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The Marginalian
The Souls of Animals “They do not sweat and whine about their condition,” Walt Whitman wrote of the other animals, “they...
4 weeks ago
16

The Souls of Animals

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 weeks ago
“They do not sweat and whine about their condition,” Walt Whitman wrote of the other animals, “they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, they do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning...
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The Marginalian
Insomnia and the Secret Life of Ideas: Kafka on the Relationship Between Sleeplessness and... Where we go when we go to sleep and why we go there is one of the great mysteries of the mind. Why...
3 weeks ago
16

Insomnia and the Secret Life of Ideas: Kafka on the Relationship Between Sleeplessness and Creativity

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Where we go when we go to sleep and why we go there is one of the great mysteries of the mind. Why the mind at times refuses to go there, despite the pleading and bargaining of its conscious owner, is a greater mystery still. We know that ever since REM evolved in the bird brain,...
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Wuthering...
Clarice Lispector's Near to the Wild Heart - When she spoke, she invented crazy, crazy! My subject is Clarice Lispector’s Near to the Wild Heart (1943), her first novel, and the only book...
3 weeks ago
16

Clarice Lispector's Near to the Wild Heart - When she spoke, she invented crazy, crazy!

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
My subject is Clarice Lispector’s Near to the Wild Heart (1943), her first novel, and the only book of hers I have read.  I read Alison Entrekin’s English translation because 1) I did not have a Portuguese text handy and 2) I figured it would be too hard for me, which I think is...
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The Perry Bible...
Snowflake The post Snowflake appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
3 weeks ago
16

Snowflake

from The Perry Bible Fellowship [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
The post Snowflake appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
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ben-mini
Platform or Point Solution? A while back, I wrote a post titled “What is a Platform?”. I defined what a platform is and why tech...
3 weeks ago
16

Platform or Point Solution?

from ben-mini [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A while back, I wrote a post titled “What is a Platform?”. I defined what a platform is and why tech companies are so determined to become labeled as one. My definition of a platform is a tool that allows users to define and build their own things, which can be used by other...
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Escaping Flatland
An essay in which my friend feels stuck and I suggest relaxing some constraints The short version is that my friend, in my opinion, thinks about what he wants in a too constrained...
3 weeks ago
15

An essay in which my friend feels stuck and I suggest relaxing some constraints

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
The short version is that my friend, in my opinion, thinks about what he wants in a too constrained way.
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Josh Thompson
Barefoot Sprinting Up a Grassy Hill, & Kettlebell Swings Introduction A few months ago, maybe in November, certainly by December, I began this ‘barefoot...
2 weeks ago
15

Barefoot Sprinting Up a Grassy Hill, & Kettlebell Swings

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
Introduction A few months ago, maybe in November, certainly by December, I began this ‘barefoot sprinting up grassy hills’ thing I’m going about to talk about in detail below. Shortly after I started, I began making use of the kettlebells I’d usually ignored at the gym(s) I have...
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The Marginalian
Obsidian and the Birds: An Odyssey of Wonder from the Aztecs to the Quantum World A recent visit to Teotihuacán — the ancient Mesoamerican city in present-day Mexico, built by...
3 weeks ago
15

Obsidian and the Birds: An Odyssey of Wonder from the Aztecs to the Quantum World

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A recent visit to Teotihuacán — the ancient Mesoamerican city in present-day Mexico, built by earlier cultures around 600 BCE and later rediscovered by the Aztecs — left me wonder-smitten by the see-saw of our search for truth and our search for meaning, by a peculiar confluence...
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The Marginalian
Against Self-Improvement: Adam Phillips on the Danger of Treating Ourselves as Pathological Patients... "So much depends on what we can make of what happens to us."
3 weeks ago
15

Against Self-Improvement: Adam Phillips on the Danger of Treating Ourselves as Pathological Patients in Need of a Cure

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
"So much depends on what we can make of what happens to us."
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The Elysian
I'm crowdfunding my next book advance And sharing the earnings with readers.
4 weeks ago
14

I'm crowdfunding my next book advance

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 weeks ago
And sharing the earnings with readers.
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This Space
A measure of forever For me, fiction is a space of plainness and excess.             Amina Cain When TS Eliot read...
3 weeks ago
14

A measure of forever

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
For me, fiction is a space of plainness and excess.             Amina Cain When TS Eliot read Dante for the first time, he noted a discrepancy between his enjoyment and his understanding, leading to the famous claim that "genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood"....
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Naz Hamid
Quality, Maintenance & Craft We are shokunin. Last week I was in Ojai, California, for True’s Founder Camp.[1] James Freeman,...
2 weeks ago
13

Quality, Maintenance & Craft

from Naz Hamid [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
We are shokunin. Last week I was in Ojai, California, for True’s Founder Camp.[1] James Freeman, founder of Blue Bottle Coffee was in conversation with Jeff Veen, and one of the attendees asked him: “How do you maintain such high quality?” Freeman answers, “‘Maintaining’ is a...
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Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 371 ...
3 weeks ago
13

Open Thread 371

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
...
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The American Scholar
“Writing in the Dark” by Denise Levertov Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Writing in the Dark” by Denise Levertov appeared first on...
3 weeks ago
13

“Writing in the Dark” by Denise Levertov

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Writing in the Dark” by Denise Levertov appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Ploum.net
20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3) 20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3) Previously in "20 years of Linux on the Deskop": After...
3 weeks ago
13

20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3)

from Ploum.net [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3) Previously in "20 years of Linux on the Deskop": After contributing to the launch of Ubuntu as the "perfect Linux desktop", Ploum realises that Ubuntu is drifting away from both Debian and GNOME. But something else is about to shake the...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Shut Not Thy Purse-Strings' Unlike his friends Coleridge, Hazlitt, Wordsworth and Hunt, who often made fools of themselves as a...
4 weeks ago
13

'Shut Not Thy Purse-Strings'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 weeks ago
Unlike his friends Coleridge, Hazlitt, Wordsworth and Hunt, who often made fools of themselves as a result, Charles Lamb had little interest in the momentous events of his day. About “Boney” – Napoleon Bonaparte – he wished only to know the dictator’s height, unlike Hazlitt, who...
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The Perry Bible...
Bubbled The post Bubbled appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
4 weeks ago
13

Bubbled

from The Perry Bible Fellowship [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 weeks ago
The post Bubbled appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
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The American Scholar
Luis Alvaro Sahagún Nuño Ancestral healing The post Luis Alvaro Sahagún Nuño appeared first on The American Scholar.
2 weeks ago
13

Luis Alvaro Sahagún Nuño

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
Ancestral healing The post Luis Alvaro Sahagún Nuño appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 371.5 ...
3 weeks ago
12

Open Thread 371.5

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
...
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The Perry Bible...
0 Percent Chance The post 0 Percent Chance appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
3 weeks ago
12

0 Percent Chance

from The Perry Bible Fellowship [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
The post 0 Percent Chance appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
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Astral Codex Ten
Spring Meetups Everywhere 2025 - Call For Organizers ...
3 weeks ago
12

Spring Meetups Everywhere 2025 - Call For Organizers

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
...
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The Elysian
The company of the future looks like this A Guest Lecture with Salim Ismail, author of Exponential Organizations
3 weeks ago
12

The company of the future looks like this

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A Guest Lecture with Salim Ismail, author of Exponential Organizations
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Rosebuds Are Rare As a Day in June' Fortune cookies no longer contain fortunes. Tucked inside the sugary shells are slips of paper...
3 weeks ago
12

'Rosebuds Are Rare As a Day in June'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Fortune cookies no longer contain fortunes. Tucked inside the sugary shells are slips of paper printed with platitudes. I carry one such slip in my wallet, salvaged from a forgotten meal at least a decade ago: “Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'All That Is Human Slips Away' Varlam Shalamov (1907-82), who ought to know, opens a poem with this line: “Memory has veiled / much...
3 weeks ago
12

'All That Is Human Slips Away'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Varlam Shalamov (1907-82), who ought to know, opens a poem with this line: “Memory has veiled / much evil . . .” Shalamov survived almost eighteen years in the Gulag, in the Arctic region known as Kolyma. His final imprisonment, from 1937 to 1951, was imposed after he referred to...
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Escaping Flatland
King of the sea snakes This one is a mix of things.
2 weeks ago
12

King of the sea snakes

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
This one is a mix of things.
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The Marginalian
Miss Leoparda: A Painted Parable of the Third Way and How to Change the World When told that there are only two options on the table and when both are limiting, most people,...
2 weeks ago
11

Miss Leoparda: A Painted Parable of the Third Way and How to Change the World

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
When told that there are only two options on the table and when both are limiting, most people, conditioned by the option dispensary we call society, will choose the lesser of the two limitations. Some will try to find a third option to put on the table; they may or may not...
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Astral Codex Ten
Why Should Intelligence Be Related To Neuron Count? ...
3 weeks ago
11

Why Should Intelligence Be Related To Neuron Count?

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
...
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Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 372 ...
2 weeks ago
11

Open Thread 372

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Better Bread Than Is Made of Wheat' Sometimes disparate things almost announce their covert similarities and linkages, in a way...
2 weeks ago
11

'Better Bread Than Is Made of Wheat'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
Sometimes disparate things almost announce their covert similarities and linkages, in a way Aristotle would have understood, and it makes good sense to combine them. I was looking for something in The Poet’s Tongue, the anthology compiled by W.H. Auden and the schoolmaster John...
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The Marginalian
Any Common Desolation "You may have to break your heart, but it isn’t nothing to know even one moment alive."
2 weeks ago
11

Any Common Desolation

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
"You may have to break your heart, but it isn’t nothing to know even one moment alive."
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Anecdotal Evidence
'To Think, to Read, to Meditate, to React' Often, I think of the late Adam Zagajewski urging young poets – and by extension, the rest of us --...
3 weeks ago
11

'To Think, to Read, to Meditate, to React'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Often, I think of the late Adam Zagajewski urging young poets – and by extension, the rest of us -- to “read everything.” The suggestion is not dictatorial. The Pole even admits he is a “chaotic reader,” as most of us are. I’ve never been systematic about much of anything...
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Ploum.net
N’attendez pas, changez vos paradigmes ! N’attendez pas, changez vos paradigmes ! Il faut se passer de voiture pendant un certain temps pour...
2 weeks ago
11

N’attendez pas, changez vos paradigmes !

from Ploum.net [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
N’attendez pas, changez vos paradigmes ! Il faut se passer de voiture pendant un certain temps pour réellement comprendre au plus profond de soi que la solution à beaucoup de nos problèmes sociétaux n’est pas une voiture électrique, mais une ville cyclable. Nous ne devons pas...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Take His Experience Along With Him' We shouldn’t be surprised that bookish tastes change across time. They mature, just as some of us...
4 weeks ago
11

'Take His Experience Along With Him'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 weeks ago
We shouldn’t be surprised that bookish tastes change across time. They mature, just as some of us do. The books we choose to read and reread follow a path parallel to our experience and maturity. This isn’t to imply “progress.” It’s not as though all of us shed bad taste and move...
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Wuthering...
What I Read in February 2025 – All human minds are in touch with a dark reservoir of our race’s... One of these books is 1,100 pages long.  It was just by chance that I read two genuinely disgusting...
2 weeks ago
11

What I Read in February 2025 – All human minds are in touch with a dark reservoir of our race’s psychic garbage.

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
One of these books is 1,100 pages long.  It was just by chance that I read two genuinely disgusting books at around the same time. FICTION A Glastonbury Romance (1932), John Cowper Powys -  I will write a bit about this beast, soon.  That line in the title is from Chapter 25,...
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The American Scholar
Brown Wasps The post Brown Wasps appeared first on The American Scholar.
3 weeks ago
10

Brown Wasps

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
The post Brown Wasps appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'And Does the Time Seem Long?' “Maurine Smith died March 8, 1919, at the age of twenty-three years. Nearly her whole life had been...
3 weeks ago
10

'And Does the Time Seem Long?'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
“Maurine Smith died March 8, 1919, at the age of twenty-three years. Nearly her whole life had been one of intense physical suffering, and she knew few of the usual felicities.”  Yvor Winters is introducing us to a poet whose name you likely have never encountered.  Smith and...
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The American Scholar
The Root Cause Padraic X. Scanlan tells the real history of the Irish Potato Famine The post The Root Cause...
2 weeks ago
10

The Root Cause

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
Padraic X. Scanlan tells the real history of the Irish Potato Famine The post The Root Cause appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Elysian
I'm crowdfunding a book—we've raised $38,000 already! But writing about a better economy isn't enough, we have to build it too.
2 weeks ago
10

I'm crowdfunding a book—we've raised $38,000 already!

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
But writing about a better economy isn't enough, we have to build it too.
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Naz Hamid
Operating Rules for Email Collaboration Writing, giving, and soliciting feedback via your inbox. For over 25 years, I’ve been using email to...
a week ago
10

Operating Rules for Email Collaboration

from Naz Hamid [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
Writing, giving, and soliciting feedback via your inbox. For over 25 years, I’ve been using email to collaborate and work with people. Before there were any messaging platforms, project management tools, and hybrid tools like Slack and Discord, phone calls, Skype and email were...
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Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 373 ...
a week ago
10

Open Thread 373

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'His Rising and His Fading Is Most Beautiful; A librarian friend and I were talking about the similarities between library cataloguing and...
3 weeks ago
10

'His Rising and His Fading Is Most Beautiful;

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A librarian friend and I were talking about the similarities between library cataloguing and taxonomy in biology – the art of classification – and the sort of people such specialized disciplines attract. Formerly a piano teacher, she was attracted to library science by way of...
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The Marginalian
The Strength to Remember and the Strength to Forget: James Baldwin on What Makes a Hero “Let everything happen to you,” wrote Rilke, “Beauty and terror.” It is not easy, this simple...
2 weeks ago
10

The Strength to Remember and the Strength to Forget: James Baldwin on What Makes a Hero

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
“Let everything happen to you,” wrote Rilke, “Beauty and terror.” It is not easy, this simple surrender. The courage and vulnerability it takes make it nothing less than an act of heroism. Most of our cowardices and cruelties, most of the suffering we endure and inflict, stem...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Something Irrepressibly Celebratory' A longtime reader of Anecdotal Evidence has commented on my March 1 post:  “One of my...
3 weeks ago
10

'Something Irrepressibly Celebratory'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A longtime reader of Anecdotal Evidence has commented on my March 1 post:  “One of my worst apprehensions about my son’s college education came true in his freshman English class. The professor brought up Lamb only to highlight something he said that would strike modern...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'The Most Noteworthy Action of Human Life' I dreamed my late brother was here in Houston, a city he never visited. He was phobic about flying...
2 weeks ago
10

'The Most Noteworthy Action of Human Life'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
I dreamed my late brother was here in Houston, a city he never visited. He was phobic about flying and traveled by air only twice in his life, when very young. We were seated across from each other, on the couches by the front window. What I remember of the dream is brief, little...
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The American Scholar
“After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes” by Emily Dickinson Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes” by Emily Dickinson...
2 weeks ago
10

“After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes” by Emily Dickinson

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes” by Emily Dickinson appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Writers That Are Worth Anything Are Humorists' Bertie Wooster has asked if he can purchase a gift for Jeeves while he is out, and the valet...
3 weeks ago
10

'Writers That Are Worth Anything Are Humorists'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Bertie Wooster has asked if he can purchase a gift for Jeeves while he is out, and the valet replies: “‘Well, sir, there has recently been published a new and authoritatively annotated edition of the works of the philosopher Spinoza. Since you are so generous, I would appreciate...
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Astral Codex Ten
The Ozempocalypse Is Nigh Sorry, you can only get drugs when there's a drug shortage.
2 weeks ago
10

The Ozempocalypse Is Nigh

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
Sorry, you can only get drugs when there's a drug shortage.
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Astral Codex Ten
Misophonia: Beyond Sensory Sensitivity ...
a week ago
10

Misophonia: Beyond Sensory Sensitivity

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a week ago
...
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The American Scholar
Who Would I Be Off My Meds Can weaning oneself off pharmaceuticals ease the cycle of perpetual suffering? The post Who Would I...
3 weeks ago
9

Who Would I Be Off My Meds

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Can weaning oneself off pharmaceuticals ease the cycle of perpetual suffering? The post Who Would I Be Off My Meds appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Astral Codex Ten
What Happened To NAEP Scores? ...
2 weeks ago
9

What Happened To NAEP Scores?

