Tag Archives: books

Clinging On

Posted on May 30, 2023 by Lee

There’s an old man in a story by Nabokov, a terrible old man, whom the narrator makes quite sure you could have no love for – he’s lecherous, sour, selfish – but perhaps still you can feel sympathy because he … Continue reading →

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Kalganov and Karamazov (Notes on Book 9)

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Lee

Mitya says: I am guilty of murder. Not because I have killed; I have not. But because I am capable of killing. And we are all capable of cruelty. While there is any crime in the world, each and every … Continue reading →

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Notes on the Magic Mountain: “Mynheer Peeperkorn”

Posted on July 8, 2022 by Lee

A more than usual appreciation of – linked to his need for – alcoholic drinks. He appears to chew the liquid before it goes down, he spends so long savouring it. His head must be blurry from all he drinks … Continue reading →

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Notes on The Magic Mountain: “By the Ocean of Time”

Posted on July 6, 2022 by Lee

Not to deny reason, but to set limits to it. Beyond the limit of reason is life. If reason were allowed to dominate all, there would be no room for life, which after all needs room to experiment, and see … Continue reading →

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Notes on The Magic Mountain: “A Soldier, and Brave”

Posted on July 4, 2022 by Lee

“I am glad to see that despite your enthusiasm for freedom and progress, you have some feeling for serious things.” So says Naphta to Settembrini as they stand at the deathbed of the young man. What could be more serious … Continue reading →

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How Wrong We Are

Posted on May 16, 2022 by Lee

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 →

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Fools Reproach

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Lee

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 →

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A Life for Wandering Through

Posted on February 7, 2022 by Lee

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 →

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Hegel, Reason, and the Unhappy Consciousness

Posted on November 9, 2021 by Lee

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 →

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The “Specific Shape” of Stories (Notes on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit §§678-679)

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Lee

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 →

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