Question of the day ...

... Should you enjamb a poet's work? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I am currently reading The Canon (Harvard, $24.95), Stratis Haviaras's new translation of C.P. Cavafy's 154 poems. I find it something of a page-turner. As soon as I finish one poem, I can't wait to get to the next. I have to restrain myself in fact. I tell myself it's best to read only a few and save the rest for later.
These poems were never collected into one volume during Cavafy's lifetime. They mostly circulated privately. They have a purity to them that most poems lack. For Cavafy, it seems, poetry was not a profession, but a vocation, a way of crystallizing experience in all its complexity and ambiguity and emotional resonance. And because nothing is more personal than experience, the effect of reading his poems is an uncanny sense of the poet's own presence. The cover of the Haviaras translation is a segment of a photo of the poet, showing only his eyes peering through his spectacles. It is a perfect illustration of what one can look forward to in the book: the world as seen by C.P. Cavafy. It's an enriching view.

It is interesting, by the way, to compare Cavafy's Ithaka with Auden's Atlantis. I can't help thinking Auden's poem owes something to Cavafy's.

Not really ...

... Is modern art a left-wing conspiracy? It's merely complacent and conformist.

"Although the political compass is changing, so-called radical artists usually stick to what’s comfortable."

By the way, I happen to think that John Singer Sargent's Gassed is a far more graphic and moving take on war than Guernica.

It would be cowardly of me ...

... not to link to this: A turkey of a headline.

Me too ...

... I'll believe it's a crisis ...

See also this: CALCULATING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT.

"... woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in."

Thomas Hardy ...

... on November. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Precisely ...

... Art Pussies. You're better off posturing about George Bush. That'll get you all sorts of free publicity for being brave and outspoken. At least Perry admits he's chicken.

Happy Thanksgiving ....

... everyone! And for those who wonder what it's all about, Joseph Epstein explains: 'Let All Your Thinks Be Thanks'.

Yes, he does ...

... MICHAEL ALLEN TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUT WRITING. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I did not realize until read this that Prairie Mary had been married to Robert Scriver. He did good work. Here's more.

Can't we just get along ?

... MORE TRANSLATION WARS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A Rexroth roundup ...

... from the Bureau of Public Secrets:

Ten Influential Books.

On Translating Roman Verse.

Coleridge and Zen? (This is quite fascinating, opinionated in a way that is pure Rexroth. It reminded me that my two favorite poems of Coleridge's are Frost at Midnight" and "This Lime-Tree Bower, My Prison." I agree that the Baudelaire quote at the end has a Zen-like quality, but I have always felt there was something unhealthy, even creepy, about Baudelaire. Give me a common drunk like Verlaine any day.)

The Victorian Conspiracy of Cant.

New-time religion ...

... Secular Fundamentalists. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

God bless them, everyone, I say.

Amen ...

... Why write?

Yo ho ho ...

... and a bottle o' rum: `The Doxology for a Wind-Up'.

I've had a bit more experience of the sea than Patrick has had, but I still prefer the mountains and forests.

Roman wilderness ...

... Maxine reviews The Reincarnationist: Past lives and present dangers.

All of him ...

... Wanted: The complete Eliot. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In case you wondered ...

... How War and Peace works. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

For some reason this brings to mind the professor mentioned in The Pooh Perplex whose next work was to be titled All Previous Thought.

What a life ...

... Paul Roche.

We link ...

... you decide: World Samina Malik Day December 6th.

I doubt if I'll do anything to honor the day myself. The poem does not strike me as being much of a poem, and I don't know if it was meant to be propaganda or just another bit of so-called transgressive art. I am not terribly sympathetic to those who seem more concerned with the civil rights of people like Malik as opposed to the civil rights of those who might become victims of terrorism. But I do believe in getting out information and letting people make up their own minds. I would note that the principal reason Wilfrid Owen could make poetry out of killing is that he had witnessed it, experienced it, didn't just think about it and conclude that, because he was so sensitive and poetic and all that, that he could write about it as if he had experienced it. Experience trumps all theories and all mere gestures.

Admitting error ...

... Nassim Nicholas Taleb does just that: 80- My First Blunder in The Black Swan & why I am ashamed. I think The Black Swan was the most important book published this year.

Not news, I guess ...

... big chill in Chile.

A reminder ...

... Sunday Salon: Black Tide.

Busy, busy ...

... Bryan Appleyard on Defining Britain and Brick Lane.

The wages of censorship ...

