“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel – it is, above all, to make you see. That – and no more, and it is everything.” Joseph Conrad, “Preface” to The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897) * * * […]
The Five Most Misconceived Criteria for Determining the Fifteen Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers
Yes, that may be the longest title I have ever placed above a piece of my writing, but only the first six of the words are mine. The remainder is appropriated from Anis Shivani’s post the other day at Huffington Post. It’s gotten a lot of reaction, elsewhere, and, as I write, over 1650 comments […]
T.S. Eliot – La Figlia Che Piange
(H/T Maureen Doallas)
Michael Sandel: The lost art of democratic debate
Harvard’s Sandel offers a pithy “real-world” introduction to thinking about justice – Aritstotle’s still “da man” – and defense of reasoned, democratic debate. There is a tendency to think that if we engage too directly with moral questions in politics, that’s a recipe for disagreement, and for that matter a recipe for intolerance and coercion; […]
Jazz Is: 9 – Louis Armstrong, West End Blues
Let the jazz revolution begin. The 1928, Grammy hall of fame recording by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, composition by Joe “King” Oliver, with scat and trumpet by Louis and piano by Earl “Fatha” Hines. Listen for Louis’ long, sweet note about 2:35 in. Before there was Miles, there was Louis. ——— Related articles […]