Kafka: Wriggling through by subtle manoeuvres
From muddling to wriggling, here’s Kafka: “My mode of life is devised solely for writing, and if there are any changes, then only for the… Read More »Kafka: Wriggling through by subtle manoeuvres
literature
Splendour and Horror: Agnes Callard on shopping, Zola, and the birth of consumerism
I hope this snippet makes you go and read the whole thing. In his Theory of the Leisure Class … Thorstein Veblen explains that “conspicuous… Read More »Splendour and Horror: Agnes Callard on shopping, Zola, and the birth of consumerism
The Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night
The Heroic Vision Over shadowy spires and gleaming towers lay the ghostly darkness and silence that runs before dawn. Into a dim alley, one of… Read More »The Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night
T.H. White on chivalry, confronting evil, and destiny
The Wart is the young King Arthur. “Kay won’t tell me,” said the Wart, “what happens when you are made a knight. He says it… Read More »T.H. White on chivalry, confronting evil, and destiny
Edith Grossman on literary translation as narrative transmutation
I’ve been reading her Don Quixote [amazon] for the last 18 months. Rest In Pages. Ralph Manheim, the great translator from the German, compared the… Read More »Edith Grossman on literary translation as narrative transmutation
Darwin among the machines: Samuel Butler (1863) on the mechanical master race
It could almost have been written yesterday… Sir — There are few things of which the present generation is more justly proud than of the… Read More »Darwin among the machines: Samuel Butler (1863) on the mechanical master race
At the Mountains of Madness: Edwardian* Science; Lovecraftian Cosmology
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a… Read More »At the Mountains of Madness: Edwardian* Science; Lovecraftian Cosmology
Recommendation: Paul Fussell (and Shakespeare) on Real War
KING HENRY V (unrecognised): …methinks I could not die any where so contented as in the king’s company; his cause being just and his quarrel… Read More »Recommendation: Paul Fussell (and Shakespeare) on Real War
Unreal City: T. S. Eliot’s Wasteland Jukebox feat. Dall-E [known to be the wisest woman in Europe]
She smoothes her hair with automatic hand,And puts a record on the gramophone. I. Chaucer Chopped Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,The droghte of… Read More »Unreal City: T. S. Eliot’s Wasteland Jukebox feat. Dall-E [known to be the wisest woman in Europe]
Emperor of Ruins (Lovecraftian anthropology; Kremlin psychodrama)
In the second installment of James Lovegrove’s tremendous Sherlock Holmes / H. P. Lovecraft mashup, Moriarty – assumed dead – has returned as the god… Read More »Emperor of Ruins (Lovecraftian anthropology; Kremlin psychodrama)