Tag Archives: Hannah Arendt

“Only for the sake of the hopeless ones have we been given hope.” — Walter Benjamin

“Often an era most closely brands with its seal those who have been least influenced by it, who have been most remote from it, and who therefore have suffered most. So it was with Proust, with Kafka, with Karl Kraus, … Continue reading

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Things that got me through 2020. In no particular order.

Elvis mask, made for me by Jill Blake who was like “I just happened to have this Elvis 68 Comeback Special fabric lying around … do you want a mask?” Do you have to ask? There were so many great … Continue reading

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2020 Books Read

What a year, huh. What a dumpster-fire year. I read a lot, mostly in the mornings, and it helped create rituals for the days, which often seemed endlessly the same, interchangeable. I read a lot of long and challenging books … Continue reading

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Snapshots

— I used to use this blog almost as a daily diary. I stopped doing that a long time ago, although I still write very personally, even if I’m talking about, you know, Frances Farmer. I think my regular readers … Continue reading

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Stuff I’ve Been Reading

— “The Secret Oral History of Bennington: The 1980s’ Most Decadent College” is so freakin’ lit. I don’t even know what else to say. — Nick Pinkteron and C. Spencer Yeh have a lengthy conversation about the Marvel movies. It’s … Continue reading

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2017 Books Read

I got into a good rhythm with reading this year. I did a lot of re-reading, going back to books I haven’t read in 20 years or whatever. It was fun, like a reunion with an old friend. Much of … Continue reading

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Bookshelf Tour #8

Welcome to the Tyranny section of my bookshelves. First up: Collapse of Communism by the correspondents of The New York Times. A really interesting in-real-time book about the various gigantic events which signaled the crackup of the Soviet Union, as … Continue reading

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2015 Books Read

Even I am impressed with how much I read this year. Along the course of the year, occasionally I’d think to myself, “Good job, Sheila, with your Self-Imposed Reading Plan!” I’ve read a lot of new novels (not really my … Continue reading

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