THE CONNECTIONS OF MUSIC, WITH STRINGS ATTACHED
I don’t play guitar all that much anymore, though I’m trying very hard (or, at least thinking very hard about trying very hard!
Read moreLIES UNDERCUT COMMUNITY
Rebecca Solnit:
Lies gradually erode the capacity to know and to connect. In withholding or distorting knowledge or imparting falsehood, a liar deprives others of the information they need to participate in public and political life, to avoid dangers, to understand the world around them, to act on principle, to know themselves and others and the situation, to make good choices, and ultimately to be free.
IMAGINATION BEYOND KNOWLEDGE
Albert Einstein:
I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge.
RAMESSES II, ASSAD, AND ELON MUSK
This photograph of a fallen statue of Hafex al-Assad, father of the recently deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, brought to mind Shelley’s sonnet Ozymandias.
Read moreFACTORY FARMING: A LIFE WORTH LIVING?
In his book Living on Earth, Peter Godfrey-Smith proposes a thought experiment to aid one interested in thinking carefully about the morality of what’s somewhat euphemistically called “factory farming.
Read moreWRITING AND CONTROL
Peter Godfrey-Smith:
The anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, in his wry, moody memoir Tristes Tropiques …, discussed this aspect of writing: ‘Writing is a strange invention.