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Things That Might Have Been and Never Were' My middle son enjoys a genre of fiction known as “alternate history.” Among its practitioners is the...
2 weeks ago
9

'Things That Might Have Been and Never Were'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
My middle son enjoys a genre of fiction known as “alternate history.” Among its practitioners is the American novelist Harry Turtledove. As I understand it, the premise is simple: change an event in the past and see what happens in subsequent history. Hitler, for instance, dies...
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The American Scholar
A Midsummer Night’s Stream A Midsummer Night’s Stream The post A Midsummer Night’s Stream appeared first on The American...
3 weeks ago
9

A Midsummer Night’s Stream

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A Midsummer Night’s Stream The post A Midsummer Night’s Stream appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'But Man Is Not Born for Happiness' “[P]oets are a very worthless, wicked set of people.”  How did William Cowper, himself a fine and...
2 weeks ago
9

'But Man Is Not Born for Happiness'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
“[P]oets are a very worthless, wicked set of people.”  How did William Cowper, himself a fine and neglected poet, come to this conclusion? In a letter to Rev. John Newton, written March 15, 1784, Cowper tells his friend he has just finished reading the eight volumes of Dr....
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Ploum.net
Du désir profond de se faire arnaquer Du désir profond de se faire arnaquer Pour suivre les modes et faire comme tout le monde Stefano...
a week ago
9

Du désir profond de se faire arnaquer

from Ploum.net [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
Du désir profond de se faire arnaquer Pour suivre les modes et faire comme tout le monde Stefano Marinelli, un administrateur système chevronné, installe principalement des serveurs sous FreeBSD, OpenBSD ou NetBSD pour ses clients. Le plus difficile ? Arriver à convaincre un...
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The American Scholar
Chapters and Verse Looking for the poet between the lines The post Chapters and Verse appeared first on The American...
3 weeks ago
9

Chapters and Verse

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Looking for the poet between the lines The post Chapters and Verse appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Consolidated Ruin The post Consolidated Ruin appeared first on The American Scholar.
2 weeks ago
9

Consolidated Ruin

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
The post Consolidated Ruin appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
“The Yellowhammer’s Nest” by John Clare Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Yellowhammer’s Nest” by John Clare appeared first on The...
a week ago
9

“The Yellowhammer’s Nest” by John Clare

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Yellowhammer’s Nest” by John Clare appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
How to Get Out of Your Own Way: John Berryman on Defeating the Three Demons of Creative Work John Allyn Smith, Jr. was eleven when, early one morning in the interlude between two world wars,...
a week ago
9

How to Get Out of Your Own Way: John Berryman on Defeating the Three Demons of Creative Work

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
John Allyn Smith, Jr. was eleven when, early one morning in the interlude between two world wars, not long after his parents had filed for divorce, he was awakened by a loud bang beneath his bedroom window. He looked to see his father dead by his own gun. Within months, his...
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The Elysian
US states should have autonomy—like EU countries All we need to change is taxation.
a week ago
9

US states should have autonomy—like EU countries

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
All we need to change is taxation.
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The American Scholar
Tiger Mom At a forest preserve in India, a writer sees the world anew and learns how to focus her son’s...
3 weeks ago
9

Tiger Mom

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
At a forest preserve in India, a writer sees the world anew and learns how to focus her son’s restless mind The post Tiger Mom appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Gives to Airy Nothing a Local Habitation' What attracted me was the anthologist’s audacity in titling his book: 100 Best Poems in the English...
a week ago
9

'Gives to Airy Nothing a Local Habitation'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
What attracted me was the anthologist’s audacity in titling his book: 100 Best Poems in the English Language (1952). In his introduction, Stephen Graham does little to impress us with his literary humility. His anthology is, he writes, “perhaps the only one of its kind,...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'To Have the Heart Partially Erased' “Hatred, suspicion, malice and madness seem to be reaching new highs everywhere. . . . Perhaps...
a week ago
8

'To Have the Heart Partially Erased'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
“Hatred, suspicion, malice and madness seem to be reaching new highs everywhere. . . . Perhaps madness, like cancer, is a way of life trying to transcend itself.”  This might be a template for next week’s column, a pundit’s lamentation ready for copying-and-pasting. In fact,...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'A Mystery of Language I Shall Never Solve' Quite a marvelous season after a protracted Northern winter, spring is the hoariest of subjects for...
2 weeks ago
8

'A Mystery of Language I Shall Never Solve'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
Quite a marvelous season after a protracted Northern winter, spring is the hoariest of subjects for a poem. How many ways are there to be jubilant or render the sensation of “cavorting with the milkmaids,” as an old friend once put it? The effort usually comes off as hackneyed or...
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Astral Codex Ten
Hidden Open Thread 372.5 ...
2 weeks ago
8

Hidden Open Thread 372.5

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2 weeks ago
...
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Escaping Flatland
Why we ended up homeschooling “Little Sister”, Agnes Martin, 1962
a week ago
8

Why we ended up homeschooling

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
“Little Sister”, Agnes Martin, 1962
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Thanks for This Fancy, Insect King' I once spent most of a day in an upstate New York marsh with a neuroethologist, a biologist who...
2 weeks ago
8

'Thanks for This Fancy, Insect King'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
I once spent most of a day in an upstate New York marsh with a neuroethologist, a biologist who studies how an animal’s nervous system determines its behavior. His specialty was the order Odonata – dragonflies and damselflies. Like any journalist who’s paying attention, I got a...
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The Elysian
Introducing CITY-STATE Seven writers exploring autonomous governance.
2 weeks ago
8

Introducing CITY-STATE

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
Seven writers exploring autonomous governance.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'They Will Never Seem Boring' “And my final advice is to try, every week or so, to learn something by heart. A surprising amount...
a week ago
8

'They Will Never Seem Boring'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
“And my final advice is to try, every week or so, to learn something by heart. A surprising amount will remain in the memory, and more and more as you train it; and then, as you walk or work or sit in the subway, you will have something more than daily trivialities to occupy your...
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Astral Codex Ten
More Drowning Children ...
a week ago
8

More Drowning Children

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a week ago
...
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Astral Codex Ten
OpenAI Nonprofit Buyout: Much More Than You Wanted To Know ...
2 weeks ago
8

OpenAI Nonprofit Buyout: Much More Than You Wanted To Know

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2 weeks ago
...
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The Marginalian
How to Meet Your Mystery: Thomas Merton on Solitude and the Soul "It is a vocation to become fully awake, even more than the common somnolence permits one to be,...
a week ago
8

How to Meet Your Mystery: Thomas Merton on Solitude and the Soul

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
"It is a vocation to become fully awake, even more than the common somnolence permits one to be, with its arbitrary selection of approved dreams, mixed with a few really valid and fruitful conceptions."
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The Marginalian
The Half Room of Living and Loving When I can’t sleep, I read children’s books. One night, I discovered In the Half Room (public...
a week ago
8

The Half Room of Living and Loving

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
When I can’t sleep, I read children’s books. One night, I discovered In the Half Room (public library) by Carson Ellis in my tsundoku — an impressionistic invitation into a world where only half of everything exists. Leafing through this quietly delightful treasure, I had a flash...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Pic-nic and Polka' Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855) was an English theologian, a learned man who amassed a library of...
2 weeks ago
8

'Pic-nic and Polka'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855) was an English theologian, a learned man who amassed a library of more than 12,000 volumes. In 1828, Walter Savage Landor published the third volume of his Imaginary Conversations and included one titled “Archdeacon Hare and Walter Landor.” The...
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Josh Thompson
Cones, Coning, and Fixing Junctions, And How And Why “Traffic Cones and Junction Fixes: A DIY Guide” ? this is very drafty This post is probably best...
a week ago
8

Cones, Coning, and Fixing Junctions, And How And Why

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
“Traffic Cones and Junction Fixes: A DIY Guide” ? this is very drafty This post is probably best viewed on desktop, with some links opening new tabs, viewed, closed, and then this post returned to. There’s a lot of videos farther down, some of them are tiktoks (sorry) and some of...
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The American Scholar
Two Names The post Two Names appeared first on The American Scholar.
a week ago
7

Two Names

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
The post Two Names appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'The Very Empire of Connotation' “[T]he partisan of parsimony sees prose as a vehicle for meaning and nothing more, even if...
a week ago
7

'The Very Empire of Connotation'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
“[T]he partisan of parsimony sees prose as a vehicle for meaning and nothing more, even if their feigned rhetoric-of-no-rhetoric is in reality one of the oldest rhetorical gambits there is.”  I have a taste for two seemingly mutually exclusive schools of prose that may not be all...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Your Literary Judgments Are Not Interesting' All of us when young – readers, I mean – fancy ourselves rebels and independent thinkers but most of...
a week ago
7

'Your Literary Judgments Are Not Interesting'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
All of us when young – readers, I mean – fancy ourselves rebels and independent thinkers but most of us are afflicted to varying degrees with the superego of the age. That is, we are influenced, whether we know it or not, by the critical climate, by the judgments and fashions of...
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The American Scholar
American Carthage Echoes from the ancient conflicts between Hannibal’s city and Rome continue to reverberate well into...
3 weeks ago
7

American Carthage

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Echoes from the ancient conflicts between Hannibal’s city and Rome continue to reverberate well into the present The post American Carthage appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'What a Delight in Being a Discoverer!' The library catalogue said Walter Savage Landor’s Poems, the 1964 Centaur Press edition selected and...
a week ago
7

'What a Delight in Being a Discoverer!'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
The library catalogue said Walter Savage Landor’s Poems, the 1964 Centaur Press edition selected and introduced by Geoffrey Grigson, had not been checked out by another patron (hardly surprising) and should be on the shelf. I couldn’t find it. Not a good sign. That could mean the...
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Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 374 ...
a week ago
7

Open Thread 374

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a week ago
...
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The Marginalian
Comets, Orbits, and the Mystery We Are: The Enchanted Celestial Mechanics of Australian Artist Shane... “We are bathing in mystery and confusion,” Carl Sagan told his best interviewer. “That will always...
6 days ago
7

Comets, Orbits, and the Mystery We Are: The Enchanted Celestial Mechanics of Australian Artist Shane Drinkwater

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 days ago
“We are bathing in mystery and confusion,” Carl Sagan told his best interviewer. “That will always be our destiny. The universe will always be much richer than our ability to understand it.” We have wielded our tools of reason at the mystery — theorems and telescopes, postulates...
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The American Scholar
“The Nakedness of Woman” The post “The Nakedness of Woman” appeared first on The American Scholar.
a week ago
7

“The Nakedness of Woman”

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
The post “The Nakedness of Woman” appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Elysian
Suggestion Box This is where to leave ideas for my We Should Own The Economy project.
a week ago
7

Suggestion Box

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
This is where to leave ideas for my We Should Own The Economy project.
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The American Scholar
Cobi Moules Landscapes of queer joy The post Cobi Moules appeared first on The American Scholar.
a week ago
7

Cobi Moules

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
Landscapes of queer joy The post Cobi Moules appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Mr. Olympia When the ancient Greeks looked at human muscle, they saw something different than we do The post Mr....
a week ago
6

Mr. Olympia

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
When the ancient Greeks looked at human muscle, they saw something different than we do The post Mr. Olympia appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Who’s to Say? A bewildering take from a noted scholar of Christianity The post Who’s to Say? appeared first on The...
3 weeks ago
6

Who’s to Say?

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A bewildering take from a noted scholar of Christianity The post Who’s to Say? appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Astral Codex Ten
Hidden Open Thread 373.5 ...
a week ago
6

Hidden Open Thread 373.5

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a week ago
...
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The Elysian
How WeFunder democratizes business ownership A discussion with Jonny Price, president of WeFunder.
5 days ago
6

How WeFunder democratizes business ownership

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

5 days ago
A discussion with Jonny Price, president of WeFunder.
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The Elysian
Multi-country civilizations are good, actually A vibe shift in favor of annexation would be counterproductive 🌏
a week ago
6

Multi-country civilizations are good, actually

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
A vibe shift in favor of annexation would be counterproductive 🌏
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Better to Have a Distinct Word for Each Sense' On Monday, March 23, [1772], I found him busy, preparing a fourth edition of his folio...
a week ago
6

'Better to Have a Distinct Word for Each Sense'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
On Monday, March 23, [1772], I found him busy, preparing a fourth edition of his folio Dictionary.”  Dr. Johnson published the first edition of his Dictionary on April 15, 1755, two-hundred-seventy years ago. It contained some 42,000 entries and he had worked on it for...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'The Earliest of My Friends Is Gone' I often speak or exchange texts with my nephew. Soon he’ll turn thirty-six, but he lives in...
a week ago
6

'The Earliest of My Friends Is Gone'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

a week ago
I often speak or exchange texts with my nephew. Soon he’ll turn thirty-six, but he lives in Cleveland, 1,200 miles away, and I seldom see him. Distance warps the sense of duration, so I think of him as frozen in his early twenties. We spoke on Sunday and for the first time since...
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Ploum.net
The candid naivety of geeks The candid naivety of geeks I mean, come on! Amazon recently announced that, from now on, everything...
3 days ago
5

The candid naivety of geeks

from Ploum.net [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 days ago
The candid naivety of geeks I mean, come on! Amazon recently announced that, from now on, everything you say to Alexa will be sent to their server. Pluralistic: Amazon annihilates Alexa privacy settings, turns on continuous, nonconsensual audio uploading (15 Mar 2025)...
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The American Scholar
Once More, Without Feeling Can a memoir be effective when it lacks any warmth? The post Once More, Without Feeling appeared...
3 weeks ago
5

Once More, Without Feeling

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Can a memoir be effective when it lacks any warmth? The post Once More, Without Feeling appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Asteroid Hunters The scientists and engineers who defend our planet day and night from potentially hazardous space...
3 weeks ago
5

Asteroid Hunters

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
The scientists and engineers who defend our planet day and night from potentially hazardous space rocks The post Asteroid Hunters appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Food for Thought A pragmatic approach to one of humanity’s gravest threats The post Food for Thought appeared first...
3 weeks ago
5

Food for Thought

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A pragmatic approach to one of humanity’s gravest threats The post Food for Thought appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Spring 2025 The post Spring 2025 appeared first on The American Scholar.
3 weeks ago
5

Spring 2025

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
The post Spring 2025 appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'The Least Motion of Wonder in Himself' In 1968, my high-school English teacher loaned me the anthology of short stories she had used at...
6 days ago
5

'The Least Motion of Wonder in Himself'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 days ago
In 1968, my high-school English teacher loaned me the anthology of short stories she had used at Kent State University just a few years earlier. Included were the usual suspects -- Maupassant, Hemingway, Chekhov, Eudora Welty – but I read them because I knew nothing. Among the...
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Astral Codex Ten
Meetups Everywhere Spring 2025: Times & Places ...
6 days ago
5

Meetups Everywhere Spring 2025: Times & Places

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6 days ago
...
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The American Scholar
The One Who Got Away The post The One Who Got Away appeared first on The American Scholar.
5 days ago
5

The One Who Got Away

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

5 days ago
The post The One Who Got Away appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'We Are Not So Full of Evil As of Inanity' Montaigne devotes a brief essay to a pair of pre-Socratic Greek thinkers, “Of Democritus and...
4 days ago
5

'We Are Not So Full of Evil As of Inanity'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 days ago
Montaigne devotes a brief essay to a pair of pre-Socratic Greek thinkers, “Of Democritus and Heraclitus.” The former is reputed to have been a misanthrope, perhaps a melancholic. The latter was known as “the laughing philosopher.”  The essayist begins by weighing the importance...
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The American Scholar
Maximalisma A professor endeavors to separate treasure from trash—before her children have to do it for her The...
3 weeks ago
5

Maximalisma

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A professor endeavors to separate treasure from trash—before her children have to do it for her The post Maximalisma appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Electrons That Bind The molecule at the center of everything The post Electrons That Bind appeared first on The American...
3 weeks ago
5

Electrons That Bind

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
The molecule at the center of everything The post Electrons That Bind appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Raspberry Heaven A yearly back-yard harvest opens a door to the divine The post Raspberry Heaven appeared first on...
3 weeks ago
4

Raspberry Heaven

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A yearly back-yard harvest opens a door to the divine The post Raspberry Heaven appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Between Memory and Hope The love poetry of Anthony Walton The post Between Memory and Hope appeared first on The American...
3 weeks ago
4

Between Memory and Hope

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
The love poetry of Anthony Walton The post Between Memory and Hope appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
“Käthe Kollwitz” by Muriel Rukeyser Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Käthe Kollwitz” by Muriel Rukeyser appeared first on The...
6 days ago
4

“Käthe Kollwitz” by Muriel Rukeyser

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 days ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Käthe Kollwitz” by Muriel Rukeyser appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Lessons From Harlem A white blues player’s streetside education The post Lessons From Harlem appeared first on The...
3 weeks ago
4

Lessons From Harlem

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
A white blues player’s streetside education The post Lessons From Harlem appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Revenants The post Revenants appeared first on The American Scholar.
3 weeks ago
4

Revenants

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
The post Revenants appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Learning to Be Social What might Rousseau teach us about how to live with others? The post Learning to Be Social appeared...
3 weeks ago
4

Learning to Be Social

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
What might Rousseau teach us about how to live with others? The post Learning to Be Social appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
The Murderer as Everyman Arthur Fleck’s rise and fall The post The Murderer as Everyman appeared first on The American...
3 weeks ago
4

The Murderer as Everyman

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 weeks ago
Arthur Fleck’s rise and fall The post The Murderer as Everyman appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Transcending the Glass Ceiling Five women who made important contributions to 19th-century American philosophy finally get their...
4 days ago
4

Transcending the Glass Ceiling

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 days ago
Five women who made important contributions to 19th-century American philosophy finally get their due The post Transcending the Glass Ceiling appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Astral Codex Ten
Hidden Open Thread 374.5 ...
4 days ago
4

Hidden Open Thread 374.5

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4 days ago
...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Dust and Shadows' Here I encounter yet again the bothersome issue of major vs. minor writers. When “minor” is used as...
5 days ago
4

'Dust and Shadows'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

5 days ago
Here I encounter yet again the bothersome issue of major vs. minor writers. When “minor” is used as a purely dismissive judgment, beware. There are minor writers who write beautifully and earn our respect and even love – Max Beerbohm is the first who comes to mind – and...
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Astral Codex Ten
"Deros And The Ur-Abduction" In Asterisk ...
5 days ago
4

"Deros And The Ur-Abduction" In Asterisk

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5 days ago
...
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The American Scholar
The Most Famous Unknown Artist David Sheff puts Yoko Ono in the spotlight The post The Most Famous Unknown Artist appeared first on...
3 days ago
4

The Most Famous Unknown Artist

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 days ago
David Sheff puts Yoko Ono in the spotlight The post The Most Famous Unknown Artist appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Wuthering...
Wolf Solent and A Glastonbury Romance - Both the two great forces pouring forth from the... Last summer I read John Cowper Powys’s novel Wolf Solent (1929) and recently I read A Glastonbury...
2 days ago
3

Wolf Solent and A Glastonbury Romance - Both the two great forces pouring forth from the double-natured First Cause

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 days ago
Last summer I read John Cowper Powys’s novel Wolf Solent (1929) and recently I read A Glastonbury Romance (1932), not his first novels but the first that anyone noticed.  Wolf Solent is a plump 600 pages, and Glastonbury a monstrous 1,100.  Powys was 56 when the first was...
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Read During Every Possible Free Moment' A reader asks, “How did you learn to read so fast?” The answer is simple: I didn’t. I have always...
3 days ago
3

'Read During Every Possible Free Moment'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 days ago
A reader asks, “How did you learn to read so fast?” The answer is simple: I didn’t. I have always read slowly, often taking notes, which makes it even slower. This frustrated me when I was young, and I briefly contemplated enrolling in one of Evelyn Wood’s...
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The Marginalian
On Play The necessities of survival make our lives livable, but everything that makes them worth living...
4 days ago
3

On Play

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 days ago
The necessities of survival make our lives livable, but everything that makes them worth living partakes of the art of the unnecessary: beauty (the cave was no warmer or safer for our paintings, and what about the bowerbird?), love (how easily we could propagate our genes without...
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Robert Caro
The Power Broker Book Club The “99% Invisible Breakdown” podcast spent a year reading The Power Broker with guests Conan...
2 days ago
3

The Power Broker Book Club

from Robert Caro [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 days ago
The “99% Invisible Breakdown” podcast spent a year reading The Power Broker with guests Conan O’Brien, Robert Caro, and others.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'Without One Wonder in the Sky!' John Partridge (1677-1715) was an English shoemaker-turned-astrologer who claimed to have refined...
2 days ago
3

'Without One Wonder in the Sky!'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 days ago
John Partridge (1677-1715) was an English shoemaker-turned-astrologer who claimed to have refined his “science.” Don’t smirk or pity our benighted forebears. Newspapers still publish astrology columns and dozens of astrological publications remain in print. See Modern Astrology...
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Robert Caro
Robert Caro Reflects on ‘The Power Broker’ and Its Legacy at 50 NEW YORK TIMES: Caro’s book on Robert Moses is also a reflection on “the dangers of unchecked...
2 days ago
3

Robert Caro Reflects on ‘The Power Broker’ and Its Legacy at 50

from Robert Caro [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 days ago
NEW YORK TIMES: Caro’s book on Robert Moses is also a reflection on “the dangers of unchecked power,” and remains more relevant than ever.
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Robert Caro
A Peek Inside Robert Caro’s Home Library, Hidden Shelves and All THE WASHINGTON POST takes us inside Robert Caro’s literary collection, and shows us the most...
2 days ago
3

A Peek Inside Robert Caro’s Home Library, Hidden Shelves and All

from Robert Caro [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 days ago
THE WASHINGTON POST takes us inside Robert Caro’s literary collection, and shows us the most precious volumes in his home library.
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The Elysian
Should we create more US states? Inside the growing movement to redraw state lines, and why it might be better for liberals and...
4 days ago
3

Should we create more US states?

