I got a call last night (June 6) from my mom letting me know that my grandmother, Dolores Naggie, died, after having been in the ICU for over 3 weeks, most of the time on a ventilator and feeding tube. I had gone out two weeks ago and spent three days with her. The ventilator prevented her from speaking, so I spent the time there holding her hand.
I first went out to visit her Monday, May 27. She had been admitted to the hospital the previous Sunday (May 19). On Tuesday (May 21) they discovered several infections. I believe they put her on life support on Wednesday (May 22) and a social worker came to speak with my family on Thursday (May 23). I went to see her on Monday (May 27) and everyone told me she was looking much better. On Tuesday (May 28) morning they took out the ventilator and she was able to say a few words with difficulty. She said she loved me. Apparently my Aunt Kathy came early Wednesday (May 29) and spent a lot of time with her. By the time we arrived she was exhausted and slept for most of the visit.
I just got off work and need to quickly shower, dress, and pack before heading to the airport. This post was written in part as an excuse for my delayed reflections on last month, which I'll write when I return.
Friday, June 7, 2019
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
A Game of Thrones Mosaic
Here is a selection of responses to Game of Thrones that I found on my Facebook feed:
Predictions
...If there's any justice, whoever wins THE IRON THRONE, by the time she or he wins it, won't want it anymore, and will convince the others that in order to free the people from their enthrallment to its power, the throne itself MUST BE DESTROYED, and if there's still a dragon handy, what better way to do that than to MELT IT DOWN WITH DRAGON FIRE...
...I just remembered where I thought GRRM was going with the books, by around book three. One of the biggest developing elements that fell by the wayside. There was evidence in the books that the world of the story was subject to bizarre and extreme seasonal cycles, and what he seemed to be building toward was a winter that would lock most of the lands in snow and ice, lasting for years, devastating food supplies, killing millions. Against this planetary backdrop, the political and personal stories he'd set in motion would play out. I was really looking forward to it...
Reflections
...All right then, I'll admit it. I never watched The Game of Thrones. I never go to see all the blockbuster superhero movies. But their popularity implies that what the public wants is fantasy. Possibly it's confirmation of something Eliot said some eight decades ago: "Humankind cannot bear very much reality." Is that truer now than it was then? Has reality become less bearable--too violent, too scary? On the other hand, these fantasies are anything but placid, anodyne and saccharine. Disquieting fact: To make GOT, some 4000 gallons of fake blood were used...
...So... given where they left us at the end of the previous episode, probably the best they could have done? Surprisingly good really. If they'd really sold Daenerys's heel turn—requiring a lot of rewriting back to s7, & more episodes in the last two seasons (its rush was the biggest problem, I think, unless you count the fact that they ran out of books to adapt) — this might have been a good ending, overall (which means GRRM could still pull it off, I think). If my twitter feed is representative (big if, obviously) I'm in the minority here. But I really do think that the problems here (a fair dose of corniness aside) were from the earlier eps, not this one. I think they did well, given 8.5 & before...
...The first ten minutes were chilling and powerful. Grey Worm demonstrates how terrifying it is to have an army of Zealot/Templar/Absolutists at your disposal, and the Dothraki army of wild men and marauders reveal how close everything is to chaos. Tyrion, Jon, Arya, and Davos seemed like the only sane people left in the world. Oh, and it was a great answer to the internet that Dany had not actually gone insane at all. Instead, she had become completely convicted in her absolutism and her belief in her own virtue. Her idea of top down moral good dictated from above was beautifully countered by Jon when he suggested to her that there might be other views of what’s good. This sequence rocked!—all the way through to the murder of the queen and the dragon’s melting the Iron Throne into slag (there was a nice expositional reminder too of what that throne had been made from and what it really represented). A nice touch too that Dany never actually sits on the throne as well. Jon’s conflict was clear—he did love her, and he is not an intellectual. He is there for a reason though, and at the right time, he chooses his Stark family over the Targaryen heritage of conquest and incest. The wheel is broken and Drogon burst of fire shows that he is either wiser than we realized or caught in a double bind and unable to vent his dragon wrath on his own family—thus, the throne is consumed. After that, it becomes a matter of denouement. Samwell got a great laugh when he offers the idea of choosing a king by acclaim (Democracy!) and we are quickly reminded that this is not a civilized or modern world—that dissonance is important in how we read the ending. How wonderful too that Tyrion solves it like a puzzle and becomes the de facto king (administrating a kingdom) while Bran is busy flying about as a raven. Tyrion is where he is supposed to be, and Bronn, Brienne, Davos, and Samwell too. Jamie gets his heraldry recorded nobly by Brienne. Arya goes to the west—as she should. Sanza rules as a glorious but primitive queen, and Jon not only pets Ghost, but he is returned to the place he found true love (“You know nothing, Jon Snow.”).
