What made Rudolf Nureyev an outstanding dancer? Some insights from biographer Julie Kavanagh’s Rudolf Nureyev: The Life. On his focus as a student and his eliminating non-essentials from his life: “I’ve always tended to reject everything in life which doesn’t enrich or directly concern my single dominating passion.” A fellow student noted: “When Rudolf arrived […]
Nureyev as thinking dancer (and movie recommendation) Read More »
When he became an American citizen in 1943, Sergei Rachmaninoff said: “This is the only place on earth where a human being is respected for what he is and what he does, and it does not matter who he is and where he came from.” Related: “How Rachmaninoff’s composing was hurt by the Soviet Union.”
Rachmaninoff upon becoming an American citizen Read More »
Both are smart guys, and I haven’t read the book or the review, but I am fascinated by the social dynamic, which follows a common pattern: What could be an engaged and productive argument devolves quickly into insults, exasperation, uncharitable interpretations about who said what, claims of immoralities, and suggestions of lawsuits. Also fascinating is
Steve Patterson and Jason Brennan Read More »
[Below is the text of Richard Wagner’s 1849 essay “Art and Revolution” (and here is a PDF version).] Richard Wagner “Art and Revolution” Almost universal is the outcry raised by artists nowadays against the damage that the Revolution has occasioned them. It is not the battles of the “barricades,” not the sudden mighty shattering of the pillars
Richard Wagner’s “Art and Revolution” text Read More »
In my judgment, Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead is the greatest novel on the themes of independence and integrity. I’m reposting the contrast of Howard Roark and Peter Keating below, as in my Introduction to Philosophy course this week we are reading Part I, in which Rand’s primary purpose is to contrast the characters of Roark
The Fountainhead — contrasting Roark and Keating Read More »
Following up on a series of posts about Michelangelo, Beethoven, and Liszt. From Frederic V. Grunfeld’s very good Rodin: A Biography, the answer in the case of August Rodin is education and self education. Rodin was born into a French culture in which the large majority of the population was illiterate or semi-literate. The fact
Yet more on how great artists become great: Rodin Read More »
Wagner, in a letter to Franz Liszt: “If I am obliged to plunge once more into the waves of an artist’s imagination in order to find satisfaction in an imaginary world, I must at least help out my imagination and find means of encouraging my imaginative faculties. So I cannot live like a dog, I
Creative geniuses as selfish — Richard Wagner version Read More »
The great Rachmaninoff on what the creator needs and what this implies for others: “A creator is a very limited person. Always he revolves around his own axis. There is nothing for him but his own creative work. I agree that the wife has to forget herself, her own personality. She must take upon herself
Creative geniuses as selfish — Rachmaninoff version Read More »
My publications and posts on major figures and movements in the history of ideas. Jump to: Before Philosophy * Thales * Socrates * Plato * Aristotle * The Stoics * Augustine * Aquinas * The Renaissance * The Reformation * Bacon * Descartes * Spinoza * Locke * The Enlightenment * Hume * Smith *
Intellectual History Read More »