Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

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...

With all due respect to the Pilgrims, to the traditional sentiments of harvest time, and to expressions of gratitude, both cosmic and local, Thanksgiving Day for some of us constitutes chiefly the center of the football season -- its culmination for high schools, and a good time for the college games that serve as the natural lead-in to the wonders of the bowl-game season. Have you ever noticed, after all, how much a turkey looks like a football? My personal thoughts in this regard this year turn to my alma mater , Marist College, home of the Red Foxes. Their football season is over and it wasn't a resounding success. Their 11 games yielded a 4-7 record. But on the last of those games, November 15th, they kicked the butts of the Davidson Wildcats, with stand-out performances from their seniors. Of course, it sounds like a natural rivalry, a canine wild creature against a feline analog. One senior, running back Emmanuel Onakoya, scored two touchdowns in t...

Aside from the considerations we discussed last week, there is this to remember about stock performance, the performance of a stock as an investment is not (entirely) a matter of whether it rises or falls in price. A stock also entitles its holder to a portion of whatever dividends the issuing company may declare. Suppose, then, that we do the arithmetical magic to factor in the dividend stream as if it were being paid out day by day, and we included that along with the stock price move as the performance of XYZ. Once we do this, we’ll want to be sure that we’re matching the stock price against a broad market benchmark that also includes dividends as part of performance. Fortunately, these are readily available. The S&P Index, for example, comes in three variants: one that considers solely the price of component stocks; one that factors in dividends (the “total return” index); and a third that subtracts the tax on those dividends (“net return.”) We might make discussi...

With all due respect to the Pilgrims, to the traditional sentiments of harvest time, and to expressions of gratitude, both cosmic and local, Thanksgiving Day for some of us constitutes chiefly the center of the football season -- its culmination for high schools, and a good time for the college games that serve as the natural lead-in to the wonders of the bowl-game season. Have you ever noticed, after all, how much a turkey looks like a football? My personal thoughts in this regard this year turn to my alma mater , Marist College, home of the Red Foxes. They creamed  the Valparaiso Crusaders on October 30 with the impressive score of 44 to 7, and with stand-out performances from safety Zach Adler (a sophomore) and Michael Rios (a senior). [Well, it was the day before Halloween, so it was kind of a holiday game.]  Adler comes from Walden, NY and Rios from Miami, Florida.  Of course, the natural rivalry for a team that calls itself the Crusaders would be one cal...