... Robert McCrum wonders: What's the best novel in the past 25 years? That is, British, Irish or Commonwealth. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There are more interesting books here than on the NYT's list. My pick, by the way, would have been Earthly Powers.
Monday, October 09, 2006
The plot's the thing ...
... John Banville disguises himself and turns out a thriller and Michael Dibdin is impressed: Dark deeds in Dublin. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Another look ...
... at Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam: Bruce Bawer's When world's collide. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
You might want to take a look at this also: Start By Standing Up. Be forearned: This is strong stuff. (Via InstaPundit.)
You might want to take a look at this also: Start By Standing Up. Be forearned: This is strong stuff. (Via InstaPundit.)
Well, there's philosophy ...
... and there's philosophy: Philosopher, With Stones. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It is usually professors of philosophy who profess to have none and philosophy as an academic discipline seems have little in common with philosophy as an aid to living. Let the inhabitants of Laputa mince their logic. The rest of us can be like Montaigne and ask ourselves que scais-je.
It is usually professors of philosophy who profess to have none and philosophy as an academic discipline seems have little in common with philosophy as an aid to living. Let the inhabitants of Laputa mince their logic. The rest of us can be like Montaigne and ask ourselves que scais-je.
Our girl Katie ...
... has another post at Powells: Feverish Fine Small Mechanisms (and Other Useful Things).
And now for something ....
... not done often these days: Linking to a poem by Longfellow.
Notice that this is where the phrase "footprinst on the sands of time" originated. Longfellow coined lots of those ("ships that pass in the night" and "into each life some rain must fall" are two others).
Notice that this is where the phrase "footprinst on the sands of time" originated. Longfellow coined lots of those ("ships that pass in the night" and "into each life some rain must fall" are two others).
Bryan Appleyard experiments ...
... with a Free Associative Post ... I think he may be onto something.
I think Pinter's greatest work is the screenplay he did for The French Lieutenant's Woman. I also think there's much to be said for his use of pauses and silence in his plays. That said, I don't really think the plays travel very well. They're too precisely British in the manner of their language. I don't think Americans can really do them. Moreover, I can't help feeling they all say the same thing and that the characters don't really seem to be grounded in the observation of real people.
I think Pinter's greatest work is the screenplay he did for The French Lieutenant's Woman. I also think there's much to be said for his use of pauses and silence in his plays. That said, I don't really think the plays travel very well. They're too precisely British in the manner of their language. I don't think Americans can really do them. Moreover, I can't help feeling they all say the same thing and that the characters don't really seem to be grounded in the observation of real people.
I am at the office ...
... even though it is Sunday, because of the books that have to be sorted and shelved. So blogging will be light until later - and maybe even light then.
Maxine has been busy ...
... very busy: Multi tasking, multi reading and writing.
She's also looking to put together a list of "10 great detective books written by women." Any suggestions, go to Petrona.
She's also looking to put together a list of "10 great detective books written by women." Any suggestions, go to Petrona.
Some advice for Abebooks ...
... from Bill Peschel: Abebooks Heads Down the Wrong Aisle.
Here's where I go when I want to look for an out-of-print book: Books & Book Collecting.
Here's where I go when I want to look for an out-of-print book: Books & Book Collecting.
Ladies and gentlemen ...
... place your bets, please: Ladbroke's Nobel Prize for Literature odds. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Once upon a time I did the racing charts at The Inquirer. I have to say I like Adam Zagajewski at 100-1. But I'm also impressed that Joyce Carol Oates is so much of a favorite.
Once upon a time I did the racing charts at The Inquirer. I have to say I like Adam Zagajewski at 100-1. But I'm also impressed that Joyce Carol Oates is so much of a favorite.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... feature
... my review of Andrew Klavan's latest Weiss and Bishop thriller: Thriller with literary flair, moral depth.
Two litbloggers have reviews also:
Patrick Kurp likes Ron Rosenbaum's The Shakespeare Wars: All about the Bard, one man's obsession.
