Only a Blockhead

Happy Halloween

Personally I have no bone to pick with graveyards.  I take the air there willingly, perhaps more willingly than elsewhere, when take the air I must.  The smell of corpses, distinctly perceptible under those of grass and humus mingled, I do not find unpleasant, a trifle on the sweet side perhaps, a trifle heady, but how infinitely preferable to what the living emit, their feet, teeth, armpits, arses, sticky foreskins and frustrated ovules.  And when my father's remains join in, however modestly, I can almost shed a tear.  The living wash in vain, in vain perfume themselves, they stink.  Yes, as a place for an outing, when I must, leave me my graveyards and keep—you—to your public parks and beauty-spots.  My sandwich, my banana, taste sweeter when I'm sitting on a tomb, and when the time comes to piss again, as it so often does, I have my pick.  Or I wander, hands clasped behind my back, among the slabs, the flat, the leaning and the upright, culling the inscriptions.  Of these I never weary, there are always three or four of such drollery that I have to hold on to the cross, or the stele, or the angel, so as not to fall. 

—From "First Love," by Samuel Beckett.

—David

City Life

"City" and "Civilization" have the same etymological root. 

Last week, because I live close to a great metropolis and frequently pass through it, I was able to hear John Adams's Dr. Atomic Symphony performed, to hear Gary Snyder and Shuntaro Tanikawa read and talk, to pick up (and read), on a whim, a short book by Samuel Beckett, to engage in lively conversation over ramen and beer in a back-street dive with a street musician who looked like an early Rolling Stone a bit the worse for wear and an older man, impeccably turned out, who he called "Sensei."  Another week might also have included an exquisite meal at a French, Indian, Thai, or Japanese restaurant, and would certainly feature social encounters, unpredictable and exciting, of the kind that only great cities can offer.

I am always amazed to hear people deplore urbanization and talk about how much they hate cities.

Different strokes, I guess.

—David

"End the war! Tax the rich!"

The Occupy movement: It’s hard to get an idea of what’s going on and even why from news reports. Images are worth a thousand words and thanks to Jonathan Demme, we have a short, enlightening portrait of Occupy Wall Street on October 5. It’s the next best thing to being there.

 

(Demme talking to Deadline New York’s Mike Fleming:) To Demme, Occupy Wall Street is a game-changing expression of youthful outrage reminiscent of protests against the Vietnam War and segregation. “These young people are living that sense of potential change, and when you go downtown to see it, it’s such an oxygenating atmosphere that it’s thrilling…. This is a voice that cannot be ignored, and it is fantastic that young people are spearheading it…. These kids are deep in student loan debt, trusting there would be positions for them, and either they can’t get jobs or they’ve been laid off. This is justifiable outrage.” 

 

I read a news story that said that garbage was a problem at an Occupy site. The film shows someone sweeping up. The latter isn’t news. Perhaps in a saner, more compassionate world, “Man Sweeps Public Area” would be newsworthy. It is certainly inspiring to me.

--Julian

Untitled

- NC Tate

A Room Where the Star-Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard

One is certain that more than a few reviewers of Levy Hideo's "A Room Where The Star-Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard" will trot out Samuel Johnson's oft-quoted line: "A woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

Levy Hideo is reputed to be the first Western author to publish a novel in Japanese.  Read my review of that novel (now in English translation) here.

—David

 

"It was heaven."

This is another post inspired by Occupy Wall Street: They brave the elements, and we can sit and home with a perfect cuppa (see previous post) thinking about the world we want to live in. 

I saw a telling joke today. A picture of a homeless person with the caption "World before Steve Jobs innovations." The second picture ("World after Steve Jobs innovations") shows a smartphone taking a photo of the same homeless person.

What we need to do--obviously--is to make the world safe for smartphones. To make a world where that homeless person is no longer homeless, and has their own smartphone to enjoy.

Talking about people who, like Jobs, made the world a better place, this is from Wangari Maathai's obituary in The Guardian:

For a Kikuyu girl growing up in the 1940s, the small village of Ihithe, in the central highlands of Kenya, was next to perfect. There were no books, but there were leopards and elephants in the thick forests around, clean water, rich soils, and food and work for everyone. "It was heaven. We wanted for nothing," Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel peace prize winner, who has died of cancer aged 71, told me when I saw her last, "Now the forests have come down, the land has been turned to commercial farming, the tea plantations keep everyone poor, and the economic system does not allow people to appreciate the beauty of where they live."

Food and work for everyone goes without saying. An economic system that allows people to appreciate the beauty of where they live is a more novel concept. It's attractive and possibly timely, for this seems to be an age when there are no longer enough paying jobs to go round. Having recently swapped full-time for part-time work, I can say from personal experience that it's giving me the leisure to appreciate the beauty around me. And my life is richer--a step closer to heaven--as a result. 

--Julian

How to Brew

a proper cuppa.

For my British friends:

Regarding the tea cosy: it is entirely acceptable, if not required, that you put it on your head and refer yourself as the Bishop

Read about the whole process here  (and don't miss the comments).

--David

Is their bread really that bad?

--David

Still With Us

New Agers, it seems have always been with us, and, mysteriously, people often take them seriously.  I write about some proto-New Agers, and the people who took them seriously, in my review of Andrei Znamenski's Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy, and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia.  You can read it here.

—David

They occupy that we may be inspired

I marched against the war in Iraq. I was in Tokyo. There were millions of us around the world. We were ignored. The war went ahead.

I expect governments and corporate bodies are similarly waiting for Occupy Wall Street to go away.

The Occupy movement should inspire the rest of us to discuss what kind of society we want to live in. It’s utopian to expect government/corporations to bow out and let us set up a new order. But perhaps there’s a purity to idealism that makes it worth talking about.

Here’s what I’d support for starters:

One common suggestion: income taxed at the necessary level to provide public services, and food, shelter, education and healthcare as a right for all. People who want more than a bare minimum will choose to work/pay taxes.

One less common idea: Jobs paid according to their desirability/popularity: for example, if more people apply to be university teachers than people apply to be cleaners, then teachers' pay is lowered and cleaners' pay is raised to the point that the popularity levels out. The desirability of making a difference to a classroom of students rather than making a difference to the cleanliness of a bathroom will still inspire some of us to go to school to be qualified as teachers. And the higher wages of cleaners will make that calling a desirable one with its own dignity and status.

I’m open to negotiation on all of this. If not in the comments of this blog, then with friends over our next beer.

Meanwhile: Power to the people.

--Julian