Coco Chanel and the Art of Reading: Exhibit in the Ca'Pesaro, Venice, through 8 January 2017. From the description: From Greek authors to modern poets, Gabrielle Chanel’s abundant library reveals the works that left an impression on her life and shaped her personality.... This dialogue through the ages, from antiquity to her contemporaries, is underlined in particular by [...]
On Politics and Poetry: a dialogue between a poet and a politician Politician: What’s going on, poet? Are you able to scrabble together a living? Poet: Rich enough, I suppose, though it’s hard to earn my bread. What about you: still hungry for attention? Politician: That’s rich, coming from you! I have the best interests of [...]
Forests of philosophy: how our trail-blazing only leads to passing points of rest. No one like the path-finder himself feels the immensity of the forest, or knows the accidentality of his own trails. Columbus, dreaming of the ancient East, is stopped by poor pristine simple America, and gets no farther on that day; and the poets [...]
Poetic justice: how a poet may know the justice system, inside and out. From the article: Reginald Dwayne Betts has wanted to be a lawyer for almost as long as he has wanted to be a poet. “Poetry and law have always been intertwined in my mind,” he said recently, “in part because poetry gives me the [...]
STEM without poetry is like life without metaphor: how scientists may improve their writing and understanding by reading literature. From the editorial: It is within the lines of poetry that students can discover, celebrate and appreciate other cultures, dialects, ethnicities, world views and experiences. As science educators, we have integrated literature and poetry into scientific training. [...]
Thinking, feeling, reading: how not just what you read, but how you read, affects your soul and self. From the article: Recent research also revealed that “deep reading”—defined as reading that is slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity—is distinctive from light reading—little more than the decoding of words. Deep reading [...]
Of books to books: Geoffrey Crayon speaks to volumes in the library of Westminster Abbey, and ponders the ways time and technology transform our knowledge. “Language gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors who flourished their allotted time…. Formerly there were some restraints on this excessive multiplication. Works had to be transcribed by [...]
Freedom of thought in twelfth-century Paris: how Latin learning (and love) left us a legacy of creative inquiry A good man asked the doctors of [twelfth-century] Paris if it were better to learn what one did not know or to apply what one knew, and when they approved the second, concluded upon them that they [...]
Lunar travels, earthly travails: from our fictional science correspondent. What different choices will our technology offer us? I recently traveled to the moon to get a better view of things. Not with Space-X or Virgin Lunar or other such transport, but by a method I cannot specify. What I mean is I cannot explain it [...]
The problems a poet would solve. How does a poet respond to life's problems, in politics and otherwise? W.B. Yeats records one lyrical response to Thomas Mann. ‘In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings in political terms.’ Thomas Mann How can I, that girl standing there, My attention fix On Roman or on [...]
