The Kindness of Creatures . . .
Nearing Serenity Park's exit, I decided to turn back and step inside Cashew's quarters for a moment. I had only to nestle close to her perch and she immediately hopped on my back. Crisscrossing my shoulders as I had watched her do with Lilly Love, she stopped at one point for what I assumed would be the parrot equivalent of a kiss. Instead, she began to clean my teeth: her beak lightly tapping against my enamel, the faint vibrations strangely soothing. Immediately afterward, she took a brief nap in my shirt's left breast pocket - it felt as if I'd grown another heart - then re-emerged and crawled to the top of my head. She strolled about there for a time before plucking out one of her own deep blue-green feathers and then descending to gently place it on my left shoulder. I have it still.
And to think that we used to call them birdbrains . . .
"The Lad and the Deil"
'Yes, it is,' said the Deil.
'Oh! it is, is it? then let me see you do it, and just creep into this nut,' said the lad.
Now, when he had crept well into it through the worm's hole, the lad stopped it up with a pin.
'Now, I've got you safe,' he said, and put the nut into his pocket.
'Ay, that'll be an easy job,' said the smith, and took his smallest hammer, laid the nut on the anvil, and gave it a blow, but it wouldn't break.
'Now, I'll crack you to bits,' he said, and let drive at the nut with all his might and main. And so the nut flew to pieces with a bang that blew off half the roof of the smithy, and the whole house creaked and groaned as though it were ready to fall.
'Why! if I don't think the Deil must have been in that nut,' said the smith.
'So he was; you're quite right,' said the lad and went away laughing.
This book, together with A Book of Broadsheets makes up an anthology of the 1915 broadsheets distributed by The Times to members of H.M. Forces serving in the trenches of World War I. The volume contains a wide variety of rich literature from before the war and was designed to give soldiers entertainment. It includes extracts from the works of Francis Bacon, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Walter Raleigh, William Wordsworth and Charles Dickens.
I was ruminating on the fictional fact that blacksmiths are associated with the Devil, and I have a few obvious ideas, of course, such as their mutual association with fire and smoke and their ability to shape things out of metal - Milton, you may recall, has the various demons of Paradise Lost build their city, Pandaemonium, partly through their supernatural skill with metalwork.
While [Saint Eloi] . . . was busy making a precious reliquary, the devil visited Eloi in the guise of [a] beautiful woman to try to distract him from his holy work. St Eloi however saw through the devil's disguise and seized his nose with his red-hot blacksmith's tongs. In this depiction the devil is shown changing back to his real form.
Of interest here is that the Devil's true form is a lot like a werewolf! Dario Rivarossa would be elated to hear of this!
"The Blacksmith and the Devil"
Once upon a time there was a blacksmith who enjoyed life: he squandered his money and carried on many lawsuits. After a few years, he didn't have a single cent left in his pouch.
"Why should I torture myself any longer in this world?" he thought. So he went into the forest with the intention of hanging himself from a tree. Just as he was about to stick his head into the noose, a man with a long white beard came out from behind a tree carrying a large book in his hand.
"Listen, blacksmith," he said. "Write your name down in this large book, and for ten long years you'll have a good life. But after that you'll be mine, and I'll come and fetch you."
"Who are you?" asked the blacksmith.
At this point, we readers surely already know who it is and also what's coming, but if you want the whole Faustian story, go here and read. But I must say . . . if this story really is so old as claimed, it's clearly picked up some elements from other times, that bit about lawsuits, for instance, what does that mean? A Bronze Age rule of law? Surely not! Actually, I don't understand, in any era, what point lawsuits might play in the story.
I heard an old, old story . . .
Alles klar? Well, not entirely . . .
A Good Egg, a Bad Seed?
The premise is interesting. Goblins, trolls, hobgoblins, and even more were various hominid species other than humans, so they're more than myths. Darlington's construction of the relationship differs a bit from Lessing's on this point. I'm informed, incidentally, that fairy tales are much older than previously thought . . .
Nothing to post today . . .
I know nothing of the answer.
A Muslim and a Christian were talking . . . but seriously, folks . . .
The Catholic journal First Things has published an interview by Tobias Haberl with a Muslim and a Catholic - Navid Kermani and Martin Mosebach, respectively - that the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin first printed in German.
The English translation is by Kevin Gallagher, who rendered the title "'Of Course Religion is First and Foremost a Duty': Navid Kermani and Martin Mosebach on Christianity, Islam, and Art" (January 20, 2016).
Do you pray in mosques, Mr. Mosebach?
Do you know the Jesuit joke? "May one smoke while praying? No. May one pray while smoking? Of course."
