Saturday, October 19, 2013
For those who like this sort of thing …
… this is the sort of thing they like: The 5 Most Elegiac Lines in Claudia Roth Pierpont's Elegy to Philip Ro | New Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The Dorabella Cipher
It was the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, 1897. Through a
periscope, England was sailing along in all its hope and glory. That
summer Edward Elgar turned 40 and was slowly emerging as the country’s
greatest composer.
...
On July 14, following a visit the previous weekend to some family friends, the Reverend and Mrs. Alfred Penny, Elgar spun off what looked like a drawing or scribble and gave it to his wife, Alice, to attach to a thank-you note. It was intended for Dora Penny, a 23-year-old ardent admirer, who sang in a local choral group and liked to dance.
...
The scribble, known as the Dorabella Cipher, has never been decrypted and stands with such other famous unsolved puzzles as the Voynich Manuscript, a 240-page codex dating from the 15th century; the Phaistos Disk, an apparently Bronze-age piece of clay found in Crete in 1908; and the Zodiac Killer ciphers of the 1960s and ’70s.
...
On July 14, following a visit the previous weekend to some family friends, the Reverend and Mrs. Alfred Penny, Elgar spun off what looked like a drawing or scribble and gave it to his wife, Alice, to attach to a thank-you note. It was intended for Dora Penny, a 23-year-old ardent admirer, who sang in a local choral group and liked to dance.
...
The scribble, known as the Dorabella Cipher, has never been decrypted and stands with such other famous unsolved puzzles as the Voynich Manuscript, a 240-page codex dating from the 15th century; the Phaistos Disk, an apparently Bronze-age piece of clay found in Crete in 1908; and the Zodiac Killer ciphers of the 1960s and ’70s.
Scacity v. Abundance Publishing - the World is Changing?
Traditional
publishing, like network television, is built on scarcity. In traditional
publishing, “airtime” was shelf space...
Because
the shelf space is limited, traditional publishers only kept books with a
fantastic sales record in print. The other books had a short shelf life before
they were taken out of the stores and eventually out of print.
…
Everyone
currently working in traditional publishing, from the publishers to the editors
to the writers, learned the scarcity attitude. Everyone. That includes
me. That includes any unpublished writer who tried to break in before 18 months
ago. That includes agents. That includes book reviewers, copy editors, book
editors, and the publishing executives.
Our
attitudes got formed in a model based on limited shelf space and expensive
production costs. On “gut” decisions instead of quantifiable decisions.
...
The
very idea of abundance is confusing. How, everyone raised in scarcity wants to
know, does anyone find anything? How can something become “big”?
People
who come at publishing from the new world of publishing—always-available
titles, e-books that might stay in print forever—understand the long tail. They
understand that something may not be a hit when it first appears, but word of
mouth (or an abundance of page views) will lead to a wider audience. That wider
audience will then bring its friends and family to the table, introducing yet
another new group of people to the item.
These
two attitudes—scarcity thinking and abundance thinking—are greatly different
from each other. In scarcity thinking, the bigger the audience, the better.
Which means that items have to be geared toward a mass audience because you
need to hit a home run one out of one hundred times.
Abundance
thinking takes the pressure off each individual item. Instead of trying to
appeal to millions with one item, appealing to thousands or even hundreds works
just as well provided there are other items available from the same
company/individual/provider. The other items don’t have to be similar to
the first item (although it’s nice if there’s a grouping). Niche audiences
communicate with each other, and slowly bring the fan base to the table.
Traditional
publishing, like network television, is built on scarcity. In
traditional publishing, “airtime” was shelf space. Only so many
brick-and-mortar stores that carried books (of any type) existed. Those
stores only had room for a certain amount of shelf space. Only a handful
of books could fit face-out on those shelves. Several more could fit
spine-out, but it’s harder to sell a book based on its spine than it is
to sell a book based on the cover.
Because the shelf space is limited, traditional publishers only kept books with a fantastic sales record in print. The other books had a short shelf life before they were taken out of the stores and eventually out of print.
I called this the produce model, because I couldn’t think of any other way to express what was going on. Traditional publishers treated books like produce that would spoil because, in effect, sales do decline if a book has been out for a long time. (Sales don’t evaporate and in some cases, sales increase. But they will eventually plateau.)
- See more at: http://kriswrites.com/2012/03/14/the-business-rusch-scarcity-and-abundance/#sthash.NbjHuIDZ.dpuf
Because the shelf space is limited, traditional publishers only kept books with a fantastic sales record in print. The other books had a short shelf life before they were taken out of the stores and eventually out of print.
I called this the produce model, because I couldn’t think of any other way to express what was going on. Traditional publishers treated books like produce that would spoil because, in effect, sales do decline if a book has been out for a long time. (Sales don’t evaporate and in some cases, sales increase. But they will eventually plateau.)
