Log24

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Monkey Grammar

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 2:29 am

For a modern Adam and Eve—

W. Tecumseh Fitch and Gesche Westphal Fitch,
editors of a new four-volume collection titled
Language Evolution  (Feb. 2, 2012, $1,360)—

Related material—

"At the point of convergence
the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that 
identity alone may shine forth. 
The illusion of motionlessness,
the play of mirrors of the one: 
identity is completely empty;
it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core
the movement of analogy 
begins all over once again."

— The Monkey Grammarian 

by Octavio Paz, translated by
Helen Lane (Kindle edition of
2011-11-07, Kindle locations
1207-1210).

The "play of mirrors" link above is my own.

Click on W. Tecumseh Fitch for links to some
examples of mirror-play in graphic design—
from, say, my own work in a version of 1977, not from
the Fitches' related work published online last June—

See also Log24 posts from the publication date
of the Fitches' Language Evolution

Groundhog Day, 2012.

Happy birthday to the late Alfred Bester.

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Curtis at Pilsen, Thursday, July 5, 2018

Filed under: General — Tags: , , , — m759 @ 11:48 am

For an account by R. T. Curtis of how he discovered the Miracle Octad Generator,
see slides by Curtis, “Graphs and Groups,” from his talk on July 5, 2018, at the
Pilsen conference on algebraic graph theory, “Symmetry vs. Regularity: The first
50 years since Weisfeiler-Leman stabilization” (WL2018).

See also “Notes to Robert Curtis’s presentation at WL2018,” by R. T. Curtis.

Meanwhile, here  on July 5, 2018

Simultaneous perspective does not look upon language as a path because it is not the search for meaning that orients it. Poetry does not attempt to discover what there is at the end of the road; it conceives of the text as a series of transparent strata within which the various parts—the different verbal and semantic currents—produce momentary configurations as they intertwine or break apart, as they reflect each other or efface each other. Poetry contemplates itself, fuses with itself, and obliterates itself in the crystallizations of language. Apparitions, metamorphoses, volatilizations, precipitations of presences. These configurations are crystallized time: although they are perpetually in motion, they always point to the same hour—the hour of change. Each one of them contains all the others, each one is inside the others: change is only the oft-repeated and ever-different metaphor of identity.

— Paz, Octavio. The Monkey Grammarian
(Kindle Locations 1185-1191).
Arcade Publishing. Kindle Edition.

The 2018 Log24 post containing the above Paz quote goes on to quote
remarks by Lévi-Strauss. Paz’s phrase “series of transparent strata”
suggests a review of other remarks by Lévi-Strauss in the 2016 post
Key to  All Mythologies.

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Remembering Speechlessly

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 1:54 pm

"Remembering speechlessly we seek
the great forgotten language . . . ."

— Thomas Wolfe 

"At the point of convergence
the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that 
identity alone may shine forth
The illusion of motionlessness,
the play of mirrors of the one
identity is completely empty;
it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core
the movement of analogy 
begins all over once again."

— The Monkey Grammarian 

by Octavio Paz, translated by Helen Lane 


See also other posts now tagged Transparent Things.

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Paz:

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 1:44 pm

Some context for what Heidegger called
das Spiegel-Spiel des Gevierts

From Helen Lane's translation of El Mono Gramático ,
a book by Nobel winner Octavio Paz first published
in Barcelona by Seix Barral in 1974 —

Simultaneous perspective does not look upon language as a path because it is not the search for meaning that orients it. Poetry does not attempt to discover what there is at the end of the road; it conceives of the text as a series of transparent strata within which the various parts—the different verbal and semantic currents—produce momentary configurations as they intertwine or break apart, as they reflect each other or efface each other. Poetry contemplates itself, fuses with itself, and obliterates itself in the crystallizations of language. Apparitions, metamorphoses, volatilizations, precipitations of presences. These configurations are crystallized time: although they are perpetually in motion, they always point to the same hour—the hour of change. Each one of them contains all the others, each one is inside the others: change is only the oft-repeated and ever-different metaphor of identity.

— Paz, Octavio. The Monkey Grammarian 
(Kindle Locations 1185-1191). 
Arcade Publishing. Kindle Edition. 

