Entries from September 2012
Places
September 30th, 2012 · No Comments
It hurts when touched just so
September 30th, 2012 · 4 Comments
“No pain is too small if it hurts, but any pain is too small if it is cherished.” – Edward St. Aubyn, Never Mind
Tags: Lit & Crit
People
September 29th, 2012 · No Comments
The Dorothy Parker school
September 29th, 2012 · No Comments
“What charm is: being malicious about everybody except the person you are with, who then glows with the privilege of exemption.” – Edward St. Aubyn, Never Mind
Tags: Lit & Crit
People
September 28th, 2012 · No Comments
Why did Mr. Chicken cross to Rhodes?
September 28th, 2012 · No Comments
“Just as a novelist may sometimes wonder why he invents characters who do not exist and makes them do things which do not matter, so a philosopher may wonder why he invents cases that cannot occur in order to determine what must be the case.” – Edward St. Aubyn, Never Mind
Tags: Lit & Crit
People
September 27th, 2012 · No Comments
Tell me about it, brother
September 27th, 2012 · 2 Comments
“I have written books which I have had to write, but I have not yet written a book which others have to read.” – Edward St. Aubyn, Never Mind
Tags: Lit & Crit
People
September 26th, 2012 · No Comments
Nanobots, anyone?
September 26th, 2012 · 3 Comments
“I firmly believe that before many centuries more, science will be the master of man. The engines he will have invented will be beyond his strength to control.” – Henry Adams (quoted in Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative)
Tags: American Civil War · Lit & Crit · Politics & Law
People
September 25th, 2012 · 5 Comments
Old Man and Old Woman decide
September 25th, 2012 · 2 Comments
“There was once a time when there were but two persons in the world, Old Man and Old Woman. One time, when they were traveling about, Old Man met Old Woman, who said, ‘Now, let us come to an agreement of some kind; let us decide how the people shall live.’ ‘Well,’ said Old Man, […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · The Ancients
People
September 24th, 2012 · No Comments
Getting in the the way of good government
September 24th, 2012 · No Comments
“America’s commercial and military competitors are nations that have far fewer qualms about using government to promote their goals and that view government and the market as partners in a common project of national development. At home, the future of the economy depends on public investments in R&D and infrastructure by the federal government as […]
Tags: Economics · Politics & Law
People
September 23rd, 2012 · No Comments
Not much fun on a calm, moonlit night, either
September 23rd, 2012 · No Comments
“A drunken soldier with a musket in one hand and a match in the other is not a pleasant visitor to have about the house on a dark, windy night.” – Major General Henry W. Slocum, 1865 (quoted in Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative)
Tags: American Civil War · Lit & Crit
The resonant properties of cinderblock walls
September 22nd, 2012 · No Comments
Tags: Verandah
People
September 22nd, 2012 · 2 Comments
The view from the mirror
September 22nd, 2012 · No Comments
“When Nietzsche lost his faith, he concluded that God is dead. This is not critical thinking. This is narcissism.” — Leon Wieseltier, Kaddish
Tags: Lit & Crit
People
September 21st, 2012 · 6 Comments
There’s no getting it right
September 21st, 2012 · No Comments
“If you can write about the wreckage the wreckage is not complete. You are intact.” — Leon Wieseltier, Kaddish
Tags: Lit & Crit
People
September 20th, 2012 · No Comments
Uniquely trivial
September 20th, 2012 · No Comments
“If tradition is the great punctuator that saves us from ourselves it also usefully cuts us down to size, reminding us that we’re not that special, that our supposed uniqueness is trivial in the grand scheme of things.” — Adam Phillips, “Commanded to Mourn”
Tags: Lit & Crit
People
September 19th, 2012 · No Comments
Changing states
September 19th, 2012 · 4 Comments
“Imposing a pattern or form on experience over long stretches of time tends to make people very impatient because the material is always so recalcitrant. Continuity is always at war with circumstance, and the contingency of events. If a religion wants to be more than a refuge it has to develop, but if it adapts […]
Tags: Lit & Crit
People
September 18th, 2012 · 2 Comments
Revolution #10
September 18th, 2012 · No Comments
“There is revolution when what is deemed to be ordinary is put into question, when what is considered to be beyond the realm of choice is discovered not to be.” — Adam Phillips, “Commanded to Mourn”
Tags: Lit & Crit · Politics & Law
People
September 17th, 2012 · No Comments
A comfortable fit
September 17th, 2012 · 2 Comments
“Most people do not invent themselves. Most of them choose to be what they already are.” — Leon Wieseltier, Kaddish
Tags: Lit & Crit