Cynthia L. Haven
@chaven
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@NEHgov Public Scholar; Author: Czesław Miłosz: A California Life; Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard. @nytimesbooks @theTLS @thenation @vqr @WSJBooks
Stanford University
Joined November 2008
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“When I read, I am a harmless, nice and quiet person and I don't do anything stupid.” ~ Robert Walser
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"If there is any substitute for love, it's memory. To memorize, then, is to restore intimacy." (1940-1997)
Happy birthday to Nobel poet Joseph Brodsky!
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"There is never anything on one side of a rivalry which, sooner or later, will not be found on the other." ~ René Girard
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"The world about us would be desolate except for the world within us." — Wallace Stevens, born on this date in 1879
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"The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less."
— Václav Havel, who died on this date in 2011
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My father's pen-and-ink drawing of Notre Dame, when he was 18 years old...
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"You live in a deranged age, more deranged that usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing."
- Walker Percy, born on this day, 1916
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Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important.They don’t mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them.Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves. T.S. Eliot
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"Computers are good for the economy, they're new. But Americans wonder, uneasily, what will replace computers. Mimetic desire is satisfied only for a time, which grows ever shorter. New toys must always be found, and that's getting harder and harder to do."
~ René Girard (2001)
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Seamus Heaney's gravestone in Bellaghy, Northern Ireland. Matchless. His last recorded words were sent in a text message to his wife Marie Heaney. It said, "Noli timere," Latin for "Fear not."
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"It's a beautiful word: luftmensch. It means someone who has his feet firmly planted—in midair." A luftmensch in search of the perfect conversation: NYPL’s “curator of public curiosity” | The Book Haven
@holdengraber
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"We are aware that globalization doesn't mean global friendship but global competition and, therefore, conflict. That doesn't mean we will all destroy each other, but it is no happy global village, either."
— René Girard, born on this date in 1923
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It begins...
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On the sixth anniversary of the death of author, journalist Christopher Hitchens: "Never be a spectator of unfairness and stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence."
@holdengraber
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“Liberal education is liberation from vulgarity. The Greeks had a beautiful word for ‘vulgarity’; they called it apeirokalia, lack of experience in things beautiful.” – Leo Strauss
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"A writer's purpose is to save civilization from self-destruction."
~ Albert Camus
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"What people call the partisan spirit is nothing but choosing the same scapegoat as everybody else." – René Girard
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This must be an advance reading copy. I promise you the finished Penguin book will have real glue and a real spine!
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A usage I would like to see retired: the possessive pronouns "my," "his," "her" used before the word "truth." Commonly used today to give a sort of untouchability (and grandiosity) to subjective points of views & opinions. The whole idea of "truth" is that it stands outside that.
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"Envy involuntarily testifies to a lack of being that puts the envious to shame . . . That is why envy is the hardest sin to acknowledge."
~ René Girard, "Theater of Envy"
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My writing process. Netflix, random stuff on YouTube, research a character’s name for 5 hours, research the location of the novel on Google Earth, nap. Repeat for 6 months.Then 20 days f/the deadline, full on freak out & typing mode fueled by copious amounts of Death Wish Coffee.
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Does anyone else still flinch when they hear the word "gift" used as a verb? Am I the last holdout?
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"It was on rereading Simone Weil that I understood at what point she had been present at the very heart of the principal ideas that govern my work.” ~ René Girard on Simon Weil
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Poet Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa & emigrated to the US as a child. "I chose English because no one in my family or friends knew it ... I myself did not know the language. It was a parallel reality, an insanely beautiful freedom. It still is.”
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I've written that René Girard's ideas should be as familiar as those of Marx & Freud, whom many cite w/o having read. RG's ideas are certainly more observable & practical, with immediate applications for our lives and our world. We're going to make it happen!
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“The effort to leave the beaten path forces everyone into the same ditch.” ~ René Girard
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"The opinions of our friends are not what we love them for, and therefore I don't see why they should be what we hate them for." — Henry James
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W.H. Auden died 50 years ago today. "Leap Before You Look" is not his greatest poem, but it is a wise one...
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"The literature that makes life possible for me and others is not a given. It has to be made, day after day, by those who are willing to take on the solitude and uncertainty of the work. Writing affords pleasure, too, but mostly it's hard work." ~ author Tobias Wolff
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@dbkann5
@davidvolodzko
Oh, not to worry. It was not an "ordeal." The danger was past before I fully realized what had happened. The man's intentions were not realized. I love India, and I love Indian people.