...So with the usual !!SPOILER!! proviso, this is the first & last Game of Thrones post by someone who was less than obsessive but watched it nonetheless, thought it was the best-LOOKING show ever, admired the stellar cast esp Headey & Dinklage, appreciated the hard-R telling of a fantasy epic (my friend Robert Chancey described it, unenthusiastically, as Harry Potter goes Shakespeare but actually it was more Lord of the Rings goes Deadwood), and was blown away by occasional directorial tours de force (eg Battle of the Bastards), but also found more subplots and sub-characters than one could care about even over the course of a decade. For everyone smarter about this, I have a couple of petty spoiler-ridden questions about last night having to do with the mechanix of storytelling. I thought matters proceeded just fine up till the dragon flew off into the clouds with Dany’s body while Snow looked on, but then: How did everyone know Jon had stabbed her, or indeed what had happened to her at all other than that she disappeared? Were there witnesses hiding in the rubble of that scene we didn’t see? Did Snow in one of his typically tiresome piques of integrity feel compelled to announce to the decimated city from the top of the steps, “Hey, everyone, I just assassinated the queen I’ve been boinking the last two seasons”? And I know Tyrion is a smooth talker, but when -- still a prisoner by command of a queen no longer in command let alone alive -- he’s brought before a council of characters who are suddenly getting along better than they have in nine years for the purpose of some kind of sentencing, doesn’t he talk everyone into the logic of Bran’s kingship rather easily? “Yes.” “OK.” “Sure.” “Why not?” “Sounds good to me.” "Wow, that thing he just said about the power of stories -- who can resist that?" And why is that Grey Worm dude, whose devotion to the queen has been ruthlessly zealous to the point of bloodthirsty just 15 minutes earlier, suddenly acceding to the authority of all these other people to whom he owes no loyalty whatsoever that I know of? I’m personally & painfully aware that endings can be hard to pull off, which means I also recognize writers’ sleight of hand when I see it, and this finale seemed a concoction of facile fast-forwards, fades-to-black and cue-the-musics. If only we could salvage America so easily...
...I will only do this once and only because our own queen of the north returns home today: I very much like -- that is, I think it quite telling and interesting -- that we can imagine a dragon who happily goes on an apocalyptic slaughter of innocents at noon but, by one o'clock, has strong enough emotional and moral boundaries (in anguished, grieving rage) to understand that the man who stabbed his mother in a murderously deceitful kiss actually did the right thing. Moreover, it was the "right" thing because the dragon's mother had committed the crime of urging the same dragon to slaughter. In the (anthropocene? anthropomorphic?) moment, then, the dragon was able to realize that the abstract quest for absolute power (either from the right or left) and its macabre symbols (the iron throne) are to be the true targets. Mass death and destruction are somewhat last week's news.
As Tyrian says, the most powerful things we have are stories. And our stories, right now, are quite telling, if we choose to read them with care...
