Thursday, February 6, 2020
The Dark Fields…
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Dark Fields*
A date in the previous post suggests a flashback to March 11, 2014,
and a post on that date titled "Dark Fields of the Republic"—
This uncredited translation of Plato is, Google Books tells us,
by “Francis MacDonald Cornfield.” The name is an error,
but the error is illuminating —
* See posts mentioning the novel with that title, republished as Limitless.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Dark Fields…
From the first of previous Log24 posts tagged “Dark Fields”—
“A link in memory of Donald G. Higman,
dead on Feb. 13, 2006,
the day after Lincoln’s birthday:
On the Graphs of Hoffman-Singleton and Higman-Sims.
His truth is marching on.”
See also Foundation Square (October 25, 2014).
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Dark Fields of the Republic
This post was suggested by today's previous post, Depth,
by Plato's Diamond, and by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein's
recent fanciful fiction about Plato.
Plato, Republic , Book II, Paul Shorey translation at Perseus—
“Consider,” [382a] said I; “would a god wish to deceive, or lie, by presenting in either word or action what is only appearance?” “I don’t know,” said he. “Don’t you know,” said I, “that the veritable lie, if the expression is permissible, is a thing that all gods and men abhor?” “What do you mean?” he said. “This,” said I, “that falsehood in the most vital part of themselves, and about their most vital concerns, is something that no one willingly accepts, but it is there above all that everyone fears it.” “I don’t understand yet either.” “That is because you suspect me of some grand meaning,” [382b] I said; “but what I mean is, that deception in the soul about realities, to have been deceived and to be blindly ignorant and to have and hold the falsehood there, is what all men would least of all accept, and it is in that case that they loathe it most of all.” “Quite so,” he said.
Related material —
A meditation from the Feast of St. Francis, 2012 —
A post from Sept. 30, 2012, the reported date of death
for British children's author Helen Nicoll —
The New Criterion on the death of Hilton Kramer —
This uncredited translation of Plato is, Google Books tells us,
by "Francis MacDonald Cornfield." The name is an error,
but the error is illuminating —
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
High White in the Dark Fields
"High white noon"
— Phrase of Don DeLillo and Josefine Lyche
"Spellbinding visuals dwarf weak characters."
— Fox News review of Snow White and the Huntsman
For some stronger characters, see Limitless , a 2011 film
based on a 2001 novel by Alan Glynn, The Dark Fields .
See also St. Andrew's Day 2011 in this journal.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Dark Fields
"He had come a long way to this blue lawn,
and his dream must have seemed so close
that he could hardly fail to grasp it.
He did not know that it was already behind him,
somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city,
where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night."
— The Great Gatsby
See also St. Andrew's Day, 2011, in this journal.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
A Very Stable Cornfield
"We show deeper implications of this simple principle,
by establishing a connection with the interplay
of orbits and stabilizers of group actions."
See also Dark Fields , a post featuring a work of philosophy
translated, reportedly, by one "Francis MacDonald Cornfield" —
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
A Dark and Stormy May 29th
He had come a long way to this blue lawn,
and his dream must have seemed so close
that he could hardly fail to grasp it.
He did not know that it was already behind him,
somewhere back in that vast obscurity
beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic
rolled on under the night.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
— Epigraph to Limitless: A Novel , by Alan Glynn
Glynn's novel was originally published in 2002 under the title
The Dark Fields .
Compare and contrast —
Stephen King's IT was first published by Viking in 1986.
See as well the May 29th date mentioned by King.
Monday, July 11, 2016
Another Manic Monday
Friday, May 27, 2016
Peer Review
A review of the phrase "Innermost Kernel" in this journal
suggests the following meditation …
"Who am I?" — Existential cry
in "Zoolander" and "Zoolander 2."
A similar question occurs in "Peer Gynt" —
Ben Brantley in yesterday morning's print New York Times *
expressed a nihilistic view of Peer as an onion-peeler —
"Toward the end of Ibsen’s 'Peer Gynt,' a saga of self
under siege, the title character is discovered peeling
an onion, finding in the layers of that humble vegetable
a symbol for the chapters of an eventful life . . . .
… [the director’s] approach is the same one that Peer
applies to the onion: Keep stripping until you find the core.
Of course in Peer’s case what is finally found is
plenty of nothing, an apt conclusion for a man
for whom a solid self remains elusive."
I prefer a view from what Fitzgerald called
"the dark fields of the republic" — the Dordt College view —
* The Times — "A version of this review appears in print on May 26, 2016,
on page C3 of the New York edition with the headline:
'A Saga of Self-Identity, Stripped to Its Core, Still Provokes.' "
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Scoring Plan 9
In keeping with the resurrection themes of the
previous post and of "Plan 9 from Outer Space,"
here is a link to the soundtrack of "Field of Dreams."
