New Students at Plato's Academy

This is what happened, as Aristotle always used to tell the story, to most of the audience at Plato’s lecture “On the Good.” They all arrived, you see, supposing that they would get out of it some of the things which men have considered good: wealth, for example, or health, or power - in short, some remarkable source of happiness. But when the account proved to be about mathematics, numbers, geometry, astronomy, and - finally - about oneness as the good, it seemed to them, I guess, to be something completely unfathomable. The upshot was that some expressed contempt for the whole business, others severe criticism.

-- Aristoxenus (quoted in J. Miller’s “Examined Lives”)

re-imported my LJ

Well, that's not too bad, I guess.

"What's that?"

I re-imported my LJ to the Dreamwidth clone, and this time it got my comments, but... it also doubled all my entries. Nothing's perfect!

"You're kidding! I couldn't live with that. I'd start all over again."

But the thing is, it's not like I am going to be going through that journal often. It is only a back-up, in the event that LJ suspends my account. So, all my information is there - even twice!

"I'd still do it over: create a whole new account. It doesn't cost anything."

I don't know. I might try that later. Much later. I don't think of it as a problem; it's just a cosmetic thing. I may never look at that blog again; it's just a storehouse. So, I'm just going to let it sit there for now.

PIcs

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The Rise of Post-Familialism

“Under the social and economic systems of developed countries, the cost of a child outweighs the child’s usefulness.”

-- Toru Suzuki, a researcher at the National Institute of Population and Society Security Research in Japan

David Brooks gives us some breath-taking statists on the move away from two-parent families across the world, from the West to Asia. In addition to the loss of religiosity, the logic and force of our ecnomic well-being seems to be the driving force.

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Lo (1,2) My Father

Before broaching the subject of Humbert’s first love, his childhood romance, the supposed precursor to his Lolita-passion, we get a brief chapter on his earlier childhood, on his birth and parentage and schooling. We are reminded that he sees himself as addressing a jury, pleading his defense.

_ _ _

I was born in 1910, in Paris. My father was a gentle, easy-going person, a salad of racial genes: a Swiss citizen, of mixed French and Austrian descent, with a dash of the Danube in his veins. I am going to pass around in a minute some lovely, glossy-blue picture-postcards. He owned a luxury hotel on the Riviera.

-- “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov

_ _ _

We see right away that Humbert is of the sophisticated European lineage and background. Even during my own childhood in the seventies, I had the impression that Americans had a bit of an inferiority complex when it came to European culture, and I imagine this must have been stronger in the 1950s. This will get some significant play throughout the novel, especially when we meet the Haze family, Lolita and the mother, particularly with respect to the mother, Charlotte, but let’s not race ahead. Let us just note that Humbert is not merely European but comes from a very bourgeois family. I cannot recall why Humbert is not rich, but we know he grew up privileged, and it seems fair to say that he is a man who expects to be satisfied in his needs and desires.

MIdeast-Israel Update

JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants fired rockets for the first time at Jerusalem on Friday in a daring new escalation of hostilities with Israel on the third day of their latest lethal conflict over Gaza, triggering air raid sirens and panicking residents who had thought themselves secure from such attacks because of the holy city’s multireligious heritage and large Palestinian population.

-- ISABEL KERSHNER, JODI RUDOREN and ALAN COWELL at The New York Times

And Israel is now gearing up for a ground invasion of Gaza, four years since the last ground invasion. The situation keeps opening up. Who knows where it's going to end...

Goldfinger

Sean Connery, photographed as James Bond with his Aston Martin DB5 - Goldfinger (1964)

( Film info and video )

Ketchum's "Girl Next Door"

Okay, before I open the rest of my accounts and begin the evening blogging rounds in earnest, is there anything worth taking a few minutes to discuss?

"Sure, how is that sicko novel, the girl next door."

Ah, yes, I am glad you asked. I'm glad I decided to spring the few bucks. It is perhaps the smartest thing I have done all month.

"You're terrible! How many times has the girl next door been raped so far? A dozen times?"

I haven't gotten that far. But I am reminded about what I really want in my nightime reading. I mean, I find myself longing for the night and the opportunity to get back into the story. I try to stay up longer in order to get further in the book. This is exactly what I want from my nightime books. A true page-turner. Fiction that has the slightest pretension, aside from the pretension to be be purely wicked fun, does not work.

"And women better be getting sexually abused in it."

Well, that is the absolute best, I suppose, but I don't think it's strictly necessary. But it probably does need to be a little sexy. I think of the last detective novel I read, "He Died with His Eyes Open" by Derek Raymond. I enjoyed it and it was fun, but... I don't know if I would want to read another book like that, if I knew that that was all there was going to be. I can see myself trying other detective novels, looking for one that might hit more of my buttons, but I do need a moderatly high sexual quotient, I think.

"I think it would be better if you just got a girlfriend."

But we sort of tried that, didn't we? and you see how well that works for me.

"You just need to try having a relationship with a plainer woman, a nice woman, someone you can relate to."

I'd rather read Ketchum's "Girl Next Door" and enjoy Internet porn.

Sugar Tweet

If nothing else, the Hostess bankruptcy offers an excellent chance to hear news anchors say "ding dongs" in a gravely serious tone.

-- Sugar

I've been steeling my nerve to finally give up stalking her, but I am going to miss comments like this one. I find that there is actually much too little wit on the Internet.