austinkleon-substack-com-bm6zo3.txt (10035B)
1 [1][https] 2 3 [2]Austin Kleon 4 5 SubscribeSign in 6 Share this post 7 [https] 8 9 Midyear in a mid year 10 11 austinkleon.substack.com 12 Copy link 13 Facebook 14 Email 15 Note 16 Other 17 18 Midyear in a mid year 19 20 10 things worth sharing this week 21 22 Jul 05, 2024 23 291 24 Share this post 25 [https] 26 27 Midyear in a mid year 28 29 austinkleon.substack.com 30 Copy link 31 Facebook 32 Email 33 Note 34 Other 35 [18] 36 15 37 [19] 38 Share 39 [20] 40 [https] 41 Looking at my logbook and thinking, “[21]Half empty or half full?” 42 [30][ ] 43 Subscribe 44 [32]Hey y’all, 45 46 If you need some summer reading, the paperback of [33]Steal Like an Artist is 47 still 53% off and [34]only $6.99 on Amazon. 48 49 Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: 50 51 1. My kids love to use the slang word “[35]mid” to describe things that are 52 “mediocre or of low quality” or “bad, boring, or inferior in some way.” I 53 thought about the word a lot this week, and what it means to be in the 54 middle of things — mid-year, middle age, etc. My slogan: “mid-life need not 55 be mid.” ([36]Know Your Meme is still a great website for “[37]the olds.”) 56 57 58 2. Took me five weeks, but I finally finished George Eliot’s [38]Middlemarch. 59 I’m not sure it was quite [39]my cup of tea! (I love [40]reading big books 60 in the summer, but I don’t think anything is ever going to top turning 40 61 and reading [41]Don Quixote.) If you’d like someone to talk you into 62 reading Eliot’s masterpiece, check out Rebecca Mead’s essay “[42] 63 Middlemarch and Me,” which she later turned into a full-length memoir, [43] 64 My Life in Middlemarch. Eliot is a great inspiration for the middle-aged 65 writer: She didn’t start writing fiction until she was thirty-six! 66 67 68 3. “The nineteenth century didn’t think the dash on its own was nearly 69 enough,” wrote Nicholson Baker in [44]his famous essay about punctuation. 70 The Victorians loved the now-extinct “dash-hybrids,” which Baker named: 71 72 [45] 73 [https] 74 75 Eliot uses the “colash” in Middlemarch. (Thanks to my friend [46]Clive 76 Thompson for pointing this out.) 77 78 79 4. Eliot, by the way, is extremely quotable, and her contemporaries knew it: 80 in 1872, Alexander Main published [47]Wise, Witty, and Tender Sayings in 81 Prose and Verse Selected from the Works of George Eliot and later [48]The 82 George Eliot Birthday Book, even though Eliot herself said [49]birthday 83 books were “the vulgarest thing in the book stalls.” (A few years ago the 84 novelist Adelle Waldman re-read Middlemarch and [50]shared her favorite 85 quotes.) 86 87 88 5. Speaking of quotable books, I tried reading Pascal’s [51]Pensées, as its 89 influence can be felt throughout Middlemarch, but I eventually decided I 90 couldn’t stand Pascal, so I picked up a similarly aphoristic and 91 fragmentary book from my shelves — G.C. Lichtenberg’s [52]The Waste Books. 92 Holy cow am I in love with this book! It’s the best bathroom reader ever. 93 94 95 6. “The single most important question I think that one must ask one’s self 96 about a character is: ‘[53]What are they really afraid of?’” RIP 97 screenwriter [54]Robert Towne, who wrote [55]Chinatown, and doctored 98 scripts for movies like [56]The Godfather. (He wrote the “[57]I never 99 wanted this for you” scene.”) 100 101 102 7. RIP artist [58]Anton Van Dalen, who was [59]the secret assistant of Saul 103 Steinberg. (Here’s a tour of [60]his home in the East Village he lived in 104 since 1968.) 105 106 107 8. RIP calligrapher [61]Alan Blackman, whose “Letters to Myself” project is 108 considered by some to be “one of the seven wonders of the world of 109 calligraphy.” 110 111 112 9. “How Hard Could It Be?” was the campaign slogan of the late Austin musician 113 and writer [62]Kinky Friedman when he was running for Governor of Texas. I 114 checked his Austin guidebook [63]The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic out 115 of a Cleveland library seventeen years ago before I moved down here. I 116 picked it back up this week after I heard he died — it reads like a relic 117 from another era. (RIP to another ornery Austin writer, [64]Michael 118 Corcoran.) 119 120 121 10. Writing books, making art, recording music… it’s all a lot easier when you 122 don’t know what you’re doing. Better yet if you don’t know that you don’t 123 know what you’re doing. It’s when you know you don’t know what you’re doing 124 that you’ve got to really get after it. Best to do what the poet Rumi 125 advised: “[65]Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” 126 127 Thanks for reading. This is a hand-rolled, ad-free, anti-algorithm, completely 128 reader-supported publication. You can help keep it going by becoming [66]a paid 129 subscriber: 130 131 [75][ ] 132 Subscribe 133 [77]xoxo, 134 135 Austin 136 137 PS. Here’s a page from [78]Show Your Work! to get you in the spirit of summer 138 vacation: 139 140 [79] 141 [https] 142 291 143 Share this post 144 [https] 145 146 Midyear in a mid year 147 148 austinkleon.substack.com 149 Copy link 150 Facebook 151 Email 152 Note 153 Other 154 [86] 155 15 156 [87] 157 Share 158 15 Comments 159 [https] 160 [ ] 161 [90] 162 Amy Allen 163 [91]Palate & Palette 164 [92]Jul 5 165 166 [89] Thank you for sharing the news about Alan Blackman, a true artist of 167 [https] letters. My dad, now 93, was a calligraphy student of his many, many 168 years ago. I hope he saved some of their mail correspondence! 