Trivia that matter
The astounding thing about all the quackeries, fads, and movements of the past hundred years in America is that they were first accepted by superior people, by men and women of education, intelligence, breeding, wealth, and experience. Only after the upper classes had approved, the masses accepted each new thing.
—Gilbert Seldes, The Stammering Century (1928)
Perhaps it’s not that astounding; I long ago observed that high intelligence is not necessarily associated with common sense.
… while a massive philosophical gulf separates J.R.R. Tolkien and Hayao Miyazaki, their works both come from a strange and unmodern place, and speak to the part of us which is unmodern and strange; which is to say the human part of us.
Gilbert Seldes in 1928, quoted by Helen Rittelmeyer:
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the word “reformer” meant one who wanted to give liberty to others; today it means, briefly, one who wants to take liberty away. The change in meaning is accompanied by a change in method. There is a dislocation of the center of fear. Laws, lobbies, censors, and spies have displaced God as the object of awe and veneration, sometimes even as the object of faith. The great social and religious movements of the middle of the last century were based on the belief that man could be made perfect. The current belief is that machinery, including the machinery of government, can be made perfect. . . .
The typical zealot of 1800 was a man fanatically busy about salvation; in the 1840s he was as fanatically busy about improving himself; later he turned to uplifting his fellowmen and later still to interfering with their pleasures. . . .
Eighty years ago, [a reformer] withdrew from society, founded his own community, and preached Abstention. Today, he passes laws and cries, I forbid.
When engineers sleep,
catgirl breeding runs amuck;
Steven, get well soon.
(This is in reference to this news.)
I watched the final episode of Joshiraku before I left for the polling place this morning. That may have been a mistake; I couldn’t help seeing a political subtext that probably wasn’t actually there.
Not Red Reviews is posting the translator’s notes on this most idiosyncratically Japanese of shows: ((Sure, much of the show is obscure even after all the puns are explained, so why waste your time translating it? Oh, and you’ll never really fully understand medieval or ancient worldviews, either, so why read Chaucer or Homer?)) episode one, episode two, episode three, episode four, episode five, episode six, episode seven, episode eight, episode nine, episode ten. Update: episode eleven, episode twelve, episode thirteen.
A duck and a cuckoo from episode eleven of Joshiraku.
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You don’t need to attempt kanji for a memorable tattoo. A weak grasp of English is sufficient.
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An entertaining historical document is online: That Party at Lenny’s.
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Welcome to Crossover Hell. A related horror: another approach to Touhou Ponies.
I wonder: how does the world of Bronies compare with the Touhou universe?
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So salt and sugar are unnatural?
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Jinrui wa Suitai Shamashita was perhaps the best show of the summer. I did a little searching to see if Romeo Tanaka’s novels have been translated yet. As far as I can tell, there’s only one chapter available in English.
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(Bumper sticker courtesy of Borepatch.)
Last and least, some political notes. Although I am a member of the Wet Blanket Movement, I do have some interest in the Fringe Party. For those who believe that all people should have the right to vote, not just the living and the residents of Chicago cemeteries, Dr. Boli has yard signs you can download and print.
It’s a pity that Death Note is little-known outside of anime circles. The parallels between Light Yagami’s little black notebook and the Lightworker’s “kill list” deserve more attention.
(Via God and the Machine.)
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I’ve never read Eric Hobsbawm and I don’t plan to, but I can’t resist posting this picture (from The People’s Cube). Here are a couple of encomiums to the celebrated historian (the latter via Dale Price).
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Don’t read the comments on articles in online magazines. Just don’t.
The Yale English department is a good example. In the directory for tenured and tenure-track faculty, “Marxist literary theory” is listed by five professors among their fields of interest, “gender and sexuality” by nine, and “colonial and postcolonial” by 11, or a quarter of the 44 professors. In the graduate student directory, however, the numbers for those subjects are one, three, and a fat goose egg. That’s quite a statistical drop-off, considering that grad students outnumber professors nearly two to one. The topics favored instead by these future scholars are Romanticism (six), Victorian literature (five), Milton (seven), and, oddly enough, religious literature (also seven). Honorable mentions include “Biblical exegesis,” “conversion narratives,” and “Middle English devotional, visionary, and anchoritic writing”— they’re not just reading the Bible, they’re reading monks.