- See more at: http://kriswrites.com/2012/03/14/the-business-rusch-scarcity-and-abundance/#sthash.NbjHuIDZ.dpuf
RIP …
… Craig Erick "C.E." Chaffin Obituary: View Craig Chaffin's Obituary by The Mendocino Beacon. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Nothing like it …
… Proust Is in Focus as Swann's Way Turns 100 — WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… the story couldn't be simpler. It's about a young man of an unspecified age who enjoys reading, who is shy and introspective, but not necessarily awkward or antisocial, who likes his mother, who wants to travel to Venice but, because of poor health, never quite manages to do so until later in life. Marcel, the hero of Proust's autobiographical novel, loves nature, music, restaurants, hotels, beaches, churches, art, theater, Paris, fantasizes about friendships and girls, dissects the grown-ups around him with no less unforgiving irony and acuity than when he studies himself, and ultimately worships the good and beautiful things of life, hoping one day to craft the story of his maturation as a human being and as an artist.
Kaip tau einas …
… Tomas Venclova speaks at the EU about his mother tongue and an “eccentric, capricious city.” | The Book Haven.
The lead-in is about the only Lithuanian I remember from when a friend tried to teach it to me years ago.
The lead-in is about the only Lithuanian I remember from when a friend tried to teach it to me years ago.
Notable and quotable …
… 21 Best Tom Clancy Quotes - The Daily Beast.
Most of these sound about right to me, but it's easy to figure which ones the people at the Beast might object to.
Most of these sound about right to me, but it's easy to figure which ones the people at the Beast might object to.
Oh, no …
… www.culturalcognition.net - Cultural Cognition Blog - Some data on education, religiosity, ideology, and science comprehension.
… I still subscribe to my various political and moral assessments--all very negative-- of what I understand the "Tea Party movement" to stand for. I just no longer assume that the people who happen to hold those values are less likely than people who share my political outlooks to have acquired the sorts of knowledge and dispositions that a decent science comprehension scale measures.
A thought for today …
To believe only possibilities is not faith, but mere philosophy.
— Sir Thomas Browne, born on this date in 1605
Friday, October 18, 2013
Some would call him a pompous, elitist horse's a...Not here though!
...identifying with the Tea Party correlates positively (r = 0.05, p = 0.05) with scores on the science comprehension measure...
I've got to confess, though, I found this result surprising. As I pushed the button to run the analysis on my computer, I fully expected I'd be shown a modest negative correlation between identifying with the Tea Party and science comprehension.
But then again, I don't know a single person who identifies with the Tea Party. All my impressions come from watching cable tv -- & I don't watch Fox News very often -- and reading the "paper" (New York Times daily, plus a variety of politics-focused internet sites like Huffington Post & Politico).
I'm a little embarrassed, but mainly I'm just glad that I no longer hold this particular mistaken view.Yale Professor Tal Kopan in The Politico.
Of course, I still subscribe to my various political and moral assessments--all very negative-- of what I understand the "Tea Party movement" to stand for. I just no longer assume that the people who happen to hold those values are less likely than people who share my political outlooks to have acquired the sorts of knowledge and dispositions that a decent science comprehension scale measures.
Something delightful …
One of the highlights of my career in journalism was having the chance to interview Lou Harrison. This is a wonderful piece..
Indian summer …
… David Hockney's Restless Decade - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Mr. Hockney says he's fully recovered from a medical scare last October, when his longtime friend and curator, Gregory Evans, noticed the artist was having trouble ending sentences. Tests revealed he'd suffered a minor stroke. His first subject when he returned to work was what he has dubbed his "totem tree"—a tall tree trunk that starred in some of his kaleidoscopic landscapes and became a landmark for Hockney fans.
Living faith …
… Praying With Terrence Malick | The American Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Prayer is what faith is all about.
Prayer is what faith is all about.
FYI …
… Paris Review – See You There: The Paris Review in Philadelphia, Sadie Stein. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In case you wondered …
… Why Glenn Greenwald’s new media venture is a big deal. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well worth doing …
… A Commonplace Blog: Remembering JVC. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sometime back in the '70s, I reviewed Cunningham's Collected Poems. Not long after I got a letter from him thanking me. I remember he said that it was "nice to be praised for the things one would want to be praised for." I replied and asked him if he would look at some of my poems. I was at the time playing around a lot with medieval verse forms, villanelles and the like. He told me to send along some, and he wrote back with the best advice I ever got about my poetry: "You have perfected a style. Now you have to learn what to do with it." I probably still have those letters around somewhere.
Remembering …
… Nigeness: A Good Egg: Thomas Love Peacock. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
One of his novels (Melincourt) features an orang-utan, Sir Auron Haut-Ton, who stands for Parliament …Sounds like a distinct improvement on what the current political class has on offer.
