tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51379572024-03-13T16:01:24.662-04:00the little voice<b>Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.</b>
<br> - Edward R. Murrow
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<a href="http://hirak.blogspot.com">Back to Current Page</a>hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.comBlogger591125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-70077363679902467122019-12-23T09:23:00.001-05:002019-12-23T09:23:42.518-05:00Stolen Time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Every noon as the clock hands arrive at twelve, / I want to tie the two arms together, / And walk out of the bank carrying time in bags. </span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Robert Bly, poet (b. 23 Dec 1926)</span></blockquote></div><br />
Lovely quote by Robert Bly. What about the 31st of December at the end of the decade? I'd love to nail the two hands together in a few days and walk out with a whole decade.hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-48525198309827727452018-11-19T09:15:00.000-05:002018-11-19T09:15:39.380-05:00Medieval Music of Guillaume Machaut<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This week's composer on Spotify is the incomparable Guillaume Machaut. Will be posting as the week goes along.<br />
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<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX21bRPJuEN7r" width="300"></iframe><br />
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hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-75386406582614886922018-03-02T09:10:00.001-05:002018-03-02T09:16:38.526-05:00Winter Reading<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's begun to snow again. Old King Winter was teasing us with the warmer weather of 50 and 60 F. The warm sunny evenings with a slight nip in the air made us all feel that spring was here. Even the crocuses and snowdrops reared their green fingers through the ground and seemed to agree with that sentiment. Yesterday, it rained and temperatures began to drop. The rain turned to sleet, and sleet turned to snow, and it now lays thick in many inches. It's still winter. We were mistaken.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2UnjQqzffKM/WplV_AknGMI/AAAAAAAAHRo/XWHgds6ECaUnkXt3OEvbJSwxGKcm6OqFACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_4321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2UnjQqzffKM/WplV_AknGMI/AAAAAAAAHRo/XWHgds6ECaUnkXt3OEvbJSwxGKcm6OqFACEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_4321.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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To make most of this weather I have an eclectic mix of books lined up. I'm making a concerted effort of ploughing through them as if they were snow drifts in the driveway. A mountain of books. </div>
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Running, history, science, markets, criticism, self-help, a memoir, and a classic: a fair and balanced diet. I still have a couple more that I made a note of in San Francisco bookstore last month. As usual, my eyes are bigger than my stomach - the voraciousness in my mind is far larger than the appetite time will really allow. I could spend any length of time in a bookstore and one hopes that they still exist and libraries still carry books in the future. A recent move has been to get rid of 'the damned books' and reclaim the space in libraries. I find it amazing to see some homes have no books at all. I believe that they have lots of space now. </div>
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At this point of time, most of us still have books with pages that you can turn and your fingers can still feel the slight bump of the printed word. Perhaps, it's like an early autumn for books. Some leaves have fallen, but not all. Some branches are bare, but not all. </div>
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And outside it is winter. </div>
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hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-7880452336552967062017-06-16T09:51:00.004-04:002017-07-17T15:56:40.027-04:00O Pato - Duck three ways<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This song has been like an earworm for the last few days. What's there not to like in a song where a duck, a goose, and a swan dance the samba? Serving up this song by <i>Jayme Silva & Neuza Teixeira </i>in three ways that are remarkably different, but still fun. They remind me of summer.<br />
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Apparently, in Portuguese ducks go "quém, quém". That animal call alone serves up the differences in the three approaches to this nursery-rhyme style song.</div>
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<b>Appetizer</b><br />
First up - by the inventor of the bossa nova - João Gilberto's classic version that introduced the song to the rest of the world when he was less than 30. The goose vocalized with the alto sax and the duck with João's guitar (except for a section they use a high-pitched muted horn).<br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/5xrW9LV5TJQZpqzefvEIfB" width="350"></iframe><br />
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<blockquote>
O pato vinha cantando alegremente, quém, quém<br />
Quando um marreco sorridente pediu<br />
Pra entrar também no samba, no samba, no samba<br />
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O ganso gostou da dupla e fez também quém, quém<br />
Olhou pro cisne e disse assim "vem, vem"<br />
Que o quarteto ficará bem, muito bom, muito bem<br />
Na beira da lagoa foram ensaiar<br />
Para começar o tico-tico no fubá</blockquote>
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(translation - Eden Atwood)</b><br />
<blockquote>
O pato<br />
the duck was dancing by the water,<br />
quack, quack, quack<br />
the rhythm made him think he oughta<br />
quack, quack<br />
he was dancing to the samba,<br />
the samba, the samba<br />
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Oh goose ooh<br />
The goose was gaining passing by,<br />
honk, honk, honk<br />
he stopped and gave the dance a try,<br />
honk, honk<br />
he was dancing to the samba<br />
a new thing, a new swing</blockquote>
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<b>Entreé</b><br />
By far, my favorite version is the muscular, yet smooth playing of <b>Coleman Hawkins </b>dueting with guitar and then playing off each other. Could listen to this forever. Can imagine a outdoor summer night scene, with the air thick, sweat glistening on the bodies of people dancing and the sound of the sax coming from somewhere in the near distance.<br />
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<b>Dessert</b><br />
Like the previous, an instrumental version as well. While not the inventor, Getz popularized the bossa nova in the United States. Here, Byrd's bass forms the bedrock on which the Getz sax and the guitar play a bit faster, livelier version. Compared to the Hawkins' duck's 'quem, quem' softly as singing a lullaby, the Getz duck here is honking away, ready to party. The summer night in full swing - make no mistake.<br />
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<b>Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd</b><br />