This joke alone made my time spent with the article well worth the effort, for me, anyway. Maybe I should read the whole article more closely . . .
According to aerospace writer Marcia Dunn, "New Evidence Points to Giant 9th Planet on Solar System Edge" (ABCNews, January 20, 2016). Astronomers have gathered evidence for the existence of a ninth planet and are calling the Neptune-sized monster "Planet 9," rather than "Planet X" - the letter "X, not the Roman numeral "X" - because the latter reeks of "aliens and the imminent destruction of the Earth." As one can see from the artist's rendering above, Planet 9 is head and shoulders above Pluto in size and truly is from outer space, for its revolution around the sun requires between 10,000 and 20,000 years. Remarkably, to my eyes anyway, the distant planet looks as though it could support life . . . or maybe not, not life as we know it, more like death, though not death as we know it either. Some scientists want to attempt contact with the planet, but other scientists are more leery of 'aliens' that might lurk in such dark regions of the universe, and these wary scientists do not like the looks of this Planet 9 from outer space.
Made that Way, Stayed that Way!
Ain't no Strumpet, Vote for Trumpet!
As for Crumpet . . . Vote for Trumpet!
Lindall's Version of the Singularity?
l illustrated for some of the most outstanding science fiction, fantasy and comic magazine writers of the 20th century. The writers were winners of Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, Nebula Awards, and more. These writers wrote for Star Trek, Star Wars and other iconic popular cultural creations. Ted White, who wrote a story especially for me, was the editor for Heavy Metal Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Amazing Stories . . . . At the time it all seemed normal. Looking back, I realize that I was in an illustrators heaven, even though I had many more byways to search in philosophy, collecting, institution building etc.
This memorable event will take place at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center and will be well worth your time.
Andrew C. McCarthy: "The Problem with Islam . . ."
Islam . . . is not a religion of peace. It is a religion of conquest that was spread by the sword. Moreover, it is not only untrue that jihad refers "mainly" to the individual's internal struggle to live morally; it is also untrue that the Islamic ideal of the moral life is indistinguishable from the Western conception . . . . [Any struggle over the soul of Islam] would be over doctrine, [for] the backwardness and anti-Western hostility . . . [are] function[s] of cultural inhibitions [that] . . . . are direct consequences of Islamic scripture and sharia, the law derived from scripture . . . . [We may want] Islam to be moderate, but its scriptures won't cooperate . . . . Scripture . . . does not [evolve] - not in Islam as taught by over a millennium's worth of scholars and accepted by untold millions of Muslims. Mainstream Islam holds that scripture is immutable. The Koran, the center of Islamic life, is deemed the "uncreated word of Allah," eternal. (See, e.g., Sura 6:115: "The Word of thy Lord doth find its fulfillment in truth and justice: None can change His Words: For He is the one Who heareth and knoweth all.") . . . . Islamic doctrine . . . simply is not moderate. Looked at doctrinally, the challenge for "moderate Islam" is . . . Islam.
McCarthy makes a rather impassioned case. Read it in full on your own to see why McCarthy felt driven to write this article. And ask yourself if he's right that the problem is based on scripture, and that the problem is: Doctrine! Doctrine! Doctrine!
Note that McCarthy's reference to "scripture" in Islam is a reference to the Qur'an, and that's correct, as is his reference to "sharia" as "the law derived from scripture," but he does not refer in his article to hadith (traditions about the Muslim prophet) or sira (biographies of the Muslim prophet), from both of which sharia is also derived.
Hallyu's 'rupture' onto the world stage!
thousands of years of condensed artistry that has ruptured onto the modern world stage.
As you can see from the bouquet of flowers in the photo above, the most 'ruptured' artistry was due almost entirely to the "great and powerful" Psy, whose "Gangnam Style" took the world by stormy surprise at how readily it 'ruptured' nearly 6000 years of Korean history through over two billion pinprick hits on YouTube!
Korean fans await the next e-'rupture' . . .
ISIS fighters who fled to the terror group's Iraqi stronghold of Mosul after being defeated in Ramadi were burned alive in the town square . . . in an unmistakable message to fighters who may soon be defending the northern city [of Mosul] from government forces . . . . [The ISIS fighters who fled Ramadi] "were grouped together and made to stand in a circle . . . . [a]nd set on fire to die" . . . . With government, Kurdish and coalition forces now mustering to recapture Mosul, which fell to ISIS approximately 18 months ago, an increasingly paranoid ISIS has stepped up its murders of women and children . . . . "They come to the house and take the children and accuse them of being spies . . . . If the mom cries and gets upset at them, they accuse of her being a spy too and take her to the jail and later kill her" . . . . [One terrorism expert explained,] "ISIS is fracturing, paranoid from within, . . . [and] the harsher the tactic the more desperate the leadership is" . . . . [Another expert agreed: As ISIS continues] "to lose territory, we've seen a growing number of defections and a rise in the number of alleged internal spies - many of whom they have killed mercilessly without demonstrating significant evidence of internal espionage."
