February 2012
12 posts
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“The Monuments that mightie Monarches reare, Colosso’s statues, and...”
– Henry Peacham, Minerva Brittana
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“If a man be wealthy, no matter how he gets it, of what parentage, how qualified,...”
– Anatomy of Melancholy
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A Weather - “It’s Good To Know”...
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WatchIt Is Something Invisible
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Vocabulary: Smooth Oppilator Edition
purly: Anglicization of “purlieu,” meaning outskirts of forest or city (esp. hunting) deliquium: in chemistry, melting or dissolution; elsewhere, a faint or swoon adust: dried, burned, or darkened by heat, or gloomy in look or manner myrachial: no definition. Apparently a synonym for hypochondriacal dummerer: a person who feigns dumbness (i.e. lack of voice) oppilate: to block or stop...
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Forty-three translations of Hadrian's "Animula,...
While English translations of Latin necessarily miss the poetic intention of the original somewhat, the effort is still worth making, sometimes again and again for hundreds of years.
Hadrian’s paean to his departing soul, while its inherent quality is apparently suspect, has nevertheless furnished scores of translations in English alone. Here are a good number, more than can be found...
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Father John Misty - “Hollywood Forever...
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“Syracuse started flat, with used-car dealers and junkyards. Then came stucco...”
– Richard Stark, The Outfit
January 2012
22 posts
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Spiritualized - “200 Bars” Lazer...
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“If a man have neither wife nor other to rule his household, know you how it is...”
– St. Bernardino
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Sent from F. Scott Fitzgerald to his young... →
Things to worry about:
Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship
Things not to worry about:
Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
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“He who does not turn up the earth with the plough ought to write the parchment...”
– St. Ferreol
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The Beatles - “I Feel Fine...
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“He made no pretentions to botany, and knew nothing of groups or classification;...”
– Les Miserables
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The Food of the Gods (H.G. Wells, 1904)
One of Wells’ lesser-known works, The Food of the Gods is an enjoyable but perplexing book. The premise is simple enough: a pair of scientists invent a substance that causes life to grow much larger than normal, the explanation being that growth is naturally punctuated because of the sporadic presence of this substance, which if supplied artificially causes continual expansion. A neat and...
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“For conduct which to clearer minds seems merely sane, was in those days to be...”
– Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men
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Clams Casino - “What You Doin”...
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Vocabulary: Kimmering Clachan Edition
Scots words and phrases from The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
braird: the early shoots of a crop of grain like wheat or barley luckpenny: a sort of discount given to a buyer for luck windelstrae: a stalk of dry grass bicker: wooden drinking vessel wynd: a narrow alley (i.e. wind) aumuse: a cap worn by clergy ayont: beside or adjacent to bourock: a hovel or shelter...
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The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified...
This interesting book was put in my hands by a good friend whose literary suggestions are sound without exception. It is not, as the title may suggest, a tell-all like Pepys’ diaries, or even, really, a private memoir at all. It’s a striking early example of nontraditional narrative structure, predating many other adventurous novels and reportedly inspiring Stevenson’s Jekyll...
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“Did I exist before my birth? No. Shall I, after my death? No. What am I? A...”
– Les Miserables
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December 2011
20 posts
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“One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.”
– Thoreau, Walden
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“Human thought has no limit. At its risk and peril, it analyses and dissects its...”
– Les Miserables
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“Set not thy foot to make the blind to fall; Nor wilfully offend thy weaker...”
– Pybrac, Quatrains (17th c.)
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“Then he asked himself: If he were the only one who had done wrong in the course...”
– Les Miserables
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mowing the lawn: stories and photos of low-level... →
This was way more interesting than I thought it would be.
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Vocabulary: Corporeal Grandiloquence Edition
perorate: to speak formally or at great length, or to conclude a speech in such a way irredenta: a region allied by race or history to one country but ruled by another naometer: apparently a title given in secret societies. Possibly a fabrication. abnegation: self-denial, or the relinquishment of a right or property anchylosis: the adhesion or growing together of bones in a joint tendentious:...
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“The guillotine is the concretion of the law; it is called the Avenger: it is not...”
– Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
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The City & The City (China Mieville, 2009)
This book has been recommended by many a shelf tag in book stores, and won a number of prizes last year, or maybe the year before. At any rate, like The Wind-Up Girl, it was showered with praise and I looked forward to being pleasantly surprised by one of the more critically-acclaimed sci-fi books out there. Alas, I have been deceived again, and while the book is certainly not bad, it’s...
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“So parents often err, many fond mothers especially, doat so much upon their...”
– Anatomy of Melancholy