Tag Archives: 1990’s

370 BC: Numberless Democrituses Like Himself

Posted on January 26, 2020 by corvusfugit

The pre-Socratic philosopher Democritus (c. 460 – c. 370 BC) believed in an infinite universe, and therefore in an infinite number of worlds. Some might be bigger or smaller than earth, he concluded; some might have more moons or suns, … Continue reading →

1994: An Insane Premise

Posted on September 2, 2019 by corvusfugit

In an afterword to the 25th anniversary edition of Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth tells a story about the first lines of his novels. When he was living in Chicago in the late 1950’s, he says, he once went to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1970's, 1990's, 20th Century, Autobiography, Books, Film, Judaism, Novels, Philip Roth, USA, Writing | Leave a comment

15 mya: Oecophylla

Posted on May 25, 2019 by corvusfugit

Up to hundreds of weaver ants…line up side by side in militarily precise rows. They grip the edge of one leaf with the claws and pads of their hindlegs and the edge of the other with their jaws and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1990's, Africa, Animals, Ants, Architecture, Bert Hölldobler, Books, E. O. Wilson, Germany, Insects, Labor, Miocene epoch, Photography, USA | Leave a comment

1991: Time’s Arrow

Posted on December 31, 2018 by corvusfugit

In Martin Amis’s 1991 novel, Time’s Arrow, time flows backwards. It’s not simply that the events are narrated in reverse order; rather, it’s as if the characters were in a film being show in reverse. Here’s how eating works, for … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1990's, 20th Century, Books, Fascism, Germany, Great Britain, Holocaust, Josef Mengele, Martin Amis, Time, Writing, WWII | Leave a comment

1994: You Bomb You!

Posted on September 21, 2018 by corvusfugit

Allen Ginsberg throwing out the first pitch at a San Francisco Giants game on June 1, 1994. The team had invited him to be the first in a “City of Poets” series in which writers read their work before games. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1990's, 20th Century, Allen Ginsberg, LGBTQ, Poetry, Sports, USA, War | Leave a comment

1795: Zozozozozozozozozozozozo, zirrhading!

Posted on August 16, 2018 by corvusfugit

From Johann Matthäus Bechstein’s Gemeinnützige Naturgeschichte Deutschlands nach allen drey Reichen: ein Handbuch zur deutlichern und vollständigern Selbstbelehrung besonders für Forstmänner, Jugendlehrer und Oekonomen, volume 4 (1795): Twenty-four different strains or couplets may be reckoned in the song of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 18th Century, 1990's, 20th Century, Animals, Birds, Books, David Hindley, Germany, Great Britain, Johann Matthäus Bechstein, Music | Leave a comment

1998: Beyond the Skin

Posted on August 7, 2018 by corvusfugit

Inga hears from a friend that there is an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and decides to go see it. She thinks for a moment and recalls that the museum is on 53rd Street, so she walks to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1990's, 2000's, 20th Century, 21st Century, Andy Clark, Art, Australia, Conceptual Art, David Chalmers, Great Britain, Iceland, Katrín Sigurdardóttir, Museums, New York City, Philosophy, Scotland, Women | Leave a comment

1997: Translation / Transformation

Posted on March 11, 2018 by corvusfugit

In a 1997 essay on translation, the writer Harry Mathews cites Marcel Benabou’s version of Keats’s “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”: Ah, singe débotté, / Hisse un jouet fort et vert! It’s not quite a translation: the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1990's, 20th Century, Animals, Art, Austria, France, Gabriel von Max, Harry Mathews, John Keats, Language, Mammals, Marcel Benabou, Monkeys, Opera, OULIPO, Painting, Poetry, Translation, USA | 1 Comment

1990: Monte Carlo

Posted on March 6, 2018 by corvusfugit

Robert Bechtle: Working Proof 2 for Albany Monte Carlo (1990)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1990's, 20th Century, Architecture, Art, Cars, Printmaking, Robert Bechtle, USA | 3 Comments

1945: The Book of Alfred Kantor

Posted on January 27, 2018 by corvusfugit

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day—Yom HaShoah Alfred Kantor was 22 when he was sent to Theresienstadt, the ”model ghetto” 40 miles north of Prague that the Nazis had created for Czech Jews. He was then sent to Auschwitz and, later, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1940's, 1990's, 20th Century, Alfred Kantor, Art Spiegleman, Comics, Czechoslovakia, Drawing, Fathers, Holocaust, Judaism, Prisons, USA, WWII | Leave a comment