To hear that ISIS is fracturing, growing paranoid, and turning on its own jihadis comes as great news - though I mourn the deaths of the innocent whom ISIS in its paranoia also slays. When ISIS finally falls completely, and the Islamic State is gone, I hope to see its leaders go on trial as war criminals.
In their crimes, they are legion . . .
Sun-Ae has an altitude problem . . .
I have just arrived in Atacama, Chile after visiting Uyuni and other parts of Bolivia. In Uyuni we started a 3 days' tour, and I [was] . . . sick most of the time. I . . . had a headache . . . [and] could not eat. I missed a lot of nice scenery because I had to lie down or stay in the car. The altitude was 4800 meters at the highest point. I thought I had suffered enough before but I seemed not to [be] able to get used to the altitude.
Now we have arrived in the hostel near the border, I feel immediately better.
"To be frank, such prickly life is life as I'd prefer not knowing too intimately!" she thinks. "And I'd need water! Oh, here's some now - cool, clear water."
"I can hardly wait to guzzle some down!" she thinks, her thirst growing.
"Looks a bit icy. Must be really cold water at this altitude!" Her thirst grows in anticipation. "Ah, all that fresh, cold water just waiting for me . . ."
The 'water' turns out to be the stagnant dregs of a salt lake. Ever thirstier, Sun-Ae and her team pile into their SUVs and continue their search for water. "Keep driving, Dan - we'll soon find water . . ."
Sun-Ae waking up: "Oh, thank God! It was only a dream!"
Disembodied Voice: "No, dear. This is a dream. You're really still in the desert, looking for water . . ."
Mr. Scott's health report . . .
[D]ad has stenosis of the spine near the bottom where the nerve bundles gather to form the spinal cord . . . . The neurosurgeon is going to scrape bone away to clear up the pressure on the spine causing the pain . . . . No doubt the these problems, over the years, were exacerbated by his active lifestyle . . . . He hurt himself . . . on riding on a trail ride at my sister's ranch at Thanksgiving . . . . He's . . . worse [from] . . . going up and down the stairs and lifting wood into the furnace. He . . . will be on his stomach for several days in the hospital. He also . . . is convinced that he will walk out of the hospital and like magic do everything he wants. I will keep you posted. Surgery is at 7:00 am this morning (Friday).
Well, it doesn't sound life-threatening, so the news is not entirely bad. Let's keep him in our thoughts, that his recovery be quick!
but he wants your job!
One evening last autumn, four experts in the field of artificial intelligence arrived in Westminster with an urgent message for our government. There's a robot revolution on the way, they said, and unless we prepare for it we're in trouble . . . . The four experts spoke in turn, each about a different point in the future, like biblical prophets warning of the End Times. The most farseeing prophet was theoretically the most alarming. He talked about "the singularity," the point at which a computer will be capable of recursive self-improvement; of designing and building machines cleverer than itself and far, far cleverer than us. He said this point might be only 45 years away.
Subscribe now to read on . . .
Well, I now really wanted to read this article since they'd gone to such lengths to hide it from me, so I clicked on the writer's name, then on the article's title, and read the entire article . . . or would have if I hadn't tried to visit twice so that I could share this article's online address with my readers! That generosity lost me my second chance, and I got the same clean-up-your-act message as before.
Eye Robot is watching you. Aye, Robot.
Poetry Break: "The Pin-Head Prance"
To stand upright will ask thee skill?
That was a bit of overkill!
We smitten with amazement fall?
Oh, that won't happen, not at all!
And see if you can dance along!
You do it too, or you'll be dead!
Those of you with the anthology, Emanations: 2 + 2 = 5, will find this poem on page 422. For interested readers, you might note that this poem's inspiration comes from the third temptation set up by Satan in Paradise Regained, but I'll leave it at that . . .
Oh Christmassy, this Orange Tree!
Brought to you by some miserable muse on a wild hare. Or a wild hair. Whatever.
