{"id":19616,"date":"2024-05-17T20:14:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T00:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19616"},"modified":"2024-05-17T20:14:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T00:14:19","slug":"17-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19616","title":{"rendered":"17 May"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ja, vi elsker dette landet - Norway&#039;s National Anthem\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qr3HJIp9cvY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>It is my custom,<\/strong> every May 17, to make some kind of mention of Norway\u2019s Constitution Day, celebrated each year on this date. I\u2019ve told the story of the holiday many times \u2013 this year I\u2019ll restrict myself to saying that Norway celebrates its Constitution Day as its major national holiday because of a historical anomaly \u2013 we had a constitution for almost a century before we got independence. So Constitution Day became the traditional patriotic holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The video above is rather nice \u2013 lots of natural beauty, in which Norway is excessively rich. If you\u2019d like a translation of the lyrics, you can find it <a href=\"https:\/\/simple.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ja,_vi_elsker_dette_landet\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Syttende Mai present I received today was a good writing session. I actually gave myself the shivers reading the current draft of <em>The Baldur Game<\/em>. I suppose that\u2019s insufferable, like comedians who laugh at their own jokes. But writing at my level offers few tangible rewards. And finding the same exhilaration in your own writing that you get from your favorite authors\u2019 is as delicious as it is rare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To make things even better, I had a thought today \u2013 not as common an occurrence as you might imagine. (G. B. Shaw once said that he\u2019d made an international reputation by thinking once or twice a month.) I can\u2019t remember what provoked the thought (perhaps it was the creative thrill I described above, but I\u2019m not sure). But it suddenly appeared, fully formed in my head, and even after several hours I can find no fault with it. It goes like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No work of art is ever fully original, nor should it be. Art is a multimedia matrix of interactive themes and influences &#8212; all hyperlinked, in a sense. Taken all together, great art participates in an infinitely greater tapestry.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think I\u2019ll stand by that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have a good weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is my custom, every May 17, to make some kind of mention of Norway\u2019s Constitution Day, celebrated each year on this date. I\u2019ve told the story of the holiday many times \u2013 this year I\u2019ll restrict myself to saying that Norway celebrates its Constitution Day as its major national holiday because of a historical &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19616\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">17 May<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,1,17],"tags":[225,2047,2726,4414],"class_list":["post-19616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-art","tag-norway","tag-syttende-mai","tag-the-baldur-game"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19617,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19616\/revisions\/19617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}