This is a great appreciation. Two segments:

But let me be more direct about what I really think this book is. “Slaughterhouse-Five” is wisdom literature. It is a book of awe and humbling clarity. Its lessons are so simple that by adulthood most of us have forgotten or taken them for granted only to be stunned upon being reacquainted with their fundamental gravity.

This is merely one example of Vonnegut’s unmatched moral clarity. He, more than any other writer I can think of, could cut through cant and sophistry and dissembling to expose our collective self-deceptions for what they are. His sentences are accusations that let you keep your dignity. 

Terrific piece here.

They’re having fun at the NYT:

A sequel, “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey,” in which they battled their evil robotic duplicates, visited the afterlife and encountered the Grim Reaper, was released in 1991. It received mixed reviews from critics who were wrong.

 “It is easy to proclaim all souls equal in the sight of God; it is hard to make men equal on earth in the sight of men.”

1956

Blight, David W. “The Black Sergeant and the White Judge Who Changed Civil Rights History.” The New York Times, February 8, 2019, sec. Books. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/books/review/richard-gergel-unexampled-courage.html.

Everything I’ve read of his has stuck with me. This pair of questions from today’s paper is worth bringing to all sorts of art:

Every picture of suffering should elicit a question stronger than “Why is this happening?” The question should be “Why have I allowed this to happen?”

Cole, Teju. “When the Camera Was a Weapon of Imperialism. (And When It Still Is.).” The New York Times, February 10, 2019, sec. Magazine. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/magazine/when-the-camera-was-a-weapon-of-imperialism-and-when-it-still-is.html.

Funny, thoughtful article here, particularly about using meditation as a shield against technology.

Walt Whitman

Listening to BBC, Start the Week, Trees…

Knee still in two pieces. Trying to take a “worthy” walk each day, which offers the chance to listen.

This week:
Monday: Start the Week How the world thinks
Tuesday: Richard White talking about his latest book
Wednesday: Bookworm with Tommy Orange.`
Thursday:
Friday: Bookworm, Joshua Cohen and BBC: In our Time: Hope

One thing I’ve noticed: about ten years ago a bunch of universities put these awesome courses on-line. For example, David Blight’s Yale course on the Civil War and Reconstruction, with a series of awesome lectures, is still there. But this practice seems to have stopped. Why?

One other thing I’ve noticed: It’s really hard to search the back content of podcasts. I’m having much better luck searching youtube for book talks, presentations, and speeches.