The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads from October 2016

35 Odd Jobs Celebrated Painter Agnes Martin Held Before She Became an Artist
35 Odd Jobs Celebrated Painter Agnes Martin Held Before She Became an Artist

From butcher to ice cream scooper to elevator operator, “also raised rabbits and ducks.”

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Keats on the Three Layers of Reality and What Gives Meaning to Human Existence
Keats on the Three Layers of Reality and What Gives Meaning to Human Existence

“Every mental pursuit takes its reality and worth from the ardour of the pursuer.”

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How Pioneering Physicist Lise Meitner Discovered Nuclear Fission, Paved the Way for Women in Science, and Was Denied the Nobel Prize
How Pioneering Physicist Lise Meitner Discovered Nuclear Fission, Paved the Way for Women in Science, and Was Denied the Nobel Prize

“Science makes people reach selflessly for truth and objectivity; it teaches people to accept reality, with wonder and admiration, not to mention the deep joy and awe that the natural order of things brings to the true scientist.”

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Walk Through Walls: Marina Abramović on Art, Fear, Taking Risks, and Pain as a Focal Lens for Presence
Walk Through Walls: Marina Abramović on Art, Fear, Taking Risks, and Pain as a Focal Lens for Presence

“Art must be life — it must belong to everybody.”

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Joseph Brodsky on the Greatest Antidote to Evil
Joseph Brodsky on the Greatest Antidote to Evil

“What we regard as Evil is capable of a fairly ubiquitous presence if only because it tends to appear in the guise of good.”

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I Regard With Compassion, Therefore I Am: Descartes on How We Acquire Nobility of Soul and the Crucial Difference Between Confidence and Pride
I Regard With Compassion, Therefore I Am: Descartes on How We Acquire Nobility of Soul and the Crucial Difference Between Confidence and Pride

“Pride … is always a serious fault, the seriousness of which is greater in proportion as the justification for one’s self-esteem is less.”

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Trailblazing Philosopher Susanne Langer on the Purpose of Art, How It Works Us Over, and How Abstract Thinking Gives Shape to Human Emotion
Trailblazing Philosopher Susanne Langer on the Purpose of Art, How It Works Us Over, and How Abstract Thinking Gives Shape to Human Emotion

“In the history of language, in the growth of human understanding, the principle of metaphorical expression plays a vastly greater role than most people realize. For it is the natural instrument of our greatest mental achievement — abstract thinking.”

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Moral Courage at Knifepoint: One Man’s Remarkable Response to His Mugger Reminds Us of What Is Best in Us
Moral Courage at Knifepoint: One Man’s Remarkable Response to His Mugger Reminds Us of What Is Best in Us

An extraordinary true story that amplifies love over hate and empathy over fear.

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Explainer, Elucidator, Enchanter: A Gradation of Great Writing
Explainer, Elucidator, Enchanter: A Gradation of Great Writing

A visual taxonomy to illuminate the difference between information, knowledge, and meaning.

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Goethe’s Graphically Daring Diagrams of Color Perception
Goethe’s Graphically Daring Diagrams of Color Perception

How a misguided refutation of Newton inspired artists and philosophers with a new visual aesthetic.

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