[gallery] Photographs of North Brother Island, New York City, by Christopher Payne
Psychologist Mohsen Joshanloo and philosopher Dan Weijers of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, note that in Western culture, “happiness is universally considered to be one of the highest human goods, if not the highest.” Furthermore, Weijers told me in an email, “if many Americans think they live in the land of opportunity and freedom, and that their happiness is largely a result of their own efforts,” then squandering the chance of happiness may be seen as a moral failing, because the unhappy person may be “too lazy or selfish to pursue happiness diligently and honestly.”In their surveys, however, Joshanloo and Weijers discovered that some people—in Western and Eastern cultures—are wary of happiness because they believe that “Bad things, such as unhappiness, suffering, and death, tend to happen to happy people.” In Russia, notes Stanford psychologist and happiness expert Sonja Lyubomirsky, the expression of happiness “is often perceived as inviting the ire of the devil.” And in many East Asian cultures influenced by Buddhism, the quest for personal happiness may be seen as misguided, because pleasure is focused on the self, leading to such vices as “cruelty, violence, pride, and greed.” These groups tend to prize social harmony above an individual’s happiness and therefore place greater emphasis on good interpersonal relationships.
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A colourful bookI encountered this book from 1692 in a French database today and it turns out to be quite special. For one thing, apart from a single mention in a catalogue, no scholar appears to have written, or even know about it. Moreover, the object is special because it provides an unusual peek into the workshop of 17th-century painters and illustrators. In over 700 pages of handwritten Dutch, the author, who identifies himself as A. Boogert (Pic 2), describes how to make watercolour paints. He explains how to mix the colours and how to change their tone by adding “one, two or three portions of water”. To illustrate his point he fills each facing page with various shades of the colour in question (lower image). To top it he made an index of all the colours he described, which in itself is a feast to look at (Pics 1 and 3). In the 17th century, an age known as the Golden Age of Dutch Painting, this manual would have hit the right spot. It makes sense, then, that the author explains in the introduction that he wrote the book for educational purposes. Remarkably, because the manual is written by hand and therefore literally one of a kind, it did not get the “reach” among painters - or attention among modern art historians - it deserves.
Pic: Aix-de-Provence, Bibliothèque municipale/Bibliothèque Méjanes, MS 1389 (1228). Luckily, the entire book can be viewed here, in hi-res, zoomable images. Here is a description of the book.
The camaraderie between theological antagonists has caused a firestorm in the blogosphere. On the right, critics see Mr. Baucum as soft on crime because he has called Bishop Johnston not only a friend but also a brother in Christ. On the left, some doubters see Mr. Baucum as a schismatic.“The extreme on the right and the extreme on the left have much to lose if they give an inch,” said the Rev. J. Barney Hawkins IV, vice president of Virginia Theological Seminary. “If you’ve made your position synonymous with the will of God, it is very difficult to be reasonable.”
The backlash intensified when Bishop Johnston allowed a prominent author, John Dominic Crossan, who has questioned the literal truth of key elements of the New Testament, to address his diocesan clergy. In response, the leader of breakaway Anglicans in Virginia, Bishop John A. M. Guernsey, asked Mr. Baucum not to appear in public with the Episcopal bishop. Bishop Guernsey explained in an email interview that “the Episcopal Church’s embrace of false teachers and false teaching made it impossible for the relationship to continue.” (The relationship has, in fact, continued, but more privately and with less frequent get-togethers.)
[gallery] Howl’s Moving Castle, 8-bit style
[gallery] biblipeacay:
Scans from Modern Publicity annuals from the 1930s. Many more examples in blog post. (images above on Tumblr only)
[gallery] Two of John Vernon Lord’s illustrations from the new Folio Society edition of Finnegans Wake, plus two pages from the elaborate notebooks he keeps when working on such a project. I think I may have to buy the book, but I also wish I could buy a facsimile of Lord’s notebooks!
