DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS

ON LITERARY COMPOSITION, translation W. RHYS ROBERTS (Perseus)

AUSTERE COMPOSITION

The characteristic feature of the austere arrangement is this : — It requires that the words should be like columns firmly planted and placed in strong positions, so that each word should be seen on every side, and that the parts should be at appreciable distances from one another, being separated by perceptible intervals. It does not in the least shrink from using frequently harsh sound-clashings which jar on the ear ; like blocks of building stone that are laid together unworked, blocks that are not square and smooth, but preserve their natural roughness and irregularity.

It is prone for the most part to expansion by means of great spacious words. It objects to being confined to short syllables, except under occasional stress of necessity. In respect of the words, then, these are the aims which it strives to attain, and to these it adheres. In its clauses it pursues not only these objects but also impressive and stately rhythms, and tries to make its clauses not parallel in structure, or sound, nor slaves to a rigid sequence, but noble, brilliant, free. It wishes them to suggest nature rather than art, and to stir emotion rather than to reflect character. And as to periods, it does not, as a rule, even attempt to compose them in such a way that the sense of each is complete in itself : if it ever drifts into this accidentally, it seeks to emphasize its own un-studied and simple character, neither using any supplementary words which in no way aid the sense, merely in order that the period may be fully rounded off, nor being anxious that the periods should move smoothly or showily, nor nicely calculating them so as to be just sufficient (if you please) for the speaker’s breath, nor taking pains about any other such trifles. Further, the arrangement in question is marked by flexibility in its use of the cases, variety in the employment of figures, few connectives ; it lacks articles, it often disregards natural sequence ; it is anything rather than florid, it is aristocratic, plain-spoken, unvarnished ; an old-world mellowness constitutes its beauty.

*
(Dionysius goes on to say that exemplars of this style include Thucidydes and Pindar.)

–compare stephen dedalus to K. […]
— evaluate the expression “as K is to Kafka, Dedalus is to Joyce” […]

–ask and answer a variant of this question: are there authors for whom there is not a clear proxy of themselves in their fiction? (Is there a “Faulkner Character” in Faulkner’s fiction? a “Shakespeare character” in Shakespeare’s work?) [There does not seem to me to be a “Shakespeare character” (an author character) in Shakespeare’s fiction — he makes no more of a personal appearance his in his work than a writer of sitcoms does in his, I would say. (There are few or no ‘author characters’ in sitcoms, I would guess — television audiences aren’t interested in author characters.)] Maybe the writer of the sonnets is the ‘Shakespeare Character’? Or Hamlet? There are maybe a couple clear ‘Faulkner characters’ in his lesser works, or in one of them I recall, but his best work seems without anything like that, while on the other hand Hemingway’s best work seems never without anything like that, always has the “Hemingway or author character” central.

–Evaluate “as Ishamael is to Melville, K. (or Daedelus) is to Kafka (Joyce)”

–what is the point of such exercises, would you say [the point is not: how do I parse a biography from a novel? the point is: how do we write books? Can the process be uncovered… To answer, where do books come from?]

—he makes no more of a personal appearance his in his work than a writer of sitcoms does in his… I wonder if this may actually be an important idea: sitcoms, genre fiction, commercial fiction –you don’t find writer characters in those books as much– (and “those books” are Shakespeare and Faulkner as much as they are Elmore leanord and L. Ron Hubbard and the rest — whatever is the meaning of “genre fiction.”) Why?

–[Actually: you do see writers personal lives in their sitcoms, Curb Your Enthusiasm/ Seinfeld, for instance.]

…. But the part that feels the most useless to me is people’s vicarious participation in the event, which on the ground is a horrible tragedy, but in cyberspace is flattened to a meme like any other. Millions of people with no connection to Paris or the victims mindlessly throw in their two cents: performative signaling purely for their own selfish benefit, spreading information that is often false and which they have not vetted at all, simply for the sake of making noise [POST]

The Forest and The Trees: Pattern and Meaning in Horace, Odes 1. (Andrew Fenton). A problem this article doesn’t address is that it’s not just the plants that are mentioned with so much variety in the first book of odes, but also the mountains, the bodies of water, and the winds — there is a lot more variety in the first book in general.

On the other hand, I very much liked Fenton’s discussion of the arbol that nearly killed Horace. Horace’s lack of specificity in naming the tree really is quite striking and feels intentional (like it is simply ‘that tree.’)

…………..For if passion continues in a man it …………..
…………..changes his life to nothing but instants …………..
…………..and as passion cunningly serves its de- …………..
…………..luded master, it gradually gains the as- …………..
…………..cendancy until the master serves it like …………..
……… a blind serf! ………. ………………………..

