Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

  There wasn't a lot remarkab le about the Oscars ceremony this year. Maybe it is just that I am more detached this year than I was not too long ago from the cycle of movies year-to-year. I had seen almost none of the nominees for the big categories, with the exception of  Tár. I enjoyed  Tár, a Cate Blanchette vehicle in which she plays a world-famous orchestra conductor, a protege of Leonard Bernstein no less. Blanchette's character becomes enmeshed in a career-threatening scandal. Anyway: it didn't win anything and, aside from my mild level of disappointment about that: there is nothing to report -- except, a very clever set of ads about a fellow named Otto Desc. The first ad shows us the image of a German-looking fellow whose full name is apparently Otto Descinski, known as Desc to his friends, and who has been a major influence in the world of cinematography for decades. Only today he will finally be recognized. That ad ran before the Oscars program proper got u...

Something French would seem to be called for today. Also, I happen to have a thing about Broadway musicals. Okay, so should I riff on Les Mis ? No, I think I'll go further back than that. In 1973, a production of Candide trod the boards. This of course was a work of satirical prose fiction by Voltaire, adapted for Broadway by Hugh Wheeler, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Richard Wilbur and Stephen Sondheim. I will quote some of those lyrics today, I trust within the limits of whatever counts as "fair use" of a 44 year old play.  I don't know how the whole notion of "intellectual property" is going to survive the case of the monkey selfie, though.... Anyway, the below is from what is known as the "Lesson Song." The character of Pangloss is introduced as the house intellectual of a patron's castle. When we first see him, he is giving a lesson on his Leibnizian theodicy. PANGLOSS. PRAY, CLASSIFY PIGEONS AND CAMELS. P...