Scott McCloud was mentioned to me today, which made me browse his website and find his cartoon rendition of the poem Porphyria's Lover, originally written by Robert Browning in 1836. The poem interested me and sparked a number of questions: What were Browning's sources? How was his bright iambic octameter received at the time? Why is Porphyria named thus?
I googled, but instead of answers, I got an echo of idiocy that made me shiver. "Write the police report after the crime." Sure, that's going to excite students.
Moreover, I found another article eventually which wasn't so bad, and answered a couple of my questions, but it didn't explain who Alice Perrers is, so I looked on Wikipedia. And that led me almost directly to Corona, which makes this post: a linkfest.
I have a theory that weblogs fall into one of the following seven categories, no matter what you try to do to escape it: linkfest, retort, diary, bullshit, technology, bad humour, short pithy tract on Tycho Brahé. I was going to link these to example posts, e.g. retort to Aaron's recent Lessig report, but I chickened out at the last moment and instead leave it up to an exercise for the reader.
No cartoon today.