“It was not in his nature to be superlative in anything; unless indeed, he was superlatively middling, the quintessential extract of mediocrity.”That is how George Eliot describes the protagonist in her novella, The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton. Eliot’s first published work of fiction is a tale of a curate of a small church in England in the mid-19th century. Reverend Barton is indeed a thoroughly undistinguished man who leads a rather conventional life. He muddles through life; … [Read more...] about The Dull Lives We Lead
Great Books
Philosophizing With a Hammer
“Why so hard?” the kitchen coal once said to the diamond. “After all, are we not close kin?”Why so soft? O my brothers, thus I ask you: are you not after all my brothers?Why so soft, so pliant and yielding? Why is there so much denial, self-denial, in your hearts? So little destiny in your eyes?And if you do not want to be destinies and inexorable ones, how can you one day triumph with me?And if your hardness does not wish to flash and cut through, how can you one day create with me?For all … [Read more...] about Philosophizing With a Hammer
Going Home
“Who would think of dusting or sweeping the cobwebs down in a room used for the storage of cans and newspapers—things utterly without value? Sylvie only kept them, I think, because she considered accumulation to be the essence of housekeeping, and because she considered the hoarding of worthless things to be proof of a particularly scrupulous thrift.” What is housekeeping? Indeed, what is a home? Given the title, it is not a surprise that Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping is a reflection on … [Read more...] about Going Home
The Roaring or Boring ’20s
“As Charles Lamb said of Godwin, he had read more books not worth reading than any man in England.”That is from Bring on the Girls by P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton. It is not quite an accurate description of the book in which I read the quotation. But, it is too close for comfort. Back in the 1920s Wodehouse and Bolton were collaborators writing a swath of Broadway Musicals. Many of them were hits. Big hits! They were famous! Bring On the Girls is a memoir of those years. It tells the … [Read more...] about The Roaring or Boring ’20s
Conducting and Lecturing
A question which has puzzled me off and on for decades is what music conductors are doing. Sure, they wave their hands around a lot. And they get applause both before and after a concert. But, what exactly are they doing? Don’t get me wrong. I knew what my music teacher was doing when I was in elementary school band. In practices, she would spend a lot of time trying to convince us we needed to stay on the beat. That is kinda important. But come concert time, she would start us and we would … [Read more...] about Conducting and Lecturing
Is All Time Redeemable?
Let us begin, once again, by expressing gratitude to the Library of America. American Science Fiction: Five Classic Novels, 1956-58, closes with a book by Fritz Leiber, The Big Time. I had never heard of this book. It is almost certain at you have not heard of it either. Yet, there it is making the list of the Big Five in the LOA collection. It is not that it is completely forgotten. Neil Gaiman knows about it: It's funny, smart, and resonant, playing out huge themes on a tiny stage, and … [Read more...] about Is All Time Redeemable?