|k| clippings: 2016-01-19 — the not-so-secret chord

WORK

“The whole world, he [Charles Fourier] said, is a correspondence. And everything comes in a chord. The chord contains eight items. The center of the chord is the pivot. At one end of the chord is the avant-garde, and at the other end is the arrière-garde. In a fruit chord, let’s say, you have at one end the ripest golden pear, and at the other end is the quince, which never ripens. It remains as hard as a rock. And all of these corresponded with personalities (I’ve known plenty of quinces).”

—Guy Davenport
—from Paris Review, “The Art of Fiction No. 174”

WORD(S)

doublure /Də-bloor/. noun. An ornamental lining inside a book’s cover, usually of leather, vellum or brocade. From Middle French doubler (to line, double).

“When the doublure is finished, the covers of the books should be closed, and the book should be put away for about half an hour to dry.” (Edith Diehl)

“The intricate blind-tooling of the doublure shadowed forth the blind fate which left us in ignorance of our future and our past, or even what the day itself might bring forth.” (Charles Waddell Chesnutt)

“The book was bound in ruby red Levant morocco with gilt frames containing the hair of Mary and Percy Shelley inserted in the front doublure. In the end doublure was an urn-shaped frame containing a fragment of Shelley’s skull.” (Judith Pascoe)

WEB

1. Lighting…and its survivors. → The Body Electric

2. A site I know will be handy this election year…and any year in which Facebook is still a thing. → Snopes’ Field Guide to Fake News Sites and Hoax Purveyors

3. Finally, an App for Transcribing Medieval Manuscripts

4. “…while procrastination is a vice for productivity, I’ve learned—against my natural inclinations—that it’s a virtue for creativity.” → Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate

5. Today in 1903, Guglielmo Marconi sends and receives the first two-way, transatlantic wireless message. Theodore Roosevelt took “advantage of the wonderful triumph of scientific research and ingenuity” to send his greetings to King Edward VII, who replied in kind. Less than a decade later, wireless messages from the ill-fated Titanic would save more than 700 lives. And a decade after that, the first commercial transatlantic radio services would debut. And then, well...the world.

WATCH/WITNESS

►Semantron Trance in Syria. See also Michael Gordon’s Timber and Mantra: Post-Minimalist Percussion In Aisle 12.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• The fabulous Reader M. makes me smile: “you send us the best stuff.”

• Reader A. will take her answer online: "Coincidentally just got Wind-up Bird Chronicle via Amazon used books when your letter arrives with the quote. I read Patti Smith’s M Train, Patti talks about Murakami. ¶ I love reading a book with references to other books and then I read those books. ¶ Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant, thoughts? — I haven’t read it yet! You? Anyone else in the Clamor?

• Reader S. drops their own mic: “’Bout damn time. ‘Mike’ never made sense to me.”

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

Enjoy the WORD(S) section? Check out my other little project: Concīs Magazine » http://concis.io/

And please feel free to share anything here as far and wide as you want! If you want to give a shout-out, please link to: http://katexic.com/clippings/.