“Peter Quince at the Clavier”
Wallace Stevens was perhaps the most elusive great American writer. He spent more than 40 years as an insurance executive in Hartford, Connecticut, specializing in the arcane tedium of surety claims. At the age of 44, he published his first book, Harmonium, which I rank among the half-dozen greatest books by an American poet. He became more and more prolific in later years, his poems more and more obscure; forays into the far reaches of the imagination. It is hard to fit these two pieces of his persona together.
Stevens sometimes seems to be reaching for a unified theory of beauty, his poems mingling meditation on painting, music, and the natural beauty of sea, sky, and the human body. “Peter Quince at the Clavier” is a good example.
But focus on understanding a Stevens poem and you may miss its lyric beauty, the primacy of sound propelled by rhythm, more readily apprehended than understood. Close your eyes and listen.
- Jack Jr.
Air Conditioning
Of all the targets environmentalists have chosen, none baffles me more than air conditioning. Conserving energy is admirable and it’s certainly good to be aware if our habits become wasteful. But air conditioning is one of the greatest innovations in history, and I’m being quite serious. In Europe, where air conditioning is relatively rare, 47,000 people died from heat during the 2023 heat wave. In the US during that same year, a little over 2,300 people died from heat-related causes.
The NYT article I link to above includes a quote that says, “Europe is really ahead of the U.S. on many of these kinds of activities, like heat governance and early warning systems….” Perhaps, but I prefer the kind of heat governance that doesn’t see our senior citizens drop like flies. It’s already been a very hot summer and I assume it’s going to get worse. Good luck, Europe, consider this your early warning.
- Jack III
Love this, guys!