…..………………,,,…..….. A. a I
…..………………,,,…....v v ………iR
…….……………….,,,…..e a ……..,,,,,.v a v
……..…………..,,,…..\\ ……………,,,,,a i
…..………………,,,…..ta……………,,,. A R I.
\ \ \
\|\|/\\\?
(0||\\\\////
|)\\\+]}))((/ / /
“‘””'”””””””””
{)= ?“““`[[[““““ . >“`/
/\\/\ \//\\ \– -\ \?? //?///
… The See’r “““““tombolo`
n………Mi &……..1`
e …….Suw8……. ?
..t…..–—–../…..
……………la…Xrie….l………….
……... . : “i…...,..……….
……….oe u y……….
………..l466……….
……….. P i……….
..m
..mmm……..
World as Representation, 1.2.4, trans. Payne, pp.178: “Further, we do not let abstract thought, the concepts of reason take possession of our consciousness, but instead of all this, devote the whole power of our mind to perception, sink ourselves completely therein, and let our whole consciousness be filled by the calm contemplation of the natural object actually present, whether it be a landscape, a tree, a rock, a crag, a building, or anything else. We lose ourselves entirely in this object to use a pregnant expression; in other words, we forget our individuality, our will, and continue to exist only as pure subject, as clear mirror of the object, so that it is as though the object alone existed without anyone to perceive it, and thus we are no longer able to separate the perceiver from the perception, but the two have become one, since the entire consciousness is filled and occupied by a single image of perception.”
Proust and Schopenhauer
Schopenhauer mentions a “magic lantern” (World as Representation, Bk 2, Sect. 28, trans. Payne, pp.153 ), Proust mentions a magic lantern (e.g., The Search / overture, translation Moncrieff, pp. 9, but is recurrent theme).
Schopenhauer speak of the experience of being absorbed in the observation of a thing, of being a “pure subject” (World as Representation, 1.2.4, trans. Payne, pp.178, quoted in part above) Proust dramatizes this activity (e.g., the hawthorne scene, The Search, transation Moncrieff, pp. 150-151, but there may be a better example of this), and Proust biographer William Carter speaks of this as having been something Proust would really do (quoted in part below).
Schopenhauer is mentioned at least once, as I recall, in La Reserche, although in passing (actually twice, both in Time Regained): 1, 2. Apparently Beckett’s book on Proust discusses Schopenhauer… ( See this, which doesn’t dwell directly on the perception of the “pure subject”, but does have interesting remarks on Proust, Schopenhauer, and Beckett’s treatment of the two.)
A question this begs for me is if Joyce’s “epiphany” involves a similar or opposite process of disinterested entranced observation. I guess I don’t know where, if anywhere, Joyce made a definitive comment about his “epiphany” but my vague sense of it is that he located the source of the epiphantic in the object itself –in superpacked nodes of events– rather than in identifications made by a pure or will-less subject. (Difference between “perfect moments” and perfect observations of regular moments.)
At Reveillon
William C. Carter, Marcel Proust, A Life, pp.173-174: “At Reveillon, one August day, when Marcel and Reynaldo went for a walk in the garden, an incident occurred that held a clue to Proust’s ability to concentrate and observe. Hahn later recorded the event: ‘We were passing by a border of Bengal roses, when suddenly he fell silent and stopped. I stopped also. but then he started walking again and so did I. Soon he stopped again and asked me with that childlike sweetness that was somewhat sad that he always kept in his tone and voice: “Would you be angry if I hung back a little? I’d like to look against those little roses.”‘ Reynaldo left Marcel and walked all the way around the castle until he came back to where he had left Marcel, who was still there staring “intently” at the roses […] According to Hahn, this was the first of many such episodes, ‘mysterious moments when Marcel communicated totally with nature, with art, with life, in those “profound inutes” when his entire being… entered into a trance where his superhuman intelligence and sensitivity… reached the toor of things and discovered what no one else could see.”‘” (Carter goes on to compare this to the Hawthorne episode.)
“Palinurus clearly stands for a certain will-to-failure or repugnance-to-success, a desire to give up at the last moment, an urge towards loneliness, isolation and obscurity. Palinurus, in spite of his great ability and his conspicuous public position, deserted his post in the moment of victory and opted for the unknown shore.” Cyril Connolly, The Unquiet Grave. [Palinurus]
...Integu-__
c h p.-|
o o h. ;-_)
l p y.–.-`.–.\
o p l.–.-` ;-_- –\
n o l.–.-` ;-_.–._.(
u l i.–.-` ;-_.–.- -. \
s e s.–.-` ;-_.–.- -_.. -‘)
*Ret*.–.-` ;-_.–.- -_.. -‘-|
...Integu–
c h p.-|
o o h. ;-_)
l p y.–.-`.–.\
o p l.–.-` ;-_- –\
n o l.–.-` ;-_.–._.(
u l i.–.-` ;-_.–.- -. \
s e s.–.-` ;-_.–.- -_.. -‘)
*Ret*.–.-` ;-_.–.- -_.. -‘-|
(On The Road, Jack Kerouac, pp.195). “Dean and I sat alone on the back seat and left it up to them and talked. ‘Now, man, that alto man last night had IT — he held it once he found it; I’ve never seen a guy who could hold so long.’ I wanted to know ‘IT’ meant. ‘Ah well’ — Dean laughed– ‘now you’re asking me impon-de-rables–ahem! Here’a a guy and everybody’s there, right? Up to him to put down what’s on everybody’s mind. He starts the first chorus, then lines up his ideas, people, yeah, yeah, but get it, and then he rises to his fate and has to blow equal to it. All of a sudden somewhere in the middle of the chorus he gets it — everybody looks up and knows; they listen; he picks it up and carries. Time stops. He’s filling empty space with the substance of our lives, confessions of his bellybottom strain, remembrance of ideas, rehashes of old blowing. He has to blow across bridges and come back and do it with such infinite feeling soul-exploratory for the tune of the moment that everybody knows it’s not the tune that counts but IT–‘ Dean could go no further; he was sweating telling about it.”
