In Flanders Fields - Veterans Day 2004

In Flanders Fields - Veterans Day 2004

Anthony Cerminaro at Bizz Bang Buzz has a memorable posting on "We Honor the Fallen on Veterans Day" containing the superb poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae, including an explanation of the use of "poppies" in the poem. Why poppies? Take a look at the posting to find out.

Crossposted to LawPundit.

Benzene 4 Book Review - Lew, Language, Pinker, Holmes and the Law

Benzene 4 Book Review - Lew, Language, Pinker, Holmes and the Law

Mark D. Lew at Benzene 4 has a book review of Steven Pinkers' The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (1994).

We certainly do not follow all of Pinker's logic on language, and we also can not agree with statements such as these by Pinker, cited by Lew:

"A general statement of irregularity and the human condition comes from the novelist Marguerite Yourcenar: "Grammar, with its mixture of logical rule and arbitrary usage, proposes to a young mind a foretaste of what will be offered to him later on by law and ethics, those sciences of human conduct, and by all the systems wherein man has codified his instinctive experience.""

No ranking legal scholar would ever subscribe to the idea that "man has codified his instinctive experience" in law, as if this were somehow distinctive from "actual experience". We find that the codification of law is "dinstinctive" rather than instinctive.

As Holmes wrote in The Common Law (1881). :

The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral and political theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices which judges share with their fellow-men, have had a good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men should be governed. The law embodies the story of a nation's development through many centuries, and it cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics. In order to know what it is, we must know what it has been, and what it tends to become. We must alternately consult history and existing theories of legislation. But the most difficult labor will be to understand the combination of the two into new products at every stage. The substance of the law at any given time pretty nearly corresponds, so far as it goes, with what is then understood to be convenient; but its form and machinery, and the degree to which it is able to work out desired results, depend very much upon its past.

Instinct has little to do with it.

Al Nye Book Reviews

Al Nye Book Reviews

Al Nye has started a legal weblog with numerous book reviews on his site.

We thought we would list those books already reviewed, even though the blog only started this October. As Al writes:

"If you look at the sidebar, you'll notice lots of books that I've reviewed. Some of them are a year or two old now -- but since the book industry published about a gazillion books each year, there may be some gems that you missed.

I'll be publishing reviews of more recent books in the coming days and weeks -- including The Shadow of Justice by Milton Hirsch, a lawyer in Miami. This is the first work of fiction ever published by the American Bar Association."

1. SUPREME COURT AND APPELLATE ADVOCACY by David C. Frederick (ABA)
2. THE LAWYER’S GUIDE TO MARKETING ON THE INTERNET, 2nd ed. by Gregory H. Siskind, Deborah McMurray and Richard P. Klau (West Group)
3. COLLECTING YOUR FEE - Getting Paid from Intake to Invoice by Edward Poll (ABA)
4. Attorney and Law Firm Guide to THE BUSINESS OF LAW, 2nd by Edward Poll (ABA)
5. HOW TO START & BUILD A LAW PRACTICE Platinum 5th Edition by Jay G. Foonberg (ABA)
6. THE DIVORCE TRIAL MANUAL by Lynne Z. Gold-Bikin and Stephen Kolodny (ABA)
7. UP COUNTRY by Nelson Demille (Warner Books)
8. THE KING OF TORTS by John Grisham (Doubleday)
9. BAD MEN by John Connolly (Atria Books)
10. ERAGON Inheritance Book One by Christopher Paolini (Alfred A. Knopf)
11. THE RULE OF LAWYERS How The New Litigation Elite Threatens America’s Rule of Law
by Walter K. Olson (St. Martin’s Press)
12. LINCOLN'S VIRTURES An Ethical Biography by William Lee Miller (Alfred A. Knopf)
13. PRETTY DEAD by Gerry Boyle (Berkley Publishing Group)
14. HOME BODY by Gerry Boyle (Berkley Publishing Group)
15. MISSION FLATS by William Landay (Delacourt Press)
16. REVERSIBLE ERRORS by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
17. DEAD LINE by Brian McGrory (Atria Books)
18. PARANOIA by Joseph Finder (St. Martin's Press)
19. TAMPA BURN by Randy Wayne White (G. P. Putnam's Sons)

Cross-posted to LawPundit.

