Log24

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Thursday July 2, 2009

Filed under: General — m759 @ 9:29 pm
Meditation

on a joke by George Carlin,
a passage by Kierkegaard,
and the death on this date
12 years ago
of actor James Stewart

The Catholic Carlin:

“Thank you, Mr. Twain. Have your people call my people.” –George Carlin on learning he had won the Mark Twain award. Twain’s people were Protestant, Carlin’s Catholic.

The Protestant Kierkegaard:

“… the moment is not properly an atom of time but an atom of eternity. It is the first reflection of eternity in time, its first attempt, as it were, at stopping time….

Once here in Copenhagen there were two actors who probably never thought that their performance could have a deeper significance. They stepped forth onto the stage, placed themselves opposite each other, and then began the mimical representation of one or another passionate conflict. When the mimical act was in full swing and the spectators’ eyes followed the story with expectation of what was to follow, they suddenly stopped and remained motionless as though petrified in the mimical expression of the moment. The effect of this can he exceedingly comical, for the moment in an accidental way becomes commensurable with the eternal.”

Catholic tableau
(with Vivien Leigh
   representing the Church)
    of Salvation by Works

The cast of  'Streetcar Named Desire' in the radio scene

Protestant tableau
(with James Stewart
 as Protestant Pilgrim)
    of Salvation by Grace

Grace Kelly and James Stewart in 'Rear Window'

Click on either tableau
for a (much) larger image.

* Thanks to University Diaries for an entry on Clancy Martin, a philosophy professor in the “show me” state, and his experiences with AA. For a sample of Martin’s style, see a piece he wrote on Fabergé Easter eggs. For other Easter egg material, see this journal and (via a link) The Harvard Crimson, Easter 2008.  A valuable philosophical remark by Martin in a recent interview:

“An unscrupulous jeweler will swap diamonds for cheaper ones when jewelry is dropped off to be sized or repaired, he said.

‘It happens all the time,’ Martin said. ‘Nobody’s watching.'”

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