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hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-33184153613930303992017-06-14T10:54:00.001-04:002017-06-15T09:22:24.322-04:00The case for and against Hyphens<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
As with most things in life when it comes to hyphens:<br />
<blockquote>De gustibus non est disputandum, goes the saying: “there’s no arguing about taste.” Except that people argue endlessly about taste; a truer phrase is “there’s no way of proving your case in matters of taste.” De gustibus non est probandum.</blockquote></div><br />
The Economist weighs in on the correct use, abuse and toss-ups (tossups?) when it comes to hyphens.<br />
<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21723088-hyphens-can-be-tricky-they-need-not-drive-you-crazy-hysteria-over-hyphens">hyphens-can-be-tricky-they-need-not-drive-you-crazy-hysteria-over-hyphens</a><br />
<blockquote><br />
You can write “we have zero tolerance for bad punctuation,” but when “zero tolerance” is used to modify a noun, it acts a bit like an adjective. It does not become an adjective, as many people think. But taken together, as a modifier, “zero-tolerance” functions like a single word; hence the hyphen.</blockquote><br />
Like most writing, careful reading and editing is what is needed along with the knowledge of a simple rule.<br />
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The Rule:<br />
<blockquote>Fortunately, this is one rule that need not drive anyone mad: <b>a group of words used as a single modifier should be hyphenated. </b> or<br />
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The difference between a “third-world war” and a “third world war” is nothing to sniff at, and those selling a car might get rather more interest in the sale if they remember the hyphen in “a little-used car”.</blockquote>hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-76988640601657307292014-10-16T04:03:00.002-04:002015-01-08T10:10:45.290-05:00On Sunlight - Tony Hoagland<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A wonderful poem from Tony Hoagland, discovered re-stumbling on a past poetry haunt <a href="http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.de/2007/01/word-tony-hoagland.html">Wondering Minstrels</a> that seems to be inactive for a while.<br />
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Great lines from Mr. Hoagland!<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">and love</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">is no less practical</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">than a coffee grinder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">or a safe spare tire? </span><br />
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<b>The Word</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Down near the bottom</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> of the crossed-out list</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> of things you have to do today,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> between "green thread"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> and "broccoli" you find</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> that you have penciled "sunlight."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> Resting on the page, the word</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> is as beautiful, it touches you</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> as if you had a friend</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> and sunlight were a present</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> he had sent you from some place distant</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> as this morning -- to cheer you up,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> and to remind you that,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> among your duties, pleasure</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> is a thing,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> that also needs accomplishing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> Do you remember?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> that time and light are kinds</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> of love, and love</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> is no less practical</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> than a coffee grinder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> or a safe spare tire?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> Tomorrow you may be utterly</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> without a clue</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> but today you get a telegram,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> from the heart in exile</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> proclaiming that the kingdom</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> still exists,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> the king and queen alive,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> still speaking to their children,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> - to any one among them</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> who can find the time,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> to sit out in the sun and listen.</span><br />
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<b>-- Tony Hoagland</b></div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-280438726789609732013-12-30T07:54:00.003-05:002013-12-30T07:57:53.826-05:00A Year of Reading<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 16.453125px;">Still being in my younger and more impressionable years, I came to realization that I wasn't as well-read as I thought. For the past few years, partly inspired by <a href="http://www.artgarfunkel.com/library/list1.html" target="_blank">Art Garfunkel</a>, an unlikely bibliophile, I have been keeping track of the books that I have read. In 2012, I read 53 books - an average of about a book a week. Sounds like a lot of reading. Yet, I </span></span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 16.453125px;">did not like what I saw - quantity, but not quality. </span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 16.453125px;">Too much non-fiction, and much of it pop non-fiction consisting of easy-breezy reads. Of all books that I read, only 15 books were what I consider must-read classics. While you may not always get it at first, the classics are classics for a reason.</span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 16.453125px;"> Yet, there is an argument for reading the canon, to remember advice from T.S. Eliot who said this about poems: "</span>the only thing one needs to judge the merit of poems is to read other poems." </span><br />
To read better, one needs to read more books.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where to begin? So, I turned to Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren's excellent "<i>How to Read</i>"; needless to say, 'a classic' itself. Their advice in a nutshell is to read books that expand your mind. Books that are complex. Such books change you as a person. They change the way you experience and perceive life. A book that does all that is a 'great' book. The classics are good examples of that. They are hard to read, because they make demands on the reader. Consequently, the rewards are much greater. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 16.453125px;">So, in 2013 I tried to change this as consciously is I could. </span></span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 16.453125px;">I looked at lists - <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/12/features.fiction" target="_blank">Guardian</a>, <a href="http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/" target="_blank">Modern Library</a>, including the intimidating </span>Adler-Van Doren list. But, you <span style="color: #333333; line-height: 16.453125px;">could really start anywhere, as long as you start. So based on availability and interest, I set off. </span></span></div>
