I've been writing (very slowly) about birds. As I read about various birds, I'm finding that they are strange, intelligent, alien creatures living their own full, social, and interesting existence, right next to us. The more I think about birds and other animals, the more I see our overwhelming waste of the beauty right in …
The Loser, by Thomas Bernhard
The rambling, obsessive, internal thoughts of a bitter loser... who'd have thought they'd make such good reading? The Loser is about three piano virtuosos who meet in their early 20s at a music school. All three have great talent, but one of them is Glenn Gould (a real piano virtuoso--this story mixes some fact in …
On the Natural History of Destruction, by W.G. Sebald
In World War Two, 131 German cities and towns were bombed by the Allies, and many were entirely destroyed, leaving over seven million homeless, and 600,000 dead--twice the number of all American casualties in the war. The subject of this book is to ask, given the sheer scope of this destruction, why did rarely any …
Continue reading "On the Natural History of Destruction, by W.G. Sebald"
The influence of Dostoevsky
I've been reading The Idiot, and the same as with Crime and Punishment, I am now seeing its influences on everything. I will share just one example, early in the novel. Prince Myshkin, the protagonist and titular 'idiot,' is a very open and guileless person, which leads many people who encounter him to doubt his …
700 year old emoji
I'm reading Purgatory by Dante, and came across this passage: The sockets of their eyes were gemless rings; one who reads omo in the face of men, could easily have recognized the m. My eyes widened a bit and I thought, that can't possibly mean what I think it means. But I checked the historical …
Jonas David 