Reading Room

There is the idea of not being able to escape our fate in the abstract and then there is Basho leaving a three year old by a river to die as he continues his journey. This story has haunted me for many years. From Basho Narrow Road to the Deep North Previous

Agree to let yourself be seized, carried away, no longer seeing what is around you, no longer enclosed in what you believe yourself to be, hearing only those voices, coming from the hinterland. From Pontalis Thank you to Sean Tom Previous

From Emily Austins wonderful book - Living for Pleasure Epicurus thinks the worst thing we can do to ourselves is rob ourselves of joy by making everything a chase for an unlimited good—never too smart, never too talented, never too admired. Previous

when you work or before your work you have to empty your mind and concentrate on what you are doing. After you do something it is done and that’s that From Sol LeWitt's letter to Eva Hesse Benedict Cumberbatch reads the letter link to the original letter here and a more readable version here Thank you to Megan Culhane Galbraith for getting me onto this some years back Previous

Two Albums I have been listening to I think this does what many a tribute album seek but find a hard time reaching. I Am a Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100 & Bonny. Light. Horseman. Previous

The Weather Station - Came So Easy Previous

Otherwise by Jane Kenyon I got out of bed on two strong legs. It might have been otherwise. I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach. It might have been otherwise. I took the dog uphill to the birch wood. All morning I did the work I love. At noon I lay down with my mate. It might have been otherwise. We ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks. It might have been otherwise. I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls, and planned another day just like this day.…

Hypermnesia, the hypertrophy of recording memory, all this energy concentrated in order to forget nothing. I supervised an analyst who was able to report to me, without notes, the complete "text" of the sessions. I never had the slightest image of his patient, who to meet remained a dead letter." J.-B. Pontalis - Windows - via Sean Tom. Previous

How many people I know hang abstract paintings on their walls, exclaiming: 'I don't know what there is in this painting, but I can't take my eyes off it.' This kind of bewilderment is salutary. It does us good not to be able to explain, either to ourselves or to others, what we enjoy or love; it expands our capacity for experience. Clement Greenberg Again thanks to Francey Russell Previous

I have only kept images which entrall me, without my knowing why (such ignorance is the very nature of fascination, and what I shall say about each image will never be anything but… imaginary. Roland Barthes From a wonderful lecture by Francey Russell, special thanks to Shivani Radhakrishnan for hosting. Also I loved this little work mountain underneath the projector Previous

A poem by psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott Previous

The Dacau Shoe, from the great W.S. Merwin Previous

Jesús Fernández-Villaverde on Marginal Revolution for those not on twitter where he put it originally Previous

A thought provoking post. The subtitle of which to me could be 'why the cream doesn't always rise to the top.' An especially incredible first half and perhaps falling into survivorship bias in the second when the author is discussing his own journey. link to the substack here more on the above here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias# Previous

Thank you to Jenny Boully for this one Previous

People have their own concepts of success and failure and by the time they have been through the ordeal, really are not concerned about how other people evaluate their performance. They may their own judgments about success and failure. Gary "Lazarus Lake" Cantrell - organizer of The Barkley Marathon and focus of the documentary - 'The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young' Previous

I am late to the party on this one but a wonderful book. Thank you to Adam Cohen for the introduction. Previous

Artur Rimbaud A special thank you to Wyatt Mason for this. Previous

by Louis Jenkins Previous

Master Dizang asked Fayan, "Where have you come from?" Fayan said, "I pilgrimage here and there." Dizang asked, "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?" Fayan replied, "I don't know." Dizang answered: "Not knowing is nearest". From the Book of Serenity. Thank you to Catskill Zen and Musho Previous

From his new collection Night Watch. Previous

Previous

A wonderful essay on Mary Ruefle by someone who is as much of a fan as I. Previous

A few pages from Inadvertent - Karl Ove Knausgaard - a really really wonderful book. page 27-28 page 91-92 page 65 Previous

This guy brings all manner of vehicles back after sitting in the woods for 40 years. Less restoration and more just observing someone who understands the fundamentals of mechanical things in a way I can only admire from a distance. YT link here Previous

This is the text of an incredible commencement speech Mary Ruefle gave a few years ago at Bennington. link here Previous

A poet who would like to compete with those mountains of diction, would have to pretend he possesses more self knowledge than poets are allowed to have. Milosz - The Witness of Poetry Previous

A work is finished when we can no longer improve it, though we know it to be inadequate and incomplete. We are so overtaxed by it that we no longer have the power to add a single comma, however indispensable. What determines the degree to which a work is done is not a requirement of art or of truth, it is exhaustion and, even more, disgust. Emil M. Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born Previous

The version I know is from Kevin Kelly but the internet tells me Jon Swift is the originator. “Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired.” — Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Young Gentleman, Lately Enter’d into Holy Orders (1721) Previous

Thanks to Vassar Art Museum and apologies for the not great photo. It is hard to take pictures through glass Previous