Saturday, June 13, 2020

History of the Dark Side of Reason

 “A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.” 

“No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.” 

~Seneca out of Cold River


 “Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” 
Marcus Aurelius



Top 2 stories on ABC News just now: ‘Black Lives Matter protest ‘put other people’s lives at risk’ says PM.’ And ‘National Cabinet to allow crowds of up to 10,000 in stadiums.’ So gathering to support #BLM is dangerous but gathering for a football game is perfectly safe

Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop is an essay allegedly written by a former police officer with ten years of experience in “a major metropolitan area in California with a predominantly poor, non-white population”

FLORENCE HAD DANTE, Dublin had James Joyce — so Albany, New York, has the celebrated author William Kennedy, recipient of a Pulitzer and a MacArthur “genius” fellowship, as its literary voice. Kennedy has described himself as “a person whose imagination has become fused with a single place, and in that place finds all the elements that a man needs for the life of the soul.” 

Have you made bread yet under quarantine? If not, you are probably the only person who hasn’t. The No Knead Bread recipe from Mark Bittman seems to be the most recommended if you’re looking for an easy one.

A Spreadsheet That’s “Freaking Out” The Theatre World


Producer Marie Ciscocreated a public Google spreadsheetand titled it “Theaters Not Speaking Out.” It was open for anyone to edit, and it had a simple directive: “Add names to this document who have not made a statement against injustices toward black people.” At 5:50 p.m. PDT on that Saturday, May 30, she shared the document on her personal Facebook page as well as with the Theater Folks of Color Facebook group to which she belongs. – Los Angeles Times


"LET'S GO FOR A WALK" Other continents have several ancestors that may or may not have been venomous, but Australia’s 140 terrestrial and 30 marine snake species all evolved from one venomous ancestor.
  1. Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers by Cheryl Misak, reviewed by Joseph Brean at The National Post.
  2. Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason by Justin E.H. Smith, reviewed by Jonathan Egid at the Times Literary Supplement.

Graduation, a Romanian movie and perhaps the most notable film about corruption I have seen, ever.  From the director of Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days, also known as “the Romanian abortion movie.”  Both strongly recommended.
Moana.  I had to stop watching this one.  I am not amongst those who regard Disney as a tool of Satan, but the transparent emotional manipulations are so strong in each and every scene that they distracted me from the ongoing technical marvels.  It just wasn’t worth it, and I couldn’t bring myself to care.
Malcolm X, directed by Spike Lee.  I thought this was a grave disappointment, noisy and cluttered rather than insightful, and grossly overrated.  To put my evaluation in context, I consider The Autobiography of Malcolm X to be one of the greatest American books of all time.
Bullitt, with Steve MacQueen, San Francisco crime drama circa 1968, interesting throughout.  Drama from start to finish, nothing hurried, wonderful soundtrack, always feels remarkably cinematic and reflects so many of the movie-making virtues of that era.  No one seems that surprised when a guy ends up on a plane with a gun, by the way.
Dust in the Wind, directed by Taiwanese marvel Hou Hsiao-Hsien.  One of his least scrutable movies, nonetheless memorable, and yes they are boyfriend and girlfriend.  Do keep track of which passages are said in which languages, and what is the vision of both Taiwan’s past and future.  Most of you won’t like this one, but nonetheless a landmark in Asian cinema.
Ozu, The End of Summer.  Could this be the most underrated movie of classic Japanese cinema?  It is hard for me to say more without bumping into spoilers, my only complaint is that the soundtrack is garish and unsuitable.

  I suppose it's good to hear that, as TASS reports:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has emphasized that Moscow can afford to promote the Russian language and culture across the world even despite falling oil prices.
       Not sure what kind of promotion to expect -- Twitter trolling ? -- but at least he's expressing some interest and awareness of the issue(s), which is more than one can say for many other heads-of-state. 
       He even weighs in:
According to Putin, Russian classic fiction is rather complicated for translation.

"You need talent to convey the essence and to convey the elegance of the author," he said adding that "talent is a compulsory thing, otherwise everything grinds to a standstill after one or two unsuccessful experiments."
       Now we know ..... 


       Literary estates 

       International Literary Properties has acquired twelve literary estates, including those of Evelyn Waugh, Georges Simenon, Eric Ambler, Margery Allingham, and Michael Innes from Peters Fraser + Dunlop in a reported "eight-figure deal" (!) -- yes, there's a lot of money in literary estates; see the reports in Publishers Weekly and The Bookseller. (No news yet at the sites of the two organizations that are involved; in fact, at PF+D the estates they unloaded are still listed as their estate-clients as I write this ....) 
       As long-time readers know, I'm fascinated by literary estates and their (mis)handling (see also) -- so also now by the emphasis, as noted in the correction to the Publishers Weekly piece: "An earlier version of this story referred to ILP as a literary agency; it is an estate management firm". Often, sadly, more 'estate management' than literary representation is involved -- and too often neither authors nor, especially, readers are well-served (though the rent-seeking heirs (and their representatives) seem to do okay); I weep whenever I look at Wylie Agency estate-clients on their very impressive list and how much of their work remains inaccessible to would-be readers (though many of these other agencies are no better -- consider the PF+D list and how many of these authors seem somewhat ... neglected). 
       Some of the dozen estates that have changed hands are fairly easy sells -- Simenon and Waugh, in particular, though recall how much of Simenon's work has never been translated (even as Penguin has just finished re-translating all 75 Maigrets) -- but maybe they'll see to that now .....