Read Richard Matheson‘s 1950s short story, ‘Long Distance Call’, in a 2007 Penguin anthology entitled American Supernatural Tales. I’m always struggle to find ghost stories that are genuinely chilling or unsettling, and I think that Matheson does a nice job. “Hello?”
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Finished reading Alice Walker‘s The Color Purple. Wonderful; deeply affecting.
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Analog. I grew up during a transitional phase when heavy analog technologies were being replaced by lighter, digital devices. A tactile nostalgia has since grown up around those cumbersome objects of the 1980s and 1990s. They have the charm of relics from a bygone age.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Cardiff. Late afternoon. I walk for two hours through the city. A couple of books in my bag. And a flask. Happiness.
The Life of Günther Anders: A Philosopher of the 20th Century
Christopher John Müller has translated Christian Dries‘s short online biography of modern philosopher, Günther Anders. Müller, who has been interviewed on this site, is becoming one of the most prominent scholars and translators focussing on Anders’s life and legacy. The biography opens with the following brief summary:
“Günther Anders once noted that he did not actually have a biography, merely biographies: segments of life that are connected to one another to various degrees. The First World War, Hitler, Exile in Paris and in America, Auschwitz, Hiroshima, the Vietnam War and Chernobyl were the decisive incisions in Anders’s extraordinary life, which spanned the 20th Century.”
Thomas Merton on a “beautiful quotation” from Seneca
“Reading Mabillon’s wise and delightful book on monastic studies. Among other things, this beautiful quotation from Seneca: “If you will give yourself to study, you will ease every burden of life, you will neither wish for night to come or the light to fail; neither shall you be worried or preoccupied with other things.”
— Thomas Merton, Journal, 10 November 1958
Credo: A State Of Life That Calls For Another Way Of Living
Reflecting on the decision to pursue my vocation in art, service, and simple living
Six months ago today, I decided to change my life. I wanted to find a sense of peace and happiness in myself, and to live by my conviction that to enact social, cultural, and political change, it is essential that I change myself. I started following a healthy and balanced diet, stopped drinking alcohol, and began exercising regularly; I began to pursue my vocation as a writer; and I committed myself to getting more involved in my local community. Since that decision, I have attained a healthy bodyweight (having shed fifty-three pounds), am volunteering with local organisations, and write for my own enjoyment. I accept that meaningful change requires ongoing action and sacrifice, and I continue to be humbled by an awareness of my weaknesses and limitations. I am grateful for the understanding of my family and friends, and for their continued enthusiasm and support. I feel that I have found my peace, and I am happier than I have ever been.
RhysTranter.com 