Author Archives: twotreatises

more word pairs

Posted on August 20, 2017 by twotreatises

[previous post] rifle vs riffle (a matter of degree or urgency) crevasse vs crevice (a matter of size) vocation vs avocation (a matter of wages, often) prize vs pry (I think just a matter of British vs. Am. English) career vs … Continue reading →

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The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Posted on March 9, 2017 by twotreatises

On how thinking and doing are different: Often enough in my life I have done things I had not decided to do. Something—whatever that may be—goes into action; “it” goes to the woman I don’t want to see anymore, “it” … Continue reading →

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SH, the real and imagined

Posted on March 4, 2017 by twotreatises

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett (1933) This book often has a tone of loving mockery, particularly of Watson and his inexactitude with dates and, by extension, Arthur Conan Doyle’s carelessness (or laziness), that makes it a … Continue reading →

Posted in history/memory, literature | Tagged holmes | Comments Off

The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley (1919)

Posted on February 15, 2017 by twotreatises

I discovered Morley after reading about his helping found the Baker Street Irregulars, and I figured any friend of SH is a literary friend of mine. This and Parnassus on Wheels are both cute stories (often called “charming,” I think … Continue reading →

Posted in literature | Tagged classics, cocoa, germans, holmes, morley, philosophy | Comments Off

Music at Night and Other Essays by Aldous Huxley (1931)

Posted on January 27, 2017 by twotreatises

“The Rest is Silence” From pure sensation to the intuition of beauty, from pleasure and pain to love and the mystical ecstasy and death—all the things that are fundamental, all the things that, to the human spirit, are most profoundly … Continue reading →

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