But Edward Champion does not particularly like Stephen Elliott's My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up: Sadomasochism tales that come up short.
Glenn Altschuler likes Fortunate Son, Charles Ponce De Leon's life of Elvis: Elvis unrooted, nonetheless calling the shots.
And Sandy Bauers loved Siisy Spacek's reading of To Kill a Mockingbird: In new 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' Spacek delights as narrator.
Carlin Romano looks at Anthony Feinstein's Journalists Under Fire: Trauma, torment of war reporters.
Last week:
Mark Yost reviewed The Blog of War: A military Web log telling stories straight from the front.
Kathy Bernheimer reviewed Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job: Widower gets a new job, but the work can be a real killer.
Mark Sarvas reviewed A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines and The Man Who Knew Too Much: Two views of mathematicians gone mad.
And Nick Cristiano reviewed Perfect, Once Removed: A practically perfect season as Don Larsen's young cousin.
Finally, off the wires, a review of Dorothy Ours's Man o' War: Saga of U.S. hero slips at finish line.
... my review of Andrew Klavan's latest Weiss and Bishop thriller: Thriller with literary flair, moral depth.
Two litbloggers have reviews also:
Patrick Kurp likes Ron Rosenbaum's The Shakespeare Wars: All about the Bard, one man's obsession.
But Edward Champion does not particularly like Stephen Elliott's My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up: Sadomasochism tales that come up short.
Glenn Altschuler likes Fortunate Son, Charles Ponce De Leon's life of Elvis: Elvis unrooted, nonetheless calling the shots.
And Sandy Bauers loved Siisy Spacek's reading of To Kill a Mockingbird: In new 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' Spacek delights as narrator.
Carlin Romano looks at Anthony Feinstein's Journalists Under Fire: Trauma, torment of war reporters.
Last week:
Mark Yost reviewed The Blog of War: A military Web log telling stories straight from the front.
Kathy Bernheimer reviewed Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job: Widower gets a new job, but the work can be a real killer.
Mark Sarvas reviewed A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines and The Man Who Knew Too Much: Two views of mathematicians gone mad.
And Nick Cristiano reviewed Perfect, Once Removed: A practically perfect season as Don Larsen's young cousin.
Finally, off the wires, a review of Dorothy Ours's Man o' War: Saga of U.S. hero slips at finish line.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
We're heading out ...
... to see the Villa America show at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Update: Ed Sozanski reviews the show: 'Villa America' an offbeat look at major artists.
Update: Ed Sozanski reviews the show: 'Villa America' an offbeat look at major artists.
Well ...
... Oh God, am I just being neurotic? (Hat tip, Dve Lull.)
My small town is more forested than it was either a century or two centuries ago. So clearly the "we" in my part of the world does things differently than the "we" in Sudan or Rwanda or the Brazilian rainforest. But the possibility that political, cultural or civilizational factors might be determinative is one to which Mr. Martin is fiercely resistant. The idea that the human species -- rather than Belgians or Saudis or Fijians -- is responsible for this or that environmental crisis is deeply appealing to the eco-doom-mongers because it casts the problem as a moral failure.
In a couple weeks, we'll be back in Tunkhannock. A century ago next door, in Sullivan County, every tree in sight had been cut down. Now you can't find the towns that flourished there at the time.
My small town is more forested than it was either a century or two centuries ago. So clearly the "we" in my part of the world does things differently than the "we" in Sudan or Rwanda or the Brazilian rainforest. But the possibility that political, cultural or civilizational factors might be determinative is one to which Mr. Martin is fiercely resistant. The idea that the human species -- rather than Belgians or Saudis or Fijians -- is responsible for this or that environmental crisis is deeply appealing to the eco-doom-mongers because it casts the problem as a moral failure.
In a couple weeks, we'll be back in Tunkhannock. A century ago next door, in Sullivan County, every tree in sight had been cut down. Now you can't find the towns that flourished there at the time.
A sign of convergence ...
