Mini-slump: splat-bottom not likely though possible, and hopeful today's later hour and a half in an oral surgeon's chair resolves most of the anxiety attending everything today. I hate it when anger's no fun and muffling. Anyway, filler-post of sorts (which means I rate it more than it is worth), get the last self-portrait off top of page, here are the weekend links I owe you, songs (and Ashbery) for my mood:
THESE LACUSTRINE CITIES
John Ashbery
These lacustrine cities grew out of loathing
Into something forgetful, although angry with history.
They are the product of an idea: that man is horrible, for instance,
Though this is only one example.
They emerged until a tower
Controlled the sky, and with artifice dipped back
Into the past for swans and tapering branches,
Burning, until all that hate was transformed into useless love.
Then you are left with an idea of yourself
And the feeling of ascending emptiness of the afternoon
Which must be charged to the embarrassment of others
Who fly by you like beacons.
The night is a sentinel.
Much of your time has been occupied by creative games
Until now, but we have all-inclusive plans for you.
We had thought, for instance, of sending you to the middle of the desert,
To a violent sea, or of having the closeness of the others be air
To you, pressing you back into a startled dream
As sea-breezes greet a child’s face.
But the past is already here, and you are nursing some private project.
The worst is not over, yet I know
You will be happy here. Because of the logic
Of your situation, which is something no climate can outsmart.
Tender and insouciant by turns, you see
You have built a mountain of something,
Thoughtfully pouring all your energy into this single monument,
Whose wind is desire starching a petal,
Whose disappointment broke into a rainbow of tears.
1/today i came across this tweet which i liked
ReplyDeleteKendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis
@KendraWrites
When I was young I thought things were bad because solutions were complicated and now I'm old and realize things are bad because solutions are simple but will inconvenience affluent people (or those who aspire to be) and religious fanatics.
2/i read the new york review essay by corey robin cited here, "empathy & the economy", on topics raised by samuel fleischacker's latest book on adam smith
fleischacker's 2009 book on smith's the wealth of nations is available through my local public library, and is described as follows
Adam Smith was a philosopher before he ever wrote about economics, yet until now there has never been a philosophical commentary on the Wealth of Nations. Samuel Fleischacker suggests that Smith's vastly influential treatise on economics can be better understood if placed in the light of his epistemology, philosophy of science, and moral theory. He lays out the relevance of these aspects of Smith's thought to specific themes in the Wealth of Nations, arguing, among other things, that Smith regards social science as an extension of common sense rather than as a discipline to be approached mathematically, that he has moral as well as pragmatic reasons for approving of capitalism, and that he has an unusually strong belief in human equality that leads him to anticipate, if not quite endorse, the modern doctrine of distributive justice.