Spooky verse …
… ‘Trick-or-Treat’ and ‘Your Skeleton is Showing’ - NYTimes.com. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
I think these are great …
… Rus Bowden Member Profile -- National Geographic Your Shot.
I'm especially fond of the is guy: http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photos/2105701/. As Jean Shepherd would say, a fabulous figure and a great American.
I'm especially fond of the is guy: http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photos/2105701/. As Jean Shepherd would say, a fabulous figure and a great American.
When TV was a wasteland …
Thanks to Anthony DiFlorio for sending this along. (Don't know how the link had disappeared the first time around.)
Tackling chums …
Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin: the double act | TLS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“Bowen thought about Fielding. Perhaps it was worth dying in your forties if two hundred years later you were the only non-contemporary novelist who could be read with unaffected and whole-hearted interest, the only one who never had to be apologized for or excused on grounds of changing taste. And how enviable to live in the world of his novels, where duty was plain, evil arose out of malevolence and a starving wayfarer could be invited indoors without fear. Did that make it a simplified world? Perhaps, but that hardly mattered beside the existence of a moral seriousness that could be made apparent without evangelical puffing and huffing.”
A thought for today …
Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, 'This is the real me,' and when you have found that attitude, follow it.
— James Truslow Adams, born on this date in 1878
Thursday, October 17, 2013
A thought for today …
The imagination is not an escape, but a return to the richness of our true selves; a return to reality.
— George Mackay Brown, born on this date in 1921
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Creepy? Or Beauty?
Paul Koudounaris' "catacomb saints" book: Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs,
in which he documents the martyred bones’ journey from ancient Roman catacombs to hallowed altars to forgotten corners and back rooms. Though largely neglected by history, the skeletons, he found, had plenty to say.
Hmm …
… Christian, Not Conservative | The American Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Robinson’s critiques, if at times broad-brush, provide an always-needed reminder that the church should never allow itself to be simply the Republican Party at prayer.
Well, it shouldn't be the Democratic Party at prayer, either.
Robinson’s critiques, if at times broad-brush, provide an always-needed reminder that the church should never allow itself to be simply the Republican Party at prayer.
Well, it shouldn't be the Democratic Party at prayer, either.
A thought for today …
Women are made to be loved, not understood.
— Oscar Wilde, born on this date in 1854
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Books, Inq: Identifying the Trends So You Don't Have To ...
Conservative Catholics question Pope Francis’s approachWe had this story weeks before the WaPo. (and I don't think, because of pronunciation difficulties, the 's should be there either ...)
The International Herald Tribune ...
This is the last time you will be reading The International Herald Tribune; as of tomorrow, it is The International New York Times.
I remember reading about the International
Herald Tribune in novels. It always
seemed to be such an exotic reference, used by the characters to pass spy messages within its classifieds, and other such things.
In January 1991, I was overseas in the Hague, a young and callow lawyer on business
trip, in my small European hotel, in the room where Anna Pavlova had died of pleurisy in 1931, and had CNN International on, with James Earl
Jones' station intro voice over ("This is CNN...") and the US suddenly went to
war in Iraq, and Bernard Shaw was reporting from his hotel in Bagdad, audio
only..."the cruise missile is coming overhead, I can see it from my
room...”
That was the first time I experienced
live that same exotica.
Lucky 13 …
… Nobel Prize in Literature: the women who've won it - Telegraph. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden .)
The course of true love …
… C.S. Lewis's Joy in Marriage | Christianity Today. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
E.O. Wilson's Contradictions ...
Wilson is at once a moralist (“The time has come,” he says in The Social Conquest of Earth, for an ethic that “places value on the whole of diversity ... instead of using it to justify prejudice and conflict”) and a moral determinist, holding that moral decisions are causal and impulse-driven rather than rational and free. He cannot resist trying to have it both ways: we are free and determined; rational and instinctual; autonomous and mechanistic.
As we learned here though, science in the form of particle physics -- i.e., the foundational science about the nature of matter -- is not and cannot be mechanistic.
A thought for today …
Memories are like mulligatawny soup in a cheap restaurant. It is best not to stir them.
— P. G. Wodehouse, born on this date in 1881
Monday, October 14, 2013
Another thought for today …
Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, you can't build on it, it's only good for wallowing in.
— Katherine Mansfield, born on this date in 1888
This is a sentiment I share. Maybe because it's my birthday also.
I coulda been a stagehand …
… Unions Take High Culture Hostage | Hoover Institution. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The incident at Carnegie Hall raised more than a few eyebrows when it was revealed that the strike was organized by the five full-time Carnegie Hall stagehands who were members of Local One. Their annual compensation in wages and overtime averaged a cool $419,000 per year, making them—one properties manager, two carpenters, and two electricians—five of the seven highest paid workers at Carnegie Hall after Carnegie CEO Clive Gillenson.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Dylan On Dylan ...
