What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them. All his reverence and all his fondness and all the leanings of his life were for the ardenthearted and they would always be so and never be otherwise. Ch.I All the Pretty Horses is a novel by American author Cormac McCarthy. The novel was published in 1992 and won the National Book...
Editorial notes: This is the first of two posts (bost written on the same day) dedicated to the Antikythera mechanism. Decoding the Heavens is a non-fiction book by Jo Marchant about the Antikythera mechanism, and was published in 2008. For the actual focus of the book, see the relevant node, although suffice to remind everyone at this point that the Antikythera mechanism was a Greek artefact...
Dangling Man was the first novel published by Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow. It was published in 1944 by Vanguard Press, and which today is owned by Random House. The novel forms a diary kept by Joseph for a one year: December 15, 1942, through to April 9 1943. The very first entry begins with the caveat that although to keep a diary is not something that should be done – since one should...
The Algebraist is a science fiction novel set in the unfathomably far future and is penned by the established author Iain M. Banks. The plot concerns a star system being attacked by some force, (I would have written “alien force” but by this stage in the universe’s history to define something as an alien is rather provincial). The attack is motivated by a desire to conquer the...
Dawkin’s God is a non-fiction book by Alister McGrath published in 2004. It is a response to Dawkin’s views, especially as they regard religion. The book is subtitled Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life. Comments: The most intelligible interpretation of McGrath’s take on Dawkins is that Dawkins is attacking academic-religion and not pop-religion. The reason for making this...
Jesus’ Son is a collection of stories revolving around a lost soul known as fuckhead. The book was published in 1992, and in 1999 was made into a movie by the same name. The book’s title comes from The Velvet Underground‘s song Heroin. When I’m rushing on my run And I feel just like Jesus‘ son… Comments: While the main theme (or at least thematic motif) found...
Plato was an Ancient Greek philosopher who lived around 2400 years ago in Athens. Almost all of Plato’s surviving writings are dialogues (philosophical plays). Ion is a dialogue between Socrates (Plato’s teacher) and Ion, a celebrated performer of poetry. Although Plato is always interesting, it is often hard to find a positive lesson that can be drawn from his philosophy. Often his...
Three books collide in my mind and make me reflect on the human condition. Please excuse me. 1. T.S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruellest month because it reminds us of renewal; once, long ago, a woman asked the gods for immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth. She begs to die and the renewal of spring in April taunts her. 2. Jorge Luis Borges, who was undoubtedly intimately familiar...
Editorial notes: This is Shai’s first dedicated write-up relating to Jorge Luis Borges. Borges is referenced in two earlier essays and between Jan 2010 and Nov 2017 is referenced by Shai 17 times. The Writing of the God (Spanish: La Escritura del Dios; also sometimes entitled The God’s Script) is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. It first appeared in Borges’ short story...
I hadn’t intended to review this book – Men and Cartoons: Stories by Jonathan Lethem – but then, like with so many other things, I got thinking. This was the first thing I’d ever read by Lethem – surely there must be something unique about a person’s first introduction to an author? Surely there must be something unique about my introduction to Lethem? But...
