Recent Reading 21

Published by peter on 2024-12-11 in Books, Concats and Recent Reading. Closed

The latest in a sequence of lists of recently-read books, listed in reverse chronological order.

  • Nikki Mark [2023]: Tommy’s Field: Love, Loss and the Goal of a Lifetime. Union Square. This is a moving account of the loss and aftermath of the author’s son, Tommy Mark, who died in his sleep in 2018 at the age of 12. Tommy Mark was apparently mature beyond his years and a gifted soccer player, and the family decided to honour his life and achievements by raising funds for a dedicated soccer pitch in a park in Westwood, their home suburb in Los Angeles. Despite the proposed field in the park being in poor condition and mostly unused, they faced intense opposition from some other people living near the park.

    Her son had played in teams in different parts of LA, in a sport which was more popular among young Spanish-speaking Americans than any other. From the comments she cites of opponents of the proposal, the opposition was strongly centred on the race of the children who would use the soccer field. The book gives a detailed and fascinating account of the local public consultation and lobbying of local government bodies she undertook, and the opposition she faced at every step. Ultimately, she was successful and Tommy’s Field was inaugurated in Westwood Recreation Center on 26 September 2021. It can be viewed here.

    The book is also an account of her transformation from a vague secular agnosticism to a strong overt belief in an after-life, underpinned by her frequent experiences and dreams of communication, direct and indirect, with spiritual entities. Of course, as I have argued before, any such experiences we have may be the result of delusion, and even self-delusion. But this is not how these experiences are felt by those who have them. Ms Mark’s account of her experiences is honest and strongly compelling. I was reminded of the account of Mary Le Beau (pen-name of Inez Travers Cunningham Stark Boulton) of her conversations with spirits of the dead published in 1956 (Beyond Doubt: A Record of Psychic Experience), which is also very compelling.

Characters in films

Published by peter on 2024-11-29 in Art and Film. Closed

Luca Guadagnino, director of the movie “Queer” (quoted in The New York Times, 20 November 2024):

Every movie is a documentary about the actor playing the character.”

Poor writing from famous writers

Published by peter on 2024-11-25 in Literature and Recent Reading. Closed

I have long thought Australian author Thomas Keneally writes very badly, at least in his mother tongue. A stunning new example of his poor writing skills is the opening sentence – the opening sentence, mind! – of an invited letter that appears in the latest issue of the Australian long-form magazine, Quarterly Essay (Issue 96, November 2024, page 91). Keneally’s words:

What I like about Watson’s mind is his capacity to connect the mytho-poetic to the political, and he can do it without hearing from him, generally, any grunt of effort.”

I stumbled at this sentence, and it took me a while to parse it. Who is the “him” in the second part of the sentence? If it is Watson himself, why would Watson be hearing anything from himself? Eventually, I realized that the subject doing the “hearing” was not Watson, but someone else. What Keneally intended to write, perhaps, was:

. . . and he can do it without us hearing from him, generally, any grunt of effort.”

Or perhaps:

. . . and he can do it without us hearing emerge from him, generally, any grunt of effort.”

Even with this correction, which allows us to parse the sentence more readily, the wording is ungainly, since it switches attention from Watson to those hearing Watson. I have met people who change their deictic pointers (ie, the person or object to whom a pronoun refers) in their heads without updating the references of the pointers in their speech. Such people are most confusing to converse with. Perhaps Keneally is one of these people. Or perhaps, he dictates his writing and loses track of the deictic pointers as he does so, as Henry James was wont to do.

Or perhaps, he simply cannot write. As with Graham Greene and David Caute, why Keneally is so feted as an author when he writes so badly has long been a mystery to me.

Animals

Published by peter on 2024-10-17 in Poetry. Closed

Animals

The lion died.
The moons over the forest faded.
The surface was flooded
with mournful tears.

Herons, rats, and hydras
gathered in the raspberry patch,
praying until morning,
chanting hymns.

By morning in the raspberry patch,
everything became unclear:
there’s no one to pray to,
no one to fear.

The elephant started waltzing.
Vermicelli – leeches
began indulging
in women and drunkenness.

With a ruler,
compass, and template,
a frightening scarecrow
was drawn by the lynx.

The animals, astonished,
terrified beyond measure,
fell to their knees
beside the scarecrow.