Bright Weavings - The Books of Guy Gavriel Kay

Bright Weavings - The Books of Guy Gavriel Kay

Bright Weavings is a site devoted to the worlds of Guy Gavriel Kay in his books, but it is not his website.

One of the books by Kay is The Lions of Al-Rassan, where we find the following quotation via Byzantium's Shores:

"Make your country...into a land that understands more than only war and righteous piety. Allow space in your lives for more than battle chants to inspire soldiers. Teach your people to...understand a garden, the reason for a fountain, music."

-The Lions of Al-Rassan, Guy Gavriel Kay"

JungleScan allows Amazon overview

JungleScan allows Amazon overview

JungleScan.com:

scans Amazon.com sales ranking over time
and
permits discussions on Amazon.com products.

The ability to see the sales performance of a book over time is useful for those both selling and /or buying books.

The BookBlog Book Club

The BookBlog Book Club

The BookBlog offers an interesting idea to prospective members:

"We're basically a book club that meets once a month to discuss a book. Unlike a regular book club, our discussions are all done online.

Each month, a member volunteers to moderate by choosing a book and beginning the discussion by posting a question. Members then comment on that question while the moderator pops in and out to keep the discussion going.

Discussions are held during the last full week of each month and future moderators and book selections are posted to a sidebar on the home page.

Sound interesting? Want to join? Send an e-mail to mistress at bookblog dot net."

In addition, the BookBlog has a marvelous feature called the "Gender Genie" which tries to guess the gender of a writer by the frequency of certain words used. Your prose - or that of anyone else - can be inserted into a text box for analysis.

Try it out. The results can be surprising.

O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm by Jonathan Margolis

"O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm by Jonathan Margolis"

This book by Jonathan Margolis,
published May 6, 2004 by Century,
will surely be a massive literary hit,
and we predict it will soon top the publication charts.

The Guardian has an edited extract at
Guardian Unlimited Books - Extracts - The story of Ohh!.

Dark Age Ahead?

Dark Age Ahead?

Dangerous Precedent points to a new book by Jane Jacobs entitled Dark Age Ahead. Take a look at Ben Hammersley's short abstract of the contents.

I personally remain an optimist about the future, and problems are there to be solved, but we do have problems.

Donald Barthelme's Reading List of 81 Books

Donald Barthelme's 81 Book Reading List

Phil Gyford has posted Donald Barthelme's 81-Book Reading List. Those that I have read on this list are good.

Cervantes, Don Quixote and the Windmills

Cervantes and the Windmills

Don Quixote gets better as time goes along.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra wrote The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote (translation by Samuel Putnam, Viking Press, New York, 1949), which is regarded by numerous literary critics to be the first "modern" novel. Don Quixote is also ranked by many as the world's finest novel and we quote from it as follows for its relevance to all of us in fighting the many-armed opponents we must each face in the course of a lifetime:

"[S]aid Don Quixote: 'He is a wise enchanter, a great enemy of mine, who has a grudge against me because he knows by his arts and learning that in the course of time I am to fight in single combat with a knight whom he favors, and that I am to be the victor and he can do nothing to prevent it. For this reason he seeks to cause me all the trouble that he can, but I am warning him that it will be hard to gainsay or shun that which Heaven has ordained.'

'Who could doubt that it is so?' said the niece. 'But tell me, uncle, who is responsible for your being involved in these quarrels? Would it not be better to remain peacefully here at home and not go roaming through the world in search of better bread than is made from wheat, without taking into consideration that many who go for wool come back shorn?'