... Ban on Nobel laureate's book spurs interest in Iran. I'm no fan of Garcia Marquez - I found One Hundred Years of Solitude mostly long and boring - but I'm even less of a fan of book-banning. (Hat tip, Scott Stein.)

Today's Inquirer book page ...

... from Percival Everett to Steve Erickson to Terry Pratchett - and much more!

But this is a must ...

... Anne Fadiman on Civilization. Click on the link to the Jacques Barzun Centennial at the bottom. And also check out Katherine Kolb. Actually, just visit Leo Wong's Barzun 100. That will give you plenty for the day. Later.

Saturday blogging ...

... will be light and spotty. Taking yesterday mostly off and watching Into Great Silence have together convinced me that getting the pacing right is essential to good blogging, even if you're only linking and running, as I usually do.

Thirteen days ...

... after today, are left in November. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The allure of calmness ...

...

I have adapted the title of this post from my colleague Steven Rea's review of the film Into Great Silence - a documentary about the monastery of la grande Chartreuse - which I finally got around to watching last night. I was reminded while watching it of something Pascal wrote, that "the sum of a man's problems come from his inability to be alone in a silent room." Philip Gröning's film demonstrates what it depicts: There is no voice-over explaining things; the viewer is simply drawn in to the monks' austere and largely silent world. Its tempo is the same as the monks'. One thing I noticed was how deliberately they seemed to perform their tasks. They did not seem preocupied with getting them done, but were content with doing them. Of course, doing things that way would enable one to turn whatever one does into a prayer, since it would be the doing, not the getting done that counted, and everything, in its every detail, would prove worthwhile. The deliberate pace and quietness of the film are at first unsettling. It is a film about act, not action. Gröning has created something rare, if not unique: a contemplative movie.

We can trust their judgment ...

...now, though: Blind optimism.

Speaking of Dave ...

... here he gets a well-deserved nod from Bryan: Give Thanks for Marilynne.

But I can't omit ...

... linking to Jacques Barzun Recalls. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I am off today ...

... and have spent most of the day visiting doctors (starting at 8 a.m.). So I decided to take a break from blogging also. Back tomorrow.

We link ...

... you decide: City announces first Poet Populist. (Hat tip, Laurie Mason.)

Not getting it ...

... old media meets new: WaPo "blogs" reflective of bureaucracy in D.C.

Noir indeed ...

... 'Mitch Rapp' novelist endorses torture.

Margaret Drabble ...

... on John Cowper Powys: The facts and fictions of John Cowper Powys. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

"... they never dwindled into normality or banality." What better epitaph could there be than that?

Creative theft ...

... among other things: `In Poetry the Immediate Pleasure is Physical'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Yes, indeed. The Beatles knew where to pilfer - though Lennon and McCartney did not write "Here Comes the Sun." That's a George Harrison song.
Update: Grey Malkin kindly ogs my aging brain to remind me that "Golden Slumbers" is indeed Lennon-McCartney. Why I thought it was part of "Here Comes the Sun" is anybody's guess - though it may have something do with the state of my mind when the song was released.

Readers may recall that Bob Dylan's borrowings have got him in trouble from time to time. There was his use of material from Junichi Saga's Confessions of a Yakuza for lyrics on his album Love and Theft. You can read about that here. Then there was his borrowing from Civil War poet Henry Timrod in lyrics for his album Modern Times. You can read about that here. And there's more.
Putting aside the question of plagiarism, it is worth noting that literary modernism made the appropriation of other writers' material respectable. T.S. Eliot was a skillful practitioner. I assume that when he incorparted the line "Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song" into "The Waste Land" he assumed his readers knew he was quoting Spenser's "Prothalamion." But how many readers could he expect to catch the allusion to Mallarme's "M'introduire dans ton histoire" in the line "Garlic and sapphires in the mud / Clot the bessed axle-tree" in "Burnt Norton"?
Earlier poets, when they made allusions, were counting on their readers knowing what they were alluding to. Which is why classical and Biblical references abound. I suspect that many modern poets expect quite the opposite. Hence, the idiosyncrasy of their allusions.

By the way, I naturally second Eric Ormsby on this point:
“This is the poetry of protest and in many ways is typical of much of the poetry written in the United States and Canada over the last few decades. Often discursive, generally outraged, indeterminate as to form, such poetry is a poetry of opinion and message; we tend to like or enjoy it in proportion to the correspondence of our own opinions with those of the author rather than for any overriding literary reason; indeed, it is almost invariably bad as poetry.”

Here they are ...

... the 2007 National Book Awards.

Inspissated gloom ...

