January 2025: [Following Up on "Back to Basics"]
In lieu of a full newsletter, here’s an addendum to my Christmas note. See you in February!
Art, Music & Performance
In October, I wrote about transcendence.
From “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang
What if the experience of knowing the future changed a person? What if it evoked a sense of urgency, a sense of obligation to act precisely as she knew she would?
In November, I wrote about innocence.
From “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K LeGuin
Yet I repeat that these were not simple folk, not dulcet shepherds, noble savages, bland utopians. There were not less complex than us.
The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can't lick 'em, join 'em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy. How can I tell you about the people of Omelas? They were not naive and happy children—though their children were, in fact, happy. They were mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives were not wretched. O miracle!
In December, I wrote about particularity.
For Christmas, I wrote about intuitionism.