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M.F. Corwin

@eudaemonist.bsky.social

100 followers 88 following 100 posts

‘I confess it as a besetting infirmity of mine that I am too much of an Eudaemonist: I hanker too much after a state of happiness, both for myself and others.’ —Thos. de Quincey, ‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ https://www.eudaemonist.com

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M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · 3d

(I am hoping that this quotation is not currently topical, but am making a note of it because I really like Burton’s use of ‘prank up’ and ‘trot about’ here. None so sweet.)

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · 3d

‘Some prank up their bodies, and have their minds full of execrable vices. Some trot about to bear false witness, and say anything for money; and though judges know of it, yet for a bribe they wink at it, and suffer false contracts to prevail against equity.’ —Burton, ‘Democritus Jr. to the Reader’

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M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · 4d

‘The natural dreariness of the place is not a little increased by the melancholy croakings of innumerable penguins with which the Shore is lined. Nature seems to have designed this Spot solely for the use of Sea Lions, Seals, penguins and Sea Fowls.’ —James Burney, Journals, 25.xii.1776

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · 16d

A moment’s pause while tidying.

A photograph of two stacks of small hardcover books, showing the the cream or milky tea colored text blocks, some decked, some warped, all more or less well-thumbed. Tolstoy on the left and Florio’s Montaigne and other early modern marvels (in early twentieth-century multi-volume editions) on the right.

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · 21d

‘As readers, most of us, to some degree, are like those urchins who pencil mustaches on the faces of girls in advertisements’ —Auden, ‘Reading’, in ‘The Dyer’s Hand’

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · 24d

‘There’s really no point in writing normal novels’ —Yoko Tawada, ‘Exophony’ (trans. Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda), p. 81

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · 28d

‘Why novels have to follow the logic of department stores is beyond me’ —Yoko Tawada, ‘Exophony’ (trans. Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, p. 54)

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · 28d

John Constable, study of clouds, October 1822; in his words: ‘looking S.E. noon. Wind very brisk. & effect bright & fresh. Clouds. moving very fast. With occasional very bright openings to the blue’.

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Sep 7

If you are looking for creepy stories about ghosts, uncanny children, and other oddities, I cannot recommend M.R. James’s translation of ‘The Apocryphal New Testament: Being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses with Other Narratives and Fragments’ enough. Snarky notes a bonus.

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M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Sep 6

‘To grow bigger every moment in your own conceit, and the world to lessen: to deify yourself at the expense of your species; to judge the world—this is the acme and supreme point of your mystery—these the true PLEASURES of SULKINESS.’ —Charles Lamb, ‘Popular Fallacies’ no. XVI

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Reposted by M.F. Corwin

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · Sep 4

millions of mixed shades and shadows, drowned dreams, somnambulisms, reveries

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M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Sep 1

August was a somewhat slow reading month. Standouts include James C. Scott, ‘The Art of Not Being Governed’; Marguerite Yourcenar, ‘The Dark Brain of Piranesi and Other Essays’; and finally finishing Tolkien’s diplomatic edition of ‘Ancrene Wisse’.
www.eudaemonist.com/biblio/2025-...

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www.eudaemonist.com

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 31

There’s a really lovely chapter on Constable’s clouds in Anahid Nersessian’s ‘The Calamity Form’, which is what got me started looking at the them in the first place. Looking forward to a time (someday?) when I can see some of them in person.

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M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 29

Study of Cirrus Clouds, ca. 1820 by John Constable, currently held by the V&A. A painting in oils of mostly wispy clouds against a remote blue sky. The painting is surrounded by a cream colored border that is not part of the painting but rather the surface on which it was photographed.

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M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 29

‘How often have I wished for the attic of my boredom when the complications of life made me lose the very germ of all freedom!’ —Gaston Bachelard, ‘The Poetics of Space’, trans. Maria Jolas

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 28

*cleaning.
And this, children, is why we should not post while sleepy.

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 28

Evening books. ‘Magic Mountain’ is not as clever as I recall it being. ‘A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind’ is the best text about cleanings toilets I’ve encountered save for ‘Perfect Days’. Lamb is cute. Bachelard is not setting things on fire. ‘The Candidate’ is unsettling. Zambreno is fine.

A stack of books on a bedside table, with volumes by Kate Zambreno, Shoukei Matsumoto, Charles Lamb, Gaston Bachelard, Thomas Mann, and Zareh Vorpouni. There are some bookmarks visible that show the (limited) progress of a sleepy reader. The image is probably oversaturated and out of focus, but note the mention of a sleepy reader, which may be relevant on this point.

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M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 16

There is a Shame of Nobleness—
Confronting Sudden Pelf—
A finer Shame of Ecstasy—
Convicted of Itself—

Dr. Syntax @drsyntax.bsky.social · Aug 16

Also, "pelf" is an underutilized word.
Let's make "pelf" happen!

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M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 15

A little wilderness experience.

A black dog faces a dirt path and a misty wilderness next to mountain lake.

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 14

In other information retrieval news, punch cards are also very good bookmarks.

A photograph of an unused punched card being used as a bookmark in a copy of Tolkein's diplomatic edition of the Ancrene Wisse, with a rather dirty rug in the background.

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M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 7

John Constable, Cloud study with birds in flight, 1821; a low line of land above which four birds sour, small and high, against a partly cloudy sky

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M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 4

A good set of morning books at the moment: autonomy at the peripheries, Marxist Romantics, regional cults (with bonus spicy academic drama), wrenchfule wicchecreftes, and, you know, commodities.

A stack of books including, from the bottom up: James C. Scott’s “The Art of Not Being Governed”, Anahid Nersessian’s “Calamity Form”, David Braund’s “Greek Religion and Cults in the Black Sea Region”, Tolkien’s diplomatic edition of “Ancrene Wisse”, and Marx, “Capital”, vol. 2.

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Aug 1

One can get a fair amount of reading done by reducing one’s daily allotment of doomscrolling.
www.eudaemonist.com/biblio/2025-...

2025

www.eudaemonist.com

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Jul 26

Any time I find a line of poetry I like, I think: ‘That’s good; “mobled queen” is good.’

M.F. Corwin @eudaemonist.bsky.social · Jul 24

‘I have never made an acquaintance since, that lasted; or a friendship, that answered; with any that had not some tincture of the absurd in their characters. I venerate an honest obliquity of understanding.’ —Charles Lamb, ‘All Fools’ Day’

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