Everything in the raspberry batch
became clear to the fullest:
there is
someone to pray to,
there is
someone to fear.

– Victor Sosnora (1936-2019)
From In Search of Entertainment (1960-1962)
(translated by and thanks to AD)

British-Abwehr relations in WW2

Published by peter on 2024-10-02 in History, Military strategy and Politics. Closed

Did British forces help Finland in the Winter War against the USSR in 1940? If so, did they cross Nazi-occupied Europe to get to Finland? If they did that, did the German Abwehr facilitate their passage? If the Abwehr did help, how was this help requested and negotiated? Were there secret communications channels between the Abwehr and the British at that time? Some people think that there may have been such channels later in the war. At that time Germany and the USSR were allies (or at least, partners in a non-aggression pact), and Britain was at war with Germany (although not with the USSR, I think).

I am motivated to ask these questions by a sentence in Richard Bassett’s book about Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (then head of the Abwehr), “Hitler’s Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Mystery” (paperback edition, 2006). Bassett says:

in Finland where the British forces sent to help the Finns against the Soviets in 1940 were actually assisted in their passage by the Germans. German air & land forces were instructed not to interfere with the progress of these British forces.”

For this claim, Bassett cites Frederick Winterbotham, “The Nazi Connection”, p. 164 (London 1978). But Winterbotham’s book seems to have nothing about the Winter War. Finland is not even listed in the index.

Basset also cites Winterbotham for a claim that Luftwaffe General Milch visited the RAF in Britain before the war. However, none of the pages of Winterbotham’s book which mention Milch say this.

Perhaps relatedly, Kermit Roosevelt (son of Teddy) was in Britain at the start of WW II and organized a group of volunteers to go and help Finland. But, according to his Wikipedia page the war ended before this expedition could get underway.

Friends in our life

Published by peter on 2024-09-29 in Decision theory and Prophecy. Closed

James Beaufort (Damian Hardung) in Maxton Hall – The World Between Us (Amazon Prime 2024, S1 Ep6):

It takes courage to think beyond the present, but sometimes it’s another person’s gaze that shines a new light on our future.”

The etiquette and responsibilities of concert audiences

Published by peter on 2024-07-19 in Concerts and Music. Closed

Earlier this week, at a solo piano recital in the Wigmore Hall, London, a man near to where I was seated started complaining in the interval about how poor he thought the performer was. His statements were apparently unsolicited. The people seated either side of him disagreed with his view, and asked him to be more specific. This occurred as people were returning to their seats at the end of the interval, and he could be heard several rows away.

Continue reading ‘The etiquette and responsibilities of concert audiences’

Jesuit Poets

Published by peter on 2024-06-18 in History, Oratory, Poetry, Religion and Rhetoric. Closed

I am belatedly posting about a superb address I heard given at a mass to celebrate the Fourth Centenary of the (then) English Province of the Society of Jesus, held in Farm Street Church, London on 21 January 2023. The mass was celebrated by Vincent Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, and the sermon given by Fr Damian Howard SJ, Provincial of the British Province. The music at the mass included the world premiere of James MacMillan’s “Precious in the sight of the Lord” (with MacMillan in the congregation).

Continue reading ‘Jesuit Poets’

TBC: RIP

Published by peter on 2024-05-27 in Argumentation and Obituaries. 0 Comments

In a recent post I mentioned that English has no good word for the process reverse to that of abstraction. Writing that reminded me of a long and fascinating conversation in about 2002 on this very issue with my former colleague, Trevor Bench-Capon, who sadly passed on this past week (on Monday 20 May 2024).

Continue reading ‘TBC: RIP’

Music performance and morphic resonance

Published by peter on 2024-05-24 in Creativity, Jazz and Music. 0 Comments

Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance posits the existence (in some metaphysical or conceptual sense) of morphic forms which arise when living beings act in the world. In this theory, these forms are strengthened with each repetition of the action, and create a force field (a morphic field) which can be drawn upon by subsequent beings repeating the same act. The theory predicts that doing the same thing should become easier over time, even when the entities doing the acting are different, in different locations or not not even alive at the same time. Morphic resonance, if it exists (whatever that may mean) is a form of action at a distance and action through time. I have been fascinated by this theory since first reading Sheldrake’s book about it 36 years ago.

Continue reading ‘Music performance and morphic resonance’