The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “Jonathan Cott”

3 Things to Learn from a Child, 7 from a Thief: Bob Dylan’s Favorite Rabbi Teaching
3 Things to Learn from a Child, 7 from a Thief: Bob Dylan’s Favorite Rabbi Teaching

On the value of remaining resolutely what you are.

read article

Bob Dylan on Vulnerability, the Meaning of Integrity, and Music as an Instrument of Truth
Bob Dylan on Vulnerability, the Meaning of Integrity, and Music as an Instrument of Truth

“You must be vulnerable to be sensitive to reality. And to me being vulnerable is just another way of saying that one has nothing more to lose.”

read article

Carl Sagan on Mystery, Why Common Sense Blinds Us to the Universe, and How to Live with the Unknown
Carl Sagan on Mystery, Why Common Sense Blinds Us to the Universe, and How to Live with the Unknown

“We are bathing in mystery and confusion… That will always be our destiny. The universe will always be much richer than our ability to understand it.”

read article

Geographical Fun: A Victorian Teenage Girl’s Impressive Cartographic Caricatures of European Countries and Their National Stereotypes
Geographical Fun: A Victorian Teenage Girl’s Impressive Cartographic Caricatures of European Countries and Their National Stereotypes

Within a humorous gem, a serious reminder of how malleable even the seeming solidities of geopolitics are.

read article

Young vs. Old, Male vs. Female, Intuition vs. Intellect: Susan Sontag on How the Stereotypes and Polarities of Culture Imprison Us
Young vs. Old, Male vs. Female, Intuition vs. Intellect: Susan Sontag on How the Stereotypes and Polarities of Culture Imprison Us

“The young-old polarization and the male-female polarization are perhaps the two leading stereotypes that imprison people.”

read article

John Lennon on Creativity
John Lennon on Creativity

“Every song I’ve ever written has been absolute torture… except for the ten or so songs the gods give you and that come out of nowhere.”

read article

Chinua Achebe on Art as a Form of Citizenship: Lessons in Creativity as “Collective Communal Enterprise” from the Igbo Tradition of Mbari
Chinua Achebe on Art as a Form of Citizenship: Lessons in Creativity as “Collective Communal Enterprise” from the Igbo Tradition of Mbari

“There is no rigid barrier between makers of culture and its consumers. Art belongs to all and is a ‘function’ of society.”

read article

Leonard Bernstein on Cynicism, Instant Gratification, and Why Paying Attention Is a Countercultural Act of Courage and Resistance
Leonard Bernstein on Cynicism, Instant Gratification, and Why Paying Attention Is a Countercultural Act of Courage and Resistance

“There is so much inherent goodness in people that if they aren’t inhibited by traumas and are given half a chance, it shines through.”

read article

Love, Sex, and the World Between
Love, Sex, and the World Between

“Part of the modern ideology of love is to assume that love and sex always go together… And probably the greatest problem for human beings is that they just don’t.”

read article

The 13 Best Biographies, Memoirs, and History Books of 2013
The 13 Best Biographies, Memoirs, and History Books of 2013

From Alan Turing to Susan Sontag, by way of a lost cat, a fierce Victorian lady-journalist, and some very odd creative habits.

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)