Blog

Without intending to, I read these short fiction works successively in just a few days.

Both works are tales of intellectual obsession that give rise to some combination of madness and genius occurring within the milieu of the World Wars.

“Chess Story” details the passage of a chess champion to Argentina during which a few of the passengers become interested in challenging him to a match. They have poor luck until a strange man who, claiming not to have touched a chess piece in 25 years, is able to outwit the master. The work goes on to focus mainly on events in the past that contributed to his chess skills.

This is a sensitive and seemingly simple short story that contains a lot of humanity below the surface (mostly related to how poor treatment, in various forms, contributes to less than desirable personality traits).

“When We Cease to Understand the World” is an interesting construction of several fictionalized (maybe narrativized) stories following the great discoveries of several scientific and mathematical geniuses. The stories often focus on periods of dangerously intensive, hermetic work leading to major breakthroughs that shape how we understand reality (quantum physics being the namesake section).

I have mixed feelings about this work. Generally, I like the experiment of constructing fictionalized accounts of very real events in a way that feels very humanizing and doesn’t take such clear opinions as most biographical accounts will take. Really there is seemingly an effort here to include many of the bad traits along with the good, both in terms of their place in history but also in what is known about their personalities.

One major aspect that I don’t tend to like is the way that fictionalization takes a stock standard approach in lauding the sort of hermetic/obsessive genius who is so caught up in their work that they work non-stop in fits of inspiration to come up with their masterpiece. Of course these are stories that we like to read and conceptions of genius that people are often fascinated by (along with what is probably some selection bias towards famously hermetical mathematicians). But I am often not thrilled with this being the major narrative for important scientific discoveries as this is much more the exception than the rule. I find this narrative a bit stale and wishes that it received a little more scrutiny.

Anna Louie Sussman writes here in the New York Times about progressing research in human embryology. I am usually skeptical going into these types of articles because I’m not often a fan of the science writing in major news imprints. But Sussman does a fantastic job of weaving together the research and the ethics of using IVF-derived embryos for scientific research along with the difficulties of determining clear ethical limitations for research.

A bit of a mess this week as I forgot to feed my starter until ~12 hours before I wanted to bake. Threw in some poolish to compensate. Got sidetracked and the bulk went a bit too far. The dough was a bit stuck in the banneton. One of those times you’re happy that you ended up with anything edible.

Here is the most flattering angle…

I’ve certainly never read anything else like this. This book follows Ferdinand from Paris to the trenches of WWI, to the Colonial African jungles, to New York, Detroit, and back to Paris. Written as somewhat of a reflection on these events, this novel is an insane, raving barrage of wonderful writing, keen social observation pertaining largely to class and power, and certain “French characteristics.”

This was by no means an easy book. The writing itself doesn’t make things easy as there is very limited dialogue (and very little of it is very coherent), the plot points are sparsely detailed, and the observations/reflections and nuanced and verbose. The content is also incredibly nihilistic about nearly all aspects of human character and action.

It is one of the most depressing books I’ve read–the other being “White Noise.” The difference being that DeLillo writes about a man coming to realize that he will die and can do nothing about it while Céline’s protagonist is keenly aware of this from the beginning and struggles to find any reason to keep on going after the music has gone.

One of the most interesting characteristics here parallels Doestoevsky’s “The Idiot” in that the protagonist struggles to get ahead despite having skills/resources because they realize that to do so necessarily requires immoral actions. Ferdinand simply cannot bring himself to charge his patients or refuse service to those he knows cannot pay. He is also unable to assist the Henrouille’s in their attempt to send a seemingly crazed mother-in-law to senior care. Ferdinand also feels some sort of affinity for Robinson who he cares for and cannot kick out despite not liking him. These traits of strong nearly Christian ethics are certainly offset by many opposing actions in his relationships.

This was an interesting one and a worthwhile read that I’ve been putting off for quite some time. It wasn’t really what I expected and took some time to get through. But I’ve glad to have read this but also glad to move on to something a little more upbeat.

Similar recipe to the last couple of weeks but the fermentations have been optimized a little bit to give a bit more spring. Haven’t really played around with hydration as I’d planned so we’ll see if I start wanting a slightly different crumb texture. In terms of looks, this is nearly perfect besides a slightly patchy browning caused by an overzealous heating cycle.

This is perhaps the first levelheaded analysis of the current academic situation by anyone in academia.

Throughout this entire situation I have been wondering why is there such a shock that the NIH and its functions are being targeted to the detriment of both US public health and American biomedical supremacy?

There has been no secrecy in the growing resentment towards both the public health establishment and academia generally. The sentiments are not new but have accelerated in the past years. Watching this should have set off alarms for anyone whose livelihood is dependent on government-funded academic research. And yet it seems as if everyone is quite shocked that anyone wanting to target these sacred establishments might actually do so.

When I started my graduate education one of the biggest shocks to me was how politically disengaged most academics actually are. While receiving nearly all research funding and employee salaries through government grants, there is rarely an attempt at general outreach activities (besides what is mandated by grants, which tend to benefit college town rich kids, another time…) and a lack of communication to government officials about how the funding they receive benefits their jurisdiction.

This all leads to a situation where very few people know where most of the NIH’s massive budget actually goes. Knowing that it mainly goes to universities largely doesn’t help if the assumption is that universities exist largely to disseminate left wing ideology and run up exorbitant bills.

These are the days of stock buybacks contributing more to budgets than R&D. It is certainly not the days of Bell Labs.

The weather is warming up and the sun is setting much later so I’ve been able to go on a couple of outdoor runs. Certainly getting back into a routine after a lack of warm winter days/treadmill sessions to ease me through the colder months.

Here’s a view of Tussey Mountain. If you look closely you’ll see the last remaining snow (“…and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.”)

Same recipe as last week but with a shorter bulk and longer secondary fermentation. For the past few weeks I have dialed back the hydration a bit to get “prettier” loaves but I am missing the crumb texture from ~85% hydration.

Baldwin writes with a certain raw emotion that wonderfully captures the chaotic and often illogical thoughts produced after a major event. This novel covers a lot of ground on power, passion, and the search for a true self against a life of expectations.

This novel shares many similarities with Suyin’s “Winter Love” which I read earlier this year and loved. Both feature queer relationships occurring between two people one of with is rich, married/soon to be, and one is in a straight relationship. Both even share some structural similarities as reflective novels that look back on a defining relationship that was bound to end and remain secret.

The difference comes from Baldwin’s near-sighted response to his plans and ex-pat life falling apart after falling in love with a man who ended up jailed and executed for petty theft linked to desperation after the end of the relationship. As stated above, there is a certain craze and electricity going through this novel. This comes at the expense of some degree of polish in style and refinement of thought.

Suyin’s writing feels like it’s taking place far in the future from the events described. Mostly reading like a reflection occurring after much thought and acceptance. There is also a certain restraint and subtlety which extends a relatively quick plot into something that sparkles with mystery and feeling. One of the best short books I’ve read and such a shame that it hasn’t found a place on a similar shelf!

50% whole wheat, ~80% hydration, too much time in bulk