We're just leaving the place with Machu Picchu. Yesterday evening, we arrived here and went to see the mountains today. The weather was great as you can see in the photos. We even went up to Wayna Picchu, about one and a half hours further up hiking. From there we could see the Machu Piccchu. An amazing place, I wish you were here! And the kids, too. We have had a good time so far. The heavens blessed us with great weather every day . . . . Thank you for pushing me to go. This will be the best trip in my life.
Undoubtedly, she'll have a lot more to say on her return. Meanwhile, I'm busy editing her translation of a book of short stories, as well as articles by other people for various journals . . .
The first might be called the Crime Fallacy. As is true of many people, what first springs to Dawkins' mind when he thinks of law is criminal law. Criminal trials fill a large space in the public imagination, but - to borrow a metaphor from biology - they are but one cell of law's complex corpus. Most lawyers and judges never enter a criminal court.
The second is the Guilt Fallacy. Dawkins is "deeply shocked" to discover that a person who committed an illegal act may be found not guilty[, but this] confuses "guilt," which is a legal concept, with the commission of a forbidden act. Whether one has committed an act is a question of fact. Whether one is "guilty" is a question of law. A person may have carried out an act, but quite rightly be found "not guilty" - just as he may be found "guilty," even though he did nothing . . . . [In this case, the term "guilt"] means that the state has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed the act. If the state cannot prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, the accused is "not guilty" - regardless of whether he or she really did commit the act . . . . The underlying premise . . . is straightforward: It is better to let 10 criminals go free than one innocent person be convicted. Centuries of legal history show that this system, though far from perfect, is the fairest that humans have been able to devise.
Dawkins' third and most fundamental fallacy is the delusion that law is about truth - "what really happened," as he puts it. Let us call this the Truth Fallacy. It is here that Dawkins goes furthest astray [because the] goal of law, unlike that of science, is not to determine truth; its primary aim is to minimize conflict. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis summed up this understanding as follows: "In most matters, it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right." Even a wrong or "unjust" decision can end a conflict . . . .
The cornerstone of law is social harmony, and its ultimate purpose can be defined as promoting social happiness, a higher standard than mere harmony. Dawkins found happiness in science; we are all the richer for his contribution. But, judging by his memoirs, we are equally fortunate that he did not pursue a career in law.
On the other hand, if Dawkins had undertaken a career in law, he might be writing this very article to disabuse the scientist Ronald Sokol of these three fallacies about law.
By the way, I'd always thought of the aim of law to be justice, so I'm struck by the aim of law being harmony, which calls up Korean ways of thinking about the importance of a harmonious society. Are we Westerners and Easterners not so different in thinking, after all?
Isis in crisis. Disillusioned Islamic State recruits are deserting the bloodthirsty terror group as it loses territory, says Paul Wood. Morale is plummeting, especially among foreign fighters. Many are packing it in, and many others want to defect. But it is too soon to say that the caliphate is done for. The death throes of the Caliphate will take time; and if, or when, the caliphate is smashed to pieces, some of its members will be coming back to the UK.
I had a sense that this was happening. I read a lot each day on the Muslim world, much more than I report upon - for I have many interests - so I'm not surprised by this good news. May the good news continue! Don't celebrate yet, though, for this isn't over.
And when it is over - assuming ISIS fails - true believers will be returning to the West, still certain of the 'failed' prophecies, for we all know what happens when prophecies fail - true believers double down and believe even more strongly.
Anyway, read Wood's entire article.
Me and my Kimfolk tested an A-Bomb back yonder and shook the whole world in a single day. That was way back when. Now that I'm all growed up, I've tested an H-Bomb and kept the sun up all night. Talk about global warming? You ain't seen nothin yet! Next time, I'm gonna drop an F-Bomb and explode in rage. I've been gorging myself to increase my mass, cause ever-body knows Einstein's famous formular, e=mc2, so when I blow my top and my bottom, I'll shake the whole dog-damn universe at the speed of light bitchin squared!
Just you wait and see. When I shout, "F*ck you, universe!", ain't nobody gonna laugh about no 'interviews' with me and my Kimfolk no more!
"From Lima - A quick sending before leaving soon for Ica."
Okay, faithful readers, what are these sights, and where in Lima are they to be found?
This extremely short paper requires considerable attention, to the extent that this reader cannot (at this point) recommend the work for publication . . . . The issues are manifest, and the brevity of the paper belies a suite of problems: simply put, too often complexities are ignored or glossed, and opportunities for analysis (historical, generic, socio-cultural, ideological, political) are consistently missed. There is no clear evidence of either a methodology or theorized approach; structurally, paragraphs are often misrepresented as sections. For this reviewer, the question becomes why recuperate the work of a "nationalist" who is elsewhere remembered as "old-fashioned, quaint, and chauvinistic"? The paper never quite convincingly resolves this crucial question.