...Ross Douthat in the NYTimes opinion pages ponders his fantasy-nerd youth anent the the end of Game of Thrones, with many fans and non-fans respond. This was my response: How about fantasy without swords? I can believe that Ross was a fantasy nerd in youth and is still devoted to the tropes, indispensable word we now possess; but Martin's unreal world is boring, surprising only in the way a political novel is: everyone is either a possessor of power, a striver for power, or a victim of power, a sort of Leninist who-whom in another world. If Game of Thrones is an allegory it is an allegory of a world, ours, where nothing matters but personal power or the attachment to power; the limits of the allegory fail the riches of the allegorized world. As a good fantasy nerd you might have read T.H. White's Once and Future King trilogy, where goodness is the measure most often, and striving to be good and do good are the story. Maybe you also read C.S. Lewis, or Mythago Wood, Little, Big, in which wonder, duty, love, humor, and common human connections are at once stronger than and aided by ambiguous powers. I'd like to hear a Catholic thinker and writer ponder that.
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Month in Review: April
January remains the benchmark month of this year in terms of accomplishments. Although I continue to make progress, it is very slow. The story, for one, is developing in new and interesting ways. It is definitely becoming a much better story, and it is also slipping further and further into the future. Perhaps it would be best to devote May entirely to drawing. One reason I am able to "read" as much as I do, is because I listen to a lot of audiobooks. About 75% of my reading is audiobooks. I also started listening to amimetobios series "Imagining Money" a second time, this time rereading many of the required texts and taking careful notes. I will probably post some of my notes here in the near future. A week or so ago I made a list of political problems. I wrote it fairly quickly and off-the-cuff, but I think it is useful, if only as a starting point. I'll share it here:
THOUGHTS ON ECONOMY
1.) As much as we love the fruits of capitalism: everyone having a new cell phone every year or so (the old ones not fixed, but tossed in the trash), new cars, flatscreen t.v.s, computers, etc etc... it is not a model for the world simply because there are not enough resources for everyone on the planet to live at this level of luxury.
2.) Not only that, but even at humanity's current level of consumption we are destroying the planet. Icecaps are melting, oceans are full of trash, pesticides are killing off the bees and most other insects essential to pollination and thus the very framework of the ecosystem and so of life. This is bad enough as it is, but the failure of some of these systems could cause feedback loops spiraling the planet into ecological collapse.
3.) One possible step might be to reduce consumption, but that would mean reduce production--i.e. to work less (something inimical to the capitalist work ethos). There have been at least two books recently published on so called bullshit jobs. And while some jobs are merely time sinks, there are other professions that have a net damage on the economy (when we factor in costs in damage to the environment). As a side note, there have been psychological tests conducted that have shown people are happier when given extra time rather than extra things (but is this really surprising?).
4.) Friends of mine have said to me, why do you hate capitalism when it has brought so much prosperity? Of course, it can be debated whence the origins of modern prosperity. I do, nonetheless, recognize and appreciate the modern world. I would not want to live at any other time. Still, for me that has never been the primary question. I prefer capitalism to feudalism, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't strive to recognize its faults and search for something better.
5.) I feel instinctually, that there is something profoundly immoral about capitalism. The desire to make something of quality seems at odds with the desire to make a buck.
6.) Furthermore, capitalism seems opposed to community and genuine human relations, a point Graeber communicates very well in *Debt.*
7.) Lastly, my biggest problem with capitalism, at least how it is currently functioning in America now, is that it undermines equality and democracy. Capitalism, being founded on constant growth and ruthless competition, invites monopolies and tyranny.
8.) On working less.
a. if you grant that we are producing too much and that producing less would be beneficial for the planet, then we have to consider the effects of working less.
b. first, it seems inevitable. Much traditional labor will be conducted by robots.
c. second, what is really needed now is a massive investment in educated and training for high tech jobs. Not only because these will become more and more the only kinds of jobs of the future, but also because climate change and population growth demand that we develop the skills to address these challenges, which will include geoengineering and the setting up of human habitations beyond Earth.
