In yet another pile of books slowly being read through, we have the novels of Thomas Pynchon; I've just begun my drift through the ethereal story of "V". I am doing all these reading projects, besides being addicted to reading, for the purpose of subjective and some objective analysis of the modern novel. For the current adult generation of modern American literate audience at least, the novel is the best way to 'show' ideas, reflections, observation, people, places, etc. The graphic novel or anime may be the way to tell stories to an audience of the coming generation, but for now I think, the standard good novel (whatever that is) is the way to proceed viz writing for entertainment.
The style of "V" for me is strange, but I like how smoothly the characters and their dialog is done. For comparison, I may also read other 20th century novelists such as Bellow and Singer to see how their 'voice' represents American culture and how this compares with what Pynchon is doing.
Well, if I learn anything I'll drop a few lines here.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Eucharist: But...
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
Trinket alle daraus; das ist mein Blut des neuen Testaments, welches vergossen wird für viele zur Vergebung der Sünden.
or
bibite ex hoc omnes hic est enim sanguis meus novi testamenti qui pro multis effunditur in remissionem peccatorum
Trinket alle daraus; das ist mein Blut des neuen Testaments, welches vergossen wird für viele zur Vergebung der Sünden.
or
bibite ex hoc omnes hic est enim sanguis meus novi testamenti qui pro multis effunditur in remissionem peccatorum
Monday, April 21, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Song Lyrics: Ticket to The Moon by ELO
From ELO we have a song completed and distributed by 1981:
Remember the good old 1980s?
When things were so uncomplicated?
I wish I could go back there again
And everything could be the same.
I've got a ticket to the moon
I'll be leaving here any day soon
Yeah, I've got a ticket to the moon
But I'd rather see the sunrise in your eyes.
Got a ticket to the moon
I'll be rising high above the earth so soon
And the tears I cry might turn into the rain
That gently falls upon your window
You'll never know.
CHORUS:
Ticket to the moon (ticket to the moon)
Ticket to the moon (ticket to the moon)
Ticket to the moon (ticket to the moon).
Fly, fly through a troubled sky
Up to a new world shining bright, oh, oh.
Flying high above
Soaring madly through the mysteries that come
Wondering sadly if the ways that led me here
Could turn around and I would see you there
Standing there (and I would see you there, waiting...)
Ticket to the moon
Flight leaves here today from Satellite Two
As the minutes go by, what should I do?
I paid the fare, what more can I say?
It's just one way (only one way)...
I once thought that as a small child watching Neal Armstrong step foot upon another world, our moon, that one day in my lifetime I would be able to travel beyond the confines of Earth and see the vast and interesting universe that God had wrought.
This song reminds me of that yearning and also reflects my feeling of alienation and isolation in interpersonal human relations that plagued me in my youth.
Remember the good old 1980s?
When things were so uncomplicated?
I wish I could go back there again
And everything could be the same.
I've got a ticket to the moon
I'll be leaving here any day soon
Yeah, I've got a ticket to the moon
But I'd rather see the sunrise in your eyes.
Got a ticket to the moon
I'll be rising high above the earth so soon
And the tears I cry might turn into the rain
That gently falls upon your window
You'll never know.
CHORUS:
Ticket to the moon (ticket to the moon)
Ticket to the moon (ticket to the moon)
Ticket to the moon (ticket to the moon).
Fly, fly through a troubled sky
Up to a new world shining bright, oh, oh.
Flying high above
Soaring madly through the mysteries that come
Wondering sadly if the ways that led me here
Could turn around and I would see you there
Standing there (and I would see you there, waiting...)
Ticket to the moon
Flight leaves here today from Satellite Two
As the minutes go by, what should I do?
I paid the fare, what more can I say?
It's just one way (only one way)...
I once thought that as a small child watching Neal Armstrong step foot upon another world, our moon, that one day in my lifetime I would be able to travel beyond the confines of Earth and see the vast and interesting universe that God had wrought.
This song reminds me of that yearning and also reflects my feeling of alienation and isolation in interpersonal human relations that plagued me in my youth.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
ORP: PKD & when the state gains supremacy
If the state gains supremacy, this quote from PKD, "Radio Free...", will apply (as they think they have killed God):
"Well, I thought glumly, a great epoch in the history of man has reached its end. Nothing will instruct us, nothing exists in our sky to cheer us when we are down, to lift us up and keep us alive, to heal our wounds. In Washington and Moscow they are saying, 'Man has finally come of age; he doesn't need paternalistic help.' Which is another way of saying, 'We have abolished that help, and in its place we will rule,' offering no help at all: taking but not giving, ruling but not obeying, telling but not listening, taking life and not giving it. The slayers govern now, without interference; the dreams of mankind have become empty."
"Well, I thought glumly, a great epoch in the history of man has reached its end. Nothing will instruct us, nothing exists in our sky to cheer us when we are down, to lift us up and keep us alive, to heal our wounds. In Washington and Moscow they are saying, 'Man has finally come of age; he doesn't need paternalistic help.' Which is another way of saying, 'We have abolished that help, and in its place we will rule,' offering no help at all: taking but not giving, ruling but not obeying, telling but not listening, taking life and not giving it. The slayers govern now, without interference; the dreams of mankind have become empty."
