Metamorphoses

“There is no nature to things […] There are no faces except masks… [There is] no true growth or evolution in this life… but only transformations of appearance, an incessant melting and molding of surfaces without underlying essence. There is no salvation of any being, because no being exists as such, nothing exists to be saved—everything, everyone exists only to be drawn into the slow and endless swirling of mutations…”

-- Thomas Ligotti, "Noctuary"

Metamorphoses

“There is no nature to things […] There are no faces except masks… [There is] no true growth or evolution in this life… but only transformations of appearance, an incessant melting and molding of surfaces without underlying essence. There is no salvation of any being, because no being exists as such, nothing exists to be saved—everything, everyone exists only to be drawn into the slow and endless swirling of mutations…”

-- Thomas Ligotti, "Noctuary"

From Eric Blair to George Orwell

Why did Eric Blair adopt a pen name? The answer is counter-intuitive. After writing his first book and while helping to get it ready for publication, it seems that he was not happy with his literary efforts and did not think much of his novel, and he therefore wanted to create some distance between himself and his book.

Incidentally, that first book was “Down and Out in Paris and London” (1933). Even when it came to the title of the book, Orwell had some quibbles, preferring “Confessions of a Dishwasher” or even “The Lady Poverty”. You have to be glad they dropped that last suggestion.

As for his pseudonym, instead of George Orwell, we might be knowing him as P. S. Burton or Kenneth Miles or H. Lewis Allways. One cannot help thinking that fate served him well in his ultimate choice of a pen name as well. Orwell is the name of a Suffolk river and makes for a much better adjective: Orwellian.

(Source: Averil Gardner, “George Orwell”)

From Eric Blair to George Orwell

Why did Eric Blair adopt a pen name? The answer is counter-intuitive. After writing his first book and while helping to get it ready for publication, it seems that he was not happy with his literary efforts and did not think much of his novel, and he therefore wanted to create some distance between himself and his book.

Incidentally, that first book was “Down and Out in Paris and London” (1933). Even when it came to the title of the book, Orwell had some quibbles, preferring “Confessions of a Dishwasher” or even “The Lady Poverty”. You have to be glad they dropped that last suggestion.

As for his pseudonym, instead of George Orwell, we might be knowing him as P. S. Burton or Kenneth Miles or H. Lewis Allways. One cannot help thinking that fate served him well in his ultimate choice of a pen name as well. Orwell is the name of a Suffolk river and makes for a much better adjective: Orwellian.

(Source: Averil Gardner, “George Orwell”)

Beauty and Faith

As the French playwright Jean Anouilh said, 'Beauty is one of the few things in the world that do not lead to doubt about God.' The Church intuits that immediately. When we’re in the presence of something beautiful — an act of forgiveness, a newborn baby, a sunset — beauty wounds us. It has a visceral effect on us that is delightful, that increases our humanity. Beauty also reveals to us that there is something more to the world and something more to beauty than the beautiful thing itself. It leads to contemplation. That contemplation consists of wondering at where the beauty came from.

-- Father Peter Cameron

Of course, beauty also carries with it that exquisite tinge of pain that comes with an appreciation for its transience, its ephemeral nature, which is rather like life itself.

Beauty and Faith

As the French playwright Jean Anouilh said, 'Beauty is one of the few things in the world that do not lead to doubt about God.' The Church intuits that immediately. When we’re in the presence of something beautiful — an act of forgiveness, a newborn baby, a sunset — beauty wounds us. It has a visceral effect on us that is delightful, that increases our humanity. Beauty also reveals to us that there is something more to the world and something more to beauty than the beautiful thing itself. It leads to contemplation. That contemplation consists of wondering at where the beauty came from.

-- Father Peter Cameron

Of course, beauty also carries with it that exquisite tinge of pain that comes with an appreciation for its transience, its ephemeral nature, which is rather like life itself.

America's Anti-Intellectualism

Why is America dominated by anti-intellectualism? Here is an interesting discussion springing from a work from the early 1960s by Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life". We'll take the two paragraphs that Sully grabbed for his blog, though HOfstadter also has some sharp and sadly funny things to say about public education and how sports are celebrated more than real studies.

