Thursday, July 09, 2009
Florian Zeller
I continue to be impressed by the work of the young French author, Florian Zeller. Next up in my reading, I hope, will be his meditation on evil, a brief discussion of which can be found here.
Authenticity ...
... `Something Straight and Simple'.
It is just after 6:30 a.m. that I write this. Patrick's post is just what I needed to get the day off to a hopeful start.
Got the link right this time. Proof I wrote the original at 6:30 a.m.
It is just after 6:30 a.m. that I write this. Patrick's post is just what I needed to get the day off to a hopeful start.
Got the link right this time. Proof I wrote the original at 6:30 a.m.
Good choice ...
... Pick to Lead Health Agency Draws Praise and Some Concern. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Those who "complain about what they see as Dr. Collins’s evangelism" ought to actually read The Language of God.
Those who "complain about what they see as Dr. Collins’s evangelism" ought to actually read The Language of God.
Travel
I've been on the move a lot of late - and it's made me think of a beautiful couplet from Eliot's 'Four Quartets.'
But, as the passage now presents no hindrance
To the spirit unappeased and peregrine
Between two worlds become much like each other,
So I find words I never thought to speak
In streets I never thought I should revisit
When I left my body on a distant shore.
I've always admired this passage, particularly the concluding words.
But, as the passage now presents no hindrance
To the spirit unappeased and peregrine
Between two worlds become much like each other,
So I find words I never thought to speak
In streets I never thought I should revisit
When I left my body on a distant shore.
I've always admired this passage, particularly the concluding words.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
A poem ...
Risk Analysis
Somewhere between rapture and despair
Lies the region most prefer inhabiting,
Feeling at home there, playing it safe,
Forfeiting one to be spared the other,
Learning too late escaping despair means
Taking a chance — on rapture.
Somewhere between rapture and despair
Lies the region most prefer inhabiting,
Feeling at home there, playing it safe,
Forfeiting one to be spared the other,
Learning too late escaping despair means
Taking a chance — on rapture.
The incomparable Maxine ...
There's just one one problem ...
... Newspaper columnists ought to be the perfect bloggers. So why aren't more doing it well?
And what might that problem be? Most columnists are afraid of readers, and don't want to engage them. I know what I'm talking about here. Beau Blue, who posts comments here from time to time, usually disagrees with me - and I usually disagree with him, at least to some extent. But boy, would I miss his comments. How would I replace him.?And why the hell do we all have to agree on everything. I know this much about Beau: He is one hell of an interesting character. I also think he feels more deeply about poetry than a lot of well-known poets. And I could never have known anything about him were it not for the internet.
An independent anniversary ...
July 4, I believe marked the sixth anniversary of ENC Press, which was founded and is run by my WFTC colleague Olga Gardner Galvin. I didn't want to post about this on a holiday weekend, so I waited until today. And I thought the best way to introduce you to the Press would be to provide some links:
Letter From the Publisher.
About ENC Press.
A Few Lessons Learned About Publishing in America.
A podcast With Olga Gardner Galvin, founder and publisher, ENC Press.
Finally, here's a bit about ENC's latest: Monkey See, by Walt Maguire.
Letter From the Publisher.
About ENC Press.
A Few Lessons Learned About Publishing in America.
A podcast With Olga Gardner Galvin, founder and publisher, ENC Press.
Finally, here's a bit about ENC's latest: Monkey See, by Walt Maguire.
The geography of allegory ...
... C.S. Lewis and the angel & devil on your shoulder. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have read most of C.S. Lewis's works and - if I do say so myself - am better informed theologically than most of my contemporaries (and certainly most of those younger than I), having studied theology for four years (I was interested in it, too, and did well). My feeling is that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a better work of apologetics than Mere Christianity (itself a far less interesting book than The Abolition of Man), precisely because it is an allegory.
Experts, religion ...
... Karen Armstrong and more over at Opacity. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I just spent a good bit of time scrolling through this and I think you will find it to be well worth your time as well. Regarding Platonism, though, I think this passage from Plato's Letter II (addressed to Dionysius of Syracuse) is worth noting:
It is a very great safeguard to learn by heart instead of writing. It is impossible for what is written not to be disclosed. That is the reason why I have never written anything about these things, and why there is not ans will not be any written work of Plato's own. What are now called his are the work of a Socrates embellished and modernized.Kathleen Raine notes somewhere that Plato also insisted that there was nothing original in his teaching, that he was simply passing on an ancient wisdom that had been handed down to him.
Hey, book folks ...
... a chance to win some money: The Tag Your It Contest! For 30 Seconds of your time win $100!
Thought for the day ...
I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.- Frank Moore Colby
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Play ball ...
... Baseball novels from top to bottom.
Mike Peich, the director of the WCU Poetry Conference, and I went to the Phillies game last night, which turned out to be the highest-scoring game in the franchise's history. Mike has season tickets and the seats were right down along the first base line. Going to a baseball game always makes me feel young again.
The complete interviews ...
... from the West Chester University Poetry Conference. As I have said before, these are worth looking at because of the people interviewed and certainly not because of the skill of the interviewer.
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