The Poet

"He [the poet] must write as the interpreter of nature, and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations; as a being superior to time and place." -- Samuel Johnson

Ferguson's Pity of War

I finished reading Niall Ferguson's 563 page tome on World War I the other night. The Pity of War: Explaining World War I, is the most comprehensive and heavily referenced study of the war that I've ever read. The scope of the book is impressive and the author covers the war by analyzing ten questions regarding the war:

1. Was it inevitable?
2. Why did Germany take the risk on declaring war in 1914?
3. Why did Britain intervene?
4. Was the war, at first, popular?
5. Did propaganda keep the war going?
6. Why didn't the superior economies of Britain, France, and Russia inflect defeat on the Central powers sooner?
7. Why did the superior military of Germany fail to achieve victory over France and Britain as it had over Russia, Serbia, and Romania?
8. Why did men keep fighting for so long in such wretched battlefield conditions?
9. Why did men stop fighting?
10. Who won the peace or who really ended up paying for the war?

Most of the answers Mr. Ferguson presents are meticulously researched and the answers are surprising. What I found most interesting was just how ineffectual the American army was on the ground but how psychologically demoralizing the idea of America placing its army onto the battlefield was to German forces. The author also does an excellent job of illustrating how the war set the stage for even greater atrocities committed during World War II.

The book takes awhile to finish, but, after each chapter, you come to appreciate the grand complexity of this world-wide conflict. The economy, social, political, and military costs were enormous. The book has its critics. But overall, this volume gives the reader a better understanding of the "greatest error of modern history." (p. 462)

Rimbaud for Halloween

If you want to see a fascinating, creepy, and sometimes unsettling website that presents the poet Arthur Rimbaud's work, check out this site: http://www.rimbaud-arthur.fr/  Click on the ADSL link and the Flash Player will start up.  The music, visualization, and narration is surreal and quite appropriate for Rimbaud's artistic use of words.

Bummer

The L.A. Dodgers lost again to the Phillies for the second, post-season series in a row.  Those Philly bats were just too hot...  I think I'll cheer for the Yankees now...

Books

Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. -- John Milton, 1608-1674

1979

وفي عام 1979, وكنت محظوظا بما فيه الكفاية بحيث كان لديهم فرصة للعيش في مصر. عائلتي تعيش في ضاحية المعادي بمصر, وقد حضرت للقاهرة الاميركية للكلية. وكان واحدا من أهم المؤثرين فترات حياتي. هناك وقتي دفعتني إلى انتهاج طوال حياته العاطفية من الاهتمام والدراسات الدينية والتاريخ.

Wanted: A Restaurant Reviewer

If you can write, enjoy eating out and visiting new places, and can tell the difference between a souffle and a tort, consider signing up to be a reviewer for ChefMoz.org.  I've resigned as the Springfield regional editor (due to too many things already on my plate), so the spot is open for a hungry typist.