When modes of expression are worn out art tends toward non-sense, toward a private and incommunicable universe. An intelligible shudder, whether in painting, in music, or in poetry, strikes us, and rightly, as vulgar or out-of-date. The public will soon disappear; art will follow shortly. A civilization which began with the cathedrals has to…
A friend sent me an article by David Brooks, published in the September issue of The Atlantic, How the Bobos Broke America Brooks uses his incisive analytical skills, a deft facility with language to outline the rise of the Creative Class to the apex of the pecking order of American influence, and a rising simmer…
I discovered another writer. Or did the work of Emil Cioran discovered me? There is the old saying, “when the student is ready, the teacher will come.” E. M. Cioran was born Romanian. He left for Paris in the late 1930s. I purchased his second book published in French, entitled, All Gall Is Divided. …
Uncultured mansees in conscience, in reason,so far as he recognizes it as his ownno universal objective power; therefore he must separate from himselfthat which gives him moral laws,and place it in opposition to himself,as a distinct personal being. Belief in revelationis a childlike belief,and is only respectable as long asit is childlike. — excerpt,…
“‘Now if love is always for this,’ she proceeded, ‘what is the method of those who pursue it, and what is the behavior whose eagerness and straining are to be termed love? What actually is this effort? Can you tell me?’ “‘Ah, Diotima,’ I said; ‘in that case I should hardly be admiring you…
In that great fatality called Christianity, Plato represents that ambiguity and fascination, called an “ideal,” which made it possible for the nobler spirits of antiquity to misunderstand themselves and to set foot on the bridge leading to the ‘Cross’… And how much Plato there still is in the concept “church,” in the construction, system,…
Sunday at six thirty AM looking east the sky was pale yellow, and the sun a blinding, fiery ball. The yellow is the smoke from distant fires. I read late yesterday that the Caldor fire near Lake Tahoe is being contained. In the Midwest we do not have to remain indoors day after day…
Today is Friday. Sometimes I am disoriented, unsure if today is Saturday or… Retirement sometimes has a confusing texture as the structure of the workweek is removed. I am considering, speculating upon what I would desire if it were possible to be young again, to begin higher education under ideal circumstances. In hindsight, what…
Today promises to be hot, with the possibility of thunderstorms. The rain will be welcome, as the usual pattern of sunny days interspersed with rain are a memory. The summers are hotter and more dry. Illinois is under a mask mandate announced by the governor today. This measure is to prevent the depletion of…
Imagine, by way of experiment, two young men [Wittgenstein and Heidegger] strolling together through the city – and suddenly one says to the other: “How strange that everything exists [“das es überhaupt etwas gibt”]! How miraculous: There! And there! Do you see it, too?” And the other man nods and says “Yes I see…