... does it get worse than that? He Tires Somewhat. (I just noticed that Dave Lul sent me a link to this. That inspissated gloom is what caught his eye, too, I'll bet.)

Seeing the future ...

... and finding it badly designed: Bryan Appleyard on Ray Kurzweil. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I reviewed Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near, and interviewed him. I found the book fascinating and its author engaging. I cannot say I found his vision of the future anymore appealing than Bryan does.

The gold standard ...

... Translating Tolstoy: Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The short of it ...

... Michael Allen reveals: The truth about short stories. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Hard but fair ...

... to say nothing of accurate: Terry Teachout on Truman Capote. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

From the TLS ...

... The ghosts of Arthur Conan Doyle.

... What's late about late Brahms?

... The all-American short story.

And something else ...

... my colleague David Stearns's fine piece on Ruth Slenczynska: Former prodigy's new passage.

Something I missed ...

... or, rather, failed to post a link to, which is strange, because I edited it: A challenge for philosophy. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Uh-oh ...

... more crushing of dissent.

Cross-pollination ...

... Where are the translating authors? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Hello, young lovers ...

... and older ones, too, I trust: Love of Reading Online Book Fair.

It's still ...

... November. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I confess ...

... I have not read Oakeshott, though it seems evident that I should: On Living in the Present. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I should also add that the only thing I can remember about Eric Voegelin is that he warnrd against immanentizing the eschaton.

A great man ...

...Jacques Barzun: Age of Reason.

“It was awe-inspiring,” the historian Fritz Stern, a 1946 alumnus of the Colloquium, recalled recently. “There I was, listening to two men very different, yet brilliantly attuned to each other, spinning and refining their thoughts in front of us. And when they spoke about Wordsworth, or Balzac, or Burke, it was as if they’d known him. I couldn’t imagine a better way to read the great masterpieces of modern European thought.”

Further evidence that it is people who educate, not institutions.

Strike up the band...

... Theodore Dalrymple on Oliver Sacks and music: If music be the food of health... (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Some years ago I interviewed the composer Lou Harrison. One of the things he told me about was a time when he lived near a guy who was deaf. Lou was able to teach him some things about musing using percussion - rhythm, for instance. But there was one thing he couldn't give him any idea of: melody. Lou was a fine composer and, it seemed to me, a nice guy. Here is Avalokiteshvara - LakeComo Festival 2007.

Poor terrorists ...

... they are not: What Makes a Terrorist. (Hat tip, Vikram Johri, who pithily observes that "the higher the level of education, the greater is the tendency to fit oneself into assumed identities.")

OK, folks ...

... what do you think: What makes a great lit/book blog.

I wish I knew. But I very much understand what Kevin is talking about. Those who do not actively blog tend not to understand how much time blogging can take. As with anything, doing it means taking the time to do it well. I am certain Kevin is right about the importance of interaction. But it becomes harder and harder to keep up. I mean, of course, that when you put together blogging on your own, reading other blogs and linking to them, maybe leaving a comment, and linking to other items of interest - well, when you add that to your day job and the rest of your life, there really isn't much time left for the rest of your life.
But to return to Kevin's question: A good book blog would be characterized by lively dialogue - among blogs and the readers of blogs - about matters literary.

Leonardo decoded ...

... maybe. And if so, it turns out he was - sorry, Dan Brown - and orthodox believer: Italian musician uncovers hidden music in Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' .

Lots of poetry ...

(Thanks to Rus Bowden for the links.)

... A Poem by Dennis O’Driscoll.

... Some Poems with 3-Line Stanzas.

... Gate C-22 by Ellen Bass.

... Trillium by Fleda Brown.

... Umberto Saba's Bleat. (I don't try to avoid the first personal pronoun, but I don't tend to use it a starting-point. If it pops in, though, I let it stay.)

How ignore ...

... a blog named Hillybilly Haiku?

Ah. True Love... (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

Not in Philadelphia ...

... unfortunately: Latin Mass Draws Interest After Easing of Restrictions. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Have I mentioned that I regard the jerry-built vernacular liturgy a near occasion of sin (in my case, the sin of rage over the triumph of execrable taste, to say nothing of utterly inaccurate translation)?

War is not the answer ...

... of course, that depends on the question: A New "Shakespeare War"! (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Pirandellian charm ...

... that soon evaporated: The Atlantic's bad, bad bash. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Today's Inquirer reviews ...

... but first, Mike Schaffer's obituary for Norman Mailer: An American literary giant. I think Mike did a great job under very difficult circumstances - ever try to reach people for comment on a Saturday night?

