selections from ‘the american chesterfield’ 4 July 2009
Posted by kato in books, literature.add a comment
Philip Sanhope, the Earl of Chesterfield, was an 18th century British statesman. Hoping to educate his son in the most honourable (excuses for the Brit spelling in this context), gentlemanly, and learned way possible, he wrote a series of extensive letters to him over the course of 20 years on everything from friendship, choice of company, and knowledge to ‘genteel carriage,’ employment of time, and rules for conversation.
In the early 1800s, his work was adapted into The American Chesterfield, a selected edition of some of his letters with additions from American advice-givers “suited to the youth of America.” I happened to find in my house a pocket-sized, rather raggedy and cover-lacking copy of this very work, dating from 1847:
Many of the letters are somewhat loquacious, wandering around a bit before getting to the point, and the author frequently inserts French words where English ones would probably do fine. I suppose it was intended to give the text an “air of douceur” (to quote from the chapter on Genteel Carriage).
My favorite passage, somewhat more timeless in its applicability than others, at least to me, was entitled Eloquence of Expression. Part of his point was that speaking well will at the least lead people not to become uninterested in your subject, or annoyed with you, while those who speak well incline you towards their opinions and ideas. He writes:
No one can attend, with pleasure, to a bad speaker…He who mumbles out a set of ill-chosen words, utters them ungrammatically, or with dull monotony, will tire and disgust. Do you not suffer, when people accost you in a stammering or hesitating manner; in an untuneful voice, with false accents and cadences; puzzling and blundering through solecisms, barbarisms, and vulgarisms; misplacing even their bad words, and inverting all method?
In order to avoid such problems, and speak pleasantly and eloquently, it is necessary to
Not neglect your style, in whatever language you speak, or whomsoever you speak to, were it your footman. Seek always for the best words, and the happiest expressions, you can find. Do not content your self with being barely understood; but adorn your thoughts, and dress them as you would your person; which, however well proportioned it might be, it would be very improper and indecent to exhibit naked, or even worse dressed than people of your rank are.
Heed, heed, darn young people with degenerative and sloppy language (and George W. Bush)!
Lord Chesterfield warns that one’s career in government depends on one’s ability to speak well in public, for one will have to speak in front of one’s peers at some point, and people’s impressions, opinions, and even their personal like or dislike may depend upon it. He goes on for 12 small-type pages, citing the examples of classical Greece and Rome, quoting from Cicero, referring to his own political experience, and coming up with paragraph long analogies like the above one about speech as clothing. I think his son probably just wanted to be left alone after a while to do his own thing.
Not only that, but his son had a short, undistinguished political career, and died young after eloping with a peasant woman. Lord Chesterfield died of a broken heart or something shortly after.
If you want to browse through his letters or read them, they’re available online at Project Gutenberg.
tightly woven from both sides 2 July 2009
Posted by kato in arabic, literature.add a comment
Yusuf al-Maghribi was an Egyptian writer (d. 1616), who wrote a massive volume on the spoken Arabic of the 17th century Egyptians entitled Daf’ al-isr ‘an kalam ahl Misr, “Removing the burden from the speech of the Egyptians.” (Writing in a idiolectical form of Classical Arabic infused with Egyptian words, he nonetheless viewed spoken Egyptian as inferior). His was one of the first studies of spoken Arabic, and one of the only sources that exists describing spoken Arabic before the 1800s (which is really cool because it lets us see how the spoken language has changed over several centuries). For example, the Egyptians were saying izzayak “how are you” even 4 centuries ago.
He collected some local poetry and wrote some of his own, mostly punning off of Arabic verb forms and double entendres. I found this gem, a mawwal in which the first word of which line is the reverse of the last word. al-Maghribi was apparently especially proud of this, because he had never seen anyone do such a thing with four-letter roots (which themselves aren’t too common). He called it mahbuk al-tarafayn or “tightly woven from both sides:”
من من بالوصل لو عارض كما نمنم
ململ فوادى و مالي الكل قد لملم
مسمس حسودي يوصله لي و لو سمسم
مزمز بشربه من القهوة و لي زمزم
“The one who granted the union resisted it like he embellished
He made my heart restless, and did not gather everything for me
My envier confused me with his union with me and ran to him
He sipped his drink from the coffee and murmured to me”
Pretty badass, and somewhat unique to Arabic because of the way consonantal roots work. I suppose that, because of the rare-ish words that he used in order to complete his wordplay, the poem turned out somewhat nonsensical. Even my father, who is supremely well-versed in Arabic poetry and lit, had some trouble making sense of it at first.
al-Maghribi also collected a bunch of really hilarious 1600s Egyptian swear words, which I’ll put up sometime soon.
