Leibniz Clockwork

The longer stories just get more views. Word count seems to be the primary determining feature.

Sports talk media has to be some kind of Orwellian or Dadaist nightmare. It’s a never ending search for more and more incomprehensible stats.

‘When Team A is ahead by fifty points or more by the half, they almost always win.’

No kidding.

Ah, Tatianna. You’re an angler fish: bait and jaws in one entity.

Jimmy Dean’s turkey sausage is terrible. It’s like spiced woodchips.

There’s this dread floating around, a dread of an unknowable and terrible enemy force.

But the enemy force is the other side of American politics. It’s people across the aisle. They’re not orcs. They’re not dragons. They just disagree.

The virus is inhuman. It’s not a person. Covid doesn’t have emotions, and it can’t be reasoned with. It must be understood and dealt with, but there is no cognizance there.

People aren’t diseases. Sometimes, they just disagree with you, and the odd refusal to understand the other side is a poison. Once people refuse to believe that the other side could be thinking rationally, that there is no logic there and there cannot be logic over there, then neighbors, friends, and family become orcs. They become Sauron’s forces.

But they’re not. They just disagree.

If I buy Comcast stock, I can actively vote against their management every year. But I’m directly, financially supporting Comcast.

I’m doing that anyway, because they’re the only broadband provider in my building.

Is it worth hate-purchasing a share of stock? My head says no, but the heart wants what it wants.

I am impressed by the WTA. Well done, all of you.

If you’re curious what I’m reading, I’m on Goodreads. I added a link to the Books section.

I imagine it’s more or less what you expect: a bunch of fantasy, some philosophical texts. I also read a lot of technical manuals and programming books, but I rarely finish those so I don’t log them.

Imagine you’re going to climb a rock. People are watching. You are stressed.

The best thing to do is ignore the audience, pay little attention to the rock, and focus yourself on yourself. Where is your foot going to go? Your hand? How are you going to get them there? How will you move your weight?

The rock should be included just enough to dictate body position, as your hands and feet will match holds on the rock.

The audience should determine little to nothing. Some element of showmanship may be necessary, and if so, a flashy way to climb might be warranted. But merely for the purpose of climbing the rock, the audience should be ignored.

This is easier said than done.

Lemme give you another Rorschach test: Is Shakespeare part of American culture?

He was born, lived, worked, and died in the UK. I’ve seen arguments that he spent some time in Italy, but nothing whatsoever includes America. There is, for Shakespeare the person, no connection between him and the US.

When I was in highschool, the drama department did a Shakespearean play every year. It was probably because WS is out of copyright, and my drama department was broke. Same in junior high. In English classes, both composition and lit, Shakespeare looms large. I’ve read all of his sonnets, most (maybe all) of his plays, and seen dozens live. There are Shakespeare festivals, theaters, and events. For me, an American, Shakespeare is a large part of the literature of my growing up.

Is that culture?

We use his words. He never mentioned us. His legacy is taught in our schools. But we can claim no part of him, the person, only ourselves, influenced by him. Is Shakespeare part of American culture?

I think that’s really more a question about how we see culture than anything else. But this is my blog so…yes.

Culture, the word, has to mean the collected experience of a people. It refers to the common concepts, the shared precets, the things we likely know together even if each person is different. Culture is the subtext of language, the ties that bind. In the US, most people of moderate education know Shakespeare. They may not agree on importance nor on weights. People know less or more as their priorities dictate, but most people who know literature in the US are somewhat familiar with WS. Maybe they don’t know Romeo and Juliet, but they know West Side Story. He has been taken, after his death and without his permission, and woven through the fabric of American life.

Democracy is a part of American culture, and we certainly didn’t invent it. We put a spin on it, but so has everyone else who used it. We fight over it a lot…but so has everyone else. Same for music, food, and art. When you make something, you give it a life beyond your own. The thing has an existence itself beyond the human agency which created it. Shakespeare, the person, had no connection to the US beyond the background noise of his time. But the US is connected to his work, and one cannot truly separate the work from the person. So the connections are made and tied.