9.) On market value v. utility. Baumol's cost disease taught us that the utility of certain kinds of work is not equal to its market value. For example, people in developed countries (especially America) suffer from ill-health due to eating too much processed food. Why? Because it is cheaper to buy a jar of strawberry jam than a cartoon of fresh strawberries. Why? Because the strawberries for jam can be machine harvested, whereas fresh strawberries require manual labor. Nonetheless, fresh fruit has a higher utility than jam and it would be beneficial to make it more readily available than something like processed fruit. This might mean that certain tasks that require human labor receive some kind of funding or support to offset the cost difference.
Books Read:
David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years
Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour
Alfred McCoy, In the Shadows of the American Century
Pierson and Hacker, Winner Take All Politics
Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt
Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140
Kim Stanley Robinson, Aurora
William Flesch, Comeuppance
To Read:
Flannery and Marcus, The Creation of Inequality
Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees
Ada Palmer, Terra Ignota v.3
Cixin Liu, Three Body Problem v.2 and 3
THOUGHTS ON ECONOMY
1.) As much as we love the fruits of capitalism: everyone having a new cell phone every year or so (the old ones not fixed, but tossed in the trash), new cars, flatscreen t.v.s, computers, etc etc... it is not a model for the world simply because there are not enough resources for everyone on the planet to live at this level of luxury.
2.) Not only that, but even at humanity's current level of consumption we are destroying the planet. Icecaps are melting, oceans are full of trash, pesticides are killing off the bees and most other insects essential to pollination and thus the very framework of the ecosystem and so of life. This is bad enough as it is, but the failure of some of these systems could cause feedback loops spiraling the planet into ecological collapse.
3.) One possible step might be to reduce consumption, but that would mean reduce production--i.e. to work less (something inimical to the capitalist work ethos). There have been at least two books recently published on so called bullshit jobs. And while some jobs are merely time sinks, there are other professions that have a net damage on the economy (when we factor in costs in damage to the environment). As a side note, there have been psychological tests conducted that have shown people are happier when given extra time rather than extra things (but is this really surprising?).
4.) Friends of mine have said to me, why do you hate capitalism when it has brought so much prosperity? Of course, it can be debated whence the origins of modern prosperity. I do, nonetheless, recognize and appreciate the modern world. I would not want to live at any other time. Still, for me that has never been the primary question. I prefer capitalism to feudalism, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't strive to recognize its faults and search for something better.
5.) I feel instinctually, that there is something profoundly immoral about capitalism. The desire to make something of quality seems at odds with the desire to make a buck.
6.) Furthermore, capitalism seems opposed to community and genuine human relations, a point Graeber communicates very well in *Debt.*
7.) Lastly, my biggest problem with capitalism, at least how it is currently functioning in America now, is that it undermines equality and democracy. Capitalism, being founded on constant growth and ruthless competition, invites monopolies and tyranny.
8.) On working less.
a. if you grant that we are producing too much and that producing less would be beneficial for the planet, then we have to consider the effects of working less.
b. first, it seems inevitable. Much traditional labor will be conducted by robots.
c. second, what is really needed now is a massive investment in educated and training for high tech jobs. Not only because these will become more and more the only kinds of jobs of the future, but also because climate change and population growth demand that we develop the skills to address these challenges, which will include geoengineering and the setting up of human habitations beyond Earth.
9.) On market value v. utility. Baumol's cost disease taught us that the utility of certain kinds of work is not equal to its market value. For example, people in developed countries (especially America) suffer from ill-health due to eating too much processed food. Why? Because it is cheaper to buy a jar of strawberry jam than a cartoon of fresh strawberries. Why? Because the strawberries for jam can be machine harvested, whereas fresh strawberries require manual labor. Nonetheless, fresh fruit has a higher utility than jam and it would be beneficial to make it more readily available than something like processed fruit. This might mean that certain tasks that require human labor receive some kind of funding or support to offset the cost difference.
