literature
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Kafka’s strategic obfuscations
Clayton Koelb, in his Kafka: A Guide for the Perplexed, notes that Kafka often altered his manuscripts to make them weirder. On several occasions he would write a passage that helpfully described a character’s action or attitude (typically some form of anxiety). For example, he might write something like: Pedro could only imagine what the… Continue reading
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Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary
I spent an hour today with a 1734 English translation of Pierre Bayle’s Dictionnaire Historique et Critique. It is really a multi-volume encyclopedia, ostensibly covering both known and obscure topics found treated in the history of ancient texts, but in fact Bayle sneaks in commentary on religious and philosophical controversies of his own day. It’s… Continue reading
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An attempt at radical hope
I decided some time ago to pretty much give up on writing. I am still not sure why, but it was some combination of the following: I had done my fair share of it, and the the general army of “content producers” would get along just fine without my efforts, and the feeling that the… Continue reading
Huenemanniac 