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 days ago
Inside the growing movement to redraw state lines, and why it might be better for liberals and conservatives alike.
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Robert Caro
Why Has ‘The Power Broker’ Had Such a Long Life? NEW YORK TIMES: Robert Caro created a lasting portrait of corruption by turning the craft of...
2 days ago
3

Why Has ‘The Power Broker’ Had Such a Long Life?

from Robert Caro [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 days ago
NEW YORK TIMES: Robert Caro created a lasting portrait of corruption by turning the craft of journalism into a pursuit of high art.
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Anecdotal Evidence
'But They Are Very Bad Poems' Eugenio Montale speaking with an interviewer, American poet W.S. Di Piero, in 1973:  “Political...
19 hours ago
2

'But They Are Very Bad Poems'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

19 hours ago
Eugenio Montale speaking with an interviewer, American poet W.S. Di Piero, in 1973:  “Political ideas are best expressed in prose. Why should we express political ideas in such an abstruse language as poetry? If I were to write against the war in Viet Nam, I would write in prose,...
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The Marginalian
Walt Whitman on Owning Your Life At the bottom of the abyss between us is the hard fact that to be a person, a particular person, is...
2 days ago
1

Walt Whitman on Owning Your Life

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 days ago
At the bottom of the abyss between us is the hard fact that to be a person, a particular person, is so profoundly different from what any other person can suppose. This is why one of the hardest learnings in life is that you cannot love — or scold, or coax, or palter — anyone out...
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The Elysian
It’s time for Thomas Jefferson's village-states His small, democratic communities would revive and defend our republic.
an hour ago
1

It’s time for Thomas Jefferson's village-states

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

an hour ago
His small, democratic communities would revive and defend our republic.
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Wuthering...
Books I Read in August 2023 As I suspected my energy for writing in August was diverted to more important things.  Plenty of...
a year ago
411

Books I Read in August 2023

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
As I suspected my energy for writing in August was diverted to more important things.  Plenty of energy to read, though. With a respite in September, I should soon be able to write a bit on the Greek philosophers I have been reading.  The Cynics, Epicureans, and Stoics work...
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The American Scholar
Ho Ho Horror Why not make this Christmas a little darker? The post Ho Ho Horror appeared first on The American...
3 months ago
150

Ho Ho Horror

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 months ago
Why not make this Christmas a little darker? The post Ho Ho Horror appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 366 ...
2 months ago
123

Open Thread 366

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2 months ago
...
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The Perry Bible...
Us The post Us appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
5 months ago
118

Us

from The Perry Bible Fellowship [alt+shift+b] in literature

5 months ago
The post Us appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
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The Marginalian
The Paradox of Free Will The neuroscience, physics, and philosophy of freedom in a universe of fixed laws.
a year ago
118

The Paradox of Free Will

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
The neuroscience, physics, and philosophy of freedom in a universe of fixed laws.
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Wuthering...
Books I Read in May 2023 I had a good time. GREEK PHILOSOPHY The Nicomachean Ethics (4th C. BCE), Aristotle - a post,...
a year ago
109

Books I Read in May 2023

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
I had a good time. GREEK PHILOSOPHY The Nicomachean Ethics (4th C. BCE), Aristotle - a post, however shallow, should appear soon. FICTION Joseph in Egypt (1936), Thomas Mann The Long Valley (1938) & The Grapes of Wrath (1939), John Steinbeck - I last read this probably...
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The Marginalian
The Courage to Be Yourself: Virginia Woolf on How to Hear Your Soul "Beyond the difficulty of communicating oneself, there is the supreme difficulty of being oneself."
a year ago
103

The Courage to Be Yourself: Virginia Woolf on How to Hear Your Soul

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Beyond the difficulty of communicating oneself, there is the supreme difficulty of being oneself."
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The Marginalian
May Sarton on the Art of Living Alone "The people we love are built into us."
a year ago
98

May Sarton on the Art of Living Alone

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"The people we love are built into us."
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This Space
39 Books in one For anyone interested (you there in the phone box), here's a PDF of the 39 Books series. 39 Books:...
10 months ago
97

39 Books in one

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
For anyone interested (you there in the phone box), here's a PDF of the 39 Books series. 39 Books: PDF As the introduction explained, the books were chosen from those on my books-read lists that I hadn't written about before. I thought it might be instructive to contrast the...
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The Marginalian
Some Thoughts about the Ocean and the Universe How to bear the gravity of being.
a year ago
93

Some Thoughts about the Ocean and the Universe

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
How to bear the gravity of being.
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Escaping Flatland
Don’t sacrifice the wrong thing I began emailing essays into the void on 30 May 2021, 53 days before Rebecka, our youngest daughter...
10 months ago
93

Don’t sacrifice the wrong thing

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
I began emailing essays into the void on 30 May 2021, 53 days before Rebecka, our youngest daughter was born. This writing experiment has followed roughly the same trajectory as the baby. In 2021, Escaping Flatland's prime achievement was putting a few toys in its mouth (a...
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This Space
39 Books: 2021 I lived in Brighton for 30 years. One of the many painful aspects of leaving in 2021 was losing the...
10 months ago
92

39 Books: 2021

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
I lived in Brighton for 30 years. One of the many painful aspects of leaving in 2021 was losing the many second-hand bookshops, all within walking distance. Many have closed over the years, such as Sandpiper, a remaindered bookshop in Kensington Gardens. It had a backroom in...
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The American Scholar
The Importance of Being Different A travel writer’s education The post The Importance of Being Different appeared first on The...
10 months ago
91

The Importance of Being Different

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
A travel writer’s education The post The Importance of Being Different appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Wuthering...
The Making of Americans as conceptual art - I have already made several diagrams Sometime I will be able to make a diagram.  I have already made several diagrams.  I will sometime...
9 months ago
91

The Making of Americans as conceptual art - I have already made several diagrams

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Sometime I will be able to make a diagram.  I have already made several diagrams.  I will sometime make a complete diagram and that will be a very long book...  (580) I am going to write about The Making of Americans as conceptual art, art where how it is made is a central part...
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The Marginalian
The Remedy for Creative Block and Existential Stuckness "Faithfulness to the moment and to the present circumstance entails continuous surrender... Only...
over a year ago
91

The Remedy for Creative Block and Existential Stuckness

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
"Faithfulness to the moment and to the present circumstance entails continuous surrender... Only unconditional surrender leads to real emptiness, and from that place of emptiness I can be prolific and free."
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The Marginalian
What It Takes to Grow: Pioneering Psychoanalyst Karen Horney on the Key to Self-Realization "Self-knowledge... is not an aim in itself, but a means of liberating the forces of spontaneous...
a year ago
91

What It Takes to Grow: Pioneering Psychoanalyst Karen Horney on the Key to Self-Realization

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Self-knowledge... is not an aim in itself, but a means of liberating the forces of spontaneous growth. In this sense, to work at ourselves becomes not only the prime moral obligation, but... the prime moral privilege."
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This Space
39 Books: 2023 This is the 39th and final post of this series. As the introduction explains, I began seeking a...
10 months ago
90

39 Books: 2023

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
This is the 39th and final post of this series. As the introduction explains, I began seeking a return to the short-form of the early days of blogging. And it started off well, with each entry written in no time, sometimes stirring up the sediment of initial enchantment. As I got...
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Wuthering...
Three weeks in Portugal I was in Portugal for three weeks in June.  Five hours a day for four days I was in this inlingua...
9 months ago
89

Three weeks in Portugal

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
I was in Portugal for three weeks in June.  Five hours a day for four days I was in this inlingua classroom in Porto, or one much like it: The results: B1 in Portuguese after about two years of fairly relaxed study – relaxed until those four days – which seems pretty good. ...
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The Marginalian
What We Look for When We Are Looking: John Steinbeck on Wonder and the Relational Nature of the... Searching for "that principle which keys us deeply into the pattern of all life."
a year ago
89

What We Look for When We Are Looking: John Steinbeck on Wonder and the Relational Nature of the Universe

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Searching for "that principle which keys us deeply into the pattern of all life."
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Wuthering...
Stein's style - Mostly no one will be wanting to listen, I am certain Not many find it interesting this way I am realizing every one, not any I am just now hearing, and...
9 months ago
89

Stein's style - Mostly no one will be wanting to listen, I am certain

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Not many find it interesting this way I am realizing every one, not any I am just now hearing, and it is so completely an important thing, it is a complete thing in understanding, I am going on writing, I am going on now with a description of all whom Alfred Hersland came to know...
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Escaping Flatland
Can we scale cultures that support learning? new essay in Asterisk
6 months ago
89

Can we scale cultures that support learning?

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
new essay in Asterisk
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This Space
Literature likes to hide Last December I was fortunate enough to borrow a copy of The Unmediated Vision, Geoffrey Hartman's...
a year ago
88

Literature likes to hide

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Last December I was fortunate enough to borrow a copy of The Unmediated Vision, Geoffrey Hartman's first book, published in 1954. It is difficult to find a copy now but you can download a digital version of the book via the link. The opening chapter is a 50-page study of "Tintern...
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Wuthering...
Metamorphoses, cantos 7 through 10 - more Heroides, more gore, more of everything - What meen my... Metamorphoses is fluid, quick, and ever-changing.  Let’s look at cantos VII through X, which...
a year ago
88

Metamorphoses, cantos 7 through 10 - more Heroides, more gore, more of everything - What meen my dreames then? what effect have dreames?

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Metamorphoses is fluid, quick, and ever-changing.  Let’s look at cantos VII through X, which have their share of famous stories, stories famous, or as famous as they are, because of Metamorphoses.  Venus and Adonis, Baucis and Philemon, Orpheus and Eurydice, Pygmalion.  Icarus –...
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The Marginalian
The Parts We Live With: D.H. Lawrence and the Yearning for Living Unison "We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living,...
11 months ago
88

The Parts We Live With: D.H. Lawrence and the Yearning for Living Unison

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
"We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living, incarnate cosmos."
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Escaping Flatland
On having more interesting ideas “To write well, all you have to do is cultivate your mind and then write what you see.” When I talk...
10 months ago
87

On having more interesting ideas

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
“To write well, all you have to do is cultivate your mind and then write what you see.” When I talk to people who have worked with their ideas seriously for 10+ years, it feels like I can throw any topic on them and they’ll have an interesting idea, or if not an idea so at least...
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The Marginalian
Batter My Heart: Love, the Divine Within, and How Not to Break Our Your Own Heart There are many things we mistake for love — infatuation, admiration, need — but there is no error of...
7 months ago
86

Batter My Heart: Love, the Divine Within, and How Not to Break Our Your Own Heart

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
There are many things we mistake for love — infatuation, admiration, need — but there is no error of the heart graver than making another our higher power. This may seem inevitable — because to love is always to see the divine in each other, because all love is a yearning for the...
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The Elysian
I’d rather have an investor than a publishing contract In pursuit of a better book deal (and record deal and podcast deal...)
10 months ago
86

I’d rather have an investor than a publishing contract

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
In pursuit of a better book deal (and record deal and podcast deal...)
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Escaping Flatland
Advice from my editor A sculptural representation of JS Bach’s Fugue in E Flat Minor by Henrik Neugeboren “I can’t make...
9 months ago
85

Advice from my editor

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
A sculptural representation of JS Bach’s Fugue in E Flat Minor by Henrik Neugeboren “I can’t make myself finish this one,” Johanna said one night when we were reading together in bed. She was working her way through a 6021-word essay draft about identities as interfaces that I...
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The Elysian
My TEDx talk about the future of fiction And publishing.
9 months ago
85

My TEDx talk about the future of fiction

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
And publishing.
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The Marginalian
We Are the Music, We Are the Spark: Pioneering Biologist Ernest Everett Just on What Makes Life... "Life is exquisitely a time-thing, like music."
a year ago
84

We Are the Music, We Are the Spark: Pioneering Biologist Ernest Everett Just on What Makes Life Alive

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Life is exquisitely a time-thing, like music."
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This Space
39 Books: 2022 "Hölderlin...asked only that we accept silence as the one meaningful syllable in the...
10 months ago
83

39 Books: 2022

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
"Hölderlin...asked only that we accept silence as the one meaningful syllable in the universe." This line from Paul Stubbs' remarkable essay collection The Return to Silence is not an epigram to Marjorie Perloff's Infrathin: An Experiment in Micropoetics, but it might have...
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The American Scholar
Bitten The post Bitten appeared first on The American Scholar.
10 months ago
83

Bitten

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
The post Bitten appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Wuthering...
everything in a being is always repeating - reading Gertrude Stein's The Making of Americans Since I actually read the thing for some reason I will write some notes on Gertrude Stein’s enormous...
10 months ago
83

everything in a being is always repeating - reading Gertrude Stein's The Making of Americans

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Since I actually read the thing for some reason I will write some notes on Gertrude Stein’s enormous The Making of Americans: Being a History of a Family’s Progress (1925).  It is a monster.  Why did I read it?  No, that is not the right questions.  There are good reasons to read...
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The American Scholar
“The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry appeared first on...
9 months ago
83

“The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
The Messiah in the Mountain: Darwin on Wonder and the Spirituality of Nature Here we are, matter yearning for meaning, each of us a fragile constellation of chemistry and chance...
10 months ago
82

The Messiah in the Mountain: Darwin on Wonder and the Spirituality of Nature

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Here we are, matter yearning for meaning, each of us a fragile constellation of chemistry and chance hurtling through a cold cosmos that has no accord for our wishes, takes no interest in our dreams. “I can’t but believe that all that majesty and all that beauty, those fated and...
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This Space
39 Books: 2003 This year I read Robert Antelme's The Human Race for the first time. I was nonplussed. The strange...
10 months ago
82

39 Books: 2003

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
This year I read Robert Antelme's The Human Race for the first time. I was nonplussed. The strange title, closer to popular sociology than memoir, should have been a warning. This was not quite the horror story one imagines of memoirs from those who survived Nazi concentration...
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The Elysian
Do we still want the future desired by the past? Why three socialist utopian novels are still relevant 100 years later.
6 months ago
82

Do we still want the future desired by the past?