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One hundred years ago, René Noël Théophile Girard was born on Christmas Day. Happy 100th birthday, René!
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"Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.” ~ Doris Lessing
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@saletan
So all we have to do is forget about all those people we left trapped in Afghanistan, and the sun will shine again? What a concept. I never would have thought of it.
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"There's no need to refute modern thought because, as each new trend one-ups its predecessors, it's liquidating itself at high speed." ~ René Girard
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The U.S. edition of René Girard's "All Desire Is a Desire for Being" is out today at last!
New to Penguin Classics: All Desire Is a Desire for Being by René Girard, edited by literary scholar
@chaven
! 👉
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Happy 109th birthday to Nobel poet Czesław Miłosz, born this day in Šeteniai in Lithuania. Below, a delightful photo with fellow Nobelist Seamus Heaney. Stay tuned for my forthcoming book on his life as a Californian.
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It's official! I'll be giving the keynote "Czesław Miłosz Lecture" in Kraków for the literary festival from June 30 (CM's birthday) to July 7 – the first under the new government! And I've been invited to stay on in beloved Kraków till the end of July!
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"Humanity is the child of religion."
— René Girard, born on this date in 1923
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"The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less." — Václav Havel, born on this date in 1936
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"You asked me what is the good of Reading the Gospels in Greek.
I answer that it is proper that we move our finger
Along letters more enduring than those carved in stone,
And that, slowly pronouncing each syllable,
We discover the true dignity of speech."
~ Czesław Miłosz
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And the American edition will be out with Penguin next month!
@PenguinClassics
@penguinusa
@PenguinBooks
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@archi_tradition
Segovia. City of St. Juan de la Cruz, one of Spain's greatest poets and one of the greatest mystics of all time.
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The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.
— Albert Camus, born on this date in 1913
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“To imitate Christ is to refuse to impose oneself as a model and to always efface oneself before others. To imitate Christ is to do everything to avoid being imitated.” ~ René Girard
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"The myth of unending consumption has taken the place of the belief in life everlasting."
— Ivan Illich, born on this date in 1926
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"Today man believes there is *nothing* in him, so he accepts *anything,* even if he knows it to be bad, in order to find himself at one with others, in order not to be alone." ~ Czesław Miłosz, "Captive Mind"
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“Desire has no worse enemy than its own truth.” ~ René Girard
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"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work."
— Gustave Flaubert, born on this date in 1821
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"'The Spirit of the Place': Czesław Miłosz in California" is born! I've just been named a 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities “Public Scholar” to work on the book! | The Book Haven
#NEHgrant
#NEHPublicScholar
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What a pleasure to spend the last four days
@stthomashouston
talking about Czesław Miłosz! I hope it will be the first of many university seminars, reading, and classes in years to come. I got a standing ovation for my keynote lecture & my book sold out! Thanks,
@JMWSPT
!
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"We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it."
— Thomas Aquinas, who died on this date in 1274
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Pssst! "Conversations with René Girard: Prophet of Envy" – out today
@BloomsburyBooks
@BloomsburyPub
! Great coronavirus reading, & you can have Kindle edition right away! Check it out (esp. the cover, great photo!)
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The antidote to resentment is gratefulness. And, also, beauty.
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Paging René Girard, paging René Girard ... please come to the courtesy phone...
Every sphere of culture is turning into a blood feud between two rival mobs (notice that it's ALWAYS a binary opposition) whose driving ambition is to annihilate the other.
The very people of influence and power who should set constructive examples and work to counter this, are
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Many thanks to
@lukeburgis
@novitate
@CioccaCenter
and everyone else who made this remarkable weekend happen!
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“History is a test. Mankind is failing it,” he said. It sounds like apocalyptic, end-of-the-world stuff, but it has in fact immediate ramifications for all of us here, today.
#ReneGirard
at 100.
#mimeticdesire
@ThePublicSquare
@lukeburgis
@g_shullenberger
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“People fail to understand that they are indebted to violence for the degree of peace that they enjoy.” – René Girard (1923-2015)
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"Evil is the mystery of a pride which, as it condemns others, unwittingly condemns itself." ~ René Girard
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Robert Pogue Harrison said: “Girard is one of the Titans of 20th-century thought, and I believe that the 21st century will vindicate the cogency of his theories in a clamorous way.” The clamor has begun.
