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May. 27th, 2014
Books and Life
May. 27th, 2014 03:57 pmDavid Brooks put out a couple of columns on favorite books of his. I guess he was running dry on ideas. Interestingly, he felt moved to close with a sort of disclaimer:
I suppose at the end of these bookish columns, I should tell you what I think books can’t do. They can’t carve your convictions about the world. Only life can do that — only relationships, struggle, love, play and work. Books can give you vocabularies and frameworks to help you understand and decide, but life provides exactly the education you need.
I'm thinking, fuck you! Right? It is one thing if you are a white, upper-middle-class dude, but what kind of 'education' can 'life' give me?, except to confirm what brutal drudgery it is to be a wage-slave who couldn't get a halfway attractive-looking woman to go down on him even if it was to save his life. No thanks! I'll have to stick to vocabularies and frameworks, and just mourn the live I never had.
[Source: David Brooks at NYT]
I suppose at the end of these bookish columns, I should tell you what I think books can’t do. They can’t carve your convictions about the world. Only life can do that — only relationships, struggle, love, play and work. Books can give you vocabularies and frameworks to help you understand and decide, but life provides exactly the education you need.
I'm thinking, fuck you! Right? It is one thing if you are a white, upper-middle-class dude, but what kind of 'education' can 'life' give me?, except to confirm what brutal drudgery it is to be a wage-slave who couldn't get a halfway attractive-looking woman to go down on him even if it was to save his life. No thanks! I'll have to stick to vocabularies and frameworks, and just mourn the live I never had.
[Source: David Brooks at NYT]
Tuesday Morning
May. 27th, 2014 05:50 pmThe weather has gotten sunny this afternoon, and Coco is anxious to go outside, as I am sure the rest of the cats are as well, but I am going to have to keep then inside for at least one more night. I know how light-footed the cats are, but it must be marshy out there, and I want the ground to have at least another day to dry out and firm up.
Iliad (1) Zeus and Hera
May. 27th, 2014 07:30 pmZeus’s deal with Thetis almost sparks a case of domestic abuse on Mount Olympus.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
{Hera knew Zeus and Thetis were making a deal for Achilles, a deal that would favor the Trojans and aggravate her, and she confronts him when he returns to the Olympian court among all the gods there.}
“Who is it this time, schemer, who has your ear?
How fond you are of secret plans, of making
decisions privately! You could not bring yourself,
could you, to favor me with any word
of your new plot?”
( Read more... )
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
{Hera knew Zeus and Thetis were making a deal for Achilles, a deal that would favor the Trojans and aggravate her, and she confronts him when he returns to the Olympian court among all the gods there.}
“Who is it this time, schemer, who has your ear?
How fond you are of secret plans, of making
decisions privately! You could not bring yourself,
could you, to favor me with any word
of your new plot?”
( Read more... )