If you bring forth what is within you
What you bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you
What you do not bring forth will destroy you.
Gnostic Gospel of Thomas
Friday, August 22, 2014
Monday, August 11, 2014
RIP
Robin Williams died today, an apparent suicide.
The word is that he was suffering severe depression. If so, I sympathize.
I hope he's at peace.
He deserves it.
The word is that he was suffering severe depression. If so, I sympathize.
I hope he's at peace.
He deserves it.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Quote of the Post
"A few lines glimpsed on a page may alter your whole trend of thought for the day, reverse the currents of the mind, change the profile of the city....The moment when one meets a book and knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that that book must be his- not necessarily now, but some time- is among the happiest excitements of the spirit....There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love, and like that colossal adventure it is an experience of great social import....We visit bookshops not so often to buy any one special book, but rather to rediscover, in the happier and more expressive words of others, our own encumbered soul."
Christopher Morley On Visiting Bookshops, essay, in Pipefuls
Have any of you felt that way, too? Until I read Morley, I thought I was alone in the universe. I've bought almost all my books used and there is nothing better than wandering the stacks and having something completely unexpected catch my eye. I felt all of the above when I laid eyes and hands on two amazing books in a museum gift shop: Complete Works of both DaVinci and Michelangelo. Huge format volumes, with a comparable price tag, by the great publishing house Taschen. As an artist, and reader, I have to have them- some time.
Christopher Morley On Visiting Bookshops, essay, in Pipefuls
Have any of you felt that way, too? Until I read Morley, I thought I was alone in the universe. I've bought almost all my books used and there is nothing better than wandering the stacks and having something completely unexpected catch my eye. I felt all of the above when I laid eyes and hands on two amazing books in a museum gift shop: Complete Works of both DaVinci and Michelangelo. Huge format volumes, with a comparable price tag, by the great publishing house Taschen. As an artist, and reader, I have to have them- some time.
Monday, August 4, 2014
Notes on Quotes
Observant readers of these blogs may have noticed that I have a slight penchant for sharing interesting quotations. It is a predisposition that long predates blogging. In fact, I have many old journals loaded with gleanings from my reading. I have, occasionally, committed the more interesting ones to memory, squeezing them in amongst the poetry, Gettysburg Address, the first half of the Declaration of Independence, and all the Shakespeare that can be crammed into my thick Irish skull.
When I started putting quotes in here, it was only a matter of time before I decided to use a few from memory, and was faced with the very real problem of finding out if memory truly served. Whenever I've quoted the Bard I've easily looked up the needed lines to check proper phrasing and punctuation (who can ever remember that? ) Trying to find quotes from different writers, however, aint always so easy.Three times now, having failed to find the needed passages on the internet, I've re-read the novels in order to confirm the quotes. It wasn't the chore you might be thinking, as the novels were by Steinbeck, R.L.Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle. And, no, the Doyle was not a Sherlock Holmes, but one of his lesser known historical novels, Micah Clarke. It was that experience that occasions this piece.
Here's the quotation as I remembered it:
Beware the zealot, for he will not only fight for his own right of worship, wherein he hath justice. He will also presume upon the consciences of others, thereby falling into the very error against which he fights.
Nice, huh? As relevant today as in the nineteenth century, when it was written. Also, not quite on the mark. Here is the actual quote:
For the zealot is a man who not only defends his own right of worship, wherein he hath justice, but wishes to impose upon the consciences of others, by which he falls into the very error against which he fights.
Ok. Conan Doyle gives it a bit more poetry, perhaps, but the meaning is the same in both versions. I seem to have edited it down to its essence. Or, at least, I'd like to think so. My memory also tricked me in the setting of the story. I had remembered it as taking place during the English Civil War- Oliver Cromwell, and all that, you know. It turns out that I was close there as well. Micah Clarke is the story of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion which happened about a generation later.
A mind can be a minefield if you're not careful. As for me, it was no great effort to re-read those books. Re-discovering great writing is nearly as joyful as discovering it in the first place. I wish all of you happy hunting.
When I started putting quotes in here, it was only a matter of time before I decided to use a few from memory, and was faced with the very real problem of finding out if memory truly served. Whenever I've quoted the Bard I've easily looked up the needed lines to check proper phrasing and punctuation (who can ever remember that? ) Trying to find quotes from different writers, however, aint always so easy.Three times now, having failed to find the needed passages on the internet, I've re-read the novels in order to confirm the quotes. It wasn't the chore you might be thinking, as the novels were by Steinbeck, R.L.Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle. And, no, the Doyle was not a Sherlock Holmes, but one of his lesser known historical novels, Micah Clarke. It was that experience that occasions this piece.
Here's the quotation as I remembered it:
Beware the zealot, for he will not only fight for his own right of worship, wherein he hath justice. He will also presume upon the consciences of others, thereby falling into the very error against which he fights.
Nice, huh? As relevant today as in the nineteenth century, when it was written. Also, not quite on the mark. Here is the actual quote:
For the zealot is a man who not only defends his own right of worship, wherein he hath justice, but wishes to impose upon the consciences of others, by which he falls into the very error against which he fights.
Ok. Conan Doyle gives it a bit more poetry, perhaps, but the meaning is the same in both versions. I seem to have edited it down to its essence. Or, at least, I'd like to think so. My memory also tricked me in the setting of the story. I had remembered it as taking place during the English Civil War- Oliver Cromwell, and all that, you know. It turns out that I was close there as well. Micah Clarke is the story of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion which happened about a generation later.
A mind can be a minefield if you're not careful. As for me, it was no great effort to re-read those books. Re-discovering great writing is nearly as joyful as discovering it in the first place. I wish all of you happy hunting.
Quote of the Post
In the midst of moving, the writer is in a quandary over which books he can safely store, and which ones he must keep with him. For: "Suppose we want to look up a quote, in those late hours when all really worthwhile reading is done?"
"Those late hours when all really worthwhile reading is done." This guy was a kindred spirit. Is it any wonder that he coined a word for those who like to read in bed? (see earlier post for that word)
And who wrote it, you ask?
Yes, Morley.
Christopher Morley, Moving, essay in Pipefuls
"Those late hours when all really worthwhile reading is done." This guy was a kindred spirit. Is it any wonder that he coined a word for those who like to read in bed? (see earlier post for that word)
And who wrote it, you ask?
Yes, Morley.
Christopher Morley, Moving, essay in Pipefuls
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)