The previous post suggests a search for Buber in this journal
that yields a passage from New Year's Eve 2017 —
" As for 'that you in which the lines of relation, though parallel,
intersect,' and 'intimations of eternity,' see Log24 posts on
the concept 'line at infinity' as well as 'Lost Horizon.' "
Related illustrations —
From Pi Day 2017 —
"Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard."
From April 20, 2019 —
From "A History of Violence" —
"The style of Ich und Du is anything but sparse and unpretentious,
lean or economical. It represents a late flowering of romanticism
and tends to blur all contours in the twilight of suggestive but
extremely unclear language. Most of Buber’s German readers
would be quite incapable of saying what any number of passages
probably mean.
The obscurity of the book does not seem objectionable to them:
it seems palpable proof of profundity. Sloth meets with awe
in the refusal to unravel mysteries."
— Walter Kaufmann, 1970 prologue to I and Thou
Recent posts involving the English pronoun IT referred to
classic tales of horror by Madeleine L'Engle and Stephen King.
Those posts suggest some further remarks by Martin Buber:
THE WORLD IS TWOFOLD for man
in accordance with his twofold attitude.
The attitude of man is twofold
in accordance with the two basic words he can speak.
The basic words are not single words but word pairs.
One basic word is the word pair I-You.
The other basic word is the word pair I-It;
but this basic word is not changed when
He or She takes the place of It.
Thus the I of man is also twofold.
For the I of the basic word I-You is different from
that in the basic word I-It.
— Buber, Martin. I and Thou, Trans. Kaufmann
(p. 53). Kindle Edition.
Four German pronouns from the above passage
by Martin Buber lead to six pronoun pairs:
ich-du, ich-es, ich-sie, du-es, du-sie, es-sie.
This is in accordance with some 1974 remarks by
Marie-Louise von Franz —
The following passage by Buber may confuse readers of
L'Engle and King with its use, in translation, of "it" instead of
the original German "sie" ("she," corresponding to "die Welt") —
Here, for comparison, are the original German and the translation.
As for "that you in which the lines of relation, though parallel,
intersect," and "intimations of eternity," see Log24 posts on
the concept "line at infinity" as well as "Lost Horizon."
A Xanga footprint this morning–
| France | /283018943/item.html? | 4/10/2008 8:14 AM |
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Date: June 13, 2005 Related material: That web page concludes with a reference to esthetics and a Delian palm, and was written three years ago on this date. Today [June 13] is also the date of death for Martin Buber, philosophical Jew. Here is a Delphic saying in memory of Buber: “It is the female date that is considered holy, and that bears fruit.” — Steven Erlanger, |
This, together with the online
New York Times obituaries
pictured here on April 7,
suggests further consideration
of a female date…. namely,
that of a Log24 entry,
A Yahrzeit for Virginia Woolf,
from March 28
(the date of Woolf’s death).
March 28 this year was also
the date of death of another
female author,
Helen Bassine Yglesias.
Click on the image
for a larger picture
and further details.
“Attention must
be paid.”
— Linda Loman
From James A. Michener‘s The Source:
“Trouble started in a quarter that neither Uriel nor Zadok could have foreseen. For many generations the wiser men of Zadok’s clan had worshipped El-Shaddai with the understanding that whereas Canaanites and Egyptians could see their gods directly, El-Shaddai was invisible and inhabited no specific place. Unequivocally the Hebrew patriarchs had preached this concept and the sager men of the clans accepted it, but to the average Hebrew who was not a philosopher the theory of a god who lived nowhere, who did not even exist in corporeal form, was not easy to comprehend. Such people were willing to agree with Zadok that their god did not live on this mountain– the one directly ahead– but they suspected that he did live on some mountain nearby, and when they said this they pictured an elderly man with a white beard who lived in a proper tent and whom they might one day see and touch. If questioned, they would have said that they expected El-Shaddai to look much like their father Zadok, but with a longer beard, a stronger voice, and more penetrating eyes.