My Q&A with
@GutkinLen
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"The more we live by our intellect, the less we understand the meaning of life."
— Leo Tolstoy, born on this date in 1828
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@ConanOBrien
I don't know. We have the oldest constitution in the world, and many others have been modeled on it. That's not too bad.
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@archi_tradition
Let me be an outlier & say Berkeley. Not the rundown, post-hippie downtown areas, but the old, venerable parts of the university town, & Julia Morgan's architecture. Grizzly Peak alone is worth it – esp. the cottage where Nobel poet Czesław Miłosz lived for 40 years.
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"An attitude of permanent indignation signifies great mental poverty. Politics compels its votaries to take that line and you can see their minds growing more impoverished every day, from one burst of righteous indignation to the next."~ Paul Valéry, who died on this date in 1945
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"Silence is the invention of the hearing." I've written about Ukrainian
@ilya_poet
of "Deaf Republic" fame for years & we've been penpals. But attending Ilya Kaminsky's reading
@stanford
tonight was like a different window in my brain opening up.
@SOlidort
did a terrific Q&A too!
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"Novelists who are more intelligent than their books should go into another line of work." Remembering Milan Kundera (1929-2023).
@cribbenMerrill
writing in
@compactmag_
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My first article on French theorist René Girard was published in 2008, for the Stanford News Service. I've republished it on the Book Haven, to celebrate the centenary of his birth this year. Happy birthday, René!
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It arrived in California safely, and it looks beautiful! Thanks
@NOV1TATE
! Thanks
@lukeburgis
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Józef Czapski. Haven’t heard of him? Here’s a chance to learn about one of the 20th century’s greatest men. With a podcast of my Q&A with biographer Eric Karpeles, too! | The Book Haven
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“When there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good persons is but knowledge in the making.” ~ John Milton
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Here's a mimetic trend that has gone largely unremarked: today's obsession with food. Getting better food, more exotic food, showing photos of your food on social media before you eat it up. Food and restaurants today are a relentless, competitive monomania. Comment?
@lukeburgis
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"Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much?" ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, born on this date in 1749
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So Branson "beat" Bezos in being first into space. René Girard: "...rabid tourists that we are, intent on consuming the entire planet so as to boast upon our return of having traveled more than our friends. Tourism, too, is mimetic and a source of undifferentiation."
@lukeburgis
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Can we please get rid of the term "bucket list"? Jeer it out of existence? It is so openly consumerist. Places and meals and experiences you want to devour before you die. How about flip it into the experiences and good cheer you want to give to *others* before you bite the dust?
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“Computers are useless. They only give you the answers.” ~ Pablo Picasso
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At Kraków's Potocki Palace, where I delivered the "master lecture," then a pane on "Czeslaw Milosz: A California Life," now out in Polish with the eminent house Znak. Rooms filled to the brim. Then the crowd to sign books – notable photog Adam Lipinski among them.
@heydaybooks
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The unpublished poems of Robert Conquest. Philip Larkin called him a genius. Kingsley Amis complained of getting old & said: "What was that quote about free from care? Certainly applies to ole Bob. He just goes on and on, as if nothing has happened."
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"The creation of the world did not occur at the beginning of time, it occurs every day."
~ Marcel Proust, born on this date in 1871
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Stanford's Robert Harrison & I discuss Polish Nobel poet Czesław Miłosz and my new book, "Czesław Miłosz: A California Life" on his popular "Entitled Opinions" radio/podcast series. What fun!
…
@heydaybooks
@PolishEmbassyUS
@PolishInstNY
@LiteraryPoland
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@ShaneSchaetzel
I don't think she's crying. She is the daughter of Princess Caroline of Monaco. Her shot at the British crown was very, very remote.
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"The collection describes ... the experiences of migrants in L.A., as well as the seedy bars, the visiting luminaries, the fading stars – in ballades, in villanelles, in Pushkin’s swift iambic tetrameter sonnets, and more."
@BorisDralyuk
@LAReviewofBooks
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From Auden's "Shield of Achilles." True then and now and always.
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"A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession." ~ Albert Camus
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