Emily Dickinson, “A Sickness of this World it most occasions” (1044)

A Sickness of this World it most occasions (1044) Emily Dickinson A Sickness of this World it most occasions When Best Men die. A Wishfulness their far Condition To occupy. A Chief indifference, as Foreign A World must be Themselves forsake — contented, For Deity. Comment: The way “occasions” is used has overtones of “appropriate.” …

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January 17, 2012 – 11:44 pm | By ashok | Posted in dickinson, poetry | Comments (2)

Not the party of grievance, but the party of genuine unity

1. Austan Goolsbee’s op-ed in the WSJ is pointed at Republicans, but isn’t partisan tripe by any stretch of the imagination. It isn’t clear that cutting spending magically fixes everything. Moreover, the downturn means we have virtually no good options: The Congressional Budget Office forecast a $1.2 trillion deficit before the Obama administration even came …

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January 16, 2012 – 9:36 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics | Comments (1)

Some thoughts from watching cable in New Orleans

1. The commercials on MTV are a problem. They’re nothing but ads for things pertaining to sex and alcohol. That’s probably not even the worst of it. The proactiv ads make me want an uglier world. People can only be confident if they have unrealistically clear skin? Add it all up and you can see …

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January 14, 2012 – 5:25 pm | By ashok | Posted in media | Tagged | Comments (4)

The Relevance of Plato’s Minos

Lungs not in the greatest shape – been taking repeated nebulizer treatments and inhaler puffs yesterday and today. More on this later. Not taking any chances: this will be delivered in little more than an hour but was promised to many others ahead of time. Paper here – it is considerably different than these remarks, …

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January 12, 2012 – 5:50 pm | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, plato, politics | Comments (2)

Is Addiction Ignorance? On Peg O’Connor’s “In the Cave: Philosophy and Addiction”

Thanks to Joshua Rocks for recommending O’Connor’s article. 1. Peg O’Connor pushes us to think metaphorically in her posting “In the Cave: Philosophy and Addiction.” Her summary of the Cave allegory in Plato’s Republic: There is a cave in which prisoners are chained facing a wall. They cannot move their heads and therefore cannot look …

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January 10, 2012 – 1:33 am | By ashok | Posted in media | Comments (1)

Links, 1/6/12

U.S. Navy saves Iranians from Pirates (Wired) – from the article: Just days after Iran threatened the U.S. Navy and bloviated about closing off the Strait of Hormuz, the Navy saved 13 Iranian commercial sailors from pirates. Jay Cost, “The Nomination Rules Are Rigged Against Grassroots Conservatives” – so let’s say the GOP nominated no …

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January 6, 2012 – 3:40 pm | By ashok | Posted in links | Comments (1)

Basho, “Winter solitude” (trans. Robert Hass)

Winter solitude (via yama-bato & growing orbits @ tumblr) Basho, trans. Robert Hass Winter solitude — In a world of one color the sound of wind. Comment: Initially: too bleak. Loneliness is sameness, reinforced by that hollow, echoing sound. Loneliness, sameness, emptiness. We’re where we started. I wonder if a move from “speaker” to “we” …

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January 6, 2012 – 2:01 am | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Tagged , | Comments (3)

The Accessibility of Philosophy

1. At Barnes & Noble today. It looked trashed from holiday shopping. There wasn’t much left on the Philosophy shelves. Very few volumes of Nietzsche or Plato; couldn’t even find a copy of “Twilight and Philosophy” (my favorite book, besides this). The store was also reorganized. Philosophy was back in a corner that it took …

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January 5, 2012 – 6:36 pm | By ashok | Posted in academia, education | Comments (1)

Poems analyzed in 2011

One number that has me taken aback: there are only 247 poetry posts on this blog. It feels like so much more: I don’t know if you feel the same. In chronological order, starting from January: “Precipice,” Jill Alexander Essbaum – some people like to write poems that are a word or two per verse. …

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January 4, 2012 – 4:17 pm | By ashok | Posted in blogging | Comments (0)

The State of Media, 1/3/12

Google Trends: “Vinny Jersey Shore” (nsfw, if you need an explanation) vs. “Ai Weiwei” (ahem) That we consume lots of trash is not a problem. I’ve seen the first season of Jersey Shore and do not hold watching the series against anyone. It would be ludicrous to ask people to come home from work and …

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January 3, 2012 – 2:29 pm | By ashok | Posted in media | Comments (0)