Metaphysically Speaking . . . .

Isn’t saying:

Baroque [. . .] as a non-exclusive, decentering principle, joins, however self-consciously and awkwardly, contradictory impulses of the premodern and the modern, faith and reason, the scientific and the mythic, marking the crisis and outer limit of modernity. (Kaup, 2007).

Much like saying:

[Of Metaphysical poets] “If the father of criticism has rightly denominated poetry [. . .] an imitative art, these writers will, without great wrong, lose their right to the name of poets, for they cannot be said to have imitated anything: they neither copied nature nor life, neither painted the forms of matter, nor represented the operations of intellect [. . . .] Of wit [. . .] they have more than enough. The most hetrogeneous [sic] ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for their illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises [. . . .]. (Johnson, 1779)

Just wondering.

On another note, Dr. Johnson has been in the news lately. The New Yorker recently featured an article-length review of two new Johnson biographies (see “Man of Fetters” here). Additionally, The Daily Beast offers “History’s Most Memorable Mistress,” an article-length review of a biography of Hester Thrale, Johnson’s good friend.