Certainly the most destructive vice, if you like, that a person can have—more than pride, which is supposedly the number one of the cardinal sins—is self pity. Self pity is the worst possible emotion anyone can have. And the most destructive. It is, to slightly paraphrase what Wilde said about hatred, and I think actually hatred’s a subset of self pity and not the other way around, “It destroys everything around it, except itself.”
—Stephen Fry
—from BBC 4 Interview
acedia /ə-SEE-dee-ə/. noun. Listlessness, torpor, deep malaise, a distaste for the obligations of life or religious practice, the sin of sloth. As Thomas Aquinas put it, a “sorrow of the world.” See also: weltschmerz. From Greek akēdeia (negligence, apathy).
“But for sloth,” said Sir Gawaine. “A tendency towards acedia is his only weakness.” (Thomas Berger)
“Mysteries intrigue her, arrogance depresses her, and she enjoys a drink rather oftener than a doctor might recommend. She is given to occasional bouts of acedia, a sin not encountered in the Ten Commandments; the purpose of life now and then evades her grasp.” (Amanda Cross)
“Hours of acedia, pencil on the desk
coffee in a cup, ash-tray flowing
the window closed, the universe unforthcoming,
Being ground to a halt.”
(John Berryman)
“Sting’s brain scan pointed us to several connections between pieces of music that I know well but had never seen as related before…” → Don’t scan so close to me: McGill researcher scans Sting’s musical brain. Also: the full paper, “Measuring the representational space of music with fMRI: a case study with Sting”. Thanks, Reader M.
Bryan Alexander—futurist, writer, teacher and fellow bookworm—is rounding up a near-future science fiction reading group of sorts. Strong readers, loosely joined, with great book choices so far. Join in!
Following on our earlier link to the Mother Jones expose on private prisons comes news that the Justice Department will stop using them.
“Stationery options are so plentiful that a designated paper concierge is on hand to advise customers on selecting the just-right weight, texture, shade, sheen, and thickness.” → A 100-year-old Japanese stationery store lets customers design the perfect, custom notebook
From heavy metal bassist (including appearance in the cult film Heavy Metal Parking Lot) to devout Hasidic luthier. → The story of Z.Z. Ludwick.
A lagniappe: (with the right font), UPSIDE DOWN can be spelled upside down using letters that are right-side up: umop apisdn
These Surreal Ancient Alchemy Manuscripts Are Terrifyingly Cool
Today in 1979, Alexander Godunov—principal dancer in the Bolshoi Ballet and well-known (in the USSR) actor—defects to the United States while on tour in New York City. Godunov’s defection would indirectly spark an international incident when his wife and fellow dancer, Lyudmila Vlasova, was detained at the airport until U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev intervened and Carter was convinced she was returning willingly. Godunov would serve as principal dancer for American Ballet Theater, which was directed by his friend and fellow defector Mikhail Baryshnikov, and then play a few well-known roles, including a memorable turn in Peter Weir’s film Witness and battling with Bruce Willis in Die Hard. In 1987, Godunov became an American citizen, celebrating with a burger stuffed with caviar. Sadly, Gudonov’s life was cut short by complications from hepatitis and alcoholism. He died in 1997.
It looks like embroidery, but Jasmin Sian’s art is composed of ink, graphite and cut-outs from paper lunch bags. Click through and then zoom in. Amazing. [Thanks, Reader S.!]
A sample from the Spurious Correlations site. Plenty more there. And in the book.
Reader K. on the strange story of Robert Kennicott: “I love the idea of a collector who became collected, like a macabre iron-colored butterfly, pinned somewhere in the bowels of the Smithsonian!”
Reader T. on Hip Hop Vocabulary: “Dang, dat Wu Tang!”
Reader B. on last week’s WORD: “Now I’m waiting for an alternate history about the Chrisom Trail.” — Oooof.
A few readers had thoughts on Reader M.’s search for a word representing the feeling when “one reads a book, loves it and then goes to reread it and the magic is gone:”
Reader S. asks: “How about ‘notslogia’?”
Reader A. ponders: “libraturity? ¶ lost bookolescence? ¶ a state of post-narratopause? ¶ this is hard!”
Reader J. suggests: "I don’t have an answer for him, but this gentleman just might: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. — Indeed. Love the DoOS.
The same (audacious) Reader B. who committed the act of punnery earier notes: “‘readgret’ fills me with horror on all kinds of levels. ¶ One critic (can’t find it now) said the opposite was ‘fundability’, the ability to go back to a text and get more out of it another time. ¶ Maybe what you’re looking for is ‘divestibility’”
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