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Wed, 27 May 2009 06:36:44 -0700

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What uniform can I wear to hide my heavy heart?
It is too heavy. It will always show.

Jacques felt himself growing gloomy again.
He was well aware that to live on Earth
a man must follow its fashions,
and hearts were no longer worn.

Jean Cocteau, The Miscreant

MEMORY, come hither
And tune your merry notes;
And while upon the wind
Your music floats
I'll pore upon the stream
Where sighing lovers dream,
And fish for fancies as they pass
Within the watery glass.

I'll drink of the clear stream
And hear the linnet's song,
And there I'll lie and dream
The day along:
And, when night comes, I'll go
To places fit for woe
Walking along the darken'd valley
With silent Melancholy.

William Blake

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Pour Mon Ange.

http://b-bear.stumbleupon.com/review/33120587/

Tue, 26 May 2009 19:18:31 -0700

You may have guessed from the previous font post that I have chosen the sans-serif for my thesis. Now I need to drop you a little note to say: I need to be on more intimate terms with that font. (That font and my girlfriend, my dogs and our house.)

I wish I could say, as some bloggers would, that I am taking a sabbatical. Traditionally, a sabbatical is a break from work - however, for me blogging is a pure meditative pleasure, and I take a break from it in order to work harder on my thesis at university. My free time is evaporating, and white fire is burning me.

White fire is what the old Jews in their Midrashim called the blank spaces on the pages of their holy scrolls. For them the Torah was written by God with black fire upon white fire, and because there was so much white fire on the holy page, it was God's wish that his creation was continued; the white spaces needed to be filled up with more black ink. Thus the inspired rabbis justified their own creativity in commentaries on the Torah; the Oral Torah became dignified as a supplement to the Written Torah.

When I say I am being burnt by white fire, then I am referring to the blank pages of my thesis - they're the white fiery spaces waiting to be written and that are haunting my dreams. For some time now I have been meditating over those pages, dreaming of a perfect set of letters, the best spell to open every door there is.

Of course, part of becoming a mature student is to realise that not every door can open at your command, and it's worth being happy with creating a key that makes others happy in its use - even if it can only suggest a WAY OUT of the prison in which we keep ideas.

And for now the meditating must come to an end, and the torturous realisation must continue. It's a pleasure to be with people meditating, learning, and getting to know others in that charmed way that breaks the spell, but now I must return to settle down on the surface and fill up the page with those traces that burn away the evanescence. It's time to take up the black fire.

Which is a lengthy and ungodly way of saying: I got heaps of work to do.

See you when I can see my desk again.

Postscript. This is perhaps the only emoticon that expresses what I am feeling right now:

http://b-bear.stumbleupon.com/review/33061418/

Sun, 24 May 2009 11:28:57 -0700

for the mediate, without traces, becomes evanescent*

http://b-bear.stumbleupon.com/review/32892909/

Mon, 18 May 2009 19:12:14 -0700

http://b-bear.stumbleupon.com/review/32898874/

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:21:08 -0700

"THE TOAST," writes Roger D. Abrahams, who was an early collector & commentator on such forms of African-American oral poetry, "is a narrative poem that is recited, often in a theatrical manner. ... Toasts are not sung, and it is perhaps the lack of reliance on the structure of a tune that allows their freedom of form. But toasts do have a structure. Like so many other forms of oral narrative, they are organized by conventions, ones that Albert Lord would have considered 'epic.' ... The subject treated is freedom of the body through superhuman feats and of the spirit through acts that are free of restrictive social mores (or in direct violation of them), especially in respect of crime and violence. The heroes of most of these stories are hard men, and very clever men (or animals) who have the amorality of the trickster." (R.D.A., Deep Down in the Jungle, 1963)

