King Haddock > Recent Status Updates

I'd heard about this book series and NEEDED it. Growing up as a prequels girlie, I always loved Padmé. Seeing her wardrobe at a SW costume exhibit was a highlight. And my childhood sci-fi creative writing included lots of queens and costumes. I Feel Heard that this series and premise exists. It feels irrevocably **Star Wars** but also fresh. Floored that the first paragraph is about the Queen's makeup. <3 Let's go.

"My rashness and impiety lay in the fact that what I ought to have verified by investigation I had simply asserted as an accusation. . . . Deceived with promises of certainty, with childish error and rashness I had mindlessly repeated many uncertain things as if they were certain. . . . when I contended against your Catholic Church with blind accusations."

Augustine discusses how he confidently repeated arguments from the Manichees against Catholicism without realizing they were strawmen. It's a relevant section. Augustine throughout has been soaked in investigation, academia, debate, careful study, philosophy, a hunger for knowledge. This discussion about how he realized his assumptions against the people he thought he understood and decried... dang. We've all done it

"Fine style does not make something true, nor has a man a wise soul because he has a handsome face and well-chosen eloquence."

Of Mani: "So when he was found out, saying quite mistaken things about the heaven and stars and the movements of sun and moon, though these matters have nothing to do with religion, it was very clear that his bold speculations were sacrilegious." Augustine discrediting a religious authority based on bad science is something I wish was more consistent in the western religious world today.

I love how Augustine describes platonic love.

"Moreover, I had not yet found the certain proof for which I was seeking, by which it would be clear beyond doubt that the true forecasts given by the astrologers when consulted were uttered by chance or by luck, not from the science of studying the stars."

Footnotes: "His position was not that a correct astrological prediction is the result of purely random chance, but that 'chance' is our name for a cause we do not know, and in this instance the correctness of prediction is the result of the internal sympathy of all parts of the cosmos."

Yet again, yet again, yet again, Augustine records everyday issues and interactions that are the same as go on today. He records conversations he had with a famous physician (Helvius Vindicianus, physician for Valentinian I) who said astrology is bogus; the reason things seem to be fulfilled is the nature of chance, or of humans picking out a phrase or two that so happens to be 'applicable' to their life.

My commentary doesn't suffice in such small chunks (I struggle with brevity). Nothing here is anti-intellectual: it's that presentation alone doesn't determine value of thought.

Augustine tackles how one draws to schools of thought based on how eloquently it's presented. It remains a draw today. We want to lie in with the educated and draw superiority out of it. And it's not that well-structured material is or isn't good. But behind flowery language can be poor values or bad ideas, as Augustine notes of his studies: "where one's reputation is high in proportion to one's success in deceiving"

Augustine continues, of his youth's impressions of the Bible: "It seemed to me unworthy in comparison with the dignity of Cicero. My inflated concept shunned the Bible's restraint . . . Yet the Bible was composed in such a way that as beginners mature, its meaning grows with them. I disdained to be a little beginner. . . . That explains why I fell in with men proud of their slick talk . . . loquacious." 2/3

Augustine's perspicacity strikes again, describing the Bible as "a text lowly to the beginner but, on further reading, of mountainous difficulty and enveloped in mystery." Translation quality is no issue in many English versions, but I feel the observation retains relevance: Chadwick in the footnotes remarks upon "the humble style of the Bible. . .as a major deterrent to conversion for the educated" in 2nd century 1/

"There are some people who use philosophy to lead people astray. They lend color to their errors and paint them over by using a great and acceptable and honorable name."

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Ugggggghhhh I love this comic. Good to be back.

"Was it possible to take pleasure in what was illicit for no reason other than that it was not allowed?"

"To whom do I tell these things? . . . . I declare this to my race, to the human race, though only a tiny part can light this composition of mine." So, about that, Augustine....

"Free curiosity has greater power to stimulate learning than rigorous coercion."

Even with the insufficiency of reading in English instead of Latin, where I am not privy to Augustine's full command of language, the writing is extraordinary.

"In you [God] are the constant causes of inconstant things."

I forgot my books at the office (Solomon's Mozart biography and the I Ching). I can't abide a weekend without high quality reading. It's raining outside, it's cozy, and I'm going to start Saint Augustine's Confessions.

Contemporary jokes in here will be incomprehensible to people a generation down the line, but they are hysterical now. Apology video, how to wear pants...

I know you're not supposed to plop down and read it cover-to-cover. I'm both using it as directed and reading cover-to-cover. How wisdom is described and presented is appealing - a good text.

It's been fascinating reading the controversy and acclaim of Solomon's Mozart biography. I cannot read German (yet), but the analysis of Wolfgang and Leopold's motivations through their letters has been fascinating. I think it's clear when Solomon is interpreting and speculating and when he presents data (though of course the data supports his thesis). It's regardless a beneficial means of rethinking Mozart.

"The beautifully curled scroll can improve the tone of the violin just as little as a fancifully curled wig can improve the intelligence of its living wig stand." - Leopold Mozart

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

While obviously Solomon is interpreting text of people he's never met, I find his treatment more plausible than someone calling the Mozarts a perfect family. I'd love to do my own in-depth reading of the Mozart family correspondences. But to this day, when you see a child music prodigy, you're best to squint and wonder what crap the parents are doing in private. Because there's usually sketchy pressure on the kid.

Mozart wrote, frustrated, that people regarded him still as a child. His father shamed Mozart for acting out; whereas as a child he was humble, quiet, serious. Solomon notes Mozart's dramatic actions could be tinged with irony, a borderline rebellious, "Oh? You think I'm a child? SURE! I'll ACT like a child!" Per Solomon: today, we keep treating Mozart like a child-like his father Leopold wanted Mozart to be treated.

The previous Mozart bio I read lauded Leopold, which made me squint. Solomon's approach seems grounded in vaster amounts of data and scrutiny. He examines Leopold as instilling pressured control, using epistolic evidence of a heavy hand, guilt tripping, interference with travels and relationships, etc. He points to Mozart's responses making sense in that framework. You? You, my dude? Keep talking.

I finished "Mozart: A Life" so now I'm starting "Mozart: A Life." Ahahaha!

The Medieval and Renaissance chapter was good. It covered similar material to what I learned in my Pre-16th Century Music History course in college aeons ago, so it was great review. It was an overview, but in-depth enough to be interesting. It'll give me lots of branching-off points to pursue - including composers and pieces. I'll have to relisten to this chapter, as it's the time period I know the least about.

For once doing an audio book, yeet.