See also Tiger in this journal, esp. —
and . . .
other "Death and the Spirit" posts.
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Tiger Leaps
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Thursday, March 8, 2007
Thursday March 8, 2007
Introduction to Logic
for International Women's Day
for International Women's Day
"The logic behind such utterances is the logic
of binary opposition, the principle of non-contra-
diction, often thought of as the very essence of
Logic as such….
Now, my understanding of what is most radical
in deconstruction is precisely that it questions
this basic logic of binary opposition….
Instead of a simple 'either/or' structure,
deconstruction attempts to elaborate a discourse
that says neither "either/or", nor "both/and"
nor even "neither/nor", while at the same time
not totally abandoning these logics either."
— Harvard professor Barbara Johnson
in "Nothing Fails Like Success."
(See the previous entry, Day Without Logic.)
Those who value literary theory
more than they value truth
may prefer, on this
International Women's Day,
the "mandorla" interpretation
of the above diagrams.
For this interpretation, see
Death and the Spirit III,
Burning Bright,
and
The Agony and the Ya-Ya.
Comments Off on Thursday March 8, 2007
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Tuesday December 27, 2005
Dance of the Numbers
(continued)
(continued)
The Pennsylvania lottery
on St. Stephen's Day–
Midday: 105
Evening: 064
From a new
branch of theology,
lottery hermeneutics:
See Log24, 1/05,
Death and the Spirit,
and the 64 hexagrams of
the box-style I Ching.
From the Wikipedia
article on hermeneutics:
"One prominent theme which arises in contemporary philosophical hermeneutics (i.e., the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer) is a serious calling into question of scientism. Scientism is the more or less unquestioned belief in the supremacy of the natural sciences when it comes to serving as models of knowledge. By calling scientism into question, hermeneutics is arguing for the legitimacy of (among other things) aesthetic, literary, spiritual, and philosophical knowledge, alongside (but not instead of) scientific knowledge."
Amen.
(See also Hitler's Still Point:
A Hate Speech for Harvard.)
Comments Off on Tuesday December 27, 2005
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Saturday December 10, 2005
Roger Shattuck, Scholar, Is Dead at 82
In his honor, some excerpts from previous entries:
I just subscribed to The New York Review of Books online for another year,
prompted by my desire to read Roger Shattuck on Rimbaud….
"How did this poetic sensibility come to burn so bright?"
The Shattuck piece is from 1967, the year of The Doors' first album.
(See Death and the Spirit, Part II.)
|
The photo of Nicole Kidman
is from Globe Song
(Log24, Jan. 18, 2005).
The Times says Shattuck died
on Thursday (Dec. 8, 2005).
Here, from 4:00 AM on the
morning of Shattuck's death,
is a brief companion-piece
to Eight is a Gate:
|
From Carole A. Holdsworth, Tanner may have stated it best:
“V. is whatever lights you to
(Tony Tanner, page 36,
She's a mystery |
She's in midnight blue,
still the words ring true;
woman in blue
got a hold on you.
Comments Off on Saturday December 10, 2005
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Sunday January 23, 2005
Death and the Spirit,
Part IV
See also
Death and the Spirit, Part II, and
Death and the Spirit, Part III.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Wednesday January 19, 2005
But seriously…
A follow-up to the previous "tiger" entry (which was about an old but good dirty joke).
I just subscribed to The New York Review of Books online for another year, prompted by my desire to read Roger Shattuck on Rimbaud, a tiger of another sort:
"How did this poetic sensibility come to burn so bright?"
The Shattuck piece is from 1967, the year of The Doors' first album. (See Sunday's Death and the Spirit, Part II.)
Comments Off on Wednesday January 19, 2005
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Tuesday January 18, 2005
Death and
the Spirit, Part III
the Spirit, Part III
In memory of comedian
Gene Baylos, who died
on Jan. 10, 2005:
From the dark jungle
as a tiger bright,
Form from the viewless Spirit
leaps to light.
