Locator: 46437B.
Sunday, December 31, 2023
The Post-Modern Period -- Commentary -- December 31, 2023
Locator: 46436B.
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Into The 21st Century
I assume this is Susan Rubinow Gorsky but I wrote this years ago, and did not catch the source, or the full name of the writer. But let's assume it was Susan Rubinow Gorsky:
Gorsky said that “Virginia Woolf speaks for the modern period. Modernism is the most important aesthetic movement of the twentieth century. Along with such experiments as Joyce, Eliot, Yeats, Faulkner, and Lawrence, Virginia Woolf is a prime representative of those so strongly affected by the tumultuous transition to the current [20th] century.”
According to Gorsky, at the time of Virginia’s birth, “Victorian England was becoming increasingly aware of the tumultuous change which introduced what today is called the modern age.
This period of upheaval witnessed frequently disruptive events in history and literature.
The breakdown of the traditional Western family and of class structure, the coming of a major economic depression, the accelerated shift from an agricultural to an urban and industrialized society – these general trends were supported or symbolized by specific occurrences, among them the death of Queen Victoria, in 1901, the flights of the Wright brothers in 1903, and in 1914 the great climax of the first World War. At the same time, startling new ideas were being promulgated by Carl Jung in anthropology and psychology, by Sigmund Freud in psychology, by William James in philosophy and psychology, by Henri Bergson in philosophy, by Albert Einstein in the sciences, and by Sir James Frazer in anthropology.
"However little or much the theories of these important thinkers may have been understood by their popular audiences, there can be no question of their impact. For example, Jung’s work suggested strange and universal links among all people, an idea supported by Frazer’s study of myths which repeat themselves from one community to another, from one culture to another. The explorers offered support for each others’ ideas, and the ideas themselves inflamed the curious and sensitive who learned of the new discoveries.” Somewhere Gorsky stated that the transition from the Victorian Age to the Modern Age was as remarkable as the transition from the Dark (Medieval) Ages to the Renaissance Age. That is a remarkable statement if one stops to think about it a moment.
From my perspective, moving into the second half of this decade (2020 - 2029) could be just as tumultuous:
- "the death of literature as we knew it":
- the rise of OpenAI;
- Harvard president not guilty of plagiarism;
- admits to "duplicative language";
- will be allowed to add citations to her PhD thesis
- "woke" literature;
- LBGTQ authors rise and shine
- wedge issues decide elections
- supposedly decided in the 60s, abortion now the #1 wedge issue
- tectonic geo-political changes:
- most believe that one way or another, the boundary between mainland China and Taiwan will be much more seamless by the end of the decade;
- US hegemony will continue to decline
- US seems unable to manage asymmetric warfare
- Putin "wins" in Ukraine
- NATO grows but a paper tiger as it cedes Ukraine territory to Russia
- Middle East: Iran showing its bite through its proxies
- globally: anti-Semitism becoming acceptable
- US east coast / west colleges leading the charge
- Palestinian movement in US seems to be gaining almost exponentially
- Southern Surge divides the nation
- medicine:
- mRNA
- CRISPR
- cures for sickle cell; thalassemia
- diabetes type II: Ozempic
- diabetes type I: on the cusp?
- the gilded age: at least in the US
- the wealth gap between the well-off and the middle class will continue to widen
- cryptocurrency surges in value
- guys like Warren Buffett won't touch it
- Elon Musk will do a whole lot more than touch it
- EV house of cards falls; implications enormous
How Nvidia Is Powering The A.I. Revolution -- The New Yorker -- December 31, 2023
Locator: 46435TECH.
Chips, semiconductor: link here.
- Home page for tech: link here.
- The cloud: link here.
- Streaming: link here. Streaming wars.
- Spatial computing: link here.
- Generative AI: link here.
- Apple Silicon: link here.
- Supercomputers: link here.
From the December 4, 2023 issue of The New Yorker, "How Nvidia is powering the A.I. revolution."
You can click on the image and zoom in to read the first page of the article.
Cornish Hen For New Year's Eve -- December 31, 2023
Locator: 46434RECIPES.
I am making Cornish hen for New Year's Eve dinner this evening.
From a post many years ago.
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Cornish Hen
If I am dining alone on Thanksgiving, my preferred dish: Cornish hen.
Because
I will be dining with Corky, Sophia, and Sophia's family tomorrow, I
had my Thanksgiving-dinner-for-one tonight. And wow, it turned out
nicely. Mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, and Cornish hen. Next year I will
add the sides. LOL.
Preparation: ten minutes, at most.
- Cornish hen baked on a bed of rosemary and thyme; always trussed;
- first time, tonight, I added a slice of thick-cut, high-quality bacon -- just one slice -- on the bed of rosemary/thyme;
- brushed with oil; rub of Weber's "Kickin' Chicken," small amount of pepper; smaller amount of salt;
- basted with butter during cooking
- one Cornish hen: 60 minutes uncovered; an additional 15 minutes covered; at 350°F
Note: if you like crispy skin, and I do, so I will do this differently next time, don't baste with butter.
Before:
After:
Rex Reed -- Best And Worst -- 2023
Locator: 46433ARCHIVES.
He got Barbie correct. He says he never bothered going. LOL.
He got Asteroid City way wrong. But, I, too, couldn't stand it the first time I saw it -- I also almost walked out -- but after seeing it three times, I love it. Perhaps my favorite film off all time.
Rex Reed also got "theater" correct.
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The Book Page
The Tempest, William Shakespeare, Folger, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, c. 2015.
The book:- The Tempest, William Shakespeare, Folger, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine,
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Background
It's amazing how much Shakespeare packed into his plays and how, with minimal information from the play, experts have "solved" so many of the secrets of the plays.
Symmetry:
On the island of Vulcano:
- Prospero -- oldest son; should have gotten the duchy; stolen by his younger brother, Antonio;
- Miranda -- 15 y/o daughter after 12 years exiled on the island;
- Ariel -- a spirit -- early in the play, a Harpy
- Caliban -- original inhabitant of Vulcano; son of a witch, Sycorax (see wiki)
Shipwrecked on the north side of Sicily, on the island of Vulcano:
- Antonio -- younger brother of Prospero who deposed Prospero;
- King Alfonso of Naples -- father of Prospero, Antonio, and Ferdinand;
- Prince Ferdinand -- third "innocent" son of King Alfonso; falls in love with Arie;
- Gonzalo: wise old councillor to the King, but also to Prospero
- Sebastian: Alfonso's brother
Prospero andd Antonio are brothers. I assume sons of King Alfonso which means that Prince Ferdinand is a third son / brother to Prospero and Antonio.
Family from Duchy of Milano. Though most likely originally from Florence, but for political reasons, Shakespeare had to change to Duchy of Florence (Tuscany) to Milano (now, Lombardy). Shakespeare's staged play: Milano.
Duchy
of Naples: huge. So, King Alfonso, king of Naples but also controlled
Milan as another duchy. Sort of like King of England and Wales, prince
of Wales.
Milano is on the "wrong" side of Italy to sail down the west coast of Italy, but that's where Shakespeare places the story because for political reasons couldn't be set in Florence, which is on the correct side of Italy to go down the west coast to Vulcano, Sicily, Tunis.
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For The Archives
While reading and reading about The Tempest, my digression of languages on the Italian peninsula led me to the island of Sardinia and some great memories. See map of languages above.
One can follow the story at wiki, following first the Nuragic civilization, named after the pre-historic sites on that island, the nuraghe.
This graphic shows the density/location of the 7,000 nuraghe sites on Sardinia.
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