Books Read:
David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years
Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour
Alfred McCoy, In the Shadows of the American Century
Pierson and Hacker, Winner Take All Politics
Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt
Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140
Kim Stanley Robinson, Aurora
William Flesch, Comeuppance
To Read:
Flannery and Marcus, The Creation of Inequality
Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees
Ada Palmer, Terra Ignota v.3
Cixin Liu, Three Body Problem v.2 and 3
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Month in Review: March
I have made several key changes in direction and revisions for how I want to tell my story. And, perhaps most importantly, I've hit upon a title (which will remain secret for now). Looking around, I don't feel like I've accomplished much. I've been picking away at a few paintings and drawings, but nothing is finished. I've been sketching a bit as well.
I finished Richard White's history, one of the best books I've read all year. This one was quite a surprise. My initial reaction was very lukewarm, but once I reached the Gilded Age I was riveted. I knew very little of the period and so the book was very useful in filling in many gaps as well as showing me paths forward. Stepping away from the book I was curious about what came after. I realized I knew about as little about the Progressive Age as I did about the Gilded Age. I may get to Daniel Rodgers' Atlantic Crossings later this year.
A book very different than White, but compelling was David Graeber's "Debt: The First 5000 Years." I had been looking for an answer to a question libertarians kept posing, or rather, not a question, but rather a questionable assertion: would life be better without government? Graeber's book is full of surprising and interesting observations, many of them culled from archaeology research that has been known about for years, but never integrated into current understandings of economics.
Lastly, per the suggestion of Philip Nikolayev, I read Plato's Republic. Actually I read it twice and will most definitely read it a few more times. I don't feel like this was at all a diversion from my reading plan, since my topic is Economics and Utopia. There was a lot I found useful in reading the Republic. The cycles of government was particularly important for me. Perhaps, the second most valuable aspect of the book was its beauty. The rhythm of the language expresses a way of thinking and being in the world that I have been adapting to my day to day life.
Books Read:
Richard White, The Republic for Which it Stands
Erik Loomis, A History of America in Ten Strikes
Plato, Apology, Crito, Charmides, Laches, Lysis, Menexenus, Ion, Gorgias, Protagoras, Meno, Euthydemus, Lesser Hippias, Greater Hippias, The Republic
David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years
Paul Cartledge, Democracy: A Life
April Reading:
Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour
Ada Palmer, Terra Ignota v.3
Finish Graeber's Debt
Flannery and Marcus, The Creation of Inequality
Gilbert Ryle, Plato's Progress
William Flesch, Comeuppance
I finished Richard White's history, one of the best books I've read all year. This one was quite a surprise. My initial reaction was very lukewarm, but once I reached the Gilded Age I was riveted. I knew very little of the period and so the book was very useful in filling in many gaps as well as showing me paths forward. Stepping away from the book I was curious about what came after. I realized I knew about as little about the Progressive Age as I did about the Gilded Age. I may get to Daniel Rodgers' Atlantic Crossings later this year.
A book very different than White, but compelling was David Graeber's "Debt: The First 5000 Years." I had been looking for an answer to a question libertarians kept posing, or rather, not a question, but rather a questionable assertion: would life be better without government? Graeber's book is full of surprising and interesting observations, many of them culled from archaeology research that has been known about for years, but never integrated into current understandings of economics.
Lastly, per the suggestion of Philip Nikolayev, I read Plato's Republic. Actually I read it twice and will most definitely read it a few more times. I don't feel like this was at all a diversion from my reading plan, since my topic is Economics and Utopia. There was a lot I found useful in reading the Republic. The cycles of government was particularly important for me. Perhaps, the second most valuable aspect of the book was its beauty. The rhythm of the language expresses a way of thinking and being in the world that I have been adapting to my day to day life.
Books Read:
Richard White, The Republic for Which it Stands
Erik Loomis, A History of America in Ten Strikes
Plato, Apology, Crito, Charmides, Laches, Lysis, Menexenus, Ion, Gorgias, Protagoras, Meno, Euthydemus, Lesser Hippias, Greater Hippias, The Republic
David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years
Paul Cartledge, Democracy: A Life
April Reading:
Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour
Ada Palmer, Terra Ignota v.3
Finish Graeber's Debt
Flannery and Marcus, The Creation of Inequality
Gilbert Ryle, Plato's Progress
William Flesch, Comeuppance
Saturday, March 2, 2019
Month in Review: February
I was very busy in January and my exertion took its toll. I scaled things back for February. I didn’t pull any all nighters, nor was I working late into the night or waking up at the crack of dawn to finish daily goals. It was a needed break, but I plan to get back on track for March.
