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Apr. 3rd, 2012
Got To Live
Apr. 3rd, 2012 10:13 am“A character in a novel has got to live, or it is nothing. We, likewise, in life have got to live, or we are nothing.”
-- D.H. Lawrence, from the essay “Why the Novel Matters”
I was going to say it is easier to make a fictional character live since one’s imagination is unconstrained, but then it occurred to me, as one who has sometimes tried to write fiction, that it is not so easy to give even a fictional character a life. And if one has that much trouble making a character on paper live, it is little wonder that one should have such difficulty in real life, in which the constraints are so much more binding. But I take the main point to be that you have to have a little imagination to begin with, and then you can try to make stuff happen. Though, in my own case, I am only likely to end up back in my room with even fewer contacts, if not worse off, in a hospital or even in jail.
-- D.H. Lawrence, from the essay “Why the Novel Matters”
I was going to say it is easier to make a fictional character live since one’s imagination is unconstrained, but then it occurred to me, as one who has sometimes tried to write fiction, that it is not so easy to give even a fictional character a life. And if one has that much trouble making a character on paper live, it is little wonder that one should have such difficulty in real life, in which the constraints are so much more binding. But I take the main point to be that you have to have a little imagination to begin with, and then you can try to make stuff happen. Though, in my own case, I am only likely to end up back in my room with even fewer contacts, if not worse off, in a hospital or even in jail.
Got To Live
Apr. 3rd, 2012 10:13 am“A character in a novel has got to live, or it is nothing. We, likewise, in life have got to live, or we are nothing.”
-- D.H. Lawrence, from the essay “Why the Novel Matters”
I was going to say it is easier to make a fictional character live since one’s imagination is unconstrained, but then it occurred to me, as one who has sometimes tried to write fiction, that it is not so easy to give even a fictional character a life. And if one has that much trouble making a character on paper live, it is little wonder that one should have such difficulty in real life, in which the constraints are so much more binding. But I take the main point to be that you have to have a little imagination to begin with, and then you can try to make stuff happen. Though, in my own case, I am only likely to end up back in my room with even fewer contacts, if not worse off, in a hospital or even in jail.
-- D.H. Lawrence, from the essay “Why the Novel Matters”
I was going to say it is easier to make a fictional character live since one’s imagination is unconstrained, but then it occurred to me, as one who has sometimes tried to write fiction, that it is not so easy to give even a fictional character a life. And if one has that much trouble making a character on paper live, it is little wonder that one should have such difficulty in real life, in which the constraints are so much more binding. But I take the main point to be that you have to have a little imagination to begin with, and then you can try to make stuff happen. Though, in my own case, I am only likely to end up back in my room with even fewer contacts, if not worse off, in a hospital or even in jail.
The Closing of the American Mind
Apr. 3rd, 2012 01:09 pmWhat follows when a belief in objectivity and truth dies away in higher education? In time an educated person comes to doubt that purpose and meaning are discoverable—he doubts, finally, that they even exist. It’s no mystery why fewer and fewer students in higher education today bother with the liberal arts, preferring professional training in their place. Deprived of their traditional purpose in the pursuit of what’s true and good, the humanities could only founder. The study of literature, for example, was consumed in the trivialities of the deconstructionists and their successors. Philosophy curdled into positivism and word play. History became an inventory of political grievances.
-- Andrew Ferguson at The Weekly Standard
Andrew Ferguson is touting the reissue of Allan Bloom’s “The Closing of the American Mind”, a twenty-fifth anniversary edition. The book blames liberalism for the woes of today’s intellectual climate, particularly when it comes to college education. And liberalism doubtlessly bears its share of the blame, with the backlash against the dead white men that have dominated and ruled Western civilization.
However, conservative Republicanism also shares in the blame, reducing everything to business and dollars, notwithstanding its demagogic bow to religion and Christianity. One reason why ‘the big questions’ do not draw college students anymore is because such study does not pay. It does not even pay well enough for colleges to continue providing such instruction, much less for the students who must then go out and make a living. Students are focused more on Wall Street than on Plato and Shakespeare, because the big questions and pure intellectualism do not pay in our mega-corporate world, save for a few exceptions, such as Allan Bloom.
