Log24

"Isn't it pretty to think so?" 

  — The Sun Also Rises

This post was suggested by the following passage of prose:

Click on picture for details.

 

For an interpretation
of 588, see

Guy Fawkes Day: Twilight Kingdom,
Grail: The Hermeneutics of Chance,
Camelot: The Legend Continues,
A Case for Indiana Jones,
Spots of Time Revisited.

For an interpretation
of 715, see
7/15, Ein Bild: 

"Und was fur
ein Bild des Christentums 
ist dabei herausgekommen?"

The number 588 above
is clearly a MacGuffin.
Whether it represents
any deeper reality is
an open question.

 "It is a very difficult
philosophical question,
 the question of
  what 'random' is."

— Herbert Robbins, co-author
   of What is Mathematics?

Instance

Log24, Feb. 25, 2004:

From a review by Adam White Scoville of Iain Pears's novel titled An Instance of the Fingerpost:

"Perhaps we are meant to see the story as a cubist retelling of the crucifixion, as Pilate, Barabbas, Caiaphas, and Mary Magdalene might have told it. If so, it is sublimely done so that the realization gradually and unexpectedly dawns upon the reader. The title, taken from Sir Francis Bacon, suggests that at certain times, 'understanding stands suspended' and in that moment of clarity (somewhat like Wordsworth's 'spots of time,' I think), the answer will become apparent as if a fingerpost were pointing at the way."

Another instance:

The film "Barabbas" (1962) shown on Turner Classic Movies at 8 PM Friday, Nov. 10.

Compare and contrast–

• Barabbas emerging from prison as if from Plato's cave, and Barabbas's vision of Christ in blinding sunlight: "Flung into the sunlight, he stands blinking at a young man in white robes; is it merely the unaccustomed light that dazzles his eyes, or does he really see a radiance streaming from the young man's face?" —TIME Magazine, 1962
• 1 Peter 2 on Christ as the "living stone"
• The cover of the novel Stone 588 shown in Friday's 11:20 PM entry

The film is based on the novel by Par Lagerkvist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Lagerkvist novel may be of more enduring interest than Stone 588, but, as Friday's lottery numbers indicate, even lesser stories have their place.