Books, Inq. — The Epilogue

Let we forget …

2012-05-27T13:00:00.000-04:00

... maybe the greatest depiction of war's reality ever. (It is John Singer Sargent's Gassed. It is a very large painting and to see it, as I did once at the Boston museum, is overwhelming.) Here is more.

Post bumped.

Classic …

2012-05-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

… Miles Davis improvising his incredible score to Louis Malle’s ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In case you wondered …

2012-05-27T11:00:00.000-04:00

… my politics revealed: The true libertarian.

Inquirer reviews …

2012-05-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

… ‘Freeman’ a tale of war and atonement.

… Bissinger’s ‘Father’s Day’: Honest, exalting, frustrating, powerful.

… Author Craig Johnson lives his cowboy dream.

… Young adult books: ‘Black Boy, White School’; ‘What Boys Really Want’.

… Book review: ‘Redefining Diva,’ by Sheryl Lee Ralph.

Thought for the day …

2012-05-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

Life is filigree work. What is written clearly is not worth much, it's the transparency that counts.

— Louis-Ferdinand Céline, born on this date in 1894

Thinking about God …

2012-05-26T18:00:00.000-04:00

… Keith Burgess-Jackson: Alvin Plantinga on Theism. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I think if we substitute the term Unconditioned Reality for the now-overloaded term God our thinking clears up a good deal.

Guides …

2012-05-26T17:00:00.000-04:00

… Book Review: A Field Guide to the Birds | The Sibley Guide to Birds | Field Guide to Birds of North America - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

From Peterson's "Guide" and Carson's "Silent Spring" a movement was born: environmentalism. It grew out of a new set of relationships between Homo sapiens and nature. Peterson invited the public to care enough about birds to identify them and, by extension, to identify with them. Carson showed that in caring about the fate of another species we were implicitly protecting our own fate as a species. The "Life List" that is kept by most birders acquired a double meaning: It names every live species seen in a person's lifetime.

Too bad. Environmentalism is, in my view, distinctly inferior to old-time conservationism. I know my birds pretty well, from having grown up watching them in the woods around our house and at our feeder. More encounter than course work. I find those who have take-up birding late in life somewhat off-putting, the way cradle Catholics sometimes find converts. Seeing birds is something I prefer to do on my own, never in a group.

Odd list …

2012-05-26T15:00:00.000-04:00

… John Mullan's 10 of the best: plays within plays | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Lighten up …

2012-05-26T14:00:00.000-04:00

… The Optimistic Directive | Talking Philosophy. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Stephenson … seems to see the current situation as rather problematic because he worries that the current crop science fiction lacks the optimism about the future needed to inspire scientists, engineers and others. To be more specific, if science fiction stories predict an apocalyptic world, then the readers will not be inspired to do things such as inventing space ships or solving the fossil fuel problem.

Probably not …

2012-05-26T13:00:00.000-04:00

… Will This Post Make Sam Harris Change His Mind About Free Will? | Cross-Check, Scientific American Blog Network. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

After all, the only thing Harris can say is that Horgan couldn't help posting this, just as Harris can't help thinking that.

Prophet or crank …

2012-05-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

… Cultural Critic or Complainer-in-Chief? – Forward.com.

You could call what he’s after secular humanism, a belief that by relentlessly asking the right questions, we can live ethical lives committed to the gradual betterment of society.

This can be seen in the very title of his 2001 novel, “The Corrections,” and in the moral contortions that the book’s hero and Franzen stand-in, Chip, undertakes as he flails around in search of a way to live untainted by the crimes of society.

The problem is that society doesn't commit any crimes. Individuals do. And the questions are perennial, not original.

Weigh in …

2012-05-26T11:00:00.000-04:00

… Friends, I wonder... | Facebook. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Hilary Mantel

2012-05-26T10:41:00.003-04:00

Here comes the second volume...

An ear for language …

2012-05-26T10:00:00.000-04:00

… Ten Authors Who Write Great Dialogue | LitReactor. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Thought for the day …

2012-05-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

— Mary Wortley Montagu, born on this date in 1689

Books in high places...

2012-05-26T06:23:00.002-04:00

...Literary altitude

Looking for answers …

2012-05-25T21:00:00.000-04:00

… Cameron Nations: In The Footsteps Of C.S. Lewis: A Pilgrimage.

In his book "The Great Divorce," Lewis posited heaven as a celestial country more real than our own, where the grass pierces the feet of those unfit to stand upon it. Something about the sight of the flowers made me think he had made it there. I paid my solemn respects and, after a few moments of silence, turned to leave.

Faulkner colorized …

2012-05-25T20:00:00.000-04:00

… The Sound and the Fury, hold the fury | Melville House Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In truth, Faulkner never intended it to be quite so difficult. For the book’s famously confusing first section, which is narrated by the mentally disabled Benjy Compson and which jumps back and forth in time mid-paragraph or even mid-sentence, Faulkner wanted his publisher to print each narrative thread in a different color of ink. On learning this would be impossible, he wrote, “I’ll just have to save the idea until publishing grows up to it.”

Needless to say, publishing has grown up a bit in the intervening eighty-four years, anda new edition due out this summer from theFolio Society aims to fulfill Faulkner’s wishes.

The mystery of James Patterson…

2012-05-25T19:00:00.000-04:00

… James Patterson's “Books”: A Novel Not by James Patterson, by Keir Graff | Booklist Online. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

RIP …

2012-05-25T18:30:00.000-04:00

… Pierre Magnan - Telegraph.

Hmm …

2012-05-25T18:00:00.000-04:00

… language goes on holiday: Wittgenstein on clarity. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I have been reading Norman Malcolm's memoir of Wittgenstein and also a election from Wittgenstein's notebooks. I certainly think the key statement cited is this: "Philosophy is not a subject but an activity." Though he functioned as a professor of philosophy, Wittgenstein does not seem to have confused being a professor of philosophy with being a philosopher. What impresses most about Wittgenstein is his peculiarity and his authenticity, and it is hard to conclude otherwise than that the peculiarity was a consequence of the authenticity.

How it is …

2012-05-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

… Zealotry of Guerin: Drawing Hands (Escher).

Rap-enomics...

2012-05-25T16:27:00.002-04:00

This is pretty funny …

2012-05-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

… Richard Dawkins on The descent of Edward Wilson. (Hat tip, Dave Lull).

Then there’s the patrician hauteur with which Wilson ignores the very serious drubbing his Nature paper received. He doesn’t even mention those many critics: not a single, solitary sentence. Does he think his authority justifies going over the heads of experts and appealing directly to a popular audience, as if the professional controversy didn’t exist—as if acceptance of his (tiny) minority view were a done deal? “The beautiful theory [kin selection, see below] never worked well anyway, and now it has collapsed.” Yes it did and does work, and no it hasn’t collapsed. For Wilson not to acknowledge that he speaks for himself against the great majority of his professional colleagues is—it pains me to say this of a lifelong hero —an act of wanton arrogance.

Well, when it comes to "wanton arrogance" Dawkins sure knows what he's talking about, being pretty wantonly arrogant himself. Don't believe me? Well, then read The God Delusion and note all the self-congratulatory passages therein.

Lots of baggage …

2012-05-25T15:00:00.000-04:00

… Ivebeenreadinglately: Bloomsbury.