Daily Office:
Monday, 15 November 2010
Although we haven’t left New York, we’re already on vacation, so let’s see what the Daily Office is going to look like for the next two weeks. Mind you, we’re not going to do this every day!
Matins ¶ At The Lede, Robert Mackie takes note of Glenn Beck’s strange ideas about George Soros. While it’s true, as Beck claims, that Soros has bankrolled revolutionary movements in Central Europe and elsewhere, he has invariably supported the proponents of open, genuinely democratic government. It is weirdly appropriate that Beck’s position on Soros sounds just like Iran’s. For anyone still in doubt, Beck’s “attack” is proof that making sense is not what interests the shiller of gold coins. Rebuttal, it follows, is a waste of time. Better just to make noise about the actual achievement of George Soros.
Lauds ¶ At The House Next Door, Paul Brunick writes appreciately of Todd Haynes’s movies, but he finds that Haynes, as an “ethical thinker” who “wants to make the world a better place” is at odds with the “amoral fantasist” Jean Genet, from whom he drew material for his 1991 triptych, Poison. ¶ Leah Rozen looks into why the Hollywood of today is so much less interested in the working class than Depression-era Hollywood was. (NYT) We think that it’s because the Warner Brothers are no longer with us, an idea that we probably picked up from Ethan Mordden.
Prime ¶ We didn’t roll up our sleeves and get to work on the national budget this weekend (the Editor’s wife gave it a shot), but we were dying to know what Felix Salmon would make of David Leonhardt’s learning game. We sensed, as indeed Felix argues, that “You Fix the Budget” oversimplified some things. But his main beef was that the Times didn’t offer enough in the way of tax-hike proposals, in effect making the game too difficult. (We like what Felix has to say about a consumption tax.) In a related entry, Mr Salmon gores the mortgage-interest deduction, mainly by asking just how many Americans benefit by it, and where they’re to be found on the economic landscape.
Tierce ¶ They’re digging up Tycho Brahe again, this time to submit his remains to the latest scanning techniques. Nobody can quite believe that the celebrated Danish astronomer, who worked on the cusp of the Scientific Revolution but remained thoroughly medieval in outlook — he had the best modern equipment, but a premodern mind — died of a bladder infection. When they exhumed him the last time, in 1901, scientists discovered a surfeit of mercury in a hair from his moustache. That’s what you get when you dabble in alchemy. (80 Beats)
Sext ¶ Sarah Bakewell writes one of those lovely Montaigne-was-the-first-blogger pieces that always make us warm and tingly, and often inspire us to pull down the Essais. In the comments that follow, Cecile Alduy complains that Montaigne’s pieces are not really as improvised as they appear to be; that he in fact reworked them repeatedly through three editions. Ms Bakewell heartily agrees, and so do we: blogging doesn’t have to be sloppy and mindless, and good bloggers usually revisit the issues that interest them. (Paris Review Daily; via The Millions)
Nones ¶ It’s possible that Fintan O’Toole intends “Ireland still has the power to make itself a country worth staying in” to be an ironic title for his hortatory essay, which basically calls upon the Irish to effect a complete reform of their government so as to fashion a true republic. We hear suitcases zipping. (Guardian; via Real Clear World) ¶ But Eliot Spitzer is plain as can be about what’s wrong with the United States: “Wall Street’s 30 year carnival.” We assent to his jeremiad against the “self-interested ideology” that conservatives have been spouting, but we wish that the former governor said more about the rupture between finance (investment) and industry (jobs) — American industry. (Slate; via Real Clear World)
Vespers ¶ Emily St John Mandel reads Hint Fiction and cuts right through the hype. Some of the pieces in this collection of “25 words or less” compositions are great — Joyce Carol Oates, Jason Rice, and Donora Hiller are singled out — but far more are “creepy in a cheap way.” She doesn’t say so, but Hint Fiction comes off as a gimmick.
Compline ¶ In a grand long read at The New Atlantis — shame on us for losing track of how we came across it — Algis Valiunis considers the more serious exemplars of self-help literature, which, even if it fails to help most of those who rely on it, at least tells us what we think we ought to be doing. ¶ Terry Teachout insists that no matter how many tens of thousands of hours you put in to developing a skill, you’re still not going to be Mozart. (WSJ) Our own view is that nobody was ever hurt by the Ericsson Rule. If nothing else, it crushes our natural yearning for royal roads and easy steps. The best way to help yourself is to work hard at something for which you have an aptitude. The trick, of course, is buying the time for all that practice.
¶ The new wing at Boston’s MFA. (Globe)
¶ Other -extings. (The Bygone Bureau)
¶ Richard Crary visits the zoo — bad idea. (The Existence Machine)