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
Why three socialist utopian novels are still relevant 100 years later.
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Wuthering...
Books I Read in October 2023 The five-day hospital stay breaking the month in half is likely invisible to anyone but me, but that...
a year ago
82

Books I Read in October 2023

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
The five-day hospital stay breaking the month in half is likely invisible to anyone but me, but that is why the fiction list is so mystery-heavy, and for that matter so long.  Many of these books, the post-surgery group, are not just short but light, well-suited for the invalid's...
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The Elysian
Every company should be owned by its employees Central States Manufacturing as a model for employee-ownership.
8 months ago
82

Every company should be owned by its employees

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
Central States Manufacturing as a model for employee-ownership.
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The Marginalian
The Paradise Notebooks: A Poet and a Geologist’s Love Letter to Life Lensed Through a Mountain "Each world bears all the worlds we might find within it. If you understand one outcropping of...
11 months ago
81

The Paradise Notebooks: A Poet and a Geologist’s Love Letter to Life Lensed Through a Mountain

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
"Each world bears all the worlds we might find within it. If you understand one outcropping of stone, or one wildflower, or one hummingbird — if we see our way along the tracery of cause and effect, the mystery of change and recreation — then we are led to everything we see, and...
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The Marginalian
Let the Last Thing Be Song "When I die, I want to be sung across the threshold."
8 months ago
81

Let the Last Thing Be Song

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
"When I die, I want to be sung across the threshold."
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The Marginalian
Nothing: The Illustrated Story of How John Cage Revolutionized Music Through Silence "We make our lives by what we love."
10 months ago
81

Nothing: The Illustrated Story of How John Cage Revolutionized Music Through Silence

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
"We make our lives by what we love."
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The Marginalian
Thunder, Bells, and Silence: The Eclipse that Went Extinct What was it like for Martha, the endling of her species, to die alone at the Cincinnati Zoo that...
10 months ago
81

Thunder, Bells, and Silence: The Eclipse that Went Extinct

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
What was it like for Martha, the endling of her species, to die alone at the Cincinnati Zoo that late-summer day in 1914, all the other passenger pigeons gone from the face of the Earth, having once filled its skies with an immensity of beating wings, so many that John James...
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This Space
39 Books: 2012 Of all the books in this series, this was the one I most wanted to write about and also the one I...
10 months ago
81

39 Books: 2012

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Of all the books in this series, this was the one I most wanted to write about and also the one I knew would be impossible to write about, at least in a couple of distracted hours. Imagine this: through mathematical calculation, close reading and literary detective work, a...
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Wuthering...
Ferdowsi's Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings - No one has any knowledge of those first days... My little Persian literature syllabus in March was built on Aboloqasem Ferdowsi’s gigantic epic...
11 months ago
81

Ferdowsi's Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings - No one has any knowledge of those first days unless he has heard tales passed down from father to son

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
My little Persian literature syllabus in March was built on Aboloqasem Ferdowsi’s gigantic epic Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings (1010), a slender 850 pages in Dick Davis’s 2006 prose (mostly) translation.  He added another 100 pages to the 2016 edition, whether filling out...
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This Space
Kafka's great fire The centenary of Kafka's death was marked twelve years late. His diary records it in September...
9 months ago
81

Kafka's great fire

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
The centenary of Kafka's death was marked twelve years late. His diary records it in September 1912: This story, The Judgment, I wrote at one sitting during the night of the 22nd-23rd, from ten o'clock at night to six o'clock in the morning. I was hardly able to pull my legs...
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The American Scholar
Our Pets, Our Plates In defense of the furred and the hoofed The post Our Pets, Our Plates appeared first on The American...
9 months ago
81

Our Pets, Our Plates

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
In defense of the furred and the hoofed The post Our Pets, Our Plates appeared first on The American Scholar.
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This Space
The end of literature, part five "Stupid" and "a marketing exercise" were the first two descriptions I saw of the New York Times' 100...
8 months ago
81

The end of literature, part five

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
"Stupid" and "a marketing exercise" were the first two descriptions I saw of the New York Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st Century polled from hundreds of "literary luminaries" offering ten choices each, and while it is both of those things, "parochial" is the first word that...
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The American Scholar
Red Tide Warning Living on Florida’s Gulf Coast means having to coexist with pervasive and toxic algal blooms—and...
10 months ago
80

Red Tide Warning

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Living on Florida’s Gulf Coast means having to coexist with pervasive and toxic algal blooms—and neighbors who don’t always believe what they see The post Red Tide Warning appeared first on The American Scholar.
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This Space
39 Books: 2007 When I chose the book for 2007, the constraint of the 39 Books series presented a problem: how can I...
10 months ago
80

39 Books: 2007

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
When I chose the book for 2007, the constraint of the 39 Books series presented a problem: how can I write about a 350-page novel last read 17 years ago without taking several days to reread it? Answer: not at all, so I started reading. What good fortune! How well Hugo Wilcken...
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Escaping Flatland
Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process The context is smarter than you.
7 months ago
79

Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
The context is smarter than you.
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The American Scholar
Cudillero The post Cudillero appeared first on The American Scholar.
2 months ago
79

Cudillero

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 months ago
The post Cudillero appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
On Change and Denial "It’s strange to feel change coming. It’s easy to ignore. An underlying restlessness seems to...
9 months ago
79

On Change and Denial

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
"It’s strange to feel change coming. It’s easy to ignore. An underlying restlessness seems to accompany it like birds flocking before a storm."
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The Elysian
Let's read the Terra Ignota series together Our summer reading is Ada Palmer's feat of utopian worldbuilding.
9 months ago
79

Let's read the Terra Ignota series together

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Our summer reading is Ada Palmer's feat of utopian worldbuilding.
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The Marginalian
What Birds Dream About: The Evolution of REM and How We Practice the Possible in Our Sleep "It may be that in REM, this gloaming between waking consciousness and the unconscious, we practice...
9 months ago
79

What Birds Dream About: The Evolution of REM and How We Practice the Possible in Our Sleep

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
"It may be that in REM, this gloaming between waking consciousness and the unconscious, we practice the possible into the real... It may be that we evolved to dream ourselves into reality — a laboratory of consciousness that began in the bird brain."
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This Space
39 Books: 2009 The further I get into this series, the fewer books there are on my yearly lists that I haven't...
10 months ago
78

39 Books: 2009

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
The further I get into this series, the fewer books there are on my yearly lists that I haven't already written about and among those few that I feel able to write about. For 2009 there is one outstanding exception: another book about a writer exiled in Paris. Already in this...
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The Marginalian
Stunning Century-Old Illustrations of Tibetan Fairy Tales from the Artist Who Created Bambi Soulful art from stories that speak "to the childhood of all times and all races."
a year ago
78

Stunning Century-Old Illustrations of Tibetan Fairy Tales from the Artist Who Created Bambi

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Soulful art from stories that speak "to the childhood of all times and all races."
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The Marginalian
What It’s Like to Be a Falcon: The Peregrine as a Portal to a Way of Seeing and a State of Being "You cannot know what freedom means till you have seen a peregrine loosed into the warm spring sky...
10 months ago
78

What It’s Like to Be a Falcon: The Peregrine as a Portal to a Way of Seeing and a State of Being

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
"You cannot know what freedom means till you have seen a peregrine loosed into the warm spring sky to roam at will through all the far provinces of light."
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Escaping Flatland
Becoming perceptive This is the second part of an essay series that began with “Everything that turned out well in my...
6 months ago
78

Becoming perceptive

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
This is the second part of an essay series that began with “Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process.” It can be read on its own.
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The American Scholar
Camouflage The post Camouflage appeared first on The American Scholar.
9 months ago
78

Camouflage

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
The post Camouflage appeared first on The American Scholar.
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This Space
39 Books: 2008 On January 19 of this year, I received a traumatic brain injury that for 16 years has limited my...
10 months ago
78

39 Books: 2008

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
On January 19 of this year, I received a traumatic brain injury that for 16 years has limited my capacity to read. It was also the year I read two novels in which the legacy of violence presses on the form they take. Horacio Castellanos Moya's Senselessness spirals in Bernhardian...
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Wuthering...
Plato's Republic - justice, fantasy and censorship - We'll ask Homer not to be angry I had ambitions to write about Plato’s Republic with some thoroughness, but I guess I will just...
a year ago
78

Plato's Republic - justice, fantasy and censorship - We'll ask Homer not to be angry

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
I had ambitions to write about Plato’s Republic with some thoroughness, but I guess I will just pursue one point.  Good enough. I have been separating Socrates from Plato, an imaginative exercise based on circular criteria.  The more Socratic of the Socratic dialogues are...
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Wuthering...
Books Read in May 2024 – Some are certainly knowing what they are meaning, some are certainly not... A month without writing anything.  Plenty of reading, though. FICTIONS The Autobiography of an...
10 months ago
78

Books Read in May 2024 – Some are certainly knowing what they are meaning, some are certainly not knowing what they are meaning.

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
A month without writing anything.  Plenty of reading, though. FICTIONS The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912), James Weldon Johnson The Making of Americans (1925), Gertrude Stein – read over the course of months.  The quotation up above is from p. 783.  I will write about...
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This Space
39 Books: 2005 Four years later, browsing in Waterstones, I picked a book from a table and read "What will we do to...
10 months ago
78

39 Books: 2005

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Four years later, browsing in Waterstones, I picked a book from a table and read "What will we do to disappear?" – the epigram to Enrique Vila-Matas's novel Montano's Malady. It's a line taken from Maurice Blanchot's Infinite Conversation, so I had to buy it. Later that year,...
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The Marginalian
The Challenge of Closeness: Alain de Botton on Love, Vulnerability, and the Paradox of Avoidance The psychological machinery of our commonest coping mechanism for the terror of hurt, rejection, and...
a year ago
78

The Challenge of Closeness: Alain de Botton on Love, Vulnerability, and the Paradox of Avoidance

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
The psychological machinery of our commonest coping mechanism for the terror of hurt, rejection, and abandonment.
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Wuthering...
Middle period Plato - He’s garbage, he cares about nothing but the truth. Assembling yesterday’s post I saw that I was only missing one dialogue from Plato’s early period, so...
over a year ago
78

Middle period Plato - He’s garbage, he cares about nothing but the truth.

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
Assembling yesterday’s post I saw that I was only missing one dialogue from Plato’s early period, so I knocked off Greater Hippiaslast night.  The early dialogues are generally short; the three in the “death of Socrates” group are only fifty pages total, for example. Hippias is...
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Wuthering...
Books I Read in April 2024 - this irritation passes over into patient completed understanding Grinding away at Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans (1925), a genuine monster.  “As I...
11 months ago
77

Books I Read in April 2024 - this irritation passes over into patient completed understanding

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
Grinding away at Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans (1925), a genuine monster.  “As I was saying it is often irritating to listen to the repeating they are doing, always then that one has it as being to love repeating that is the whole history of each one, such a one has it...
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The Marginalian
Wonder-Sighting on Planet Earth: The Space Telescope Eye of the Scallop Inside Earth's most alien vision.
a year ago
77

Wonder-Sighting on Planet Earth: The Space Telescope Eye of the Scallop

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Inside Earth's most alien vision.
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The American Scholar
Set in Seclusion The post Set in Seclusion appeared first on The American Scholar.
10 months ago
77

Set in Seclusion

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
The post Set in Seclusion appeared first on The American Scholar.
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This Space
39 Books: 2019 So much for this blog being labelled "the best resource in English on European modernist...
10 months ago
77

39 Books: 2019

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
So much for this blog being labelled "the best resource in English on European modernist literature": this year's choice is a collection of lectures delivered in the early 1960s at the University of Zürich, published in English translation in 1970, with this edition being...
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This Space
39 Books: 2014 One could say that Mallarmé, through an extraordinary effort of asceticism, opened an abyss in...
10 months ago
77

39 Books: 2014

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
One could say that Mallarmé, through an extraordinary effort of asceticism, opened an abyss in himself where his awareness, instead of losing itself, survives and grasps its solitude in a desperate clarity. This is from The Silence of Mallarmé, an essay in Blanchot's first...
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Wuthering...
Books I Read in June 2023 If only I had the will to write something.  But I can read. PHILOSOPHY Fragments or Sayings or...
a year ago
77

Books I Read in June 2023

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
If only I had the will to write something.  But I can read. PHILOSOPHY Fragments or Sayings or Tall Tales (4th C. BCE), Diogenes the Cynic, tr. Guy Davenport Cynics (2008), William Desmond - for an entry in a series aimed at students, surprisingly well written.  It helps that...
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The Marginalian
The Proper Object of Love: Iris Murdoch on the Angst of Not Knowing Ourselves and Each Other One of the hardest things to learn in life is that the heart is a clock too fast not to break. We...
7 months ago
77

The Proper Object of Love: Iris Murdoch on the Angst of Not Knowing Ourselves and Each Other

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
One of the hardest things to learn in life is that the heart is a clock too fast not to break. We lurch into loving, only to discover again and again that it takes a long time to know people, to understand people — and “understanding is love’s other name.” Even without...
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The American Scholar
Downstream of Fukushima The Japanese seafood industry has rebounded, but is anyone worried about irradiated water? The post...
10 months ago
77

Downstream of Fukushima

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
The Japanese seafood industry has rebounded, but is anyone worried about irradiated water? The post Downstream of Fukushima appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
Love and Fear: A Stunning 17th-Century Poem About How to Live with the Transcendent Terror of Love "Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back."
a year ago
77

Love and Fear: A Stunning 17th-Century Poem About How to Live with the Transcendent Terror of Love

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back."
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The Elysian
Who's qualified to save the world? Two climate dystopias on unlikeable saviors.
9 months ago
77

Who's qualified to save the world?

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Two climate dystopias on unlikeable saviors.
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The Marginalian
On Giving Up: Adam Phillips on Knowing What You Want, the Art of Self-Revision, and the Courage to... "Not being able to give up is not to be able to allow for loss, for vulnerability; not to be able to...
10 months ago
77

On Giving Up: Adam Phillips on Knowing What You Want, the Art of Self-Revision, and the Courage to Change Your Mind

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
"Not being able to give up is not to be able to allow for loss, for vulnerability; not to be able to allow for the passing of time, and the revisions it brings."
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The American Scholar
“One Letter” by Liu Xiaobo Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “One Letter” by Liu Xiaobo appeared first on The American...
10 months ago
77

“One Letter” by Liu Xiaobo

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “One Letter” by Liu Xiaobo appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Escaping Flatland
Garlic and gravel fragments
8 months ago
77

Garlic and gravel

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
fragments
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The Marginalian
Befriending a Blackbird Friendship is a lifeline twined of truth and tenderness. That we extend it to each other is...
9 months ago
77

Befriending a Blackbird

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Friendship is a lifeline twined of truth and tenderness. That we extend it to each other is benediction enough. To extend it across the barrier of biology and sentience, to another creature endowed with a wholly other consciousness, partakes of the miraculous. Born in England in...
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The Marginalian
William James on the Most Vital Understanding for Successful Relationships "Neither the whole of truth nor the whole of good is revealed to any single observer."
a year ago
77

William James on the Most Vital Understanding for Successful Relationships

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Neither the whole of truth nor the whole of good is revealed to any single observer."
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This Space
39 Books: 2020 It may be a sign of something that I read Louis-René des Forêts's Poems of Samuel Wood several years...
10 months ago
76

39 Books: 2020

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
It may be a sign of something that I read Louis-René des Forêts's Poems of Samuel Wood several years after reading A Voice from Elsewhere in which Maurice Blanchot dedicates three unusually personal (and often bewildering) essays to them. The book's title is adapted from a line...
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The American Scholar
“How Happy Is the Little Stone” by Emily Dickinson Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “How Happy Is the Little Stone” by Emily Dickinson appeared...
10 months ago
76

“How Happy Is the Little Stone” by Emily Dickinson

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “How Happy Is the Little Stone” by Emily Dickinson appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
Kierkegaard on the Value of Despair "To despair over oneself, in despair to want to be rid of oneself, is the formula for all despair."
a year ago
76

Kierkegaard on the Value of Despair

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"To despair over oneself, in despair to want to be rid of oneself, is the formula for all despair."
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The Marginalian
Facts about the Moon: Dorianne Laux’s Stunning Poem about Bearing Our Human Losses When Even the... “Hearing the rising tide,” Rachel Carson wrote in her poetic meditation on the ocean and the meaning...
11 months ago
76

Facts about the Moon: Dorianne Laux’s Stunning Poem about Bearing Our Human Losses When Even the Moon Is Leaving Us

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
“Hearing the rising tide,” Rachel Carson wrote in her poetic meditation on the ocean and the meaning of life, “there are echoes of past and future: of the flow of time, obliterating yet containing all that has gone before… of the stream of life, flowing as inexorably as any ocean...
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The Marginalian
Magnolias and the Meaning of Life: Science, Poetry, Existentialism On cruelty, kindness, and the song of life.
a year ago
76

Magnolias and the Meaning of Life: Science, Poetry, Existentialism

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
On cruelty, kindness, and the song of life.
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This Space
39 Books: 1999 I've always preferred the Serpent's Tail edition of Pessoa's Book of Disquiet over the others...
10 months ago
76

39 Books: 1999

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
I've always preferred the Serpent's Tail edition of Pessoa's Book of Disquiet over the others published around the same time, such as from Quartet Encounters and Carcanet, the latter with a fussy variant on the title: The Book of Disquietude. But this one is the most pleasurable...
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This Space
39 Books: 1994 Given that my undergraduate degree was in Philosophy, it may seem odd that this the first book of...
11 months ago
76

39 Books: 1994

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
Given that my undergraduate degree was in Philosophy, it may seem odd that this the first book of philosophy in the series. Many will say it is not a book of philosophy at all. That would explain why I gorged on Nick Land's The Thirst for Annihilation: Georges Bataille and...
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The Elysian
Yes, Taylor Swift is just as genius as Mary Shelley The video from our live event.
5 months ago
76

Yes, Taylor Swift is just as genius as Mary Shelley

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

5 months ago
The video from our live event.
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The Marginalian
Between Psyche and Cyborg: Carl Jung’s Legacy and the Countercultural Courage to Reclaim the Deeply... "A reanimated world is one in which spirit and matter are not just equally regarded but recognized...
a year ago
75

Between Psyche and Cyborg: Carl Jung’s Legacy and the Countercultural Courage to Reclaim the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"A reanimated world is one in which spirit and matter are not just equally regarded but recognized as mutually dependent."
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Wuthering...
Metamorphoses Cantos IV and V - gore, Pyramus and Thisbe, and a rap battle Bacchus continues his reign of terror in Canto IV of Metamorphoses by turning three sisters who...
a year ago
75

Metamorphoses Cantos IV and V - gore, Pyramus and Thisbe, and a rap battle

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Bacchus continues his reign of terror in Canto IV of Metamorphoses by turning three sisters who refuse to believe in his divinity into what “we in English language Backes or Reermice call the same” (Golding, 99) “[Or, as we say, bats.]” (Martin, 140).  How sad that we lost the...
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The Marginalian
Flowers for Things I Don’t Know How to Say: A Tender Painted Lexicon of Consolation and Connection “To be a Flower is profound Responsibility,” Emily Dickinson wrote. From the moment she pressed the...
10 months ago
75

Flowers for Things I Don’t Know How to Say: A Tender Painted Lexicon of Consolation and Connection

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
“To be a Flower is profound Responsibility,” Emily Dickinson wrote. From the moment she pressed the first wildflower into her astonishing teenage herbarium until the moment Susan pinned a violet to her alabaster chest in the casket, she filled her poems with flowers and made of...
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The Marginalian
Swan Sky: A Bittersweet Vintage Japanese Meditation on Love, Loss, and the Eternal Consolations of... To me, what makes the majestic migration of birds so moving is that it is a living spell against...
9 months ago
75

Swan Sky: A Bittersweet Vintage Japanese Meditation on Love, Loss, and the Eternal Consolations of Belonging

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
To me, what makes the majestic migration of birds so moving is that it is a living spell against abandonment. No one is leaving and no one is being left in this unison of movement along a vector of common purpose. It is the only instance I know of a transition that is not a...
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The Marginalian
Jealousy and Its Antidote: Pioneering Psychiatrist Leslie Farber on the Tangled Psychology of Our... "Every jealous person knows jealousy to be a brutally degrading experience and resists with all his...
a year ago
75

Jealousy and Its Antidote: Pioneering Psychiatrist Leslie Farber on the Tangled Psychology of Our Most Destructive Emotion

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Every jealous person knows jealousy to be a brutally degrading experience and resists with all his might revealing the extent of his degradation."
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The Elysian
I'm traveling the world to study utopia An update about my life and artistic process.
9 months ago
75

I'm traveling the world to study utopia

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
An update about my life and artistic process.
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The American Scholar
Laura S. Lewis Welding trash into treasure The post Laura S. Lewis appeared first on The American Scholar.
10 months ago
75