……….. …….. ………… ….~Kierkegaard, “Purity of Heart”
…….. ………………… ……….. ….Steere/ pp.51

Ash, fraisnine, frene.

Apple, pume, pomme.

Eglantine, eglenter, eglantine.

Fir, sapide (forest of fir), sapin.

Flowers, flur, fleur.

Grass, erbe, herbe

Olive, olive, olivier

Orchard, verger, verger

Pine, pin, pin

Saffron, sasfree (verb, past part., burnished with saffron.), safran.

Tree, arbre, arbre

Wheat, ble, ble

Woods, bruill, bois.

Yew, if, if

Portrait of a Lady [634]

‘[…] Here I stand; I’m as firm as a rock. What have you to care about? You’ve no children; that perhaps would be an obstacle. As it is you’ve nothing to consider. You must save what you can of your life; you mustn’t lose it all simply because you’ve lost a part. It would be an insult to you to assume that you care for the look of the thing, for what people will say, for the bottomless idiocy of the world. We’ve nothing to do with all that; we’re quite out of it; we look at things as they are. You took the great step in coming away; the next is nothing; it’s the natural one. I swear, as I stand here, that a woman deliberately made to suffer is justified in anything in life — in going down into the streets if that will help her! I know how you suffer; and that’s why I’m here. We can do absolutely as we please; to whom under the sun do we owe anything? What is it that holds us, what is it that has the smallest right to interfere in such a question as this? Such a question is between ourselves — and to say that is to settle it! Were we born to rot in our misery — were we born to be afraid? I never knew you afraid! If you’ll only trust me, how little you will be disappointed! The world’s all before us — the world’s very big. I know something about that.’

If you go to Capital Self-Storage in the morning, you’ll see dozens of doors open a bit, jackets hung up and chairs pulled out as the morning routine begins. There is shaving, pants being ironed, deodorant smeared on armpits…. [POST, 10/22/15]

Washington park, burned down 1917, colored amusement park, on site of nat’l harbor [post 10.17.15]:

In a 2008 Journal of American History article, Andrew quotes an advertisement for Jefferson’s park: “If the colored men and women of this city are inclined to patronize nearby resorts, why not patronize one conducted by a member of their own race, rather than one conducted by a white man, a Jim Crow arrangement . . . with its separate wharf?”

Article on JSTOR I can’t access about this has a tantalizing preview. No wikipedia page. Something on Notley Hall, a precursor to Washington Park..

..
………..
…France
…Napoleon’s
…the power of
…Venice passed under
…who abdicated in 1797, when
…The last doge was Ludovico Manin,
…The last doge was Ludovico Manin,
…who abdicated in 1797, when
…Venice passed under
…the power of
…Napoleon’s
…France
…France
…Napoleon’s
…the power of
…Venice passed under
…who abdicated in 1797, when
…The last doge was Ludovico Manin,
…The last doge was Ludovico Manin,
…who abdicated in 1797, when
…Venice passed under
…the power of
…Napoleon’s
…France

At the end of The Penal Colony (Kafka) it’s found that the Commandant’s grave is beneath a table in a tea house (trans. Donna Freed):

They pushed one of the tables aside, and under it there actually was a gravestone. It was a simple stone, low enough to be hidden beneath a table. It bore an inscription in very small lettering: the traveler had to kneel down in order to read it. It read: ‘Here lies the old commandant. His followers, who must now remain nameless, have dug this grave and set this stone. It has been prophesied that after a certain number of years he will rise again and lead his followers out of this house to reclaim the colony. Have faith and wait!”

The reason the commandant has been buried in a tea house is that the priest wouldn’t allow his corpse in the cemetery –“no one knew where to bury him,” the soldier explains, “and they ended up burying him here.”

In this telling, eating your cake leads your body to burn calories so fast that it’s like you end up thinner than you started! Vox (Klein on reducing the deficit via tax cuts).

….. Whatever interests the rest interests me, politics, wars, markets, newspapers, schools,
….. The mayor and councils, banks, tariffs, steamships, factories, stocks, stores, real estate and personal estate.

–Song of Myself

Bones: Malleolus, T1, T2…, Annulus fibrosus, lumbar spine, Patella, Sacrum, costae, Ilium, Zygomatic, Clavicle.

Muscles: Splenius capitis, Longissimus, recti, spinalis thoracis, Levator scapulae, Iliocostalis lumborum, Gracilis, Pectineus, Adductor longus, Depressor septi , Orbicularis oris, Depressor anguli oris, Depressor labii inferioris, Buccinator, circumoral, Risorius, Zygomaticus, Pectoralis minor, Platysma,, Trapezius, Deltoid .

Tissue, regions, “other”: Fascia, Tubercle, Scarpa’s triangle, Perineum , Xiphoid process [process], flava , capsule, Dura mater, galea.

