Thursday, January 24, 2013

Compendium Update


In a post in March of 2011, I discussed creating a compendium of Western thought. (For that list check out: http://tinyurl.com/a9gjc8y.) At the time I had 94 inductees, and subsequently have increased it to 99.

It was 100 a week ago.

Since the 94 were posted I removed Aeschylus (new number of inductees: 93), More (92), Milton (91), Voltaire (90), Goethe (89), William James (88), Rabelais (87) Proust (86), Woolf (85), Locke (84), and even Eliot (83), and added De Beauvoir (84), Turing (85), Piaget (86), Aquinas (87), Ernst (88), Charles Mackay (89), Castiglione (90), Da Vinci (91), Christine de Pizan (92), Rimbaud (93), Sontag (94), Keynes (95), Herzl (96), Hegel (97), Oersted (98), and Boyle (99).

Notably I’ve not read Boyle’s work on chemistry. For those who paid particularly close attention in Chem class they may remember Boyle’s Law, stating an inverse relation between pressure and volume of gasses. The reason he’s included is because his work, ‘The Sceptical Chymist’, purportedly discusses atoms in motion, and the rejection of four elements. Nor have I read De Beauvoir, excepting her lesser known work ‘The Ethics of Ambiguity’ which is a sort of companion piece to Sartre’s ‘Being and Nothingness’. I have full faith ‘The Second Sex’, as the hallmark of second-wave feminism, merits the position tentatively granted it.

The 100th addition, likewise was put on there without reading. (For the record the rest of the above listed as new I have read.) I thought Dickens’ ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ would be a nice inclusion regarding the French Revolution. Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ is already on there, but is more focused on Napoleon than issues such as the Terror. I was wary of Dickens, having read Nickleby, Copperfield, and Expectations. But I didn’t care for Shakespeare’s formulaic nature of comedy and tragedy and am glad to have persevered and discovered his histories. So I encountered ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ optimistically.

Now compare the following lines:

“Indeed, Lydgate himself had come to the conclusion that if he must end by asking for a free loan, his relations with Bulstrode, more at least than with any other man, might take the shape of a claim which was not purely personal. Bulstrode had indirectly helped to cause the failure of his practice, and had also been highly gratified by getting a medical partner in his plans:—but who among us ever reduced himself to the sort of dependence in which Lydgate now stood, without trying to believe that he had claims which diminished the humiliation of asking? It was true that of late there had seemed to be a new languor of interest in Bulstrode about the Hospital; but his health had got worse, and showed signs of a deep-seated nervous affection. In other respects he did not appear to be changed: he had always been highly polite, but Lydgate had observed in him from the first a marked coldness about his marriage and other private circumstances, a coldness which he had hitherto preferred to any warmth of familiarity between them. He deferred the intention from day to day, his habit of acting on his conclusions being made infirm by his repugnance to every possible conclusion and its consequent act. He saw Mr. Bulstrode often, but he did not try to use any occasion for his private purpose. At one moment he thought, "I will write a letter: I prefer that to any circuitous talk;" at another he thought, "No; if I were talking to him, I could make a retreat before any signs of disinclination."”

to:

“The sights he had seen there, with brief snatches of food and sleep by intervals, shall remain untold. The mad joy over the prisoners who were saved, had astounded him scarcely less than the mad ferocity against those who were cut to pieces. One prisoner there was, he said, who had been discharged into the street free, but at whom a mistaken savage had thrust a pike as he passed out. Being besought to go to him and dress the wound, the Doctor had passed out at the same gate, and had found him in the arms of a company of Samaritans, who were seated on the bodies of their victims. With an inconsistency as monstrous as anything in this awful nightmare, they had helped the healer, and tended the wounded man with the gentlest solicitude—had made a litter for him and escorted him carefully from the spot—had then caught up their weapons and plunged anew into a butchery so dreadful, that the Doctor had covered his eyes with his hands, and swooned away in the midst of it.”

Both of these were picked at random. The first is from Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’. The latter is the Dickens. By delightful coincidence both have the author addressing us, in a way. In Eliot the question is direct. In Dickens the narrator alludes to sights which he shall not share. I am quite fond of Eliot, and less so Dickens, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ now included.

