Click through for more detail—it’s worth it. Suddenly considering a trip to the Netherlands just to see it.
Finished reading: The This by Adam Roberts.
Lots to think about with this delightful book. Roberts calls it a Hegelian sequel to his Kantian book The Thing Itself. I think it can be equally read as a sort of hellish prequel to Purgatory Mount (is Paradise next?), or as a sci-do cautionary-tale companion to Nita Farahany’s The Battle for Your Brain.
In any case, science fiction at its strangest & best. 📚
A beautiful summer morning 🏡
Rest in peace, my dear old friend David MacKay
David MacKay, 1944–2023. David was already retired from IU by the time I started grad school there, but he and his wonderful wife Carole hosted grad students at their house weekly for discussion & dessert. Quick-witted, opinionated, kind-hearted, and erudite, David had a profound influence on me. Even though I wound up leaving academe, I still recognize David’s influence on my life & my faith. And when I walk through my woods, I think of the times he took me on trips around his own woods in his side-by-side, driving like a maniac, with a look of maniacal delight on his face.
Currently reading: The This by Adam Roberts 📚
Finished reading: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.
Rather sobering to have finished it on Father’s Day. But, like all of Austen, full of wisdom: a reflection on good judgment. 📚
I just love these essays that so confidently tell me what my own brain is doing to me.
Undoubtedly this is a headline issue more than a content issue—I’ve read and learned from Mastroianni’s work in the past—but I don’t plan on finding out, in this case. 🧠
My friend Rick recently helped design a book of poems about Parkinson’s disease.
The book is written by John Foley and illustrated by the great Mary GrandPré of Harry Potter fame.
Download a copy for free here. Hope you find it encouraging! 📚
R.I.P., Astrud Gilberto—one of the most ethereal & beautiful of all singers, IMO. 🎶
There are some compelling resonances between Tara Isabella Burton’s New Atlantis essay “Rational Magic” and Luke Burgis’s essay for Wired, “The Three-City Problem”.
For starters, both identify how a Silicon Valley culture that thinks of itself as highly rationale is undergirded by a stranger ethos.