In Tenure Veritas: Libations From The Ivory Tower

I'm going to take a break from the myths-of-the-week this morning, as prompted by some recent discussions.  The discussions have ranged the gamut in topics, from frustrations with the current Democratic field to more parochial concerns, but in each of them, I keep coming back to some variation of a statement I have been making for years.  Time to write it down. I shall put it in the context of some books on my mind lately-- Seth Dickinson's Baru Cormorant novels.  They are not perfect novels, by any stretch of the imagination, but they do have some interesting ideas.  So far, Dickinson has written The Traitor Baru Cormorant  and The Monster Baru Cormorant .  They take place on some other world where the rising dominant power is the Falcrest Empire.  The Falcrest Empire uses economic and cultural influence over military might to control what it can, which is interesting. Throughout the novels, characters reference a series of "Qualms," that Falcrest...

Sorry.  Off my routine, with Thanksgiving 'n all.  Besides, I put up that... post on Thanksgiving day, so I'm really off my schedule.  Anyway, here's the coolest bassist around, Marcus Miller, with a live performance of "Power."  If you want an album, I'll recommend The Ozell Tapes .

As promised/threatened last week, I think I'm doing more of this, after seeing Jacqueline Carey handle this one well.  Yes, there were problems in Starless , but Carey did the sex/gender thing well .  Now, though, I'm going to commit nerd heresy.  I'm going to criticize Ann Leckie, and say that she was far less successful in Ancillary Justice . You should read Ancillary Justice .  Overall, it is a good book, with some good ideas.  As a socio-political commentary on the whole sex/gender thing, though, Carey did it better.  Remember my primary argument about why.  Carey started with a world and the characters, and let the story and storytelling unfold naturally from there, even when it led to places that could, from an obstreperous audience, be taken as fodder for a fight. Leckie started with a gimmick, motivated by modern political ideas about sex and gender, then tried to reverse-engineer a plot device to justify it.  And it didn't work, logic...

The Word, "Speaking In Tongues," from Soul Food .

This morning, I am fascinated by two phrases.  Not the concepts , so much as the phrases .  They are separable.  Does a concept precede a phrase?  Can a phrase exist without the concept existing in a real world kind of way?  This isn't just navel-gazing numbskullery.  Note the "just."  There is, actually, a form of cognition called "unsymbolized thinking" in which one engages in abstract thought without images, language or other formalized symbolism.  Most people don't do it.  A small number do.  Yes, one can have abstract thoughts about concepts without language.  The concept can precede the word, or even exist without the word. You can also have a word that references nothing.  The blog editor here doesn't do mathematical expressions very well, but how about the square root of -1?  We call that i , just to have something to write, but " i ," means the "imaginary" number.  That's different from 0.  Zero has a ...

I guess more jazz today is fine.  This works.  Wayne Krantz, "Alliance/Secrets" from 2 Drink Minimum .

Thelonious Monk, "You Took The Words Right Out Of My Heart," from Thelonious Alone In San Francisco .

OK, back to science fiction.  Which, of course, has nothing to do with politics.  Except that I keep telling you that science fiction writers are better at it than a lot of professional political commentators. It is difficult, though.  For the last bunch-o-years, all of the complicated stuff around a kind of sex/gender distinction has been having a long "moment," not just in American culture, but in science fiction and fantasy.  The latter, of course, is a reflection of the former.  When something is happening in culture and politics, writers pick it up.  The whole sex/gender thing is a hot topic, so the realm of science fiction and fantasy writers has collectively decided that every writer worth their salt must make a go of it.  Some do well, and some do... less well.  Why?  Writing is hard.  So, as American culture and politics continue to have a whole, big thing about sex/gender, every writer in the business continues to do the "hey...

Richard Thompson, "Woman or a Man?," from Small Town Romance .

As the format for In Tenure Veritas  meanders its way around the ever-shifting landscape of things I do and do not want to bother devoting my time to addressing on a leisurely Saturday morning, I think this might be a thing I do.  I considered it when I was writing The Unmutual Political Blog , but I kept getting distracted with the politics of the day/week.  If the whole point here is to not do that, then maybe I'll go back to that idea. Myths of the week.  Maybe this will stick around, and to some degree, these will be related to current happenings... 'cuz, but bird's eye view here.  Just not pigeons .  Right?  Let's call this a pigeon-free zone. So I'll start with this.  An oldie, but a goodie.  What appeals to you, or me, or whomever, is not necessarily  good political strategy.  There is an old line-- good policy makes good politics.  Translation:  when politicians do what they think is right, they will be rewarde...