... Daniel Pinkwater's The Neddiad will be published by Houghton Mifflin in April. In the meantime, though, it is being posted online: The Neddiad. (Hat tip, Lisa Cohen.)
Captive audience ...
... Young Adult Book Club Gathers in Unusual Location. (Hat tip, Peter Rozovsky.)
I should mention that a large number of the books I receive from publishers for review end up in the Philadelphia Prison system. See this post.
I should mention that a large number of the books I receive from publishers for review end up in the Philadelphia Prison system. See this post.
Eliot and Groucho ...
... 'Dear T.S.'
I am not inclined to "rationalize away" any of Eliot's "pernicious prejudice," but I do think it worth noting that, in both poems cited, the speaker cannot necessarily be taken to represent Eliot himself.
I am not inclined to "rationalize away" any of Eliot's "pernicious prejudice," but I do think it worth noting that, in both poems cited, the speaker cannot necessarily be taken to represent Eliot himself.
Calling Richard Dawkins ...
... who, according to his latest book, thinks he can be considered religious, even though he doesn't believe in God: Megachurches without God.
If memory serves, in one of his early novels, Peter De Vries for all practical purposes invented the drive-in church. It was a sort of mall filled with all manner of concession stands and other distractions, "with a small worship area toward the rear."
Rapid update: Memory did serve, but as is usually the case, imperfectly. Here is De Vries's own inimitable original:
"Our church is, I believe, the first split-level church in America. It has five rooms and two baths downstairs -- dining area, kitchen and three parlors for committee and group meetings -- with a crawl space behind the furnace ending in the hillside into which the structure is built. Upstairs is one huge all-purpose interior, divisible into different-sized components by means of sliding walls and convertible into an auditorium for putting on plays, a gymnasium for athletics, and a ballroom for dances. There is a small worship area at one end. This a has a platform cantilevered on both sides, with a free-form pulpit designed by Noguchi. It consists of a slab of marble with four legs of four delicately differing fruitwoods, to symbolize the four Gospels, and their failure to harmonize. Behind it dangles a large multicolored mobile, its interdenominational parts swaying, as one might fancy in perpetual reminder of the Pauline stricture against those 'blown by every wind if doctrine.' Its proximity to the pulpit inspires a steady flow of more familiar congregational whim, at which we shall not long demur, going on with our tour to say that in back of this building is a newly erected clinic, with medical and neuropsychiatric wings, both indefinitely expandable. Thus People's Liberal is a church designed to meet the needs of today, and to serve the whole man."
- Rev. Andrew Mackerel describing his People's Liberal Church of Avalon, Conn., in The Mackerel Plaza (I found this at a blog called Sobering Thoughts.)
Here, by the way, is the "small worship area" up close: "… a free form pulpit … consists of a slab of marble set on four legs of four delicately differing fruitwoods, to symbolize the Four Gospels, and their failure to harmonize. Behind it dangles a large multi-colored mobile, its interdenominational parts swaying, as one might fancy, in perpetual reminder of the Pauline stricture against 'those blown by every wind of doctrine' ..." (This I found in "Images of Protestant Clergy in American Novels".)
If memory serves, in one of his early novels, Peter De Vries for all practical purposes invented the drive-in church. It was a sort of mall filled with all manner of concession stands and other distractions, "with a small worship area toward the rear."
Rapid update: Memory did serve, but as is usually the case, imperfectly. Here is De Vries's own inimitable original:
"Our church is, I believe, the first split-level church in America. It has five rooms and two baths downstairs -- dining area, kitchen and three parlors for committee and group meetings -- with a crawl space behind the furnace ending in the hillside into which the structure is built. Upstairs is one huge all-purpose interior, divisible into different-sized components by means of sliding walls and convertible into an auditorium for putting on plays, a gymnasium for athletics, and a ballroom for dances. There is a small worship area at one end. This a has a platform cantilevered on both sides, with a free-form pulpit designed by Noguchi. It consists of a slab of marble with four legs of four delicately differing fruitwoods, to symbolize the four Gospels, and their failure to harmonize. Behind it dangles a large multicolored mobile, its interdenominational parts swaying, as one might fancy in perpetual reminder of the Pauline stricture against those 'blown by every wind if doctrine.' Its proximity to the pulpit inspires a steady flow of more familiar congregational whim, at which we shall not long demur, going on with our tour to say that in back of this building is a newly erected clinic, with medical and neuropsychiatric wings, both indefinitely expandable. Thus People's Liberal is a church designed to meet the needs of today, and to serve the whole man."
