Arts & Letters

Who We Are

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We aren’t always – perhaps seldom – the best we can be. Fortunately, we have our moments. And, well, generally, we aren’t racists, bigots, sexists; we aren’t roaring masses lynching, beheading, stoning. We feel jealousy but aren’t driven by ravenous coveting; we can be irrational but save such excesses for football.

Obama has demonstrated in the last couple of weeks who he thinks we are. But he doesn’t know us.

“But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”
 
“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.” (Politico)

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The Worlds of Benjamin Franklin & Franklin Raines

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At some point we are likely to go back to looking at the world as we did a few generations back – the virtues of the 1950’s or the renunciatory sense of duty of the nineteenth century. If the Romantics & the French Revolution saw a response in the stiff upper lip, perhaps the disasters of today will bring back that same resolute look – perhaps instead of Sean Penn we will admire laconic heroes like Gary Cooper and self-deprecating ones like Jimmy Stewart. And if we do, perhaps we will value Benjamin Franklin’s advice and have little longing for Franklin Raines’ raincoat – value more what’s in our chests than covers our backs.

Perhaps the current economic crisis will force a re-examination of the assumptions Shannon describes so well. Each semester I ask my students to briefly discuss a variety of passages from early writers. One of my favorites is Benjamin Franklin’s argument against debt, that it tempts man to lie, that it undermines his freedom. Indeed, as he says, it is hard for an empty bag to stand upright. I like it because it counters D. H. Lawrence’s attack in an understated way. Franklin’s is not a romantic sense of self but a belief that protecting our essence, who we are, is important. His sense that the practical, the worldly & mundane, is an important factor seems much more interesting than the sex & melodrama of Lawrence’s dark passions.

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Going to the Movies has Become a Political Act

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I went to see The Watchmen over the weekend. I did like it overall. The movie successfully captured the visual style and overall atmosphere of the comic, which is no trivial feat.  

I read the comic back in college when I was still a lefty and enjoyed it, so I went into the movie understanding that my evolved and matured world-view would make me appreciate the original story less. However, the movie’s needless deviation from the book merely to make contemporary political points showcased just how profoundly leftism contaminates modern film and art.   Increasingly, this makes going to the movies a political act in support of leftism.  

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The Atlas of True Names

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One of my favorite blogs is Strange Maps, a blog dedicated to unusual cartography. The blog explores how we use maps to organize and display information about spatial relationships.  

This post leads us to the Atlas of True Names. The  Atlas  of True Names [scroll down for maps] is a project by two German artists that takes standard place-name maps and changes the names to their original  etymological  meanings.  

Texas, for example, becomes “The Land of Friends”. Houston becomes “Heart’s Town” and the Rio Grande becomes “The Great River”. America becomes “Land of the Home Ruler”.

The creators caution that original etymological meanings are often guesswork so we should take everything with a grain of salt and regard this more as art than history. Still it is interesting to see something of the story behind the labels we slap on places.  

The Nature of Man Versus the Ideas of Man

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In high school, we were taught that there are four kinds of dynamic tension in a story: man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. machine and man vs. himself. Our libraries are full of tales that fit neatly into these categories. The nature of man versus the ideas of man fits as well, but is perhaps the most censored, repressed, politically volatile concept of our day.

You can find pearls of wisdom in the unlikeliest places.