-- Andrew Ferguson at The Weekly Standard
Andrew Ferguson is touting the reissue of Allan Bloom’s “The Closing of the American Mind”, a twenty-fifth anniversary edition. The book blames liberalism for the woes of today’s intellectual climate, particularly when it comes to college education. And liberalism doubtlessly bears its share of the blame, with the backlash against the dead white men that have dominated and ruled Western civilization.
However, conservative Republicanism also shares in the blame, reducing everything to business and dollars, notwithstanding its demagogic bow to religion and Christianity. One reason why ‘the big questions’ do not draw college students anymore is because such study does not pay. It does not even pay well enough for colleges to continue providing such instruction, much less for the students who must then go out and make a living. Students are focused more on Wall Street than on Plato and Shakespeare, because the big questions and pure intellectualism do not pay in our mega-corporate world, save for a few exceptions, such as Allan Bloom.
The Closing of the American Mind
Apr. 3rd, 2012 01:09 pmWhat follows when a belief in objectivity and truth dies away in higher education? In time an educated person comes to doubt that purpose and meaning are discoverable—he doubts, finally, that they even exist. It’s no mystery why fewer and fewer students in higher education today bother with the liberal arts, preferring professional training in their place. Deprived of their traditional purpose in the pursuit of what’s true and good, the humanities could only founder. The study of literature, for example, was consumed in the trivialities of the deconstructionists and their successors. Philosophy curdled into positivism and word play. History became an inventory of political grievances.
-- Andrew Ferguson at The Weekly Standard
Andrew Ferguson is touting the reissue of Allan Bloom’s “The Closing of the American Mind”, a twenty-fifth anniversary edition. The book blames liberalism for the woes of today’s intellectual climate, particularly when it comes to college education. And liberalism doubtlessly bears its share of the blame, with the backlash against the dead white men that have dominated and ruled Western civilization.
However, conservative Republicanism also shares in the blame, reducing everything to business and dollars, notwithstanding its demagogic bow to religion and Christianity. One reason why ‘the big questions’ do not draw college students anymore is because such study does not pay. It does not even pay well enough for colleges to continue providing such instruction, much less for the students who must then go out and make a living. Students are focused more on Wall Street than on Plato and Shakespeare, because the big questions and pure intellectualism do not pay in our mega-corporate world, save for a few exceptions, such as Allan Bloom.
-- Andrew Ferguson at The Weekly Standard
Andrew Ferguson is touting the reissue of Allan Bloom’s “The Closing of the American Mind”, a twenty-fifth anniversary edition. The book blames liberalism for the woes of today’s intellectual climate, particularly when it comes to college education. And liberalism doubtlessly bears its share of the blame, with the backlash against the dead white men that have dominated and ruled Western civilization.
However, conservative Republicanism also shares in the blame, reducing everything to business and dollars, notwithstanding its demagogic bow to religion and Christianity. One reason why ‘the big questions’ do not draw college students anymore is because such study does not pay. It does not even pay well enough for colleges to continue providing such instruction, much less for the students who must then go out and make a living. Students are focused more on Wall Street than on Plato and Shakespeare, because the big questions and pure intellectualism do not pay in our mega-corporate world, save for a few exceptions, such as Allan Bloom.
Hamlet (2,2) A Note
Apr. 3rd, 2012 05:10 pmBefore going on with the remainder of the scene, let us take a break and take in Marvin Rosenberg’s commentary.
_ _ _
The moment Hamlet hears of the players, he begins to change, from deep within and spreading out through his whole being: like a man who has waited a long time to act, and now perhaps sees a chance to spring to it. Rosencrantz will report to Claudius that there did seem in [Hamlet] a kind of joy - a truly Hamletian ambiguity: the melancholy suddenly leavened by images of acting, memories, expectations, and perhaps even this soon (masked from the spies) an intuition, if not a full-fledged vision, of a direction toward revenge so desperately sought. [...] If the Mousetrap has not yet come to Hamlet’s consciousness, perhaps the bloody speech he will ask for is ready to be called up. Subtextually at least the tension has been growing in him since he entered. Though his plans may only just be seeding, his whole person is coming alive with incipient action. We actor-readers may sense the full polyphony of Hamlet’s kind of joy.
