The Saunterer

John Keats on doing some good for the world

    John Keats’ credo tells of the many ways of doing good for the world, and of his way:   

I find that I can have no enjoyment in the World but continual drinking of Knowledge - I find there is no worthy pursuit but the idea of doing some good for the world - some do it with their society - some with their wit - some with their benevolence - some with a sort of power of conferring pleasure and good humour on all they meet and in a thousand ways all equally dutiful to the command of Great Nature - there is but one way for me - the road lies through application study and thought. (Quoted from The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 191.)

    For a brief biography of John Keats, click here.

John Updike on the benefit of writing fiction by hand

    John Updike believes that writing fiction with a word processor suppresses the imagination; writing in longhand sets it free:

I’ve tried not to confuse my life with any other duties but writing. I work in my own house on the second floor in a set of small maid’s rooms, from 8:30 or 9:00 to 12:00 every day, and try to return in the afternoon. I use a word processor for essays and letters, but write all my novels in longhand. Writing by hand makes you more apt to hear the inner voice. The silence of writing by hand makes it easier to let your imagination pick up. You can hear your characters talk better. (Quoted from The American Scholar, Spring, 1998. p. 14.)

    For a brief biography of John Updike, click here.

Neil Postman on how to improve opinion polls

    When Sauntering through the writings of Neil Postman, we are always in the company of good sense:

Generally, polling ignores what people know about the subjects they are queried on. In a culture that is not obsessed with measuring and ranking things, this omission would probably be regarded as bizarre. But let us imagine what we would think of opinion polls if the questions came in pairs, indicating what people “believe” and what they “know” about the subject. If I may make up some figures, let us suppose we read the following: “The latest poll indicates that 72 percent of the American public believes we should withdraw economic aid from Nicaragua. Of those who expressed this opinion, 28 percent thought Nicaragua was in central Asia, 18 percent thought it was an island near New Zealand, and 27.4 believed that ‘Africans should help themselves,’ obviously confusing Nicaragua with Nigeria. Moreover, of those polled, 61.8 percent did not know that we give economic aid to Nicaragua, and 23 percent did not know what ‘economic aid’ means.” Were pollsters inclined to provide such information, the prestige and power of polling would be considerably reduced. Perhaps even congressmen, confronted by massive ignorance, would invest their own understandings with greater trust. (From p. 135 of  Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, by Neil Postman. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1992.)

    For a brief biography of Neil Postman, click here.

John Stuart Mill on the highest objective for educating professionals

    Today, universities are educating one-dimensional professionals. Concerning John Stuart Mill’s advice, universities don’t get it:

Men are men before they are lawyers, or physicians, or merchants, or manufacturers; and if you make them capable and sensible men, they will make themselves capable and sensitive lawyers or physicians. What professional men should carry away with them from an University, is not professional knowledge, but that which should direct the use of their professional knowledge, and bring the light of general culture to illuminate the technicalities of a general pursuit. (Page 4 in: Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St. Andrews. Feb 1st 1867, by John Stuart Mill, Rector of the University. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. 1867. 32pp.)

    For a brief biography of John Stuart Mill, click here.

Henry Hudson on first seeing what is now New York Harbor

    Since July 18, 1609, when Henry Hudson first saw New York Harbor, how far has development improved it? Judge for yourself. This is what he wrote:

The wilderness of the New World forms a vast natural cathedral. No work of man is its equal. Nowhere is there such natural grandeur. In many places the forest comes down to meet the sea, the green of leaves blending with the green water. I did not know whether to weep or cry aloud with joy, but in my heart of hearts I rejoiced to see the wonders wrought by God. (Quoted from The American Scholar, Summer, 1998. p. 12.)

    For a brief biography of Henry Hudson, click here.

Henri Salvador on making work fun

    French crooner Henri Salvador died last week at 90. He made his work playful, and we can all learn from that. To see the quality and benefit of the fun possible, watch Henri and Shirley Bassey create three minutes of it in a song (click here).
    For a brief biography of Henri Salvador, click here.

Otto Weininger on melody in music

    Otto Weininger believed that melody matters more than rhythm:

In music in particular what matters is the most articulate sensibility imaginable. There is nothing more definite, more characteristic, more urgent than a melody, nothing that would suffer more from being blurred. That is why one remembers what has been sung so much more easily than what has been spoken, arias always better than recitatives, and that is why the sprechgesang takes so much studying by the singer of Wagner. (Quoted from Western Music and Race, edited by Julie Brown, Cambridge University Press. 2007. p. 87; the passage is originally from Weininger’s book Sex and Character, Indiana University Press. 2005. pp. 105-6.) 

For a brief biography of Otto Weininger, click here.

Helen Keller on learning to talk

    As Helen Keller reminds us, we undervalue our natural gifts that we take for granted:

No deaf child who has earnestly tried to speak the words which he has never heard - to come out of the prison of silence, where no tone of love, no song of bird, no strain of music ever pierces the stillness - can forget the thrill of surprise, the joy of discovery which came over him when he uttered his first word. Only such a one can appreciate the eagerness with which I talked to my toys, to stones, trees, birds and dumb animals, or the delight I felt when at my call Mildred ran to me or my dogs obeyed my commands. It is an unspeakable boon to be able to speak in winged words that need no interpretation.  (Quoted from page 60 of The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller, J. A. Macy, and A. Sullivan. New York: Doubleday, Page. 1905.)

    For a brief biography of Helen Keller, click here.

Primo Levi on working under deadlines

    As Primo Levi said, time to some is like a gas, and when time is compressed against a deadline, the pressure pushes out good work:

A friend of mine used to say that in order to do things, “one mustn’t have time.” Time is an eminently compressible material. (Quoted from The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 216.)

    For a brief biography of Primo Levi, click here.

Mark Tobey on one’s inner space

    Painter Mark Tobey said this of one’s inner space:

The cult of space can become as dull as that of the object. The dimension that counts for the creative person is the Space he creates within himself. This space is closer to the infinite than the other, and it is the privilege of a balanced mind - and the search for an equilibrium is essential - to be as aware of inner space as he is of outer space. If he ventures in one, and neglects the other, man falls off his horse and the equilibrium is broken. (Quoted from The Natural Paradise: Painting in America 1800-1950, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1976. p. 125.)

    For a brief biography of Mark Toby, click here.