Laura S. Lewis

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Welding trash into treasure The post Laura S. Lewis appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Wuthering...
Thou hast devourd thy sonnes - some notes on Seneca's horror plays My Seneca reading in March: Medea, tr. Frederick Ahl The Trojan Women, tr. E. F. Watling Thyestes,...
a year ago
75

Thou hast devourd thy sonnes - some notes on Seneca's horror plays

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
My Seneca reading in March: Medea, tr. Frederick Ahl The Trojan Women, tr. E. F. Watling Thyestes, tr. Jasper Heywood Hercules Furens, tr. Heywood The Madness of Hercules, tr. Dana Gioia The plays themselves are all from the mid-1st century, perhaps written when Seneca was in...
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Escaping Flatland
Swimming in July Just the pure physical joy of thrashing your arms around in water. To fill the kid’s buckets and...
8 months ago
75

Swimming in July

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
Just the pure physical joy of thrashing your arms around in water. To fill the kid’s buckets and throw it at the sun—the way the water falls apart into drops, and then into mist, the way a rainbow appears for a second and is gone.
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The Marginalian
Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” Brought to Life in a Spanish Flashmob of 100 Musicians A touchingly human reminder of our capacity for ecstasy, transcendence, and collective felicity.
a year ago
74

Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” Brought to Life in a Spanish Flashmob of 100 Musicians

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
A touchingly human reminder of our capacity for ecstasy, transcendence, and collective felicity.
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The Marginalian
Practical Mysticism: Evelyn Underhill’s Stunning Century-Old Manifesto for Secular Transcendence and... "Because mystery is horrible to us, we have agreed for the most part to live in a world of labels;...
a year ago
74

Practical Mysticism: Evelyn Underhill’s Stunning Century-Old Manifesto for Secular Transcendence and Seeing the Heart of Reality

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Because mystery is horrible to us, we have agreed for the most part to live in a world of labels; to make of them the current coin of experience, and ignore their merely symbolic character, the infinite gradation of values which they misrepresent."
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The Marginalian
Love Anyway You know that the price of life is death, that the price of love is loss, and still you watch the...
a year ago
74

Love Anyway

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
You know that the price of life is death, that the price of love is loss, and still you watch the golden afternoon light fall on a face you love, knowing that the light will soon fade, knowing that the loving face too will one day fade to indifference or bone, and you love anyway...
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The Marginalian
Jonathan Franzen on How to Write About Nature, with a Side of Rachel Carson and Alice in Wonderland I grew up loving Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. My grandmother read it to me before I could read....
a year ago
74

Jonathan Franzen on How to Write About Nature, with a Side of Rachel Carson and Alice in Wonderland

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
I grew up loving Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. My grandmother read it to me before I could read. I read it to myself as soon as I could. I loved the strangeness of it, and the tenderness. As a child mathematician, I loved knowing that a grown mathematician had written it. But...
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The Marginalian
On Wanting to Change: Adam Phillips on Our Capacity for Transformation "There is no description of a life without an account of the changes that are possible within it."
9 months ago
74

On Wanting to Change: Adam Phillips on Our Capacity for Transformation

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
"There is no description of a life without an account of the changes that are possible within it."
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This Space
Kevin Hart and the outside There are two reasons why listening to Kevin Hart's interview on the Hermitix podcast, and reading...
a year ago
74

Kevin Hart and the outside

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
There are two reasons why listening to Kevin Hart's interview on the Hermitix podcast, and reading his new collection and The Dark Gaze for the second time, has helped me to recognise what I have forgotten, missed, misconstrued or misunderstood in Maurice Blanchot's writing or,...
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The American Scholar
Woman in a Red Raincoat The post Woman in a Red Raincoat appeared first on The American Scholar.
8 months ago
74

Woman in a Red Raincoat

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
The post Woman in a Red Raincoat appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Wuthering...
Books Read in June 2024 - "Why can't we steal the calm vegetable clairvoyance of these great rooted... Three weeks in Portugal meant less and different reading. FICTION Wolf Solent (1929), John Cowper...
9 months ago
74

Books Read in June 2024 - "Why can't we steal the calm vegetable clairvoyance of these great rooted lives?"

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Three weeks in Portugal meant less and different reading. FICTION Wolf Solent (1929), John Cowper Powys – among the most eccentric novels I have ever read, up there with his contemporaries D. H. Lawrence and Ronald Firbank!  I feel I should write about it; I feel I should read...
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The Marginalian
Do Not Spare Yourself The only thing more dangerous than wanting to save another person — a dangerous desire too often...
2 months ago
74

Do Not Spare Yourself

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 months ago
The only thing more dangerous than wanting to save another person — a dangerous desire too often mistaken for love — is wanting to save yourself, to spare yourself the disappointment and heartbreak and loss inseparable from being a creature with hopes and longings constantly...
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The Marginalian
How to Love the World More: George Saunders on the Courage of Uncertainty "In a world full of people who seem to know everything, passionately, based on little (often...
a year ago
74

How to Love the World More: George Saunders on the Courage of Uncertainty

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"In a world full of people who seem to know everything, passionately, based on little (often slanted) information, where certainty is often mistaken for power, what a relief it is to be in the company of someone confident enough to stay unsure (that is, perpetually curious)."
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The Marginalian
The Other Significant Others: Living and Loving Outside the Confines of Conventional Friendship and... "While we weaken friendships by expecting too little of them, we undermine romantic relationships by...
a year ago
74

The Other Significant Others: Living and Loving Outside the Confines of Conventional Friendship and Compulsory Coupledom

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"While we weaken friendships by expecting too little of them, we undermine romantic relationships by expecting too much of them."
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Wuthering...
Books finished in April 2023 I continue the practice of posting a list as a substitute for real writing. Coming soon: a long...
a year ago
74

Books finished in April 2023

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
I continue the practice of posting a list as a substitute for real writing. Coming soon: a long overdue loot at Seneca's plays, a glance at Gide's Counterfeiters, and some messing around with Plato's Republic. If I did not write in April, I at least read: GREEK PHILOSOPHY The...
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The American Scholar
Tramping With Virginia A seminal essay about walking the streets of London can present challenges in the classrooms of...
10 months ago
73

Tramping With Virginia

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
A seminal essay about walking the streets of London can present challenges in the classrooms of today The post Tramping With Virginia appeared first on The American Scholar.
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This Space
39 Books: 2000 In 1998 my friend John Harris mentioned that he was travelling to the US so I asked if he could pick...
10 months ago
73

39 Books: 2000

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
In 1998 my friend John Harris mentioned that he was travelling to the US so I asked if he could pick up a copy of the new translation of Peter Handke's My Year in the No-man's Bay, not available over here. He was the first to tell me about this new website called Amazon. This is...
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The Marginalian
Nature’s Oldest Mandolin: The Poetic Science of How Cicadas Sing “The use of music,” Richard Powers wrote, “is to remind us how short a time we have a body” — a...
10 months ago
73

Nature’s Oldest Mandolin: The Poetic Science of How Cicadas Sing

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
“The use of music,” Richard Powers wrote, “is to remind us how short a time we have a body” — a truth nowhere more bittersweet than in the creature whose body is the oldest unchanged musical instrument on Earth: a tiny mandolin silent for most of its existence, then sonorous with...
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The American Scholar
Sheep Jones Swimming below the surface The post Sheep Jones appeared first on The American Scholar.
8 months ago
73

Sheep Jones

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
Swimming below the surface The post Sheep Jones appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Changing the Lens Exploding the Canon, Episode 5 (Finale) The post Changing the Lens appeared first on The American...
10 months ago
73

Changing the Lens

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Exploding the Canon, Episode 5 (Finale) The post Changing the Lens appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Elysian
How many hours a week do you (actually) spend on your salary job? I can’t find any statistics about this (because how would you?), but most of the people I know who...
8 months ago
73

How many hours a week do you (actually) spend on your salary job?

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
I can’t find any statistics about this (because how would you?), but most of the people I know who work salary jobs work significantly fewer tha…
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The American Scholar
“Planetarium” by Adrienne Rich Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Planetarium” by Adrienne Rich appeared first on The American...
10 months ago
73

“Planetarium” by Adrienne Rich

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Planetarium” by Adrienne Rich appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
We Go to the Park: A Soulful Illustrated Meditation on Our Search for Meaning "Sometimes it feels as if all of life is made up of longing."
7 months ago
73

We Go to the Park: A Soulful Illustrated Meditation on Our Search for Meaning

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
"Sometimes it feels as if all of life is made up of longing."
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The Elysian
Hint #1 I'm publishing a new print collection in three weeks.
7 months ago
73

Hint #1

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
I'm publishing a new print collection in three weeks.
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Escaping Flatland
Thoughts on agency If anyone is in the mood for a video call, I would like to get a few of you together on Saturday at...
9 months ago
73

Thoughts on agency

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
If anyone is in the mood for a video call, I would like to get a few of you together on Saturday at 6 pm CET (9 am PST). Like last time, I’ll prepare a few questions (probably relating to today’s post since that is top of mind) but mostly we’ll just talk about whatever comes up....
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The Marginalian
John Quincy Adams on Impostor Syndrome and the True Measure of Success “You will never get any more out of life than you expect,” Bruce Lee wrote to himself. All...
10 months ago
73

John Quincy Adams on Impostor Syndrome and the True Measure of Success

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
“You will never get any more out of life than you expect,” Bruce Lee wrote to himself. All expectation is a story of the possible. Every person lives inside a story of who they are, what they are worth, and what is possible for their life, and suffers in proportion to how...
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The Marginalian
Poetic Ecology and the Biology of Wonder "The real disconnect is not between our human nature and all the other beings; it is between our...
a year ago
72

Poetic Ecology and the Biology of Wonder

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"The real disconnect is not between our human nature and all the other beings; it is between our image of our nature and our real nature."
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The Marginalian
Heroism and the Human Search for Meaning: Ernest Becker on the Hidden Root of Our Existential... "To become conscious of what one is doing to earn his feeling of heroism is the main self-analytic...
a year ago
72

Heroism and the Human Search for Meaning: Ernest Becker on the Hidden Root of Our Existential Longing

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"To become conscious of what one is doing to earn his feeling of heroism is the main self-analytic problem of life."
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Wuthering...
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's La plus secrète mémoire des hommes - one of his objectives was to be original... La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (2021) by Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, published in...
11 months ago
72

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's La plus secrète mémoire des hommes - one of his objectives was to be original without being original

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (2021) by Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, published in English as The Most Secret History of Men (2023), is the first imitation of Roberto Bolaño I have seen outside of Latin American literature.  Many reviews note that Sarr’s novel is...
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The Marginalian
The Broadest Portal to Joy "Despite every single lie to the contrary, despite every single action born of that lie — we are in...
a year ago
72

The Broadest Portal to Joy

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Despite every single lie to the contrary, despite every single action born of that lie — we are in the midst of rhizomatic care that extends in every direction, spatially, temporally, spiritually."
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The Marginalian
Blue Is the Color of Desire: The Science, Poetry, and Wonder of the Bowerbird For all the enchantment the color blue has cast upon humanity, no animal has fallen under its spell...
a year ago
72

Blue Is the Color of Desire: The Science, Poetry, and Wonder of the Bowerbird

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
For all the enchantment the color blue has cast upon humanity, no animal has fallen under its spell more hopelessly than the bowerbird, whose very survival hinges on blue. In a small clearing on the forest floor, the male weaves twigs and branches into an elaborate bower, which...
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This Space
39 Books: 2011 How does one respond to Nietzsche's revelation at Sils Maria? I read Pierre Klossowski's Nietzsche...
10 months ago
72

39 Books: 2011

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
How does one respond to Nietzsche's revelation at Sils Maria? I read Pierre Klossowski's Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle because the thought of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same occurred to me as a literary concept, perhaps the ultimate experience of the literary, but needed...
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The Marginalian
John Gardner on the Key to Self-Renewal Across Life and the Art of Making Rather Than Finding... "The potentialities you develop to the full come as the result of an interplay between you and...
10 months ago
72

John Gardner on the Key to Self-Renewal Across Life and the Art of Making Rather Than Finding Meaning

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
"The potentialities you develop to the full come as the result of an interplay between you and life's challenges."
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The Marginalian
Poetry as Prayer: The Great Russian Poet Marina Tsvetaeva on Reclaiming the Divine "In our age, to have the courage for direct speech to God (for prayer) we must either not know what...
8 months ago
72

Poetry as Prayer: The Great Russian Poet Marina Tsvetaeva on Reclaiming the Divine

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
"In our age, to have the courage for direct speech to God (for prayer) we must either not know what poems are, or forget."
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The American Scholar
Bubble Girl The kidnapping that once riveted the nation The post Bubble Girl appeared first on The American...
10 months ago
72

Bubble Girl

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
The kidnapping that once riveted the nation The post Bubble Girl appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
“He Asked About the Quality” by C. P. Cavafy Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “He Asked About the Quality” by C. P. Cavafy appeared first...
9 months ago
72

“He Asked About the Quality” by C. P. Cavafy

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “He Asked About the Quality” by C. P. Cavafy appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
The Sunflower and the Soul: Wendell Berry on the Collaborative Nature of the Universe and the Cure... "We are not the authors of ourselves. That we are not is a religious perception, but it is also a...
9 months ago
71

The Sunflower and the Soul: Wendell Berry on the Collaborative Nature of the Universe and the Cure for Conflict

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
"We are not the authors of ourselves. That we are not is a religious perception, but it is also a biological and a social one. Each of us has had many authors, and each of us is engaged, for better or worse, in that same authorship. We could say that the human race is a great...
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This Space
39 Books: Introducing a blog series In 1985, I read two books. The following year I read a lot more, and it was then I began to keep a...
11 months ago
71

39 Books: Introducing a blog series

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
In 1985, I read two books. The following year I read a lot more, and it was then I began to keep a list of each book I finished. I've kept the list ever since. In this blog series I will choose one book from each of the 39 years and write whatever occurs to me and post whatever...
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The American Scholar
The Scales The post The Scales appeared first on The American Scholar.
9 months ago
71

The Scales

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
The post The Scales appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Wuthering...
Ovid's Amores and Marlowe's Ovid - Love slack’d my muse Since it is Valentine’s Day, I’ll riffle through Ovid’s Amores (16 BCE), as translated by Peter...
a year ago
71

Ovid's Amores and Marlowe's Ovid - Love slack’d my muse

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Since it is Valentine’s Day, I’ll riffle through Ovid’s Amores (16 BCE), as translated by Peter Green in The Erotic Poems (1982) and Christopher Marlowe as Ovid’s Elegies (1599).  A statement of purpose: I, Ovid, poet of my wantonness, Born at Peligny, to write more address. So...
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The Marginalian
Are You Living a Fairy Tale, a Novel, or a Poem? When reality fissures along the fault line of our expectations and the unwelcome happens — a death,...
8 months ago
71

Are You Living a Fairy Tale, a Novel, or a Poem?

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
When reality fissures along the fault line of our expectations and the unwelcome happens — a death, an abandonment, a promise broken, a kindness withheld — we tend to cope in one of two ways: We question our own sanity, assuming the outside world coherent and our response a form...
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This Space
"A mighty, contagious absence" The number of obituaries, tributes, backhanded compliments and overt smears in the corporate news...
a year ago
71

"A mighty, contagious absence"

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
The number of obituaries, tributes, backhanded compliments and overt smears in the corporate news media following the death of John Pilger reveal the state of journalism in our time. [1] Can you name one living Anglophone journalist whose loss would prompt such widespread notice?...
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The Marginalian
Shame and the Secret Chambers of the Self: Pioneering Sociologist and Philosopher Helen Merrell Lynd... "Experiences of shame throw a flooding light on what and who we are and what the world we live in...
11 months ago
71

Shame and the Secret Chambers of the Self: Pioneering Sociologist and Philosopher Helen Merrell Lynd on the Uncomfortable Path to Wholeness

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
"Experiences of shame throw a flooding light on what and who we are and what the world we live in is."
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The Marginalian
The Pleasure of Being Left Alone "An exquisite peace obtains: a drowsy, golden peace, flowing honey-sweet over my dwelling, soaking...
9 months ago
71

The Pleasure of Being Left Alone

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
"An exquisite peace obtains: a drowsy, golden peace, flowing honey-sweet over my dwelling, soaking it, dripping like music from the walls... A peace for gods; a divine emptiness."
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The Marginalian
Enchantment and the Courage of Joy: René Magritte on the Antidote to the Banality of Pessimism "Life is wasted when we make it more terrifying, precisely because it is so easy to do so."
a year ago
71

Enchantment and the Courage of Joy: René Magritte on the Antidote to the Banality of Pessimism

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Life is wasted when we make it more terrifying, precisely because it is so easy to do so."
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The Elysian
Maybe you need to have more fun "Fun" as essential to human flourishing.
8 months ago
71

Maybe you need to have more fun

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
"Fun" as essential to human flourishing.
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The Marginalian
The Humanistic Philosopher and Psychologist Erich Fromm on Love and the Meaning of Respect "Care and responsibility are constituent elements of love, but without respect for and knowledge of...
8 months ago
70

The Humanistic Philosopher and Psychologist Erich Fromm on Love and the Meaning of Respect

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
"Care and responsibility are constituent elements of love, but without respect for and knowledge of the beloved person, love deteriorates into domination and possessiveness."
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This Space
Twentieth anniversary post On this day in 2004, I posted the first entry on this blog.  In recent years many posts have...
6 months ago
70

Twentieth anniversary post

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
On this day in 2004, I posted the first entry on this blog.  In recent years many posts have reflected on the past and present of literary blogging (there is no future) so I will not go over that waste land again except to wish more had followed the example of This Space. One of...
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This Space
39 Books: 2001 In 1995 I found this hardback edition in the British History section of a Brighton bookshop six...
10 months ago
70

39 Books: 2001

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
In 1995 I found this hardback edition in the British History section of a Brighton bookshop six years after the French original was cited by Gabriel Josipovici as one of his books of the year: "a beautifully controlled examination of the effect on [Roubaud] of his wife's death...
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The Marginalian
The Merger Self, the Seeker Self, and the Lifelong Challenge of Balancing Intimacy and Independence Each time I see a sparrow inside an airport, I am seized with tenderness for the bird, for living so...
11 months ago
70

The Merger Self, the Seeker Self, and the Lifelong Challenge of Balancing Intimacy and Independence