Although I do spend my time buried in libraries of old books, I found this one not by that, but through a doctoral dissertation that is available online (from which I happily take the above translation).
the future shah of iran 28 June 2009
Posted by kato in asides and comments, world leaders.2 comments
From the New York Times Magazine, an interview with Reza Pahlavi (eternal prince-in-waiting of the kingdom of Iran, or somesuch):
“But presumably you’re working with American agents in the C.I.A. or elsewhere who have been trying to destabilize the Iranian regime for years. “
“Your presumption is absolutely and unequivocally false.”“Do you feel bitter about not getting to be shah?”
“This is not a personal matter. This is not about me.”
I attended a lecture by Reza Pahlavi himself earlier this spring. To his credit, he very aptly analyzed American-Iranian relations and American-Mideast colonialism. But the audience of a few hundred Iranians both old and young called for him to assert himself as rightful ruler and adulated him with all sorts of titles and honorifics. It was pretty obvious that he was leader-in-exile of Iranian shah-supporters who left during the Revolution. He insisted that it wasn’t about him then, too. But when you were about to be freaking king of a whole country, could it ever not really be about you? I don’t think he could ever convince me that he wants only freedom and justice for his people and has completely forgotten his royal status, money, power, cars, and gaudy military uniforms.
Go royalists. More on why kingdoms are a good thing later.
federal gifts, french burqas 25 June 2009
Posted by kato in asides and comments.1 comment so far
Libya’s Qaddafi gave Condi Rice $212,000 in Gifts, including a diamond ring – the annual state department report on foreign gifts to federal employees listed that Qaddafi’s “darling African” received, among other things, a locket with a picture of him inside of it and a diamond ring.
That must be where all of Libya’s oil money is going….
Sarkozy’s Rejection of the Burqa Will Only Further Marginalize Muslims – Now, Sarkozy is attempting to institute a ban on wearing a burqa/abaya/niqab in public in France. Sabria Jawhar, the author of this article, defensively states:
For the record, I wear the abaya and niqab in Saudi Arabia. I wear the abaya and niqab because it’s my choice. Contrary to popular Western myth, the abaya is not forced on women in Saudi Arabia. As an Islamic country, women are only required to cover the details of their body. While I am living abroad I wear a different style and color hijab that is conducive to the environment I live in. I choose not to wear the common black abaya in the United Kingdom for my own personal reasons that are nobody’s business but my own. But if I ever decide to put on the abaya and niqab the way I do in Saudi Arabia that also is my own business.
Wrong, Sabria. The abaya and niqab are forced in Saudi Arabia, even if not physically by one’s husband, then by peer-pressure, society, the government, the religious police, the essentially anti-women government. Don’t insult yourself by claiming it’s your choice. If it is, wouldn’t you wear the abaya and niqab in Western countries, having arrived by your own personal logic at the same conclusion about how you dress?
She asks, rhetorically and sarcastically: “Because, really, who in their right mind would wear such a thing?” Bingo.
And she confuses pleated skirts worn by Catholic school girls as “religious clothing.”
qaddafi in italy 16 June 2009
Posted by kato in libya, politics, world leaders.1 comment so far
Does this man look like any kind of official, diplomat, politician, or otherwise international figure? Much less a “brother leader” or “glorious guide” or however he styles himself these days?
Unfolding his circus tent as usual in the park of the Villa Doria Pamphili in Rome, Qaddafi (recently having become the world’s longest reigning dictator) upheld a declaration of friendship with Italy, in which Italy apologized for having colonized Libya (which then was but an Ottoman province), massacred thousands of Libyans, and force-implanted colonists on what it called its “Quarta Sponda,” the Fourth Shore.
As nice as a symbolic gesture such as that may seem, it is empty and almost offensive to the history of Libya and the memory of the Libyan resistance. By the act of Sylvio Berlusconi apologizing and Qaddafi accepting his apology, both assume responsibility for the act, the Italian as colonizer/oppressor, the Libyan as victim/resistor/patriot, and so forth. Both were hardly born, and had nothing to do the (de)colonization or subsequent creation of the Kingdom of Libya by the UN. By Qaddafi assuming the role of resistor/victim, he insults the memory of the Libyans who actually did fight and die, for he himself has oppressed the freedoms and made difficult the lives of modern Libyans nearly as well as the Italian occupiers did at the beginning of the century. It is needless to say that Berlusconi then assumes the role of Mussolini (or the brutal Rodolfo Graziani if he prefers), with whom he doubtless doesn’t want to be compared.
But I’m not saying that symbolic gestures, or apologies, should never be made. I’m just pointing out that they should be done right, because, after all, they are symbolic and not real. Is Berlusconi apologizing to the people of Libya, since Qaddafi had no part in the affairs of the colony? Is a crook making a symbolic gesture to a dictator even meaningful?
