“And strange at Ecbactan the trees/” from Arab Writer Chick…enjoy, folks! RT
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This is the fact: you could be long dead before people appreciate your writing. It’s happened plenty to writers of the first rank: jealousy, stupidity, war–in other words, plain old politics–obscured their talent and contributions. So, if fame and fortune are hard to find, just why are you writing?
From personal experience, RT can tell you that this is not a popular question at cocktail parties. Even less popular is quoting the Elements of Style: Writing is an act of faith. To help you (and me) answer this little demon of a question, here are some answers:
1) I have to write. To confirm the truth of this motivation, go to a new or small poetry reading. Chances are you’re not going to meet successful people there. Folks are doing OK; they’re getting by; they’re dealing with their issues–but nobody owns a BMW.
2) I’m in love with writing. You can’t get more corn pone than this, but at least it saves you from discussing the eviction notice you recently received. Getting your words out there feels great.
3) My writing is important. This one will really steam your interlocutor. But think about it: are you telling me that Shakespeare, Du Fu, Charlotte Bronte, Leo Tolstoy didn’t know that what they were doing mattered? Of course, no one in our generation has the right to exist on their artistic level, but you can always hope.
4) Because I’m a romantic. So what if people think you’re a wastrel sipping absinthe every night? Notoriety gets attention.
5) Because what I do matters. This is the dirty little secret that the contemporary world prefers to ignore. We are responsible. We have an obligation to make the world a better place. We must not cheat the gifts we have been given.
Writers are entitled to a full life like everyone else: community, acknowledgement, pleasure are as important to us as to anyone. But we keep one eye on the far horizon of history. RT
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Art: Mental Reactions; A.E. Meyer; WikiCmns; Public Domain.
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Anyone who spends significant time researching, studying, learning, or creating has run into flak about why they are wasting time on matters that don’t affect most people.
My answer to that question is: what intellectuals do makes a great deal of difference out on the street. Case in point: Martin Luther King, Jr.
Unfortunately, the notion of a black intelligentisia may still seem strange to some readers. But it was the black intelligentsia who saved the United States during the Civil Rights crisis, and none of its leaders was more articulate than MLK–a point I was reminded of when I recently reread King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail.
King makes many points in his lengthy reply to a group of religious leaders urging him to suspend his strategy of non-violent resistance. But one of King’s themes–perhaps his chief one–is that the world is always ready for justice. Delaying justice will only let the cancer of injustice grow, harming and destroying the lives of innocent people.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.
And in his letter, King cites not only the Bible, but Plato, Gandhi, and Martin Buber as well; he read widely and deeply, and on topics that might be considered abstruse. Until, that is, you see the consequences of not studying them.
Daddy, why do white people treat black people so mean?
MLK’s five-year-old son
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And here are some of the things that people who are concerned with larger issues are aware of:
1) One person in three in the United States has no health insurance coverage.
2) Most Congressional districts in this country are drawn by the party in power in such a way as to ensure that its candidate wins. In other words, jerrymandering, one of the abuses that sparked the American Revolution, is alive and well today in America.
3) That many medications are extremely expensive, or “backordered” (i.e., unavailable from the manufacturer), or available only through “charitable” programs that are unwieldy and offer no recourse for their decisions.
4) That colleges in this country have become outrageously expensive, and the degrees they confer useless in a job search.
5) That, with the exception of issue 1, neither of our political parties is doing anything to correct these injustices.
What obligations does the intelligentsia’s knowledge impose on it? Here are some of the things you can do:
a) Write a letter to your congressperson complaining about the problems that bother you most. Carbon Copy your state representative and senator.
b) Take part in protest demonstrations.
c) Run for political office.
d) Talk to your friends and during worship service about these issues.
e) Join organizations working to correct an injustice.
f) Start such an organization.
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Intellectuals are revered not only because they envision solutions to desperate problems, but because they also act to implement their solutions. The next time you keep a doctor’s appointment or walk into a restaurant for a good lunch, think about this.
RT
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Photo: Martin Luther King Leaning on a Podium, 1964. WikiCmns. Library of Congress, Public Domain.
Oceans have always mesmerized and terrified people–their beauty, their power, their capriciousness are hard to deny. They are alien, other, a place we didn’t adapt to during our species’ infancy or imprint on our evolving minds.
Or maybe not. In the amniotic fluid we recapitulate those first watery ages, acquire memories of gills and tails, memories that give us a sense of the ocean as mother–memories that help explain the appeal of Joan Slonczewski’s remarkable debut novel, A Door Into Ocean (1986).
I might as well admit up front that this novel has influenced my thinking deeply. Door is a science fiction novel–one of the best–and as such delves into the nitty-gritty of world making and the sciences; but it does not stop with introducing us to a consistent and plausible future. Slonczewski takes us much farther, creating believable and sympathetic characters and a nimble plot set against a difficult but all-too-familiar political and cultural situation. And beyond that, she offers insights on, and even solutions to, some of humankind’s most intractible problems.
