February 2012
22 posts
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How to Describe the People in Your Life; or,...
How prepared are you to be mean? Very? Somewhat? Hardly?
For those of you looking to up your game, I’ve provided a glossary of zoomorphic adjectives with which to slur your enemies, along with examples of usage.
ant: formicine: ex. “Overwhelmed by the formicine crowds at the officeplex, we sought refuge in the nearest bar.”
armadillo: tolypeutine: ex. “You couldn’t...
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A few thoughts on the new Tumblr policy... →
okimago:
biteofpythias:
I haven’t had the time to fully work through my thoughts on this (so I may shift), but here is my reaction to tumblr’s new policy, which seems to be being very positively received.
1) Tumblr is a private company and has complete decision-making authority over what users can do with their service….
I agree that if a social media platform bans certain content, people...
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David Foster Wallace's Letter to Don Delillo,... →
sometimesagreatnotion:
(Source: Harry Ransom Center)
10-10-95 Dear Don, Since it’s clear from your letters that you’re a person nice, and since it’s well-known that an overkeen sense of obligation tends to afflict the congenitally nice, I again want to implore you not to feel any obligation to read the BM any…
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Bolaño on Literature, Kafka and the Abyss →
walkwhilereading:
Which authors would you number among your precursors? Borges? Cortázar? Nicanor Parra? Neruda? Kafka? In Tres you write: “I dreamt that Earth was finished. And the only human being to contemplate the end was Franz Kafka. In heaven, the Titans were fighting to the death. From a wrought-iron seat in Central Park, Kafka was watching the world burn.”
“I never liked Neruda. At...
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“[Great science and great writing] both involve curiosity, taking risks, thinking...”
– Cormac McCarthy on the aesthetic parallels between literature and science.
The Daily Beast
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“From a certain perspective, the opposition between humanists and scientists...”
– On Cormac McCarthy’s presence at the Santa Fe Institute, on his claim that he doesn’t read novels, and on an intellectual utopia.
The Daily Beast
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“I think Facebook is colossally dull. I think it’s like everyone coming to live...”
– Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, opining on the worth of certain technologies in Capital New York.
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Stereoscopic Magic: On Whitney Houston, Black... →
caille:
Forget her voice for a minute. Think about what she looked like. Rail thin, smooth skin, winning smile, mischevious almond-shaped eyes, high cheekbones — she looked like the model she had been. Conventionally and undeniably beautiful. Clive Davis recognized that those physical attributes…
The excellent Caille on Whitney Houston. Caille often posts some of the more interesting...
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The Aporeticus: Argos, dog of Odysseus →
superfluidity:
mills:
At the end of The Odyssey, Odysseus returns home in disguise after two decades of war and wandering; his old swineherd, Eumeaus, taking him for a stranger, walks him across his property and nearby his old dog, occasioning one of the earliest sentimental descriptions of the human-canine bond…
I’ve always loved this passage for exactly the reason Mills points out. It’s...
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