Manfred, Prince of Otranto, had one son and one daughter: the latter, a most beautiful virgin, aged eighteen, was called Matilda. Conrad, the son, was three years younger, a homely youth, sickly, and of no promising disposition; yet he was the darling of his father, who never showed any symptoms of affection to Matilda.
Read MoreMy backpack adding bulk to heft, I breasted the waves of commuters spilling from Penn Station, important people breaking on the prow of a heavily laden ship. Aghast at the impertinence of this slack vessel plowing doggedly forward, some sleek, overpowered types barely veered clear. Why, it carved entire seconds from the start of their Thursday.
Read MoreThe professional conception of ‘philosopher’ in the early-21st-century United States bears an interesting comparison to the figure of the ‘philosophe’ in 18th-century France. As is well-known, the philosophes, like most current members in good standing of the APA, were often seen from the outside as not really being philosophers in the fullest sense.
Read MoreIllustration from Venice, the city of the sea, by Joseph Pennell, 1913 by Vernon Lee To M.W., IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE LAST SONG AT PALAZZO BARBARO, Chi ha inteso, intenda. They have been congratulating me again today upon being the only composer of our days—of these days of deafening orchestral effects and poetical quackery—who has…
Read MoreMy mother died when I was an infant, and of her I have no recollection, even the faintest. By her death my education was left solely to the direction of my surviving parent. He entered upon his task with a stern appreciation of the responsibility thus cast upon him. My religious instruction was prosecuted with an almost exaggerated anxiety; and I had, of course, the best masters to perfect me in all those accomplishments which my station and wealth might seem to require.
Read MoreIn the winter of 2012, I flew from California to Chicago to attend the annual AWP conference. It was snowing lightly when I emerged from the hotel on Michigan Avenue with Brian, an aspiring fiction writer from Los Angeles. The wind blew ceaselessly, whipping the snowflakes into the chafing collar of my long coat.
Read MorePerhaps at a later point important developments will be traced back to September 11. But for now we do not know which of the many scenarios depicted today will actually hold in the future. The clever, albeit fragile, coalition against terrorism brought together by the U.S. government might, in the most favorable case, be able to advance the transition from classical international law to a cosmopolitan order.
Read MoreW.G. Sebald’s father joined the Reichswehr in 1929 and remained in the Wehrmacht under the Nazis. He was captured by the French and remained a prisoner of war until 1947, when his four-year-old son met him for the first time.
A disgraced Nazi, Sebald’s father.
Read MoreImage by Quinn Dombrowski From Chapter 5: He drained his third cup of watery tea to the dregs and set to chewing the crusts of fried bread that were scattered near him, staring into the dark pool of the jar. The yellow dripping had been scooped out like a boghole and the pool under it…
Read MoreThe Good and Evil Angels, William Blake, c.1805 by Justin E. H. Smith God, on a certain widespread understanding, is an imaginary friend for the childish and simpleminded. Those so accused will often defend themselves: but I don’t mean a white-bearded old-man God. I just mean, you know, something. A first mover, a ground, an ultimate…
Read MoreThis Saturday, in the streaming rain, the Albanian LGBT community successfully held several events to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Like in 2012 and 2013, there was the Tirana Gay Ride, a “pride on bikes,” which this year for the first time passed without any incident, and even included some of the activists getting off their bikes and unrolling a large LGBT flag in front of the Albanian Parliament
Read MoreThe Fight For The Standard, Richard Ansdell, 1847 by Bertrand Russell I. The principle that it is always wrong to employ force against another human being has been held in its extreme form by Quakersand by Tolstoï, but has been rejected by the great majority of mankind as inconsistent with the existence of civilized society.…
Read MoreGenerally speaking, the degree of attention that teachers and students can muster in class is probably constant in time, and it is only marginally and temporarily affected by technological change. One reason for this is that classroom lectures or seminars have always been based upon just one medium, and one information technology: the human voice, and the spoken word.
Read MoreEwald Brandner by George Eliot “Nothing,” says Goethe, “is more significant of men’s character than what they find laughable.” The truth of this observation would perhaps have been more apparent if he had said culture instead of character. The last thing in which the cultivated man can have community with the vulgar is their jocularity;…
Read MoreCentaur Cacus Threatens Vanni Fucci, William Blake by Agustin Fuentes and Aku Visala When reading the news on a daily basis we’ve all at one point in time or another lost hope and cursed humanity to the deepest depths of hell: “human beings are just evil!” At the same time, faced with virtuous acts of…
Read MoreWhen Yaweh advanced into Ezekiel in the form of penetration, the four wings of the chariot became instantly erect and bloodshot and then fell directly into limpness.
Read MoreIllustration from The Nuremberg Chronicle. Illustration by Hartmann Schedel, 1493 by Frank R. Stockton In the very olden time there lived a semi-barbaric king, whose ideas, though somewhat polished and sharpened by the progressiveness of distant Latin neighbors, were still large, florid, and untrammeled, as became the half of him which was barbaric. He was…
Read MoreSo long as discontent and unrest make themselves but dumbly felt within a limited social class, the powers of reaction may often succeed in suppressing such manifestations.
Read MoreSacrifice of Isaac, Caravaggio, c. 1603 by Clayton Eshleman When I lived in Kyoto, I would ride my motorcycle downtown in the afternoon and work on my translations of César Vallejo’s Poemas humanos in the Yorunomado (“Night Window”) coffee shop. I had determined that a publishable version of this 1989 poem collection would constitute my…
Read MoreFor most of recorded history, poverty reflected God’s will. The poor were always with us. They were not inherently immoral, dangerous, or different. They were not to be shunned, feared, or avoided. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a harsh new idea of poverty and poor people as different and inferior began to replace this ancient biblical view.
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