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To make no bones about my ambitions, I started with <i>Ulysses</i> and tried to read it in a day. I had begun and attempted to read it since I was about 18 and never made it past the first few pages. In Joycean vein - I "tightened my scrotum" and got to work trying to read the story of a day in a day. Technically in 24 hours, if not in one sitting. Though, according to Adler and Van Doren, you should try to read all books in one sitting. I surprised myself. It took a little over 12 hours to make it to the end. I thought earlier that I would be more ecstatic than Molly Bloom's final "yes". Yet, surprisingly I was less concerned with being 'that-person-who-has-read-Ulysses-cover-to-cover' than being the person who had a great experience of reading <i>Ulysses</i>. I enjoyed the humor, the wordplay, the virtuosity, and simply the extraordinary story of an ordinary day in Dublin. It was indeed the toughest read of the year. Intimidating for sure, but it is puzzling that the book isn't more read. Did I get it all? No. Was it worth it? Yes.<br />
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It has been a very, rich and rewarding experience. For a whole year, I was in the company of the greats - Joyce, Faulkner, Kafka, Woolf, Proust, Homer, Tolstoy, Flaubert. It made me aware of the considerable gifts of contemporary authors such as Barnes and Coetzee. The advantage of reading them so closely one after another made them stand out more in relief and despite stylistic differences the greatness of the writing always shines through. It wasn't fast reading. It was delightful, and as Harold Bloom says, "you don't read great books, they read you". Nothing could be truer. And again, it was much more than that. Often, I had to stop to take a breath to take in what I had just read. The profound psychological insight, the lovely turn of phrase, the ring of the perfectly metaphor, and above all the creation of an entire world from brief strokes.<br />
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My goal was to read better in 2013. So, did I succeed? Yes, if I was checking off a grocery list of items to be read. But, the funny thing is that books change you, they refine you. The process changed my definition of what 'reading better' was. The chief one was what it meant to have 'read a book'. I wasn't sure any more. It certainly was not making a collection of feathers to stick in my cap. That was to miss the point, not to mention the waste of all that time.<br />
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Over the years, I have been somewhat proud that I never re-read books. I have a good memory. But, I have been again missing the point. A timely correction was provided by a certain V. Nabokov, who, by the prevailing academic wisdom at the time, was not allowed to lecture an American literature because he lacked a PhD, but allowed to lecture on European literature. He writes in the 'Introduction' to the excellent and bizarrely hard-to-obtain <i>Lectures on Literature</i> that books can never be read, only re-read. Great books are a work of art and have to be approached in the manner of a painting. So, the first reading is only an initial glimpse. It's only in the second, or third reading that one can appreciate the full beauty. It's like the eye darting from aspect of the picture to another after we make our first glance at it. We have to look at it closely and from afar.<br />
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So, what's in store for 2014? Not to let go of the ambitious side of me, but one aim would be to finish Proust's <i>In Search of Lost Time. </i>To call it a goal makes it sound like getting through something unpleasant. If you take to it, Proust is very addicting. <i>The Way by Swann's </i>was so delicious and enjoyable that I cannot wait to get started on Vol II. There is no dearth of other classics that I wish to explore - Dostoevsky, Conrad, Beckett, Bellow, James, Ellison. The other would be to simply re-read some books. As Flaubert wrote: "What a scholar one might be if one knew well some half a dozen books."</div>
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<u><a href="http://hirak.blogspot.de/p/books-read.html" target="_blank">Complete lists for 2013 and 2012</a></u><br />
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<u>Books from 2012-2013 to re-read:</u><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>2013</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Beloved - Toni Morrison</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Way by Swann's - Marcel Proust; Lydia Davis (trans)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Light in August - William Faulkner</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Ficciones - Jorge Luis Borges</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Anna Karenina / Leo Tolstoy</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Stories / Kafka</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lectures On Literature / Vladimir Nabokov</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Madame Bovary / Gustave Flaubert</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Periodic Table / Primo Levi</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Odyssey / Homer; Richard Lattimore (trans)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Ulysses / James Joyce</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>2012</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Story of Art / Ernst Gombrich</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Inferno / Dante Alighieri; John Ciardi (trans)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Complete Poems / Philip Larkin; Archie Burnett (ed)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Half-Finished Heaven / Tomas Transtromer</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Poor Economics : a radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty / Banerjee, Abhijit V.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Thinking, Fast and Slow / Kahneman, Daniel</span><br />
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hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-40680499890985410572013-01-29T09:57:00.001-05:002013-01-29T09:57:19.092-05:00On Calvino<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Post on Italo Calvino's <a href="http://fromhelicon.blogspot.com/2013/01/if-on-winters-night-traveler-italo.html" target="_blank">If On A Winter's Night a Traveler</a>.</div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-34943129160988932682013-01-22T11:20:00.001-05:002013-01-22T11:20:17.757-05:00On Joseph Anton and Salman Rushdie<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The lit blog has been update with a post that took longer and grew longer that expected. An extraordinary life.<br />
