* The name "Blue Monkey" is from a 2003 film. See also Hanuman
in this journal. The image described by Vertex AI is from IMDb …
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Hollywood Benchmark: The Blue Monkey* Diamond
Comments Off on Hollywood Benchmark: The Blue Monkey* Diamond
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Curtis at Pilsen, Thursday, July 5, 2018
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 |
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.“
Comments Off on Curtis at Pilsen, Thursday, July 5, 2018
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Remembering Speechlessly
"Remembering speechlessly we seek
the great forgotten language . . . ."
|
"At the point of convergence by Octavio Paz, translated by Helen Lane
|
See also other posts now tagged Transparent Things.
Comments Off on Remembering Speechlessly
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Paz:
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 |
A related 1960 meditation from Claude Lévi-Strauss taken from a
Log24 post of St. Andrew's Day 2017, "The Matrix for Quantum Mystics":
"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) —
.
Comments Off on Paz:
Thursday, March 1, 2018
The Movement of Analogy: Hume vs. Paz
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 by Octavio Paz, translated by Helen Lane
|
Comments Off on The Movement of Analogy: Hume vs. Paz
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Conceptual Minimalism
|
"At the point of convergence by Octavio Paz, translated by Helen Lane
|
See also AS IS.
Comments Off on Conceptual Minimalism
Friday, October 20, 2017
Heart of the Monkey God
In Memoriam
"Renowned Canadian theologian Gregory Baum, 94,
author of the first draft of the Second Vatican Council's
'Nostra Aetate,' died Oct. 18 in a Montreal hospital."
— National Catholic Reporter , Oct. 20, 2017
October 18 was St. Luke's Day.
From the Log24 post "Prose" on that date —
"Mister Monkey . . . . is also Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god . . . ."
— Cathleeen Schine in an online October 17 NY Times review.
From the novel under review —
"Only the heart of the monkey god is large enough
to contain the hearts and souls of all the monkeys,
all the humans, the gods, every shining thread
that connects them."
— Francine Prose, Mister Monkey: A Novel (p. 263).
HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
See as well all posts now tagged Prose Monkey.
Comments Off on Heart of the Monkey God
Thursday, October 19, 2017
And Howe
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."
Comments Off on And Howe
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Prose
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.
Comments Off on Prose
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Status Symbols
"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 —
.
" … 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 by Octavio Paz, translated by Helen Lane
|
Comments Off on Status Symbols
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Key to All Mythologies…
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 —
I do not recommend trying to make sense of the above "formula."
Related material —
Comments Off on Key to All Mythologies…
Monday, August 8, 2016
A Point of Identity
For a Monkey Grammarian (Viennese Version)
|
"At the point of convergence 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.)
Comments Off on A Point of Identity
Friday, July 1, 2016
Transparent Core
"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.
Comments Off on Transparent Core
Friday, May 8, 2015
Spielraum
Review:
Illustrating the Spiegel-Spiel des Gevierts
|
"At the point of convergence
by Octavio Paz, translated by |
Friday December 5, 2008
|
Comments Off on Spielraum
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Paz
|
"At the point of convergence
by Octavio Paz, translated by |
Comments Off on Paz
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Digital Recreation
Denzel Washington in Deja Vu (2006), directed by Tony Scott—
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 by Octavio Paz, translated by |
* More precisely, what will be 4.5 days ago at 3:09 AM ET.
Comments Off on Digital Recreation
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Monkey Grammar
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
by Octavio Paz, translated by |
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—
Happy birthday to the late Alfred Bester.
Comments Off on Monkey Grammar
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Quarantine Story
A link in the previous post to Delos in this journal mentions physicist John Cramer.
His daughter Kathryn's weblog mentions the following story—
Graffiti in the Library of Babel • David Langford
—from her forthcoming anthology Year's Best SF 16 .
From the Langford story—
"'I suppose we have a sort of duty…' Out of the corner of her eye Ceri saw her notes window change. She hadn't touched the keyboard or mouse. Just before the flatscreen went black and flickered into a reboot sequence, she saw the coloured tags where no tags had been before. In her own notes. Surrounding the copied words 'quarantine regulations.'"
Related material from this journal last Jan. 9 —
"Show me all the blueprints."
– Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Aviator" (2004)
DiCaprio in "Inception"
In the "blueprints" link above, DiCaprio's spelling of "Q-U-A-R-A-N-T-I-N-E" is of particular interest.
See also a search for Inception in this journal.
A post on a spelling bee at the end of that search quotes an essay on Walter Benjamin—
This blissful state between the world and its creator as expressed in Adamic language has its end, of course, in the Fall. The “ignorance” introduced into the world that ultimately drives our melancholic state of acedia has its inception with the Fall away from the edenic union that joins God’s plan to the immediacy of the material world. What ensues, says Benjamin, is an overabundance of conventional languages, a prattle of meanings now localized hence arbitrary. A former connection to a defining origin has been lost; and an overdetermined, plethoric state of melancholia forms. Over-determination stems from over-naming. “Things have no proper names except in God. . . . In the language of men, however, they are overnamed.” Overnaming becomes “the linguistic being of melancholy.”7
7 Walter Benjamin, “On Language as Such and On the Languages of Man,” Edmund Jephcott, tr., Walter Benjamin , Selected Writings , Volume I: 1913-1926 , Marcus Bullock and Michael W. Jennings, eds., Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1997, p. 73.
Compare and contrast with a remark by a translator mentioned here previously —
I fancy, myself, that this self-consciousness about translation dates approximately from the same time as man's self-consciousness about language itself. Genesis tells us that Adam named all the animals (just as in Indian tradition the monkey-god Hanuman invented grammar by naming all the plants in the Garden of Illo Tempore). No doubts, no self-consciousness: "Whatever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." (Genesis II, 19). But after the expulsion from Paradise I see Adam doubting the moment the possibility occurs that another name might be possible. And isn't that what all translators are? Proposers, in another language, of another name ?
— Helen Lane in Translation Review , Vol. 5, 1980
Comments Off on Quarantine Story