Books read:
Rick Perlstein, The Invisible Bridge
Tony Judt, Thinking the Twentieth Century
Tony Judt, Postwar
Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands: the United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age 1865 to 1896
Mark Blyth, Austerity
Paul Cartledge, Democracy: A Life (started)
Goodstein, Georg Simmel (started)
Buchanan, Frozen Desire (started)
As for drawing and writing: I did begin to redraw my illustration of Orpheus. I mostly wanted to practice lettering. I found a Bauhaus font I liked and used that. I'd like to finish the rest of the drawing in a complementary style. Other than that piece, I mostly did sketching. I did a lot of story boarding and have most of the current book as well some of a possible second book. Of course, getting from storyboards to the finished book is another matter. I've still been following amimetobios course on Money and Literature, including doing the readings for each week (although I'm only up to week 2 for the readings). Lastly, I sent out 4 of 5 copies of Ron Drummond's The Frequency of Liberation as part of a FB game. The fifth copy I will hand deliver. This project took a bit longer than I expected, but I was happy to do it. Hopefully those I sent the book out to receive and enjoy them.
I'm putting together a long reading list in preparation for my essay on Utopia and Economics. In no way do I plan on getting to all of these in March. In fact, my March reading will probably be mostly composed of selections from amimetobios Imagining Money course. I may begin drafting my essay as well.
Utopia and Economics Reading List
Economics
Marx, Capital (v.1)
Freedman, The Incomplete Projects
Georg Simmel, The Philosophy of Money
Goodstein, Georg Simmel and the Disciplinary Imaginary
Blyth, Austerity
David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years
James Buchanan, Frozen Desire
History
Tim Blanning, Pursuit of Glory
Lichtheim, Europe in the 20C
Michael Howard, The Oxford History of the 20C
Gregory Claeys, The Philosophy of Money
Klosko, The Transformation of American Liberalism
Winkler, The Age of Catastrophe
Politics
Hobbes, Leviathan
Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (v. 1-2)
Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics (v. 1-3)
Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests
Klopenberg, Toward Democracy
Kitcher, Science, Truth, and Democracy
Robert Wiebe, Self-Rule
Paul Cartledge, Democracy: A Life
For drawing, I hope to finish at least a few pages the book. I want to bring the storyboarding closer to completion as well as have all the pages sketched out fully in draft form. I'm especially interested in finishing what is a kind of book within the book. I'd like to have more of a schedule for how I work. This is a plan I've considered:
Mornings: Read and Write (about 1-2 hours a day)
Evenings: Draw (at least 15 minutes if with Lily, at least 1 hour if not)
Final note: I just started reading Scott McCloud's graphic novel Understanding Comics. Quite good. Worth a mention.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Imagining Money
I've been casually following the course Imagining Money on the Amimetobios podcast. It consists of 13 themed weeks:
Since the announcement of the course I planned on following it carefully, reading all of the texts, and making my own observations on my readings. I hope to begin doing that now. Anyone following this blog is more than welcome to follow along and post their own comments. The readings for week 1 are as follows:
There are links to many of these texts on the amimetobios page under the appropriate course week.