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
Each time I see a sparrow inside an airport, I am seized with tenderness for the bird, for living so acutely and concretely a paradox that haunts our human lives in myriad guises — the difficulty of discerning comfort from entrapment, freedom from peril. It is a paradox rooted in...
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The Marginalian
2,000 Years of Kindness From Marcus Aurelius to Einstein, poets and philosophers on the deepest wellspring of our humanity.
over a year ago
70

2,000 Years of Kindness

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
From Marcus Aurelius to Einstein, poets and philosophers on the deepest wellspring of our humanity.
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The Marginalian
Lichens and the Meaning of Life "We are lichens on a grand scale."
over a year ago
70

Lichens and the Meaning of Life

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
"We are lichens on a grand scale."
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The American Scholar
“Daybreak in Alabama” by Langston Hughes Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Daybreak in Alabama” by Langston Hughes appeared first on...
9 months ago
69

“Daybreak in Alabama” by Langston Hughes

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Daybreak in Alabama” by Langston Hughes appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Hot and Cold The post Hot and Cold appeared first on The American Scholar.
9 months ago
69

Hot and Cold

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
The post Hot and Cold appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
Wholeness and the Implicate Order: Physicist David Bohm on Bridging Consciousness and Reality How to "include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided,...
a year ago
69

Wholeness and the Implicate Order: Physicist David Bohm on Bridging Consciousness and Reality

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
How to "include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided, unbroken, and without a border."
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This Space
39 Books: 1985 The first novel I read was Twice Shy by Dick Francis, reportedly the Queen Mother's favourite...
11 months ago
69

39 Books: 1985

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
The first novel I read was Twice Shy by Dick Francis, reportedly the Queen Mother's favourite novelist (which tells you all you need to know about the intellectual energies of British Royal Family). It was the hardback edition below and tells the story of an Olympic champion...
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The Marginalian
Loving the Tree of Life: Annie Dillard on How to Bear Your Mortality "We live and move by splitting the light of the present, as a canoe’s bow parts water."
a year ago
69

Loving the Tree of Life: Annie Dillard on How to Bear Your Mortality

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"We live and move by splitting the light of the present, as a canoe’s bow parts water."
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This Space
39 Books: 1997 I found this ghastly 60-page Grove Press hardback edition in a second-hand bookshop, its large...
10 months ago
69

39 Books: 1997

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
I found this ghastly 60-page Grove Press hardback edition in a second-hand bookshop, its large typeface and generous spacing very similar to Beckett's late works (Barbara Bray, Beckett's translator, also translated this). Such productions are rare now, and perhaps were when it...
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Wuthering...
Metamorphoses, Books XI to XV - The whole of it flows I had better finish up Ovid’s Metamorphoses before I forget what was in it.  It is full of memorable...
a year ago
69

Metamorphoses, Books XI to XV - The whole of it flows

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
I had better finish up Ovid’s Metamorphoses before I forget what was in it.  It is full of memorable things, but I have limits.  Books XI through XV, the last five, in this post. Book X ended with the songs of Orpheus, so he has to begin Book XI with Orpheus’s gruesome death,...
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This Space
39 Books: 2002 The quiet joy of short, constrained memoirs. I borrowed a copy of this book in 2002 and then found a...
10 months ago
69

39 Books: 2002

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
The quiet joy of short, constrained memoirs. I borrowed a copy of this book in 2002 and then found a copy in a remaindered shop for £5. Anne Atik got to know Beckett in the late 1950s through the artist Avigdor Arikha, later her husband. Beckett's circle of friends included as...
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The Marginalian
An Introvert’s Field Guide to Friendship: Thoreau on the Challenges and Rewards of the Art of... "We only need to be as true to others as we are to ourselves that there may be ground enough for...
over a year ago
69

An Introvert’s Field Guide to Friendship: Thoreau on the Challenges and Rewards of the Art of Connection

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
"We only need to be as true to others as we are to ourselves that there may be ground enough for friendship."
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The American Scholar
“Death Fugue” by Paul Celan Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Death Fugue” by Paul Celan appeared first on The American...
9 months ago
69

“Death Fugue” by Paul Celan

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Death Fugue” by Paul Celan appeared first on The American Scholar.
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This Space
39 Books: 2010 This series has sailed into the doldrum years. Reading has become less of a headlong existential...
10 months ago
69

39 Books: 2010

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
This series has sailed into the doldrum years. Reading has become less of a headlong existential adventure than something one does, a pastime, a hobby, something you tell a quiz show presenter how you relax: "I like to read, Brad." By this time I had given up reviewing...
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This Space
A rare sort of writer Today is Gabriel Josipovici's 80th birthday. To mark the occasion, I'll link to various posts I've...
over a year ago
69

A rare sort of writer

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
Today is Gabriel Josipovici's 80th birthday. To mark the occasion, I'll link to various posts I've written over the years – after a brief interlude. I read him first in July 1988 after borrowing The Lessons of Modernism from the second floor of Portsmouth Central Library because...
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The Marginalian
No One You Love Is Ever Dead: Hemingway on the Most Devastating of Losses and the Meaning of Life "We must live it, now, a day at a time and be very careful not to hurt each other."
10 months ago
68

No One You Love Is Ever Dead: Hemingway on the Most Devastating of Losses and the Meaning of Life

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
"We must live it, now, a day at a time and be very careful not to hurt each other."
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This Space
39 Books: 1998 I said I'd come back to "not writing".  A few months ago I watched Unstuck in Time, a long but...
10 months ago
68

39 Books: 1998

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
I said I'd come back to "not writing".  A few months ago I watched Unstuck in Time, a long but captivating documentary on the life of Kurt Vonnegut and his friendship with the film's maker, Robert Weide. In his final years, Vonnegut moved to the country and stopped writing. His...
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The Marginalian
Coleridge on the Paradox of Friendship and Romantic Love On sympathy, reciprocity, and satisfying the fulness of our nature.
over a year ago
68

Coleridge on the Paradox of Friendship and Romantic Love

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
On sympathy, reciprocity, and satisfying the fulness of our nature.
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The Marginalian
The Life of Trees: A Poem "I want to sleep and dream the life of trees, beings from the muted world..."
over a year ago
68

The Life of Trees: A Poem

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
"I want to sleep and dream the life of trees, beings from the muted world..."
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The Marginalian
Between Mathematics and the Miraculous: The Stunning Pendulum Drawings of Swiss Healer and Artist... Emma Kunz (May 23, 1892–January 16, 1963) was forty-six and the world was aflame with war when she...
10 months ago
68

Between Mathematics and the Miraculous: The Stunning Pendulum Drawings of Swiss Healer and Artist Emma Kunz

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
Emma Kunz (May 23, 1892–January 16, 1963) was forty-six and the world was aflame with war when she became an artist. She had worked at a knitting factory and as a housekeeper. She had written poetry, publishing a collection titled Life in the interlude between the two World Wars....
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The Marginalian
The Last Wonder: D.H. Lawrence on Death and the Best Lifelong Preparation for It "Know thyself, and that thou art mortal. But know thyself, denying that thou art mortal."
a year ago
68

The Last Wonder: D.H. Lawrence on Death and the Best Lifelong Preparation for It

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Know thyself, and that thou art mortal. But know thyself, denying that thou art mortal."
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The American Scholar
Esteban Cabeza de Baca History witnessed, from the picket lines The post Esteban Cabeza de Baca appeared first on The...
10 months ago
68

Esteban Cabeza de Baca

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
History witnessed, from the picket lines The post Esteban Cabeza de Baca appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
Love’s Work: Philosopher Gillian Rose on the Value of Getting It Wrong "You may be weaker than the whole world but you are always stronger than yourself. Let me send my...
a year ago
68

Love’s Work: Philosopher Gillian Rose on the Value of Getting It Wrong

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"You may be weaker than the whole world but you are always stronger than yourself. Let me send my power against my power... Let me discover what it is that I want and fear from love. Power and love, might and grace."
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This Space
39 Books: 2018 In spite of what I said yesterday about the decline in the number of novels I read each year, this...
10 months ago
68

39 Books: 2018

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
In spite of what I said yesterday about the decline in the number of novels I read each year, this year was packed with a variety: Australian, Korean, Austrian, Egyptian, German, Argentinian and, today's choice, Norwegian; that is, if variety depends on the country of origin. But...
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Wuthering...
Books I read in February 2024 - if there is truth in poets' prophesies, then in my fame forever will... Persian literature in March: the epic Shahnameh in Dick Davis’s mostly prose translation, plus the...
a year ago
68

Books I read in February 2024 - if there is truth in poets' prophesies, then in my fame forever will I live

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Persian literature in March: the epic Shahnameh in Dick Davis’s mostly prose translation, plus the classical poets he translated in Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz, plus some Rumi and at least one contemporary Iranian novel, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi’s The Colonel (2009). ...
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The Marginalian
O Sweet Spontaneous: E.E. Cummings’s Love-Poem to Earth and the Glory of Spring The ultimate anthem of resistance to the assaults on life.
over a year ago
68

O Sweet Spontaneous: E.E. Cummings’s Love-Poem to Earth and the Glory of Spring

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
The ultimate anthem of resistance to the assaults on life.
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This Space
The end of something Thirteen years ago I posted The beginning of something to mark the fifteenth anniversary of Spike...
a year ago
68

The end of something

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Thirteen years ago I posted The beginning of something to mark the fifteenth anniversary of Spike Magazine (not to be confused with Spiked), which I helped to found when the world wide web was forming, and to comment on the direction online literary culture had taken. By that...
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The Marginalian
The Value of Being Wrong: Lewis Thomas on Generative Mistakes In praise of our "property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled, and rich in possibilities."
over a year ago
68

The Value of Being Wrong: Lewis Thomas on Generative Mistakes

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
In praise of our "property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled, and rich in possibilities."
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Escaping Flatland
Thinking about perceptiveness links
7 months ago
67

Thinking about perceptiveness

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
links
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The Marginalian
Youth and Age: Kahlil Gibran on the Art of Becoming A roadmap to the fulfilled belonging on the other side of "the great aloneness which knows not what...
a year ago
67

Youth and Age: Kahlil Gibran on the Art of Becoming

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
A roadmap to the fulfilled belonging on the other side of "the great aloneness which knows not what is far and what is near, nor what is small nor great."
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The Marginalian
Anne Morrow Lindbergh on Embracing Change in Relationships and the Key Pattern for Nourishing Love "All living relationships are in process of change, of expansion, and must perpetually be building...
a year ago
67

Anne Morrow Lindbergh on Embracing Change in Relationships and the Key Pattern for Nourishing Love

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"All living relationships are in process of change, of expansion, and must perpetually be building themselves new forms."
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The Marginalian
Let Your Heart Be Broken "The miracle is that we rise again out of suffering... The miracle is that we create ourselves...
a year ago
67

Let Your Heart Be Broken

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"The miracle is that we rise again out of suffering... The miracle is that we create ourselves anew."
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The Elysian
“Friends” as the ideal community The one where communes aren't the answer.
10 months ago
67

“Friends” as the ideal community

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
The one where communes aren't the answer.
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This Space
39 Books: 2013 I reread books like Aharon Appelfeld's A Table for One and Anne Atik's How It Was as if returning to...
10 months ago
67

39 Books: 2013

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
I reread books like Aharon Appelfeld's A Table for One and Anne Atik's How It Was as if returning to a particular bench with a view of the sea. On first glance A Table for One promises only banal, coffee-table memories and reflections, and that would be almost right: Real...
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The Marginalian
Something About the Sky: Rachel Carson’s Lost Serenade to the Science of the Clouds, Found and... A version of this essay appeared in The New York Times Book Review. A cloud is a spell against...
a year ago
67

Something About the Sky: Rachel Carson’s Lost Serenade to the Science of the Clouds, Found and Illustrated by Artist Nikki McClure

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
A version of this essay appeared in The New York Times Book Review. A cloud is a spell against indifference, an emblem of the water cycle that makes this planet a living world capable of trees and tenderness, a great cosmic gasp at the improbability that such a world exists, that...
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The Marginalian
How We Render Reality: Attention as an Instrument of Love "Since our consciousness plays some part in what comes into being, the play of attention can both...
a year ago
67

How We Render Reality: Attention as an Instrument of Love

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Since our consciousness plays some part in what comes into being, the play of attention can both create and destroy, but it never leaves its object unchanged."
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The Marginalian
Polyvagal Theory and the Neurobiology of Connection: The Science of Rupture, Repair, and Reciprocity "The mind narrates what the nervous system knows. Story follows state."
10 months ago
66

Polyvagal Theory and the Neurobiology of Connection: The Science of Rupture, Repair, and Reciprocity

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
"The mind narrates what the nervous system knows. Story follows state."
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The Marginalian
The Dalai Lama’s Ethical and Ecological Philosophy for the Next Generation, Illustrated "We are all interconnected in the universe, and from this, universal responsibility arises......
over a year ago
66

The Dalai Lama’s Ethical and Ecological Philosophy for the Next Generation, Illustrated

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
"We are all interconnected in the universe, and from this, universal responsibility arises... Everyone has the responsibility to develop a happier world."
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The Marginalian
Moonlight and the Magic of the Unnecessary Every night, for every human being that ever was and ever will be, the Moon rises to remind us how...
a year ago
66

Moonlight and the Magic of the Unnecessary

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Every night, for every human being that ever was and ever will be, the Moon rises to remind us how improbably lucky we are, each of its craters a monument of the odds we prevailed against to exist, a reliquary of the violent collisions that forged our rocky planet lush with life...
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Wuthering...
Books I Read in July 2023 How embarrassing that I did not write a thing this month, but I promise I had a good excuse. ...
a year ago
66

Books I Read in July 2023

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
How embarrassing that I did not write a thing this month, but I promise I had a good excuse.  Posts on Cynicism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism will appear this month, I swear, or at least hope.  My eventual excuse this month will be, I am afraid, even better. Still, I...
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Wuthering...
Xenophon's Socrates I’m still catching up with myself.  I wanted to spend March thinking about Socrates as a...
a year ago
66

Xenophon's Socrates

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
I’m still catching up with myself.  I wanted to spend March thinking about Socrates as a philosopher, independent from Plato’s use of him, to the extent that it is possible.  The Socrates of Aristophanes in The Clouds is not much help.  But luckily we have Xenophon, a close...
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Wuthering...
The endlessly adaptable plays of Plautus - I’ll make it into a comedy with some tragedy mixed in The plays of Plautus are the foundation of Western comedy.  That they are based on the plays of...
over a year ago
66

The endlessly adaptable plays of Plautus - I’ll make it into a comedy with some tragedy mixed in

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
The plays of Plautus are the foundation of Western comedy.  That they are based on the plays of Menander and the other Greek New Comedy writers was irrelevant, since all of those texts were soon lost.  Plautus (and his successor Terence) carried the stage traditions, the...
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The Marginalian
The Heart of Matter: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on Bridging the Scientific and the Sacred "Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible march of evolution, reality ever new-born; you who, by...
a year ago
66

The Heart of Matter: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on Bridging the Scientific and the Sacred

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible march of evolution, reality ever new-born; you who, by constantly shattering our mental categories, force us to go ever further and further in our pursuit of the truth."
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The Elysian
You’d still work if you didn’t have to But it would feel more like play.
8 months ago
66

You’d still work if you didn’t have to

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
But it would feel more like play.
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The Marginalian
Leonard Cohen on the Antidote to Anger and the Meaning of Resistance One of the commonest and most corrosive human reflexes is to react to helplessness with anger. We do...
8 months ago
66

Leonard Cohen on the Antidote to Anger and the Meaning of Resistance

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
One of the commonest and most corrosive human reflexes is to react to helplessness with anger. We do it in our personal lives and we do it in our political lives. We are living through a time of uncommon helplessness and uncertainty, touching every aspect of our lives, and in...
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This Space
No safe landing A review of A Winter in Zürau and Partita by Gabriel Josipovici   Gabriel Josipovici has said that...
5 months ago
66

No safe landing

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

5 months ago
A review of A Winter in Zürau and Partita by Gabriel Josipovici   Gabriel Josipovici has said that as a critic he is conservative but as a novelist he is radical. The second claim may not be controversial but the first will come as a surprise to those who remember what he said...
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Escaping Flatland
Things I learned working with artists As I said in “Lessons I learned working at an art gallery,” I had several observations that I...
3 months ago
66

Things I learned working with artists

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 months ago
As I said in “Lessons I learned working at an art gallery,” I had several observations that I couldn’t fit into that post—so lets continue today.
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Wuthering...
it’s right about here that there would normally be a gap - Peter Adamson's Classical Philosophy, the... Peter Adamson is an English philosopher with a long-running podcast, History of Philosophy without...
a year ago
66

it’s right about here that there would normally be a gap - Peter Adamson's Classical Philosophy, the beginning of the History of Philosophy without Any Gaps

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Peter Adamson is an English philosopher with a long-running podcast, History of Philosophy without Any Gaps.  What can that mean, without any gaps? We’ve finished Aristotle, and it’s right about here that there would normally be a gap.  In an undergraduate philosophy course you...
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Escaping Flatland
On shortcuts and longcuts There’s this design heuristic that if people cut across the grass, you should pave the shortcut they...
10 months ago
66

On shortcuts and longcuts

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
There’s this design heuristic that if people cut across the grass, you should pave the shortcut they make. This gives the path a lovely human fit. But sometimes you want to do the opposite. You want to design ways to get people to take a longer path, a longcut, so they can see or...
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Escaping Flatland
Having a shit blog has made me feel abundant From Giacometti’s sketch book
6 months ago
66

Having a shit blog has made me feel abundant

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
From Giacometti’s sketch book
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Wuthering...
Books I read in January 2024 - as long, indeed, as this book, which hardly anyone will read by... The best book I read was Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which will also be the best thing I read in...
a year ago
66

Books I read in January 2024 - as long, indeed, as this book, which hardly anyone will read by reason of its length

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
The best book I read was Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which will also be the best thing I read in February.  I gotta catch up on my posts. One big book down, and as a result my list of January books is more sensible. TRAVEL, let’s call it Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), Rebecca...
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The American Scholar
Jane Skafte The language of trees The post Jane Skafte appeared first on The American Scholar.
9 months ago
66

Jane Skafte

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
The language of trees The post Jane Skafte appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
Awakened Cosmos: Poetry as Spiritual Practice "Poetry is the cosmos awakened to itself."
a year ago
66

Awakened Cosmos: Poetry as Spiritual Practice

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Poetry is the cosmos awakened to itself."
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This Space
39 Books: 2015 In the Spring of 1997, I visited a friend in Kassel, a city in the middle of Germany, home of the...
10 months ago
65

39 Books: 2015

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
In the Spring of 1997, I visited a friend in Kassel, a city in the middle of Germany, home of the Brothers Grimm and Franz Rosenzweig, and not very far from Weimer, hence the visit to the Goethehaus mentioned in the entry for 1989. I hadn't heard of it before and nor had my...
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The Marginalian
Trust, Betrayal, and the Nexus of Mathematics and Morality: The Prisoner’s Dilemma Animated Illuminating the pitfalls of the mind in felt and gingerbread.
over a year ago
65

Trust, Betrayal, and the Nexus of Mathematics and Morality: The Prisoner’s Dilemma Animated

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
Illuminating the pitfalls of the mind in felt and gingerbread.
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The American Scholar
Agent 37 The post Agent 37 appeared first on The American Scholar.
9 months ago
65

Agent 37

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
The post Agent 37 appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Elysian
Humanity from the perspective of robots Talking points for our literary salon next week.
11 months ago
65

Humanity from the perspective of robots

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
Talking points for our literary salon next week.
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Wuthering...
Seneca and Marcus Aurelius and their Stoic self-help books - I shall not be afraid when my last hour... The curious thing about Stoicism is its long-lasting survival in the self-help genre, curious at...
a year ago
65

Seneca and Marcus Aurelius and their Stoic self-help books - I shall not be afraid when my last hour comes

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
The curious thing about Stoicism is its long-lasting survival in the self-help genre, curious at least until I read Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic (1st C.) several years ago and discovered that it was a self-help book, one of the founding self-help books.  The Meditations of...
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Wuthering...
Thales, the first philosopher - what is philosophy, anyways? He [Thales of Miletus] held that the original substance of all things is water, and that the world...
over a year ago
65

Thales, the first philosopher - what is philosophy, anyways?