- Rev. Andrew Mackerel describing his People's Liberal Church of Avalon, Conn., in The Mackerel Plaza (I found this at a blog called Sobering Thoughts.)
Here, by the way, is the "small worship area" up close: "… a free form pulpit … consists of a slab of marble set on four legs of four delicately differing fruitwoods, to symbolize the Four Gospels, and their failure to harmonize. Behind it dangles a large multi-colored mobile, its interdenominational parts swaying, as one might fancy, in perpetual reminder of the Pauline stricture against 'those blown by every wind of doctrine' ..." (This I found in "Images of Protestant Clergy in American Novels".)
Friday, October 06, 2006
Maxine scolds David Montgomery ...
... gently, of course: Ten greatest (male) detective novels. I have to side with Maxine on this.
Ready or not ...
... The Hunter S Thompson Death Industry Swings Into Action. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
One of these just arrived in my office this afternoon. Like I care.
One of these just arrived in my office this afternoon. Like I care.
This says something ...
... I've often tried to, but says it better than I ever have: The Pope Is Right About Science. (Hat tip, DaveLull.)
To wit:
The belief that the only route to genuine understanding is that provided by the physical sciences, and that they are potentially capable of explaining anything that goes on in the world, is merely a prejudice, backed neither by evidence – for after all, there are many things science has not been able to explain – nor by philosophical considerations. In fact, many notable philosophers, including Husserl, Oakeshott, Polanyi, and Nagel, have noted that the assertion that human understanding can be reduced to mechanical causes is self-defeating. It is nonsensical to label the outcome of any mechanical process as "true" or "false" – the outcome is simply what had to happen based on the physical laws relevant to the situation. Anyone arguing that human thinking can be reduced entirely to physical mechanisms must admit that his theory applies to his own thinking no less than it does to, say, moral reasoning or theology. Therefore, per his own theory, it is nonsensical to claim that the theory is true! No, even his scientific work is only the meaningless product of the jostling about of a bunch of particles within fields controlling their movements. When an evolutionary biologist suggests that all of mankind’s religious beliefs are attributable to our genes’ efforts to propagate themselves, honesty should force him to admit that his biological ideas also are just attempts by his genes to survive – the "discovery" of DNA was really nothing more than Watson’s and Crick’s best chance to get laid!
Well, excuuuuse us ...
... this, which is pertinent to this post here last week, appeared among this morning's New York Times Corrections:
"Editors’ Note
An article on Sept. 21 about criticism of President Bush at the United Nations by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran reported that Mr. Chavez praised a book by Noam Chomsky, the linguist and social critic. It reported that later, at a news conference, Mr. Chavez said that he regretted not having met Mr. Chomsky before he died. The article noted that in fact, Mr. Chomsky is alive. The assertion that Mr. Chavez had made this misstatement was repeated in a Times interview with Mr. Chomsky the next day.
In fact, what Mr. Chavez said was, “I am an avid reader of Noam Chomsky, as I am of an American professor who died some time ago.” Two sentences later Mr. Chavez named John Kenneth Galbraith, the Harvard economist who died last April, calling both him and Mr. Chomsky great intellectual figures.
Mr. Chavez was speaking in Spanish at the news conference, but the simultaneous English translation by the United Nations left out the reference to Mr. Galbraith and made it sound as if the man who died was Mr. Chomsky.
