The Da Vinci Trinity

Although Leonardo Da Vinci had no formal academic training, many historians and scholars regard him as the prime exemplar of the "Universal Genius" or "Renaissance Man", an individual of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination." He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. He studied engineering, sculpting, painting, … Continue reading The Da Vinci Trinity

The Complexity of Simplicity

“Being simple is the most complicated thing nowadays.” -Ramana Pemmaraju The principle of simplicity or parsimony—broadly, is the idea that simpler explanations of observations should be preferred to more complex ones—is conventionally attributed to William of Occam, after whom it is traditionally referred to as Occam's razor. This does not mean that there will be … Continue reading The Complexity of Simplicity

The US Literary Universe.

Since US literature, as represented by the US Library of Congress, has the whole universe as a subject, one could assume that this system is also governed by the same mechanisms that it describes. In the following two paragraphs I would like to outline some analogies between what most people consider as two disciplines who … Continue reading The US Literary Universe.

A Collage of First Lines from Novels.

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.[1] If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.[2] I’m pretty much f*cked. [3] No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences … Continue reading A Collage of First Lines from Novels.

Writing in Times of Pestilence

Now that society is struggling to deal with a devastating flu pandemic, I found the time ripe to give this subject some thoughts in a literary context. The first plague writings emerged around 1665 and resulted in innovative dialogues on a long endured illness. While the collective memory of the plague as an affliction was … Continue reading Writing in Times of Pestilence