Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

Those of you who receive my newsletter, Center and Margins , will likely at the beginning of October receive an essay (on the 'Center' side) that overlaps with the material below.  But the overlap is not repetition, and may indeed be a sort of parallax.  ---------------------------- On the Epstein matter in general, Trump is simply saying what he deems he has to say. Politically, this is a toughy for him. After all, perhaps even more than immigration/border issues, revulsion about pedophilia and elite conspiracy are what has gotten him where he is. During his first campaign, in 2016, the emails of John Podesta, a Clinton family advisor, were leaked to the public (through Russian efforts) and one circle of theorists decided they were all written in a secret code that when decoded detailed Podesta’s involvement with a child-abuse ring. There is no evidence of this, the ‘code’ was something the theorists made up. This soon led to a bizarre story about the basement of a Washingto...

  "Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things. Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few. High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. It has been found out. I must say that it was high time, for all authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and degrades those over whom it is exercised." From The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891).  I imagine you reply, "ochlocracy"? Now probably an archaism, it literally means "mob rule." I have to say I love Wilde's ironic echo of Gettysburg here.   

On my mind today (and on Thanksgiving fairly often -- I've used this as this blog's Thanksgiving reflection twice before), is the novel Mildred Pierce,  published in 1941, written by James Cain, a writer whose reputation, once considerable, has lately gone into eclipse. As it happens,  Mildred Pierce  was also made into a movie in 1945, and became a television miniseries (HBO) in 2011. The title character has two daughters: Veda (11 years old when the story begins in 1931) and her little sister Ray (7 years). The photo above is of Veda, as portrayed by actress Morgan Turner in that HBO miniseries. The following two-word sentence is not much of a spoiler, by the way, because it happens quite early in the plot, and sets up the rest:  Ray dies. Indeed, that's why I'm thinking of the book right now. Thanksgiving as currently practiced in the US has a lot to do with the sentimentalization of the nuclear family, and  Mildred Pierce  has a lot, in turn, t...

I'm giving myself an easy holiday out by repeating with minor variations, last year's Thanksgiving observation.  On my mind today is  Mildred Pierce,  a 1941 novel by James Cain, set in the ten years leading up to the date of publication. No, I didn't just refer to the movie star best known for playing Sonny Corleone. That's James Caan. I'm thinking now of the   novelist James Cain, born in 1892. Although his reputation is in eclipse now, he was quite well known for a time as a writer of "hardboiled" crime fiction, a peer of Chandler or Hammett. Cain wrote  Double Indemnity  and  The Postman Always Rings Twice. , both memorably adapted into classic Hollywood films.  Mildred Pierce  was somewhat different, an effort at offering a naturalistic portrait of southern California suburbia. As it happens,  Mildred Pierce  was also made into a movie in 1945, and became a television miniseries in 2011. The title character h...

On my mind today is Mildred Pierce, a 1941 novel by James Cain, set in the ten years leading up to the date of publication. No, I didn't just refer to the movie star best known for playing Sonny Corleone. That's James Caan. I'm thinking now of the   novelist James Cain, born in 1892. Although his reputation is in eclipse now, he was quite well known for a time as a writer of "hardboiiled" crime fiction, a peer of Chandler or Hammett. Cain wrote Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. , both memorably adapted into classic Hollywood films. Mildred Pierce was somewhat different, an effort at offering a naturalistic portrait of southern California suburbia. Anyway, Mildred Pierce was also made into a movie in 1945, and became a television miniseries in 2011. The title character has two daughters: Veda (11 years old when the story begins in 1931) and her little sister Ray (7 years). The photo above is of Veda, as portrayed by actress Morgan T...