EthicalDative

My Favorite Wire Sculpture ’Til Further Notice

Posted on April 8, 2026 by JMN

Jean Crotti’s wire sculpture of Duchamp. Credit… Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris; via The Museum of Modern Art, New York [New York Times caption and illustration]

“When functioning as art, an object asks its viewers to ‘look harder, look longer, ask questions, interrogate, try to make something of it.’”

Alva Noë, philosopher at the University of California, Berkeley)

Duchamp helps us understand that “art” shouldn’t be thought of as a noun that picks out certain kinds of objects, but as a verb: We “art” absolutely any object at all by using it to trigger thoughts and conversation.

Marcel Duchamp was chairman of the “hanging committee” for the First Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in April 1917. It showed 2,400 works by 1,300 makers. At Duchamp’s behest, the works were displayed alphabetically by the 1,300 makers’ names. This caused much heartburn in art circles. Robert Henri, dean of the Ashcan School (my favorite “school” of painters) wrote:

“Should order and relationship not be sought in the presentation of pictures?… We would not care for a musical program where Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony would be followed by a fox-trot, nor would it be possible to enjoy eating in sequence mustard, ice-cream, pickles and pastry.”

An April 1917 view of the Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists at the Grand Central Palace. Credit… via Philadelphia Museum of Art Library and Archives: Arensberg Archives. [New York Times caption and illustration]

(Blake Gopnik, “Duchamp Made a Urinal Into Art in 1917. We’re Still Discussing it.” New York Times, 4-7-26)

Posted in Quotations | Tagged art | Leave a comment

We See Colors With Our Tongues

Posted on April 5, 2026 by JMN

A poster Mr. Widmer designed in 1975 for an exhibition at the Center for Industrial Creation in Paris. He was known for his restraint, Paula Scher of Pentagram said: “He was never over the top.” Credit… Jean Widmer. [New York Times caption and illustration]

This is my favorite poster ’til further notice. I see yellow, orange, red, violet, blue, green. What do you see?

Jean Widmer was born Hans Ulrich Widmer on March 31, 1929, in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, to Emil Widmer, a master mechanic in a factory, and Anna (Rageth) Widmer. His father, he once told an interviewer, worried about his penchant for drawing.

(Adam Nossiter, “Jean Widmer, Designer of Celebrated French Graphics, Dies at 96,” (New York Times, 2-26-26)

Posted in Commentary | Tagged art, illustration, language | 2 Comments

Truth Facial

Posted on April 1, 2026 by JMN

“His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing, although it would not work for me.”

(Bill Gates on Jeffrey Epstein)

According to his spokesman, Bill Gates was referring to Epstein’s décor. That reminds me, I need to vacuum the cat hair from my lifestyle.

When he dismissed blowback as “an inverted pyramid of piffle,” Great Britain’s former Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip proved there’ll always be an England ruled by a class of person able to toss off a Bullingdon clubbable sneer. Americans can only dream of such abuse.

“After the Trump era is over, much will be said about the lasting damage it has done to civic discourse. In addition to other reforms and acts of reconciliation, repairs will need to be made to the ways we engage in public argumentation and decision-making…”
(Aubrey Clayton)

Lately I realize that Clayton’s tweaks to civic discourse would address the sour gas issuing from America’s bowel while ignoring the infection. A broadly based reconciliation with factuality and truth-telling would be medicinal. Less is gluing bullfeathers on a jackass.

What ultimately makes Mr. Epstein a significant figure is not his personal pathology but what his career says about the culture that found him useful.
(Jacob Weisberg)

Causes, not symptoms. What makes our debased discourse significant is not its meanness but what it says about a culture that elects mean leaders.

The dread of war is not enough. If you don’t want the effect, do something to remove the causes. There is no use loving the cause and fearing the effect, and being surprised when the effect inevitably follows the cause.
(Thomas Merton, The Seven-Storey Mountain)

Merton, a Trappist monk, took it to the divine place, saying the cause of wars is “sin.” He might have been on to something! If I can think of “sin” as “crime” I’m good. Wealth inequality is a sin. Citizens United is a sin. Algorithmic predation is a sin. Monopolies are a sin. Capital punishment is a sin. The list goes on. The wars go on.

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged language, rhetoric | 2 Comments

Two Writing Prompts

Posted on March 30, 2026 by JMN

Prompt 1
A bibulous fop, a pottymouth letch and a myrmidon in a greatcoat walk into an executive mansion’s pantry. One reaches for the ketchup, one for the Jack Daniels, one for the lemon Jello mix. What is the least predictable distribution of actions among the three, and why? Express your conclusion in a punchline. (Don’t worry if it’s lame; so is the prompt.)

Example:
The fop goes for the Jello because dandies attract blondes. The letch grabs the whiskey to inflame his lethality. The myrmidon seizes the ketchup he has craved ever since his mother shot the dog.

Prompt 2
Invent a fake WordPress account created by comment-bots launched from click-farms in Bulgaria or Belarus. The account name should be transparently bogus, but smack of the country’s linguistic culture. Simulate AI slop for a bogus “comment” that’s so generic it could work anywhere.