If you want to read up more, check out these links:
Italy: Libya pay-off for ‘colonial mistakes’
La visite de Mouammar Kaddafi en Italie a frôlé l’incident diplomatique
Mouammar Kaddafi à Rome pour une visite historique
Colonisation : la Libye et l’Italie font la paix
accordion of wood and glass 4 June 2009
Posted by kato in absurdity.1 comment so far
James Stewart, of calculus textbook fame, recently completed his $24 million house in Toronto, its design supposedly inspired by integral signs. Check out this slideshow and article at the wall street journal’s website.
Regarding his reason for building such an expensive house, reportedly costing nearly all of his career savings and investments, he said
“My books and my house are my twin legacies…If I hadn’t commissioned this house, I’m not sure what I would spend the money on.”
Nice houses are nice. But he was completely unable to think of anything good on which to spend $24 million. If he wasn’t Canadian, I would say “typical uninformed apathetic materialist American.” I think there exist thousands of charities, foundations, and social/economic/health/peace/human rights projects that could have used even $500. Way to be a good human being, James Stewart.
saddam’s palaces 2 June 2009
Posted by kato in egyptian pounds, middle east.Tags: construction, egypt, iraq, poor standards, saddam
1 comment so far
Just because it was Saddam Hussein’s palace does not mean that the construction was any good:
[well it seems that the relevant pictures has been removed from the photographer's site. if you've been to egypt, you can imagine what i'm talking about]
It’s exactly the same as the extremely poor construction used for major buildings in Egypt (which probably doesn’t enforce any kind of construction standards or regulations if it even has them), consisting of sand, homemade cement, and might-as-well-have-been-homemade bricks covered by nice layer of disguising paint or sheathing. The palaces look nice and pretty (actually garish and waaay too marbly) on the outside, while inside the walls is a mush of dust, sand, and probably dead things.
The funny thing is that the buildings constructed by the French and British colonialists close to 100 years ago are of higher quality and are more stable than those constructed in the past decade. Go to Cairo and see for yourself; a hammer-blow won’t knock them down.
You’d think a wealthy-as-the-saudis dictator like Saddam Hussein would have been able to afford some solid constructioneers and wall-builders. You’d also think a major country like Egypt would have the types of engineers and professionals that can build good buildings. Alas, in Iraq’s case all that oil money probably went to the army and chemical weapons, while all of the US’s aid to Egypt goes to building more prisons and torture-cells.
[The above picture comes from a beautiful photography series (entitled "Breach") on the current uses of Saddam's palaces by Richard Mosse.]
a fresh heroic nation of live and electric men 25 May 2009
Posted by kato in books, literature, politics.Tags: american politicians, prose, walt whitman
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Some of Walt Whitman’s genius in cleverly, aptly, subtly describing the political ills of antebellum America…still true, unfortunately, almost exactly, 150 years later:
The sixteenth and seventeenth terms of the American Presidency have shown that the villainy and shallowness of great rulers are just as eligible to These States as to any foreign despotism, kingdom, or empire – there is not a bit of difference.
Whence the delegates of the politicians? Whence the [political] conventions?
Not from sturdy American freemen; not from industrious homes; not from thrifty farms…not from among teachers, poets, savans, learned persons, beloved persons, temperate persons…
Who are [the politicians] personally?
Office-holders, office-seekers, robbers, pimps, exclusives, malignants, conspirators, murderers, fancy-men…spaniels well-trained to carry and fetch, jobbers, infidels, disunionists, terrorists, mail-riflers, slave-catchers, pushers of slavery, creatures of the President…spies, blowers, electioneerers, body-snatchers, bawlers, bribers, compromisers…
From The Eighteenth Presidency! (Voice of Walt Whitman to each Young Man in the Nation, North, South, East, West), 1856
maplications 23 May 2009
Posted by kato in imperialism, middle east.Tags: drown-in-the-sea, israel, palestine, wipe-off-the-map
1 comment so far
Small oversight or semi-intentional insidiousness, the map of Israel in the London subway system that failed to delineate clearly Gaza, the West Bank, or the Golan Heights?
Conversely, check out this map that shows the Palestinian lands as islands, and surrounding Israel and other countries as water. Clever perhaps, but also insidious?:
why monarchy is a good thing 1 July 2009
Posted by kato in asides and comments, imperialism.add a comment
This is adapted from my sister’s old blog, but somewhat applicable given the previous post.
To be honest, some of those are good points like constancy and unity, albeit perhaps not in these specific contexts. (Though the monarchy now costs the British taxpayer 69p per year, and 70% of the people disapprove of having to support the monarchy, according to a recent poll by the Guardian). But, there wouldn’t be a lot of really cool things like castles, funny looking royal guards, and epic knight battles without a monarchy, at least in the past.
And….the royal families of every major country in Europe (as well as some miscellaneous Arabs!) are in line to the British throne, because they are all descended from George III.
If you can take care of all the above, Reza Pahlavi, then you can restore your monarchy (as you’ve doubtless dreamed of doing)…