Emily Dickinson #22

The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883)

“Through the straight pass of suffering
The martyrs even trod,
Their feet upon temptation,
Their faces upon God.

A stately, shriven company;
Convulsion playing round,
Harmless as streaks of meteor
Upon a planet’s bound.

Their faith the everlasting troth;
Their expectation fair;
The needle to the north degree
Wades so, through polar air. ” – Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson #21

Photo by “Dezidor,” 2009

“So, from the mould,
Scarlet and gold
Many a Bulb will rise,
Hidden away cunningly
From sagacious eyes.
So, from cocoon
Many a Worm
Leap so Highland gay,
Peasants like me —
Peasants like thee,
Gaze perplexedly. ” – Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson #20

Immobilised Yarra Bend patient, 1862

You may say you want lateral thinking, but do you really?

“Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
’T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,—you’re straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain. ” – Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson #19

“The long sigh of the Frog
Upon a Summer’s day,
Enacts intoxication
Upon the revery.
But his receding swell
Substantiates a peace,
That makes the ear inordinate
For corporal release. ” – Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson #18

Photo by “Queerbubbles,” 2008

“The butterfly obtains
But little sympathy,
Though favorably mentioned
In Entomology.
Because he travels freely
And wears a proper coat,
The circumspect are certain
That he is dissolute.
Had he the homely scutcheon of modest Industry,
’T were fitter certifying for Immortality. ” – Emily Dickinson

Religion of Wikipedians

This made for an interesting study – updating an older graph, here is the breakdown of stated religion for English Wikipedians (from here and here):

Wikipedian religion – “Agnostic-Atheist” includes “Pastafarian”

For comparison, this is the same breakdown for the USA (from here). There are several noticeable differences:

USA religion

However, the differences do not entirely reflect non-USA contributions to the English Wikipedia. Here is the pie chart for the world as a whole (from here):

World religion

If we consider the average of the USA and the world as a whole (roughly the best-fitting linear combination), that differs in interesting ways as well. The Wikipedian data in the top pie chart had a lot more Pagans/Wiccans than this, for example:

Religion for average of USA and World

Update: fixed graph to properly count Wikipedia subcategories

Valentine’s Day

Today is Valentine’s Day – thanks, apparently, to a misreading of Chaucer:

“For this was on seynt Valentynes day,
Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make,
Of every kinde, that men thenke may...”

Still, I offer my congratulations to all my married and to-be-married friends.

Emily Dickinson #17

Photo by “FraKctured,” 2008

“Lightly stepped a yellow star
To its lofty place,
Loosed the Moon her silver hat
From her lustral face.
All of evening softly lit
As an astral hall —
‘Father,’ I observed to Heaven,
‘You are punctual.’ ” – Emily Dickinson

Phylogenetic trees and Biblical text

I’ve been experimenting with phylogenetic tree methods. The table below results from taking various translations of John 1:3, and comparing them rather simplistically using edit distance.

On this criterion, the KJV and the ESV (UK) are the closest pair, while the NASB (“All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”) and the CEV (“And with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word. Everything that was created.”) are the most different.

      KJV ESVUK NIV MSG NKJV NASB HCSB GNT NLT DR CEV
KJV     0     8  42  60   22   61   48  59  60 13  67
ESVUK   8     0  46  55   14   54   40  62  52 20  65
NIV    42    46   0  62   35   65   56  50  57 42  66
MSG    60    55  62   0   54   57   56  54  57 58  73
NKJV   22    14  35  54    0   47   36  57  52 26  65
NASB   61    54  65  57   47    0   43  78  68 58  80
HCSB   48    40  56  56   36   43    0  69  62 55  69
GNT    59    62  50  54   57   78   69   0  56 61  69
NLT    60    52  57  57   52   68   62  56   0 56  76
DR     13    20  42  58   26   58   55  61  56  0  62
CEV    67    65  66  73   65   80   69  69  76 62   0

Of course, this definition of difference is unsatisfactory even for the original Greek, since the concept of “distance” should take into account synonyms and other semantic factors. Still it, illustrates the point. The distances can be displayed graphically in a tree created with the Neighbour Joining method. Similar versions are grouped together in the diagram, and the length of the branches shows the magnitude of the distance.

I would be interested if anyone knows of scholarly work in this vein.

Update: Recalculated tree above, using a different version of the software. The MDS plot below is also interesting

Emily Dickinson #16

Fallen Caryatid carrying her Stone by Rodin (photo by Yair Haklai, 2007)

“To fight aloud is very brave,
But gallanter, I know,
Who charge within the bosom,
The cavalry of woe.

Who win, and nations do not see,
Who fall, and none observe,
Whose dying eyes no country
Regards with patriot love.

We trust, in plumed procession,
For such the angels go,
Rank after rank, with even feet
And uniforms of snow. ” – Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson #15

Photo by Lewis Collard, 2008

“The largest fire ever known
Occurs each afternoon,
Discovered is without surprise,
Proceeds without concern:
Consumes, and no report to men,
An Occidental town,
Rebuilt another morning
To be again burned down. ” – Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson #14

Rembrandt’s Belsazar, c. 1635

“Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand... And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” – Daniel 5

“Belshazzar had a letter, —
He never had but one;
Belshazzar’s correspondent
Concluded and begun
In that immortal copy
The conscience of us all
Can read without its glasses
On revelation’s wall. ” – Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson #13

Child with Red Hair Reading by Lilla Cabot Perry

I really like this one:

“Exhilaration is the Breeze
That lifts us from the ground,
And leaves us in another place
Whose statement is not found;
Returns us not, but after time
We soberly descend,
A little newer for the term
Upon enchanted ground. ” – Emily Dickinson

Murder Must Advertise: a book review

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

I’ve just re-read Murder Must Advertise, one of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy L. Sayers. One of the better ones, what’s more (though not quite as good as Gaudy Night, which paints such a wonderful picture of Oxford).

This book has Lord Peter Wimsey going undercover, in a plot drawing heavily on Sayers’ experience working in an advertising agency (she apparently coined the phrase “It pays to advertise”). Her description of the advertising industry, though almost 80 years old, still has a modern ring:

“Tell England. Tell the world. Eat more Oats. Take Care of your Complexion. No More War. Shine your Shoes with Shino. Ask your Grocer. Children Love Laxamalt. Prepare to meet thy God. Bung’s Beer is Better. Try Dogsbody’s Sausages... Advertise, or go under.”

An American advertisement of the era

As with other Wimsey novels, Murder Must Advertise is a great read, and an interesting exploration of the concept of “justice.” What is worse, for example – a murderer, a blackmailer, a drug dealer, an adulterer, or someone who deceives the public? This (or perhaps Strong Poison) is also a good place to begin reading Sayers’ detective novels.

For other reviews, see In Which I Read Vintage Novels or Novel Readings.

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers: 4 stars

Judging a book by its cover

I read that intelligence and good looks go hand-in-hand. Really? And what is intelligence, anyway?

Which of these people are intelligent? Can you really tell by looking?

Never judge a book by a cover. Never judge a soul by a face.