It is not a bad book - I enjoyed reading it in the same page-turner way I enjoyed Harry Potter. It simply is not a novel for adult people. ‘Middlemarch’, ‘Mrs. Dalloway’, ‘Death Comes for the Archbishop’, ‘Brideshead Revisited’ – these are adult novels. Dickens doesn’t strike me as such.

So he has been struck from the Compendium, and I am at 99. On the short list to replace are Gibbon, Arendt, Burke, Fanon, Foucault, Robert Burton, Lenin and Leopardi, all unread. I own copies of Leopardi, Burke, Gibbon, Burton and Foucault. Since 2011, though, I’ve been prioritizing 20th century literature, so this project has been moving slowly. Still, I only have 13 chapters left to compile, including the unknown 100th inclusion, tempered by some 85 one-page introductions to the works and authors still needing to be written.

A definite back-burner project, but not an unpleasant one.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Rock.

So one side effect of proctoring exams is you can't read a book or use your computer. As it is exam season here in Connecticut that leaves me lots of bored time, in which I make lists, to keep me from falling asleep. (The rooms are small, as is the number of students - so strenuous proctoring isn't required.)

Here are 100 essential songs to understand rock n roll.


1.       1949 – Saturday Night Fish Fry – Louis Jordan
2.       1952 – Rock Around the Clock – Bill Haley
3.       1954 – That’s All Right – Elvis Presley
4.       1955 – Maybellene – Chuck Berry
5.       1956 – Long Tall Sally – Little Richard
6.       1956 – I Walk the Line – Johnny Cash
7.       1957 – Great Balls of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis
8.       1957 – Wake Up Little Susie – The Everly Brothers
9.       1958 – Lonesome Town – Ricky Nelson
10.   1958 – What’d I Say – Ray Charles
11.   1958 – Well All Right – Buddy Holly
12.   1960 – Walking to New Orleans – Fats Domino
13.   1961 – Mama Said – The Shirelles
14.   1962 – Up on the Roof – The Drifters
15.   1962 – Autumn to May – Peter, Paul and Mary
16.   1963 – Be My Baby – The Ronettes
17.   1963 – Louie Louie – The Kingsmen
18.   1964 – My Girl – Temptations
19.   1964 – A Change Is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke
20.   1965 – Satisfaction – The Rolling Stones
21.   1965 – Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag – James Brown
22.   1965 – Going to a Go-Go – Smokey Robinson
23.   1965 – My Generation – The Who
24.   1965 – California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and the Papas
25.   1965 – I Ain’t Marching Anymore – Phil Ochs
26.   1965 – Like a Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
27.   1966 – Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys
28.   1966 – Eleanor Rigby – The Beatles
29.   1966 – Scarborough Fair/Canticle – Simon and Garfunkel
30.   1966 – Reach Out I’ll Be There – Four Tops
31.   1966 – You Keep Me Hangin’ On – The Supremes
32.   1966 – Trouble Every Day – The Mothers of Invention
33.   1967 – For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield
34.   1967 – Higher and Higher – Jackie Wilson
35.   1967 – Respect – Aretha Franklin
36.   1967 – The End – The Doors
37.   1967 – European Son – Velvet Underground
38.   1968 – All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
39.   1968 – (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
40.   1968 – Beside You – Van Morrison
41.   1968 – Everyday People – Sly and the Family Stone
42.   1968 – Troubadour (Live) – Tim Buckley
43.   1969 – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down – The Band
44.   1969 – Christine’s Tune – The Flying Burrito Brothers
45.   1969 – Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish – Captain Beefheart
46.   1969 – Shangri-La – The Kinks
47.   1969 – Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival
48.   1969 – Turn On Your Love Light (Live) – The Grateful Dead
49.   1970 – Oye Como Va – Santana
50.   1971 – Imagine – John Lennon
51.   1971 – What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye
52.   1971 – Changes – David Bowie
53.   1971 – Layla – Derek and the Dominos
54.   1971 – The Last Time I Saw Richard – Joni Mitchell
55.   1971 – Me and Bobby McGee – Janis Joplin
56.   1971 – Proud Mary – Ike and Tina Turner
57.   1971 – Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin
58.   1971 – Hot ‘Lanta (Live) – The Allman Brothers Band
59.   1972 – Superfly – Curtis Mayfield
60.   1972 – Superstition – Stevie Wonder
61.   1972 – Old Man – Neil Young
62.   1973 – Turn the Page – Bob Seger
63.   1973 – Penetration – The Stooges
64.   1975 – Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain – Willie Nelson
65.   1975 – Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
66.   1975 – Birdland – Patti Smith
67.   1976 – Blitzkrieg Bop – Ramones
68.   1976 – Anarchy in the U.K. – Sex Pistols
69.   1976 – Corn Fish Dub – Lee Scratch Perry
70.   1977 – Europe Endless – Kraftwerk
71.   1978 – (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding – Elvis Costello
72.   1978 – 1/1 – Brian Eno
73.   1979 – Life During Wartime – The Talking Heads
74.   1979 – London Calling – The Clash
75.   1980 – Redemption Song – Bob Marley
76.   1980 – Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
77.   1980 – Shoot to Thrill – AC/DC
78.   1982 – Avalon – Roxy Music
79.   1982 – Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
80.   1982 – The Message – Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
81.   1984 – When Doves Cry – Prince
82.   1985 – Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Tears for Fears
83.   1986 – Walk This Way – Run D.M.C. ft. Aerosmith
84.   1986 – Battery – Metallica
85.   1987 – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – U2
86.   1987 – Bring the Noise – Public Enemy
87.   1988 – Fuck Tha Police – N.W.A.
88.   1989 – High Plains Drifter – Beastie Boys
89.   1989 – Like a Prayer – Madonna
90.   1992 – Come As You Are – Nirvana
91.   1994 – Mysterons – Portishead
92.   1995 – California Love – 2Pac
93.   1997 – Paranoid Android – Radiohead
94.   2000 – Big Exit – PJ Harvey
95.   2000 – Stan – Eminem ft. Dido
96.   2001 – Too Long – Daft Punk
97.   2006 – Margaret vs. Pauline – Neko Case
98.   2007 – No Cars Go – Arcade Fire
99.   2007 – Paper Planes – M.I.A.
100.2010 – Lost in the World – Kanye West ft. Bon Iver 