'My dear niece,' replied Don Quixote, 'how little you understand of these matters! Before they shear me, I will have plucked and stripped the beards of any who dare to touch the tip of a single hair of mine.'" p. 60

[somewhat later, fighting the windmills, p. 63]
'Do not seek to flee, cowards and vile creatures that you are, for it is but a single knight with whom you have to deal!'...
'Though you flourish as many arms as did the giant Briareus...you still shall have to answer to me.'

Cervantes is telling us that life is a battle - indeed, in battles of our own choosing, in wars which WE select, against enemies of our own creation. Or, we can stay at home. That is the game.

A Shrug For Atlas

Quite good is "A Shrug For Atlas : A short essay on the propaganda novel".

I too used to read this stuff in college.

Moretti and the Systematic, Empirical Study of Literature

Stanford Prof Franco Moretti has discovered what we knew to be true all along.

In a January 10, 2004 article in the New York Times, Emily Eakin relates the most interesting results of Moretti's empirical research on the history of literature - see Studying Literature by the Numbers.

Eakin relates that Moretti argues that:
"Literary study ... has been a random, unsystematic affair. For any given period, scholars focus on a select group of a mere few hundred texts: the canon. As a result, they have allowed a narrow, distorting slice of literary history to pass for the total picture."

As a result,

"Mr. Moretti argues, literary history looks significantly different from what is commonly supposed."

As might be expected, Yale Prof Harold Bloom, an old fashioned supporter of canonical (orthodox) literature, considers Moretti's empirical, statistical approach to literature to be absurd and is quoted as saying

"I am interested in reading ... That's all I'm interested in."

Bloom misses the entire point. HIS students read what HE selects and literary profs greatly mold literary tastes by THEIR selections. Moretti is saying that an objective, statistical view of literary history shows that our literary selections at any given time - including selections made by the Professors - are largely subjective, and, may indeed not even be representative of the actual state of literature in that era.

We agree with Moretti.

Mars is In

Mars at the moment is "in" so we ought to take a look at this review of Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction book Stranger in a Strange Land about an earth child born and raised on Mars, who is returned to Earth 25 years after the departure of the initial Martian visitors.

If you do not know what GROK means, you will if you go the above link. The word was coined by Heinlein.
Do you GROK?!

Bauman Rare Books

Bauman Rare Books has an online book shop for those with the necessary small cash on their bank account - as these rare books generally cost thousands of dollars. Take a look. There are some great volumes offered to add some stature to your library.

Stars Stones and Scholars

Stars Stones and Scholars by Andis Kaulins

Stars Stones and Scholars: The Decipherment of the Megaliths as an Ancient Survey of the Earth by Astronomy
is a book by Andis Kaulins, the owner of this blog. Hence the Literary Pundit is quite partial to this pioneer book, which, as the author states, will prove to be a landmark of human literature - if its research is corroborated by other researchers.
The book has its own internet domain at StarsStonesScholars.com

Below is the standard data about the book:
_______________________________________________________________

GO TO:
Trafford Publishing
420 pages; perfect bound; catalogue #03-1722; ISBN 1-4120-1344-5
Price: US$35.99, C$45.99, EUR29.99, £20.99

Read:
a) About the Book b) About the Author c) View a Sample Excerpt from the Book

Note that the book may initially seem expensive by normal standards, but if you compare it to the prices of books in this field (e.g at http://www.eisenbrauns.com), it is quite reasonably priced.
_______________________________________________________________

Other publications by Andis Kaulins are found listed at
AndisKaulins.com

The primary hypothesis of Stars Stones and Scholars is that the megaliths represent ancient surveys of the earth by astronomy, and that these feats of ancient surveying and of ancient surveyors can be reconstructed.

Stars Stones and Scholars shows us in hundreds of maps, illustrations and photos how megaliths and megalithic sites are Neolithic works of ancient art, containing carvings which greatly expand our understanding of prehistoric art and of the origins of human civilization.

There is an affiliated list related to the megalithic subjects of this book and related topics at History of Civilization.