Alfonso: estás mirándome, lo veo, desde el plano implacable donde moran lineales los siempres, lineales los jamases (Esa noche, dormiste, entre tu sueño y mi sueño, en la rue de Ribouté) Palpablemente, tu inolvidable cholo te oye andar en París, te siente en el teléfono callar y toca en el alambre a tu último acto … More 9 octubre 1937
El siglo pasado, en sus manifestaciones estéticas, fue raigalmente subjetivo. Sus escritores antes propendieron a patentizar su personalidad que a levantar una obra; sentencia que también es aplicable a quienes hoy, en turba caudalosa y aplaudida, aprovechan los fáciles rescoldos de sus hogueras. Pero mi empeño no está en fustigar a unos ni a otros, … More Further nadería
It is Ash Wednesday, time to consider the battle between Lord Carnaval and Lady Lent, and I have found this really nice rendering one of the songs from the Libro de buen amor (1343). (An ad comes first, unfortunately — turn the sound down.) Axé.
L The hammer, the afterbirth, the anvil, the ink, the already-not-yet, the aperture, the armchair, the pleasure of cellar door, the chimera, the never, the more, the bullet, the born, the there, the uncle, the surrogate, the peninsula, the risen, the drown, the jig-saw, the Jew, the glass, the ceasefire, the phonograph, the smoke. Immutable, … More Sampson Starkweather
Q. Do you have comments on the idea that “literature is not for everybody, and should only be taught in literature classes” — ? A. That idea makes me mad. I could point to cognitive theory, which makes the argument that literature is an important way we develop our ability to empathize with people who … More Someone agrees with me on composition and the introduction to literature, Dieu merci
“Telegraph Avenue was named after the street one of the band members stayed at in San Francisco during the summer of ’69.” He must mean Berkeley. Read the article and listen to the songs. Axé.
It is true: my great-great grandfather studied with Alexander von Humboldt. He was born in 1816 or 1817, making him a close contemporary of Karl Marx. We know that he and Marx corresponded later, as the letters have been conserved, but it occurs to me that they may have met first as students. Humboldt was … More Alexander von Humboldt
The discussion started on Facebook and continued here. My postscript is that this is the currently official psychology for the masses. (I am told it is elitist to say one does not have a lumpen-mind, and I know there are many professors and intellectuals who do have lumpen-minds, but I do not.) In the 1990s … More Postscript on “positive psychology”
The theme of the 2016 MLA convention is Literature and Its Publics: Past, Present, and Future. In the meantime, I am told there are two types of academic worker: intellectual knowledge workers and educational service workers. This is my problem: I am supposed to be the former, but pressed to be the latter. It is all well … More The MLA, and a diagnosis, and some fascinating questions
I made a few comments elsewhere, that these are nice instructions for living but are not psychology. I wanted to say more, but it would not have been polite, as it was on the author’s sister’s Facebook page and she is a colleague. The author holds a chair and is famous and powerful, but his work is … More On being “positive”