Conditions: Dyspnea, Chvostek sign, Pica, Algesia.

Terminology: dextrorotation, Subluxation, lordotic, ipsilateral, volar, subchondral.

El pontífice animó a la juventud de la isla a soñar, porque un joven que no es capaz de hacerlo “está clausurado y cerrado en sí mismo”:[x}{X}

—cultura del descarte— el “imperio del dios dinero” —

With a lot of repetitions and omissions, these were some of the things I looked up while reading Horace’s Odes. (Nearly all these links go to wikipedia.)

People:
I (1.1) Maecenas, Attalus; (1.2) Pyrrha; (1.3) “Helen’s Brothers” (Castor and Pollux), Vergil; (1.4) Sestius, Lycidas; (1.5) Pyrrha (apparently, not the same as in 1.2?); (1.6)Lucius Varius Rufus, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Pelops, Meriones; (1.7) Plancus, Teucer; (1.8) Lydia, Sybaris (*/*); (1.9) Thaliarchus; (1.11) Leuconoe; (1.12) Regulus, Scaurus, Paulus, Fabricius, Curius, Camillus; (1.13) Lydia, [Telephus]; (1.15) Sthenelus; (1.18) Catillus, Lapiths, Varus; (1.19) Glycera; (1.22) Fuscus (?), Lalage, (1.24) Quinctilia; (1.26) Tiridates, Lady of Pipla, [Lamia]; (1.27)Megylla; (1.28) Archytas; (1.29) Iccius, Panaetius; (1.33) Albius (“white”), Lycoris (“twilight”), Cyrus, Pholoe, Myrtale; (1.36) Numida, Lamia, Damalis, Bassus; II [2.1] Metellus, Pollio, Jugurtha, (2.2) Sallustius Crispus (?), Proculeius, Phraates, Cyrus, (2.3) Dellius , Inachus; (2.4) Xanthius, Tecmessa; (2.5) Lalage, Pholoe, Chloris, Cnidian Gyges; Septimius, Phalanthus; (2.8) Barine; (2.9) Valgius, Mystes, Antilochus; (2.10) Licinius ; (2.11) Hirpinian Quinctius, lyde; (2.12) Lycymnia, Achaemenes, Mygdon; (2.16) Grosphus; (2.17) attalus; III (3.5) Marcus Licinius Crassus, Marcus Atilius Regulus, (3.6) Pacorus; (3.7) Asteria, Gyges, Enipeus; (3.8) Cotiso; (3.11) hypermestra; Ailia, Lamus; (3.19) Inachus, Codrus, Murena, Lycus; (3.20) Nireus; (3.27) Galatea, Agenor; (3.28) Cepheus; [3.30] Daunus; IV [4.1] Cinara; [4.2] Iullus Antonius; [4.4] Drusus, Neros, Echion; (4.7) Torquatus, Pirithous; (4.8) Scopas, Parrhasius

Places:
I (1.1) Olympic, Libya, Sea of Myrto, Cyprian, Africa, Icarian Sea, [Massic], “marsian“, Lesbian; (1.2) Vesta’s Shrine (?); Parthian * * / Medes, Eryx *; (1.3) acroceraunia; (1.4) Cythera; (1.7)Rhodes, Mytilene, Ephesus, Corinth, Thebes, Tempe, Athens, Argos, Mycenea, Lacedaemon, Larisa, Albunea, Anio, Salamis; (1.8) Troy, Lycian, “The Park”; (1.9) “The Park” (campus), Soracte; “Etruscan Sea“; (1.12) Helicon, Pindus‘s summit, Haemus; (1.16) Dindymon, Noric; (1.17) Mount_Lykaion, Tyndaris, Ustica, Teian, Lucretilis Mons; (1.18) Sithonia, “Berecyntian pipe”; (1.20) Vatican hill, Caecuban, Cales, Falernum, Formian; (1.21) Mount Cynthus, Algidus, Erymanthos, Gragus; (1.22) Syrtes, Hydaspes, Daunia, Juba; (1.23) Gaetulian lion; [1.26] Sea of Crete, Pieria; (1.27) Opus; (1.28) Matine shore, Venusa; (1.29) Sheba; (1.31) Calenian; (1.33) Apulia; (1.35) Antium (Anzio), Bithynia, Dacia, Scythia, Massagetae; (1.36) Salii ; (1.37) Caecuban, Mareotic, Liburnia. II. (2.1)Westland, Daunian; [2.6] Cantabrian, Syrtes, galaesus, Hymettus, Venafrum, Aulon, Falernum; (2.9) Garganus, Niphates, Geloni; (2.10), (2.12) Numantia, Lapith, Hylaeus, Aeolian Islands; [2.15] Lucrinus Lacus; (2.18) Baiae; III (3.1) Sidon; (3.4) Mt. Vulture, “Acherontia, Bantia, Forentum: small towns near Venusia, Horace’s birthplace” (Rudd), Praeneste, Palinurus, Pieria, Lycia, Patara, (3.6) Sabellians; (3.7) Bithynia; (3.13) Bandusia; (3.15) Luceria; (3.16) Acrisius; (3.17) Formia, Liris, Marica ; (3.19) Chian, Paelignian; (3.23) Algidus Mons; (3.24) Getae; (3.25) Hebrus; (3.27) Lanuvium; (3.28) Aefula; [3.30] Aufidus; IV (4.2) Dirce, Sicambri; [4.4] Rhaetian Alps [*], Vindelici, Metaurus, Colchis;