Now, as these simpler-minded Hebrews settled down outside the walls of Makor, they began to see Canaanite processions leave the main gate and climb the mountain to the north, seeking the high place where Baal lived, and they witnessed the joy which men experienced when visiting their god, and the Hebrews began in subtle ways and easy steps to evolve the idea that Baal, who obviously lived in a mountain, and El-Shaddai, who was reported to do so, must have much in common. Furtively at first, and then openly, they began to climb the footpath to the place of Baal, where they found a monolith rising from the highest point of rock. Here was a tangible thing they could comprehend, and after much searching along the face of the mountain, a group of Hebrew men found a straight rock of size equal to the one accorded Baal, and with much effort they dragged it one starless night to the mountain top, where they installed it not far from the home of Baal….”
The above monolith is perhaps more
closely related to El-Shaddai than to
Madonna, Grammy Night, and Baal.
It reflects my own interests
(Mathematics and Narrative)
and those of Martin Buber
(Jews on Fiction):
|
Jews on Fiction
See Tony Kushner and E.L. Doctorow in today’s New York Times, Rebecca Goldstein’s talk from last summer’s Mykonos conference on mathematics and narrative, and Martin Buber on the Bible.
ART WARS:
Dark City
Jennifer Connelly at
premiere of “Cinderella Man” —
In memory of Martin Buber,
author of Good and Evil,
who died on June 13, 1965:
“With a little effort, anything can be
shown to connect with anything else:
existence is infinitely cross-referenced.”
— Opening sentence of
Martha Cooley’s The Archivist
|
Woe unto Isaiah 5:20
|
As she spoke |
The world
|
Jennifer Connelly in “Dark City”
(from journal note of June 19, 2002) —
And, one might add for Flag Day,
“you sons of bitches.”
STAR WARS
continued
Picture from Feb. 8
(Martin Buber’s birthday)
For John Nash on his birthday:
I know more than Apollo,
For oft when he lies sleeping
I see the stars at mortal wars
In the wounded welkin weeping.
Cliffs of Moher
My father’s father,
his father’s father, his —
Shadows like winds
Go back to a parent before thought,
before speech,
At the head of the past.
They go to the cliffs of Moher
rising out of the mist….
— Wallace Stevens,
“The Irish Cliffs of Moher”
|
As he came back to the hearth, limping slightly but with a brisk step, Stephen saw the silent soul of a jesuit look out at him from the pale loveless eyes. Like Ignatius he was lame but in his eyes burned no spark of Ignatius’s enthusiasm. Even the legendary craft of the company, a craft subtler and more secret than its fabled books of secret subtle wisdom, had not fired his soul with the energy of apostleship. It seemed as if he used the shifts and lore and cunning of the world, as bidden to do, for the greater glory of God, without joy in their handling or hatred of that in them which was evil but turning them, with a firm gesture of obedience back upon themselves and for all this silent service it seemed as if he loved not at all the master and little, if at all, the ends he served. SIMILITER ATQUE SENIS BACULUS, he was, as the founder would have had him, like a staff in an old man’s hand, to be leaned on in the road at nightfall or in stress of weather, to lie with a lady’s nosegay on a garden seat, to be raised in menace. The dean returned to the hearth and began to stroke his chin. –When may we expect to have something from you on the esthetic question? he asked. –From me! said Stephen in astonishment. I stumble on an idea once a fortnight if I am lucky. –These questions are very profound, Mr Dedalus, said the dean. It is like looking down from the cliffs of Moher into the depths. Many go down into the depths and never come up. Only the trained diver can go down into those depths and explore them and come to the surface again. |
See also Kahn’s The Art and Thought of Heraclitus and the references to a “Delian diver” in Chitwood’s Death by Philosophy.
From
Death by Philosophy:
“Although fragments examined earlier may enable Heraclitus’ reader to believe that the stylistic devices arose directly from his dislike of humanity, I think rather that Heraclitus deliberately perfected the mysterious, gnomic style he praises in the following fragment.
31. The lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks nor hides, but indicates. (fr. 93)
Heraclitus not only admires the oracular style of delivery, but recommends it; this studied ambiguity is, I think, celebrated and alluded to in the Delian diver comment. For just as the prophecies of the Delian or Delphic god are at once obscure and darkly clear, so too are the workings of the Logos and Heraclitus’ remarks on it.”
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Related material: That web page concludes with a reference to esthetics and a Delian palm, and was written three years ago on this date. Today is also the date of death for Martin Buber, philosophical Jew. Here is a Delphic saying in memory of Buber: “It is the female date that is considered holy, and that bears fruit.” — Steven Erlanger, |
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