*
(Reminds of the end of Sonny’s Blues, published the same year, 1957?) According to Brad Gooch’s just read biography of Flannery O’Connor (pp.349) she thought there was “a lot of ill-directed good” in the beatniks.
Flaying of Marsyas (Titian) St. Thomas
….he described the species as Pithecanthropus erectus (from the Greek πίθηκος “ape”, and ἄνθρωπος, “man”)…
Pithecanthropus Erectus / Pithecanthropus Erectus:
The Dutch anatomist Eugène Dubois, who was especially fascinated by Darwin’s theory of evolution as applied to man, set out to Asia (the place accepted then, despite Darwin, as the cradle of human evolution – see Haeckel § Research), to find a human ancestor in 1886. In 1891, his team discovered a human fossil on the island of Java, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia); he described the species as Pithecanthropus erectus (from the Greek πίθηκος “ape”, and ἄνθρωπος, “man”), based on a calotte (skullcap) and a femur like that of H. sapiens found from the bank of the Solo River at Trinil, in East Java. (This species is now regarded as H. erectus).
The find became known as Java Man. Thanks to Canadian anatomist Davidson Black’s (1921) initial description of a lower molar, which was dubbed Sinanthropus pekinensis, however, most of the early and spectacular discoveries of this taxon took place at Zhoukoudian in China. German anatomist Franz Weidenreich provided much of the detailed description of this material in several monographs published in the journal Palaeontologica Sinica (Series D).
Nearly all of the original specimens were lost during World War II; however, authentic Weidenreichian casts do exist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, and are considered to be reliable evidence.
Throughout much of the 20th century, anthropologists debated the role of H. erectus in human evolution. Early in the century, however, due to discoveries on Java and at Zhoukoudian, it was believed that modern humans first evolved in Asia. A few naturalists—Charles Darwin most prominent among them—believed that humans’ earliest ancestors were African: Darwin pointed out that chimpanzees and gorillas, who are human relatives, live only in Africa.
……q……g
.au………..ra
lia…..b……vel
swin…ang…ines
ging..siron.. sand
Maryof Egypthami
CAh_ __ slmCAh
….oki…*^………..eieieoki…….*^
..ia…..*^………..usntia…….*^
…..c..*^……….. E ic…….*^
=======CO.
F e T … y t g
lacia . r a a
u h h b v l
r a a F e T
b v l d o e
o i w u h h
d o e o i w
y t g lacia
B ti
ojx
j o t
…
a.Joyce –“Walk”– Realism with the utmost fidelity to psychological states both of authors and characters as well as to the historical states of places. (history: place::psychology: individual)
b.Agee– “The lists”– a photgraphic realism– like Joyce but more viable for still lifes than stories — the still life as OOO– there are no characters and no authors and no subjects, only objects,– this is what objects say to objects.
c. Kafka. “Shop”– magical realism– different from the purely fantastic (1001 Nights) in trying to bring a (not fantastic) emotional reality close.
d.Beckett. –Bilby– only style– not “style over substance” but substance here is rumored only vaguely to have once existed –focused on the trivial / impossible –metawriting instead of metafiction.
all of which could be classed as biography by other means as opposed to literature. (why is ‘biography by other means’ opposed to literature)
Pindar, Pythian 2.79-81:
ἅτε γὰρ εἰνάλιον πόνον ἐχοίσας βαθὺν
σκευᾶς ἑτέρας, ἀβάπτιστός εἰμι, φελλὸς ὣς ὑπὲρ ἕρκος ἅλμας.
*
“For while the rest of the tackle labors in the depths, I am unsinkable, like a cork above the surface of the salt sea.” (Diane Arnson Svarlien)
Thompson’s 1814 map, his greatest achievement, was so accurate that 100 years later it was still the basis for many of the maps issued by the Canadian government.…David Thompson
Evans played 20 games for the Baltimore Orioles in 1885 before retiring from the game at the age of 28. He died in Baltimore in 1907 and was buried in Baltimore Cemetery… Jake Evans
It is common to see an absence of punctuation in many of Clare’s original writings, although many publishers felt the need to remedy this practice in the majority of his work. Clare argued with his editors about how it should be presented to the public…John Clare [I Am]
.i`` * ^ / . . . . . ` `~ 