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Putin’s “Evil” and a Map-in-Flux
Just stumbled on this wonderful aphorism by the Italian writer Amedeo Ansaldi at James Geary’s aphorism blog: We always choose our enemies among those whom we would have liked to become. They are our lost image.Read More
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A Taste of Róbert Gál’s Signs & Symptoms
I discovered Róbert Gál through the anthology New European Poets, edited by Wayne Miller and Kevin Prufer, and bought his Signs & Symptoms because of what I’d read there. I don’t know if Gál is, in fact, a poet; he is certainly an aphorist, but he comes at the practice, it seems to me, with a philosopher’s spirit, not a poet’s. I don’t know if I can be clear about that distinction, but let me give it a try.Read More
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Aphoristical
Yes, that’s me: a sucker for aphorisms. Maybe because I really can’t write them, though occasionally one will surface in the context of a poem—which of course makes it not an aphorism, I think, because an aphorism must stand alone. On the other hand, my Oxford American Dictionary defines aphorism as merely “a pithy observation that contains a general truth,” which is fine but begs the question of why they’re so damned delightful. This particular post was inspired, by the way, by another blogger who posts under the moniker of “JforJames” on his blog, ursprache.Read More