I can’t get on Facebook without seeing people mocking various religions. However, the adherents of these faiths aren’t rioting, burning, or killing anyone — nor would they be tolerated if they did. However, the message we’re sending is that rioting works. The Islamists riot, and our government (and its media waterbearers) cheerfully throw the speakers who give offense under the bus. Apparently, the Mormons aren’t smashing enough windows or setting enough fires.
And Robbo.
Sasuke Furata (Hyouge Mono).
On a unrelated note, Dave Barry is now subjecting himself to the Democratic convention. Meanwhile, the Fringe Party is holding its convention in Irv’s Bar and Grill. You can follow the proceedings at Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine.
If you simply must follow the Republican convention in Tampa, Dave Barry’s observations can be found here.
The picture is unrelated.
I noticed recently that Funimation is now streaming a couple of essential anime series, Serial Experiments Lain and Haibane Renmei. The latter will finally be available again on DVD next month, and for a very good price, but as far as I know, there are no plans to reissue Lain.
Update: As Mikeski mentions in his comment, Lain will be available again in November, possibly in much higher quality than the original release.
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Quotes of the week:
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Hollywood is the wrong place to look for heroes worth emulating. Try anime, instead. Seirei no Moribito is a good place to start.
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Jack Vance’s novel The Chasch is free for the downloading during August. (Via Aliens in This World.)
“… if your life isn’t bigger than your politics, you’re doing one of them wrong.”
Blogging is low priority right now. I’ll be back eventually. Until then, here are a few links.
Mouretsu Pirates is the only current show I’m following. (I’ll eventually watch Sakamichi no Apollon, and I might finish Tsuritama, but it will be a while before I get to either. The soundtrack for the former is worth tracking down.) One advantage space pirates have over their earthbound predecessors: the cuisine is better.
Everyone who ever writes a review needs to pay attention to Steven Greydanus’s thoughts on spoilers. Once Kirika and Mireille are done with the perpetrators of comment spam, I’ll ask them to pay a visit to the bloggers who announced a certain event in the eleventh episode of Katanagatari, sometimes in the titles of their posts as they appeared at Anime Nano.
Eve Tushnet writes about three of my favorite writers: Ray Bradbury (Something Wicked This Way Comes is my favorite of his books, too); John Bellairs (who wrote about shufflies); and, Diana Wynne Jones. (Memo to web designers: Black type on a white background is easy to read. Light grey type on a white background isn’t.)
I don’t do politics here beyond the occasional sarcastic aside. Ace touches on one reason why. Elizabeth Scalia writes about another, related reason.
Winter wear for the physicists among you: emission spectra scarves. (Via Fillyjonk.)
John C. Wright, proponent of Space Princess Science Fiction, reprints his research on the Catwoman Equation.
Although Yellowstone is a superdupervolcano, it doesn’t really pose an immediate, immense threat. There might be enough oomph left for one more VEI8 eruption, but there will be plenty of warning and probably thousands of years before that happens. If you own land in Wyoming, you don’t need to be in a hurry to unload it. The vicinity of Mt. Ranier is far more dangerous. It wouldn’t take a large eruption to generate lahars that would reach Puget Sound. However, the most nightmarish city to live, from a vulcanologist’s point of view, is Naples in Italy. Vesuvius is its best-known neighbor, but it’s only one of three. Update: Let’s not forget Auckland, built on a volcanic field and liable to experience a Parícutin-type episode at any time.
Here are the true lyrics to “O Fortuna.”
(Via Darwin Catholic.)
I’m generally in favor of girls with guns, but this batch could use a few lessons in gun-handling.
The Brickmuppet hasn’t scheduled a trip to Tokyo, has he?
