Isaac Newton - the Most Random Approach

Isaac Newton (Small Works List)

Let me tell you something from the jump here, I am not a scientist. I pulled the name Isaac Newton from the Small Works List because, you know, whatever and I called an astronomer that I know, Stephen Case, and asked him what do I have to read to get to know Isaac Newton. Newton wrote prolifically in his life, but the main thing he wrote was the Principia which is a 400 page ancient math text book. I thought I might read this. He said no. He gave me an abridged version that breaks it down into his physics stuff which was 70 pages. I read 20 pages of this and stopped. I am not a physics person. I then found a copy of the Principia whose whole edition is 900 pages long with 400 of which the manuscript itself. I looked at every page of this text for longer bits of prose in between the math stuff. This was still impenetrable.

I found two sections worth reading, one the Scholium in between Book 2 Section 6 and 7. Here he talks about how he set up his experiment with wooden balls and 10 feet of thread. Also, he dropped some of these balls of the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, 220 ft high. They used hog bladders for this, and one was too wrinkly to be considered part of the data. Newton had some strange ideas but his math works out and that is what he is remembered for. This man could not have existed in the internet age which raises some interesting questions about the types of ideas we find receptive.

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Lady Hyegyong - The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong (Small Works List)

I went on a roller coaster ride with this pick. As it is often said about the Small Works List, I have no idea where this name came from or in what context it was meant to be read. I imagine if I went back to find where I found this name it would be from the Norton World Literature Anthology and it would be a short clipping of the incident that this whole text swirls around. What I find enchanting about this idea is that it sort of places as the fulcrum of Korean history this family drama and from the locus of this event there is a father and son struggling to understand their humanity together, the nature of good and evil is being wrestled with and the hope of a family and a nation hang in the balance of one simple act. Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong When I pulled this name in the Henri Michaux Youtube Video , I was a 0% knowledge of who this person was, I didn’t even know how to pronounce the name and did not try in that recording. I watched a few Youtube videos to get a ...

Eugene O'Neill Long Days Journey Into Night (Small Works List)

Just finished Long Days Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill which was a deeply challenging text. I watched the 1987 version featuring Jack Lemmon, Peter Gallagher, and Kevin Spacey. There is some moments in this text that ring a little false, the relationship between the brothers when it works is good, but this idea of molding the younger brother seems very odd to me. I am not sure that stands up, but the mother’s preoccupation with becoming a nun or a concert pianist rather than taking up with the likes of the actor is a compelling story. The Irish dad that fights with his two sons that accuse him of being cheap is also fascinating. I didn’t know my dad who is 100% Irish, but the only time that I met him as an adult, I knew that I would have hated him. Oddly, he thought that the reason I came to see him was because I wanted money which I thought was odd. The one thing we did discuss while I was there was the books that we had read. I thought that he was lying to me the literature he ...

Anonymous - The Huarochiri Manuscript (Small Works List)

The next entry I pulled from the Small Works List was from what feels like the most popular list on that spreadsheet, the World Literature List 1000 to 1600. I have only pulled one other name at this point on the list but I have consistently been involved with World Lit from around this time period pretty consistently. Kadambari was on the list just before this one as well as Ki No Tsurayuki. The crazy thing is the connection between this text and Guaman Poma. The Huarochiri Manuscript represents a strange node in the make up of this history of this time period, and also happens to be the second indigenous authored text from the same region and the exact same time period. So, let me lay this out for a second. Guaman Poma is one of the only native Incan authors in the historical record. Guaman Poma’s 1200 page letter to King Phillip III was lost for hundreds of years as it was accidentally stored in the Royal Danish Library. Guaman Poma would have written his “letter” in 1...

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