Readers pointed out the error in e-mails to The Times soon after the first article was published. Reporters reviewed the recordings of the news conference in English and Spanish, but not carefully enough to detect the discrepancy, until after the Venezuelan government complained publicly on Wednesday.
Editors and reporters should have been more thorough earlier in checking the accuracy of the simultaneous translation."
So it appears Chavez did not think Chomsky was no longer with us. I'm glad that's ckleared up now. But was Inquirer book critic out of line for commenting on a news item circulated by the New York Times? I don't think so. I'm hardly one to swear by the accuracy and probity of the Times at all times, but I don't assume something is wrong just because it appears there. Quite the opposite. Until I have reason to think otherwise, I presume that the Times's reporters and editors do the job they're paid to do and that what they report can be trusted.
"Editors’ Note
An article on Sept. 21 about criticism of President Bush at the United Nations by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran reported that Mr. Chavez praised a book by Noam Chomsky, the linguist and social critic. It reported that later, at a news conference, Mr. Chavez said that he regretted not having met Mr. Chomsky before he died. The article noted that in fact, Mr. Chomsky is alive. The assertion that Mr. Chavez had made this misstatement was repeated in a Times interview with Mr. Chomsky the next day.
In fact, what Mr. Chavez said was, “I am an avid reader of Noam Chomsky, as I am of an American professor who died some time ago.” Two sentences later Mr. Chavez named John Kenneth Galbraith, the Harvard economist who died last April, calling both him and Mr. Chomsky great intellectual figures.
Mr. Chavez was speaking in Spanish at the news conference, but the simultaneous English translation by the United Nations left out the reference to Mr. Galbraith and made it sound as if the man who died was Mr. Chomsky.
Readers pointed out the error in e-mails to The Times soon after the first article was published. Reporters reviewed the recordings of the news conference in English and Spanish, but not carefully enough to detect the discrepancy, until after the Venezuelan government complained publicly on Wednesday.
Editors and reporters should have been more thorough earlier in checking the accuracy of the simultaneous translation."
So it appears Chavez did not think Chomsky was no longer with us. I'm glad that's ckleared up now. But was Inquirer book critic out of line for commenting on a news item circulated by the New York Times? I don't think so. I'm hardly one to swear by the accuracy and probity of the Times at all times, but I don't assume something is wrong just because it appears there. Quite the opposite. Until I have reason to think otherwise, I presume that the Times's reporters and editors do the job they're paid to do and that what they report can be trusted.
We missed Graham Greene's birthday ...
... the other day, but here's a nice quote to remember him by. Read the next post, too, and click on the link Kelly Jane Torrance's piece about the National Book Fair.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
And last (for tonight) ...
... though far from being least: The IBPC's Winning Poems for September 2006. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Congratulations all!
Congratulations all!
Got the world on a string ...
... aesthetics and string theory. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
See also Unstrung.
Also The Inelegant Universe.
See also Unstrung.
Also The Inelegant Universe.
But, speaking of literary competition ...
... there's always The World Cup of Writers.
Like Amy, I had never heard of this, but it brings to mind what we linked to in this post: Something for the sports pages ...
Like Amy, I had never heard of this, but it brings to mind what we linked to in this post: Something for the sports pages ...
Poetry jackpot ...
... Poet puts Heaney in shade by scooping £10,000 prize . (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
The emphsis in the headline and story on the competitive aspect of all this is somewhat disconcerting. I am reminded of these lines from "East Coker""
And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate—but there is no competition—
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying.
The rest is not our business.
The emphsis in the headline and story on the competitive aspect of all this is somewhat disconcerting. I am reminded of these lines from "East Coker""
And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate—but there is no competition—
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying.
The rest is not our business.
If you haven't seen ...
... Rus Bowden's excellent contribution to the discussion we've been having about experimental writing, he's gathered the whole thing togather and put it in one place: A Conversation on Experimental Fiction and Now Poetry.
I think all of this has advanced our understanding of the subject and I would be hard-pressed to think of how it could have been done this effectively outside of blogging.
