idea. It’s the bad writing of the best writers that most discloses their biographical selves.
(The basis for Writers’ fiction is frequently their personal experience, but when they write poorly, they have failed to make it transcendent, they have simply, unwittingly reported on themselves.)
Looked up Ascapart and Bevis of Hampton (Brittish mythology), looked up Charles Aznavour (French language singer) and Siphonodendron (ancient plant life) and corner radii (principle of urban planning). Phrase cucullus non facit monachum had come up. Proverbial. I had thought it was quoted in Measure for Measure but it actually comes up in Twelfth Night. The clothes don’t make the man, you may say. Did I have an idea that was new to me today? (no) Looked up ‘dike’ and ‘solus rex.’
Idea that “nature vs. nurture” is a false opposition because “nature” is just “nurture” over time. If you expose a population to positive or negative conditions for generations that will produce positive or negative attributes in those populations for generations, would be my guess. Can the nurturing or neglect of an individual overwhelm the generational advantages or disadvantages of their population? Can an individual break out of the influence of its generation?
Alcohol enhances ability to write (yes, complex) watching a movie diminishes capacity to write (yes) strenuous exercise diminishes capacity to write (yes) walking enhances or increases capacity to write (yes, complex) socializing decreases capacity to write (insufficient data… yes) writing personally enhances capacity to write impersonally (yes) reading will tend to result in writing (yes)
Q: tendency to exaggerate our own experiences and times above those of others notwithstanding, what if the 20th century really does represent some sort of agricultural revolution type order of change?
Becoming of another ethnicity and family: passage of genetic material through the ears. Man’s talk somehow overcoming not just biological probability but my own personal and family history, so that my genetic coding has been changed by mere listening.
Looked up Kathiawar, peninsula in North West India, coastal town, Ghandi birthplace. Ghandi biography recalled, Charles Ives biography recalled, perform internet search for “Fellini biography” and suddenly the cat leaps up behind me, a scrambling of paws and claws against the faux leather of the couch back. Charges up from behind me and growls terribly with hunger, a really quite demanding and hideous growl. Not the medicinal food this time, is probably the meaning of her hideous growl — serious hunger.
Maxim: people often attribute others’ failures to their weaknesses, but more often these exist on parallel tracks.
What is the literary evidence for the idea of human progress? If you were to restrict your inquiry to Western literature, from say Homer to Joyce, what would be the evidence that humankind had (positively, negatively, laterally) changed during that time?
(Question occurs to me because I was thinking of the idea of “not living a real life” as being a question of more recent literature, not to be found in ancient or even renaissance sources.)
Somewhat related, in Homer’s eyes, how strange would Crime and Punishment have been? Would he have scoffed and said it was nonsense, would he have said it was a great advance on his own art? Would he have said it was “ahead of its time”?
Split second decision required. The clothes I just threw onto the toilet tank are about to slip off. I will need either to (a) rush now to ensure that they don’t drop (b) or not rush and stoop to pick them up later. (I rush to ensure they don’t drop.)
Idea. The artwork is the avatar of the artist; he wants it to stand for him. But the artwork itself contains an avatar, which gives us a glimpse of the real artist, apart from his work — how Joyce really looks in life — Daedalus. The artist holds up his work – this is me – while the work holds up his avatar — this is him. And writings in which the author and avatar are the same — a la Montaigne– are personal letters, essays, memoirs.
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