Beauty and Consolation

Jul 242011
 

It rains today. Cold day. The world has been sad this week. Young people shooting, and shooting up. In a rare interview, some time ago, George Steiner said a very touching thing. It keeps coming back to me. He said, listening to the music of Schubert, “Because there was a Schubert, maybe, maybe somewhere there is an excuse for the rest of us.” The interview became a documentary with a soothing title, Beauty and Consolation. Today is a good day for beauty and consolation.

This was Alessandro Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D Minor, 2 used in a peculiar little Japanese animated film called A Journey through Fairyland. Marcello’s composition was later transcribed by Bach for the harpischord, and Bach’s transcription has recently been interpreted by Ryuichi Sakamoto on his magical piano. Beauty goes places. Somewhere, maybe …

Field Notes on Science and Nature

Jul 142011
 

Harvard University Press published this little gem earlier this summer.

coverbook

fishbook

Essentially, the book is a collection of sketches and notes various anthropologists, botanists, paleontologists, ornithologists, and other notable watchmen of nature took while working on the field. It guides the reader into the variety of their observational methods and of their keen impressions.

I am perpetually moved by what seems to be in people an intrinsic meticulous wonder, devoted curiosity, and a wild drive to explore, observe and discover. Asking always, what else is there? Always also just barely being able to bear the weighty ambiguity of the question. This is a rare consolation.

lynxbook