A Momentary Taste of Being

(and yet deeply gratified and flattered) by the fact that there are people who live in Paris who are hanging out at my blog.  I can't imagine that it would be possible for Paris to become ordinary enough for me to hang around blogs--and yet there you have it! I mean I get why people from Columbus, Orlando, and Witchee-Watchee are hanging around the cafe--but Paris? I hope someday I have the chance to plumb this mystery.  Same for London, Dublin, and other such places. Deeply mysterious and wonderful.

More on our mutating climate and those people in serious denial who need to be removed from the conversation lest their negativity contribute to the ultimate accumulation of carbon.

An interesting study. Interesting, but one must emphasize inconclusive. The soft sciences are nefariously difficult and bringing anything to clear resolution can be nearly impossible.  But this is certainly provocative.

A suggestion, an analysis, here.

This was a rather nice respite from the name-calling (denialists and whatever it is we so-called denialists--personally prefer the term skeptics--call the other side.  [I'm sure we have a name, fortunately, I haven't bothered to seek it out] ).  There are climate researchers who profoundly believe that anthropogenic climate change has occurred and is occurring--scientist who have conducted their research with forthrightness and integrity and who should be listened to as they make their case.  Unfortunately, their case has been damaged--perhaps beyond reconstruction by those involved in this scandalous affair.  I have said before and repeat--I find the question moot.  I would be highly surprised if temperatures were not increasing--human intervention or not.  I find the question a distraction from a central issue that needs more serious and thoughtful discussion--if we can control emissions without a catastrophic cost to the economy, even if such contro...

Here . One of the great poets of the Tang dynasty--with Li Po and Tu Fu, perhaps one of the greatest of Chinese Poets. For more check here .

Constance Reader As Usual I Need More Shelves A Reader's Respite The Zen Leaf   (I was immediately attracted by the list of the potential rereads of 2010 and the presence on it of  As I Lay Dying, We (Yevegeny Zamayatin), and The Zoo Story (among others) What I look for in a blog:  panlecturemia--a rare disease that involves the inability to avoid reading any material that comes to hand--in absence of a book, cereal boxes, the nutrition labels on cans, old grocery store receipts, cancelled checks (if you are so primitive to have any), etc. OR an acute interest in an area of fiction that I have little knowledge of OR an interesting way of commenting on things I have absolutely no interest in. In short, in accord with my religious tenets--catholic reading.

Here Oh Wow!  The Rubaiyat (in all five editions) AND Stand on Zanzibar --this really appeals to my eclectic side.

Here Via Books, INQ.

At The Wooden Spoon

I should have made this point before; however, if you send me an e-mail, I will consider it private correspondence and no part of it will be reprinted without your permission.  I may vaguely allude to it and to the content in the course of a post, but I will not use your correspondence without your permission.  I'm appalled by how many think that a private e-mail is the same as a public comment.  People who wouldn't dream of publishing a paper letter sent to them privately seem to think nothing at all about doing so with electronic communications.  A change in the mode of correspondence does not imply a concomitant change in the nature of the communication.  I assume that if you had wanted to be public in your comments, you would have gone the route of commenting on the site. So, this is just to say, that I will respect the privacy of private communications.

Here via BooksINQ

Select your own fiction Nice notion, I hope a profitable business model can be worked out around it because this would allow us to create our own customized magazines--without any of the boring stuff (nonfiction) that often surrounds the stories. 

In Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel pulls off a variant of the third person narrative voice that is innovative, distinct, and likely difficult to replicate.  Her third person subjective voice occasionally crosses over into second person, but that isn't the really interesting aspect of her voice.  Most interesting is the way in which the limited third person is made to emulate a first person narrative while not introducing the paradoxes of a first person narrator delving into thought, history, and background of the people around him.  There are two interesting aspects to this narrative voice--the main character is never named by the narrator: from Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel "So now get up." Felled, dazed, silent, he has fallen; knocked full length on the cobbles of the yard. His head turns sideways; his eyes are turned toward the gate, as if someone might arrive to hlep him out. One blow, porperly placed, could kill him now. . . . Inch by inch. Inch by inch forward. Never mi...

At Literary Food Porn Wallace Stevens is always worth a look.

Here via Scruffulans Hirsutus

I liked this so much at Julie 's site that I stole it--title and all for here.  But go and see the original--it's worth the trip.

A review here of The Devil Was a Gentleman. Who would have thought Wheatley worth the trouble?  I have to admit to a sneaking fondness both to the purple-prosy over-the-top books and to the movies made from them.  Well, I am catholic in almost every sense--I never claimed to have impeccable taste in reading--think of me more as a gourmand than a gourmet.

From my other site.

The Poetry Bomb --interesting