ORP: PKD & unbeliever's view of Christ
What thinkest thou of this speculation from Philip K. Dick's "Radio Free Albemuth" (understand that I do not endorse this view, but it's interesting):
"... a Christian anamnesis, too: memory of Christ, of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion; in Christian anamnesis those events are remembered in the same way, as a real memory. It's the sacred inner miracle of Christian worship; it's what the bread and wine cause, 'Do this in remembrance of me,' and you do it, and you remember Jesus all at once. As if you had known him but had forgotten. The bread and wine, partaking of them, bring it back."
novo visum
neue ansicht
"... a Christian anamnesis, too: memory of Christ, of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion; in Christian anamnesis those events are remembered in the same way, as a real memory. It's the sacred inner miracle of Christian worship; it's what the bread and wine cause, 'Do this in remembrance of me,' and you do it, and you remember Jesus all at once. As if you had known him but had forgotten. The bread and wine, partaking of them, bring it back."
novo visum
neue ansicht
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
ORP: PKD & Psychosis description of sin
In "Martian Time Slip" by Philip K. Dick, the protagonist contemplates and in this passage we have, [:
Now I can see what psychosis is: the utter alienation of perception from the objects of the outside world, especially the objects which matter: the warmhearted people there.
And what takes their place?
A dreadful preoccupation with--the endless ebb and flow of one's own self.
The changes emanating from within which affect only the inside world.
It is a splitting apart of the two worlds, inner and outer, so that neither registers on the other.
Both exist, but each goes its own way.
It is the stopping of time. The end of experience, of anything new. Once the person becomes psychotic, nothing ever happens to him again.
This describes the progress of sin as alienation symptomatic of relations within humanity which ultimately progresses to the most consequential broken relationship--eternal separation from God.
Now I can see what psychosis is: the utter alienation of perception from the objects of the outside world, especially the objects which matter: the warmhearted people there.
And what takes their place?
A dreadful preoccupation with--the endless ebb and flow of one's own self.
The changes emanating from within which affect only the inside world.
It is a splitting apart of the two worlds, inner and outer, so that neither registers on the other.
Both exist, but each goes its own way.
It is the stopping of time. The end of experience, of anything new. Once the person becomes psychotic, nothing ever happens to him again.
This describes the progress of sin as alienation symptomatic of relations within humanity which ultimately progresses to the most consequential broken relationship--eternal separation from God.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
ORP: PKD & the John Dowland poem
I just finished “Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said” by Philip K. Dick. In addition to dealing with mutating reality, the story takes place in a future totalitarian United States. Since the book was written in 1970 and published in 1974, the imagined future technology is a bit dated, but conceptually the story is still valid.
Toward the end of the book I ran across the following passage from the POV of the police general (a character in the book):
And here is the John Dowland lute song that inspired PKD in the story.
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs!
Exiled for ever, let me mourn;
Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorn.
Down vain lights, shine you no more!
No nights are dark enough for those
That in despair their lost fortunes deplore.
Light doth but shame disclose.
Never may my woes be relieved,
Since pity is fled;
And tears and sighs and groans my weary days
Of all joys have deprived.
From the highest spire of contentment
My fortune is thrown;
And fear and grief and pain for my deserts
Are my hopes, since hope is gone.
Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell,
Learn to contemn light
Happy, happy they that in hell
Feel not the world's despite.
Toward the end of the book I ran across the following passage from the POV of the police general (a character in the book):
…don’t come to the attention of the authorities. Don’t ever interest us. Don’t make us want to know more about you.
Someday your story, the ritual and shape of your downfall, may be made public, at a remote future time when it no longer matters. When there are no more forced-labor camps and no more campuses surrounded by rings of police carrying rapid-firing submachine guns and wearing gas masks that make them like great-snouted, huge-eyed root-eaters, some kind of noxious lower animal. Someday there may be a postmortem inquiry and it will be learned that you in fact did no harm—did nothing, actually, but become noticed.
And here is the John Dowland lute song that inspired PKD in the story.
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs!
Exiled for ever, let me mourn;
Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorn.
Down vain lights, shine you no more!
No nights are dark enough for those
That in despair their lost fortunes deplore.
Light doth but shame disclose.
Never may my woes be relieved,
Since pity is fled;
And tears and sighs and groans my weary days
Of all joys have deprived.
From the highest spire of contentment
My fortune is thrown;
And fear and grief and pain for my deserts
Are my hopes, since hope is gone.
Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell,
Learn to contemn light
Happy, happy they that in hell
Feel not the world's despite.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
W: LP: LG: FD in general
Since I am reading Crime & Punishment out-loud to Janie, it is moving at a much slower pace than I am used to when I typically devour a novel. To fill in for my impatience I decided to read "The Double" by Dostoevsky (again by the same translators as "Notes..."). For complete analysis of and plot spoilers for this story, you can wiki it or sample the thousands of websites and blogs talking about it.
I have finished reading the story, and I have to say, stylistically, the story is like these other stories by Dostoevsky and the main character's existential angst is similar to the Underground man and Roskolnikov, except in this story the author introduces another character exactly like the main character. This allows us to think about questions of identity and what it means to exist--the sorts of themes that Philip K. Dick liked to deal with in his stories. In fact as I have begun to read "The Double", it reminded me somewhat of PKD's story, "Imposter" (which was made into the 2002 movie). What would you do if someone identical to you (wearing the same clothes, having the same personality, etc.) showed up into your life even to the extent of getting a job in the same office with you? And then went about taking over your life?
hmm
I have finished reading the story, and I have to say, stylistically, the story is like these other stories by Dostoevsky and the main character's existential angst is similar to the Underground man and Roskolnikov, except in this story the author introduces another character exactly like the main character. This allows us to think about questions of identity and what it means to exist--the sorts of themes that Philip K. Dick liked to deal with in his stories. In fact as I have begun to read "The Double", it reminded me somewhat of PKD's story, "Imposter" (which was made into the 2002 movie). What would you do if someone identical to you (wearing the same clothes, having the same personality, etc.) showed up into your life even to the extent of getting a job in the same office with you? And then went about taking over your life?
hmm
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