-- Marvin Rosenberg, “The Masks of Hamlet”
_ _ _
After two aimless months have passed since Hamlet saw the ghost and took up the charge of vengeance, lost and plodding and acting deranged and even perhaps flirting with true dissipation and madness, Hamlet now sees his way forward with these theater players, how he can overcome his doubts about the ghost and his father’s death.
_ _ _
The moment Hamlet hears of the players, he begins to change, from deep within and spreading out through his whole being: like a man who has waited a long time to act, and now perhaps sees a chance to spring to it. Rosencrantz will report to Claudius that there did seem in [Hamlet] a kind of joy - a truly Hamletian ambiguity: the melancholy suddenly leavened by images of acting, memories, expectations, and perhaps even this soon (masked from the spies) an intuition, if not a full-fledged vision, of a direction toward revenge so desperately sought. [...] If the Mousetrap has not yet come to Hamlet’s consciousness, perhaps the bloody speech he will ask for is ready to be called up. Subtextually at least the tension has been growing in him since he entered. Though his plans may only just be seeding, his whole person is coming alive with incipient action. We actor-readers may sense the full polyphony of Hamlet’s kind of joy.
-- Marvin Rosenberg, “The Masks of Hamlet”
_ _ _
After two aimless months have passed since Hamlet saw the ghost and took up the charge of vengeance, lost and plodding and acting deranged and even perhaps flirting with true dissipation and madness, Hamlet now sees his way forward with these theater players, how he can overcome his doubts about the ghost and his father’s death.
Hamlet (2,2) A Note
Apr. 3rd, 2012 05:10 pmBefore going on with the remainder of the scene, let us take a break and take in Marvin Rosenberg’s commentary.
_ _ _
The moment Hamlet hears of the players, he begins to change, from deep within and spreading out through his whole being: like a man who has waited a long time to act, and now perhaps sees a chance to spring to it. Rosencrantz will report to Claudius that there did seem in [Hamlet] a kind of joy - a truly Hamletian ambiguity: the melancholy suddenly leavened by images of acting, memories, expectations, and perhaps even this soon (masked from the spies) an intuition, if not a full-fledged vision, of a direction toward revenge so desperately sought. [...] If the Mousetrap has not yet come to Hamlet’s consciousness, perhaps the bloody speech he will ask for is ready to be called up. Subtextually at least the tension has been growing in him since he entered. Though his plans may only just be seeding, his whole person is coming alive with incipient action. We actor-readers may sense the full polyphony of Hamlet’s kind of joy.
-- Marvin Rosenberg, “The Masks of Hamlet”
_ _ _
After two aimless months have passed since Hamlet saw the ghost and took up the charge of vengeance, lost and plodding and acting deranged and even perhaps flirting with true dissipation and madness, Hamlet now sees his way forward with these theater players, how he can overcome his doubts about the ghost and his father’s death.
_ _ _
The moment Hamlet hears of the players, he begins to change, from deep within and spreading out through his whole being: like a man who has waited a long time to act, and now perhaps sees a chance to spring to it. Rosencrantz will report to Claudius that there did seem in [Hamlet] a kind of joy - a truly Hamletian ambiguity: the melancholy suddenly leavened by images of acting, memories, expectations, and perhaps even this soon (masked from the spies) an intuition, if not a full-fledged vision, of a direction toward revenge so desperately sought. [...] If the Mousetrap has not yet come to Hamlet’s consciousness, perhaps the bloody speech he will ask for is ready to be called up. Subtextually at least the tension has been growing in him since he entered. Though his plans may only just be seeding, his whole person is coming alive with incipient action. We actor-readers may sense the full polyphony of Hamlet’s kind of joy.
-- Marvin Rosenberg, “The Masks of Hamlet”
_ _ _
After two aimless months have passed since Hamlet saw the ghost and took up the charge of vengeance, lost and plodding and acting deranged and even perhaps flirting with true dissipation and madness, Hamlet now sees his way forward with these theater players, how he can overcome his doubts about the ghost and his father’s death.