Link: <a href="http://fromhelicon.blogspot.com/2013/01/reading-joseph-anton.html" target="_blank">lit blog</a></div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-81861034386981942322012-12-20T12:01:00.003-05:002013-01-11T09:50:10.567-05:00'Ulysses - Story of a Day' In a Day?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Ulysses</i> takes place over the course of one day - 16th June, in roughly 18 hours. It should be possible to read it in one day, right? One can read faster than people can walk, right?That's going to be my weekend project - does the math add up?<br />
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<br /></div>
<div>
I have had the book since I was 16 and I have not made it past the first few pages after numerous attempts. It has, in one form or the another, been on my reading list, but always for 'next year'. I am sick of doing that. A nice week-long break is coming up and "why put off for tomorrow what you can today? or do this year, instead of next year, right?" </div>
<div>
<br />
<div>
<div>
Any serious reader, or more correctly in my case, a reader pretending seriousness, cannot claim to be one if he/she has not tackled the eight-thousander Himalayan peaks of: </div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Joyce's <i>Ulysses,</i></li>
<li>Proust's <i>In Search of Lost Time (or Remembrance Of Things Past)</i>,</li>
<li>Tolstoy's <i>War and Peace</i>, or</li>
<li>Eliot's<i> Middlemarch</i></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
The above are on any great reading list, and if not included, then the compiler has to justify why not. It must be said that I have read none of the above. Partly, because of their daunting length and difficulty, but mainly because of their fabled complexity and literary weight. There are many in the camp of the Ulysses 'also rans' - those who have wanted to read it, have made numerous attempts and have failed, or have given up.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
Mortimer Adler in <i>How To Read a Book</i> writes that most people read books slower than they need to, and that reading too slowly can make you lose the forest for the trees. He writes that the first reading should be quick and "not to worry if you don't understand every word". Get the main idea. My idea in past years was to attack the text in a scholarly and leisurely fashion. Read the <i>Odyssey</i>, then other commentaries, consult the Linati and Gilbert schema, so that I can appreciate what I read. That did not get too far. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Adler believes that books like Ulysses are 'above the heads of most readers' anyways. They are great because they demand a lot of the reader and you will never really understand it in one reading. They need to be read again and again, some parts faster than others. The book will grow with you. Though it will not be possible if you haven't read it even once. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With that sage advice, I feel well-armed and the plan of reading it so quickly does not seem that hair-brained either.<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<b>Personal Rules for reading Ulysses in a Day</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
1) It has to be done in 24 hours. Not, necessarily in one calendar day, for practical, logistical reasons and so that I don't lose my mind as I wander around Dublin.</div>
<div>
2) No reading commentaries, guides or keys such as the Stuart or Linati schema. That would slow things down and affect the pure, naked effect of the text. </div>
<div>
3) Fail as I may, it's still not Finnegan's Wake (<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jul/12/what-make-finnegans-wake/?pagination=false" target="_blank">Chabon on Finnegan's Wake</a>) and progress has been made THIS year.</div>
<div>
<br />
<b>Update:</b><br />
<br />
<div>
Made it to the end last night (Jan 10) - all 783 pages from "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan" to Molly Bloom's final "... yes."<br />
It took a total of 12 hours and 11 mins. Much less total time than I initially thought, but many more total days (There were other digressions, like reading other books). More on the book later. I am currently overwhelmed with the sheer mastery of Mr. Joyce. He is a real Colossus.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
----------------------------------</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<b><br /></b>
<b>If Marilyn can do it, so can you!</b></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.thewriterscoin.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/marilyn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.thewriterscoin.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/marilyn.jpg" /></a></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-66043662447550659442012-12-04T16:34:00.000-05:002012-12-18T16:35:35.586-05:00Frozen credit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-GpCoO13QkAg/ULq-HNK9ybI/AAAAAAAADjU/F5LgrNaJDRc/s640/blogger-image-1580212184.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-GpCoO13QkAg/ULq-HNK9ybI/AAAAAAAADjU/F5LgrNaJDRc/s320/blogger-image-1580212184.jpg" width="240" /></a>The AMEX card being thawed after being in the freezer for a month. One may think that there was no need to do this, but it did help in the<a href="http://hirak.blogspot.com/2012/10/november-is-no-credit-card-month.html" target="_blank"> no-credit card month</a> to have this in the deep-freezer to avoid any temptations. It was a bit of a pain to keep track of the cash spending, but after a while you get used to it. The experiment was overall a success with the added 'mindfulness' of spending money. A useful exercise in showing that, far from being rational, impulses take hold of us.<br />
<br />
<br />
The card had a nice washed look after the thawing and was promptly put to use!<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
</div>
</div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-87722886530147596052012-11-30T17:34:00.003-05:002012-11-30T17:36:54.711-05:00The poetry of equations: The 'Alice approach'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“And what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversation?”<br />
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</blockquote>
In <i>No Small Matter</i>, a book on the 'science on the nanoscale', famous chemist George Whitesides and photographer Felice Frankel achieve to convey the poetry and beauty of science with elegance and erudition. Their unique manner of presentation - saying much, by saying less - is more effective than most other books on science written for the lay audience. There is no surfeit of words, no clamour of explanations, and no riot of reasons.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.felicefrankel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/no-small-matter-470x379.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="http://www.felicefrankel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/no-small-matter-470x379.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div>
