What I’m Blogging

Poem: “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Public domain.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

It’s the birthday of Aldous Huxley, born in Surrey, England (1894). Huxley’s own grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley, was one of the great scientists of the previous century, a man who helped popularize Darwin’s theories of evolution. Huxley’s grandfather is believed to be the man who coined the word “agnostic,” and he argued that all areas of knowledge would one day come to be understood through science.

…An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex…

Huxley considered becoming a scientist himself, but when he was seventeen years old, he came down with a disease of the eyes, which rendered him almost blind. He learned to read Braille and said he loved it because he could read in bed without getting his hands cold. But since most of his schoolbooks had never been translated into Braille, he had to finish his education by reading everything with a giant magnifying glass. Despite that, his friends all agreed that he was the best-read guy they knew.

His first successful novel was Point Counter Point (1928), about a group of artists and intellectuals who don’t realize that one of the men in their company is a budding fascist revolutionary. Point Counter Point was Huxley’s first best-seller, and since it had been so ambitious a book, Huxley decided that his next book would be something light. He had been reading some H.G. Wells, and thought it might be fun to try to write some science fiction.

The result was Brave New World (1932), about a future in which most human beings are born in test-tube factories, genetically engineered. It was one of the first novels to predict the future existence of genetic engineering, test-tube babies, anti-depression medication, and virtual reality.

Aldous Huxley said, “An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.”

It was on this day in 1814 that a man named George Stephenson made the first successful demonstration of the steam locomotive in Northern England. His engine pulled eight loaded wagons of thirty tons’ weight about four miles and hour up a hill.

…Emblem of motion and / power—pulse of the continent…

But though the locomotive was invented in England, it had its greatest impact on the United States, where there was so much wide-open space and so many natural resources to take advantage of. By 1840, the United States had 2,800 miles of railroad track. By 1872 that number had increased to 52,000 miles of railroad track.

Walt Whitman called the locomotive “Emblem of motion and / power—pulse of the continent.” But some people weren’t too happy about the introduction of the locomotive and the faster pace of life it brought. Henry David Thoreau wrote, “This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no Sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work.”

Ghosts of Video Store Past

Before, in a time long ago, when there were no super stores. When there were no national chains promising us “no late fees” and then charging us “restocking fees” (lying bastards). When small towns were communities instead of being overnight motels for the commuting worker, there were independent small video stores.

…we have traded focused personal service for impersonal unattentive slection of the same old thing…

Stores that had character, stores where the sales clerk knew every movie in the store, and after a while of friendly small town chatter he knew you too. Many an evening of video watching was saved as I placed my choices on the counter and the man behind the counter would say, “You’re going to really hate those ones. Why don’t you try this one, it’s more your style.” He was always right too. While the selection wasn’t as extensive as the large video box store, it was more varied. If you wanted to see a particular film and they didn’t have a copy, within a week or two they got a copy for you.

We have traded focused personal service for impersonal unattentive slection of the same old thing. How is this better?

No I’m not hallucinating. I’m not hearing things from alternate planes of existence. But I am engaging in a little template tweaking, a little tecnocrati slight of hand, and giving back a little to the blogging community.

I’ve spent a while playing around with my Technocrati Favourites list, adding all the blogs that I folllow and link to. It’s a very interesting tool and the widget that lets me show the latest feeds from them is kinda cool. So over to the right in a place of honour are those “Other Voices” from the bloggers I read.