-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Lee on How Wrong We Are jamienauthor on How Wrong We Are cindy knoke on Fools Reproach leewatkins on Notes on Gregory Corso’s “Vari… leewatkins on Notes on Gregory Corso’s “Vari… Archives
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- November 2021
- October 2021
- July 2021
- May 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- November 2015
- October 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- August 2014
- February 2014
- February 2013
- March 2012
- July 2011
Categories
Meta
Category Archives: books
How Wrong We Are
I’ve been reading Will Storr’s The Science of Storytelling. Aspiring writers might want to read the book in full, but here’s some ideas I found interesting: Stories are about change. In other words: something happens. The best stories gradually transform … Continue reading
Posted in books, Reviews of 2019 Books, Writing
Tagged books, creative writing, reading, storytelling, Will Storr, writing
2 Comments
Fools Reproach
William Blake’s infernal wisdom: that evil is the energy of the body and acts upon desire. Good bounds this energy, and wants to restrain desire. That if your desire can be restrained, then it was a weak desire. That desire, … Continue reading
Art and Life: Notes on some Conversations with Allen Ginsberg
It begins with the personal. “Life is full of strange experiences,” he says. Allen Ginsberg finds the extraordinary in the everyday. “Each one has his inner nature that he has to satisfy,” says Louis Ginsberg, attempting to account for the … Continue reading
Notes on Gregory Corso’s “Variations on a Generation”
The Beat Generation was never supposed to become so big, says Gregory Corso, and that’s why it has such a stupid name. If they’d known they might have spent more time thinking about it. Perhaps not. It doesn’t make sense … Continue reading
The Imperfection of Henry Miller
Henry Miller has made a vow not to alter a line of what he writes because perfection is no longer his object. He wants to get to know his own mind, with all its faults and weaknesses, and share with … Continue reading
A Life for Wandering Through
Paris in the 1930s was a place where you could simply be an artist. It didn’t matter if you produced any significant work or not. For example, Henry Miller tells us that an acquaintance of his, called Sylvester, will never … Continue reading
Hegel, Reason, and the Unhappy Consciousness
As the sun sets in Canto II of Dante’s Inferno, the pilgrim, Dante himself, explains that he is not worthy to undertake the journey, through Hell and Purgatory, to Heaven. I lack the strength and skill, he says. The poet … Continue reading
Posted in books, Hegel, Philosophy
Tagged books, Dante, Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, philosophy, religion
Leave a comment
The “Specific Shape” of Stories (Notes on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit §§678-679)
For Hegel, the limitation of religion is that it relies on “picture-thinking.” A religion is based around the interpretation of a number of stories, images, and rituals designed to show the human spirit the truth about itself and its place … Continue reading
Posted in books, Hegel, Philosophy
Tagged books, Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, philosophy, religion
Leave a comment
Conscience and the Perfection of Religion (Notes on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit §§677-678)
Conscience holds the moral truth within itself. Instead of waiting for the day of judgement, conscience judges its own actions in the here and now. But conscience is fooling itself. The universal law that the moral self-consciousness holds within itself, … Continue reading
Notes on Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin
The sun is shining and Berlin belongs to Hitler, is the almost final thought of Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin. Christopher catches his reflection in a shop window and is horrified to see that he is smiling: sunshine is still … Continue reading