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Saturday, May 25, 2019

11 Authors on Their One-Word Book Titles


Everything is possible, and yet nothing is. All is permitted, and yet again, nothing. No matter which way we go, it is no better than any other. It is all the same whether you achieve something or not, have faith or not, just as it is all the same whether you cry or remain silent. There is an explanation for everything, and yet there is none. Everything is both real and unreal, normal and absurd, splendid and insipid. There is nothing worth more than anything else, nor any idea better than any other.

Cioran, On the Heights of Despair



The more refined the more unhappy.

 Life does not agree with philosophy: there is no happiness which is not idleness and only the useless is pleasurable.

The Global and Bohemian Game of Thrones

At a time of declining faith in democracy, the institution of royalty is looking surprisingly resilient.
I was surprised to learn that Dagmar Havlova had become a monarchist. 

In 1990, when I first met the sister-in-law of Czech playwright and later president Vaclav Havel, she was a spokesperson for Civic Forum, the movement that would guide Czechoslovakia from communism to democracy. Virtually everyone in the country at the time was excited about this transformation, about voting, about the new politicians coming to the fore, about drawing a democratic line between the new age beginning and a rapidly retreating authoritarian past.

 14 Book Instagrams to Follow if You Love Reading as Much as We Do
 Can Reading Books Improve Your Mental Health?

“There are times when dreams sustain us more than facts. To read a book and surrender to a story is to keep our very humanity alive,” 100-year-old Holocaust survivor Helen Fagin wrote as she recounted in her lovely letter to childrenhow books saved lives in the Warsaw Ghetto of her Nazi-occupied homeland.







A New Tool Links The Arts To Measurable Social Impacts




Americans for the Arts CEO Robert Lynch says that his organization’s Arts + Social Impact Explorer “consolidates and highlights concrete ways in which the arts intersect with and have an impact on other sectors of society … [how, for example, the arts] help people with cancer cope with stress through painting, assist people with Parkinson’s increase their vocal strength through singing, and support patients undergoing treatment or unable to leave their beds with live, in-room performances.” – Inside Philanthropy

Chekhov, notebooks (via)



Book Clubs Are Getting Rather Niche


They’re niche, and sometimes they include industry professionals, but also, they’re more than that. “These expanded horizons imply responsibility: ‘You know these meetings are a tryout. The people at them are gonna be your collaborators, your co-conspirators, the people you start businesses and families with.'” – The New York Times

When political failure leads to intellectual success. “Losers,” said Eric Hobsbawm, “make the best historians.” He was an embodiment of that principle  











Study: Want More Civil Online Discourse? Post The Rules

A recent study finds that simply posting “community rules,” and making sure they remain prominently displayed, increases compliance with those guidelines, as well as participation by newcomers. – Pacific Standard












11 Authors on Their One-Word Book Titles



The art of telling an entire story with a single word: “At Merriam-Webster we know that words have the power to shape worlds both real and imagined. And we know that writing is hard work. To distill a story, its characters, and all the associated emotions into a single word is no small feat. That’s why we’ve partnered with eleven of our favorite authors who have shared the story and significance behind their one-word-title books…”



  • Looking for books to read this summer? Bill Gates (yes, that Bill Gates) has some suggestions.
  • Esquire’s Michael Hainey interviews three movie giants: director Quentin Tarantino and actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.
  • In his latest Try This! digital tools newsletter, Poynter’s Ren LaForme writes that the WhatsApp’s breach is proof that online privacy takes a little work.
  • And, finally, here’s an impressive piece of work from the Washington Post:  a documentary (“Pathways to Power”) on the reach and influence of the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo, who helped conservative nonprofits raise $250 million from mostly undisclosed donors to promote conservative judges and causes and, seemingly, shape the nation’s courts.




       Nobel laureate Harry Martinson's science fiction poemAniara has been turned into a movie -- see the official site -- which is now out, to mixed reviews, in the US. 
       For some of the reviews, see:
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