Minerva

22sep2024

Outline, by Rachel Cusk. Interesting narrative. Nothing much happens but at the same time a lot does too. Short yet expansive. 3.5/5.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, by Wes Anderson. Based on “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” by Roald Dahl. beautifully produced and acted.

As a leader of humans, I’ve watched sadly as valued co-workers have resigned. Each time I work to understand two things:

Why are they leaving?
When did their shields go down?

(..)
The real question, the real insight, comes from the answer to Question #2: When did their shields go down?

Their shields drop when, in the moment they are presented with the offer of potential future opportunity, they quickly evaluate their rubric and make an instant call: Is this job meeting my bar?
— Michael Lopp

Stop with the fucking history lessons about what the Israelites did, or what the Ottomans did, or what the British did, or whatever. IT IS FUCKING IMMATERIAL. There is a pile of dog shit in the living room. Instead of arguing about whose dog took the bigger shit in the living room, maybe focus on how we clean up the dog shit, and maybe we keep the dogs outside.
— mo husseini, 50 Completely True Things

The Blue and the White, nice New Yorker profile of Fitzcarraldo Editions and its founder Jacques Testard (“Nobel whisperer”). First came across the now-iconic International Klein Blue covers when Jon Fosse’s books gathered publicityy after the Nobel Prize.

08sep2024

The Man from the Future - The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya. Delightful biography of von Neuman. Loved the AB version. 4/5.

81 Things That Blew Our Minds in 2023. “When you look at a tattoo, you’re seeing ink shining in the “belly” of an immune cell that has gobbled up the ink and failed to digest it.”

52 things I learned in 2023. “Languages are louder in the tropics because the extra moisture warmer air can hold allows for more flexibility and range for vocal chords.”

Dystopian fiction is when you take things that happen in real life to marginalized populations and apply them to people with privilege.
— Hugo Book Club

24aug2024

Blackouts: A Novel, by Justin Torres. 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. Hmm, that was… interesting. Literal blackouts, film scripts, story inside story, queer history and flowing yet jerky writing. Not my usual read and not sure I want to read a similar one but still 3.5/5

What the Dying Teach the Living by Frank Ostaseski, Humbling, deeply thought provoking.

Identity Crisis (DC Comics) – “So many superhero comics look at things through a telescope trying to find giant monsters and whole worlds to punch. Identity Crisis is designed to look at these characters through a microscope, pulling in so tight, we can see all their flaws and imperfections.” – Brad Meltzer. Digital format. I am not a comics fan but this was worth the digression. Yup, I realise this is a much maligned mini-series, but hey, it was a 4.5/5 for me.

What makes our particular job so exceptional that it requires inspiration or a muse to do it? We are artists and we labour in the service of others. It is not something we do only if and when we feel motivated – we create because it is our responsibility to do so. In this respect our occupation is no different than that of most people. Does an ordinary adult go to work only if they feel in the mood? Do doctors? Do labourers? Do teachers? Do taxi drivers? We are duty-bound to do our job, like everyone else, because the space we occupy depends upon our participation and breaks down if we don’t. A committed artist cannot afford the luxury of revelation. Inspiration is the indolent indulgence of the dabbler. Muses, Tam, are for losers!
— Nick Cave

05aug2024

Courtney Dauwalter: Step inside the ‘pain cave’, where rules are remade. “sparked questions, debate and research into whether ultra-endurance distances might be among the only sporting arenas where the playing field between the sexes is effectively levelled.” Fascinating.

Unusual units – Dirac Due to his laconic style, the Cambridge colleagues of Nobel-prize winning physicist Paul Dirac are said to have defined one Dirac as a rate of speaking equal to one word per hour.

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, by Salman Rushdie (AB). Courageous, personal and honest. Elegant as always. 4.5/5

Moonshine pours through my window
The night puts it’s laughter away
Clouds that pierce the illusion
That tomorrow would be as yesterday
— Sixto Rodriguez

27jun2024

Michael Stipe Is Writing His Next Act. Slowly. – nice profile of an impressive artist. Simple clean style that cuts to the content.

