I just started browsing the diaries (or the Sketchbook 1966-1971) by Swiss writer and architect Max Frisch. And the opening chapter is called “Questionnaire”. As in his diary Frisch was preoccupied by the questions of…
Author: Milovan
Lawrence Durrell’s Praise for Tropic of Cancer
Where all the other people like Joyce and Lewis got stuck in the morass and dirt of modern life, Miller conies out on the other side with a grin, whole, hard and undamaged.
Henry Miller’s Wisdom; Or What Matters In Life
My ideal is to be free of ideals, free of principles, free of isms and ideologies. I want to take to the ocean of life like a fish takes to the sea.
“I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”
I am not exactly sure how I got to know the work of Nikos Kazantzakis. It might be through some letters of Lawrence Durrell or Henry Miller. In either case, I am pretty sure the…
Joseph Brodsky on Boredom
I remember reading somewhere a hypothesis that people stopped killing witches because it became boring. You kill one, or see one of the killings, and what is there to be seen next time?
A Few Notes On The History of Clocks
I accidentally started reading about the history of clocks. First, I stumbled upon a sweet book by Swedish historian Peter Englund. Unfortunately, majority of his books are written in Swedish and aren’t translated into English…
The Difference Between the Ancient and Modern Understanding of History; Or How Faith Can Invent A Science
Polybius was concerned with Rome’s history, i.e., with past events progressing toward the present power of Rome. Modern historians who rank with him are concerned with Europe’s future, when looking backward and searching into her…
Why Liberalism Failed (or How it Destroyed Itself) [Book Review]
… Liberalism’s great failing and ultimate weakness: its incapacity to foster self-governance. Liberal individualism demands the dismantling of culture; and as culture fades, Leviathan waxes and responsible liberty recedes. The age of dissatisfaction It’s been…
Reason as the Enemy of Nature – Giacomo Leopardi’s Zibaldone
No wonder why Giacomo Leopardi’s notebook Zibaldone (1898) is considered to be one of the most important books of the 19th century. Zibaldone is a 2,500 pages (note)book full of wisdom about art, human culture,…