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
He [Thales of Miletus] held that the original substance of all things is water, and that the world is animate and full of deities.  They say he discovered the seasons of the year, and divided the day into 365 days.  (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, p. 12,...
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The American Scholar
“The Answering Machine” by Linda Pastan Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Answering Machine” by Linda Pastan appeared first on The...
9 months ago
65

“The Answering Machine” by Linda Pastan

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Answering Machine” by Linda Pastan appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Chris Combs Surveillance state The post Chris Combs appeared first on The American Scholar.
9 months ago
65

Chris Combs

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Surveillance state The post Chris Combs appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Wuthering...
Please read the Roman plays with me (although not all of them) - Plautus, Terence, Seneca Roman plays, a sampling, readalong #1. Fresh off the Greek plays, I want to revisit some of the...
over a year ago
65

Please read the Roman plays with me (although not all of them) - Plautus, Terence, Seneca

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
Roman plays, a sampling, readalong #1. Fresh off the Greek plays, I want to revisit some of the surviving Roman plays to remind myself what they are like.  Twenty-six comedies and ten tragedies have survived.  I read about half of them long ago and plan to reread fewer than...
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The American Scholar
Imperfecta Her brother’s disease leads a writer to challenge how we conceive of human abnormality in the...
9 months ago
64

Imperfecta

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Her brother’s disease leads a writer to challenge how we conceive of human abnormality in the emerging era of gene editing The post Imperfecta appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Tunneling to Freedom In The Great Escape (1963), the true story of a harrowing breakout from a German POW camp The post...
9 months ago
64

Tunneling to Freedom

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
In The Great Escape (1963), the true story of a harrowing breakout from a German POW camp The post Tunneling to Freedom appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Elysian
Mondragon as the new City-State This cooperative could be its own country.
6 months ago
64

Mondragon as the new City-State

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
This cooperative could be its own country.
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The Marginalian
God, Human, Animal, Machine: Consciousness and Our Search for Meaning in the Age of Artificial... An inquiry into the eternal enchantment of why the world exists.
over a year ago
64

God, Human, Animal, Machine: Consciousness and Our Search for Meaning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
An inquiry into the eternal enchantment of why the world exists.
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Josh Thompson
On Scooters as a class of vehicle/tool Introduction Often when I say “scooter”, especially in the united states, the person thinks of...
3 months ago
64

On Scooters as a class of vehicle/tool

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 months ago
Introduction Often when I say “scooter”, especially in the united states, the person thinks of something different than what I mean. Here’s Denver’s Sportique Scooters, here’s one of their recent posts: So that is the kind of vehicle I’m talking about when I say “scooter”. I...
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The Marginalian
How the Octopus Came to Earth: Stunning 19th-Century French Chromolithographs of Cephalopods The art-science that captured the wonder of some of "the most brilliant productions of Nature."
a year ago
64

How the Octopus Came to Earth: Stunning 19th-Century French Chromolithographs of Cephalopods

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
The art-science that captured the wonder of some of "the most brilliant productions of Nature."
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The Marginalian
May Sarton on How to Cultivate Your Talent "A talent grows by being used, and withers if it is not used."
over a year ago
64

May Sarton on How to Cultivate Your Talent

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
"A talent grows by being used, and withers if it is not used."
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The American Scholar
Just When You Thought It Wasn’t Safe … How Wilbert Longfellow turned America into a nation of swimmers The post Just When You Thought It...
9 months ago
64

Just When You Thought It Wasn’t Safe …

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
How Wilbert Longfellow turned America into a nation of swimmers The post Just When You Thought It <em>Wasn’t</em> Safe … appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Wuthering...
Books I read in November 2023 Recovery from surgery leads to a long list of books. (Everything is going well, by the way,...
a year ago
63

Books I read in November 2023

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Recovery from surgery leads to a long list of books. (Everything is going well, by the way, thanks).  My idea of a “comfort read” is a book on a subject about which I do not know much – start me over at the beginning – thus my enthusiastic Indian literature project, which is...
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Wuthering...
Books I Read in September 2023 Despite all evidence I hope to wrap up the Greek philosophy project within the next couple of...
a year ago
63

Books I Read in September 2023

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Despite all evidence I hope to wrap up the Greek philosophy project within the next couple of weeks.  A medical deadline approaches.  That will help. As usual, I read good books.   PHILOSOPHY & SELF-HELP Letters from a Stoic (c. 60), Seneca - good timing for some...
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The Marginalian
How to Be Animal: An Antidote to Our Self-Expatriation from Nature How to embrace our inheritance as "a creature of organic substance and electricity that can be...
a year ago
63

How to Be Animal: An Antidote to Our Self-Expatriation from Nature

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
How to embrace our inheritance as "a creature of organic substance and electricity that can be eaten, injured and dissipated back into the enigmatic physics of the universe."
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This Space
The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard I began reading The Morning Star without any prior knowledge of the contents, just as I had begun...
over a year ago
63

The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
I began reading The Morning Star without any prior knowledge of the contents, just as I had begun reading every other book of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s since receiving an ARC of the first volume of My Struggle long before he shone above us like the morning star in this novel. This...
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The Marginalian
May Sarton on Grieving a Pet "It is absolutely inward and private, the relation between oneself and an animal."
over a year ago
63

May Sarton on Grieving a Pet

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
"It is absolutely inward and private, the relation between oneself and an animal."
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The Marginalian
How to Grow Up: Nick Cave’s Life-Advice to a 13-Year-Old "Fill yourself with the beautiful stuff of the world... Get amazed. Get astonished. Get awed on a...
a year ago
63

How to Grow Up: Nick Cave’s Life-Advice to a 13-Year-Old

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Fill yourself with the beautiful stuff of the world... Get amazed. Get astonished. Get awed on a regular basis, so that getting awed is habitual and becomes a state of being."
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Wuthering...
Thanks and praise to celebrate the happiness of this great event – the end of the Greek play... I am quoting the end of Alcestis by Euripides, his early whatever it is, not a tragedy, not a satyr...
over a year ago
63

Thanks and praise to celebrate the happiness of this great event – the end of the Greek play readalong

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
I am quoting the end of Alcestis by Euripides, his early whatever it is, not a tragedy, not a satyr play, not a comedy.  Admetos has won back his wife and the play is at its end, so he declares “a feast of thanks and praise” (tr. Arrowsmith), which is what I want to do.  If we...
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The Marginalian
The Art of Lying Fallow: Psychoanalyst Masud Khan on the Existential Salve for the Age of Cultish... On inviting the state of being that "allows for that larval inner experience which distinguishes...
a year ago
63

The Art of Lying Fallow: Psychoanalyst Masud Khan on the Existential Salve for the Age of Cultish Productivity and Compulsive Distraction

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
On inviting the state of being that "allows for that larval inner experience which distinguishes true psychic creativity from obsessional productiveness."
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The Marginalian
May Sarton on Writing, Gardening, and the Importance of Patience Over Will in Creative Work "Gardening is like poetry in that it is gratuitous, and also that it cannot be done on will alone."
a year ago
63

May Sarton on Writing, Gardening, and the Importance of Patience Over Will in Creative Work

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"Gardening is like poetry in that it is gratuitous, and also that it cannot be done on will alone."
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This Space
Books of the year 2024 In order of being read. Giorgio Agamben – What I saw, heard, learned… One night, along Venice’s...
3 months ago
63

Books of the year 2024

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 months ago
In order of being read. Giorgio Agamben – What I saw, heard, learned… One night, along Venice’s Zattere, watching the putrid water lap at the city’s foundations, I saw that we exist solely in the intermittence of our being, and that what we call I is just a shadow...
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This Space
The Lascaux Notebooks by Jean-Luc Champerret Lascaux, a placename standing for the abyssal revelation of the cave paintings discovered there...
over a year ago
63

The Lascaux Notebooks by Jean-Luc Champerret

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
Lascaux, a placename standing for the abyssal revelation of the cave paintings discovered there after millennia in darkness, and Notebooks, suggesting a private endeavour, preparation, a work to come. While neither is secret as such, neither was meant for the light. Two intrigues...
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This Space
39 Books: 2016 I love it when people announce that "if Shakespeare was alive today, he'd be writing Eastenders", or...
10 months ago
63

39 Books: 2016

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

10 months ago
I love it when people announce that "if Shakespeare was alive today, he'd be writing Eastenders", or Game of Thrones or crime fiction, according to one and another variation. The innocence of the claim is charming, giving voice to the desperation to give weight to ephemera. But I...
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The Marginalian
The Stunning Mystical Paintings of the 16th-Century Portuguese Artist Francisco de Holanda Blake before Blake, Hilma before Hilma.
over a year ago
62

The Stunning Mystical Paintings of the 16th-Century Portuguese Artist Francisco de Holanda

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
Blake before Blake, Hilma before Hilma.
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The Marginalian
Love and the Sacred "I did not know what love was until I encountered one that kept opening and opening and opening."
a year ago
62

Love and the Sacred

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"I did not know what love was until I encountered one that kept opening and opening and opening."
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Wuthering...
Iphigeneia in Aulis by Euripides - even babies sense the dread of evil to come The final Euripides play is Iphigeneia in Aulis, performed with The Bacchae in 405 BCE.  I normally...
over a year ago
62

Iphigeneia in Aulis by Euripides - even babies sense the dread of evil to come

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
The final Euripides play is Iphigeneia in Aulis, performed with The Bacchae in 405 BCE.  I normally write “Iphigenia,” but I read the 1978 W. S. Merwin and George E. Dimock, Jr. translation titled which goes with “Iphigeneia,” so I will switch to that spelling for this post. ...
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The Marginalian
Of Stars, Seagulls, and Love: Loren Eiseley on the First and Final Truth of Life Somewhere along the way of life, we learn that love means very different things to different people,...
7 months ago
62

Of Stars, Seagulls, and Love: Loren Eiseley on the First and Final Truth of Life

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
Somewhere along the way of life, we learn that love means very different things to different people, and yet all personal love is but a fractal of a larger universal love. Some call it God. I call it wonder. Dante called it “the Love that moves the Sun and the other stars.”...
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This Space
Favourite books 2022 This selection does not include those books I enjoyed, that asinine dilution poured into innumerable...
over a year ago
62

Favourite books 2022

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
This selection does not include those books I enjoyed, that asinine dilution poured into innumerable books of the year lists, though I enjoyed those not included in this selection. Jon Fosse – Septology Thomas Bernhard – The Rest is Slander "we are concealing a secret, a secret...
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This Space
"When now?" Out of curiosity, I read a few novels that over the last year have received the highest praise on...
over a year ago
62

"When now?"

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
Out of curiosity, I read a few novels that over the last year have received the highest praise on social media and literary podcasts, and have appeared multiple times in newspaper Books of the Year choices and on prize shortlists, and one that even won a prize. I wanted to see...
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The American Scholar
Turning the World to Powder Jay Owens on the tiny particles that float through our lives The post Turning the World to Powder...
9 months ago
62

Turning the World to Powder

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Jay Owens on the tiny particles that float through our lives The post Turning the World to Powder appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
A Poet of the Soil The legacy of a writer who struggled with his celebrity The post A Poet of the Soil appeared first...
6 months ago
62

A Poet of the Soil

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
The legacy of a writer who struggled with his celebrity The post A Poet of the Soil appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
War, Peace, and Possible Futures: George Saunders on Storytelling the World’s Fate and the Antidote... "War is large-scale murder, us at our worst, the stupidest guy doing the cruelest thing to the...
a year ago
62

War, Peace, and Possible Futures: George Saunders on Storytelling the World’s Fate and the Antidote to Media Manipulation

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"War is large-scale murder, us at our worst, the stupidest guy doing the cruelest thing to the weakest being."
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The Marginalian
A Taste of How It Feels to Be Free: Pioneering Psychoanalyst Karen Horney on Our Inner Conflicts,... "The most comprehensive formulation of therapeutic goals is the striving for wholeheartedness: to be...
a year ago
62

A Taste of How It Feels to Be Free: Pioneering Psychoanalyst Karen Horney on Our Inner Conflicts, the Psychology of Hopelessness, and the Path to Wholeness

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"The most comprehensive formulation of therapeutic goals is the striving for wholeheartedness: to be without pretense, to be emotionally sincere, to be able to put the whole of oneself into one’s feelings, one’s work, one’s beliefs. It can be approximated only to the extent that...
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ben-mini
Making My SQL Skills Obsolete Quick Update: I updated my domain to ben-mini.com! All old URLs and the RSS feed under...
3 months ago
61

Making My SQL Skills Obsolete

from ben-mini [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 months ago
Quick Update: I updated my domain to ben-mini.com! All old URLs and the RSS feed under ben-mini.github.io will automatically redirect, so no changes are needed on your end. By far, the most useful LLM app I’ve made is the Kibu Schema God: I try not to make my posts too...
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The Marginalian
How to Miss Loved Ones Better: The Psychology of Waiting and Withstanding Absence On "the capacity to bear frustration without turning against one’s needy self, or against the person...
7 months ago
61

How to Miss Loved Ones Better: The Psychology of Waiting and Withstanding Absence

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
On "the capacity to bear frustration without turning against one’s needy self, or against the person one needs."
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Escaping Flatland
Pseudonyms lets you practice agency I don’t think I would have become a writer if it wasn’t for the internet forums of the early 2000s.
7 months ago
61

Pseudonyms lets you practice agency

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
I don’t think I would have become a writer if it wasn’t for the internet forums of the early 2000s.
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This Space
At home he’s a tourist: The Moment by Peter Holm Jensen Such a modest, self-effacing title, barely relieved by the blanched map on the cover. In everyday...
over a year ago
61

At home he’s a tourist: The Moment by Peter Holm Jensen

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
Such a modest, self-effacing title, barely relieved by the blanched map on the cover. In everyday speech, a word or two is usually added to supplement the weedy noun: people say “At this moment in time”, which is when I ask: can a moment be in anything else; a moment in lampposts...
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Wuthering...
You drool from it. You are happy. - Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit Finally, I have finished Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932), known in English...
7 months ago
61

You drool from it. You are happy. - Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
Finally, I have finished Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932), known in English as Journey to the End of Night.  That “end of night” is death.  The existence of death makes everything hateful and nullifies the value of anything else.  I gotta say that the...
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The Marginalian
Everything Is Already There: Javier Marías on the Courage to Heed Your Intuitions "This has nothing to do with premonitions, there is nothing supernatural or mysterious about it,...
a year ago
60

Everything Is Already There: Javier Marías on the Courage to Heed Your Intuitions

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"This has nothing to do with premonitions, there is nothing supernatural or mysterious about it, what’s mysterious is that we pay no heed to it."
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Escaping Flatland
In praise of insular groups Last spring, as we were exploring the coastline of our island, Johanna, the kids, and I crossed a...
11 months ago
60

In praise of insular groups

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

11 months ago
Last spring, as we were exploring the coastline of our island, Johanna, the kids, and I crossed a meadow where two men were artificially inseminating a longhaired cow. We stopped to observe the work. When it was done, one of the men came over to where we stood by the electric...
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Wuthering...
Books I read in September 2024 - Boring books had their origin in boring readers My reading took an interesting Russian turn that I will write about, soon, tomorrow, there, I said...
5 months ago
60

Books I read in September 2024 - Boring books had their origin in boring readers

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

5 months ago
My reading took an interesting Russian turn that I will write about, soon, tomorrow, there, I said it out loud so maybe I will really do it. November is Norwegian month at Dolce Bellezza.  I will be joining her by reading at least the first novel, The Other Name (2019), of Jon...
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The Marginalian
How to Triumph Over the Challenges of the Creative Life: Audubon’s Antidote to Despair We move through the world as surfaces shimmering with the visibilia of our accomplishments, the...
6 months ago
60

How to Triumph Over the Challenges of the Creative Life: Audubon’s Antidote to Despair

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
We move through the world as surfaces shimmering with the visibilia of our accomplishments, the undertow of our suffering invisible to passers-by. The selective collective memory we call history contributes to this willful blindness, obscuring the tremendous personal cost behind...
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The Marginalian
The Work of Happiness: May Sarton’s Stunning Poem About Being at Home in Yourself "What is happiness but growth in peace."
a year ago
60

The Work of Happiness: May Sarton’s Stunning Poem About Being at Home in Yourself

