, the metal associated with the dark god Saturn, lying coldly at the bottom of the crucible and refusing transformation. Boil him, slash him, poison him, flog him with a carpet beater and shoot his woman—Bond will not be altered.
Good heavens …
… The detective is a shamanic figure – Jason Webster – Aeon. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Religion sneaking in the back door once again.One only needs to look at the names of famous sleuths to see how deeply they draw on the authority of religion. The most obvious example is John Rhode’s forensic scientist Dr Priestley in the 1920s, followed in the 1950s by John Creasey’s Commander George Gideon (think hotel Bibles). Even among contemporary characters, names with religious connotations are common: Adrian Monk and John Luther have both been recent hits on television, while Michael Dibdin’s Aurelio Zen, James Patterson’s Alex Cross and Leslie Charteris’s Simon Templar, alias ‘The Saint’, are hugely popular literary creations.
Hmm …
… The American Spectator : Darwinism and Materialism: They Sink or Swim Together.
… Science Beyond Materialism.
(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… Science Beyond Materialism.
(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I was interested to see that Rupert Sheldrake objects to Intelligent Design theory for the same reason I do, "because it assumes a mechanistic view of nature." It is, at least, consistent. If you assume the world is a machine, it's hard to see how you can get by without a mechanic. A.S. Byatt, in review of works by the Icelandic author Sjón, which I linked to here, quotes a character in Sjón's The Blue Fox: “I have seen the universe! It is made of poems!” That's more my view.
A thought for today …
It is wonderful what strength of purpose and boldness and energy of will are roused by the assurance that we are doing our duty.
— Sir Walter Scott, who died on this date in 1832
Friday, September 20, 2013
The perils of Franzen …
… Jennifer Weiner Responds to Jonathan Franzen | New Republic.
Perhaps Franzen should just be shunned.
Perhaps Franzen should just be shunned.
Preview …
… Jack Kerouac's 'Big Sur' is coming to movie screens: See the trailer — latimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
FYI …
… Teaching Sucks — But We Love It Anyway! a Little Insight Into the Profession You Think You Know: Frank Stepnowski: 9781432799717: Amazon.com: Books.
I wrote a piece about Frank a couple a years ago, so I'm glad to plug his new book.
I wrote a piece about Frank a couple a years ago, so I'm glad to plug his new book.
Question mark?
We sing only the first stanza of Key's song, but the Star-Spangled Banner actually has four verses. Only the first stanza ends with a question mark. You can read the other four stanzas, which include plenty of exclamation marks but no question marks.
Today some people choose to interpret Key's words—and the question mark—more broadly, not just as a question of whether the flag is still flying, but as a moment to reflect on whether we are upholding the ideals embodied in the vision of America as the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Failure?
Gradually, as Munk becomes more attuned to this feature of Sachs’s thinking, and more confident in her judgments, it becomes clear that she has no interest in burnishing the Great Professor’s ample legend. On the contrary: Her book is a devastating portrait of hubris and its consequences.
Accurate?
With Google’s new tool Ngram Viewer, you can visualise the rise and fall of particular keywords across 5 million books and 500 years!
Tyranny alert …
… New York librarian fired after defending child who dominated reading contest | Fox News.
Casey told the Post Star that she couldn't believe she was fired and asked a library board member why she was fired, and was told the board would not give a reason.
Nobody should be fired without good cause, and that cause should be stated.
A new modern …
… A Magus of the North by A.S. Byatt | The New York Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
We are bedeviled in our time by a muddle about the words “modern” and “modernism.” Modernism is by now not modern at all—we are told a story about it that says if we have understood Sterne and James Joyce all sorts of writing become impossible. We have had postmodernism and its game-playing, which are also no longer modern. We need a word for modern which is not the same as “contemporary,” something to do with the nature of literary forms. I feel that Sjón’s use of very many interwoven stories, old and new, is a new modern phenomenon. In an interview with The Coffin Factory he declared that he is “almost immune to the realist novel. I have a hard time reading a realist novel,…and I’m, of course, always very happy when I discover somewhere in the realist novel that the novelist has given in to some sort of folkish element.”
A thought for today …
God is therefore unknowable. This is the fundamental premise of the Bible.
— Leo Strauss, born on this date in 1899
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Transvaluation of values …
… Humiliate the Respectable, Cherish the Criminal — New English Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Butterflies for words …
… BOOKTRYST: The Butterfly Art of Vladimir Nabokov: A Love Story. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.(
The Pope Rocks!
“The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all... The church’s ministers must be merciful, take responsibility for the people and accompany them like the good Samaritan, who washes, cleans and raises up his neighbor. This is pure Gospel. God is greater than sin. The structural and organizational reforms are secondary—that is, they come afterward. The first reform must be the attitude. The ministers of the Gospel must be people who can warm the hearts of the people, who walk through the dark night with them, who know how to dialogue and to descend themselves into their people’s night, into the darkness, but without getting lost. The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials. …
…
I mention to Pope Francis that there are Christians who live in situations that are irregular for the church or in complex situations that represent open wounds. I mention the divorced and remarried, same-sex couples and other difficult situations. What kind of pastoral work can we do in these cases? What kinds of tools can we use?
