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The Metamorphosis of Narcissism

Posted in Art, Education, Maynooth with tags on October 24, 2023 by telescoper

My attention was drawn today to a paper in the journal Research Policy. It’s an Elsevier journal so the article is behind a paywall, and the methodology looks very dodgy, but the abstract is worth reading for amusement value (the emphasis is mine):

Universities hold a prominent role in knowledge creation through research and education. In this study, we examine the effects of VC narcissism on university performance. We measure VC narcissism based on the size of the signature, in line with a methodological approach which has been widely used in the recent literature and repeatedly validated in laboratory experiments. We exploit a quasi-natural experiment of VC changes and employ a Difference-in-Difference research design, which alleviates concerns related to endogeneity and identification bias. We show that the appointment of a highly narcissistic VC leads to an overall deterioration in research and teaching performance and concomitantly league table performance. We further identify excessive financial risk taking and empire-building as possible mechanisms explaining the main results and provide evidence on the moderating role of university governance. Our findings are consistent with the view that narcissism is one of the most prominent traits of destructive leadership; they also have practical implications for leadership recruitment and the monitoring of leadership practices in the higher education sector. The results of this study extend prior research in several ways. Extant literature on executive leadership and narcissism yields inconclusive findings; this literature has mainly focused on for-profit organisations and has not considered universities. In addition, prior research in higher education on the determinants of university performance has not yet examined the role of leadership personality traits.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2023.104901

I chose the title of this post – an allusion to a famous painting by Salvador Dalí that plays with the themes of hallucination and delusion – reading a sentence in the introduction to the paper:

Over the past few years the complexity and challenges of running a higher education institution have changed beyond recognition.

In other news, I am dismayed that, because of my absence from campus on sabbatical, I am unable to attend today’s long-awaited launch event for the brand new Maynooth University Strategic Plan (which will be accompanied by a protest by postgraduate students at Maynooth about low stipends and poor working conditions). The latter seems to me to be of far greater importance to the future of the University than the former.

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Come in, Barcelona…

Posted in Architecture, Barcelona, Biographical, Books with tags , , , on October 14, 2023 by telescoper

I think I’ve settled in pretty well now. I went for a longish walk this morning and didn’t once have to use Google Maps to find out where I was! It’s a bit cooler today (although still 25°C) so a bit more comfortable walking around. Temperatures are forecast to drop to about 21°C tomorrow, and there’s even a forecast for rain. I might even change out of my shorts!

I’ve been here almost three weeks now, and in my apartment for one. It does feel like I’ve been here longer, actually, but I suppose that’s because so many nice and interesting things have happened.

Anyway, on my way around I dropped in at Come In, a very good English-language bookshop. You can see how good it is by the quality of the books it sells…

It has a very wide range: new books and classics, fiction and non-fiction, and books for children. I suspect quite a few of its sales are to students of English, as well as tourists and migrants such as myself. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re here. The staff are very friendly and helpful too. I bought a couple of items there, of which more anon.

Oh, and I also passed by La Casa Milà, which is quite close to my place of residence…

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Gaudí and a Shorts Story

Posted in Architecture, Barcelona, Biographical with tags , , on September 30, 2023 by telescoper

It being a Saturday, and the weather forecast suggesting a temperature of around 30° C, I made an early start this morning to beat the tourist crowds and the heat as I walked around. I managed the latter but not the former. My aim was to visit the famous landmarks associated with architect Antoni Gaudí, the Casa Botlla and the still unfinished Sagrada Familia. Here are some pics I took on the way there and back.

Casa Batlló 
Crowded House
Approaching La Sagrada Familia
Closer view, with crowds
Entrance
Here’s another church they did earlier…

I didn’t actually go in either establishment because of the cost and the crowds. I’m told things will get a bit quieter later in the year so I might try again in November or so. Incidentally, if you’re interested in visiting the Sagrada Familia then be careful as it is quite difficult to get to: there are a lot of roadworks nearby associated with a new tram track so it’s best to walk there than try to get near it by car. It’s also quite expensive to get in – €34, no less. The other church (in the 6th pic) I passed on the way is, I think, this one.

The approach to the Sagrada Familia triggered some memories of my last visit there 30 years ago but the surrounding area has changed quite a bit. The fifth picture, entitled ‘Entrance’, was the best attempt I could make at recapturing an old view:

1993
2023

There is a busy main road now where there was a dirt track back in 1993 and I didn’t want to get run over by bus taking my picture so I couldn’t get close enough to reproduce the angle. Note also that the tower to the left in the old picture now has a new structure in front of it.

Anyway, I had a nice walk around, ending up by the harbour where there was a jazz-and-cocktails event going on but it was getting too hot by then so I went and ate an indoor pizza then retreated to my hotel for a siesta.

Last week, discovering how warm it is here, I decided to buy a new pair of shorts (Bermudas). That turned out to be trickier than expected. Many stores here are selling their autumn range rather than summer gear, but when I tried a nearby El Corte Inglés I found the remnants of the summer short range were on sale at half price. Sadly I was then flummoxed by the sizes and confounded by the lack of a signal so I could check using my phone. When I did find a conversion table from UK to Spanish sizes I found it was wildly inaccurate and had to try on three pairs of increasing size until I found a pair that fit.

