M.F. Corwin
@eudaemonist.bsky.social
‘I confess it as a besetting infirmity of mine that I am too much of an Eudaemonist: I hanker too much after a state of happiness, both for myself and others.’ —Thos. de Quincey,
‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’
https://www.eudaemonist.com
‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’
https://www.eudaemonist.com
‘Somehow his memory irritates me! He possessed the truth and answered to the heavenly calling, and yet always without joy and almost always without grace. His puerility, as you say, was heartrending.’ —Edmund Gosse, unimpressed with Andrew Lang in a letter to Henry James
November 9, 2025 at 1:49 AM
‘Somehow his memory irritates me! He possessed the truth and answered to the heavenly calling, and yet always without joy and almost always without grace. His puerility, as you say, was heartrending.’ —Edmund Gosse, unimpressed with Andrew Lang in a letter to Henry James
‘Opposite to exercise is idleness (the badge of gentry) or want of exercise, the bane of body and mind, the nurse of naughtiness, stepmother of discipline, the chief author of all mischief….’ —Robert Burton (‘Anatomy of Melancholy’)
November 6, 2025 at 9:49 PM
‘Opposite to exercise is idleness (the badge of gentry) or want of exercise, the bane of body and mind, the nurse of naughtiness, stepmother of discipline, the chief author of all mischief….’ —Robert Burton (‘Anatomy of Melancholy’)
‘Of seasons of the year, the autumn is most melancholy’ —Robert Burton, ‘Anatomy of Melancholy’, 1.1.3.2
October 23, 2025 at 4:30 PM
‘Of seasons of the year, the autumn is most melancholy’ —Robert Burton, ‘Anatomy of Melancholy’, 1.1.3.2
Ulrich von Hutten’s poem ‘Nemo’ (nemo, nam, nemo omnibus horis sapit, etc.) is briefly quoted in ‘Democritus Junior to the Reader’, and it reminded me of:
‘Well, one time when things was looking bright
I started to whittling on a stick one night
Who said, “Hey! That's dynamite!”?
Nobody.’
‘Well, one time when things was looking bright
I started to whittling on a stick one night
Who said, “Hey! That's dynamite!”?
Nobody.’
October 14, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Ulrich von Hutten’s poem ‘Nemo’ (nemo, nam, nemo omnibus horis sapit, etc.) is briefly quoted in ‘Democritus Junior to the Reader’, and it reminded me of:
‘Well, one time when things was looking bright
I started to whittling on a stick one night
Who said, “Hey! That's dynamite!”?
Nobody.’
‘Well, one time when things was looking bright
I started to whittling on a stick one night
Who said, “Hey! That's dynamite!”?
Nobody.’
‘Some prank up their bodies, and have their minds full of execrable vices. Some trot about to bear false witness, and say anything for money; and though judges know of it, yet for a bribe they wink at it, and suffer false contracts to prevail against equity.’ —Burton, ‘Democritus Jr. to the Reader’
October 4, 2025 at 8:25 PM
‘Some prank up their bodies, and have their minds full of execrable vices. Some trot about to bear false witness, and say anything for money; and though judges know of it, yet for a bribe they wink at it, and suffer false contracts to prevail against equity.’ —Burton, ‘Democritus Jr. to the Reader’
‘The natural dreariness of the place is not a little increased by the melancholy croakings of innumerable penguins with which the Shore is lined. Nature seems to have designed this Spot solely for the use of Sea Lions, Seals, penguins and Sea Fowls.’ —James Burney, Journals, 25.xii.1776
October 4, 2025 at 12:36 AM
‘The natural dreariness of the place is not a little increased by the melancholy croakings of innumerable penguins with which the Shore is lined. Nature seems to have designed this Spot solely for the use of Sea Lions, Seals, penguins and Sea Fowls.’ —James Burney, Journals, 25.xii.1776
A moment’s pause while tidying.
September 21, 2025 at 10:57 PM
A moment’s pause while tidying.
‘As readers, most of us, to some degree, are like those urchins who pencil mustaches on the faces of girls in advertisements’ —Auden, ‘Reading’, in ‘The Dyer’s Hand’
September 17, 2025 at 2:23 PM
‘As readers, most of us, to some degree, are like those urchins who pencil mustaches on the faces of girls in advertisements’ —Auden, ‘Reading’, in ‘The Dyer’s Hand’
‘There’s really no point in writing normal novels’ —Yoko Tawada, ‘Exophony’ (trans. Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda), p. 81
September 13, 2025 at 10:36 PM
‘There’s really no point in writing normal novels’ —Yoko Tawada, ‘Exophony’ (trans. Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda), p. 81
‘Why novels have to follow the logic of department stores is beyond me’ —Yoko Tawada, ‘Exophony’ (trans. Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, p. 54)
September 10, 2025 at 1:36 AM
‘Why novels have to follow the logic of department stores is beyond me’ —Yoko Tawada, ‘Exophony’ (trans. Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, p. 54)
If you are looking for creepy stories about ghosts, uncanny children, and other oddities, I cannot recommend M.R. James’s translation of ‘The Apocryphal New Testament: Being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses with Other Narratives and Fragments’ enough. Snarky notes a bonus.