“We need to proclaim the Gospel on every street corner,” the pope says, “preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing, even with our preaching, every kind of disease and wound. In Buenos Aires I used to receive letters from homosexual persons who are ‘socially wounded’ because they tell me that they feel like the church has always condemned them. But the church does not want to do this. During the return flight from Rio de Janeiro I said that if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge. By saying this, I said what the catechism says. Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.
A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person.
Since Frank's Away ...
A man
races into a bar, sweating and visibly shaken. He turns to all the
patrons and starts yelling, "Does anyone own a six-foot penguin? Does
anyone own a six-foot penguin?"
All the patrons shake their head.
The guy says, "Damn, I hit a nun."
All the patrons shake their head.
The guy says, "Damn, I hit a nun."
"How to Write Less Badly"
Fortunately, the standards of writing in most disciplines are so low that you don't need to write well. What I have tried to produce below are 10 tips on scholarly nonfiction writing that might help people write less badly.From the Comments:
Professor Munger [author] should purchase a grammar textbook, diagram his sentences, and rewrite the article. And like you know, man, like this is pretty much a lot of emblematic stuff of political science gettin close to the hood!!! My elementary English teacher would be apoplectic and fail me for violation of the basic rules.
Randolph M. Ferlic
Regent, University of Nebraska
Both the title and the first sentence are examples of poor writing. Was that intentional? I'm not good at subtleties. They certainly made me doubt that the rest of the article could have much to offer in the way of good advice!
Blogging note …
I have a day of appointments ahead of me and have got off to a late start. So blogging won't even begin until I get home sometime this afternoon. You are, however, in excellent hands with my partners.
A thought for today …
My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.
— William Golding, born on this date in 1911
Experts!!! Are So ... Expert!!!
Malthus, Jevons, Beal, Hubbert, the authors of Limits to Growth, Hirsch and the modern peak-oilers all failed to see how technology was already changing the world even as they wrote, and would alter it beyond recognition within just a few years.
We are likely to hear much less about food and fuel running out, at least for a little while. But if the past is anything to go by, sometime in the 2020s or 2030s, as memories fade, fears about resource scarcity will be resurrected, in another subtle variation on an old theme.
When they do, commentators would do well to remember predictions about food and fuel scarcities have come and gone in waves for almost 250 years – and been proved wrong repeatedl
Malthusianism ...
Sir David Attenborough has said that he is not optimistic about the future and that people should be persuaded against having large families.
The broadcaster and naturalist, who earlier this year described humans as "a plague on Earth", also said he believed humans have stopped evolving physically and genetically because of birth control and abortion, but that cultural evolution is proceeding "with extraordinary swiftness".
Heartwarming generosity...
...Samantha Geimer on Roman Polanski: 'We email a little bit'
Over the decades, she has seen public response to her own story change with the times. "You'll notice the culture has shifted so that everything has swung the other way and now it's Roman the Monster. And then it was my mum and I the monsters." They were called liars and gold-diggers. Gore Vidal called her a hooker. "It was terrible and unwarranted, but not shocking. Well, some of it was shocking." It was also a long time ago. Polanski should be allowed to resolve his legal issues and come back to the US, she says. "Because that's what would be fair. Because it's the right thing." And her? She smiles. "I'm fine."
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Listen in …
… Podcast: The Importance of Being Out | Virtual Memories.
This is a chat with Ed Hermance of Giovanni's Room.
This is a chat with Ed Hermance of Giovanni's Room.
Footwork …
… A Walker in the City : The New Yorker. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There's no better way to get to know a place than on foot.
There's no better way to get to know a place than on foot.
Good choices …
… Christianity in Three Books? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The key to these works is that they portray faith from the angle of encounter, not in terms of a process of ratiocination, something lived, not merely thought about.
The key to these works is that they portray faith from the angle of encounter, not in terms of a process of ratiocination, something lived, not merely thought about.
Hmm …
… Review of Ronald Dworkin, 'Religion Without God' | Inside Higher Ed. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“Numinous” is the term Rudolf Otto coined in The Idea of the Holy (1917) to name an overwhelming experience of the grandeur, power, order, significance, and strangeness (“otherness”) of the universe, or of being itself. It can be blissful, and it can be terrifying.But the numinous as understood by Otto and those he visited to arrive at the term includes a component of personality. It is, fundamentally, the experience of reality, not as a thing or a process, but as imbued with the presence of an Other through it and with it and in it.
Pet Words
At the end of the day, when darkness falls, a concordance turns out to be a sort of sky chart to the assembling night. It shows how the poet’s mind constellates.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
Marc A. Hermann, historian of the New York Press Photographers Association, has juxtaposed then and now photos of New York City, bringing back to life people and stories of the Big Apple’s past.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Bogus investigation of reality …
… Bryan Appleyard — The Milgram Experiment: Eichmanns in the Lab. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hmm …
… Pope not Catholic reports The Independent. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sounds pretty orthodox to me. Of course, the Pope is a Jesuit, and I was taught by Jesuits.
Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart.
