doesn’t have to go on.

Most of us, I suspect, like to think of artists as a breed apart, a cadre of idealists whose souls have been ennobled by long exposure to beauty. The truth, however, is that they are every bit as human as the rest of us, and that a certain number of them are self-centered opportunists who are perfectly willing to ignore evil so long as the evildoers leave them in peace to do their work. That was pretty much what many German musicians did when the Nazis came to power in 1933. Within a matter of days, Hitler and his henchmen started putting into place a policy of systematic persecution of German Jews.
“Because of the impression made on me by the actions of my Christian compatriots against German Jews…I find it necessary to break off my concert tour in Germany.” What makes this act so significant is that Mr. Busch was the only well-known non-Jewish German classical musician to emigrate from Germany solely as a matter of principle—and one of a bare handful of non-Jewish European musicians, including Arturo Toscanini and Pablo Casals, who resolved to stop performing there for the same reason.

Dreams and Facts

The influence of our wishes upon our beliefs is a matter of common knowledge and observation, yet the nature of this influence is very generally misconceived. It is customary to suppose that the bulk of our beliefs are derived from some rational ground, and that desire is only an occasional disturbing force. The exact opposite of this would be nearer the truth: the great mass of beliefs by which we are supported in our daily life is merely the bodying forth of desire, corrected here and there, at isolated points, by the rude shock of fact. Man is essentially a dreamer, wakened sometimes for a moment by some peculiarly obtrusive element in the outer world, but lapsing again quickly into the happy somnolence of imagination. Freud has shown how largely our dreams at night are the pictured fulfilment of our wishes; he has, with an equal measure of truth, said the same of day-dreams; and he might have included the day-dreams which we call beliefs. There are three ways by which this non-rational origin of our convictions can be demonstrated: there is the way of psycho-analysis, which, starting from an understanding of the insane and the hysterical, gradually makes it plain how little, in essence, these victims of malady differ from ordinary healthy people; then there is the way of the sceptical philosopher, showing how feeble is the rational evidence for even our most cherished beliefs; and finally there is the way of common observation of men. It is only the last of these three that I propose to consider.

chronicled in “isms”

A history of the humanities in the 20th century could be chronicled in “isms” — formalism, Freudianism, structuralism, postcolonialism — grand intellectual cathedrals from which assorted interpretations of literature, politics and culture spread. The next big idea in language, history and the arts? Data. Members of a new generation of digitally savvy humanists argue it is time to stop looking for inspiration in the next political or philosophical “ism” and start exploring how technology is changing our understanding of the liberal arts. This latest frontier is about method, they say, using powerful technologies and vast stores of digitized materials that previous humanities scholars did not have. These researchers are digitally mapping Civil War battlefields to understand what role topography played in victory, using databases of thousands of jam sessions to track how musical collaborations influenced jazz, searching through large numbers of scientific texts and books to track where concepts first appeared and how they spread, and combining animation, charts and primary documents about Thomas Jefferson’s travels to create new ways to teach history.

Le livre des fuites

Le trolleybus numéro 9 avançait, portant dans son ventre les grappes de visages aux yeux tous pareils. Sur son dos, les deux antennes dressées couraient le long des fils électriques, s'inclinant, vibrant, crissant. De temps à autre, une boule d'étincelles jaillissait en claquant du bout des antennes, et on sentait dans l'air une drôle d'odeur de soufre. Le trolleybus numéro 9 s'arrêtait devant un pylône sur lequel était écrit « ROSA BONHEUR ». Les freins sifflaient, les portes se repliaient, et il y avait des gens qui descendaient à l'avant pendant que d'autres montaient à l'arrière. C'était ainsi. Puis le trolleybus numéro 9 repartait le long du trottoir portant dans son ventre la grappe d'oeufs blanchâtres, en route vers le but inconnu. En route vers le terminus toujours recommencé, l'espèce de place déserte avec un jardin poussiéreux, où il virait lentement sur lui-même avant de repartir en sens inverse.

Autobiography of Mark Twain

“It’s totally the Dad book of the year,” said Rebecca Fitting, an owner of the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. “It’s that autobiography, biography, history category, a certain kind of guy gift book.” Many booksellers said the memoir has a perfect holiday-gift quality: a widely adored author, a weighty feel, and a unique story behind its publication. (Twain ordered that the book be published a century after his death.) Most of the content was dictated to Twain’s stenographer in the four years before he died, at 74 in 1910. It is more political than his previous works, by turns frank, funny, angry and full of recollections from his childhood, which deeply influenced books like “Huckleberry Finn.” A younger generation of readers is discovering Twain for his political writings, Ms. Fitting said.

Holiday Stress

December is one of the most stressful times of the year. And, this particular month is more chaotic, maddening, and depressingly stressful than most years in recent memory. But, in celebration of Jane Austen's birthday, Laurie Viera Rigler wrote: "It is a truth little-known that Jane Austen novels and works inspired by the great author are an effective cure for holiday stress." Do you allow books to offer solace at stressful times in your life? Books always offer an escape--a brief moment of reprieve to forget the worries or troubles of the day. But, books are also old, familiar friends. Cradled in your arms, a book can take you back to bygone days, be the voice of reason, and offer sage wisdom or life-changing experience. So, what do books mean to you in stressful times? Does reading help you deal with stress? Whatever the reason for your reading, take a look at Rigler's novel: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (website).