"Signifying Monkey" is a very well-known toast and exists in many closely related versions. Abrahams defines "signify": "To imply, goad, beg, boast by indirect verbal or gestural means. A language of implication." Writes Bruce Jackson, who collected these versions: "'Signifying Monkey' is about a jungle trickster who by clever word play - signifying - sends his arch foe, Lion, off to be stomped and mangled by the stately Elephant. The Monkey uses wile and cleverness to accomplish what he cannot accomplish with brawn; his mode is a verbal judo, for he uses his enemy's own excessive ego against him, and he does it all with words. In most of the poems he falls out of his tree while gloating and jumping up and down, giving Lion a chance to trap him. He usually tricks Lion into stepping back so he can 'fight like a natural man,' whereupon he jumps back into his tree and resumes his insults. He usually 'wins,' but his gains are not unmixed, for although he gets someone else to trample his enemy he still must stay off the ground if he wants to stay alive." (Notes to Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me, Rounder Records CD, 1998)

{ftp LISTEN HERE}

More Toasts
The Signifying Monkey - Clean version
See Rudy Ray Moore's Signifying Monkey Toast Below - A
not so clean version

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Fri, 15 May 2009 08:49:05 -0700

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http://b-bear.stumbleupon.com/review/32836323/

Fri, 15 May 2009 08:39:49 -0700

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http://b-bear.stumbleupon.com/review/32796797/

Wed, 13 May 2009 19:56:36 -0700

Currently reading

Remind me to read

http://b-bear.stumbleupon.com/review/32700328/

Sun, 10 May 2009 05:50:33 -0700

Otisagabey, whose site is certainly worth more than a confirmation of one's prejudice against certain types of people (or animals), has recently gently taken me to task for my claws.

It is probable that, being wordy bearman on SU, I am at some disadvantage in engaging in rational debate. This leads me to one of my arguments, that animals have many detractors and much negative propaganda but rarely have good or rational press on their side. Surely, animals cannot care about how they are portrayed - all our discussions take place in our own theatre of representation. What matters, however, is that many people, on the basis of representation alone rather than on actual evidence, continue to implicitly justify abuses of power.

The problem that I am identifying is not restricted merely to human-animal relationships. Otis believes that I was hastily trying to pigeonhole him into a certain typology. I do hold hope therefore that he will not think that I belong to a certain 'type'. Typecasting is one common characteristic of highly emotional or negative debaters, and it is true that I was a little harsh on Otis. Lack of space in treating his opinions made this harshness seem even more cutting.

But my target was not Otis personally, because I do not know him, and because I lack visible targets (if not invisible allies), and because the treatment of animals that I abhor means that the only monsters I am fighting are rather diffuse ones - so, no, I am not fighting types, and Otis is no pigeon in a hole. I am fighting spaces, holes and systems. I am raging against the subterfuges of space that afflict us. Rather than a typology, then, I am seeking a topology: this is as far from 'practical psychologism' as the flashing blade held by a minimum wage worker to the throat of a pig every fraction of a minute in Cincinnati is from rational discussion.

If everyone could indeed do the following - 'inquire further, rather than pulling a fast one towards some alleged, and common, foe and bear our teeth and claws' - it is true that the world would be a better place. There are very few people in this world who treat inquiry as an end in itself, however; so what I would warn against is the way in which people sink their claws into any findings in order to justify uninquiring prejudice. The basis for understanding is found in a generous base of positive definitions rather than negative ones, for perceptions of difference breed fear and, yes, the absence of socialisation (and, additionally, exploitation). Such elegant words as Otis' own here could also apply to how we treat animals as negative objects that help us violently define our humanity.

'One might "see" smugness among dogs,' Otis writes, 'but we can not know for sure whether it is the smugness that is projected on the dogs by him.' As he no doubt knows, we should avoid anthropomorphism as much as anthropocentrism. Both are based on the same general assumptions or 'methodology': animals are to be valued only according to how they conform to man's image of himself. What I would add, however, is that I might also "see" the smugness among human animals, but I cannot know for sure whether or not smugness is projected on human beings by me. Why is it that we never insist on holding an inquiry to prove that humans feel, think, or are capable of smugness?

We all have a long path ahead of us if we want to live beyond smugness and undertake real inquiry - this of course applies to evolutionary theories as much as to religious ones. I apologise if I ever come off as smug. The failure here is my use of language: for words afford us such luxurious confusions most other animals cannot afford.

http://b-bear.stumbleupon.com/review/32659449/

Fri, 08 May 2009 10:25:10 -0700

I am perfectly resigned to this. tnks.