No latecomer …
… The Novella’s Long Life. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
No mention in here of E.K. Bennett's The History of the German Novelle, which demarcates the form from other kinds of prose fiction, showing that its essential note is that it focuses on a single striking and fateful event.
No mention in here of E.K. Bennett's The History of the German Novelle, which demarcates the form from other kinds of prose fiction, showing that its essential note is that it focuses on a single striking and fateful event.
Not Just Old Structures! The Oldest!
... so far ...
As Chesterton noted:THE world's oldest temple, Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey, may have been built to worship the dog star, Sirius.The 11,000-year-old site consists of a series of at least 20 circular enclosures, although only a few have been uncovered since excavations began in the mid-1990s. Each one is surrounded by a ring of huge, T-shaped stone pillars, some of which are decorated with carvings of fierce animals. Two more megaliths stand parallel to each other at the centre of each ring (see illustration).Göbekli Tepe put a dent in the idea of the Neolithic revolution, which said that the invention of agriculture spurred humans to build settlements and develop civilisation, art and religion. There is no evidence of agriculture near the temple, hinting that religion came first in this instance.
The substance of all such paganism may be summarized thus. It is an attempt to reach the divine reality through the imagination alone; in its own field reason does not restrain it at all. It is vital to view of all history that reason is something separate from religion even in the most rational of these civilizations. It is only as an afterthought, when such cults are decadent or on the defensive, that a few Neo-Platonists or a few Brahmins are found trying to rationalize them, and even then only by trying to allegorize them. But in reality the rivers of mythology and philosophy run parallel and do not mingle till they meet in the sea of Christendom. Simple secularists still talk as if the Church had introduced a sort of schism between reason and religion.
The truth is that the Church was actually the first thing that ever tried to combine reason and religion. There had never before been any such union of the priests and the philosophers. Mythology, then, sought god through the imagination; or sought truth by means of beauty, in the sense in which beauty includes much of the most grotesque ugliness.
And the nominees are …
… 2013 National Book Award Longlist for Poetry and Young People’s Literature. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Wow!
Bestselling author James Patterson wants to support independent bookstores, and he's putting his money where his heart is. On Monday he pledged to give $1 million to independent bookstores in the next year.
...
People interested in learning more can fill out a form on Patterson's website.
The future of publishing?
...From Mars
Goldberg’s vision—with its triumph of mathematical certainties over editorial art—reminded me of the infinite-monkey theorem: if you were to have monkeys randomly strike typewriters for an infinite amount of time, the proposition goes, they would eventually type the complete works of Shakespeare. If you assemble a sufficiently large and diverse group of young, female writers, they will eventually produce a Web site that is popular with young women.I think that's a very poor analogy.
A thought for today …
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
— Samuel Johnson, born on this date in 1709
A thought for today …
Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.
— Marquis de Condorcet, born on this date in 1743
Monday, September 16, 2013
Kindred spirits …
… John O'Hara and F. Scott Fitzgerald | Anne Margaret Daniel. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hmm …
… Can Faith Ever Be Rational? : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture : NPR. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The question as to whether God is or isn't cannot be conclusively answered by reason alone. Richard Dawkins's atheism is as much a matter of faith my theism is.
The question as to whether God is or isn't cannot be conclusively answered by reason alone. Richard Dawkins's atheism is as much a matter of faith my theism is.
Jack and whacks …
… Article asks whether concussions hastened Kerouac's demise - Lowell Sun Online. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Contemporary rhetoric?
I am curious. Am I the only person who foundit peculiar that the President would segue from comments about the terrible shooting at the DC Navy Yard into what seemed a stump speech about the economy? I can't remember seeing anything quite like that in my life.
Mixed takedown …
… Jonathan Franzen sounds off pompously about the internet. Prepare for a really, really bad book – Telegraph Blogs. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
True, "trying to do a Malcolm Gladwell" is enough to have a person marked down an ass. But the business about "privacy paranoics" grievously undercuts the rant. I suggest Mr. Wright read this:
True, "trying to do a Malcolm Gladwell" is enough to have a person marked down an ass. But the business about "privacy paranoics" grievously undercuts the rant. I suggest Mr. Wright read this:
Four Principles for a Libertarian National Security State. I am not at all hostile to technology or the Internet or Amazon, but I don't see how it follows from that that I must live in a surveillance state. If Wright really thinks the state is over-ridingly interested in protecting the innocent, he is as naïve as Franzen is pompous.
'Barbarians Win, They Always Do'
I love the remark made by one Oxford don about another: ‘On the surface, he’s profound, but deep down, he’s superficial.’ That sentence has more than once come to mind when reading the new atheists.
Literary typos …
… The Surprising History of Poetical Misprints � The Dabbler. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A thought for today …
Life is composed of exquisite moments and the rest is shadows of them.
— T. E. Hulme, born on this date in 1883
New Worship Structures ...
A leaked copy of the world’s most authoritative climate study reveals scientific forecasts of imminent doom were drastically wrong.
...
Prof Allen said: ‘The idea of producing a document of near-biblical infallibility is a misrepresentation of how science works, and we need to look very carefully about what the IPCC does in future.’
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)