Category: Literary Matters
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E. M. Cioran and Skepticism
I brought Cioran into my latest Pyrrhonian post to lay bare the contrast between the Christian's pursuit of a "peace that surpasses all understanding" (Philippians 4:7) and the Pyrrhonian's peace which is beneath understanding inasmuch as it is predicated upon not understanding — and not caring any more about understanding. I then asked whether this…
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Shakespeare on Lust
Sonnet 129: Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight, Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had…
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Literary Stride
We adjust our stride to the steepness of the terrain: the steeper the trail, the shorter the steps. A good writer watches his literary stride: the more difficult the subject matter, the shorter the sentences. Back on the flat he leaps and lopes and stretches his legs.
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Klavan on Experience
I am now on p. 118 of Andrew Klavan's memoir, The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ. Thomas Nelson, 2016, 269 pp. As I reported a few days ago when I was on p. 18, If you are a tough-minded American Boomer like me on a religious/spiritual quest you will probably be…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Songs About Kerouac
"Pretty girls make graves." (Dharma Bums) Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) died 47 years ago yesterday, at the age of 47, his years dead now equaling his years alive. Here are some songs that refer to him and his work. Alela Diane, We Are Nothing Jack Kerouac, Tristessa (written 1955-56, first published in 1960), p. 59:…
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Why Keep a Journal?
It was 46 years ago yesterday that I first began keeping a regular journal under the motto, nulla dies sine linea. Before that, as a teenager, I kept some irregular journals. Why maintain a journal? When I was 16 years old, my thought was that I didn't want time to pass with nothing to show for it. That…
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Suicide, Drafts, and Street Corners
I have been reading Cesare Pavese (1908-1950), This Business of Living, Diaries 1935-1950, Transaction Publishers, 2009. I gather that Pavese was obsessed life-long with the thought of suicide. Entry of 8 January 1938: There is nothing ridiculous or absurd about a man who is thinking of killing himself being afraid of falling under a car…
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Name the Trope!
In the following entries I engage in a form of creative anachronism: Epictetus Advises Imelda Marcos Camus on Crybullies, Safe Spaces, and Trigger Warnings Martin Heidegger on Muhammad Ali. With respect to the third entry, a young man with an overly literal mind wrote to inform me that while my Heidegger quotation was from 1935,…
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Apophasis
I wrote recently, "Fear not, I shall not report on the state of my bowels, which is excellent, nor pull a Trump and crow about the efficacy of my schlong." The sentence illustrates the literary trope called apophasis. Wikipedia: Apophasis is a rhetorical device wherein the speaker or writer brings up a subject by either…
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The Enigmatic B. Traven and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Do you know who he is? I found out only recently, which I suppose is fitting given the man's Pynchon- and Salinger-like desire for obscurity. A while back, I caught the last half-hour of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, classic celluloid from 1948 starring Humphrey Bogart and John Huston. The Wikipedia article on The…
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Unsuccessful in Love
The Collected Poems and Epigrams of J. V. Cunningham, Chicago, The Swallow Press, 1971. Epigram 57 Here lies my wife. Eternal peaceBe to us both with her decease. Epigram 59 I married in my youth a wife.She was my own, my very first.She gave the best years of her life.I hope nobody gets the worst.…
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Why Evelyn Waugh Wanted Thomas Merton to Shut Up
Worth reading and the same goes for some of the comments. Here is an overly harsh comment that yet makes an important point: A. I. Reeves Sonya Roberts • a year ago According to Sonya Roberts on Merton, "we can readily identify with his journey of faith." Oh can we just? Well, I, for one,…
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Callicles as Precursor of De Sade
At Gorgias 492, tr. Helmbold, the divine Plato puts the following words into the mouth of Callicles: A man who is going to live a full life must allow his desires to become as mighty as may be and never repress them. When his passions have come to full maturity, he must be able to…
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Eugene Vodolazkin, Laurus
A world-wide bestseller, apparently. A religious novel that emerges from the wasteland of Soviet atheism. God just won't stay dead. One of the things that leftists and evangelical atheists never understand is that, even if religion is pure buncombe, wholly lacking in transcendent reference, it yet supplies people with immanent meaning. People want their lives…
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Is One a Fool to Take Politics Seriously?
Some think so. The following from Thomas Mann's Diaries 1918-1939, entry of August 5, 1934: A cynical egotism, a selfish limitation of concern to one's personal welfare and one's reasonable survival in the face of the headstrong and voluptuous madness of 'history' is amply justified. One is a fool to take politics seriously, to care…