|k| clippings: 2015-03-11 — can you get there from here?

WORK

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.’”

—Jim Jarmusch
—from MovieMaker Magazine #53

WORD(S)

resipiscence /res-ə-PIS-əns/. noun. Originally, repentance and recognition of one’s misdeeds. Now the act of coming to one’s senses, a change of heart. The Shorter OED’s formulation: “return to a better mind.” From Latin resipiscere (to recover one’s senses), from from sapere (to taste, to be wise).

“It was the object of the Inquisition that such people should not indeed be spared, but should not perish without a trial and without opportunity of resipiscence, so that they might save their souls if not their lives.” (Lord Acton, from Lectures on Modern History)

“From now on do not expect to see much of the soft side of me; it appears you can only respect and understand obduracy. I will only change if I receive resipiscence from you.” (Martha Bernays Freud, from The Flash and Outbreak of a Fiery Mind: The Love Letters of Martha Bernays Freud)

“The resipiscence of Lear is due to no human agency.” (James Smith, from Shakespearean and Other Essays)

WEB

1. “A celebration of the enduring power of literary correspondence.” Five live shows at London’s Freemasons’ Hall (Covent Garden) featuring letters read by—among others—Benedict Cumberbatch and Louise Brealey. Past events included letters by Virginia Woolf, Queen Elizabeth II, Iggy Pop, Elvis Presley and many more. Who will be featured this year? → LETTERS LIVE

2. Jagger, Beckham and…Maggie Smith? → BBC News on “Received Pronunciation” aka Talking Posh (or Mockney?)

3. The 2015 Sony World Photography Awards shortlist

4. I just read a novel in which this (kind of unbelievable) experiment plays a central role. And the video has a baby and cute chimp. I couldn’t look away. → Raising chimpanzee and human infants side-by-side

5. Today in 1702, the debut edition of The Daily Courant—arguably the world’s first English language newspaper—appears. A single page affair featuring mostly foreign news, the paper would be published for more than 30 years, surviving a 1712 scandal in which its publisher was arrested for printing text from current English parliamentary debates. Most interestingly, The Daily Courant’s creator and first editor and publisher, one Edward Mallett, was in fact Elizabeth Mallett, who adopted a man’s name so that she’d be taken seriously. The first edition contained a note from Mallett to her readers setting forth the aim of her paper that is admirable still today:

“It will be found from the Foreign Prints, which from time to time, as Occasion offers, will be mention’d in this Paper, that the Author has taken Care to be duly furnish’d with all that comes from Abroad in any Language. And for an Assurance that he will not, under Pretence of having Private Intelligence, impose any Additions of feign’d Circumstances to an Action, but give his Extracts fairly and Impartially; at the beginning of each Article he will quote the Foreign Paper from whence ’tis taken, that the Publick, seeing from what Country a piece of News comes with the Allowance of that Government, may be better able to Judge the Credibility and Fairness of the Relation: Nor will he take it upon himself to give any Comments or Conjectures of his own, but will relate only Matter of Fact; supposing other People to have Sense enough to make Reflections for themselves.”

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader A. adds to the State minerals (&c.) discussion: “Looks like the states do better at naming their fossils. 42 have ’em: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_fossils. ¶ Not even including politicians.”

• Reader J. comments, presumably w/r/t the John Henry Newman WORK, not ‘limerence’: “Theodicy collides with itself.”

• Reader B. tunes in: “I just got around to watching the Alfredo Anaya solos on the typewriter clip in Katexic. I have often heard this piece, but I have never before seen it seriously performed, and in Italian, no less!”

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