More specifically concerning: society
Evening
19 January 2003, around 11.02.
An evening mildly out upon the town, following that vaguest of inclinations: civility. The plan had been to step out to the pub on the corner by the house; but peering in the windows at the sodden murmurings of the gray-haired regulars at the bar, we four, young and indecisive, given rather to nights ‘at […]
Oddities
5 February 2003, around 9.18.
Sometimes I cannot tell if I am invisible because people think I do not wish to be seen, or because people do not wish to see me. Most times both seem true. The glacial drifting of the swans upon the river. Coasting loose-limbed on an ancient bike, almost Cassius-faced in a green wool coat. Birds […]
Report from the Jungle
2 September 2003, around 17.25.
It was a war of each against all, and the devil take the hindmost. You did not give feasts to other people, you waited for them to give feasts to you. You went about with your soul full of suspicion and hatred; you understood that you were environed by hostile powers that were trying to […]
The Victim of Prejudice
24 March 2004, around 19.07.
or, the difficulties of being desired
Crambe repetita (12)
2 November 2004, around 18.20.
Samuel Butler, Notebooks.
notes on reading: social
13 February 2006, around 12.44.
19th century London & medieval Iceland
social ethics
27 September 2006, around 18.59.
An exaggerated personal morality is often mistaken for a social morality, and until it attempts to minister to a social situation its total inadequacy is not discovered. To attempt to attain a social morality with a basis of democratic experience results in a loss of the only possible corrective and guide, and ends in an […]
The Guermantes Way
23 August 2010, around 20.42.
Everything we think of as great has come to us from neurotics. It is they and they alone who found religions and create great works of art. The world will never realise how much it owes them, and that they have suffered in order to bestow their gifts on it. We enjoy fine music, beautiful […]
bettered novels (22.2)
20 February 2016, around 13.25.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, part 2, a brief notice of the servants (1813).
Citation (55)
18 June 2016, around 6.31.
on the best society…
Citation (57)
5 March 2017, around 6.14.
reading at the dinner table…
in brief
9 April 2021, around 5.00.
Dear Professor ———, It was with great interest that I picked up a recent translation of one of your books, as I hoped that it would provide a fresh perspective on what could perhaps be called ‘the current moment’. Although your book failed to be helpful in this regard, it did provide food for thought. […]