Louis Borges “The Library of Babel,” from Plotted: A Literary Atlas (Pulp/Zest), by Andrew DeGraff
Van Gogh’s Letters
by Nicole Kraus
“In Jewish mysticism, the empty space — the Chalal Panui, in Hebrew — has tremendous importance, because it was the necessary pre-condition for God’s creation of the world. How did the Ein Sof — the being without end, as God is called in Kabbalah — create something finite within what is already infinite? And how can we explain the paradox of God’s simultaneous presence and absence in the world? And the answer to this, according to the Kabbalah, is that when it arose in God’s will to create the world, He first had to withdraw Himself, leaving a void. To create the world, God first had to create an empty space…”
Song Swallows Singer, Premise
“Fifteen Million Merits,” fromBlack Mirror
Season 1, Ep. 2 (October, 2014, Channel 4 UK)
Rewards a second look: dystopian American Idol built around the 1964 Irma Thomas side, “Anyone Who Knows What Love is (Will Understand),” the “A”-side to “Time Is On My Side.” At first, Downton Abbey‘s Jessica Brown Findlay sings it in a hesitant, amateurish karaoke version, but the song connects the characters to the fatalistic plot in ways that make the indomitably passive Daniel Kaluuya’s bleating suicide speech seem arch. Rupert Everett, a judge who oozes slime, wears shades that make him a ringer for George Michael; he sends Findlay off to a porn channel, and hires Kaluuya as a shock jock. “Anyone” lists co-authors Randy Newman (“Short People”) and Jeannie Seely (“Don’t Touch Me”), even though it doesn’t rank a mention on the show’s Wikipedia page.
Spotlight Journos Eclipse Comedy
Seth Meyers Hosts Globe Pulitzers Michael Rezendes and Sacha Pfeiffer
And It Begins
largehearted boy‘s annual list of lists: books, music
Riley Rock Index
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