Pseudonymous Authorship Indeed

The spirit of Borges has been toying with Amazon's product database. Now I shall find myself wondering to what extent the editions of Kierkegaard I'm reading were affected by the translator's colonial views...

Accidental Poetry

Owing to metrical concerns, poetry is perhaps the rarest kind of accidental profundity to find online, but occasionally it happens:

Really This Time...

I ended a two-paragraph LibraryThing review of Dictionary of the Khazars by musing that 'perhaps this symposium of unreliable narrators is in its own way a more really historical fiction than most attempts at a "realistic" historical novel'; and on further reflection I'm quite beguiled by the idea that 'realistic' 'historical' fiction ought to reflect the interplay of historical source material instead of what resembles the real historical experience of none of us, which is to say, the mediation of an omniscient narrator. Maybe Akutagawa's Yabu no Naka (on which Kurosawa's Rashōmon is largely based) is the most realistic kind of crime fiction, in a world in which many cases do go unresolved.

I'm not committed to historiographical anti-realism here; I just wonder what other kinds of 'realistic' fiction might be discovered. Perhaps realistic spy stories should be published thirty years after they're set and with critical plot developments redacted; perhaps realistic political narratives should be leaked to the press in opposing fragments by multiple publishers.

Another ‘Just Because It’s Beautiful’ Post

Via Chewing Pixels, and reminding me of a lot of moments lying half-asleep.

Non-Ideal Hermitage Theory

From the 'dangers lurk around every corner' school of research reporting: 'Teens Who Frequently Go Out With Friends More Likely To Use Marijuana'.

Lest we all charge out to seek government guidance on the proper dosage of solitary confinement to ensure psychologically healthy, drug-free offspring, however, the article contains a helpful editorial section: 'Reducing Social Time for Teens Not an Ideal Prevention Method'.