I think we're reaching Peak Second Coming. Ever since Joan #Didion quoted #Yeats's 1919 poem in 1968, the self-styled US "center" — people who believe only in moderation, including moderate fascism it seems — have been obsessed with its imaginary political geometry. You know the one: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold [...] The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." A third of this #NYT opinion piece is occupied with the explaining how to apply this tiresome trope, including this gem of #pomo disorientation: "I've never interpreted the center in Yeats's poem to mean something like a politically moderate middle but rather a moral foundation, the ideological core of a nation and its people."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/opinion/free-speech-campus-universities-promising-news.html

INT. WINTER HIDEOUT - AM
Fresh, clean, cold...and 15 min with #Didion on #hemingway
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001hx6c :blobnom:

#literature #amwriting

@Jen @bookstodon. Oh, since you referenced The Year of Magical Thinking, I also meant to mention the powerful #netflix documentary about #Didion. The Center Will Not Hold.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80117454
Moving documentary, #Didion.

Compiling a list of favourite authors is a project doomed to failure. The books we think we love the most can just as quickly become hidden by shifting sands. Newer books emerge as others dissapear. And how do we compare fiction with biography, historical works, poets or eastern wonders. At best, you take a snapshot, reflect the tastes of the moment; then instantly regret your choices, experience guilt over the treasures omitted. 
#Didion #Tokaczuk #Conrad #Mankell #Virgil #lecarre #Eco #Kerouac

Compiling a list of favourite authors is a project doomed to failure. The books we think we love the most can just as quickly become hidden by shifting sands. Newer books emerge as others dissapear. And how do we compare fiction with biography, historical works, poets or eastern wonders. At best, you take a snapshot, reflect the tastes of the moment; then instantly regret your choices, experience guilt over the treasures omitted.
#Didion #Tokaczuk #Conrad #Mankell #Vigil #lecarre #Eco #Kerouac