The story is set some thousands of years in the future and concerns the fate of Shora, an ocean moon orbiting a “normal” water/earth world. Normal in every way, I should note: male-dominated, money-driven, technology-based, power-worshipping. In pointed contrast, Shora is home to a woman-only society that has been intentionally shaped to live in harmony with the rich ecosystem the moon’s ocean supports. But take note, all men who value their gender and who also are alert to the struggle for women’s recognition, respect, and self-expression–this is not a male-bashing novel. There are positive (and charming) male characters (such as Spinel, the teenage boy who must take a “stone-sign”–that is, find a profession); female characters who need some serious therapy (witness Jade, an interrogator); and an admission that even Shora’s admirable ecology at times depends on predation and suffering. And then there is Berenice, the liaison between Shora and the outside political system–who becomes Nisi on the ocean world and takes the self-name, “the deceiver.”
I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot, so I will only say that Spinel’s decision regarding his stone-sign helped me make peace with my own calling as a poet and that I would be thrilled if people on our planet would adopt the custom of self-naming. Slonczewski offers many more suggestions concerning humanity’s struggle to create a truly peaceful and prosperous society.
And did I mention that the author’s prose is a delight? Sorry, I can’t think of any more reasons to not recommend this book. Take the plunge and read A Door Into Ocean, a novel utterly dedicated to the ideal of peace and happiness in our lives. –RT
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Photo: Rogue Wave in the Bay of Biscay, 1940; NOAA; WikiCmns; Public Domain.
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Some readers will recognize the symptoms: a sudden, inexplicable obsession with a topic, question, or creative work that drives a person to drop practical considerations and even essential obligations so he or she can spend time researching or writing in the library, interviewing people, tracking people down on the internet, making observations on their telescope, and so forth. Yes, there can be no doubt: you or someone in your life has been inspired to make a contribution to the advancement of knowledge or the creation of beauty. The person in question is an independent scholar.
Just what is an independent scholar? Someone who is working on an research project or work of art without support from an academic institution or other organization. In other words, this is where the rubber hits the road; people have been known to live on the street while they’re researching, writing, painting, sculpting, making a movie…
But, thanks to guides like Ronald Gross’s The Independent Scholar’s Handbook, the journey doesn’t have to be that hazardous. There are ways to organize your time and maximize your resources, grants that can defray your costs, volunteers who will support you because you’re doing important work, and support from other scholars, whether they be unknown like yourself or the most distinguished experts in your field. Patience, tact, and persistence can go a long way to easing the pain involved with any self-motivated act of learning and creation.
You might be wondering if a single book really can be the gateway to marshalling your resources and finishing your “inner assignment” (as Ansel Adams used to call his own creative work). And the Handbook does have one problem: it was last edition was published in 1993. Many of the specific suggestions it lists have disappeared or been reincarnated in internet and e-publishing guises. But then, come to think of it, cheap rent is still cheap rent.
External resources aren’t what’s at the heart of Gross’s book. What matters most is the way that he builds the independent scholar’s pride. Here is the sentence that opens Chapter 1:
This book is about taking risks of an unusual kind: risks in the realm of the mind.
His goal is to awake his readers to a sense of passion and purpose. Why? Because he realizes, that for most people, there is nothing of significance in their day-to-day existence. If we are to live fully, we must find the courage to do something really important.
So, in fact, a project that at first may seem impossible or just crazy turns out to have been the origin of many famous books: Barbara Tuckman’s A Distant Mirror, Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, and E.F. Schumaker’s Small is Beautiful are all works of independent scholarship. And look at what people like Buckminster Fuller, Betty Friedan, and John Snyder accomplished.
And then there are the many quotes from other authors on living the life of the mind:
Many workingmen are self-taught intellectuals.
Ignace Lepp, L’Art de Vivre de l’intellectual
And finally, to round the book out, Gross provides a wonderful bibliography, full of books devoted to the theory and practice of the independent scholar.
The Independent Scholar’s Handbook has changed a lot of people’s lives. Maybe it could change yours. RT
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Chinese Character: The Scholar. WikiCmns. CC 2.5 Generic. User: Magna. Magazine Cover: Hermes the Scholar, WikiCmns; Public Domain.
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◊ Putting aside the facts of his literary achievement, something about James Joyce epitomizes the Irish, or so this photograph of him (taken in 1915) seems to suggest.
His intelligence, intensity, and unassuming air have something to do with it, I think, but what really speaks to the Irish spirit is his otherworldliness, a distance that betrays a preoccupation with beauty and grief.
To be sure, one can surmise other traits–a fierce passion, an occasionally outrageous sense of humor–not so evident here. But anyone who wants to understand how a small island has managed to shape–and shake–the life of the world need look no farther. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Welcome, O life, I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race. –Stephen Dedalus
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Photograph: James Joyce, 1915. A. Ehrenzweig. WikiCmns. Public Domain.
Osborne Perry Anderson was one of five blacks to join John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859. He is the only black raider to have survived–the others were either killed during the raid or in its immediate aftermath.
Anderson was born free in Pennsylvania in 1830. He attended Oberlin College and subsequently emigrated to Chatham, Canada, very possibly the unofficial capital of black America at the time. There he apprenticed as and became a printer.
Anderson met John Brown during the Constitutional Convention that Brown arranged in Chatham in 1858. He was immediately attracted to Brown, both by his radical commitment to action in order to free the slaves and by his love of words.
Anderson managed to evade capture after the raid. In 1861, he wrote an account of the raid, A Voice from Harper’s Ferry, and went on to enlist in the Union Army. He died in 1872.
We still struggle to preserve and broaden liberty, which Osborne Anderson helped bring to birth in the United States. For his insight, his eloquence, and his courage, he deserves a distinguished place in our memory. Happy Black History Month! RT
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Photo: Osborne P. Anderson; WikiCmns; Public Domain.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was one of the great intellectual lights of Elizabethan and Jacobean England and the father of the essay in English. Though his essays are famous for their wisdom and elegance, he is best known for his establishment of the Baconian Method, a way of scientifically deducing the cause of a phenomenon. His Idols of the Mind listed common causes of error in human reasoning.
Bacon was born into an aristocratic family and attended Cambridge University, where he impressed Queen Elizabeth with his wit. After studying in France, he practiced law and then served in Parliament. Subsequently, he served as both Attorney General and Lord Chancellor before resigning in disgrace (merited or not) in 1621. The rest of his life was devoted to study and writing.
Here is one of Bacon’s most famous essays, “Of Studies”:
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OF STUDIES
STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best, from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores (that is, Any activity practiced with diligence becomes a habit.). Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body, may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the Schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers’ cases. So every defect of the mind, may have a special receipt.
(1597, enlarged 1625)
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Photo: Dejeuner, Boite Gourmande; WikiCmns; Author: Justin Quintal; License: CC3.0 Unported.
With the number of disasters, either natural, man-made, or both, mounting up in recent years, maybe it’s time to think about planning for emergency and recovery relief efforts.
Consider these recent disasters: The 2011 Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear emergency; the 2010 BP oil disaster; Hurricane Katrina (2005); and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. (and now, Hurricane Irene.)
In the case of the 2004 tsunami alone, billions of U.S. dollars have been pledged by nations, NGOs, private corporations, and individuals, as well as food, medicines, equipment, and personnel. As always when such large sums of money are involved, there have been allegations of abuse and fraud. UNICEF reported in 2009 that it had spent USD 608.4 million on 2004 tsunami relief.
To some extent, of course, the response to such disasters must be piecemeal, determined as the overall character and details of the event become clear. On the other hand, considering the sums of money and the coordination required by such incidents, wouldn’t it make sense to start setting aside money and establishing relief mechanisms now?
A trust bank to administer relief funds for disasters around the globe might help. It would be administered like the World Bank, with a board of directors appointed by the nations that capitalize the bank. Perhaps we could start with a board that monitors current relief funding? (and while we’re thinking about it, what about funding the creation of multiparty democracies in places such as Libya and Egypt?)
Just a thought…. RT
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Photo: Floating House after 2011 Japanese Earthquake. WikiCmns. Public Domain.
Sample of Pitman Shorthand
Although shorthand can refer to any writing system intended to reduce the time and effort involved in writing, in modern times, the term has applied to two specific systems: Pitman Shorthand, introduced in 1837 by Sir Issac Pitman, and Gregg Shorthand, published in 1888 by John Robert Gregg. A more recent system, Teeline Shorthand, introduced in 1970, has become popular in the United Kingdom.
Readers should beware: shorthand has suffered from association with 20th-Century secretarial work. These aids to writing are neither simple nor easy to master. Some writing systems, such as the Chinese characters, practically cry out for an abbreviated and relatively straightforward version–and in fact such a shorthand has been used in China for centuries. In Europe, the first shorthand was created in the 16th Century, and both Sir Issac Newton and Samuel Pepys used shorthand when composing.
Perhaps nowhere else can we see as clearly as in shorthand the attempt to create writing that is both practical and beautiful. Specifically: twenty words per minute is the average speed for writing; when using shorthand, speeds in excess of 280 wpm have been recorded. And Gregg Shorthand, for instance, has a graceful, appealing visual quality often missing from alphabet-based writing.
How, we might wonder, does shorthand achieve such improvements in speed and visual quality? Simplified spelling, dropped vowels, distinctions between stroke-length and thickness, and phonemic orthography are some of the techniques employed. And individual stenographers (people whose use shorthand) often introduce specific improvements and accommodations into their writing method.
In other words, shorthand allows personalized writing–which can lead to problems in reading. Some shorthands address this problem by using the standard alphabet for the language they record, a solution that also makes the system easier to learn. But alphabet and abjad-based shorthands are inevitably more difficult to write, reducing compositional speed. That is the nub of the problem with shorthand (or any writing system): the trade-offs between speed, fluency, and legibility. Letterforms that are more difficult to write are usually easier to read.
The final point to make when talking about alternative or simplified writing systems: improvements in composition, whether in writing or in ease of reading, result from better instruction. Having both the traditional writing system and an alternative, phonetic shorthand or alphabet at our disposal will increase the intelligence and ease with which we transcribe information, argument, and feeling.
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Image: Pitman-2000 Example; WikiCommons; Public Domain
