In his review of David Luke‘s translation of Thomas Mann’s Tonio Kröger and Other Stories W. H. Auden wrote, Polar opposites as in appearance they look, the two literary doctrines of Naturalism and Art-for-Art’s-Sake, as propounded by Zola and Mallarmé, are really both expressions of the same megalomania. The aesthete is, at least, frank aboutContinue reading “The Laziness of Reductionist Analyses”
Author Archives: Samir Chopra
My Father’s Record Collection
Among the many seeming treasures I left behind in India when I migrated to the US in 1987 was my father’s vinyl record collection. It contained the music I grew up with, played on a turntable, piped through a Phillips amplifier, and then, finally, emitted through a pair of custom-made speakers. The collection was eclecticContinue reading “My Father’s Record Collection”
Prohibitionists and Their Impoverished Sense of Human Motivation
A few days ago, I wrote a post here on David Brooks’ inane ‘Weed: Been There, Done That‘ Op-Ed. Looking back on it now, what strikes me as most galling about Brooks’ post and other pro-prohibition sentiments that I’ve heard expressed in the past is the shriveled, impoverished, reductive view they have of human character.Continue reading “Prohibitionists and Their Impoverished Sense of Human Motivation”
Game of Thrones AKA The Widow’s Revenge
I quite enjoy HBO’s Game of Thrones and after accounting for all the sex and violence have often wondered why I find it so entertaining; I’m not inclined toward the fantasy genre under normal circumstances and do not think I had read any of its productions before Game of Thrones. (That has changed; I haveContinue reading “Game of Thrones AKA The Widow’s Revenge”
Bert Williams and the (Funny) Sadness of Clowns
WC Fields described his fellow Ziegfield Follies mate Bert Williams–‘one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time…the best-selling black recording artist before 1920′–as ‘the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest man I ever knew.’ Williams certainly made no secretContinue reading “Bert Williams and the (Funny) Sadness of Clowns”
Sports, the Distraction from the ‘Main Game’
Sometime ago, I received an email from an Australian friend of mine, who, among other things, wrote: Been thinking about how you and I love sport, how it really means something to us, how we cheer for our teams and are gutted when they lose. Yet we all know that sport (particularly non-participatory sport) isContinue reading “Sports, the Distraction from the ‘Main Game’”
From ‘Filling the Sky’ to ‘Sharing the Earth’
In On the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times Square (Random House, New York, 2006), Marshall Berman, in the chapter ‘The Street Splits and Twists’, which, among other things, describes the complicated relationship between women and Times Square, notes in his commentary on Ethel Merman: Gypsy is one of the most grueling of AmericanContinue reading “From ‘Filling the Sky’ to ‘Sharing the Earth’”
David Brooks Smoked Weed So You Didn’t Have To
David Brooks put down his bong a long time ago: For a little while in my teenage years, my friends and I smoked marijuana. It was fun. I have some fond memories of us all being silly together. I think those moments of uninhibited frolic deepened our friendships. But then we all sort of moved awayContinue reading “David Brooks Smoked Weed So You Didn’t Have To”
The Terror of the Formerly Utterly Incomprehensible
Yesterday’s post detailing my rough introduction to calculus in high school reminded me of another encounter with a forbiddingly formidable mathematical entity, one that in later times served as an acute reminder of how even the utterly incomprehensible can come to acquire an air of familiarity. One reason for the rough ride I experienced inContinue reading “The Terror of the Formerly Utterly Incomprehensible”
The Abiding ‘Mystery’ of Calculus
I first encountered calculus in the eleventh grade. A mysterious symbol had made an appearance in my physics text–in the section on dynamics–as we studied displacement, velocity and acceleration. What was this ds/dt thing anyway? I had, at that point in time, never studied calculus of any variety; to suddenly encounter a derivative was toContinue reading “The Abiding ‘Mystery’ of Calculus”
Samir Chopra 