A related 1960 meditation from Claude Lévi-Strauss taken from a 
Log24 post of St. Andrew's Day 2017,  "The Matrix for Quantum Mystics":

The Matrix of Lévi-Strauss —

"In Vol. I of Structural Anthropology , p. 209, I have shown that
this analysis alone can account for the double aspect of time
representation in all mythical systems: the narrative is both
'in time' (it consists of a succession of events) and 'beyond'
(its value is permanent)." — Claude Lévi-Strauss

I prefer the earlier, better-known, remarks on time by T. S. Eliot
in Four Quartets , and the following four quartets
(from The Matrix Meets the Grid) —

.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

The Movement of Analogy: Hume vs. Paz

Filed under: General — Tags: , — m759 @ 11:00 am

Hume, from posts tagged "four-set" in this journal —

"The mind is a kind of theatre, where several perceptions
successively make their appearance; pass, repass, glide away,
and mingle in an infinite variety of postures and situations.
There is properly no simplicity in it at one time, nor identity
in different, whatever natural propension we may have
to imagine that simplicity and identity."

Paz, from a search for Paz + Identity in this journal —

"At the point of convergence
the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that 
identity alone may shine forth
The illusion of motionlessness,
the play of mirrors of the one: 
identity is completely empty;
it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core
the movement of analogy 
begins all over once again."

— The Monkey Grammarian 

by Octavio Paz, translated by Helen Lane 

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Conceptual Minimalism

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 10:08 am

 

"At the point of convergence
the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that 
identity alone may shine forth
The illusion of motionlessness,
the play of mirrors of the one: 
identity is completely empty;
it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core
the movement of analogy 
begins all over once again."

— The Monkey Grammarian 

by Octavio Paz, translated by Helen Lane 

See also AS IS.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

And Howe

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 11:01 am

The Harvard Crimson , Feb. 28, 2017

Cambridge City Councillors formally requested that the Cambridge
Historical Commission consider designating the Abbott Building in
Harvard Square as a historical landmark at its weekly meeting Monday.
. . . .

“There are only a few gems that give the really Square character.”
Councillor Dennis J. Carlone said. “And in the heart of the square,
it’s this building.”

See as well the cover of
The Monkey Grammarian ,
a book by Octavio Paz —

A related NPR book review yesterday —

"Like Curious George , another vaguely imperialist children's classic —
which Prose refers to frequently — the simian hero of Mister Monkey 
gets into trouble in his new urban environment." 

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Prose

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 11:01 pm

New York Times  review  of a new novel by Francine Prose —

"Mister Monkey . . . . is also Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god . . . ."
— Cathleeen Schine in in the above October 17 review.

A related book

See as well The Monkey Grammarian  in this  journal.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Status Symbols

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 2:02 pm

"Status: Defunct"  

As is now its owner, who reportedly
died at 80 on Sunday, October 15, 2017.

In memoriam —

Excerpts from Log24 posts on Sunday night 
and yesterday evening

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11/110203-Scholia.jpg.

" … listen: there's a hell
of a good universe next door; let's go"

— e. e. cummings

Some literary background —

"At the point of convergence
the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that 
identity alone may shine forth
The illusion of motionlessness,
the play of mirrors of the one: 
identity is completely empty;
it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core
the movement of analogy 
begins all over once again."

— The Monkey Grammarian 

by Octavio Paz, translated by Helen Lane 

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Key to All Mythologies…

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , — m759 @ 6:08 pm

According to Octavio Paz and Claude Lévi-Strauss

"Poetry…. conceives of the text as a series of transparent strata
within which the various parts—the different verbal and semantic
currents— produce momentary configurations as they intertwine
or break apart, as they reflect each other or efface each other.
Poetry contemplates itself, fuses with itself, and obliterates itself
in the crystallizations of language. Apparitions, metamorphoses,
volatilizations, precipitations of presences. These configurations
are crystallized time…."

— Octavio Paz in  The Monkey Grammarian  (written in 1970)

"Strata" also seem to underlie the Lévi-Strauss "canonic formula" of myth
in its original 1955 context, described as that of permutation groups  —

The 1955 Levi-Strauss 'canonic formula' in its original context of permutation groups

I do not recommend trying to make sense of the above "formula."

