One of that brightly-haloed generation which put an end to the Dark Ages, Sanctorius Sanctorius wrote a book titled Methods For Avoiding Errors, which called for analyzing particulars only after diagnosing the possible generalities which spawned them. In other words, context is everything. Is this lesson so hard to remember?
Reading: What is best in life? Back in Grade 9 or 10 or whenever it was, I loved reading this poem, mostly, I think, because of all the similar Conan the Barbarian imagery rattling around my head. "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women". Lines like that, ridiculous even in the Conan movie, are not at all out of place in the grim world of Grendel. Halt! And read it not for the torturous imagery, the interminable consonance, the (to my modern ears) awkward phrasing—for in this poem, all those flaws become virtues, contributing strongly to the over-all effect of a grey broken world on the edge of doom and ruin—but read it because the hero wins, and the monsters are defeated. That's why they call it fiction. Read Beowulf + trans Seamus Heaney
Listening: The name is a bit long, and what's with the caps? Oh well, the music is solid. Ths isn't usually my scene, but the melodies are clear and the sound is loud, and really, can one ask for more than that? A friend turned me on to them Friday, and now I'm turning you on. To them. That is. Whatever. Their other tracks are good, but I like this one best, if only cause it's somewhat creepily called "Nature Of The Ghost " + BEDlight For BlueEYES
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