Horizon

"Done With Mirrors" taking a break

Center-right history blog Done With Mirrors is closing up the shop for a while. I first stumbled across Callimachus in the results of a Technorati search for a favorite author — an excellent way to find new blogs. In the case of Done With Mirrors, I was not disappointed: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Since the inital discovery, I've checked back every week or so. There's a lot of the usual sort of political ranting done by any blogger who vents about his coworkers' politics. Buried among that, however, are nuggets worth sifting for: The etymology of "know" and related words. A pointer to an analysis of the odious Fred Phelps I might have otherwise missed. Shooting Howard Zinn in a barrel. Some thoughts on witches, on using "Nazi" as an insult, and on Memin Pinguin.

His latest such gem was a long quotation from Hans Erich Nossack's Der Undergang, including this passage:

Who can blame the helpers for being disappointed when they had to realize that what they had offered -- shelter, food, and clothing -- basically didn't make any difference at all? Perhaps something like pleasure flitted across the recipients' faces, but it didn't linger. They would walk through the strange rooms, touch an object, hold it, and look at it absently. The host would follow them with his eyes and expect some statement like: We, too, once had something like this -- and perhaps then he would have given it to them. But instead, the stranger would put it aside, and the unspoken question would fill the room: What is the use of still having such things?