I'm so very sorry to hear about your health struggles Helen.

The message of sonnet 68 hasn‘t aged at all! On the contrary… Do you think this is Shakespeare's point? The beauty of his poetry cuts through all the shallow artifice? This reading would make the poem's subject the poet himself.

A page from Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

Ordered this second hand OUP copy of Shakespeare's complete sonnets and poems to find someone else's notes to Venus and Adonis.

Upon his hurt she looks so steadfastly | that her sight, dazzling, makes the wound seem three

Actual question. Not snark. Why read the book. Why not just read the summary and use companion AI to ask more questions?

What are we so afraid of when we sit alone with a book?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I vaguely recall an anecdote from Lillian Hellman's account of her life with Dashiell Hammett, that when in frustration she threatened to quit, he said something like, "Go ahead, my dear. No one will notice." A writer writes because a writer has to write.

"Of Greek and Latin in particular such parents recall only the bitter toil they had to expend on these languages in their youth due to faulty arrangements and poor methods. Yet in part these parents are ungrateful to such instruction, seeing no utility in it because no direct use is made of the two languages. For they have not come to insight into, or consciousness of, the spiritual [geistig] influence which such training has had on them and - unbeknownst to them - continues to have. The better portion of the public remains aloof to the views of this portion which wishes its children to reap the harvest without ever having had to sow or till."

In a letter in 1810, Hegel criticised the public for favouring utility and convenience in education over intellectual and cultural growth. For Hegel, the spiritual influence (geistig) of studying the Classics transcended practical use, shaping understanding and character in ways unappreciated.

Only 52 per cent. Sadly. Of those 52 per cent, some did understand, like my friend, an economics phd, yet still voted to leave.

Claude AI opening page for chat "How can I help you this morning?"

Godot: No longer waiting for the emptiness that never arrives, the embodiment of emptiness is always "here to help". (Claude)

Screen grab from Safe (1995), dir. Todd Haynes. The protagonist looks directly into the camera.

Screen grab from Safe (1995), dir. Todd Haynes. The protagonist sits on her new sofa talking into the telephone while the maid looks on.

Screen grab from Safe (1995), dir. Todd Haynes. The protagonist sits in bed. Her husband on the edge looks away.

Screen grab from Safe (1995), dir. Todd Haynes. The protagonist is at a housewives' gathering.

Screen grab from Safe (1995), dir. Todd Haynes. The protagonist stands upset in a guest cabin.

Screen grab from Safe (1995), dir. Todd Haynes. The protagonist sits and listens to a group therapy session.

Screen grab from Safe (1995), dir. Todd Haynes. The protagonist receives a new sofa delivery.

Screen grab from Safe (1995), dir. Todd Haynes. The protagonist drinks a glass of milk served by the maid and looks directly into the camera.

Have you seen Safe (1995) dir. Todd Haynes? Beautiful pace. And the cinematography 🤩Firmly in a Gregory Crewdson/ Jeff Wall mid-90s aesthetic. The protagonist (Julianne Moore) looks directly at the camera several times. No closeups. Always at a distance.

China has been super protectionist. ”We need to find a deal with China because we won’t be able to compete . . . without the support of the Chinese companies that control the mining industry, chemicals, refining and their capacity and competence,” Luca De Meo, Renault’s chief executive, last month.

Chinese conspiracy theory. But if you mean realistically, the ft has been running good articles.

Low-vis is a way to navigate these various platforms too

Liked this short story by Lisa Lang

theaccountmagazine.com/article/lang...

Audiobooks are great for long road journeys. Rubbish for thinking. Keep having to stop them during driving. Just to get a moment to absorb what's been said. Or, I just drift in and out, which means not really listening at all. And then rewinding to find out what I've missed.

As people continue to leave Twitter I wanted to tell the story of when I was working as a waiter in a patisserie/café/restaurant in London. Within a month, everyone senior had left, for various reasons, and the boss said to me: "you're in charge now" and tossed me the keys.

Is it about values rather than popularity? Hard for people to switch from one to the other.