Monday, January 7, 2013

The Great Music List


Music - 100 recordings if there was ever a new 'Voyager' type of project.

Asia-Pacific and Africa

·         Sub-Saharan Africa

1.      Venancio Mbande – Timbila
2.      Tradtional – Aka Yodelling
3.      Henry Kaiser and David Lindley – Hana
4.      Thomas Mapfumo – Kuyaura
5.      Fela Kuti – Gentleman
6.      Konono No. 1 – Kule Kule
7.      Salif Kieta – Kou Kou
8.      Ladyship Black Mabazo – Nansi Imali
9.      Youssou N’dour – Badou

·         Middle East and North Africa

1.      Khaled – Serbi Serbi
2.      Oum Kalthoum – Beid Annak
3.      Yoselle Rosenblatt – Achrinu Kol Beis Yisroel
4.      Kayhan Kalhor – Come With Me
5.      Parisa – Baz Amadam
6.      Ozel Turkbas – Kandirali Ciftetelii
7.      Khalifa Ould Eide and Dimi Mint Abba – Yar Allahoo
8.      Traditional – Hava Nagila
9.      Alim Qasimov – Bagishlamani
10.  Cesaria Evora – Nha Cancera Ka Tem Medida

·         India, Nepal, Sri Lanka

1.      Ravi Shankar – Raja Jog
2.      A.R. Rahman – Mumbai Theme Tune
3.      Ali Akbar Khan and Asha Bhosle – Rag Gaur Sarangi
4.      Ustad Sultan Khan and Zakir Hussain – Sarangi Rajanthani Folk Song
5.      Nitin Sawhney – The Conference
6.      M.I.A. – Jimmy
7.      Preet and Pinky – Piya Piya o Piya
8.      Traditional – Resham Firiri

