"Pnin walked slowly under the solemn pines. The sky was dying. He did not believe in an autocratic God. He did believe, dimly, in a democracy of ghosts. The souls of the dead, perhaps, formed committees, and these, in continuous session, attended to the destinies of the quick."Vladimir Nabokov, "Pnin" (1957) Why is it that … Continue reading Quarantine in Newark
Category: Thought Stream
On Sterling Pond
"Neither had my secret thought conceived the snowflake, nor in all my music was contained the falling of the rain."J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Silmarillion" (1977) One ridge of phosphorescent glass, electric with sunlight. At another angle the breeze-raked surface applauds, dappled with buoyant reflective motes; sparks struck off the forge of creation, an alloyed sheen like … Continue reading On Sterling Pond
I Ink, Therefore.
"When the mind is braced by labor and invention, every book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusions."Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The American Scholar" (1837) It's difficult to become the center of your own orbit, trying to tease out the physics of those dark matter strengths beyond the range of weaknesses' sight. Trepidation is spiritual myopia, … Continue reading I Ink, Therefore.
Hermit Thrush 