writing
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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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Bacon’s Advancement of Learning
I was able to spend some time today with a 1640 edition and translation of Francis Bacon’s Advancement of Learning. Bacon has been fascinating me for some time, mainly because I know that he was important, but whenever I read him, I could not see why. His writing seems pedantic, long-winded, and nearly vacuous. He… Continue reading