Tag Archives: Quotidien Convivium

Like Elegance in Mathematics

A short accessible piece by Joe Morgan on the question of whether to teach coding to children has appeared in Slate. One of its themes is about cultivating an appreciation for quality. Of course, getting something working is just the … Continue reading

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Biopolitics of the Quotidian

From the 1990s, a message about Rich, Weil and trauma writing. Menachem, I was rereading a preface by Adrienne Rich. The preface is collected in On Lies, Secrets and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978. The preface is dated 1976 and is … Continue reading

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Anti-luxury

Good design and the economy of sharing. Whitewall Magazine. “Jasper Morrison: The Minimalist” WW:Why do you think design should be democratic? JM:The best atmosphere and the most beauty can be found in everyday situations. I’m not at all interested in … Continue reading

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Trauma Truce

Trauma Truce From a letter to a young scholar. Menachem, I was rereading a preface by Adrienne Rich. The preface is collected in On Lies, Secrets and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978. The preface is dated 1976 and it entitled ”Conditions … Continue reading

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Shine

Robert Haas ends “Songs to Survive the Summer” which itself ends Praise with the following set of verses: all things lustered by the steady thoughtlessness of human use. Through the polish of use the objects in our daily lives develop … Continue reading

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I Am Radio

There is a passage in Allen S. Weiss Phantasmic Radio which somehow makes me think of a typology of human communicative behaviour. It is for me very suggestive. In the passage from the preface to his book, Weiss signals the … Continue reading

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Convivium

“By the River Cousin” in Death by Pad Thai and Other Unforgettable Meals ed. by Douglas Bauer. Claire Messud doesn’t remember the details of the food served (it was good) but she does recall with warmth the harmonious intercourse of … Continue reading

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Hanging Out With the Kids

In the one interview collected in Deep Sightings & Rescue Missions Toni Cade Bambara offers up a wonderful portrait of Langston Hughes and his “violations” of the rules at the library. First he wouldn’t take off his hat and he … Continue reading

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Sociable Serviceable

Australian writer, Gay Bilson, who in introducing a section of Plenty: Digressions on Food quotes Octavio Paz. Octavio Paz, in an essay in his collection Convergences, wrote about ‘seeing and using’. He suggested that craftsmanship ‘in its perpetual movement back … Continue reading

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Imbrications

Peter Levitt in the preface to Thich Nhat Hahn The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra writes of the importance of bells. With that in mind, when the bell was invited to sound we would put down … Continue reading

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