169 170 Expand full comment 171 Reply 172 Share 173 174 [94]1 reply by Austin Kleon 175 176 [96] 177 soosixty 178 [97]Jul 5Liked by Austin Kleon 179 180 [95] "Writing books, making art, recording music… it’s all a lot easier when 181 [https] you don’t know what you’re doing. Better yet if you don’t know that you 182 don’t know what you’re doing." So true. 183 184 Expand full comment 185 Reply 186 Share 187 188 [99]13 more comments... 189 Top 190 Latest 191 Discussions 192 193 No posts 194 195 Ready for more? 196 197 [112][ ] 198 Subscribe 199 © 2024 Austin Kleon 200 [114]Privacy ∙ [115]Terms ∙ [116]Collection notice 201 [117] Start Writing[118]Get the app 202 [119]Substack is the home for great culture 203 Share 204 Copy link 205 Facebook 206 Email 207 Note 208 Other 209 This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please [126]turn on JavaScript 210 or unblock scripts 211 212 References: 213 214 [1] https://austinkleon.substack.com/ 215 [2] https://austinkleon.substack.com/ 216 [18] https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/midyear-in-a-mid-year/comments 217 [19] javascript:void(0) 218 [20] https://austinkleon.com/2021/07/02/is-the-year-half-empty-or-half-full-2/ 219 [21] https://austinkleon.com/2021/07/02/is-the-year-half-empty-or-half-full-2/ 220 [32] https://www.instagram.com/p/C8zpXe_RIpa 221 [33] https://austinkleon.com/steal/ 222 [34] https://geni.us/pzl82v 223 [35] https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/mid/ 224 [36] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mid-slang 225 [37] https://www.dictionary.com/e/ageism-terms/# 226 [38] https://geni.us/XPkAs 227 [39] https://austinkleon.com/2019/02/26/not-my-cup-of-tea/ 228 [40] https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/big-books-for-summer 229 [41] https://geni.us/92NGyT 230 [42] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/02/14/middlemarch-and-me 231 [43] https://geni.us/oVp4OI 232 [44] https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1993/11/04/survival-of-the-fittest/ 233 [45] https://clivethompson.medium.com/weird-19th-century-punctuation-marks-you-should-try-using-49d2e2516e5e 234 [46] https://clivethompson.medium.com/weird-19th-century-punctuation-marks-you-should-try-using-49d2e2516e5e 235 [47] https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/322 236 [48] https://www.loc.gov/item/46037905/ 237 [49] https://scolarcardiff.wordpress.com/2017/03/15/birthday-book/#:~:text=The%20birthday%20book%20was%20a,rhetoric%20of%20personalisation%20and%20intimacy. 238 [50] https://themillions.com/2013/12/a-year-in-reading-adelle-waldman.html 239 [51] https://geni.us/8ovu 240 [52] https://geni.us/G7ltCEn 241 [53] https://twitter.com/flying_lobster/status/1808759989470966157 242 [54] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/movies/robert-towne-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4k0.sKPJ.p6f9J0eZ_DSP&smid=url-share 243 [55] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315 244 [56] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646 245 [57] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IXVycNgGN0 246 [58] https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/anton-van-dalen-artist-dead-1234710960/ 247 [59] https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-the-assistant-anton-van-dalen/ 248 [60] https://news.artnet.com/art-world/studio-visit-anton-van-dalen-2240607 249 [61] https://tumblr.austinkleon.com/post/755013830498828288 250 [62] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/arts/music/kinky-friedman-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1 251 [63] https://geni.us/io7c 252 [64] https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2024-07-02/michael-corcoran-has-died-and-austins-lost-a-voice-that-always-kept-things-interesting/ 253 [65] https://austinkleon.com/2022/06/09/embrace-bewilderment/ 254 [66] https://austinkleon.substack.com/subscribe 255 [77] https://twitter.com/austinkleon/status/1808627459069186327 256 [78] https://austinkleon.com/show-your-work/ 257 [79] https://austinkleon.com/show-your-work 258 [86] https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/midyear-in-a-mid-year/comments 259 [87] javascript:void(0) 260 [89] https://substack.com/profile/21027078-amy-allen 261 [90] https://substack.com/profile/21027078-amy-allen 262 [91] https://palateandpalette.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_content=comment_metadata 263 [92] https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/midyear-in-a-mid-year/comment/61015767 264 [94] https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/midyear-in-a-mid-year/comment/61015767 265 [95] https://substack.com/profile/2034679-soosixty 266 [96] https://substack.com/profile/2034679-soosixty 267 [97] https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/midyear-in-a-mid-year/comment/61030237 268 [99] https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/midyear-in-a-mid-year/comments 269 [114] https://substack.com/privacy 270 [115] https://substack.com/tos 271 [116] https://substack.com/ccpa#personal-data-collected 272 [117] https://substack.com/signup?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_content=footer 273 [118] https://substack.com/app/app-store-redirect?utm_campaign=app-marketing&utm_content=web-footer-button 274 [119] https://substack.com/ 275 [126] https://enable-javascript.com/