Friday, September 15, 2017

W. H. Auden: "Their Lonely Betters"

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THEIR LONELY BETTERS As I listened from a beach-chair in the shade To all the noises that my garden made, It seemed to me only proper th...
12 comments:
Tuesday, September 12, 2017

An History of India: a series of lectures presented by the Teaching Company

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An History of India A Great Courses Set on DVD The Teaching Company 6 DVDs, 18 hours of lectures I've long been impressed by the l...
19 comments:
Saturday, September 9, 2017

A Minute Meditation

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Outwardly the enlightened seem the same as everybody else.  Inwardly, however, their distinctive trait is that they have no goal, but simpl...
5 comments:
Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Loren Eiseley and Robert Silverberg: a strange pairing?

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Robert Silverberg Downward to the Earth an SF novel Loren Eiseley The Star Thrower essays   I found the following conversation in...
21 comments:
Monday, September 4, 2017

Thomas Mann: "Disillusionment" Part 2

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Thomas Mann "Disillusionment" a short story After rereading the post, I realized that I had focused on the relationship betwe...
9 comments:
Saturday, September 2, 2017

Thomas Mann and Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and Peggy Lee?

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Thomas Mann "Disillusionment" a short story included in Stories of Three Decades H. T.  Lowe-Porter, translator   I, after a...
13 comments:
Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Deng Ming-Dao: invisibility

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No. 203 In this competitive world, it is best to be invisible.  Go through life without showing off, attracting attention to yourself, or ...
31 comments:
Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet: an overall view (my view anyway)

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The Avignon Quintet  (five novels) Monsieur Livia Constance Sebastian Quinx   The following quotation from Constance provides a g...
3 comments:
Saturday, August 26, 2017

Han Shan (Cold Mountain) a question

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# 197 Is there a self or not is this me or not this is what I contemplate sitting in a trance above a cliff between my feet green gras...
17 comments:
Thursday, August 24, 2017

A Minute Meditation

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In the arts, one must distinguish, of course, between the lie and the tall story that the audience is not expected to believe.  The tall-st...
9 comments:
Thursday, August 10, 2017

Loren Eiseley: The Star Thrower

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The blurb on the back page says it better than I can: Long admired for his compassionate, probing meditations on the natural world, Loren ...
17 comments:
Monday, August 7, 2017

George R. Stewart: Earth Abides

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George R. Stewart Earth Abides This is the second of my plague posts, the first being on Feb. 16, 2017. ( http://tinyurl.com/kman92p) wh...
11 comments:
Friday, August 4, 2017

Emily Dickinson: "I reason"

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No. 301 I reason, Earth is short-- And Anguish--absolute-- And many hurt, But, what of that? I reason, we could die-- the best Vital...
9 comments:
Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Nathaniel Hawthorne: King Arthur in Boston?

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Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Gray Champion" in The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories "The Gray Champion" There w...
7 comments:
Saturday, July 29, 2017

William Oldys: "On a Fly Drinking Out of His Cup"

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On a Fly Drinking Out of his Cup Busy, curious, thirsty fly! Drink with me and drink as I: Freely welcome to my cup, Couldst thou sip ...
26 comments:
Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Angus Wilson: Anglo-Saxon Attitudes

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Angus Wilson Anglo-Saxon Attitudes a novel I have often thought that the full title of this novel should be Anglo-Saxon Attitudes: A P...
13 comments:
Monday, July 24, 2017

A Minute Meditation

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No. 227 In God's wildness lies the hope of the world--the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness.  The galling harness of civil...
11 comments:
Saturday, July 22, 2017

Paul Lawrence Dunbar: "The Mystery"

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THE MYSTERY I was not; now I am--a few days hence I shall not be; I fain would look before And after, but can neither do; some Power Or...
9 comments:
Thursday, July 20, 2017

Gregory Benford: "Nobody Lives on Burton Street"

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Gregory Benford "Nobody Lives on Burton Street" from The Best of Benford David Hartwell, editor   a short story first publish...
17 comments:
Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Three Films

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KWAIDAN: Kwaidan is a Japanese film with subtitles directed by Masaki Kobayashi.  The title comes from a collection of short Japanese tal...
6 comments: