Distilling Word-Wine into Literary Cognac
Writers are numerically confused and quantitatively torn—or maybe just hypocritical. We decry the unwillingness of people to read novels along with their affinity for Tweets. On the other hand, writers love to craft aphorisms, microessays, haikus, six-word memoirs and flash fiction (“For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”—Hemingway). So, how does one find the right number of words? Perhaps Antoine de Saint-Exupery had it right: “Perfection is achieved, not when there is noth
Know when to fold 'em
Maybe Kenny Rogers isn’t the best source for deep questions about life, but listen to “The Gambler” and ponder this central challenge: “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.” What makes for a good quit? Some people abandon tough situations too soon—a rocky relationship or a frustrating job. But you can stay in a fight too long, prolonging pointless misery. I quit piano lessons too soon. I hung onto hard-driving rationalism for too long. I quit being a
Scientists Say the Darnedest Things
Back in the 1960s, my family watched Art Linkletter’s television show, which included a segment in which he asked children questions or vice-versa. This format gave rise to a series of books titled, “Kids Say the Darnedest Things.” The notion was that the simple, direct, unfiltered words of children can be wonderfully incisive. Their provocative questions can reveal that grownups don’t really know—or maybe haven’t even thought—about some matters that we might presume to un
Rarefaction, Riches—or Readers?
I bristle at the notion that basic science, which eschews the crassness of economic utility, is more virtuous than applied research, which pursues gritty questions and messy answers needed by farmers, nurses and soldiers. Maybe this distinction is rooted in the Plato’s separation of the heavenly forms and the shadow on the cave wall (when in doubt, blame Greek philosophers). In reading Erik Dussere’s, America is Elsewhere: The Noir Tradition in the Age of Consumer Culture, I
An Ecologist and a Poet Consider the Nature of Values and the Value of Nature
The Ucross Experiment is an ongoing venture to see what happens when artists and scientists collaborate in the mutual making of authentically shared works that reflect both of their insights and understandings (see video below). This year, the composer was paired with the shrub ecologist, the choreographer with the microbiologist, the sculptor with the physiological ecologist, and I was paired with the poet. Harvey Hix is a wickedly smart, incredibly well-read poet whose wo
