Jon Carroll — a columnist with whom I largely agree

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As a subscriber to the San Francisco Chronicle, I have become an avid reader of Jon Carroll's column. I don't read it all the time and must admit that I don't get into his cat columns. However, I usually find myself in violent agreement with his politically-oriented columns.

I mention his columns today not to get into the specifics of what he has written (I hope to do so soon enough) but to write about how I'm attempting to ferret out the truth of what's happening in our world. In this blog and in my reflections, I have been adopting a type of hermeneutic of self-suspicion. I put the emphasis on self-suspicion because I feel the need to inspect my own prejudices and thought-processes with as much vigor as I do of others. Finding articles and commentary that largely agree with my own viewpoints and writing about them (and occasionally subjecting them to vigorous examination) is an indirect way of testing my own assumptions. By writing out in this public space, by drawing in different perspectives, and by inviting others to comment -- I hope to grow and learn and become increasingly free to avail myself of the truth, whatever that might be.
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Some excellent (free) articles in the latest NYRB

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I'm starting to get back into thinking about politics after a hiatus of sorts (between the declaration of the war in Iraq and a week or two ago -- the reason for the slow down should be a subject of a future post)

I'm very grateful for The New York Review of Books, which remains my favorite periodical. Two fine articles I can recommend: Which Way to Mecca? by Clifford Geertz and Stanley Hoffman's America Goes Backward
There is a lot to say that I cannot even begin to write out right now but I was really impressed with the fact that Geertz in preparing the article on Islam had read 50 books on the subject -- reflecting the obvious ferment around the topic. "50 books! And just to start to get a feel for how things relate...." Reading about the process and seeing how shallow my own understanding of Islam is (not surprising given how little I read or know in the concrete about Isalm) made me almost stop reading altogether on this topic.
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Working on book handling services

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I want to demonstrate the first steps in where I'm planning to go with building better ways for folks to point to books and gather information about books -- and ultimately other digital resources. I now have a little Python script running on this site that takes an ISBN (so far) and display pointers to a number of different "services": amazon.com, BookSense.com, the Library of Congress, my local public library -- the Berkeley Public Library, etc.

Let's use as an example, a book that I mentioned yesterday -- Iris Chang's The Chinese in America. In that blog entry, I already placed four separate links. I wanted to generalize that approach so that I could easily add more links and services. So...now if it you hit

Iris Chang's book

you will get a popup window for the same book entry.
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I can always count on Lloyd for support

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Thanks, Lloyd, for noticing my new blog. I figure that you might like the name -- but is anyone going to remember it? I like the clever solution you came up with how to point to my dual blogs: ray.mond. Yes, it is going to be a bit of challenge to know how the two blogs are going to work together. For instance, do I want to load down my personal blog with MT shop-talk. Well, I guess it fits -- though my techie readers on the IU Technology Lodge might care more about this stuff....

Hypotyposis, eh?

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Quite a few years ago, my former housemate Ken referred me to a wonderful line from Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose: "The list could surely go on, and there is nothing more wonderful than a list, instrument of wonderful hypotyposis." Ken knew how much I love lists.

Since that day, I've wanted to use the word hypotyposis in some appropriate context. I've toyed with using the term in the name of my website but have hesitated -- largely because it sets the expectations too high. For how will I consistently provide "lively description[s] of an action, event, person, condition, passion, etc. used for creating the illusion of reality?" (following one particular definition of hypotyposis)

So to manage expectations and to use that lovely word, I've chosen to temporarily christen my personal weblog "Hypotyposis on a Good Day" I suspect that I'll change my name quickly enough since it's going to be darn difficult to remember, not to mention a bit stuffy.