JANUARY 2008

442. The Strength of Weak Gods

The ones vulnerable to pique and placating; the Jealous ones, and not simply for some bloodless principle of Monotheism; the one whose wrath at his People relents at the thought of ten righteous men amongst them; the one whose woundedness is the very currency of his strength, even before its Resurrection as Sign of His Condescension—the ones who allow us to say, “Maybe I can do that; maybe I can endure. Maybe I can do better than endure.”

Note: Those familiar with the great work of Mark Granovetter—“The Strength of Weak Ties”—will see what I am up to here. The strength of those ties: where weak bonds that are the fabric of modern society’s gesellschaft are as much the means of a flickering intimacy as an attenuation of all intimacy.

467. “the unconscious critical acumen of the reader”

Trollope

—how much the unconscious energies of the writer must entrust themselves to it!—how much any such appalling demand for fine attention should drive a desire to be so attentive in return.

Note: “as you like” (Shakespeare).