Gurf Morlix, "Center of the Universe," from Fishin' In The Muddy .

McCoy Tyner, "Speak Low," from Inception .

Old joke.  Stop me if you've heard this one before.  (Technically, you can't stop me.  I typed this before you started reading it.  Do you have a time machine?  If so, go... kill baby Hitler.) Never play chess with a pigeon.  It just flaps its wings, makes a lot of noise, craps all over the board, knocks over the pieces, and then flies back to its friends to tell them about its great victory. Whether or not you are "smarter" than the pigeon isn't actually relevant.  You aren't playing the same game, and if you tell yourself that you are, and behave as though you are, your actions will ultimately be self-defeating and self-humiliating.  The pigeon, on the other hand, will have a fine time of things, untroubled by its inability to pass the "mirror test," much less learn the rules of the game or the finer points of why one might prefer the French defense to the Sicilian defense, or the King's Indian to the Nimzo Indian.  None of these things...

I swear, today's post was not just an excuse for today's music.  I need no excuse to post Tom Lehrer because Tom Lehrer is awesome.  Obviously, today's music selection is a live performance of Tom's classic, "Poisoning Pigeons In The Park."  Some music is just timeless.

Last week, I came across this article by Stu Rothenberg.  Rothenberg is, generally speaking, one of the better journalistic pundits, which is why my beloved Roll Call  keeps him on staff.  2020.  How "important" is the 2020 presidential election, in historical terms?  Rothenberg doesn't actually make a direct case that 2020 is  the most important election, but rather elaborates on forecasting models from Moody's that essentially do what political science forecasting models will be doing next year when we have the appropriate political/economic data, except that Moody's is trying to forecast where the data will be next year, whereas most of us political scientists are just saying, "ask me again in six months," like the non-sentient Magic 8-Balls that we often resemble. Except that I still have all of my hair, thank you very much.  But I'm not vain, or anything. Where was I?  Oh, right.  2020.  Is 2020 going to be "the most important ...

No theme today.  This is prompted by a great interview with Trixie Whitley , which has had me on a Trixie youtube kick.  I always come back to this one, which blows me away every time.  Trixie is Chris Whitley's daughter, and sometimes, musical genius runs in families.  Just... listen.  There are no words for greatness on this level.

George Russell, "Manhattan," from New York, New York .  Russell is a much more important figure in the history of jazz than most listeners know.  Look him up.

This morning, I'm going to anthropomorphize macroeconomic events arbitrarily defined by the coincidences of where we draw a line in reference to Earth's orbit around the sun and the aggregation of the purchasing decisions that we can measure at the national level. Hello?!  Recession?  Where are  you?! Let's all remember what a recession is, in technical terms.  It is a period consisting of two consecutive quarters (six months, lining up with specific calendar periods) of negative GDP growth.  Or, as George Costanza would put it, shrinkage.  Lots 'o folks have been waiting for that Trump recession since he took office, but more particularly, I'm interested in the last year or so.  Why?  Two things.  The trade war, obviously, but even more particularly, the "yield curve." Remember the "yield curve?"  Probably not.  Why not?  It stopped being a story many months ago.  And that's why I'm writing about it this morni...

The Waybacks, "Gone Wayback," from Devolver .

Some background first.  For three years or so, I have been listening to everyone from journalists to scholars  utter some variation of, "surely this  will be the thing that does it.  Republicans can't  keep supporting Trump after this ."  Fill in the this  for yourself.  The Access Hollywood  tape.  Charlottesville.  Take your pick.  I heard plenty of variations when the Ukraine story broke.  That the  applied to the  story, not the  Ukraine.  Pedantry, thy name is Justin Buchler.  Anywho, here's how the tale went this  time, as I overuse italicization.  Mike Pence wouldn't be so bad from a Republican perspective, and notice how plenty of Republicans have stayed quiet about the whole affair.  Maybe the Democrats will actually get some votes in the House!  Surely this  will be the thing! Aaaand , no.  Unless you count Justin Amash as a Republican, but he was effective...

John Lee Hooker, "Process," from Burnin '.