’einbuddeln’ in German

Neonazi-Bewegung: "Es geht darum, kampfbereit zu sein" Auffallend junge Rechtsextremisten marschieren seit dem Sommer auf Deutschlands Straßen auf. Jetzt hat ein Thinktank diese neue Generation Neonazis erstmals vermessen.

Phones are out competing personal contacts pushing young men and women into separate political spaces.

www.zeit.de/politik/deut...

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

English Translation To stifle any revolt in advance, one must not proceed violently. Archaic methods like those of Hitler are completely outdated. It is enough to create a conditioning by significantly lowering the level and quality of education. An uncultured individual has only a limited horizon of thoughts, and the more their thinking is confined to material, mediocre concerns, the less they can revolt. One must ensure that access to knowledge becomes increasingly difficult and that the gap between the people and science widens, so that information intended for the general public is anaesthetised. Again, one must use persuasion rather than direct violence, and this will be done as follows: by broadcasting massively through television, stupefying entertainments, always appealing to the emotional, the instinctive. Minds will be occupied with what is futile and playful, with chatter and incessant music. One must prevent the mind from questioning, thinking, or reflecting. Sexuality will be placed at the forefront of human interests, as a social anaesthetic. Efforts will be made to banish the seriousness of existence, to maintain a constant glorification of lightness so that consumption becomes the standard of human happiness. Günter Anders, Obsolescence of Man, 1956.

I think it's the opposite. The television screen, the internet, the endless stream of "content," these are the narratives of anaesthetised pleasure, a managed ignorance that comes from stunting educational systems so that no voter looks too deeply into the mechanisms of their own subjugation.

Harris appears here warmly lit, smiling, and clapping, communicating approachability and warmth. Unlike Trump's chiaroscuro portrait, which I posted just before this one, this photo of Harris lacks overt patriotic cues, showing her in a more casual way that contrasts sharply with the gravitas awarded to Trump. This, in juxtaposition to Trump's portrait, shows her role is contingent on an ability to connect personally, not to command symbolically. No flags, no shadows, it's just happy to keep her as the Vice President of Likeability. It's called her "story", but it's not the story of power or the weight of office. It's the story rather of how to neutralise her power, filtering it through the lens of relatability.

This NYT headline "The Story of Kamala Harris" (and photo) show Harris' relevance comes through understanding a personal journey rather than position or policy. Trump's cast as a powerful figure, while Harris is a 'character' to be understood, a secondary figure. See Alt-text for more photo analysis

The visual choices are noteworthy here: flags as backdrops, the chiaroscuro lighting, the solitary figure. Trump is framed as an emblematic force, his mere presence bringing a weight and gravitas that transcends the political. The half-lighting gives him an aura of mystique. The flags on either side frame him in national symbolism, as if he embodies, or stands as a gatekeeper to, American identity.

This NYT headline and photograph frames Trump's return as imminent, a presidency already prepped for his return. See Alt-text for image analysis.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰

At the very least it reduces her role to a reactive one: she's only newsworthy because of the shadow she's standing in. It's so bad.

Even though Harris is a sitting Vice President. There's a hierarchy of relevance in favour of Trump. And it keeps the discourse Trump-centric because it says that Harris and the issues she represents are not worth reading about unless reframed through the lens of Trump. It's really appalling.

Scrolling through NYT headlines. In the Election 2024 section only one headline is solely Harris ("the story of Kamala Harris"). 10 are exclusively Trump. 9 are Harris and Trump. She's presented not as a politician with her own trajectory, but as someone whose relevance is only in relation to his.

He was on BBC Radio 4's Today programme yesterday morning, so the Times must be just reporting that.

Yes it generalises criminality to an entire nationality and bases this on dodgy stat work, which in itself is shocking. It also implies a causal relationship between nationality and criminality without providing evidence for such a link. Correlation does not imply causation.

It would also be awesome if we had more FT faculty and smaller classes so we could be more present to our students than Chat GPT in those moments of confusion or uncertainty or doubt about the process or purpose of their reading.

We should start touting all English classes as "flipped classrooms" because we ask the students to do the reading first so we can gather together and do the work on it. We could claim we are being innovative even though this is exactly what we have always done. 😉