philosophie.

on clutter and jargon

William Zinsser in “On Writing Well” (brilliant book btw!): “Clutter is the ponderous euphemism that turns a slum into a depressed socioeconomic area, a salesman into a marketing representative, a dumb kid into an underachiever and garbage collectors into waste disposal personnel.” and an accompanist into collaborative pianist, piano tuner into piano technician, toy piano player into professional toy-pianist?! (and I say this with full respect to the first two)

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Same book:

“I see that Detroit is downsizing its cars but still hoping to attract upscale customers. (Small Cadillacs for rich people.) It’s part of an ongoing effort to save energy. All efforts in America today are “ongoing.” So are all programs and investigations. So, in fact, are all people and all forms of life; when we cease to be ongoing we are dead. “Ongoing” is a jargon word that is wholly unnecessary except to raise morale. We face our daily job with more zest if the boss reminds us that it’s an ongoing project; we give more willingly to institutions if they have targeted our funds for ongoing improvements.”

read Gombrich, if you haven’t

I’ve been reading E. H. Gombrich’s “The Story of Art”, and I must say, though I’ve been taking fine art history classes in my undergraduate studies, many things I learned didn’t make sense until I read this book.

Gombrich, also in his “Little History of the World”, explains to us of his scholastic  austere and profuse knowledge in the most comprehensible language. I remember just a few days ago while dining with friends right after seeing the new Harry Potter 7 movie, my friend remarked on his elementary-school cousins’ ability in recounting literally ALL the details of the entire series of Harry Potter books, from the names of the spells and potions, to the plots and character development. We cannot help but to wonder what would happen if math, chemistry, geography, history etc. were all taught in a manner as interesting at the Harry Potter books - after all, “interest is our best teacher”.

I think Gombrich has done exactly that.  If I were to teach one day, I would like to do exactly that.

platitude defined

PLATITUDE, n. The fundamental element and special glory of popular literature. A thought that snores in words that smoke. The wisdom of a million fools in the diction of a dullard. A fossil sentiment in artificial rock. A moral without the fable. All that is mortal of a departed truth. A demi-tasse of milk-and-mortality. The Pope’s-nose of a featherless peacock. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of the sea of thought. The cackle surviving the egg. A desiccated epigram. – The Devil’s Dictionary

Wisdom from a century ago. How apposite it is still!

June 24

My good friend J came back to town.

When I met up with him for lunch today, I couldn’t even recognize him due to his decision on breeding a full beard – a bit of an unfair game here, since men can veritably change their look drastically within such a short period of time and us women cannot (well, unless you go overboard with the makeup, which definitely takes longer than shaving).

Within a the span of the time it takes for a lunch, I got to hear about his travels (only briefly) in Europe, or I should say all over Europe. Then we inevitably decided on a few pieces to learn together over the summer – which always makes me so happy! Summer is a great time for chamber music, and for relaxing with not many deadlines for learning pieces which means I can usually take my time and work on the things I have always wanted to work on.

New York has been drizzling and raining on and off for the past few days, and I can only say that I am absolutely taking delight in the the permeating of water through the sky.  Something about rainy days that connects one’s memories from the distant past and put them all together, sometimes as disparate as they may be, into one big harmonious Cosmo of  scent, sentiment, sound, love, life.  On rainy nights I am always transfixed.

One of the most recent memories of rainy days was one day in New Haven – which is where J will be going this fall to attend Yale. I am thoroughly happy for him, and he looked at me and said, half jokingly, I am definitely not feeling guilty about any of this after all that has happened to me this year. I said, why would you feel guilty? He chuckled, and said, ‘cuz I’m Jewish?

Now, that’s a culture I have only heard about when I was growing up in China but only got to know better and more personally recently.  You might remember when I wrote about my friend Mindy, who is also Jewish, who during her last visit recommended me this book called The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany. I think the title introduces the content pretty concisely. I am going to start reading it today and we’ll see what kind of a journey it will take me.

Dear all,

Recently I came across this book which I find very valuable. I would really love to translate into Chinese as I think a lot of people might benefit from it tremendously as I did. It is in the process of happening, and so this will be our secret – meanwhile, please keep your fingers crossed for this project!

Today, I sat in the park as the warmest days of March slipped away with the descending sun. I thought of you, all of you. And I thought of how funny it is if an invisible hand could just take the me who’s sitting in the park out of this world, yet I can still see you and think of you.

So the summer is coming.

Every year, since maybe three years ago, the first sweetness of summer’s air always frightens me. I am nevertheless filled with joy – and the first sight at a seemingly microscopical blossom of a flower intrigues me wondrously.

I hope you are well and ready for this wondrous season.

Love,
Sophie