Regarding the Great Bloggers’ Convocation that had Our Girl in a tizzy, all I can tell you is that we talked a lot, enjoyed ourselves, and saw many familiar faces in the audience, one of whom posted briefly about the event after the fact. I don’t have a lot more to tell you, truthfully: I didn’t say anything there I haven’t already said here. The audience seemed interested, though, and asked lots of good questions. I was too tired to linger and went straight home when it was over, so if you want to know more, go here. (I’m still giggling at the thought of being compared to Jon Landau!)
Now, here’s a sneak preview of my next “Sightings” column, “Making Ideas Beautiful,” which will be published in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal:
Sometimes a heartfelt compliment can blow up in the recipient’s face, as when T.S. Eliot said of Henry James that he had “a mind so fine that no idea could violate it,” thus making him sound like a plot-spinning idiot savant. What Eliot really meant was that James understood how an artist who dabbles in ideas can lose sight of the true purpose of art, which is (as Renoir said) to “make everything more beautiful.” You can’t paint a picture of E = mc2, or compose a symphony about the law of supply and demand. Nevertheless, art is so effective at swaying men’s minds that there have always been cultural commissars prepared to enlist it in the service of ideas by any means necessary–including brute force….
Needless to say, there’s plenty more where that came from. See for yourself–buy a copy of tomorrow’s Journal and look me up.