An Apolitical Thanksgiving Spread
Music, art, literature, film, and TV for exfoliating your neurons after the election
To American readers, my wife and I offer our best wishes for Thanksgiving. (To readers outside the U.S., we hope you have an exceptionally pleasant Thursday.) On this gentlest of holidays, Alanna and I give thanks for the many gifts we’ve been granted this year. Her painting above, “Private Eden,” portrays the contentment offered by our own little garden. We hope some spot on earth brings you as much peace and happiness. Today’s post offers three things: (1) A list of upcoming Bastiat’s Window articles, (2) a brand-new musical work (“That Aeolus Tempers the Winds”), and (3) some peaceable pastimes to help you avoid political arguments with your red-capped uncle or blue-haired niece.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
With the election behind, Bastiat’s Window will soon feature some long-planned projects. These include: (1) How ALTRUISM is in our DNA; (2) How mass media alter the Trolley Problem of HOSTAGE-TAKING; (3) Where PRO-CHOICERS AND PRO-LIFERS get Dobbs wrong; (4) Historical, organizational, and philosophical ties between HAMAS AND NAZI GERMANY; (5) Where MANDATORY PRICE TRANSPARENCY can worsen healthcare; (6) How medical education wastes THE GIFTS OF NEURODIVERSITY. We’ll also repost some interviews from my 2021 podcast series, including: (7) TEMPLE GRANDIN on neurodiversity, healthcare, engineering, education, creativity, and more; (8) KEITH SMITH on where healthcare price transparency works; (9) ERIC TOPOL on technological innovation in healthcare; (10) JASON HWANG on disruptive innovation; (11) DAVID GOLDHILL on rethinking American healthcare; and (12) PRADHEEP SHANKER on COVID statistics. (I already released my podcast with (13) DEVI SHETTY on the miracles of his hospitals in India and the Caribbean.)
“THAT AEOLUS TEMPERS THE WINDS” and “TEMPEST”
Click on the YouTube video above, and you’ll be attending the world premiere of my new composition, “That Aeolus Tempers the Winds.” (I recommend using headphones, as some subtle sounds lurk about.) Some readers have asked how I compose, so here are a few brief notes. Producing a new piece often takes weeks from initial idea to finished product. But with some works—including this one—the process for me is more akin to psychography (automatic writing) or glossolalia (talking in tongues).
Late Monday evening, I sat at my piano, knowing only that I wanted to write something in the style of the Eastern Mediterranean. I set the sounds to replicate a bouzouki (Greek lute) with my right hand and an acoustic bass with my left. With no melody in mind at all, I closed my eyes, thrust my hands toward the keyboard, and my fingers launched nonstop into this four-and-a-half-minute piece. I clicked SAVE, and no second round was needed. Tuesday evening, I edited four or five notes that weren’t quite right and added saxophone and oboe countermelodies. Each countermelody took three or four tries. After a few small adjustments in volume and reverb, the piece was done.
Then came the task of naming the piece. In listening to the recording, the image that came to my mind was a trireme (ancient Greek warship), with oars splitting the waves and a tailwind on the sails—thrusting forward at speeds unthinkable for any other vessel of that era. “Trireme” isn’t that pretty a name, so I turned to Aeolus—ruler of the winds in Greek mythology and conjurer of tempests in Homer’s Odyssey, Apollonius of Rhodes’s Argonautica, and Virgil’s Aeneid. The final title was snatched from a passage in Ovid’s Heroides, where the marooned, banished, and despondent Princess Ariadne pleads with faraway Aeolus:
“My father’s realm forbids me to approach. Grant I do glide with fortunate keel over peaceful seas, that Aeolus tempers the winds—I still shall be an exile! ‘Tis not for me, O Crete composed of the hundred cities, to look upon thee, land known to the infant Jove!”
Finally, in a happy coincidence, it occurred to me after the fact that my melody begins in Aeolian Mode—a musical scale named for the region around Aeolus’s mythical island (coastal Asia Minor, Thessaly, Boeotia, and the islands of Lesbos and Tenedos). Musicologists among you might wag your fingers and say, “Uh, the melody could also be Phrygian Mode.” True, but my piece is named for Aeolus, not for Phrygia. So hush.
PEACEABLE PASTIMES
In lieu of politics this weekend, Alanna and I suggest that you read some good books, watch some films, and binge a few television series. Here are a few suggestions—some old and some new—in no particular order. The lists are heavy with items we’ve just discovered or revisited. The moods vary, and I’ll leave it to you to decide which ones you’re looking for.
NOVELS & SHORT STORIES: These are a few books that we’ve enjoyed over the years. A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole). The Complete Stories (Flannery O’Connor). Life of Pi (by Jann Martel). Ficciones (Jorge Luis Borges). The Forty Fathom Bank and Other Stories (Les Galloway). Einstein’s Dreams (Alan Lightman). The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (B. Traven). The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner).
FILMS: Here are a few films that have touched us in one way or another. Wildcat (Ethan Hawke). The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston). Life of Pi (Ang Lee). Local Hero (Bill Forsyth). Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet). Being There (Hal Ashby). Chocolat (Lasse Hallström). Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders). Little Buddha (Bernardo Bertolucci). Off the Map (Campbell Scott). The Red Violin (François Girard). Cross Creek (Martin Ritt). The Hundred-Foot Journey (Lasse Hallström). Dreamchild (Gavin Millar). The Man Who Would be King (John Huston). O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen Brothers).
LIMITED TV SERIES: Here are some comedies, dramas, and anthologies short enough to binge over the long weekend. The Gentlemen (2024, 8 episodes). The New Look (2024, 10 episodes). Inventing Anna (2022, 9 episodes). Small Axe (2020, 5 episodes). Feud: Truman Capote and the Swans (2024, 8 episodes). WeCrashed (2022, 8 episodes). Lessons in Chemistry (2023, 8 episodes). Maestro in Blue (2022, 15 episodes). Lupin (2021-23, 17 episodes).
[Addendum (11/30/24): A reader reminded me of one fantastic TV series I had forgotten to post—The Queen’s Gambit (2020, 8 episodes). We just saw a charming new series, A Man on the Inside (2024, 8 episodes). For those looking for something other than light fare, I’ll highly recommend The Night Of (2016, 8 episodes).]
Wishing you a safe and happy weekend.
FLANNERY’S SEARCH FOR GRACE
I’m particularly fond of Flannery O’Connor’s writings and am awestruck by how well director Ethan Hawke and his daughter, Maya Hawke, portrayed her struggles with family, faith, townspeople, publishers, and lupus in Wildcat. So, here’s the trailer. Her writings, her life, and this film bring to mind a quote attributed to her:
“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd.”
Thanks for the heads up about Wildcat. My bride and I have no desire to be "Glicked" this weekend. Anybody who has Local Hero on their movie list is all right. (Our first date was viewing Chariots of Fire.)
Thank you. The new composition I like a lot.
Over the years some of the Thanksgivings had fewer things to be thankful for, but there are always some. And always I'm thankful for a large, loving, supportive family. You can't really beat that.
But there are many small things to be thankful for, too. This year your columns are included in my list. There's plenty of bad stuff in the world, always, but thanks to the internet I can now read the writings of people I would never have found otherwise. And I can enjoy the intellectual stimulation. And my favorite Substack authors have led me to others that I enjoy.
Happy Thanksgiving, one and all. I hope you have as much to be thankful for as I.