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@isaacgreene She also possesses the most desirable quality in an academic—the ability to acquire funding.
@jonah Man, sorry to hear this.
@isaacgreene One of the best things I heard at Cambridge were her Hulsean lectures, which I think became this book. Incredibly generative, though yes not always perspicuous. Most big names in theology today just aren’t that great, but she’s the real deal.
@isaacgreene Thanks for the recommend—amazing stuff. I’m pairing it with Suzanna Black Roberts nice’n’ranty AI takes on her Substack with Alastair. She’s doing a little series.
@dwalbert That’s great.
And cutting off serendipity can happen without tech, it’s just one seems much more likely to find what you weren’t looking for over coffee hour, in the library, looking at archives/manuscripts, etc. (in the world of atoms space and live humans) than using technologies that are designed to give you what you are looking for. During Covid lockdown, my bro-in-law noticed that he missed spontaneous interactions that he would have never scheduled time for but were valuable parts of life.
@isaacgreene A fave quote about Small Things Like These:
“I wasn’t deliberately setting out to write about misogyny or Catholic Ireland.”
– Claire Keegan
@ablerism Having a PhD that still has that new baby smell (July 2025), it’s weird to feel like there’s already a techno-generational gap. I only had access to LLMs during the revising stage—using it as a fancy thesaurus or tool for concision suggestions. It wasn’t an option that was widely used when I was still in the drafting stage (for the most part).
@calebgreene Pretty incredible to have two outstanding poems, and then for Smith’s to have the additional layer of responding to Hopkins. I really love the idea that in First Fall the child assumes death is the end but has yet for the real world to reveal the resurrection. It’s first Fall, but then comes Spring.
Also, “Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie” has got to be up there on the list of finest phrases turned in English.
@calebgreene So good. Feels like it both draws from and gently subverts Hopkin’s “Spring and Fall.” Especially:
Hopkins:
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s springs áre the same.
Smith:
Fall is when the only things you know
because I’ve named them begin to end.
Hopkins:
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Smith:
The first time you see
something die, you won’t know it might
come back. I’m desperate for you
to love the world because I brought you here.
@mineinmono One more (the premise of the book is describing the world from the perspective of an alien who faxes info about earth back to her alien superiors):
“Human beings, Adina faxes, did not think their lives were challenging enough so they invented roller coasters. A roller coaster is a series of problems on a steel track. Upon encountering real problems, human beings compare their lives to riding a roller coaster, even though they invented roller coasters to be fun things to do on their day off.”
@JudsonGreene Many quote-worthies:
“Red wine tastes like a dark-walled library and white wine smells like a woman looking away.”
“When someone dies, where does the way they eat egg rolls go?”
“Every human dies. But the bad news is that every day they act like they don’t know they’re alive. They lie or behave inconsiderately or cheat. Each one is a little death.”
@isaacgreene Great stuff.
Makes me think of a few things.
“Now poetry is in majestic words, and it is said poetry is clear to the blind, although some very baldly declare by imitation of the poets, while others declare not by imitation, but by transformation, like Herodotus.” (Demetrius, De elocutione 112) The dumb poets just repeat the words.
“In classical music you’re the medium. In pop music you’re the message.” Andreas Scholl on doing Stabat Mater with Vavox. A quote that reflects the modern distinction you’re problematizing.
Last thing: feels like the emergence of the term “cover” reinforces/connects with all this.
@isaacgreene Is that with speechify? I know a guy who had his voice box removed a month or so ago—a pastor—and a guy in his church recorded him so he can play stuff in his voice after it was gone.
@eastbrad Thanks for the essay. I’m pretty strong on using wine for communion as the best practice, though I’m a practicing teetotaler the rest of the week.
I suppose I wonder though if there might be an objection by distinguishing between Jesus’ practice and Jesus’ prescription, from more of a minimalist perspective. It’s just that the New Testament never prescribes wine for eucharist, it is always the “fruit of the vine” (in the Gospels) or just “the cup” (in Paul). I suppose one could argue that our wafers would not qualify as kosher passover loaves (these are quite hard to come by actually), the church has been split for most of history over leavened/unleavened aspect (“bread” tout court being the NT term of choice), so is it something that a Christian’s conscience should be burdened with (forgive that rhetoric) to use wine specifically rather than the fruit of the vine generally? That is, shouldn’t we say Jesus commanded us to use “the fruit of the vine,” and that is what you must do, not that he commanded us to use “wine,” which is not what he nor the apostles say in Scripture? I just wonder if we should distinguish here between what is “best” and what’s “necessary”?
@isaacgreene I was trying to find that statue made of trash we did, but couldn’t find it on the ol blog. I realized the other day that it remains my only award-winning work of art.
@JohnBrady “There were one quadrillion nations in the Universe, but [America] was the only one with a national anthem which was gibberish sprinkled with question marks.”
– Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
I too think America the Beautiful was a missed opportunity, lyrically and musically. Right up there with choosing the eagle over the turkey as the national bird (even though I understand it’s apocryphal that the latter was seriously considered).
@calebgreene But when it was on the subject of letters: “But this,” said Theuth, “my king, is the study that will make the Egyptians wiser and improve their memory: for what has been discovered is a drug to enhance memory and wisdom.” But the other replied: “My most artful Theuth, one man is able to give birth to the elements of an art, but it takes another to judge what measure of harm and benefit it has for those who are planning to use it. And now you, being the father of letters, through your affection for them have stated the opposite of their capabilities. For this invention will bring about forgetfulness in the souls of its learners from the lack of practice in use of their memory, inasmuch as through their reliance on writing they are reminded of things as a result of alien impressions which are from outside, and not from within, themselves by themselves. You have found a drug not for memory but for reminding. You are giving your students a semblance of wisdom, not the real thing. You see, having become, through you, widely read without teaching they will think they are very knowledgeable, while for the most part they are ignorant and will be difficult to associate with because they have acquired the appearance of wisdom instead of the reality.”
– Plato, Phaedrus 274e–75b (tr. LCL)
@isaacgreene I discovered reading this that as I kid, while I was busy doing big important things in my room (i.e., practicing card tricks), I thought you were doing essentially nothing next door (i.e., preparing for your professional career and enduring past time). Looking forward to the rest.
@calebgreene Bro. Hits hard there. I feel like we learned it out of an anthology with a freethinking editor who only provided the intro.
@isaacgreene I hear this poem in your voice (particularly gloaming) and Grandpa’s the soundtrack for Psalm of Life.
@jonah Notion certainly has some drawback, but I do all my writing in it. The Notero API (Zotero + Notion) took some work, but that was a big plus. My main prob is no elegant footnote system, but I work around it with toggles (and I loooove toggles).
@calebgreene Listening now. Thanks, @JohnBrady!
@isaacgreene I believe there are still print copies for the emerita who haven’t heard about the internet yet. It’s also still posted on a bulletin board outside the senate house.
@isaacgreene Another thing: “The eyes are truer and more accurate witnesses than the ears” (Heraclitus in Polybius, Histories 12.27.1). The encomium to sight runs deep in ancient philosophy and I think it still reverberates (wrong metaphor). I’m with Coleridge: touch is fundamental.
@isaacgreene Me neither. I just keep my ear to the streets.