Danny's Weblog

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Since this is a vanity site, you could call everything "opinions". I guess I wanted to give people some indication that this section has more controversial stuff: the sort of thing one is encouraged not to discuss at a dinner party because the guests will come to blows.

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2009 Jan 20 [ Tue ]

Gloomy Auden poem is rather good

I often check out Roger Ebert's movie reviews. I don't necessarily agree with him, eg about Fight Club, but I always enjoy the reviews. Lately he has been maintaining a blog with more general writing, such as the following piece on the current depression and the end of the American century: blogs.suntimes.com [http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12/things_fall_apart_the_centre_c.html]

He vets user postings himself, and they are amazingly good, although they have a tendency to be a little over the top.

In the above blog posting, user Eric Schmidt added a comment which included the following Auden poem (the final lines of his "September 1, 1939"):

Defenseless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame.

The mood of these lines is rather similar to my own.

Here is a somewhat more optimistic poem, "The Second Coming" by Yeats: www.potw.org [http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html]

Here is a link to Ebert's blog which lists many recent postings: blogs.suntimes.com [http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/]

His most recent posting – about moments of joy in movies – moved me to tears several times: blogs.suntimes.com [http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/01/i_feel_good_i_knew_that_i_woul.html]

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