Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Washington Park

October 19, 2015

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..

October 18, 2015

..
………..
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


……………

Grave of the Commandant

October 11, 2015

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.”

October 7, 2015

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).

October 4, 2015

….. 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

Pale King chapter 36, anatomy vocabulary

September 27, 2015

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.

September 21, 2015

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 descarteel “imperio del dios dinero”

HORACE / People, places, divinities

September 21, 2015

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


O

September 6, 2015

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.)

Culture has to be paid for

September 3, 2015

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.

August 28, 2015

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.)

Avirons

August 28, 2015

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

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

Vesuvius’ crater for an inkstand (Give me a condor’s quill)

August 23, 2015

One often hears of writers that rise and swell with their subject, though it may seem but an ordinary one. How, then, with me, writing of this Leviathan? Unconsciously my chirography expands into placard capitals. Give me a condor’s quill! Give me Vesuvius’ crater for an inkstand! Friends, hold my arms! For in the mere act of penning my thoughts of this Leviathan, they weary me, and make me faint with their outreaching comprehensiveness of sweep, as if to include the whole circle of the sciences, and all the generations of whales, and men, and mastodons, past, present, and to come, with all the revolving panoramas of empire on earth, and throughout the whole universe, not excluding its suburbs. Such, and so magnifying, is the virtue of a large and liberal theme! We expand to its bulk. To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.


chirography. Moby Dick, chapter 104.

sorrentino2

August 22, 2015

For anyone interested in the Sorrentino Concordance, this is a list of the “citations” I made for each of the chapter titles. I made one for each title heading. So, if the concordance says that the Pearl Homburg appears in the “Pearl Homburg” chapter, there will be a link there to the citation below for both the chapters titled “Pearl Homburg”. I did it this way because I didn’t have the text to link to, and because this could be useful in making comparisons between chapters of the same name. (Do chapters of the same name feature themes of the same type? etc.) Note: a lot of these citations served mainly as placeholders and could use a little work.

…..

(1.1) IN THE BEDROOM (2.18)
(1.2.)…….. SUCCESS ……..(2.8)
(1.3)….. BORN AGAIN …..(2.13)
(1.4)……….. LOVERS*……..(2.4)
(1.5)….ANOTHER STORY….(2.3)
(1.6)………..MOVIES………..(2.12)
(1.7)PAIR OF DEUCES(2.5)
(1.8)….. IN DREAMS*…….(2.11)
(1.9)……ON THE ROOF…..(2.16)
(1.10)A FAMILIAR*WOMAN(2.15)
(1.11)…. IN THE DINER ….(2.23)
(1.12) …….HAPPY DAYS……. (2.1)
(1.13)………….CLAIRE…………(2.2)
(1.14). ROCKEFELLER C.. (2.19)
(1.15)………BROTHERS………(2.14)
(1.16). SMALL ADVENTURE. (1.9)
(1.17)..AN. S.ADVENTURE..(2.20)
(1.18)….. COLD SUPPER (2.6)
(1.19) P.G. HOMBURG (2.10)
(1.20) AN APARTMENT (2.7)
(1.21) SAT. AFTERNOON (2.21)
(1.22) …. THE JUNGLE ….(2.17)
(1.23)…….. SNOW …………(2.25)
(1.24)………… RAIN …………(2.25)
(1.25)……The ALPINE…… (2.22)
(1.26) …… A WAKE …… (2.26)
……
……

Dan Green’s remarks about Sorrentino (which inspired the concordance) can be found here. I also came upon this essay online by Joseph Conte, which drops the interesting hint that the fifty-two chapters strongly suggest a deck of cards (cards also being prominently featured in Strange Commonplace) a cut deck, you could even say. That idea has made me wonder if the chapters can be further grouped into suits of four — but I haven’t tried looking yet.

assorted amheric

August 20, 2015

sebaga — friction
etelle-medo — the usual
arb — friday
bado nahoo? — is it empty?
*

sahan — plate
shuka — fork
imagay — take care
mnalbat — maybe


alle mar — where’s the honey?
boona beza — too much coffee
ferung megib — white food
*
kolf –key
metallo — I’ll be back.

Iliad 111-112

August 10, 2015

U 111-112

ὣς εἰπὼν ἔμπνευσε μένος μέγα ποιμένι λαῶν,
βῆ δὲ διὰ προμάχων κεκορυθμένος αἴθοπι χαλκῷ.

Butler:

As he spoke he put courage into the heart of the shepherd of his people, and he strode in full armor among the ranks of the foremost fighters.

This is Apollo breathing courage into Aeneas. A more literal translation might, I think, be:

So speaking he inspired the shepherd of the people with great might then helmeted in gleaming bronze he strode among the foremost fighters .

AgainSo saying he breathed great might into the shepherd of the host, and he strode amid the foremost fighters, harnessed in flaming bronze.

August 7, 2015

unmew / mew / mews — Keats (Endymion):

………… But let a portion of ethereal dew
………… Fall on my head, and presently unmew
………… My soul

August 2, 2015

Terrorists don’t think like army generals; they think like theatre producers…. (guardian).. this struck me as an important distinction but I can’t say why exactly, even excluding the idea of terrorism. — That is, how do generals think versus theater producers? (I suppose one creates a result –the bridge is taken– whereas the other creates an effect — it is “just like” the bridge has been taken.) And by (theatrically) beheading a number of people, it is “just like” the theater producers have achieved a tactical objective, “just like” they’ve landed a significant military blow.

Moderation as Fear

August 2, 2015

La modération est une crainte de tomber dans l’envie et dans le mépris que méritent ceux qui s’enivrent de leur bonheur ; c’est une vaine ostentation de la force de notre esprit ; et enfin la modération des hommes dans leur plus haute élévation est un désir de paraître plus grands que leur fortune.

Moderation is a fear of falling into the envy and contempt that those who are drunk on their happiness merit; it’s a vain ostentation of the force of our spirit; and, finally, the moderation of men in their most high elevation is a desire to appear still greater than their fortune.

[18]

to translate this with extreme liberty (my reading of it more than my translation) … moderation is a fear of being held in contempt as one who can’t control himself; moderation is a vain ostentation (for of course one can control oneself — but so what); and, in short, people prefer to present themselves as moderate than to, the appearances be damned, satisfy their desires.

August 1, 2015

The exchange between India and Bangladesh means that the world will not only lose one of its most unique borders, but it will also lose the only third-order enclave in the world – an enclave surrounded by an enclave surrounded by an enclave surrounded by another state. [POST]

***

El Salvador’s murder rate is among the highest in the world. Last month, a record 677 murders took place in the relatively small Central American country, making it the deadliest month since the nation’s brutal civil war ended in the early 1990s. During the first six months of 2015, there were 2,965 murders, up from 1,840 for the same period in 2014.… [POST]