I think all of this has advanced our understanding of the subject and I would be hard-pressed to think of how it could have been done this effectively outside of blogging.
This is very funny ...
... it is also a tad raunchy (so beware): Jessica Schneider's How to write a real agent query letter.
Only make-believe ...
... John Banville enjoys Michael Frayn's lesson on the appeal of uncertainty. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I do this strange: "... there is no essential self, a fact attested to surely by the incoherence of our dreams. What during the day we think we are falls apart at night; the singularity we imagine ourselves to be shatters into shards. The sleeping mind desperately seeks to reassert the semblance of order which during waking hours our will imposes on experience, with the result that we find ourselves, with imperturbable logic, flying trouserless over Buckingham Palace where the Queen can clearly be seen playing croquet and using a flamingo for a mallet."
Maybe this is true for John Banville. But I, deeply shallow as I am, rarely dream - or rarely remember dreaming. Moreover, in such dreams as I remember I seem to reognize the same person I take myself to be while awake.
Jerry Fodor's Who ate the salted peanuts? takes a less sypathetic view of Frayn's book. I'll cast my lot with Banville.
I do this strange: "... there is no essential self, a fact attested to surely by the incoherence of our dreams. What during the day we think we are falls apart at night; the singularity we imagine ourselves to be shatters into shards. The sleeping mind desperately seeks to reassert the semblance of order which during waking hours our will imposes on experience, with the result that we find ourselves, with imperturbable logic, flying trouserless over Buckingham Palace where the Queen can clearly be seen playing croquet and using a flamingo for a mallet."
Maybe this is true for John Banville. But I, deeply shallow as I am, rarely dream - or rarely remember dreaming. Moreover, in such dreams as I remember I seem to reognize the same person I take myself to be while awake.
Jerry Fodor's Who ate the salted peanuts? takes a less sypathetic view of Frayn's book. I'll cast my lot with Banville.
Here we go again ...
... Ga. Mother Seeks Harry Potter Ban. (Hat tip, Scott Stein.)
God, I get tired of people going to court to keep everybody from doing something the petetioner doesn't approve of. As Fred Allen once opined, everybody should leave everybody else the hell alone.
God, I get tired of people going to court to keep everybody from doing something the petetioner doesn't approve of. As Fred Allen once opined, everybody should leave everybody else the hell alone.
James Marcus does the book meme ...
... Mind if I tag along? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I must say I'm a bit envious: No one has ever called me a litterateur.
I must say I'm a bit envious: No one has ever called me a litterateur.
Today's Inquirer ...
... featured two book reviews:
Native Yankee fan Nick Cristiano praises Phillip Hoose's Perfect, Once Removed: A practically perfect season as Don Larsen's young cousin.
And Mark Yost recommends The Blog of War: A military Web log telling stories straight from the front.
Native Yankee fan Nick Cristiano praises Phillip Hoose's Perfect, Once Removed: A practically perfect season as Don Larsen's young cousin.
And Mark Yost recommends The Blog of War: A military Web log telling stories straight from the front.
On Oct. 14 ...
... I will have a birthday - but Hannah Arendt will have her centennial: Hannah Arendt at 100. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The answer, probably, is yes ...
... Was Brahms a Wiseass?
But it's also worth remembering that he could be wonderfully charming at times. When Frau Johann Strauss asked him for his autograph, he took her fan, scribbled the first few bars of her husband's "Blue Danube Waltz," and wrote underneath, "Unfortunately not by me, Johnanes Brahms."
Also, I would not myself describe the fourth symphony - probably my favorite symphony - as "gloomy." It's too wise to be gloomy. It has about it something of King Leonidas's message to the Spartans: "Go tell the Spartans that we have obeyed their laws." Tough. Stoical. But not gloomy.
But it's also worth remembering that he could be wonderfully charming at times. When Frau Johann Strauss asked him for his autograph, he took her fan, scribbled the first few bars of her husband's "Blue Danube Waltz," and wrote underneath, "Unfortunately not by me, Johnanes Brahms."
