Church of the Assumption; Szentendre, Hungary; Taken in October of 2022
DAILY PHOTO: Red Church Side Entrance
Reply
Monthly Archives: November 2022
The Wall of Sprawl [Lyric Poem]
Vines crawl along the wall -- an organism in sprawl. Their leaves turn red, arterial at the ends, venous in late Fall.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
DAILY PHOTO: Farská Street, Bratislava
Image
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
BOOK REVIEW: Beauty: A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton
Beauty: A Very Short Introduction by Roger ScrutonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
This isn’t so much a book about what beauty is as where we find it, and in what kind of traits we find it, including the question of whether all that is aesthetically pleasing is beauty (or is beauty one element among multiple sources of aesthetic pleasure.) Scruton proposes four major locations of beauty: the human form (and face,) nature, everyday objects, and art. Each of these four has its own chapter (ch. 2-5,) and those chapters form the core of the book. Other chapters examine related questions such as: whether (/how) we can judge beauty, whether it means anything to say someone has good or bad taste, and how / why we find aesthetic appeal in places often consider devoid of beauty (e.g. the profane, the kitsch, the pornographic, etc.)
I found this book to be well-organized and thought-provoking. I liked that the author used a range of examples from literature and music as well as from the graphic arts. (Though the latter offer the advantage of being able to present the picture within the book — which the book often does.) I felt that the questions were framed nicely and gave me much to think about.
Some readers will find the occasional controversial opinion presented gratuitously to be annoying, as well as the sporadic blatant pretentiousness. I forgave these sins because the overall approach was analytical and considerate.
If you’re looking for an introductory guide to the philosophy of aesthetics and beauty, this is a fine book to read. [Note: there is a VSI guide (from the same series) on aesthetics that (I assume) has a different focus (though I haven’t yet read it.)]
View all my reviews
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
BOOK REVIEW: Twain Illustrated: Three Stories by Mark Twain by Mark Twain [Ed. by Jerome Tiller]
Twain Illustrated: Three Stories by Mark Twain by Mark TwainMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
This collection gathers three pieces of Twain’s short fiction and presents them in an edited and illustrated volume. The stories are edited from the original published editions. My understanding is that the editing was confined to making the volume more readable to a present-day audience (and probably to younger readers, specifically.) As far as I can tell, that’s the case.
The three stories have in common that Twain, himself, features as a character. [This is less explicit for the second story than for the first and third, it being merely written in first person while the others reference Twain by name.] The first story, “Emerson, Holmes, and Longfellow,” is essentially a roast of those three important 19th century American poets. The story is written as though Twain is traveling on walkabout and happens upon a miner’s household where, as luck would have it, the three titular poets had stopped in previously. Supposedly, this was first a speech given in Boston at a celebration for another poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, and it went down like a lead balloon.
The middle story, “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut,” is about a mysterious visitor who comes calling who seems to know about all the narrator’s misdeeds. It turns out that said visitor is the narrator’s conscience. This personification of conscience is a clever plot device and makes for a hilarious story.
The final story is entitled “Running for Governor,” and it shows that fake news is far from a new phenomenon in American politics. It imagines Twain running for governor of New York and the one news story after the next presenting outlandish, contrived claims that begin to stick as Twain ignores them. This reminded me of the Twain essay that disabused me of the popular notion that we are [at any given time] in uniquely contentiously partisan times for American politics.
I enjoyed this collection. I would probably have preferred an unedited text, but it’s readable, engaging, and humorous as is. The illustrations are line-drawn, and many are cartoonishly jocular while others are more realistic caricatures. It’s certainly an entertaining read.
View all my reviews
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Autumn Afternoon [Haiku]
autumn afternoon. the sun penetrates deeply, feeding the grass
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
BOOK REVIEW: How to Read the Wilderness by the Nature Study Guild
How to Read the Wilderness: An Illustrated Guide to the Natural Wonders of North America by Nature Study GuildMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Release Date: November 22, 2022
This illustrated guide is designed to help readers learn some of the most prolific trees, plants, animals, birds, coastal life forms, and night sky constellations of North America. For plant [and in some cases animal] identification, the book uses a handy flowchart method that asks questions, sending the reader to an appropriate marker depending upon the answer. For wildlife identification, it uses descriptions of not only the animal, but skeletal remains, scat, and tracks. It also gives alternate names and asterisms for constellations.
The pros of this book include: 1.) it focuses on the most common elements and doesn’t get bogged down trying to be all-inclusive; 2.) it uses a flow charts, diagrams, and drawings successfully to do much of the heavy lifting.
The downsides of the book are: 1.) it seems be much more Western US-centric, and often treats everything East of the Rockies as a single zone (not to mention minimal discussion of Canada or Mexico – so maybe it should be thought of more as a US guide;) 2.) in trying to be text-minimal, it occasionally states things in a way that lacks clarity.
If you want to get a basic understanding of the elements of nature for the United States, this book is worth investigating. It’s young reader friendly, but not exclusively so.
View all my reviews
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
DAILY PHOTO: Sculpture and Façade of Blumentál Church, Bratislava
Image
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Purpletop Vervain [Haiku]
a sphere of blooms stands straight and tall as people zoom by
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Forest Road [Haiku]
the forest road is cleared of leaf litter by speeding cars
Tiger Riding for Beginners 