December 2011
26 posts
“The Voyagers”: a lovely short film about the... →
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the best of the year, in reading: a baker’s dozen...
Format inspired by this fabulous list by someone cleverer:
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (trans. Jay Rubin), in which the narrator spends some time in a well;
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, in which the narrator is born, finally;
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (trans. Grace Frick), in which the narrator dies, finally;
Leonard Bernstein by Humphrey Burton, in...
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The Sea: That’s the title of a John Banville... →
HA.
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I woke up in the middle of the night, the rain was...
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For his words did not come in a rush; they came with such pathetic slowness,...
– Thomas Mann, “Tristan”
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‘… cousin, I did not love [the candle], I loved its burning down and, you...
– [I am reading too much] Paul Celan
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Poetry is perhaps this: an Atemwende, a turning of our breath.
– Paul Celan
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Have revised my opinion on statistics
Have decided that they are no longer the most boring thing on the planet, but only the most boring thing on the planet UNLESS discussed by Daniel Kahneman or Helen DeWitt, at which point they miraculously become fascinating.
Speaking of Helen DeWitt: I MET her last night and am still RIDICULOUSLY excited about it. Am really itching to curl up with The Last Samurai again and forsake the world for...
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