... now to the reviews:

... John Timpane falls in love with The epic, and relevant, story of the Latin language.

... I have a good time with Harry Mount's Carpe Diem: Seize the Latin, or fun with a dead language.

... David Walton travels with Marco: Modern retelling of the adventures of Marco Polo Laurence Bergreen has explored such disparate personalities as Louis Armstrong and Magellan.

... Katherine Bailey loves Stewart O'Nan's Last Night at the Lobster: Last shifts at a doomed Red Lobster.

... Katie Haegele finds Margo Lanagan's latest downright uncanny: Young Adult Reader | Stories' chills come from who-knows-where or -when.

... and during the past week, Steve Weinberg took a Historical look at role of ships in slave trade.

As you must know ...

... Norman Mailer has died. I have not been blogging because I am at the office working my predecessor, Mike Schaffer, who is writing an obit for tomorrow's paper. Here is nice roundup and more: Norman Mailer, 1923-2007.

I will add a sort of indirect personal reminiscence. One of my best friends in college was a fellow named Bill McLaughlin. He was the editor of the college's literary magazine. He wrote to Mailer, then riding a second wave of notoriety thanks to Advertisements for Myself. Mailer did not simply answer Bill's letter, with pro forma thanks, etc. He sent a two-page single-spaced reply. It was the start of an exchange that continued, as far as I know, until Bill's untimely death in a car crash not long after we graduated. I've always thought it was pretty classy of Mailer, as famous as any author at the time, taking the time to write to a kid at a small Catholic college about what it takes to be a writer. I trust he and Bill have already met up and are exchanging views once more.
That said, I should add that I was never much of a fan of the man or his writing myself. His best novel was his first and it's not as good as James Jones's From Here to Eternity.

Ouch ...

... The Entirely Unsuitable Guide to Book Blogs. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Forget the 300 ...

... what about The Noble Five Hundred? (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)

I am off today ...

... and blogging will not resume until later, since I have an appointment for a physical: I want to make sure I'm still alive.

Saved ...

... Billing error: breaking news.

And so, happily, we can Look ahead to January books.

I happen to be reading Yrsa Sigurdardottir's Last Rituals, and so far it is very good.

The genuine article ...

... what philosophical reasoning actually looks like: A. C. Grayling and a Stock Move of Militant Atheists. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Good question ...

... Ask the Critic: Mysteries suitable for a 14-year-old?

Ghosts ...

... or. more specifically, Ghost stories.

I'm late with this, as I am behind in everything these days, but ...

Congratulations ...

... to Minx: It's big and it's pink and I've got one.

One Philadelphian ...

... responds regarding The Oprah Mystery.

I have been well-disposed toward Oprah ever since she picked Anna Karenina as her summer reading choice a few years ago. Of course, the question is why she should have been able to get so many people to run out and buy a copy of Tolstoy's great novel, and - presumably - read it. I suspect that the late Plato would find the Oprah phenomenon not at all mysterious. Today's world has become an embodiment of the Myth of the Cave in Book 7 of The Republic: A great many people nowadays - perhaps most people - are preoccupied exclusively with images rather than realities. It is not Oprah who influences them. It an image on a screen identified as Oprah that does. The Julia Roberts admired by fans is not the real Julia Roberts, but an image of Julia Roberts carefully prepared for presentation on a large silver screen or a small glossy magazine cover. Socrates, as depicted by Plato, had the single goal of encouraging people not merely to think, but more precisely to think - and observe - for themselves. Thanks to their willing exposure to radio, television and films, people today are even less likely to do that than they were in Plato's day. For many these days, an idea - especially one that runs counter to so-called conventional wisdom - is hard to differentiate from a headache.

A neat-looking guy ...

... in my opinion: The Finest of the Finny Tribe.

So far, so good ...

... Update: Petrona's future uncertain.

Now for something ...

... completely different: Harry Nilsson - Lime in the Coconut - BBC Live Special 1972.

I had a couple of very entertaining conversations with Harry back in the '70s after I wrote a piece about him in The Drummer, a now-defunct Philly weekly. Also got a neat letter from him.

What's this?

... Petrona in jeopardy? This cannot be allowed to happen: Is this the end?

Come on, Typepad, shape up!

Celebrating ...

... November again. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Good God ...

... this is awful: No place to hide. (Hat tip, Vikram Johri.)

All I can say is they better not mess with Dave Lull.

Boy, do I sympathize ...

... Good and not-so-good housekeeping.