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"What is happiness but growth in peace."
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Wuthering...
The elegant, intricate, sour comedies of Terence The great Roman playwright Terence wrote six plays between 166 and 160 BCE, twenty years after the...
over a year ago
60

The elegant, intricate, sour comedies of Terence

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
The great Roman playwright Terence wrote six plays between 166 and 160 BCE, twenty years after the death of Plautus.  The story is that he wrote the first one at age nineteen, while enslaved, thus winning his freedom and entry into a world of aristocratic patrons.  Plautus was...
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The Elysian
Hint #2 I'm publishing a new print collection in two weeks.
7 months ago
60

Hint #2

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
I'm publishing a new print collection in two weeks.
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Wuthering...
Heraclitus and Empedocles - Everything flows - eyes roamed alone My rummage through the early Greek philosophers has been rewarding, but it is a strange exercise. ...
over a year ago
60

Heraclitus and Empedocles - Everything flows - eyes roamed alone

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
My rummage through the early Greek philosophers has been rewarding, but it is a strange exercise.  “Readers of this book will, I suspect, be frequently perplexed and sometimes annoyed” write Jonathan Barnes in Early Greek Philosophy, a collection with commentary of the most...
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The Marginalian
Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and Our Search for Meaning: Oliver Sacks on ChatGPT, 30... "We are not incoherent, a bundle of sensations, but a self, rising from experience, continually...
a year ago
59

Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and Our Search for Meaning: Oliver Sacks on ChatGPT, 30 Years Before ChatGPT

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"We are not incoherent, a bundle of sensations, but a self, rising from experience, continually growing and revised... Through experience, education, art, and life, we teach our brains to become unique. We learn to be individuals. This is a neurological learning as well as a...
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Wuthering...
Planning next year's readalong opportunities - Greek philosophy and Roman plays If only I had another idea as good as reading all the Greek plays in order.  But I do have ideas. ...
over a year ago
59

Planning next year's readalong opportunities - Greek philosophy and Roman plays

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
If only I had another idea as good as reading all the Greek plays in order.  But I do have ideas. 1. Roman plays.  Up to five Roman playwrights have survived: the comedians Plautus and Terence and the tragedian Seneca, along with two plays under his name that were likely...
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Escaping Flatland
A summary of what I wrote in 2024 A man sets out to draw the world.
3 months ago
59

A summary of what I wrote in 2024

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 months ago
A man sets out to draw the world.
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Escaping Flatland
Writing while walking We do not belong to those who have ideas only among books, when stimulated by books.
6 months ago
59

Writing while walking

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
We do not belong to those who have ideas only among books, when stimulated by books.
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Wuthering...
Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles - indeed his end / Was wonderful if ever mortal’s was Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles is one of the plays that got me excited about the entire project of...
over a year ago
59

Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles - indeed his end / Was wonderful if ever mortal’s was

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles is one of the plays that got me excited about the entire project of reading or re-reading the complete plays.  The last surviving tragedy, even if it hardly recognizable as a tragedy, it provides a coherent ending to the tragic tradition.  It is...
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The Marginalian
You and the Universe: N.J. Berrill’s Poetic 1958 Masterpiece of Cosmic Perspective "The universe is as we find it and as we discover it within ourselves."
7 months ago
59

You and the Universe: N.J. Berrill’s Poetic 1958 Masterpiece of Cosmic Perspective

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
"The universe is as we find it and as we discover it within ourselves."
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The American Scholar
“The Pulley” by George Herbert Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Pulley” by George Herbert appeared first on The American...
6 months ago
59

“The Pulley” by George Herbert

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Pulley” by George Herbert appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
How We Become Ourselves: Erik Erikson’s 8 Stages of Human Development It never ceases to stagger that some stroke of chance in the early history of the universe set into...
6 months ago
59

How We Become Ourselves: Erik Erikson’s 8 Stages of Human Development

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
It never ceases to stagger that some stroke of chance in the early history of the universe set into motion the Rube Goldberg machine of events that turned atoms born in the first stars into you — into this temporary clump of borrowed stardust that, for the brief interlude between...
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The Elysian
Hint #3 I'm publishing a new print collection in one week.
7 months ago
58

Hint #3

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
I'm publishing a new print collection in one week.
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The Marginalian
Stunning 200-Year-Old French Illustrations of Exotic, Endangered, and Extinct Birds From peacocks to penguins, a winged menagerie of wonder.
over a year ago
58

Stunning 200-Year-Old French Illustrations of Exotic, Endangered, and Extinct Birds

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
From peacocks to penguins, a winged menagerie of wonder.
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The Marginalian
The Science of What Made You You, with a Dazzling Poem Read by David Byrne "Look at the clever things we have made out of a few building blocks — O fabulous continuum."
6 months ago
58

The Science of What Made You You, with a Dazzling Poem Read by David Byrne

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
"Look at the clever things we have made out of a few building blocks — O fabulous continuum."
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The Marginalian
Winnicott on the Qualities of a Healthy Mind and a Healthy Relationship "A sign of health in the mind is the ability of one individual to enter imaginatively and yet...
7 months ago
58

Winnicott on the Qualities of a Healthy Mind and a Healthy Relationship

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
"A sign of health in the mind is the ability of one individual to enter imaginatively and yet accurately into the thoughts and feelings and hopes and fears of another person; also to allow the other person to do the same to us."
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Wuthering...
Wealth by Aristophanes - gout here, pot bellies there, ... obesity beyond all bounds We saw Sophocles and Euripides end their long careers with masterpieces, but we do not have that...
over a year ago
58

Wealth by Aristophanes - gout here, pot bellies there, ... obesity beyond all bounds

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
We saw Sophocles and Euripides end their long careers with masterpieces, but we do not have that luck with Aristophanes.  Wealth (388 BCE) is thin, scattershot, perhaps even a bit defeated or exhausted. The conceit is as usual excellent.  Plutus, the god of wealth, is freed...
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The Marginalian
An Illustrated Field Guide to the Science and Wonder of the Clouds Clouds drift ephemeral across the dome of this world, carrying eternity — condensing molecules that...
8 months ago
58

An Illustrated Field Guide to the Science and Wonder of the Clouds

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
Clouds drift ephemeral across the dome of this world, carrying eternity — condensing molecules that animated the first breath of life, coursing with electric charges that will power the last thought. To me, a cloud will always be a spell against indifference — a little bloom of...
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Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Sanding UI One of the ways I like to do development is to build something, click around a ton, make tweaks,...
6 months ago
58

Sanding UI

from Jim Nielsen’s Blog [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
One of the ways I like to do development is to build something, click around a ton, make tweaks, click around more, more tweaks, more clicks, etc., until I finally consider it done. The clicking around a ton is the important part. If it’s a page transition, that means going back...
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The American Scholar
“À une passante” by Charles Baudelaire Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “À une passante” by Charles Baudelaire appeared first on The...
8 months ago
57

“À une passante” by Charles Baudelaire

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “À une passante” by Charles Baudelaire appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Wuthering...
Books I read, and desks I saw, in July - hoping he might tell me, / tell me what the waves don't... Right, July, July, so long ago.  I was on the road a little bit, making literary pilgrimages. ...
7 months ago
57

Books I read, and desks I saw, in July - hoping he might tell me, / tell me what the waves don't know

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
Right, July, July, so long ago.  I was on the road a little bit, making literary pilgrimages.  Pittsfield, Massachusetts, for example, to Herman Melville’s Arrowhead: On this spot, not at this exact desk but in front of this exact window, Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick,...
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The Elysian
Founders will get much richer by exiting to employees This is how we create a wave of employee ownership.
7 months ago
57

Founders will get much richer by exiting to employees

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
This is how we create a wave of employee ownership.
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The American Scholar
Nights at the Opera Long before he wrote his masterly novels, Stendhal was transformed by the power of music The post...
7 months ago
57

Nights at the Opera

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
Long before he wrote his masterly novels, Stendhal was transformed by the power of music The post Nights at the Opera appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
“The Cucumber ” by Nâzim Hikmet Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Cucumber ” by Nâzim Hikmet appeared first on The...
7 months ago
57

“The Cucumber ” by Nâzim Hikmet

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Cucumber ” by Nâzim Hikmet appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Elysian
Will you explain anarchism to me? Letters to an anarchist, part one.
4 months ago
57

Will you explain anarchism to me?

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 months ago
Letters to an anarchist, part one.
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The Elysian
Writing Prompt: What movement does the world need right now? And how do we build it?
4 months ago
57

Writing Prompt: What movement does the world need right now?

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 months ago
And how do we build it?
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Escaping Flatland
On feeling connected generosity is potency
5 months ago
57

On feeling connected

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

5 months ago
generosity is potency
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The American Scholar
“Snake” by D. H. Lawrence Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Snake” by D. H. Lawrence appeared first on The American...
6 months ago
57

“Snake” by D. H. Lawrence

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Snake” by D. H. Lawrence appeared first on The American Scholar.
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Escaping Flatland
Without looking it up, what do you think? + links
5 months ago
57

Without looking it up, what do you think?

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

5 months ago
+ links
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The American Scholar
Rage, Muse The novels that revisit Greek myths, giving voice to the women who were scorned, wronged, or...
8 months ago
57

Rage, Muse

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
The novels that revisit Greek myths, giving voice to the women who were scorned, wronged, or forgotten The post Rage, Muse appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
“I Will Greet the Sun Again” by Forugh Farrokhzad Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “I Will Greet the Sun Again” by Forugh Farrokhzad appeared...
7 months ago
57

“I Will Greet the Sun Again” by Forugh Farrokhzad

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “I Will Greet the Sun Again” by Forugh Farrokhzad appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
The Great Blue Heron, Signs vs. Omens, and Our Search for Meaning One September dawn on the verge of a significant life change, sitting on my poet friend’s dock, I...
6 months ago
57

The Great Blue Heron, Signs vs. Omens, and Our Search for Meaning

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
One September dawn on the verge of a significant life change, sitting on my poet friend’s dock, I watched a great blue heron rise slow and prehistoric through the morning mist, carrying the sky on her back. In the years since, the heron has become the closest thing I have to what...
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The Marginalian
The Poetry of Reality: Robert Louis Stevenson on What Makes Life Worth Living "The true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find out where joy resides, and...
a year ago
57

The Poetry of Reality: Robert Louis Stevenson on What Makes Life Worth Living

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
"The true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing."
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The Marginalian
Trauma, Growth, and How to Be Twice as Alive: Tove Jansson on the Worm and the Art of Self-Renewal "Nothing is easy when you might come apart in the middle at any moment."
8 months ago
57

Trauma, Growth, and How to Be Twice as Alive: Tove Jansson on the Worm and the Art of Self-Renewal

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
"Nothing is easy when you might come apart in the middle at any moment."
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The American Scholar
A Ray of Sunshine The post A Ray of Sunshine appeared first on The American Scholar.
7 months ago
56

A Ray of Sunshine

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
The post A Ray of Sunshine appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
Albert Camus on How to Live Whole in a Broken World Born into a World War to live through another, Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) died...
9 months ago
56

Albert Camus on How to Live Whole in a Broken World

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Born into a World War to live through another, Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) died in a car crash with an unused train ticket to the same destination in his pocket. Just three years earlier, he had become the second-youngest laureate of the Nobel Prize, awarded...
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The Marginalian
Nikolai Vavilov and the Living Library of Resilience: The Story of the World’s First Seed Bank and... The most moving story of self-sacrifice in the history of science.
over a year ago
56

Nikolai Vavilov and the Living Library of Resilience: The Story of the World’s First Seed Bank and the Tragic Hero of Science Who Set Out to End Humanity’s Suffering

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
The most moving story of self-sacrifice in the history of science.
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The Marginalian
Kate Sessions and the Devotion to Delight: The Forgotten Woman Who Covered California with Trees and... In May 1941, next to news of the Nazi savagely bombing London, The Los Angeles Times published a...
a year ago
56

Kate Sessions and the Devotion to Delight: The Forgotten Woman Who Covered California with Trees and Flowers

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
In May 1941, next to news of the Nazi savagely bombing London, The Los Angeles Times published a memorial profile of “California’s Mother of Gardens” — a hopeful antidote to the undoing of the human world, celebrating the woman who covered Southern California with the loveliest...
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The Marginalian
Honing Life on the Edges of the Possible: Geologist Turned Psychoanalyst Ruth Allen on Boundaries... "At almost every conceivable level of our imagining, it is impossible to create a change without a...
7 months ago
56

Honing Life on the Edges of the Possible: Geologist Turned Psychoanalyst Ruth Allen on Boundaries and Limits as Frontiers of Transformation and Growth

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
"At almost every conceivable level of our imagining, it is impossible to create a change without a discontinuity, without a moment of not knowing who we are, or what we are going to become. Rupture precedes revolution."
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The American Scholar
The Diagnostician of Despair Why Rousseau believed that Enlightenment values would lead us to ruin The post The Diagnostician of...
3 months ago
56

The Diagnostician of Despair

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3 months ago
Why Rousseau believed that Enlightenment values would lead us to ruin The post The Diagnostician of Despair appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Elysian
One essay could change the future Please support a better media ecosystem.
5 months ago
56

One essay could change the future

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

5 months ago
Please support a better media ecosystem.
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The Elysian
Your visions for the next Renaissance From our May writing prompt.
8 months ago
56

Your visions for the next Renaissance

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
From our May writing prompt.
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The Marginalian
Turning to Stone: A Geologist’s Love Letter to the Wisdom of Rocks Among the great salvations of my childhood were the rocks and minerals lining the bookshelves of our...
7 months ago
56

Turning to Stone: A Geologist’s Love Letter to the Wisdom of Rocks

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
Among the great salvations of my childhood were the rocks and minerals lining the bookshelves of our next door neighbor — a geologist working for the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water. I spent long hours casting amethyst refractions on the ceiling, carving words into...
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The American Scholar
Teach the Conflicts It’s natural—and right—to foster The post Teach the Conflicts appeared first on The American...
6 months ago
56

Teach the Conflicts

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
It’s natural—and right—to foster The post Teach the Conflicts appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Queen of the Night Leigh Ann Henion embraces the creatures that light up the dark The post Queen of the Night appeared...
6 months ago
56

Queen of the Night

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
Leigh Ann Henion embraces the creatures that light up the dark The post Queen of the Night appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
200 Years of Solitude: Great Writers, Artists, and Scientists in Praise of the Creative and... There is a silence at the center of each person — an untrammeled space where the inner voice grows...
8 months ago
56

200 Years of Solitude: Great Writers, Artists, and Scientists in Praise of the Creative and Spiritual Rewards of Fertile Aloneness

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

8 months ago
There is a silence at the center of each person — an untrammeled space where the inner voice grows free to speak. That space expands in solitude. To create anything — a poem, a painting, a theorem — is to find the voice in the silence that has something to say to the world. In...
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The American Scholar
Paolo Arao Acts of devotion The post Paolo Arao appeared first on The American Scholar.
7 months ago
56

Paolo Arao

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
Acts of devotion The post Paolo Arao appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The American Scholar
Cancer The post Cancer appeared first on The American Scholar.
6 months ago
56

Cancer

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
The post Cancer appeared first on The American Scholar.
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The Marginalian
The Birth of the Byline: How a Bronze Age Woman Became the World’s First Named Author and Used the... Days after I arrived in America as a lone teenager, the same age Mary Shelley was when she wrote...
9 months ago
55

The Birth of the Byline: How a Bronze Age Woman Became the World’s First Named Author and Used the Moon to Unify the World’s First Empire

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
Days after I arrived in America as a lone teenager, the same age Mary Shelley was when she wrote Frankenstein, not yet knowing I too was to become a writer, I found myself wandering the vast cool halls of the Penn Museum. There among the thousands of ancient artifacts was one to...
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The Marginalian
From the Labor Camp to the Pantheon of Literature: How Dostoyevsky Became a Writer "I have nothing, except for certain, and perhaps very minor, literary abilities."
7 months ago
55

From the Labor Camp to the Pantheon of Literature: How Dostoyevsky Became a Writer

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7 months ago
"I have nothing, except for certain, and perhaps very minor, literary abilities."
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The Marginalian
The Science and Poetry of Anthotypes: Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium, Recreated in Hauntingly Beautiful... On September 20, 1845, the polymathic Scottish mathematician Mary Somerville — the woman for whom...
a year ago
55

The Science and Poetry of Anthotypes: Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium, Recreated in Hauntingly Beautiful Flower Pigment Prints via a Victorian Imaging Process

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
On September 20, 1845, the polymathic Scottish mathematician Mary Somerville — the woman for whom the word scientist was coined — sent a letter to the polymathic English astronomer John Herschel, who six years earlier had coined the word photography for the radical invention of...
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This Space
A modern heretic Literature can be defined by the sense of the imminence of a revelation which does not in fact...
over a year ago
55

A modern heretic

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

over a year ago
Literature can be defined by the sense of the imminence of a revelation which does not in fact occur. I used this line, apparently from Borges, as an epigram to an essay in the early days of online writing. I can't remember what book it came from and after searching I found a...
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The Marginalian
The Shape of Wonder: N.J. Berrill on the Universe, the Deepest Meaning of Beauty, and the Highest... "We, each of us, you and I, exhibit more of the true nature of the universe than any dead Saturn or...
6 months ago
55

The Shape of Wonder: N.J. Berrill on the Universe, the Deepest Meaning of Beauty, and the Highest Form of Faith

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

6 months ago
"We, each of us, you and I, exhibit more of the true nature of the universe than any dead Saturn or Jupiter."
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Wuthering...
What books am I reading this summer in the Greek philosophy readalong? Some details. Now that we are almost done with Plato, the bulkiest figure in my little Greek philosophy readalong,...
a year ago
55

What books am I reading this summer in the Greek philosophy readalong? Some details.

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

a year ago
Now that we are almost done with Plato, the bulkiest figure in my little Greek philosophy readalong, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit, clarify, and puzzle over the texts that will take us to the end of the project, now that I have given the matter a little more...
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The Marginalian
Nobel-Winning Poet Joseph Brodsky on the Remedy for Existential Boredom "Try to stay passionate, leave your cool to constellations. Passion, above all, is a remedy against...
9 months ago
55

Nobel-Winning Poet Joseph Brodsky on the Remedy for Existential Boredom

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

9 months ago
"Try to stay passionate, leave your cool to constellations. Passion, above all, is a remedy against boredom. Another one, of course, is pain... passion's frequent aftermath."
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