Also, I would not myself describe the fourth symphony - probably my favorite symphony - as "gloomy." It's too wise to be gloomy. It has about it something of King Leonidas's message to the Spartans: "Go tell the Spartans that we have obeyed their laws." Tough. Stoical. But not gloomy.
Trumpets and drums, please ...
... The Literacy Project is launched by Google. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
I was about to sign off ...
... so I can resume reading my review book. But then Rus Bowden sent me this link to a characteristically thoughtful post by Art Durkee: What is "experimentation?" I think it's terrific how this subject has been explored by me and Art and Scott Esposito. More people should chime in.
Demolition derby ...
... Anthony Daniels on John Carey: The higher destruction.
This is particularly interesting:
Lord Curzon, who was by no means a marginal figure, made a speech to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1900, in which he said:
If there be any one who says to me that there is no duty devolving upon a Christian Government to preserve the monuments of pagan art or the sanctuaries of an alien faith, I cannot pause to argue with such a man. Art and beauty, and the reverence that is owing to all that has evoked human genius or has inspired human faith, are independent of creeds, and, in so far as they touch the sphere of religion, are embraced by the common religion of all mankind. Viewed from this standpoint, the rock temple of the Brahmans stands on precisely the same footing as the Buddhist Vihara, and the Mohammedan Musjid as the Christian Cathedral… . To us the relics of Hindu and Mohammedan, of Buddhist, Brahmin, and Jain are, from the antiquarian, the historical, and the artistic point of view, equally interesting and equally sacred. One does not excite a more vivid and the other a weaker emotion. Each represents the glories or the faith of a branch of the human family. Each fills a chapter in Indian history.
It is surely an irony of history that an imperialist of a century ago should exhibit infinitely more sensitivity, enlightenment, open-mindedness, and genuine cultivation than a contemporary professor of literature at Oxford.
We haven't had a list for a while ...
... so here is Colum McCann's top 10 novels on poets. (Hat tip, Vikram Johri.)
Looking to get away from it all??
... the Hermitary may be just what you need. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Can you bring a lap top to a hermitage, I wonder.
Can you bring a lap top to a hermitage, I wonder.
There's nothing like ...
... a good paper war: Publishing Mousetrap: Professor Reviews Book That Mauled Him—Mine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Poetry gets technical ...
... British Co. Launches Modern Poetry Site. And here's the iPoems site. (Hat tip, Roberta Nolte.)
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Remember those cartoons?
... well, it's been a year: How one of the biggest rows of modern times helped Danish exports to prosper. I continue to be proud that The Inquirer printed them: Inquirer editors explain why they published Danish cartoon. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The man who put On the Road ...
... on the Net: The “On the Road” Google Maps Mashup. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This is interesting ...
... and not just because of the nice words directed at yours truly: 13th Tale: A Deeply Moving Novel. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Rather because of this: "The publisher praises independent booksellers for The Thirteenth Tale's success, saying it reminds readers 'of the kinds of books, such as Jane Eyre, that they read as a child.' " It also reminds one of what a pleasure it can be to stop into a little bookstore tucked away in an odd corner and filled with fragrant old books.
Rather because of this: "The publisher praises independent booksellers for The Thirteenth Tale's success, saying it reminds readers 'of the kinds of books, such as Jane Eyre, that they read as a child.' " It also reminds one of what a pleasure it can be to stop into a little bookstore tucked away in an odd corner and filled with fragrant old books.
Attention Bloggerati ...
... Bryan Appleyard has a question: Marilynne Robinson: the Greatest Living Novelist? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I can't say myself, because I haven't read Robinson.
I can't say myself, because I haven't read Robinson.
Creative reporting ...
... Novelist Roger Simon on Woodward's "thoughts". I would mind less if the books were on the fiction shelves (and bear in mind I have great respect for the truth of fiction).
Homer nodded ...
