Archive for 2006
a realism
Frenchman’s dream
fragment from the shower
philosophical
knees on a train
family albums
cricket, criticism, & Clytaemnestra
the first
the second
the third
notes on reading: social
19th century London & medieval Iceland
footprints
the fourth
the fifth
A view (17)
with polish
the sixth
the way to wealth
the cow as an object of taste
soporific
springtime and Cyprus
natural selections
Thomas Malthus waxes sentimental
lines written in Oregon
by Nabokov
quite literally
snobbery
translator’s note
some people get cranky about Hegel
gently
about the weather and teaching English as a Foreign (or second) language
return to stacks
books, libraries, and necromancy
A view (18)
A view (19)
the seventh
movements
After about two hours of reading or discussion, we would go for a walk and then have tea at Lyons, or in the restaurant above the Regal cinema. Sometimes he came to my house in Searle street for supper. Once after supper, Wittgenstein, my wife and I went for a walk on Midsummer Common. We […]
classy
At the long dinner table laid in the garden were the various traveling guests, the grown-up daughters, and the younger children with their governess. The countess presided over the usual European dinner served by men, but the count and the daughter, who had worked all day in the fields, ate only porridge and black bread […]
evening
enemy action
Cataloguing one’s home library has its good points. Entering in ISBNs and publication information is a wonderful way to devour time. One also gets a chance really to look at one’s books; one so seldom has the opportunity. One buys the book, sometimes one even reads it,1 and then it goes on the shelf, jumbled […]
Raw Materials
The hand press printer should make his own ink, as the painter should make his own paints. Ink is not a raw material. Oils and pigments are the raw material of ink; patience in grinding is the only virtue required in the craftsman. Of patience there is this to be said. To be patient is […]
social ethics
An exaggerated personal morality is often mistaken for a social morality, and until it attempts to minister to a social situation its total inadequacy is not discovered. To attempt to attain a social morality with a basis of democratic experience results in a loss of the only possible corrective and guide, and ends in an […]
fog
The trouble with epigraphy. A fog has settled in for the winter and, although the café is warm and bright, the bustle and noise merely accentuate the drizzle and dark outside. It is my favorite time of year. It feels right to be inside, to be making things with my hands and reading books. Not […]
Cold Fish
It was a most comfortable house to visit. Gertrude Stein liked it, she could stay in her room or in the garden as much as she liked without hearing too much conversation. The food was excellent, scotch food, delicious and fresh, and it was very amusing meeting all of the Cambridge dignitaries. We were taken […]
sugar daddy
Good writers are so rare that if I were a critic, I would only try to point out what I think makes them reliable and enjoyable. For how can anyone explain the mystery of creation? Hemingway can take any amount of criticism – from himself; he is his own severest critic, but, like all his […]