Fancy that. Inaccurate information on the internet! Who would have though it?

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Memories of Barcelona

Posted in Architecture, Art, Biographical with tags , , , on September 17, 2023 by telescoper

I’ve had this poster for 30 years. It’s survived several relocations and is now on my bedroom wall in Maynooth. I bought it on a holiday in Barcelona in 1993 which, coincidentally, was the centenary of the birth of Joan Miró, and the reason for a special exhibition.

Since it’s a rainy Sunday afternoon and I’m feeling a bit nostalgic with just a week to go before I go to Barcelona once more, I thought I’d rummage through some boxes of old photographs to share some pictures taken on that trip in 1993. The first one is me being a bit scared on the funicular railway. The last picture shows my holiday mate David in blue (to the centre left) looking rather fetching from the rear as he ponders the Sagrada Familia:

Back in 1993 the Sagrada Familia was basically a building site. Thirty years on, it still isn’t finished but will be completed in 2026. Possibly. So I’m told.

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Fall – Bridget Riley

Posted in Art with tags , , on September 2, 2023 by telescoper
Fall 1963 Bridget Riley born 1931 Purchased 1963 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T00616

by Bridget Riley (1963, 1410 × 1403 mm, polyvinyl acetate paint on hardboard, Tate Britain, London, UK)

The gallery label reads:

‘I try to organise a field of visual energy which accumulates until it reaches maximum tension’, Riley said of this work. From 1961 to 1964 she worked with the contrast of black and white, occasionally introducing tonal scales of grey. In Fall, a single perpendicular curve is repeated to create a field of varying optical frequencies. Though in the upper part a gentle relaxed swing prevails, the curve is rapidly compressed towards the bottom of the painting. The composition verges on the edge of disintegration without the structure ever breaking.

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Girls into skull

Posted in Art with tags , , on August 7, 2023 by telescoper

I found this disturbingly macabre engraving in an old book of poetry. I don’t know the artist, who is not identified in the book. The image seems very Victorian. Perhaps someone can identify it?

Many thanks to Wyn Evans in the comment below who identified this work as Le Cholera Morbus by M. de Gallieni, an artist unknown to me. It was executed in 1885.

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Watching the Hurling

Posted in Art, GAA with tags , , on July 13, 2023 by telescoper
Picture Credit: James Crombie of INPHO

No time for a proper post today, but I do have a gap in between meetings to share this wonderful picture of a little lad absorbed by the action at Croke Park during last weekend’s All-Ireland Hurling Semi-Final between Kilkenny and Clare (won by Kilkenny by 1-25 to 1-22, after a strong fightback by Clare). It’s a superb composition, with the little boy seemingly on his own but united with the others by their joint fascination with the game.

The All-Ireland Final (between Limerick and Kilkenny) is on Sunday 23rd July at 3.30pm. Whoever the kid is he might well be there; you can tell from the yellow and black stripes of his replica kit that he’s a Kilkenny supporter…

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This Englishwoman – Stevie Smith

Posted in Art, Poetry with tags , on June 17, 2023 by telescoper

Thinking about Stevie Smith after yesterday’s post I thought I’d post something by her. She liked to put funny little sketches or doodles with some of her more whimsical poems, some of which are very short like this one, which brought a smile to my face so I thought I’d share it.

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Chanson d’Automne

Posted in Art, History, LGBTQ+, Music with tags , , , on June 6, 2023 by telescoper

I’ve mentioned on here before that I had an English teacher at school who used to set interesting creative writing challenges, in which we would be given two apparently disconnected topics and asked to write something that connected them together. The inspiration was ‘Only Connect’, the epigraph of E.M. Forster’s novel Howard’s End. Since I’ve spent all afternoon in an Exam Board meeting I thought I’d do a little bit of connecting now.

Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne
Blessent mon coeur
D’une langueur
Monotone.

Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l’heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure;

Et je m’en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m’emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.

Chanson d’Automne, by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896).

I posted the above poem by Paul Verlaine for two reasons. One is that lines from the poem were broadcast on the eve of the Normandy Landings. The landings themselves began in the morning of June 6th 1944 and the excerpt – the last three lines of the first verse – formed a coded message broadcast to the French resistance by Radio Londres, 5th June 1944 at 23.15 GMT, informing them that the Allied invasion of France was imminent and that sabotage operations should commence.

The other reason is that that it was just two weeks ago that I attended a concert featuring settings by Benjamin Britten of prose poems taken from  Les Illuminations by Arthur Rimbaud. I didn’t know until that Verlaine and Rimbaud were lovers and that they lived for some time together in London. Their relationship was on the tempestuous side – at one point Verlaine fired a gun at Rimbaud, wounding him in the hand. Here’s a detail from a painting showing the two of them (Verlaine on the left, Rimbaud on the right).

It was said of Rimbaud that, as well as writing remarkable poetry, he was cute-looking, had a very dirty sense of humour, drank a bit too much, and liked lots and lots of rough sex. I think I would have liked him (although perhaps not enough to risk being shot by his jealous older boyfriend).

Anyway, this provides me with an excuse not only to commemorate D-Day but also Pride Month!

 

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Ceci n’est pas un tapis de souris

Posted in Art, Education, Maynooth on April 7, 2023 by telescoper
It is now…

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