|k| clippings: 2015-01-19 — pinned like butterflies

I’ve been reading Alan Jacobs’ excellent book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. I wholeheartedly endorse Jacobs’ book and his simple principle to “read at whim.” But in the kind of coincidence that makes putting these newsletters together so much fun, today’s WORK from Julian Barnes sprang instantly to mind the first time I read Jacobs’ imperative phrase…

WORK

“Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t. I’m not surprised some people prefer books. Books make sense of life. The only problem is that the lives they make sense of are other people’s lives, never your own.”

—Julian Barnes
—from Flaubert’s Parrot

WORD(S)

chrestomathy. noun. A collection of literary passages, usually from one author and often—but not always—created to assist in learning a language. From Greek chrēstos (useful) + manthanein (to learn).

“Each story is preceded by a brief note on how I came to write the tale, and is accompanied by a random aphorism, not necessarily illustrative of the story, but merely an epigram I’ve chanced across that speaks to the general tone and purpose of my work. The introduction to this chrestomathy, the troubled prolegomena you have just read, is all the explanation I can give at this time, of who I am and what all this means. At this time.” (Harlan Ellison)

“Here, again, comes the indefatigable Brinkley with this fascinating addition to the No-Dummy-He subgenre of Reaganalia. As he writes in his introduction, The Notes consists of the collection of four-by-six-inch index cards Reagan kept over the years—his chrestomathy, or commonplace book of wit and wisdom, all of which were written in his ”impeccable“ scrawl.” (Christopher Buckley)

“Daniel glances at Barnes, who is going through a chrestomathy of head-shaking, throat-slitting, eye-bulging, and hand-waving. But Marlborough is oblivious; he’s got eyes only for the Lords of the Council…” (Neal Stephenson)

WEB

1. The Economist collects the “words of the year” from four prestigious groups. Two of the four are supremely boring; one is arguably not a word, but I admire the selection for non-literary reasons!

2. From the The Millions: To Make Us Feel Less Alone: On “The David Foster Wallace Reader”

3. Rare 1959 Audio: Flannery O’Connor Reads “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

4. The Stranger “Regrets” these “Errors”. I LOL’ed. Literally. As in what “literally” meant before it also meant “figuratively.”

5. Today in 1946, English novelist and essayist Julian Barnes is born. Winner of many prestigious prizes, including the Booker for The Sense of An Ending, and a Commandeur of L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Barnes’ literary prominence was briefly overshadowed by his feud with longtime friend Martin Amis, in which—after Amis dropped his wife as a literary agent—Barnes terminated his friendship via a letter Amis described as ending with “a well-known colloquialism of seven letters. Three of them are Fs.”

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader N. shares: “I don’t often like contemporary poems that play with words; the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets resist any kind of meaning to my mind. I think that Harryette Mullen, however, has done a dazzling job with playing with the language as in “Any Lit” [with its you and me syncopation]. I also love her take on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, one of the ”Dark Lady" sonnets in her poem “Dim Lady”.

• Reader G. quotes some favorite lines from Harryette Mullens’ poem “We Are Not Responsible”: “…Before taking off, please extinguish all smoldering resentments…. ¶ Your insurance was cancelled because we can no longer handle your frightful claims…. ¶ Step aside, please, while our officer inspects your bad attitude.” And then notes: “Quite simply a delightful cliche’ buster, with overtones of contemporary relevance. Can’t you just picture people trying to extinguish their smoldering resentments? ¶ Lovely use of language!”

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