·         Indonesia, Australia and Pacific Islands

1.      O.M. Soneta and Elvy Sukaesih – Sengaja
2.      Orkes Kroncong Mutiara – Kroncong Segenggam Harapan
3.      Traditional – Gamelan Barong
4.      Traditional – Sabilulungan
5.      Traditional – Kumilipo Chant
6.      Richard Walley – Night Falls…Night Creatures Stir

·         Japan and China

1.      Kodo – Irodori
2.      Goro Yamaguchi – Tsuru no Sugomori
3.      Traditional – Flowing Water
4.      Traditional – White Snake Goddess Wedding
5.      Peng Xiuwen – Days of Emancipation
6.      Codona –Goshakasuchi
7.      Tony Scott – Murmuring Sound of the Mountain Stream
8.      Kieko Fujiie – Ten No Yo Na Chi, Shoshite Chi No Yo Na Ten
9.      Danjuro Ichikawa – Kanjincho from Geni Geni
10.  Traditional – Song of the Herdsman
11.  Traditional – Spring on a Moonlit River

·         Russia and Mongolia

1.      Huun-Huur-Tu – Steppe
2.      Traditional – Korobushka
3.      Traditional – Troika
4.      Rimsky Korsakov – Scheherezade: The Calendar Prince
5.      Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker: Russian Dance
6.      Stravinsky – The Rites of Spring

Europe and the Americas

·         Europe

1.      Abelard – O Quanta Qualia
2.      Palestrina – Missa Papae Marcelli
3.      Moneteverdi – L’Orfeo: Possente Spirto e Formidabil Nume
4.      Bach – St. Matthew’s Passion
5.      Haydn – Op. 20/5: String Quartet in F Minor
6.      Mozart – Don Giovanni: Madamina, il Catologo e Questo
7.      Beethoven – 9th Symphony
8.      Wagenr – Gotterdamerung: Mien Erbe Nun Nehm’ Ich Zu Eigen
9.      Glenn Morgan – Rakish Paddy, Mason’s Apron
10.  Ivo Papasov – Tziganska Ballada
11.  Bulgarian Female Choir – Pilentze Pee
12.  Portishead – Mysterons
13.  Piaf – La Vie En Rose
14.  Morriconne – The Ecstasy of Gold
15.  The Beatles – Only a Northern Song
16.  Kraftwerk – Europe Endless
17.  Daft Punk – Harder Better Faster Stronger
18.  Jorgen Ingman – Apache
19.  Propellerheads – Spybreak!

·         North America

1.      Miles Davis – So What
2.      John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
3.      Charlie Parker – Bloomdido
4.      Blind Willie Johnson – Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground
5.      Scott Joplin – Maple Leaf Rag
6.      Benny Goodman – Sing Sing Sing
7.      Stevie Wonder – Superstition
8.      Professor Longhair – Mardi Gras in New Orleans
9.      Traditional – Apache Sun Dance
10.  Maria Anderson – Go Down, Moses
11.  Beusoleil – Le Jig Francais
12.  Brian Eno and David Byrne – Come With Us
13.  Jimmy West and Speedy Bryant – Stratosphere Boogie
14.  Captain Beefheart – Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish
15.  Philip Glass – Einstein on the Beach: Trial, Prison: I Feel the Earth Move
16.  Grandmaster Flash – The Message
17.  A Tribe Called Quest – Vibes and Stuff
18.  Patti Smith – Birdland
19.  The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Earl’s Breakdown
20.  Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan’s Dream

·         South and Central America

1.      Bebel Gilberto – August Day Song
2.      Los Camperos de Nati Campo – Los Arrieros
3.      Los Amigos Invisibles – Cuchi Cuchi
4.      Sukay – El Condor Pasa
5.      Aurora Miranda – Os Quindins de Yaya
6.      Buena Vista Social Club – Chan Chan
7.      Carlos Gardel – Por Una Cabeza
8.      Cal Tjader – Vibe Mambo
9.      Santana – Oye Come Va
10.  Bob Marley – No Woman No Cry
11.  Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – Corn Fish Dub