The Republican Budget Ideal
Apr. 3rd, 2012 08:00 pmOf Paul Ryan's budget proposal.
_ _ _
It’s true, of course, that this budget will never become reality; after all, the electorate likes most of the programs that House Republicans want to kill. The budget is, as many have said, an act of political theatre, a way for Republicans to demonstrate what they stand for. But that’s precisely what makes it so revealing: what Ryan is proffering here is something like the platonic ideal of a budget. And what his plans tell us is that there’s very little the federal government has done over the past hundred and fifty years, apart from fighting wars, that the House Republicans approve of. In that sense, the Ryan plan is not about fiscal responsibility. It’s about pushing a very particular, and very ideological, view of the proper relationship between government and society. The U.S. does need to get its finances in order. It just doesn’t need to repeal the twentieth century to do so.
-- James Surowiecki at The New Yorker
_ _ _
This has been true of hardcore Republicans since the New Deal, but it has gained ground to become the standard position of the Party. I suppose we shall see in November whether they can make this the majority position for the nation, or if American voters will humble them a little.
_ _ _
It’s true, of course, that this budget will never become reality; after all, the electorate likes most of the programs that House Republicans want to kill. The budget is, as many have said, an act of political theatre, a way for Republicans to demonstrate what they stand for. But that’s precisely what makes it so revealing: what Ryan is proffering here is something like the platonic ideal of a budget. And what his plans tell us is that there’s very little the federal government has done over the past hundred and fifty years, apart from fighting wars, that the House Republicans approve of. In that sense, the Ryan plan is not about fiscal responsibility. It’s about pushing a very particular, and very ideological, view of the proper relationship between government and society. The U.S. does need to get its finances in order. It just doesn’t need to repeal the twentieth century to do so.
-- James Surowiecki at The New Yorker
_ _ _
This has been true of hardcore Republicans since the New Deal, but it has gained ground to become the standard position of the Party. I suppose we shall see in November whether they can make this the majority position for the nation, or if American voters will humble them a little.
The Republican Budget Ideal
Apr. 3rd, 2012 08:00 pmOf Paul Ryan's budget proposal.
_ _ _
It’s true, of course, that this budget will never become reality; after all, the electorate likes most of the programs that House Republicans want to kill. The budget is, as many have said, an act of political theatre, a way for Republicans to demonstrate what they stand for. But that’s precisely what makes it so revealing: what Ryan is proffering here is something like the platonic ideal of a budget. And what his plans tell us is that there’s very little the federal government has done over the past hundred and fifty years, apart from fighting wars, that the House Republicans approve of. In that sense, the Ryan plan is not about fiscal responsibility. It’s about pushing a very particular, and very ideological, view of the proper relationship between government and society. The U.S. does need to get its finances in order. It just doesn’t need to repeal the twentieth century to do so.
-- James Surowiecki at The New Yorker
_ _ _
This has been true of hardcore Republicans since the New Deal, but it has gained ground to become the standard position of the Party. I suppose we shall see in November whether they can make this the majority position for the nation, or if American voters will humble them a little.
_ _ _
It’s true, of course, that this budget will never become reality; after all, the electorate likes most of the programs that House Republicans want to kill. The budget is, as many have said, an act of political theatre, a way for Republicans to demonstrate what they stand for. But that’s precisely what makes it so revealing: what Ryan is proffering here is something like the platonic ideal of a budget. And what his plans tell us is that there’s very little the federal government has done over the past hundred and fifty years, apart from fighting wars, that the House Republicans approve of. In that sense, the Ryan plan is not about fiscal responsibility. It’s about pushing a very particular, and very ideological, view of the proper relationship between government and society. The U.S. does need to get its finances in order. It just doesn’t need to repeal the twentieth century to do so.
-- James Surowiecki at The New Yorker
_ _ _
This has been true of hardcore Republicans since the New Deal, but it has gained ground to become the standard position of the Party. I suppose we shall see in November whether they can make this the majority position for the nation, or if American voters will humble them a little.