About halfway through, the writer proffers a strategy (or is it a defense?) to recuperating Benét, and suggests we differentiate between "ethnic nationalism versus civic nationalism" . . . the latter blithely characterized as extending "membership to any individual – regardless of ethnicity – who is willing to embrace the shared values of the imagined community". This seems willful, or at least willing to ignore the civic community as a "munus" (I use that term after Esposito) demanding our duty bound acquiescence to putative social codes; one wonders what Foucault might have to say in terms of those privileging and legitimizing power/knowledge discourses which systemically erase the other as part of a process of social codification (the process imparting erasure as equally as anything parlayed by a so-called "ethnic nationalism"). The author seems unwilling to tackle these complexities, and instead simply appropriates/promulgates the ethnic/civic paradigm (gleaned from an encyclopedia) without analysis. At a minimum, further thought is required here.
Finally, nationalism and fascism are flattened into a-cultural, a-historical, universal ideological or political manifestations (which, of course, they are not): where did Germany's NSDAP party start if not in particularly enculturated versions of a staunchly felt "nationalism"? As a culturally situated historical mode, Benét's nationalism must be more deeply critiqued and, I suggest, contrasted with anything roaming the old world (Europe) in a similar moment in history. But perhaps most damningly, I am afraid the notion of a national literature suffering some kind of "ethnic and multicultural fragmentation" puts us back somewhere within the realm of the New Critics; since [John] Crowe Ransom et al., much theoretical work has necessarily happened in order to create an incredulity toward these sorts of grand narratives.
Leaving aside the referee's effacement of the difference between ethnic and civic nationalisms, let me just note that grand narratives are far from dead, despite Postmodernism - and what is Postmodernism itself but yet another grand narrative, even a meta-grand narrative! And look at the accusations, the charges leveled at me, all because I used the expression "ethnic and multicultural fragmentation" of American literature. In fact, I used this politically incorrect expression as a test to see what sort of response it would garner. Apparently, I am criticized for wanting to turn back the progress made in literary criticism. What nonsense! I merely suggested that we take another look at the oeuvre of Stephen Vincent Benét, whose writings have been - in my opinion - unjustifiably ignored.
This referee's critique misses the actual target because it aims at a target that I did not set up. I don't deny that the referee's suggestions would make for an interesting article, but that article is not the one I set out to write. A literary journal expects literary theory, however, and I didn't provide that, so I accept the journal's decision not to publish my article.
Time to submit elsewhere . . .
According to Wikipedia, Chives have insect-repelling properties, which might extend toward repelling other pests. Shoggaths, for example. Or fanatical members of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP)!
Michael G. Chivers is lives on the South Coast of England and collects fridge magnets.
Michael G. Chivers is a member in good standing of the RCP who lives on the South Coast of England and collects fridge magnets.
Now that would make more sense. Except for the RCP detail. That is disappointing. I had thought that beneath him. How could you, Chivers?
But I still didn't know much about the man until I conducted some rather arduous research - I reached over to my book shelf, pulled out Emanations: Second Sight, and checked page 370 - and from these hard-won research results, I uncovered an entire sheet of information about the man. Except that I suspect all of the information there to be fraudulent. False. Fake. Untrue. Incorrect. Etc.
Let's see if that "unpatriotic rotten doctor commie rat" will have the audacity to show his traffic-cone-topped face on this blog of mine anymore.
Now fireworks, the ultimate photo - until the next batch arrives!
Wish I were there . . .
There's probably no law specifically outlawing this, but think of the chaos that would ensue if everybody were to walk around with traffic cones on their heads! Order would break down instantly, and the entire planet Earth would have to be quarantined - possibly even exterminated - to protect the rest of the universe.
This is a possible, distant reading of the plot behind The Squalling Terror, which was written by Michael G. Chivers and which I have described as "a really good story, a sort of Lovecraftian satire of the Marxist Revolutionary Party as a religious cult that gets more than it bargained for," and I added, "I did enjoy the story. It was so good that I almost set it aside for fear of nightmares, but I steeled myself and read on."
You'll get no plot-spoilers here on this blog post, but if you're familiar with Lovecraft's tales, you'll already know what to expect of a religious cult for which the Marxist Revolutionary Party is a 'secular' front.
But does the tale at least have a happy ending, some potential readers will want to know. The answer to that question is . . . "Yes" . . . and . . . "No" . . . depending on whom you identify with in the story. But such is true of every story.
At around 90 pages, this story is more novella than 'short' story, but it is well worth time taken to read it.