The past compresses in my memory and understanding: there are things that happened recently, things that happened in the lifetime of my memory and then everything else jumbles together into “the past,” like the (mythical?) tribe whose counting system consisted of 1, 2 and many. Then something clicks, like seeing a note that Cleopatra’s reign was far closer to our time than hers was to the building of the pyramids, and I realize my simplistic system flattens too much.

WORK

Stefan Kanfer’s Ball of Fire contains an anecdote which seems to me to justify not only the time I spent reading it, but the entire genre, every biography ever written. Kanfer is describing the early days of Ball’s relationship with Desi Arnaz, which was stormy right from the off:

Almost every Sunday night ended with a furious argument about each other’s intentions and infidelities. […] It happened that two of the town’s greatest magpies witnessed many of the quarrels. F. Scott Fitzgerald and his inamorata, columnist Sheilah Graham, used to watch the spats from Fitzgerald’s balcony.

F. Scott Fitzgerald used to watch Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz fighting? Why didn’t I know this before? If this story is true—and there’s no reason to doubt it—then all is chaos. No biography can be left unread, just in case there is a gem like this lying there, undiscovered, within its pages. Maybe Thomas Pynchon repeatedly bangs on Sarah Michelle Gellar’s wall because she plays her music too loud! Maybe Simon Cowell and Maya Angelou are in the same book group!

—Nick Hornby (from More Baths Less Talking)

WORD

chronon. noun. A fundamental, indivisible unit of time; a hypothetical quantum of time.

“The chronon being thus the everted viscera of the quantum.” (Ursula K. LeGuin)

“ …if the Universe is a computation, there is likely to be a smallest unit of time (time is granular) which cannot be broken down further. Such a hypothetical smallest unit of time is known as a chronon. A chronon is an absolute moment in which the Universe is in a particular state. This state will then proceed by a discrete ‘jump’ to form the next chronon according to whatever laws are operating on that state, much like the movement of electrons which are supposed to discretely jump from one orbit to another. There are believed to be no intermediary states between successive ‘jumps’.” (Dennis & Terence McKenna)

See also: Chronon-hoton-thologos, a parodic, farcical play by Henry Carey.

WEB

1. Johnson Tsang’s sculptures are instantly recognizable. Better yet, he writes and photographs in detail about the process of making his unique creations.

2. Watch a deservedly award-winning animation of “The Man with Beautiful Eyes”. Six well-spent minutes.

3. A thought-provoking article on the “Fermi Paradox” (essentially the question: where is everybody else in the universe?).

4. The Pulp Magazines Project is digitizing and archiving pulps from 1896–1946. Related: the Virginia Tech online Collection of Speculative Fiction.

5. Today in 1456, Joan of Arc was retried and acquitted. 25 years too late, but I guess it’s the thought that counts. Watch and listen to Leonard Cohen’s song.

As always, I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com