novels, comets, movies
My son recently told me that Napoleon -- you know, France's short Emperor -- was "poggers." Now, definitions may be in order for those who, unlike my son, are not avid video gamers. Poggers: Originating from an emote on the streaming platform Twitch, poggers or pog is an Internet slang term used to express enthusiasm, … Continue reading Napoleon was poggers, says Le Miz
In this novel I feel like I’m reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s pure voice for the first time. This book, as is well known, was never edited by her daughter Rose Wilder Lane and is very different from the other Little House books. The language is more plain, but the book feels more honest. Rose Wilder … Continue reading The First Four Years
February 1, 2021 Reading “Koheleth” and Tolstoy's “Confession” back-to-back lifts both works for me. Both works struggle with the fact that death is coming for everyone. Both observe constantly how the good and the wicked have random rewards in this life; both hang on to the idea of knowledge/wisdom while questioning both its extent and … Continue reading Koheleth and Tolstoy
January 31, 2021 I keep running back into "War and Peace", in my re-read of Reinhold Niebuhr's "Moral Man and Immoral Society". This is from chapter 1: The growing intelligence of mankind and the increased responsibility of monarchs to their people have placed a check upon the caprice, but not upon the self-interest, of the … Continue reading Niebuhr and Tolstoy
January 28, 2021 I took this Quiz: Fox or Hedgehog? My score is +47. I gave negative numbers -- hedgehog numbers -- only for questions #12 and #13. All my other answers are fox numbers. I didn’t answer question #1, partly because I thought it would tip the scales with an answer that could easily … Continue reading You might be a fox if … (QUIZ)
January 27, 2021 I’ve reread “The Hedgehog and the Fox,” Isaiah Berlin’s essay about Tolstoy’s view of history. I had read it in the mid-90s, but without reading any of Tolstoy apart from the historical essay that ends “War and Peace” (the second half of the epilogue). A description of Berlin’s essay, from kobo.com: "The … Continue reading Hedgehogs and Foxes