Felice Frankel’s photos (or visualizations) show bits - 1s and 0s - using wine glasses with red Shiraz, a prism on Venetian blinds, and a 'faked' quantum apple (to make the point that quantum mechanics confounds our ‘normal’ intuitions) and quantum dots, that are simultaneously beautiful art and beautiful science. George Whitesides’s prose is the 'second voice' in this lovely duet of images and words and strikes a wonderful balance between explaining and making us ponder. He asks to reconsider what we take for granted - the magic of listening to music, for instance, is the ‘magic of transformation’. Using the LP track of <i>Eleanor Rigby</i>, Whitesides makes us rethink this amazing feat of alchemy. The the voices of the <i>Beatles</i> were recorded (copied) in the variations of grooves in vinyl, transmuted to electrical impulses by the needle, transduced by the vibrating speaker diaphragm into vibrations that are carried in the air, through our outer ear, and then via tiny bones and fluid in our inner ears back into sound, back into the emotion of Eleanor Rigby and all the lonely people. With the well-crafted images and sparse sentences the book has the economy and power of poetry. Saying much, by saying little. </div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
Curiosity is an itch, that understanding scratches</blockquote>
</div>
<div>
From the dawn of time, humans have had that itch and that need to scratch won’t ever go away. That’s what we humans do. Whitesides, for all his accomplishments, shows no trace of arrogance in what we now know; showing, that with greater understanding comes greater humility. For there is still lots we cannot explain. It’s not just arcane quantum or cosmological phenomena. We have the DNA code, but we don’t know how proteins ‘do what they do’ from messages in the code. As he writes, its like constructing the lives of people by looking at a telephone book. We don't understand how water molecules work in the cell. Even the the everyday, plain and mundane confounds us. We don't understand cracks - how a crack actually ends. We don't understand bubble formation. We don’t understand colliding water jets.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www-math.mit.edu/~bush/Fishbone4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www-math.mit.edu/~bush/Fishbone4.jpg" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">More: <a href="http://www-math.mit.edu/~bush/bones.html" target="_blank">Fishbones from water jets</a></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
Maybe someday we will get to a more complete explanation, or it may elude us, but the strange beauty of the water jets and the rest will continue to enchant us forever.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
What really got me was the piece titled 'Duality': </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We're burdened by a curious conditioning that blinds us to one of the greatest - perhaps the greatest - of art forms. We live for poetry; we live in terror of equations.<br />
<br />
We see a poem, and we try it on for size: we read a line or two; we roll it around in our mind; we see how it fits and tastes and sounds. We may not like it, and let it drop, but we enjoy the encounter and look forward to the next. We see an equation, and it is as if we’d glimpsed a tarantula in the baby's crib. We panic.<br />
An equation can be thing of such beauty and subtlety that only a poem can equal it....<br />
It's an idea worth trying on for size. Poetry describes humanity with a human voice; equations describe a reality beyond the reach of words. </blockquote>
<div>
He quotes De Broglie’s equation:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<b> λ = h / mv</b></blockquote>
<div>
In a compact and precise way it says, “A moving object is a wave”. That is poetry of the highest order, he says, and I agree. Even haikus seem long in comparison.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There no end to technological reductionism, but Whitesides urges us to write that love letter from Indiana in long hand. Science will only scratch that itch. It’s up to us to use our judgement as well. As we delve deeper there is more need of caution. As he admits, even in the case of equations, not all equations are alike and ann do not lead us to delight in their beauty, “Some are porcupines, some are plumber's helpers, and some are tarantulas.”</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
At the end of the book, scientist and non-scientist will have gained some understanding of science works. That is secondary. What is more important in my opinion, is that it shows how fascinating all this really is, and how we go about finding and exploring things that we cannot see, or hold, or smell. I call this the ‘Alice approach’ - create wonder. Draw attention to that itch, and the scratching will take care of itself. Drawing people into the beauty that nature is.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My issue with the polemics and arguments offered by science apologists is that they are written to appeal to the already convinced choir, who silently smile and cannot but nod in approval, but they do little to draw the ‘others’ in, and often achieve the opposite effect of turning them away. <i>The God Delusion</i> by Richard Dawkins was wonderfully written, but I cannot think it actually convinced anyone (barring a few fence-sitters) to actually change what they already believed in. It was divisive and that does not help. This is not the ‘Alice approach’.<br />
<br />
Jonathan Haidt’s recent book, <i>Why Politics and Religion Divide Good People</i>, talks about ways to end the partisan politics of the Right vs. the Left, but this can be also applied elsewhere. In a twist of the Western adage - 'shoot first, questions later', his work as a moral psychologist has shown that ‘we are emotional first, and rational later' and when reason is brought into play it’s in support of the initial emotion. We make up reasoning post-hoc to bolster what ever was our initial emotional response. Reasoning and reflection can cause us to change our opinions but it is rare (We are less in this mode than we would like to believe). The approach to begin to gain any traction in an opponent’s mind is to use methods that ‘talk to their intuitions, and not to their reason’. Keep the reasons for later.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There is a similar problem in Science v. Faith/Religion debates. It’s not that the reasoning of the science boosters is not sound, but that the tone is wrong and reason alone is inadequate. You need to appeal to the intuitions that believers have. Richard Dawkins in his recent book, <i>The Magic of Reality </i>written for children and ‘curious’ adults, has tried really hard to create that ‘Alice approach’. It contains beautiful expositions of scientific experiments and phenomena with a preamble of folkloric and mythical explanations. It works, but only somewhat as they serve as ‘foil’ and straw-men to be knocked down later. What then remains of wonder when it really an argument, a quarrel in another guise? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In a less intrusive way and with greater effectiveness, Whitesides/Frankel give us a tour of this Wonderland of the nanoscale and quantum phenomena that any one of any stripe cannot fail to be moved.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Alice would’ve heartily approved.</div>
</div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-1045665429638327492012-11-20T00:24:00.000-05:002012-11-20T00:27:35.382-05:00Post on Mortality up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