"No, no, no," Bob Dylan says sharply when asked if aspiring songwriters should learn their craft by studying his albums, which is precisely what thousands have done for decades. ...
Dylan pursued his muse in New York with an appetite for anything he felt would help him improve his craft, whether it was learning old blues and folk songs or soaking up literature.
"I had read a lot of poetry by the time I wrote a lot of those early songs," he volunteers. "I was into the hard-core poets. I read them the way some people read Stephen King. I had also seen a lot of it growing up. Poe's stuff knocked me out in more ways than I could name. Byron and Keats and all those guys. John Donne.
"Byron's stuff goes on and on and on and you don't know half the things he's talking about or half the people he's addressing. But you could appreciate the language."
HIpsters in Philly ...
from philly.com:
Hipsters could help improve the reputation of Philadelphia, which keeps showing up on lists among the dirtiest cities, the ugliest cities, the most unfriendly cities. Hipsters, if they shave, can change all that. They wear fashionable glasses and use trash to make art, and the only time they are unfriendly is when they feel that a car has disrespected them as they weave illegally through traffic
Hipsters
could help improve the reputation of Philadelphia, which keeps showing
up on lists among the dirtiest cities, the ugliest cities, the most
unfriendly cities. Hipsters, if they shave, can change all that. They
wear fashionable glasses and use trash to make art, and the only time
they are unfriendly is when they feel that a car has disrespected them
as they weave illegally through traffic.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131013_Phila__should_be_grateful_to_its_hipsters.html#SsqjmSc8j6BjmvIR.99
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131013_Phila__should_be_grateful_to_its_hipsters.html#SsqjmSc8j6BjmvIR.99
Hipsters
could help improve the reputation of Philadelphia, which keeps showing
up on lists among the dirtiest cities, the ugliest cities, the most
unfriendly cities. Hipsters, if they shave, can change all that. They
wear fashionable glasses and use trash to make art, and the only time
they are unfriendly is when they feel that a car has disrespected them
as they weave illegally through traffic.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131013_Phila__should_be_grateful_to_its_hipsters.html#SsqjmSc8j6BjmvIR.99
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131013_Phila__should_be_grateful_to_its_hipsters.html#SsqjmSc8j6BjmvIR.99
Indie Covers ...
if you’d started in indie publishing two years ago, you could do what you very well pleased (more or less) to the cover and be okay. This is because we were all so new that we were trying to figure out how to do covers (and mostly failing) and as long as you had a picture and a title on it and the aspect wasn’t 2 inches by fifty five, so that you had to page off the computer to get all the cover, yay, you go.
BUT now everyone else has upped their game (except the traditional houses, but that’s fine) so you have to also, or you stick out like a sore thumb.
Humming proposition …
… Philosophy Weekend: Singing Out For John Rawls | Literary Kicks. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Be very afraid …
… Taleb reveals unsettling truths | Anirudh Sethi Report. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
At the national level, the system is more fragile. One tall tower is more likely to fall in a storm than a lawn of grass. This leads to Taleb’s contention that US federal debt is the most fragile of all, and should be decentralised, because default is unthinkable. Hence, “I’m kind of happy with what’s happening in the US now. We’d like the government periodically to come back with a plan, just like a corporation that has a debt addiction.”
Well worth watching …
… Owen Barfield's Evolution of Consciousness - Philosophy and Life. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hatchet Job by Mark Kermode – review | Books | The Guardian
… Hatchet Job by Mark Kermode – review | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… In discussing the demise of the film projector's profession he glosses a well‑worn media studies shibboleth thus: "when it comes to the inevitable change from analogue to digital, the medium is not the message – at least, not in its entirety." This is an observation Kermode wishes to extend to every aspect of the web revolution, but I somehow doubt that he's ever actually read Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media; or, if he did, he simply cannot have understood it. McLuhan's point is that when it comes to the impact of new media on the human consciousness – both individual and collective – content is an irrelevance; we have to look not at what is on the screen, but how the screen is used. McLuhan saw in the early 1960s that all the brouhaha about what imagery was shown on television and what words were spoken was so much guff; the transformation from what he termed "the linear Gutenberg technology" to the "total field" one implied by the instantaneity of electricity was all that mattered, and this was a change in the human mind as well as the human hand. McLuhan's global village is indeed all about us now, and it already exhibits social, psychological and cultural behaviours that are entirely different from those implicit in the technologies of mass broadcast and individual, concentrated absorption.
The spirit of place …
… How Landscape Shapes Our Imaginations: An Interview With Richard Rodriguez. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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