Divinities:
I (1.1.) Euterpe, Polyhymnia; (1.2) Proteus, Tiber/ Ilia, [“lady of Eryx” = Venus], Maia; (1.3) Iapyx, Hyades, Iapetus, Notus[anemoi]; (1.4) Graces, Faunus; (1.8) Thetis; (1.12) Leda; (1.15) [Mt Ida], Nereus; (1.21) Latona; (1.28) Tithonus, Panthus, II (2.12) Lapith, Hylaeus (2.13) Aeacus (2.14) Tityos; (2.19) Rhoetus; III (3.3) Laomedon; (3.4) Typhon, Porphyrion, Castalia (3.7) Stheneboea; (3.17) Marica; IV (4.3) Melpomene

What might it mean that “your body is inside you.” What do you make of that idea?

(It might mean that, while one is inclined to think of oneself as being within one’s body, the body being the seat of oneself, the body seeming the seat of oneself because everything one perceives seems to end there and because everything one projects seems to start there, to arise as it were from this seat; –nevertheless, maybe oneself is actually what is perceived as being oneself, that the image of oneself that others see is one’s true self. And one’s true self does not begin where one feels oneself to be –“within”– but where others see and perceive you, and where one doesn’t feel — “without”– in which case, one’s body could truly be said to be within oneself — that one’s body is within the image it projects.

[…] So: one’s image, like a TV image, like a publicity photo, would be one’s true self, and one’s body would be within that image, within it and making it possible, just like one’s anatomy is within one’s body and making the body possible. One’s body is to one’s image as one’s anatomy is to one’s body, though on reflection I’m not sure that image is quite right, that is the idea that first comes to mind when you say to me “my body’s inside me.”

But then another thought occurs to me, somewhat more obscure, which is this. I normally think of myself as being a sort of emanation of the head. Now, the head is at the top of the body, but “I” am at the top or at the surface of the head. A person looking at me would see my head, and not myself, when looking at my highest point, but I, experiencing myself, experience myself as somehow “being above the head,” as being the thing that is foremost and highest yet still only visible from that most high and foremost spot.

Now, granted that — what if I were to stop thinking of it that way? What if instead of thinking of myself as being on top of my body I were to think of my body as being within myself, that is, as being within my thoughts of myself? My body is something I think, a conception I have, and therefore within me: my body is to me, as far as I may experience it, only my conception of it, and conceptions are of course things inside me, or that I experience as such. To say it again: while I may or may not have a body, which is exterior to me, I can only have knowledge of my body through my conception of it, and conceptions occur only within me. This is an interesting idea to me, which may require further thought. It is the second thing your phrase makes me think.)

Joshua Cohen on PBS Newshour tonight, What the Internet’s free culture has cost us in art:

Now, I say credit, and not money, because the chief evil of piracy or intellectual property theft or whatever you choose to call it is not that it deprives me and other artists of a living, but that it deprives the audience and even the art itself of a life.

It’s my belief that culture has to be paid for, if not with money or even praise, then with time and attention. There are more things to hear and see and read than ever before, but the cheaper it is to get your hands on them, the cheaper your appreciation of them will be.

The cost of a thing is the care you give it. Fact is, you could rip off a million books, but they’re not truly yours if you’re not going to read them. Songs aren’t songs if they’re never heard. Films aren’t films if they’re never watched. Canons can’t survive, they can’t evolve if the memory they animate is your computers, and not your own.

Whitman was the self without objectification (true); Flaubert was the objectification without the self (very true); Joyce was the self, in history, through literature (true again); Proust was the self, as memory, and through literature (quite so); Kafka was the self, as dream, and through literature (yes); Beckett was the self, as daydream, in the present, and through history, as well as literature, (yes — of course yes.)

Laissent piteusement leurs grandes ailes blanches
Comme des avirons traîner à côté d’eux.

[…] Ses ailes de géant l’empêchent de marcher
[*]