What could have been a result of fat fingers, a DVORAK-QWERTY key confusion: ironically, the post on <i>Mortality</i> died and had to be revived.<br />
<br />
The post has risen Phoenix-like, a week past due.<br />
On the lit blog:<br />
<a href="http://fromhelicon.blogspot.com/2012/11/mortality-christopher-hitchens.html" target="_blank">Mortality by Christopher Hitchens</a></div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-66942139172910108932012-11-06T10:08:00.001-05:002012-11-06T10:08:14.896-05:00Lit blog revival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Another attempt at reviving the lit blog that has been dormant for a long time. Reviewing <a href="http://fromhelicon.blogspot.com/2012/11/narcopolis-jeet-thayil.html" target="_blank">Jeet Thayil's Narcopolis</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-62587378081455400472012-10-31T17:03:00.000-04:002012-10-31T17:03:42.639-04:00November is "No-Credit Card" month<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have a long-standing argument with J. about using credit cards or cash for local merchants. She pointed out to me that <a href="http://www.espressoroyale.com/locations.php?state=Michigan" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Espresso Royale</a> has signs asking customers to pay in cash for small orders as they paid thousand of dollars in credit cards fees last year. Many places in Ann Arbor still don't accept American Express because of their higher fees compared to VISA or Mastercard. The opposing view is that when businesses accept credit cards people tend to spend more, so what they may lose in fees, they gain in sales volume. So, my argument with J. has been that it's also necessary to know how much Espresso Royale's sales went up after they switched to credit cards. And who carries a fat wallet of cash anymore?<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
My reason for using credit cards has been less lofty - it's easier to keep accounts of what went where. The opposite reason of why you use cash not to have a 'paper trail'. The other advantage of using credit cards is that you are not spending your money, but rather the bank's money and in case of fraud or wrong charges, you are safe as long as you complain within 30 days. I have used this to get wrong charges taken off (somehow the fraudsters are always magazine subscriptions departments).<br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
On the flip side, it has been shown that people who use credit cards tend to spend more being more indifferent to pricing. Different areas of the brain light up when you have to dish out cash, as opposed to paying for it in the future using a credit card. The mind also automatically discounts costs that are far away in the future as opposed to immediate enjoyments. I happen to be in the 'dead beat' category - people who pay their credit cards on time, who don't overspend and are almost never late. Though even the most on top-of-the-game person, as the credit card industry has shown, will also miss on a few payments, or be late and tends to be charged about $30-45 dollars (my recollection of an NPR story) a year in fees/fines.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Then there are my German friends who refuse to use credit cards in general,because they did not want the government to know how they were spending their money. Big Brother is surely watching and the credit card companies certainly track every single expense. In fact, AMEX makes no real bones of the fact - they provide you summaries of what you spent in the whole year and <a href="http://www.mint.com/" target="_blank">MINT</a> (not a credit card company, but an aggregator of the information) offers comparisons to what amounts others spent. They don't wholly make clear, or obfuscate how this data is shared and/or sold to interested parties. (Note to self: turn up privacy settings to maximum for credit cards and Mint). </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
So, November has been decided as "Credit-Card Free Month" to empirically find answers to the following:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Is it possible to actually live in today's world without a credit card?</li>
<li>Does it make it easier to save? by way of making us more conscious of spending ?</li>
<li>... or just by spending less to begin with.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div>
Based on my analysis of past purchases on the credit card the things that I will have to give up for the next month will be:</div>
<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Amazon purchases</li>
<li>Groupon or Living Social purchases</li>
<li>Online purchases of any sort - REI, Adorama, etc.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Having to not use a credit card means that we will be forced to shop locally and we will have to use the long-lost art of writing checks at the grocery store.</div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-33662395604653210952012-10-18T10:12:00.000-04:002012-10-18T10:21:29.658-04:00On Vocabulary - Jason SchneidermanToday's poem on Poets.org is a a wonderful meditation on words lost, found and discovered <br />
<br />
<blockquote>I used to love words,<br />
but not looking them up.<br />
<br />
Now I love both,<br />
the knowing,<br />
<br />
and the looking up,<br />
the absurdity ....<br />
<br />
Discovery is always tinged<br />
with sorrow, the knowledge<br />
<br />
that you have been living<br />
without something,<br />
<br />
so we try to make learning<br />
the province of the young,<br />
<br />
who have less time to regret<br />
having lived in ignorance.<br />
<br />
</blockquote><br />
<a href="http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23178">Link to full poem</a><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"></div><br />
A great observation that we often make learning chiefly the "province of the young". Why? Perhaps we hate admitting ignorance.<br />
<br />
I disagree (as he says "This may surprise you") with his conclusion of notliking the author who ended his book on a obscure word. Picking up dictionaries is good.hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-38115091167423935362012-09-27T09:16:00.001-04:002012-09-27T09:16:22.155-04:00It's never to late...<blockquote>It's never too late to be who you might have been.<br />
George Eliot</blockquote>hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-33084485362074047452012-09-11T10:15:00.001-04:002012-09-11T10:17:53.540-04:00The Mother of all Puzzles<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
From a reader submitted puzzler on <a href="http://www.cartalk.com/content/all-time-most-confounding-puzzler-0" target="_blank">Car Talk (Aug. 23, 2008) </a>which I first read about in William Poundstone's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Are-Smart-Enough-Work-Google/dp/031609997X" target="_blank">"Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google"</a>. Hilarious reactions by readers on <a href="https://plus.google.com/108640673873589796416/posts/49sgkHoeMk8" target="_blank">Peter Norvig's post</a> on G+!<br />
<br />
