Some background for last night's post on Diego Rivera—
See "Octavio Paz" + "Solar Country" in this journal.
"Mexico is a solar country— but it is also a black country, a dark country.
This duality of Mexico has preoccupied me since I was a child."
Friday, December 9, 2011
Duality
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Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Tuesday April 7, 2009
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Bright Star and Dark Lady “Mexico is a solar country — but it is also a black country, a dark country. This duality of Mexico has preoccupied me since I was a child.” — Octavio Paz, |
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Bright Star
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Amen.
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Dark Lady
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The same story on
May 11, 2005
with a different
dark lady:
Comments Off on Tuesday April 7, 2009
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Saturday April 19, 2008
From “Today in History,”
by the Associated Press–
by the Associated Press–
April 19, 2008–
“On this date….
Ten years ago….
Mexican poet-philosopher
Octavio Paz died at age 84.”
“Mexico is a solar country–
but it is also a black country,
a dark country. This duality
of Mexico has preoccupied
me since I was a child.”
— Octavio Paz, as quoted
by Homero Aridjis
“And the light shineth in
darkness; and the darkness
comprehended it not.”
— John 1:5
darkness; and the darkness
comprehended it not.”
— John 1:5
Comments Off on Saturday April 19, 2008
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Saturday June 25, 2005
Merry AntiChristmas!
Religious Symbolism
at Midnight:
Related material:
Star Wars 6/13/05,
Dark City 6/14/05,
and De Arco, as well
as the following from
July 26, 2003:
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Bright Star and Dark Lady "Mexico is a solar country — but it is also a black country, a dark country. This duality of Mexico has preoccupied me since I was a child."
— Octavio Paz, |
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Bright Star
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Amen.
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Dark Lady
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Comments Off on Saturday June 25, 2005
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Tuesday May 24, 2005
Final Arrangements, continued:
Two Poles
From today’s New York Times:
From erraticimpact.com on Paul Ricoeur:
“Ricoeur reserves his greatest admiration for
the narratologist Algirdas-Julien Greimas.
the narratologist Algirdas-Julien Greimas.
[See below.]
Ricoeur also explores the relationship
between the philosophical and religious
domains, attempting to reconcile
the two poles in his thought.”
between the philosophical and religious
domains, attempting to reconcile
the two poles in his thought.”
| From today’s NYT obituary of Sol Stetin:
“Mr. Stetin, who emigrated from Poland at the age of 10 and dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, was fond of saying he got his education in the labor movement.” |
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Elementary Art
continued:
continued:
“… it is not in isolation that the rhetorical power of such oppositions resides, but in their articulation in relation to other oppositions. In Aristotle’s Physics the four elements of earth, air, fire and water were said to be opposed in pairs. For more than two thousand years oppositional patterns based on these four elements were widely accepted as the fundamental structure underlying surface reality….
The structuralist semiotician Algirdas Greimas introduced the semiotic square (which he adapted from the ‘logical square’ of scholastic philosophy) as a means of analysing paired concepts more fully….”
— Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners
Related material:
Poetry’s Bones and
Theme and Variations.
Other readings on polarity:
Log24, May 24, 2003, and
from July 26, 2003:
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Bright Star and Dark Lady “Mexico is a solar country — but it is also a black country, a dark country. This duality of Mexico has preoccupied me since I was a child.” — Octavio Paz, |
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Bright Star
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Amen. |
Dark Lady
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Comments Off on Tuesday May 24, 2005
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Sunday October 26, 2003
ART WARS for
Trotsky’s Birthday
Part I:
Symbols
From my entry of July 26, 2003, in memory
of Marathon Man director John Schlesinger:
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Bright Star and Dark Lady “Mexico is a solar country — but it is also a black country, a dark country. This duality of Mexico has preoccupied me since I was a child.” — Octavio Paz, |
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Bright Star
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Amen. |
Dark Lady
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For the meaning of the above symbols, see
Kubrick’s 1x4x9 monolith in 2001,
the Halmos tombstone in Measure Theory,
and the Fritz Leiber Changewar stories.
Part II:
Sunday in the Park with Death
To Leon from Diego —
Details of a mural,
A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon
in Alameda Park,
Fresco, 1947-48,
Alameda Hotel, Mexico City:
Three’s a Crowd:
Symbol:
Comments Off on Sunday October 26, 2003
Saturday, July 26, 2003
Saturday July 26, 2003
Funeral March
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John Schlesinger dead at 77; LOS ANGELES – Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger, who daringly brought gay characters into mainstream cinema with Midnight Cowboy and tapped into nightmares with the teeth-drilling torture of Marathon Man, died Friday at 77. The British-born filmmaker…. died about 5:30 a.m…. |
Schlesinger also directed The Day of the Locust, based on a novel by Nathanael West.
See Heaven, Hell, and Hollywood and
From the latter:
“Then you know your body’s sent,
Don’t care if you don’t pay rent,
Sky is high and so am I,
If you’re a viper — a vi-paah.”
— The Day of the Locust,
by Nathanael West (1939),
New Directions paperback,
1969, page 162
This song may be downloaded at
That same site begins with a traditional Mexican song…
“La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
ya no puede caminar,
porque no quiere,
porque le falta
marihuana que fumar.”
(“The cockroach, the cockroach,
can’t walk anymore,
because he doesn’t want to,
because he has no
marihuana to smoke.”)
This suggests an appropriate funeral march for John Schlesinger:
“Ya murió la cucaracha, ya la llevan a enterrar…” – La Cucaracha
Those attending Schlesinger’s wake, as opposed to his funeral, may wish to perform other numbers from the Pot Culture page, which offers a variety of “viper” songs.
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Bright Star and Dark Lady “Mexico is a solar country — but it is also a black country, a dark country. This duality of Mexico has preoccupied me since I was a child.” — Octavio Paz, |
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Bright Star
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Amen.
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Dark Lady
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For the meaning of the above symbols, see
Kubrick’s 1x4x9 monolith in 2001,
the Halmos tombstone in Measure Theory,
and the Fritz Leiber Changewar stories.
Concluding Unscientific Postscript:
Oh, yes… the question of
Heaven or Hell for John Schlesinger…
Recall that he also directed the delightful
Cold Comfort Farm and see
last year’s entry for this date.
Saturday, April 19, 2003
Saturday April 19, 2003
Harrowing
In memory of the many who have died on April 19, most notably Octavio Paz.
"There is a suggestion of Christ descending into the abyss for the harrowing of Hell. But it is the Consul whom we think of here, rather than of Christ."
— Introduction to Malcolm Lowry's classic novel Under the Volcano, by Stephen Spender
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"Hey, big Spender, spend a little time
with me." — Song lyric
For a somewhat deeper meditation on time, see Architecture of Eternity.
See also Literature of the Descent into Hell.
"Mexico is a solar country — but it is also a black country, a dark country. This duality of Mexico has preoccupied me since I was a child."
— Octavio Paz, quoted by Homero Aridjis
Amen.
Concluding Unscientific Postscripts:
"Once upon a time…" — Anonymous
"It's quarter to three…" — Sinatra
Comments Off on Saturday April 19, 2003