Related material —

"And six sides to bounce it all off of.

Monday, August 8, 2016

A Point of Identity

Filed under: General — m759 @ 6:00 pm

For a  Monkey Grammarian  (Viennese Version)

"At the point of convergence
the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that 
identity alone may shine forth
The illusion of motionlessness,
the play of mirrors of the one: 
identity is completely empty;
it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core
the movement of analogy 
begins all over once again."

— The Monkey Grammarian 

by Octavio Paz, translated by Helen Lane 

A logo that may be interpreted as one-eighth of a 2x2x2 array
of cubes —

The figure in white above may be viewed as a subcube representing,
when the eight-cube array is coordinatized, the identity (i.e., (0, 0, 0)).

Shown below are a few variations on the figure by VCQ,
the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology —
 

(Click image to enlarge.)

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Articulation

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 10:10 am

Notes for a monkey grammarian

"Visual forms— lines, colors, proportions, etc.—
are just as capable of articulation ,
i.e. of complex combination, as words.
But the laws that govern this sort of articulation
are altogether different from the laws of syntax
that govern language. The most radical difference
is that visual forms are not discursive .
They do not present their constituents successively,
but simultaneously, so the relations determining
a visual structure are grasped in one act of vision."

— Susanne K. LangerPhilosophy in a New Key

See also Langer's New Key in this journal.

Related material —

Friday, July 1, 2016

Transparent Core

Filed under: General — m759 @ 2:28 pm

"At the point of convergence the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that identity alone may shine forth.
The illusion of motionlessness, the play of mirrors of the one:
identity is completely empty; it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core the movement of analogy begins all over
once again." — The Monkey Grammarian  by Octavio Paz,
translated by Helen Lane 

A more specific "transparent core" —

See all references to this figure
in this journal.

For a more specific "monkey grammarian," 
see W. Tecumseh Fitch in this journal.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Language Animal Farm

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 9:00 pm

The title refers to Friday's VE Day post.

See also Monkey Grammarian in this journal.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Spielraum

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 9:30 am

Review:

Illustrating the Spiegel-Spiel des Gevierts

"At the point of convergence
the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that 
identity alone may shine forth. 
The illusion of motionlessness,
the play of mirrors of the one: 
identity is completely empty;
it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core
the movement of analogy 
begins all over once again."

— The Monkey Grammarian 

by Octavio Paz, translated by
Helen Lane 

 

Friday December 5, 2008

m759 @ 1:06 PM
 
Mirror-Play of
the Fourfold

For an excellent commentary
 on this concept of Heidegger,

View selected pages
from the book

Dionysus Reborn:

Play and the Aesthetic Dimension
in Modern Philosophical and
Scientific Discourse

(Mihai I. Spariosu,
Cornell U. Press, 1989)

Related material:
the logo for a
web page

Logo for 'Elements of Finite Geometry'

– and Theme and Variations.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Paz

Filed under: General — m759 @ 11:35 am

"At the point of convergence
the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that 
identity alone may shine forth. 
The illusion of motionlessness,
the play of mirrors of the one: 
identity is completely empty;
it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core
the movement of analogy 
begins all over once again."

— The Monkey Grammarian 

by Octavio Paz, translated by
Helen Lane 

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Digital Recreation

Filed under: General — m759 @ 2:29 am

Denzel Washington in Deja Vu  (2006), directed by Tony Scott—

Click to enlarge.

IMAGE- Denzel Washington in 'Deja Vu' (2006)

See also Tony Scott and four and a half days ago* —

  
Japanese character
       for "field"

Related material from five  days ago

"At the point of convergence
the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that 
identity alone may shine forth. 
The illusion of motionlessness,
the play of mirrors of the one: 
identity is completely empty;
it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core
the movement of analogy 
begins all over once again."

— The Monkey Grammarian 

by Octavio Paz, translated by 
Helen Lane (Kindle edition of 
2011-11-07, Kindle locations 
1207-1210).

* More precisely, what will be 4.5 days ago at 3:09 AM ET.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Poetics

Filed under: General — Tags: — m759 @ 11:00 am

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