So, either you can laugh about it, or start solving this mother of all puzzles!!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;">A hundred prisoners are each locked in a room with three pirates, one of whom will walk the plank in the morning. Each prisoner has 10 bottles of wine, one of which has been poisoned; and each pirate has 12 coins, one of which is counterfeit and weighs either more or less than a genuine coin. In the room is a single switch, which the prisoner may either leave as it is, or flip. Before being led into the rooms, the prisoners are all made to wear either a red hat or a blue hat; they can see all the other prisoners' hats, but not their own. Meanwhile, a six-digit prime number of monkeys multiply until their digits reverse, then all have to get across a river using a canoe that can hold at most two monkeys at a time. But half the monkeys always lie and the other half always tell the truth. Given that the Nth prisoner knows that one of the monkeys doesn't know that a pirate doesn't know the product of two numbers between 1 and 100 without knowing that the N+1th prisoner has flipped the switch in his room or not after having determined which bottle of wine was poisoned and what colour his hat is, what is the solution to this puzzle?</span></blockquote>
<br />
<b>Update:</b><br />
On second thought this should be called "The deranged offspring of all puzzles" instead of the title above. </div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-81692656435171299352012-09-09T17:47:00.002-04:002012-09-09T17:55:53.870-04:00Andre Kertesz - On Reading<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Robert Gurbo in the introduction to Andre Kertesz's book <i>On Reading </i>writes that the famous series is reissued at a time when digital media, ebooks and computers are threatening to eliminate the reader of the printed word. The timeless image of a person head-down poring over a book is now being replaced with people transfixed in similar ways to their cell phones, laptops, e-readers.<br />
<br />
The New York Times ran a photo spread on the impossibility of capturing street images of people without anyone head down checking their devices (<a href="http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/passersby-preoccupied/" target="_blank">Misha Erwitt's: Cellphone pre-occupation</a>). The series of pictures shows people in states of preoccupation talking, texting, checking email. (My favorite is the the woman talking next to the Giacommeti statue). In comparison, as Gurbo notes in the preface, "... Kertesz's timeless images of people transported to another world by the intimate process of opening a book or newspaper ... "<br />
<br />
Is there an essential difference? Is there a difference between a person texting on a bench versus a person reading a book? Is it more of a disconnection from reality and your surroundings to be staring into a computer screen into the vastness of the internet versus fingers curled around a folded newspaper?<br />
<br />
I went back and forth between the collections and I tried to reach a conclusion - is one better than the other? or is is just a symptom of conditioning?<br />
<br />
Sounds like a beaten down trope - <b>"digital bad, analog good"</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://c10184100.r0.cf2.rackcdn.com/03-29-56_andre-kertesz-on-reading_original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="348" src="http://c10184100.r0.cf2.rackcdn.com/03-29-56_andre-kertesz-on-reading_original.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
To me, there is an appropriate choice of words for Erwitt's series versus Kertesz's.<br />
<br />
Preoccupied vs. absorbed<br />
Distracted vs. transported<br />
Disconnected vs. immersed<br />
<br />
It's hard for me to believe that anyone can actually read anything on the internet with it's easy-to-navigate HTML links. Add to that the numerous distractions of messages, tweets, and emails. You don't really travel anywhere on the internet, you simply bounce around.<br />
<br />
This is one my favorite images from Andre Kertesz's collection of photographs - <i>On Reading</i>. A boy eating an ice-cream reading the comics section from a scattered bunch of newspapers. Andre Kertesz captures the essence of reading: the solitary, self-absorbed pleasure that transports you to a different place. The only thing that would mar that image would the silhouette of a person talking on the cellphone. Of course, the boy would not notice.</div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-42769470875549904512012-09-06T16:13:00.000-04:002012-09-06T16:13:08.676-04:00Acceptance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A student once asked his Zen master, "Why did you not ever marry?"<br />
<br />
The Zen master replied, "Well, I was looking for the perfect woman".<br />
<br />
The student eagerly asked, " Did you not find the perfect woman?"<br />
<br />
"Oh, I did", replied the Zen master with a smile.<br />
<br />
"Then...what happened.. why did you not marry her?"<br />
<br />
The Zen master paused and with a twinkle in his eye said, "Well, she was looking for the perfect man."<br />
<br />
(paraphrased from John Gottman)<br />
<br /></div>
hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-31034733134565513972012-05-16T12:21:00.000-04:002012-05-16T12:28:00.651-04:00Ralph Williams on ShakespeareRalph Williams who lectured on Shakespeare is one of the best-loved professors at Michigan. He has now retired but thankfully is still around in an emeritus capacity. Link to this short series of meditations on Shakespeare, passages and language.<br />
<a href="http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwcCBXWKOkE&feature=relmfu">LSA video: Part I</a><br />hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-38735542927060813052012-05-15T15:44:00.000-04:002012-05-15T15:47:19.428-04:00Monkeys, Shakespeare and the Internet<blockquote>"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true."<br />
~Robert Wilensky</blockquote>hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-33916332729728964692012-05-06T11:25:00.000-04:002012-07-02T10:15:41.488-04:00Social significance of rocks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><blockquote class="tr_bq"> "The world is going to pieces and people like Adams and Weston are photographing rocks!'</blockquote>Henri Cartier Bresson<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"I still believe there is a real social significance in a rock - just as there is in a line of unemployed. For that opinion I am charged with inhumanity, unawareness."</blockquote>Ansel Adams, to Edward Weston<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"I agree with you that there is just as much 'social significance in a rock' as in 'a line of unemployed.' All depends on the seeing . . . If I have in some way awakened others to a broader conception of life - added significance and beauty to their lives - . . . then I have functioned, and am satisfied."</blockquote>Edward Weston, to Ansel Adams<br />
</div>hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-66768424407245113582012-03-17T15:57:00.000-04:002012-03-17T16:10:19.811-04:00Ole' Brittania<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Encyclopedia Britannica announced on Tuesday that the 2010 edition was the last print edition. They would not be printing any more. After 244 years, the mother of all encyclopedias decided that that a better business model would be to move to an online-only version.<br />
<a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/after-244-years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/?hp">(See New York Times report)</a>. They were not selling well: there were 4,000 editions of the 2010 edition that were still in the warehouse (unsold) and perhaps many more at distributors all over the world.<br />