Devin Kelly’s Ordinary Plots: Meditations on Poems + Verse has been a revelation. Case in point Najwan Darwish’s “On the Third Day”, Mary Oliver’s “Some Questions You Might Ask”, Tariq Alarabi’s “Carob Tree” and so many more. There is a refined elegance to these posts that reflect on, but never dissects, poems from all over.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, in AB. Clarifying, crisp and packs a punch 4.5/5

17jun2024

The Serpentine Band, by Congyun ‘Mu Ming’ Gu. A beautifully written 18,500 words long novella that dances. 5/5

Tabula Rasa: Volume 1 by John McPhee, in AB. Free flowing, but not sure to where. Not for me. 3/5

chatGPT20.txt, Donald Knuth on his experemintation with chatGPT.

my theory of fucks. The theory goes like so: you are born with so many fucks to give. However many you’ve got is all there is (…) But I realize now that if you can give a fuck then you must also be able to receive. And that’s the key.

This is one of my answers to the question of, why give a fuck about work? Why love your work? (…) And my answer is: don’t. Don’t give a fuck about your work. Give all your fucks to the living.

(…) But if you give a fuck about the living, about all your living kin in all the kingdoms, they will give a fuck right back.
— Mandy Brown

12jun2024

They tried to bury me, they didn’t realise I was a seed.
— Sinéad O’Connor

Nothing Compares, great documentary on Sinéad O’Connor.

Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo in a new translation by Douglas J. Weatherford. “What exactly do you understand?”. Mastery of the form. 5/5.

In The Stacks (Maisie’s Tune), short story by Robin Sloan. Well told 3.5/5

The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth, by Ken Krimstein. Beautifully narrated and drawn graphic biography. 4/5.

13dec2023

hiatus

09dec2023

Been a while. A longer post to compensate and to wrap up the year.

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Exquisite, “like five hundred million little bells”. 5/5

Ka, by Roberto Calasso. I am going to revert to the description in the 1998 review in NYT – “a giddy invasion of stories – brilliant, enigmatic, troubling, outrageous, erotic, beautiful.” Enchanting. 5/5

Playing God Unplugged, by Tim Henson. Incredible guitar solo. “a different species” is not too far off.

Encrypted traffic interception on Hetzner and Linode targeting the largest Russian XMPP (Jabber) messaging service, geeky and interesting.

How Andrew Wylie turned serious literature into big business, fascinating profile of the literary agent Andrew Wylie.

How to Survive in Tech By Somebody Who Has and Hasn’t. I thank Gary for this long, comprehensive and personal article. Something there for everyone.

“Look up at the sky. Ask yourself, ‘Has the sheep eaten the flower or not?’ And you’ll see how everything changes…
— The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Veda moves in a state of panic… frenetic works, produced in an atmosphere of oratorical jousting, where victory is gained by best formulating (or: most rapidly guessing) the mystical-ritual-based enigmas
— Louis Renou

“A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.”
— Rabindranath Tagore

06oct2023

Four Seasons in Rome, by Anthony Doerr (AB). A slow-paced take on the beauty of Rome. Beautiful meandering words. 3.5/5

Quincy, Netflix. Amazing initimate documentary of a legand. 4/5

“Humility, curiosity”, Nick Cave’s answer to “I find it pointless to pursue anything in this bizarre and temporary world that is so much against my values in every way possible.”

Why Read?, enlightening lecture by Eva Brann, 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal.

Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir, by Margo Jefferson (AB). Abandoned. I tried, really did, but just could not relate enough nor get hooked into this one. -/5

“This is by far my favorite story of all those I have written.” – Isaac Asimov on The Last Question

Jon Fosse’s Search for Peace, “The Norwegian author has spent decades producing a strange, revered body of work. But he still doesn’t know where the writing comes from.”

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