Example:
oxtohvrk: Impeccable reasoning! The substance is in the language of your mouth. You illustrate this so well, my friend. I hardly know when I have been this impressed by words. [saucy wink emoji] [flower emoji] [thumbs up emoji]

Posted in Anthology | Tagged blogging, language | 3 Comments

Android Mountburden-Windsock

Posted on March 26, 2026 by JMN

(Now pointedly referred to by the king… as though he were a distant relation rather than his mother’s much-indulged favorite son)…
(Fintan O’Toole)

“Alleged” does heavy lifting in criminal matters. Innocent ‘til proven guilty is the ruling standard. The Epstein class abounds with innocents. At issue here is naming. Monarchy is known for inventing names for itself, as well as titles, distinctions, medals, garb, domains, privileges, rituals and raisons d’être.

True to form, The Firm has graced its allegedly disgraceful dukester with a princely hyphenated moniker. For pity’s sake, instead of Mister Mountburden-Windsock at every breath, let pundits just say “the king’s brother.” We’ll know whom they mean. The whiff is real. The name is wind.

Posted in Commentary | Tagged journalism, language, rhetoric | 2 Comments

Bronze Age Vainglory (Re-posted With Correction)

Posted on March 24, 2026 by JMN

[In the original post I used the term “martinets.” I meant to say “myrmidons.” This version corrects that lapse.]

“Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today…! [etc.]”
Say What? Archive

Wild beasts of the wilderness, when war breaks into flame, follow me from the empty wastes;
Follow me, (and) you will see the blood of the foemen streaming between the hillocks and the sands.
Then return thereafter, and thank me, and remember what you have seen of my deeds,
And take sustenance of the skulls of the people for your little children and your whelps.
(‘Antara ibn Shaddād, 6th century AD, translation by A.J. Arberry)

Fakhr is a genre of Arabic poetry described as “vainglory.” It comprises both braggadocio and insult. Bellicose taunts were the mother’s milk of tribal warfare from earliest times. Ritualistic posturing, bluster and insult preceded bloodletting. When modern warfare mechanized bloodletting, trashtalk melted into the rank fissures of playground bravado, rough spectacle and frat bro crapulence.

No more.

A person surrounded by myrmidons and epigones of the miles gloriosus brandishes the art of the truculent rodomontade in splendid defiance of civilized norms while lighting off bombs and rockets like a kid throwing firecrackers. In rhetoric as in conduct, modalities of human behavior passed down from the 1950’s BC flourish in 2026 AD.

Posted in Commentary | Tagged language, rhetoric | 2 Comments

Bronze Age Vainglory

Posted on March 23, 2026 by JMN

“Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today…! [etc.]”
Say What? Archive

No more.

A person surrounded by martinets and epigones of the miles gloriosus brandishes the art of the truculent rodomontade in splendid defiance of civilized norms while lighting off bombs and rockets like a kid throwing firecrackers. In rhetoric as in conduct, modalities of human behavior passed down from the 1950’s BC flourish in 2026 AD.

Posted in Commentary | Tagged language, rhetoric | 2 Comments

The Urgent Poetry Is of Brevity

Posted on March 21, 2026 by JMN

The time: a-passing; the clock: a-ticking,
The digilords at mind bone pecking.
Garrulity — double barreled, bore-hefty,
Dilatory, broad in the beam;
Lyric rifled, suppressed, curt but rich,
Penetrative, swervy toward lean.
Speak short intensely well, else
Lie pecked to death in din. Obscene.

Posted in Anthology | Tagged doggerel, language | Leave a comment

‘Tendrá que ser’ (It Will Have to Be)

Posted on March 18, 2026 by JMN

Painting by Remedios Varo — illustration from the blog LA BANCARROTA DEL CIRCO [Bankruptcy of the Circus] of Azurea20.

My translation of “Tendrá que ser” (It Will Have to Be) by Azurea20 follows:

IT WILL HAVE TO BE

I shoulder you
like an invisible flag,
or a great fire lily
blooming out of me
for bestowing on what’s not there yet.
No one sees you, I alone sense you.
You rescue me
and pin a diamond
on the white night.
Dogs play again in the sky,
coloring books get daubed with hues,
swings regain their innocent motion.
Sometimes you desert me,
as when the dance
of cuadrilateral steps
devours my heart.
I say “Insane!”
just to hear your name.
And you return:
put right
the writing done already,
kill the fear,
retrieve me from the floor
and end by buffing me
like a fancy mineral.
It will have to be.
It will.

Poem published on 9/11/2015 on [Azurea20’s blog] “Un puñado de canicas” [A fistful of marbles] WORKS/REMEDIOS VARO

Posted in Anthology | Tagged language, poetry, Spanish-English, translation | 2 Comments

From Whose Pulpit?

Posted on March 13, 2026 by JMN

… A majority of Protestant voters, the largest religious group in the United States, align with Republicans. And there are signs of weakening Democratic support among other religious groups, including Hispanic Catholics.
(Lisa Lerer and Elizabeth Dias)

I’ll whisper something to the wind, see where it goes. You never know. Chicanery rife, fury rampant, decency starved, rhetoric is what there is. I’ll go further, won’t I? See if I don’t. Maybe it’s all there is.

FROM WHOSE PULPIT?

whencesoever:
stricture of prophet
command of anointed
preaching of messiah
insight of mystic
tenet of saint

by whomsoever:
chosen called appointed
prophesied beseeched denied

howsoever:
prayed proclaimed indoctrinated
thundered brayed evangelized

wheresoever:
spoken writ engraved
chiseled steepled carved
chanted hymned piped

resolved:
that life created
in the likeness of
Mighty all this all that

be worthily taken
by nought but
what did give it

is ever and always
by sundry and each
honored devoutly
in brazen breach.

Posted in Anthology | Tagged doggerel, language, rhetoric | 3 Comments