Contrapuntalism visits Eberhard Faber

Sean at Contrapuntalism recounts his recent visit with Eberhard Faber. With photographs and original patents.

Related reading
All OCA pencil posts (Pinboard)

Gary Saul Morson on English studies

Worth reading: Gary Saul Morson, “Why College Kids Are Avoiding the Study of Literature.” Morson suggests that academics kill interest in three ways: by reducing works to themes and terminology, by judging works in light of our own cultural and moral standards, and by treating works as documents of their times. None of which gives us a reason to read.

I think he’s on the mark.

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Hoagies, pizzas, and English studies
Jim Doyle (1944–2005) (“the why of poetry”)
Moby-Dick at Harvard
Verlyn Klinkenborg on the English major

[But why kids ? Students , please.]

The Amazonian Donald moth

In today’s Zippy, Zippy is doing his Zippercizes, thinking about different things, one by one. No. 3: “Then think about th‘ Amazonian flannel moth, which bears an uncanny resemblance to Donald Trump‘s hair.”

Yes, it does.

Related reading
All OCA Zippy posts (Pinboard)
Roger Ebert on Donald Trump

The Fourth

[“Washington, D.C. Government charwoman.” Photograph by Gordon Parks. August 1942. From the Library of Congress Flickr pages.]

The woman’s name: Ella Watson. The inspiration: American Gothic. You can read more about Ella Watson and Gordon Parks at the Library of Congress website.

Sad candy

[Sad.]

Having worked in the lower depths of retail while in college, I remain alert, always, to the feeling of utter loneliness in retail spaces — the sorry aisles and corners where no one shops. Spend enough Saturday nights straightening merchandise in an empty store and you’ll become alert to that loneliness too, especially if it’s 1975 and there’s Muzak on the PA system.

When I saw this candy machine in a fading mall, it brought back all that retail woe.

[I couldn’t, though, have posted a semi-decent photograph without SKRWT.]

SKRWT

SKRWT is an easy-to-use app to fix lens distortion and other problems in iOS photographs. Moblivious has a detailed guide. I like the app’s hashtag: #allhailsymmetry.

SKRWT is the best $1.99 I’ve spent in a long time.

EDC

A few days of reading Everyday Carry, and I felt too ill-equipped to leave the house. The things people find necessary! Where do they think they’re going?

No harpoons though. Not yet.

[A harpoon is Queequeg’s everyday carry, even to the breakfast table. Me: keys, phone, wallet.]

“A certain semi-visible steam”

The sperm whale’s spout: what’s it all about?


Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851).

Here is one of the more remarkable passages for thinking about Ishmael. “Composing a little treatise on Eternity,” as the air above his head worms and undulates: who is this narrator?

Also from Moby-Dick
“Nothing exists in itself” : Nantucket ≠ Illinois : Quoggy : “Round the world!” : Gam : On “true method”

[Elaine and I finished a first reading of Moby-Dick last night. Next stop: Willa Cather, A Lost Lady.]

A word from the Danish

“The way I define it to Americans is Thanksgiving. You’re together with family and friends, you’re eating delicious food, there’s tradition associated with it. It’s kind of an emotional happiness, an emotional coziness”: it’s the Danish word hygge.

Alex Katz, focusing

“When I’m painting, I could be painting in Grand Central Station. I’m really focused on what I’m doing”: “Alex Katz on His Painting January 3 ” (Vogue).

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Alex Katz, painter, eater (American cheese on white!)