_ _ _

[T]here arose an ethos, a romantic conviction, that a popular democracy should favor "the superiority of inborn, intuitive, folkish wisdom over the cultivated, oversophisticated, and self-interested knowledge of the literati and the well-to-do." Practical experience mattered more than imaginative thinking, and vital emotion trumped anemic rationality. "Just as the evangelicals repudiated a learned religion and formally constituted clergy in favor of the wisdom of the heart and direct access to God, so did advocates of egalitarian politics propose to dispense with trained leadership in favor of the native practical sense of the ordinary man with its direct access to truth. This preference for the wisdom of the common man flowered in the most extreme statements of the democratic creed, into a kind of militant popular anti-intellectualism."

All too often, moreover, a "fundamentalism of the cross" united with a "fundamentalism of the flag." While the true political mind accepts conflict and compromise, recognizing that there are no final victories but only temporary periods of balance and equipoise, the fundamentalist mind, says Hofstadter, "is essentially Manichean: it looks upon the world as an arena for conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, and, accordingly, it scorns compromises (who would compromise with Satan?) and can tolerate no ambiguities."

-- Michael Dirda at Barnes & Noble

America's Anti-Intellectualism

Why is America dominated by anti-intellectualism? Here is an interesting discussion springing from a work from the early 1960s by Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life". We'll take the two paragraphs that Sully grabbed for his blog, though HOfstadter also has some sharp and sadly funny things to say about public education and how sports are celebrated more than real studies.

_ _ _

[T]here arose an ethos, a romantic conviction, that a popular democracy should favor "the superiority of inborn, intuitive, folkish wisdom over the cultivated, oversophisticated, and self-interested knowledge of the literati and the well-to-do." Practical experience mattered more than imaginative thinking, and vital emotion trumped anemic rationality. "Just as the evangelicals repudiated a learned religion and formally constituted clergy in favor of the wisdom of the heart and direct access to God, so did advocates of egalitarian politics propose to dispense with trained leadership in favor of the native practical sense of the ordinary man with its direct access to truth. This preference for the wisdom of the common man flowered in the most extreme statements of the democratic creed, into a kind of militant popular anti-intellectualism."

All too often, moreover, a "fundamentalism of the cross" united with a "fundamentalism of the flag." While the true political mind accepts conflict and compromise, recognizing that there are no final victories but only temporary periods of balance and equipoise, the fundamentalist mind, says Hofstadter, "is essentially Manichean: it looks upon the world as an arena for conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, and, accordingly, it scorns compromises (who would compromise with Satan?) and can tolerate no ambiguities."

-- Michael Dirda at Barnes & Noble

Friction between Miley and Liam

Liam Hemsworth, who is fed up with Miley Cyrus’s childish attitude, is said to have begged his popstar fiancee to stop venting her emotions on Twitter again after she publicly declared her love for him following an argument on the weekend.

[...]

Cyrus is known for regularly making dramatic outbursts on the site and her boyfriend has urged her delete her page as it has become a constant source of friction in their relationship.

“He think she’s acting like an immature schoolgirl, and he wants her to get off Twitter completely,” the source added.

-- ONTD

Personally, I think she needs a more mature man. Though, I would have her quit Twitter too. I'd persuade her to come to LiveJournal and we could be e-buddies and everything!♥!

Friction between Miley and Liam

Liam Hemsworth, who is fed up with Miley Cyrus’s childish attitude, is said to have begged his popstar fiancee to stop venting her emotions on Twitter again after she publicly declared her love for him following an argument on the weekend.

[...]

Cyrus is known for regularly making dramatic outbursts on the site and her boyfriend has urged her delete her page as it has become a constant source of friction in their relationship.

“He think she’s acting like an immature schoolgirl, and he wants her to get off Twitter completely,” the source added.

-- ONTD

Personally, I think she needs a more mature man. Though, I would have her quit Twitter too. I'd persuade her to come to LiveJournal and we could be e-buddies and everything!♥!

Daily Fun

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Daily Fun

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