... as we know, and some people think the Bard did too from time to time: Shakespeare’s Clunkers.
My friend and colleague ...
... David Stearns has a characteristically interesting piece on the Idomeneo controversy at the Deutsche Oper Berlin: Artistic-freedom issue comes to a head.
He mentions that "director Peter Sellars interpreted Tannhäuser as a parable about the fall of televangelist Jimmy Swaggart in 1988." And this leads me to wonder: How could that possibly have enhanced - and not diminished - the opera? Why do artsy-craftsy types always think that turning a classic work of art into an editorial about today's news is somehow profound? Headlines almost always prove ephemeral. No one would think of interpreting an opera as a parable about Bernard Goldfine and his vicuna coat, would they? (And practically no one reading that sentence will have any idea of what I am talking about - though it made the headlines for days on end once.)
He mentions that "director Peter Sellars interpreted Tannhäuser as a parable about the fall of televangelist Jimmy Swaggart in 1988." And this leads me to wonder: How could that possibly have enhanced - and not diminished - the opera? Why do artsy-craftsy types always think that turning a classic work of art into an editorial about today's news is somehow profound? Headlines almost always prove ephemeral. No one would think of interpreting an opera as a parable about Bernard Goldfine and his vicuna coat, would they? (And practically no one reading that sentence will have any idea of what I am talking about - though it made the headlines for days on end once.)
Speaking of Dave Lull ...
... he also sent me this link to Poet on Poet of the Week: Clive Wilmer on Samuel Johnson.
Books, books, books ...
... an Online Book Fair starts today! (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Dave Lull alerted me to this yesterday, but it slipped through the cracks in my mind.
Dave Lull alerted me to this yesterday, but it slipped through the cracks in my mind.
A stupid, stupid oversight ...
... how could I have forgotten that yesyetday was Wallace Stevens's birthday? (Thanks to Peter Christensen & Sonia Lussier for jogging my memory.)
Here is one of his last - and best - poems: Of Mere Being.
And here is another - both late and great: The Planet on the Table.
Here is one of his last - and best - poems: Of Mere Being.
And here is another - both late and great: The Planet on the Table.
I'd be interested to know ...
... what she had to say: Fiction writer gets quizzed about Amish school shootings. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.) As the commenter points out, Lionel - who used to review for me - is "very articulate and intelligent."
In today's Inquirer ...
... Mark Sarvas of The Elegant Variation reviews Janna Levin's A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines and David Leavitt's The Man Who Knew Too Much: Two views of mathematicians gone mad.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Neglected books ...
... Ever read? (Via The Biliothecary.)
The one I can vouch for is What's Bred in the Bone. It is a great novel. I notice that Anthony Burgess's Dead Man in Deptford was picked too. I'd have chosen Earthly Powers, which I thinbk is Burgess's masterpiece.
The one I can vouch for is What's Bred in the Bone. It is a great novel. I notice that Anthony Burgess's Dead Man in Deptford was picked too. I'd have chosen Earthly Powers, which I thinbk is Burgess's masterpiece.
This is a very interesting post ...
... Thought experiments in death. (Personally, I doubt if many academics could "write with far more insight than" Maxine on this or many other topics. )
Dispatches from Dodge ....
... last day, Sunday Oct 1.
Also photos here , here, and here. (Note in the latter that our friend Rus Bowden appears.)
Also photos here , here, and here. (Note in the latter that our friend Rus Bowden appears.)
On Friday night ...
... we had a dinner at which the main course was a cassoulet featuring goose (breast and confit), as well as wild boar and a venison kielbasa. Why? Because it was Michaelmas: Gander tonight.
Peter Stothard also writes about favorite American writers of his: Get Shorty. (Too bad the link to the TLS article doesn't work.)
Peter Stothard also writes about favorite American writers of his: Get Shorty. (Too bad the link to the TLS article doesn't work.)
This will probably be ...
... my last blog post tonight. I have a review book to finish and a review to write tomorrow and much else to do as well.
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