Monday, July 29, 2013

The Rubaiyat: Quatrain LXXI

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This is the fifth linked quatrain that focuses on wine.  It refers back directly to LXIX in which he laments that his devotion to the grape ...
4 comments:
Friday, July 19, 2013

Iron Sky: an SF film?

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The question in the title of this post really means that I wondered whether to call it a film or farce.  It's brought to you by the same...
4 comments:
Saturday, July 13, 2013

Baltasar Gracian: on trivia

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No. 121 "Do not make a business of the trivial.  Just as some can make a tale out of anything, so others can make a business of every...
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Monday, July 8, 2013

Kenko: on instabiliity

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No. 25 "The world is as unstable as the pools and shallows of Asuka River.  Times change and things disappear; joy and sorrow come an...
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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Eric Hoffer: on desire

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"7.  Every intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are.  Hence probably the imperiousness of the desi...
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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Thomas Mann's The Black Swan

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Thomas Mann:  The Black Swan This short novel by Thomas Mann is one of his more unusual works, which really isn't saying much for an ...
Sunday, June 16, 2013

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LXX

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This quatrain is a classic example of rationalization.  He has promised to give up wine, but now second thoughts appear--a very common occu...
Monday, May 27, 2013

Simon Ortiz: May 27, 1941

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                 Earth Woman                                                                                                               ...
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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

I'm back, mostly. . .

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It's been awhile since my last post here.  I guess it was an unplanned but necessary vacation.  I expect to be back with a few posts sho...
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Saturday, February 9, 2013

Three SF films

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Warning:  I will discuss endings and significant plot elements.     These are three films that I have just recently viewed.  As you can se...
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Saturday, January 5, 2013

The Rubaiyat: Quatrain LXIX

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This is another quatrain that concerns itself with the grape, but in this one he wonders if perhaps he's made a mistake. First Editio...
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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Langston Hughes: Does it matter?

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New Year The years Fall like dry leaves From the top-less tree Of eternity. Does it matter That another leaf has fallen? -- Langsto...
Thursday, December 27, 2012

Loren Eiseley: Darwin's Century

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Actually, the full title of this book by Loren Eiseley is Darwin's Century:  Evolution and the Men Who Discovered It.  The most signific...
Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Thomas Hardy: Two Christmas poems

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Two Christmas poems by Hardy-- or rather I should say two very different Christmas poems by Hardy.  In spite of his reputation for gloom and...
4 comments:
Saturday, December 22, 2012

Emily Dickinson: "Slant of light"

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#258 There's a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons-- That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes-- Heavenly Hurt, it g...
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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Rubaiyat: Quatrain LXVIII

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This is the second of three linked quatrains that are related by his prophecy of his death and its aftermath.  The previous quatrain told of...
Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Robert Grudin: boredom's fast time and slow time

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II.23 "Our sense of the slowness or speediness of time often depends on the size of the time-frame we happen to be considering.   It...
Friday, December 14, 2012

Lin Yutang: Spirit and Flesh, concl.

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"A defense of the angels-without-bodies theory will be found to be most vague and unsatisfying.  Such a defender might say, 'Ah, ye...
Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Lin Yutang: Spirit and Flesh, Pt. 1

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III.   Spirit and Flesh "The most obvious fact which philosophers refuse to see is that we have a body.  Tired of seeing our mortal ...
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Friday, December 7, 2012

Nietzsche: on prohibitions

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#48 "Prohibitions without reasons: A prohibition, the reason for which we do not understand or admit, is almost a command not only fo...