Sublime

‘While he was alive, he was impossible to ignore; once he had gone, he was impossible to imitate.’ – Shashi Tharoor, The Great Indian Novel

But even when the fog is pointed out, we’re no better at navigating through it.

vigil

the lead author, Franco Moretti. In their study they took a somewhat inductive approach, looking for possible patterns in word usage that might account for the unreadability of the reports. One pattern that drew their interest, and eventually caused considerable fireworks, was the use of the word AND. Here’s how they stumbled upon it: A major part

Clifton Fadiman, ed., The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985). Edmund Fuller, ed., 2500 Anecdotes for All Occasions (New York: Avenel Books, 1978).

Edmund Wilson,