What's the genetic link between Schopenhauer's pessimism and "Hello, Dolly!" ?
Answer: "Hello, Dolly!" was based on a play by John Oxenford, who wrote a review piece for "Westminster Review", in 1853, "Iconoclasm in German Philosophy". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Oxen…
That review made it's way back to Germany, in translation, and made Schopenhauer's fame, late. From Safranksi's "Schopenhauer and the Wild Years in Philosophy".
But today I'm reading Beiser's "After Hegel", and he gives the credit to one Julius Frauenstädt instead. He doesn't even mention the impact of Oxenford's review.
Now it's common sense that two things can be pushing in the same direction, so I don't want to make a puzzle out of this, but I'm a little puzzled. I'm writing something in which I was going to make a point about Oxenford's impact, and now I want to verify it. @dbatherwoods?
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This sort of Dale Carnegie 101 point is reasonable in the abstract but hard to know what to do with in practice. It seems like public health officials and Dems are doing - well, not the best they can, but they are trying to reach persuadables. (There have been slips, sure.) 1/
But that leaves a large basket of right-wing anti-vaxxers who are unpersuadable by Dems and public health officials, due to FOX news (and OAN & etc.) and negative partisanship. @michaelbd and McLaughlin taking the 'feelings are facts' line, with regard to this lot, is - bad. 2/
Blaming the left for not reaching out actually makes things worse because it doesn't afford the left useful Dale Carnegie tips but does give the unpersuadables a feeling that it's the left's fault that they are unpersuaded - and feelings are facts (but only on the right). 3/
MY is screwing with us but I lectured on this! The Ur-Indie era MPDG run is Lulu to Leeloo. That is, Demme's "Something Wild" (1986), largely forgotten - although it makes the MPDG lists - to Besson's "The Fifth Element" (1997) which clearly qualifies but is seldom counted in. 1/
In film, it goes back to classics like "Bringing Up Baby" (1938) and "My Fair Lady" (1964) - the latter is later but, due to its "Pygmalion" origins, makes the clear connection to earlier English drama. 2/
The English original MPDG is Gilbert's "Pygmalion and Galatea". These were originally described as 'fairy comedies', showing the aptness of 'pixie', later. 3/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion…
It's very neat and tidy, as Philip Bump notes. And that's suspicious. So here are the possibilities. It's real or fake. It was leaked deliberately by the Kremlin or not. It's supposed to hurt Trump or not. 1/ washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…
It might seem obvious at least that it's supposed to hurt Trump. But it's not obvious. Because, almost certainly, it won't hurt Trump. The Kremlin leaking that it has kompromat on the sky, to the effect that it's blue, won't cause more people to believe the sky is blue. 2/
There's a good chance it will help Trump, therefore. Normally we don't apply the 'no such thing as bad publicity' show biz rule to political scandals. But the effect of this leak is to put the focus back on 'Russia Russia Russia' and that's good for Trump. 3/
The thread in question implies Trump himself, like his followers, probably doesn't believe any of his own claims about having evidence the election was stolen. And Trump himself gives a shout out about how great the thread is! He agrees! He's probably just getting it off Hannity!
And yet somehow it's not Trump who is showing "unmitigated contempt" by knowingly lying to the American people for months on end that he has reason to think the 2020 election was stolen; somehow it's not Trump voters who show contempt by being unwilling to accept the election. 2/
Seriously, we are supposed to re-watch the video of the insurrection, this time imagining it's all about the Steele Dossier. And that's supposed to make it better? It makes it worse. 3/
There's something right about this and something wrong about it. What is right about it is that D's should fight fire with Biden. They have to win over the median voter (as R's do not). 1/ thedailybeast.com/dems-helped-gi… via @thedailybeast
The thing that is wrong about this is it equates belief with culture war. Or, more specifically, it equates distance between belief points with culture war. But, come to think of it, that can't be right. You and I can believe different things without going to culture war. 2/
Culture war is a matter of deliberately inflaming certain facts of difference for political profit. That is almost exclusively an R game, since it often (not always) affords them tactical opportunities to lose the culture war while winning politically, based on grievance. 3/
Alright, @arrroberts needs to explain something to me. What the hell is Coleridge doing, mock-plagiarizing E.T.A Hoffmann's "The Golden Pot", as "The Book of the Two Worlds", in "Blackwoods", in 1822?
He jokes it isn't his but he doesn't mention Hoffmann by name. He just says he read a "pre-existent copy" of his own (alleged) work, written by a Cervantic character from Thought-Land (Germany).
Coleridge's Maxilian is Hoffmann's Anselmus, transposed from Dresden to Dublin. WFT?