Saturday, May 24, 2025
ESSAY - READING CLASSICS
Speaking of learning to love books, especially, "The Classics", he made the point that many readers, especially young ones, are not interested because these books ARE classics that they are told they should "work" to learn, rather than as exciting, inspiring stories, often full of adventure and mystery.
He met a young girl from a French farm family, who was excited at reading "The History of Rome" for the umpteenth time, comparing it, as a tale of adventure, to other, dry, factual books that were available to her.
I thought of my own bonding to poetry.
We moved to an old house in 1949, and there, on the bookshelves for many years of my youth, was a leather bound book of poetry.
One day, in my teens, the soft leather binding caused me to pick it up, and browse through it, in a typical bored-teenager fashion, rejecting poem after poem.
Suddenly I came upon one which excited my young, adventure-craving mind, molded by the tales of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Having read that poem, and having experienced an epiphany of sorts, I searched the book for others. There, hidden, among love poems (anathema to a teenage boy); and idyllic, again, to a teenage boy, laughable descriptions of nature, I found more high adventure. I read one after another of these stories in rhyme, presented in short form, more powerful for the intensity packed into the few carefully chosen words, and images created in my mind by the poets.
I was hooked. Lost that book for a few years, but recovered it recently, thanks to the efforts and keen eye of my sister.
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Labels: Abbé Ernest Dimnet, donovan baldwin, essay, poet, poetry, reading classics, the art of thinking
Monday, March 24, 2025
ESSAY - READING INTERESTING BOOKS
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| The Art of Thinking (1928) by Abbé Ernest Dimnet |
He told a story to illustrate this:
He met a young girl from a French farm family, who was excited at reading "The History of Rome" for the umpteenth time, comparing it, as a tale of adventure, to other, dry, factual books that were available to her.
I thought of my own bonding to poetry.
We moved to an old house in 1949, and there, on the bookshelves for many years of my youth, was a leather bound book of poetry.
One day, in my teens, the soft leather binding caused me to pick it up, and browse through it, in a typical bored-teenager fashion, rejecting poem after poem.
Suddenly I came upon one which excited my young, adventure-craving mind, molded by the tales of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Having read that poem, and having experienced an epiphany of sorts, I searched the book for others. There, hidden, among love poems (anathema to a teenage boy); and idyllic, again, to a teenage boy, laughable descriptions of nature, I found more high adventure. I read one after another of these stories in rhyme, presented in short form, more powerful for the intensity packed into the few carefully chosen words, and images created in my mind by the poets.
I was hooked. Lost that book for a few years, but recovered it recently, thanks to the efforts and keen eye of my sister.
------
Like this essay by Donovan Baldwin? Perhaps you might like Freedom At Forty-Eight, Thoughts Of A Newly Divorced Man.
Labels: Abbé Ernest Dimnet, donovan baldwin, essay, History of Rome, poetry, the art of thinking
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Dreams Fascinate Us
By: Donovan Baldwin
Dreams.
They fascinate us.
Some see them as "omens" of the future, often harbingers of doom.
Some see them as clarifications of the past.
Some researchers tell us that they are simply the subconscious hard at work trying to make sense out of all the facts and fancies we have been exposed to.
Shakespeare even projected them into death,
"To sleep, perchance to dream; aye, there's the rub, for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause."
Myself, I'm not personally sure what dreams are, but, I tend to go with the researchers. I believe the subconscious, a precocious little beast, may take clues, including ones we are not even consciously aware of, and weave a tapestry of potential events...which may or may not be accurate for many reasons.
However, like the conscious mind, the subconscious can only work with the material it has.
In his book, "The Art of Thinking
", Abbé Ernest Dimnet, postulates that filling our minds with fine thoughts and images can make us better thinkers, and persons.
I like that. I try to do that. I fail sometimes, but, I try.
I believe good images, sounds, and words affect my waking and dreaming thoughts and actions.
Just a thought.
Musing in the morning...before coffee.
They fascinate us.
Some see them as "omens" of the future, often harbingers of doom.
Some see them as clarifications of the past.
Some researchers tell us that they are simply the subconscious hard at work trying to make sense out of all the facts and fancies we have been exposed to.
Shakespeare even projected them into death,
"To sleep, perchance to dream; aye, there's the rub, for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause."
Myself, I'm not personally sure what dreams are, but, I tend to go with the researchers. I believe the subconscious, a precocious little beast, may take clues, including ones we are not even consciously aware of, and weave a tapestry of potential events...which may or may not be accurate for many reasons.
However, like the conscious mind, the subconscious can only work with the material it has.
In his book, "The Art of Thinking
", Abbé Ernest Dimnet, postulates that filling our minds with fine thoughts and images can make us better thinkers, and persons. I like that. I try to do that. I fail sometimes, but, I try.
I believe good images, sounds, and words affect my waking and dreaming thoughts and actions.
Just a thought.
Musing in the morning...before coffee.
Labels: donovan baldwin, dreaming, dreams, ernest dimnet, the art of thinking
