Titanic

This article discusses the latest revelation in the story of the sinking of the Titanic, and touches on the difficulty of drawing lessons from that event.

"The Cold Truth," by Morgan Meis

Jazz and film

No such thing as too much Miles:

Also no such thing as too much Bergman.

This book is not just about a whale

Whoever poisoned my mind by saying Moby-Dick wasn't worth my time was dead wrong.

"At first they are overawing; their calm self-collectedness of simplicity seems a Socratic wisdom. I had noticed also that Queequeg never consorted at all, or but very little, with the other seamen in the inn. He made no advances whatever; appeared to have no desire to enlarge the circle of his acquaintance. All this struck me as mighty singular; yet upon second thoughts, there was something almost sublime in it. Here was a man some twenty thousand miles from home, by the way of Cape Horn that is - which was the only way he could get there - thrown among people as strange to him as though he were in the planet Jupiter; and yet he seemed entirely at his ease; preserving the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship; always equal to himself."

What's stuck in my head

Can't get enough of Dessa. This song could be my anthem, which is why it's the one I'm linking, but I also highly recommend The Chaconne and Mineshaft II. And the whole album, really.

Soccer and politics

Recommended: Football Against the Enemy, by Simon Kuper.

Neat exploration of the relationship between a global sport and global politics. I hope someday I get grant money to go do research as fun as this.

Underappreciated

This band shouldn't be overlooked.

Essay - politics and religion

Suggested reading: one of my favorite essays, The Politics of God by Mark Lilla. Sketches the path of the development of western thought, and the relationship between religion and politics in our familiar paradigm. Woven throughout is a neat discussion of the philosophical differences between East and West, and why that especially matters in the modern context, when America has put interactions with the Middle East on the top of the priority list.

Excerpt: A little more than two centuries ago we began to believe that the West was on a one-way track toward modern secular democracy and that other societies, once placed on that track, would inevitably follow. Though this has not happened, we still maintain our implicit faith in a modernizing process and blame delays on extenuating circumstances like poverty or colonialism. This assumption shapes the way we see political theology, especially in its Islamic form — as an atavism requiring psychological or sociological analysis but not serious intellectual engagement. Islamists, even if they are learned professionals, appear to us primarily as frustrated, irrational representatives of frustrated, irrational societies, nothing more. We live, so to speak, on the other shore. When we observe those on the opposite bank, we are puzzled, since we have only a distant memory of what it was like to think as they do. We all face the same questions of political existence, yet their way of answering them has become alien to us. On one shore, political institutions are conceived in terms of divine authority and spiritual redemption; on the other they are not. And that, as Robert Frost might have put it, makes all the difference.

Literary crushes

While in Guatemala, I spent a good stretch of time in a little used bookstore owned by an American ex-lawyer called Carlos. The fruits of this time, other than some very good conversation, were beat up copies of Locke's treatises on government, and Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I will never stop loving Dostoevsky. Or Prince Myshkin for that matter.

"Gracious me, what a fuss you make!" cried Princess Belokonsky, with annoyance. "You're a good fellow, but you're absurd: someone gives you twopence and you thank him as though he had saved your life. You think it's nice, but let me tell you, it is disgusting."

Villagers

Liking this.

Travel recommendation

Guatemala. Just go.

(Pictures from Semuc Champey and Volcan de Pacaya)