https://amimetobios.podbean.com/e/imagining-money-literature-and-economics-1-16-19/
WEEK 1: THE VALUE OF MONEY
WEEK 2: MONEY AS CRYPTO-ALLEGORY
WEEK 3: UNNATURAL VALUES: INTEREST AND GIFT-GIVING
WEEK 4: UNNATURAL VALUES: INTEREST AND GIFT-GIVING II
WEEK 5: THE INVISIBLE HAND
WEEK 6: DEFOE, ROXANA
WEEK 7: COMMODITIES, FICTIONAL VALUES AND GAMBLING
WEEK 8: MARKETS, GAMBLING, MONEY AS MAGUFFIN
WEEK 9: COMMODITY FETISHISM
WEEK 10: FINANCE AS LIFE
WEEK 11: MONEY AS MAGUFFIN II: HYPERBOLIC DISCOUNTING
WEEK 12: THE PSYCHIC LIFE OF MONEY
Since the announcement of the course I planned on following it carefully, reading all of the texts, and making my own observations on my readings. I hope to begin doing that now. Anyone following this blog is more than welcome to follow along and post their own comments. The readings for week 1 are as follows:
Week 1) The Value of Money
Introduction. Exeter Riddles 9 and 95;
Aristotle, PoliticsI, 8-10
handouts by Philip Larkin, Kay Ryan, and George Herbert (“Avarice”)
Ambrose Bierce (Devil’s Dictionarydefinitions of money and wealth)
Yasunari Kawabata, “At the Pawnshop” (Latte)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XI, 85-145, (Golding Translation)
Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 674-751, VIII, 1-178
There are links to many of these texts on the amimetobios page under the appropriate course week.
https://amimetobios.podbean.com/e/imagining-money-literature-and-economics-1-16-19/
Friday, February 1, 2019
Month in Review: January
I usually don’t write journal entries for each month, but I started this year off on a roll and want to record my progress. The most exciting news of the month is an essay I wrote on Shelley and Orpheus that will be published in the journal Jesus: The Imagination later this year. The essay is accompanied by a drawing also narrowly finished this month.
I have done a significant amount of reading. I finished Anand Giridharadas’s “Winners Take All,” Timothy Snyder’s “The Road to Unfreedom,” and Jill Lapore’s “These Truth’s.” All three books were revelatory, but These Truths in particular. Lapore writes of the whole of American history with passion and urgency. I need to re-read it.
Originally I had planned to write an essay on Shelley called Thinking in Images, but having unexpectedly been requested to write the Shelley and Orpheus essay, I’ve decided it best to set Shelley aside for a moment and instead focus on my next writing project, an essay on Economics and Utopia. As chance would have it, one of my favorite podcasters, "amimetobios," just started a series of lectures on Money and Literature, titled Imagining Money. (Link: https://amimetobios.podbean.com) I’m following this class as a guide (supplemented with some of my own reading). I'm also following the work of independent on the road scholar, Colin Drumm. Colin has put together a course syllabus on Patreon dealing with economics with an emphasis on literature (Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/monetary-reading-20881558).
I have done a significant amount of reading. I finished Anand Giridharadas’s “Winners Take All,” Timothy Snyder’s “The Road to Unfreedom,” and Jill Lapore’s “These Truth’s.” All three books were revelatory, but These Truths in particular. Lapore writes of the whole of American history with passion and urgency. I need to re-read it.
Originally I had planned to write an essay on Shelley called Thinking in Images, but having unexpectedly been requested to write the Shelley and Orpheus essay, I’ve decided it best to set Shelley aside for a moment and instead focus on my next writing project, an essay on Economics and Utopia. As chance would have it, one of my favorite podcasters, "amimetobios," just started a series of lectures on Money and Literature, titled Imagining Money. (Link: https://amimetobios.podbean.com) I’m following this class as a guide (supplemented with some of my own reading). I'm also following the work of independent on the road scholar, Colin Drumm. Colin has put together a course syllabus on Patreon dealing with economics with an emphasis on literature (Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/monetary-reading-20881558).
For February I plan to read Mark Blyth’s Austerity. I started reading Richard White's history of the Reconstruction and Gilded Age, The Republic for Which it Stands, but am finding it very dry. I may set it aside for Rick Perlstein’s history of Nixon and Regan, “The Invisible Bridge.” I also hope to finish drafting at least 15 more pages of the graphic novel (which will put me up to 30, ie half-way through the first chapter). I think that will keep me more than busy enough for next month.
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