— Rumi, "Reality and Appearance"
Comments Off on Tuesday January 18, 2005
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Sunday January 16, 2005
Death and the
Spirit, Part II
Readings
Are you a lucky little lady
in The City of Light
Or just another lost angel…
City of Night
— Jim Morrison, L.A. Woman
Fourmillante cité,
cité pleine de rêves,
Où le spectre en plein jour
raccroche le passant
— Baudelaire,
Les Fleurs du Mal,
and
Notes to The Waste Land
"When you got the mojo, brother —
when you're on the inside —
the world is fantastic."
— Pablo Tabor in Robert Stone's
A Flag for Sunrise,
Knopf, 1981, p. 428
|
Now it was Avril's turn to understand and he was frightened out of his wits.
"The Science of Luck," he said cautiously. "You watch, do you? That takes a lot of self-discipline." "Of course it does, but it's worth it. I watch everything, all the time. I'm one of the lucky ones. I've got the gift. I knew it when I was a kid, but I didn't grasp it." The murmur had intensified. "This last time, when I was alone so long, I got it right. I watch for every opportunity and I never do the soft thing. That's why I succeed." Avril was silent for a long time. "It is the fashion," he said at last. "You've been reading the Frenchmen, I suppose? Or no, no, perhaps you haven't. How absurd of me." "Don't blether." The voice, stripped of all its disguises, was harsh and naive. "You always blethered. You never said anything straight. What do you know about the Science of Luck? Go on, tell me. You're the only one who's understood at all. Have you ever heard of it before?" "Not under that name." "I don't suppose you have. That's my name for it. What's its real name?" "The Pursuit of Death." |
Anagrams
In memory of Danny Sugerman,
late manager of The Doors:
Danny Sugerman
Photo by
Frank Alan Bella, 2002
"Mr Mojo Risin" = "Jim Morrison."
"Audible Era" = "Baudelaire."
"Bad Rumi" = "Rimbaud."
From the dark jungle
as a tiger bright,
Form from the viewless Spirit
leaps to light.
— Rumi, "Reality and Appearance,"
translated by R. A. Nicholson
(See also Death and the Spirit
from Twelfth Night, 2005, the date
of Danny Sugerman's death.)
Comments Off on Sunday January 16, 2005
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Wednesday January 5, 2005
Death and the Spirit
A meditation for Twelfth Night
on "the whirligig of time"
Today's New York Times obituaries feature two notable graphic artists:
- Frank Kelly Freas, who created, among other works, 400 portraits of saints for the Franciscans and the covers of Mad Magazine from 1958 through 1962. "I found it difficult to shift my artistic gears from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again," he said of his departure from Mad.
- Will Eisner, "an innovative comic-book artist who created the Spirit, a hero without superpowers, and the first modern graphic novel."
Yesterday's entry provided an approach to The Dark Lady, Kali, that was, in Freas's apt word, "ridiculous." The illustration below, "Mate," is an attempt to balance yesterday's entry with an approach that is, if not sublime, at least more serious. It is based on a similar illustration from Jan. 31, 2003, with actress Judy Davis playing The Dark Lady. Today it seems appropriate to replace Davis with another actress (anonymous here, though some may recognize her). I once knew her (unlike Davis) personally. One of my fondest memories of high school is reading Mad Magazine with her in the school lunch room. Our lives diverged after high school, but I could happily have spent my life in her company.
Mate
– S. H. Cullinane, Twelfth Night, 2005
A diamond and its dual "whirl" figure—
or a "jewel-box and its mate"
For details, see the five Log24 entries
ending on Feb. 1, 2003, and the
perceptive remarks of Ryan Benedetti
on Sam Spade and Brigid O'Shaughnessy.
ending on Feb. 1, 2003, and the
perceptive remarks of Ryan Benedetti
on Sam Spade and Brigid O'Shaughnessy.
As for Eisner and "The Spirit,"
which has been called
"the quintessential noir detective series,"
those preferring non-graphic stories
may picture Spade or his creator,
Dashiell Hammett, in the title role.
Then, of course, there are Eisner's later
story, "A Contract With God,"
John 4:24, and 1916 4/24.
Comments Off on Wednesday January 5, 2005