The world is too much with us

10 things worth sharing this week

From the “Build a Bliss Station” chapter of my book Keep Going

Hey sweethearts,

Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:

1. How is anyone supposed to make any art at a time like this? I suggest the one-hour studio.
   
   

2. Poetry prescription: Take a minute today and read William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us” out loud:

   The world is too much with us; late and soon,

   Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—

   Little we see in Nature that is ours;

   We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

   This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

   The winds that will be howling at all hours,

   And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

   For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

   It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be

   A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

   So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

   Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

   Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

   Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

   (Thx Anne.) For bonus points, copy the lines out by hand or type them up on a typewriter.
   
   

3. In a lecture called “The Distracted Public,” Saul Bellow said Wordsworth’s poem was his introduction to the subject of distraction, and addressed the problem of living in “the apocalypse of our times,” or what Wyndham Lewis called “the moronic inferno.” Being a novelist, of course, he made the case for reading novels:

   “The writer cannot make the seas of distraction stand still, but he can at times come between the madly distracted and their distractions. He does this by opening another world…. When you open a novel–and I mean of course the real thing–you enter into a state of intimacy with its writer. You hear a voice or, more significantly, an individual tone under the words. This tone you, the reader, will identify not so much by a name, the name of the author, as by a distinct and unique human quality. It seems to issue from the bosom, from a place beneath the breastbone. It is more musical than verbal, and it is the characteristic signature of a person, of a soul. Such a writer has power over distraction and fragmentation, and out of distressing unrest, even from the edge of chaos, he can bring unity and carry us into a state of intransitive attention. People hunger for this.”

   Any novel would probably work, but the older the better — it’s good to break bread with the dead.
   
   

4. Speaking of: my Tolstoy summer continues! Will I finish Anna Karenina before the equinox? I’m in part 7 out of 8, so I’d say there’s a chance, but it depends on how many naps I take this weekend. From Part 6, Chapter 11: “‘If only one could lie down and go at the same time,’ answered Oblonsky, stretching. ‘It’s marvelous, lying down.’” Amen!
   
   

5. An advertisement for myself: You can now listen to my audiobook trilogy from inside your favorite podcast app.

   

   
   

6. Austin, TX: We may be in the belly of the beast down here, but there are a bunch of upcoming events for people who like to read books instead of banning them. This Sunday, University of Texas Press is celebrating their 75th anniversary with an event at the Austin Public Library. (I’m particularly excited to see the conversation between Hanif Abdurraqib and Jessica Hopper.) On October 7, Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway are coming to the Paramount to discuss Good Things. The day after that, Oliver Burkeman will be at the Commodore Perry Estate as part of his US tour promoting the paperback release of Meditations for Mortals.
   
   

7. “If you know what you’re doing in the arts, then you’re doing it wrong.” Terry Riley’s pretty good maxim for artists.
   
   

8. “As far as [the USPS] historian could determine, this was the first time anyone had ever tried to tell a story with a sheet of stamps.” Support the United States Postal Service while it lasts: Buy some Chris Ware stamps! (Thx Clive.)
   
   

9. David Lynch’s compound in the Hollywood Hills is on Zillow if anybody has $15 million. (“Give yourself a little present!”)
   
   

10. RIP actor Robert Redford, who really wanted to be an artist and learned to swim in Barton Springs. My favorite story about him comes from his friend, the director Mike Nichols: “He really wanted to play the lead in The Graduate. I said, ‘You can’t play it. You can never play a loser.’ And Redford said, ‘What do you mean? Of course I can play a loser.’ And I said, ‘O.K., have you ever struck out with a girl?’ and he said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he wasn’t joking.”
    

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Dance it down,

Austin