Email has simply become unmanageable, what with publicists asking me if I received the review galley of a book scheduled to come out in February and could I let them know if I have decided to review it, to say nothing of peopkle sending me PDF files of their new self-published, files so large they make it impossible for me to open any opf my email. I could go on ... and on. But I will spare you.

Never a dull book ...

... `Suffered to Survive in Print'.

Introducing ...

... The International Literary Quarterly. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Quite a lineup.

The IBPC compettion ...

... October's Winning Poems.

... The Commentary.

... The Judge.

Congratulations to all.

Scripture and tradition ...

... Canon and Catholicity: The Skeleton in the Protestant Closet. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Imagine the church before the canon was set as being something like the blogosphere.

My kind of critics ...

... Terry Teachout on Neville Cardus. (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Now it can be told ...

... The inside story of the Western mind. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

If I had a horse ...

... F Marx the Spot. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Well, I'll be ...

... only the other day, in a reply to comment by James Aach on this post I managed to prove myself either remarkably perceptive or remarkably out of touch. Take your pick: The De Facto POD Review Ring Chart. (Hat tip, Dave Lull, of course.)

My kind of guy ...

... The Man Who Wanted to Be Left Alone.

Three cheers ...

... for the "worst" in the University of Delaware's "Residence Life" program. Sounds like my kind of gal.

Blogger is sluggish ...

... I'll be back tomorrow.

A glimpse ...

... of the future perhaps: From Old to New Media: Blog Begets Publishing House. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Celebrating ...

... November. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Ready the bonfire ...

... it's Guy Fawkes Day: REMEMBER, REMEMBER... (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)

As Jeff suiggests in the comment attached to this post, Bryan's piece on the latterday Guido Fawkes is well worth looking at: Why Guido is Blair’s true legacy.

My agenda,’ Guido responded to one of my comments, ‘is entirely negative: to ceaselessly expose our political class for what they are: despicable scumbags. If you see politics as showbusiness for ugly people, it all becomes more comprehensible.’ He ought to see what we have over here.

Good for newspaers ...

... though there seems to be quite a downside: Smell the coffee. Something else to feel guilty about.

Sleepless in Norfolk ...

... or maybe London. I'm not sure: On Insomnia.

Generally, for some unknown reason, I sleep the sleep of the blesssed. But every once in a while I have a bout of insomnia. I have always found that if I don't worry about it and do as Bryan has learned to do - namely, nothing - I doze off from time to time and nearly always wake up surprisingly refreshed. Of course, this could be further proof of my insouciant shallowness (is that redundant, I wonder).

For larger coffee tables ...

... The (far too) Big Apple. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Don't miss this ...

... I did at first, unfortunately: The Ghost of the Susquehanna vs. the Curse of the Bambino.

Jack's back ...

... From Lowell to Legend. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

Talk about complexity ...

... The Turning of an Atheist. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Hard to know what to make of this, but I guess that's the point of the piece. In the video clip that this post links to Flew doesn't seem all that mentally frail to me. Please note that there are other videos to be seen there - including one of Richard Dawkins (at his suavest and most tolerant-seeming) - so you can get a pretty rounded view of the matter. My understanding of this is that Flew has come to agree with Aristotle's notion of a Prime Mover. Dawkins notwithstanding, I think you can arrive at that position without depending on Michael Behe or other proponents of so-called Intelligent Design. You might, for instance, be persuaded by Aristotle himself, the scientific evidence cited merely going to supplement the late Peripetetic's viewpoint.

Mark Vernon comments here. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

We link ...

... you decide: Captain Picard Meets Supermouse on a Hot Planet.

Bryan and I don't exactly agree when it comes to planetary warming, but what he has to say is worth reading because it's well-researched, thoughtful journalism. I shall certainly ponder it carefully.

What is particularly good about this piece is how it lays out the complexity involved. I have no objection whatever to strategies and technologies to reduce emissions. (I walk to and from work every day - four and a half miles round trip - I live in the city, and my wife rarely drives the car. She bikes everywhere.) I also think that increased use of nuclear energy is a good idea. (I would note that Three Mile Island was really a disaster averted, not a disaster - which Chernobyl certainly was.) I would like to have some account taken of the known increase in solar activity during the last century, as well as the evidence that other planets seem to be warming up as well. We do, after all, live in what is known as the solar system, the central heating of which derives from that star we call the sun. Finally, I think there's a typo in the opening sentence. Arrhenius died in 1927, so the likelihood of his suggesting anything nine years later is remote.