September 7, 2025 at 9:12 PM
If you are looking for creepy stories about ghosts, uncanny children, and other oddities, I cannot recommend M.R. James’s translation of ‘The Apocryphal New Testament: Being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses with Other Narratives and Fragments’ enough. Snarky notes a bonus.
‘To grow bigger every moment in your own conceit, and the world to lessen: to deify yourself at the expense of your species; to judge the world—this is the acme and supreme point of your mystery—these the true PLEASURES of SULKINESS.’ —Charles Lamb, ‘Popular Fallacies’ no. XVI
September 6, 2025 at 12:54 AM
‘To grow bigger every moment in your own conceit, and the world to lessen: to deify yourself at the expense of your species; to judge the world—this is the acme and supreme point of your mystery—these the true PLEASURES of SULKINESS.’ —Charles Lamb, ‘Popular Fallacies’ no. XVI
Reposted by M.F. Corwin
millions of mixed shades and shadows, drowned dreams, somnambulisms, reveries
September 4, 2025 at 4:47 PM
millions of mixed shades and shadows, drowned dreams, somnambulisms, reveries
August was a somewhat slow reading month. Standouts include James C. Scott, ‘The Art of Not Being Governed’; Marguerite Yourcenar, ‘The Dark Brain of Piranesi and Other Essays’; and finally finishing Tolkien’s diplomatic edition of ‘Ancrene Wisse’.
www.eudaemonist.com/biblio/2025-...
www.eudaemonist.com/biblio/2025-...
2025
www.eudaemonist.com
September 1, 2025 at 4:57 PM
August was a somewhat slow reading month. Standouts include James C. Scott, ‘The Art of Not Being Governed’; Marguerite Yourcenar, ‘The Dark Brain of Piranesi and Other Essays’; and finally finishing Tolkien’s diplomatic edition of ‘Ancrene Wisse’.
www.eudaemonist.com/biblio/2025-...
www.eudaemonist.com/biblio/2025-...
‘How often have I wished for the attic of my boredom when the complications of life made me lose the very germ of all freedom!’ —Gaston Bachelard, ‘The Poetics of Space’, trans. Maria Jolas
August 29, 2025 at 2:45 AM
‘How often have I wished for the attic of my boredom when the complications of life made me lose the very germ of all freedom!’ —Gaston Bachelard, ‘The Poetics of Space’, trans. Maria Jolas
Evening books. ‘Magic Mountain’ is not as clever as I recall it being. ‘A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind’ is the best text about cleanings toilets I’ve encountered save for ‘Perfect Days’. Lamb is cute. Bachelard is not setting things on fire. ‘The Candidate’ is unsettling. Zambreno is fine.
August 28, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Evening books. ‘Magic Mountain’ is not as clever as I recall it being. ‘A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind’ is the best text about cleanings toilets I’ve encountered save for ‘Perfect Days’. Lamb is cute. Bachelard is not setting things on fire. ‘The Candidate’ is unsettling. Zambreno is fine.
There is a Shame of Nobleness—
Confronting Sudden Pelf—
A finer Shame of Ecstasy—
Convicted of Itself—
Confronting Sudden Pelf—
A finer Shame of Ecstasy—
Convicted of Itself—
Also, "pelf" is an underutilized word.
Let's make "pelf" happen!
Let's make "pelf" happen!
August 16, 2025 at 12:52 AM
There is a Shame of Nobleness—
Confronting Sudden Pelf—
A finer Shame of Ecstasy—
Convicted of Itself—
Confronting Sudden Pelf—
A finer Shame of Ecstasy—
Convicted of Itself—
A little wilderness experience.
August 15, 2025 at 6:08 PM
A little wilderness experience.
In other information retrieval news, punch cards are also very good bookmarks.
August 14, 2025 at 9:44 PM
In other information retrieval news, punch cards are also very good bookmarks.
A good set of morning books at the moment: autonomy at the peripheries, Marxist Romantics, regional cults (with bonus spicy academic drama), wrenchfule wicchecreftes, and, you know, commodities.
August 4, 2025 at 2:14 PM
A good set of morning books at the moment: autonomy at the peripheries, Marxist Romantics, regional cults (with bonus spicy academic drama), wrenchfule wicchecreftes, and, you know, commodities.
One can get a fair amount of reading done by reducing one’s daily allotment of doomscrolling.
www.eudaemonist.com/biblio/2025-...
www.eudaemonist.com/biblio/2025-...
2025
www.eudaemonist.com
August 1, 2025 at 3:14 PM
One can get a fair amount of reading done by reducing one’s daily allotment of doomscrolling.
www.eudaemonist.com/biblio/2025-...
www.eudaemonist.com/biblio/2025-...