<br />
It pained me to read that suddenly the staple of many libraries and many homes will cease to be. Market forces had triumphed and Schumpeterian 'creative destruction' has triumphed. It represented a whole world for many of us. Whether you were a reader or not, there was something magnificent about just seeing those bound editions on a shelf. (A more magnificent experience was experienced on reading them).<br />
<br />
We did not own the Britannica while growing up. It is and was very expensive. Instead our Dad got us another set - Grolier's - which we used so much that the plastic covers tore from the frequent removal, and putting it back, or not putting it back, leaving it open in the midst of things. My father was actually very proud that they looked so worn and used over the years. He liked to joke about people who also had such bound editions of encyclopedias gracing their living room, but in such pristine shape that "they could not be possibly be read more than a few times".<br />
<br />
The Encyclopedia Brittanica was not so common in people's homes in India (It was mostly the World Book who had a team of dedicated franchisees). I cannot recall anyone possessing an edition. You would find it libraries everywhere. There was always an aspirational quality associated with it. My Dad and I often talked about replacing our set with it. We never did.<br />
<br />
I did have access to it. The Encyclopedia Britannica was kept in a special metal cabinet at the Poona Club Library. The editions were somewhat old, but they were placed in a prominent spot by the entrance. It had the effect of a jewel-case - they were seen by everybody who walked in, they were always locked up and you needed to ask the librarian special permission to access the volumes. They could not be checked out. They could be read in the library only. I used it for special school projects and essays that I needed to write. But, that wasn't the main reason. I did it mostly because I had a good reason to walk up to the librarian and ask for the keys. As a precocious 12-yr old I wanted to show up the adults and thumb my nose at their 'lowly' tastes as they read magazines at the reading table. Here I was carrying this gigantic brown-leather volume of the Britannica, then noisily going through those light, translucent pages with the smell of volumes that had lain there for too long, and then I took notes. A real serious reader and scholar in their midst.<br />
<br />
A few months ago, I decided to stop being so stingy and donated a substantial amount to the Wikipedia foundation. I have spent hours and hours on their website looking up the most arcane, mundane, or insane subjects. Oddly, the so-called 'Britannica-killer' also needs $$$ to survive. A fact that makes you think everything that is good cannot be free, or that you can live off the charity of others forever. Wikipedia is a great idea. It has made access to information more or less democratic (provided you have an internet connection). I am all for that. But, I am also for the older version.<br />
<br />
True that HTML links are easy to click, words and things are easy to find. You could be reading an article and if you wanted to know something you were a tab and a few keystrokes away. The information online is more updated and there is a lot more of it. All true. But there is something else to old media - books, newspapers, dictionaries and the encyclopedia. You get lost more often, you take time to find something that you were looking for. In passing, you read a lot more words, learn a lot more things than a goal-direction search. Besides, there is the sheer physicality of of it. Turning pages, holding the spine, carrying all that weight of words and knowledge ... our ideas and knowledge are not as abstract as we think them to be. There is nothing more alive, living and breathing than an actual sheet of paper with words on it (This computer won't understand).<br />
<br />
Yes, I have ordered the last set.<br />
<br />
<b>Update:</b><br />
Today, I received a call from the distributor that they cannot fulfill my order given the overwhelming response. He said that they received 100 orders within 2 hours after the story broke (I presume on the NYT website). Apparently, antique collectors, other bibliophiles (like myself) suddenly woke up and decided to order that last edition. He thinks that this is not going to be valuable. Perhaps not. It's not the reason why many of wanted to buy it. On parting he wanted to bribe me with a DVD for 2012 for me not to leave negative feedback on Amazon.</div>hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137957.post-41328602983160933402012-02-28T22:46:00.000-05:002012-02-28T22:46:36.447-05:00On Distraction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">If you are reading this then you are most likely distracted from doing what you should be doing. If Hanif Kureishi is right then this can be a good a thing. (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/opinion/sunday/the-art-of-distraction.html">Hanif Kureishi on Distraction</a>). The article was on the subject of Ritalin and how that can atomize someone's natural creativity to enforce a more standardized view. Of course, this is over-medicated America. But Kureishi, a distracted person himself, writes:<br />
<blockquote>I might have been depressed as a teenager, but I wasn’t beyond enjoying some beautiful distractions. Since my father had parked a large part of his library in my bedroom, when I was bored with studying I would pick up a volume and flip through it until I came upon something that interested me. I ended up finding, more or less randomly, fascinating things while supposedly doing something else. Similarly, while listening to the radio, I became aware of artists and musicians I’d otherwise never have heard of. I had at least learned that if I couldn’t accept education from anyone else, I might just have to feed myself.<br />
<br />
From this point of view — that of drift and dream; of looking out for interest; of following this or that because it seems alive — Ritalin and other forms of enforcement and psychological policing are the contemporary equivalent of the old practice of tying up children’s hands in bed, so they won’t touch their genitals. The parent stupefies the child for the parent’s good. There is more to this than keeping out the interesting: there is the fantasy and terror that someone here will become pleasure’s victim, disappearing into a spiral of enjoyment from which he or she will not return.</blockquote>But, I digress. Coming back to the subject of distraction, Kureishi at the end talks about the virtues of distraction. Like anything else, it's a fine line to draw the distinction between good and bad distractions:<br />
<blockquote>It is said that distractions are too easy to come by now that most writers use computers, though it’s just as convenient to flee through the mind’s window into fantasy. In the end, a person requires a method. He must be able to distinguish between creative and destructive distractions by the sort of taste they leave, whether they feel depleting or fulfilling. And this can work only if he is, as much as possible, in good communication with himself — if he is, as it were, on his own side, caring for himself imaginatively, an artist of his own life.</blockquote></div>hirakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092831514643850562noreply@blogger.com0