The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “negative capability”

A Field Guide to Getting Lost: Rebecca Solnit on How We Find Ourselves
A Field Guide to Getting Lost: Rebecca Solnit on How We Find Ourselves

“The things we want are transformative, and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation… Never to get lost is not to live.”

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Donald Barthelme on the Art of Not-Knowing and the Essential Not-Knowing of Art
Donald Barthelme on the Art of Not-Knowing and the Essential Not-Knowing of Art

“Our devouring commercial culture… results in a double impoverishment: theft of complexity from the reader, theft of the reader from the writer.”

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2013’s Best Books on Writing and Creativity
2013’s Best Books on Writing and Creativity

Timeless wisdom and practical advice on the pleasures and perils of the written word and the creative life.

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The 13 Best Science and Technology Books of 2013
The 13 Best Science and Technology Books of 2013

The wonders of the gut, why our brains are wired to be social, what poetry and math have in common, swarm intelligence vs. “God,” and more.

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Happy Birthday, Brain Pickings: 7 Things I Learned in 7 Years of Reading, Writing, and Living
Happy Birthday, Brain Pickings: 7 Things I Learned in 7 Years of Reading, Writing, and Living

Reflections on how to keep the center solid as you continue to evolve.

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Mary Oliver on the Mystery of the Human Psyche, the Secret of Great Poetry, and How Rhythm Makes Us Come Alive
Mary Oliver on the Mystery of the Human Psyche, the Secret of Great Poetry, and How Rhythm Makes Us Come Alive

“Rhythm is one of the most powerful of pleasures, and when we feel a pleasurable rhythm we hope it will continue. When it does, it grows sweeter.”

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Annie Dillard on the Art of the Essay and the Different Responsibilities of Narrative Nonfiction, Poetry, and Short Stories
Annie Dillard on the Art of the Essay and the Different Responsibilities of Narrative Nonfiction, Poetry, and Short Stories

“Writers serve as the memory of a people. They chew over our public past.”

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Cats, Dogs, and the Human Condition: The Year’s Best Books about Pets and Animals
Cats, Dogs, and the Human Condition: The Year’s Best Books about Pets and Animals

Artful cats, literary dogs, Bob Dylan, and a whole lot of non-human genius.

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The Perils of Plans: Why Creativity Requires Leaping into the Unknown
The Perils of Plans: Why Creativity Requires Leaping into the Unknown

“The job—as well as the plight, and the unexpected joy—of the artist is to embrace uncertainty, to be sharpened and honed by it.”

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Dani Shapiro on the Pleasures and Perils of Writing and the Creative Life
Dani Shapiro on the Pleasures and Perils of Writing and the Creative Life

“It is in the thousands of days of trying, failing, sitting, thinking, resisting, dreaming, raveling, unraveling that we are at our most engaged, alert, and alive.”

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