Related material:
A post of March 11, 2014, on
truth, cornfields, and Rebecca Goldstein —
Dark Fields of the Republic.
R.I.P., James Horner.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
High Concept:
The Dark Fields Meet The Big Seal .
Recall the punchline of Tuesday afternoon's post
on the 2012 film "Travelling Salesman" —
"What am I, the farmer's daughter?"
For background from the dark fields of the republic,
see a speech last night by Iowa Senator Joni Ernst.
Related material:
At the end of the 2012 film "Travelling Salesman,"
the main character holds up to the light a letter that has
at the top the presidential seal of the United States:
The camera pans down, and the character then
sees a watermark that echoes another famous seal,
from the U.S. one-dollar bill:
For related paranoia, see the novels of Dan Brown
as well as…
See also Shema and Clocks Striking 13.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Working Backward
“This setting of the Ave Verum Corpus text was composed
to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi .” — Wikipedia
“Ave Verum Corpus .”— Madison in the BBC America TV series
“Intruders,” Season 1, Episode 3: “Time Has Come Today.”
See also the Eucharistic meditation of Feb. 13, 2006, linked to in yesterday’s post
on Guy Fawkes Day. (That British holiday originally commemorated the Catholic
Gunpowder Plot of 1605.)
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Toward Freedom
A search for “Dark Fields of the Republic,”
an F. Scott Fitzgerald phrase mentioned in
the previous post, yields a book by that title.
“When does a life bend toward freedom?
grasp its direction?”
— Adrienne Rich on page 275 of
Later Poems Selected and New: 1971-2012
The book’s author, Adrienne Rich, died at 82 on
March 27, 2012. See that date in this journal.
See also the following:
The Diamond Cutters by Adrienne Rich (1955) However legendary, Now, you intelligence Be serious, because Be hard of heart, because Be proud, when you have set |
Monday, July 7, 2014
“‘Consider,’ said I…”
Roger Cooke in The History of Mathematics: A Brief Course
(2nd ed., Wiley-Interscience, 2005)—
“Like all numbers, the number four is bound to occur
in many contexts.”
— Ch. 1: “The Origin and Prehistory of Mathematics,”
Part 3, “Symbols,” footnote 1, page 11.
As is the number 382:
Click the above image for some related material.
Commentary:
“Once the students are taken in by the story, it will be
the instructor’s job to elaborate on the historical
calculations and proofs.”
— Gary S. Stoudt, Professor of Mathematics,
Indiana U. of Pennsylvania, review of Cooke’s book
at the Mathematical Association of America
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Limitless*
A phrase in the news recently,
"la métaphysique de l'illimité ,"
suggests a search for related material.
Found: The discussion of the metaphysics of the limitless
in Chapter Two, "The Quest: Philebus ," of Plato and the Good:
Illuminating the Darkling Vision , by Rosemary Desjardins.
See, too, the Log24 post Ayn Sof of January 7, 2011,
and A Document in Madness :
* The title is from the 2011 film version of
the 2001 novel The Dark Fields .
Thursday, September 27, 2012
A Kenning for Thor’s Day
"A kenning… is a circumlocution
used instead of an ordinary noun
in Old Norse, Old English and
later Icelandic poetry." — Wikipedia
Note the title of Tuesday's post High White in the Dark Fields.
Related material, in memory of a composer-lyricist
who died Monday (NY Times ) or Tuesday (LA Times )—
Friday, March 30, 2012
Brain Boost*
See "Dark Fields" in this journal
and Peter J. Cameron's weblog today.
* Phrase from "Forbidden Planet" (1956).
See previous post.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Lines
From the release date of the film of Alan Glynn’s
novel The Dark Fields (now retitled “Limitless“)—
“The time is now.”
Related material—
“Why does the dog wag its tail?
Because the dog is smarter than the tail.
If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.”
Above: Amy Adams in “Sunshine Cleaning”
“Now, I’ll open up a line of credit for you.
You’ll be wantin’ a few toys.”
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Saturday July 29, 2006
Today’s birthday: Ken Burns
Charley Reese on the republic:
“The republic died at Appomattox, and it’s been empire ever since.”
Charley Reese on Lincoln:
“Washington and Jefferson created the republic; Lincoln destroyed it.”
In closing…
A link in memory of Donald G. Higman, dead on Feb. 13, 2006, the day after Lincoln’s birthday:
His truth is marching on.