I was thinking about the tamarisk the other night again and another odd thing occurred to me about it, namely that in at least three of the mentions of the tamarisk weaponry is somehow involved. I haven’t gone back to the Iliad in a while so this is all a bit foggy and from memory but I believe the following is true:

— in the first mention, a slain Trojan’s armor is concealed in the tamarisk bush;

— in the second, the axle of a chariot gets twisted up in a tamarisk;

— in the third, a spear that has missed its target is lodged in the ground beside a tamarisk.

I would have to go back and read it, but it seems as if they might be notably different sorts of armament as well: shield — chariot — spear…. I don’t believe the fourth mention involves a weapon. There, the tamarisk is named among other plants as being consumed by fire on the bank of the river Xanthos. [Initial note on the tamarisk in Homer is here.] [Update: is fire the ‘weapon’?]

Looking through the introduction to Don Gifford’s annotation of Ulysses I saw stated the basic premise (or one of them) of the David Foster Wallace story Good Old Neon—

We are all aware, for example, that we can think and perceive far more in the course of a few minutes of multi-leveled consciousness than we could spell out in words in as many hours.

It crossed my mind that this could have been part of the inspiration for Wallace’s story, but probably a more interesting consideration it raises involves contrasting how Joyce and Wallace each portrayed thinking as an act in their fiction: Is Wallace’s portrayal of thought in Good Old Neon to be considered an evolution of, a departure from, or essentially the same as, Joyce’s portrayal of thought in Ulysses? Have we learned anything, in the past hundred or five hundred years, about the portrayal of thought and thinking?

Because the Iapetus Ocean was positioned between continental masses that would at a much later time roughly form the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean, it can be seen as a sort of precursor of the Atlantic. The Iapetus Ocean was therefore named for the titan Iapetus, who in Greek mythology was the father of Atlas, after whom the Atlantic Ocean was named… Iapetus (*) (*) (*)

*

“If even the lowest slave and scullion maid can bear to commit suicide, why should not one like myself be able to do what has to be done? But the reason I have not refused to bear these ills and have continued to live, dwelling in vileness and disgrace without taking my leave, is that I grieve that I have things in my heart which I have not been able to express fully, and I am shamed to think that after I am gone my writings will not be known to posterity….” Sima Qian

*

Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law ~ Stevens’ dissent, Bush v. Gore

“Alors le Lepreux l’etreignit, et ses yeux tout a coup prirent une clarte d’etoiles; ses cheveux s’allongerent comme les rais du soleil; le souffle de ses narines avait la douceur des roses; un nuage d’encens s’eleva du foyer, les flots chantataient. Cependant une abondance de delices, une joie surhumaine descendait comme une inondation dans l’ame de Julien, pame; et celui dont les bras le serraient toujours, grandissait, grandissait, touchant de sa tete et de ses pieds les deux murs de la cabane. Le toit s’envola, le firmament se deployait; et Julien monta ver les espaces bleus, face a face avec Notre-Seigneur Jesus, qui l’emportait dans le ciel.”

*
Etreindre: hug, grasp. Prirent: passe simple, prendre. Narine: nostril. Flot: wave. Foyer: hearth. Pâmer: to swoon. Cabane: shed, cabin. Emporter: carry away. (Text with diacritical marks.)

*
“Then the leper hugged him, and all at once his eyes took on the brightness of stars; his hair stretched out like the rays of the sun; the breath from his nostrils had the sweetness of roses; a snow of incense rose from the hearth, the waves sang. At the same time, an abundance of delight, a superhuman joy descended as a flood in the soul of Julien, as it swooned; and the one whose arms still held him grew, grew, touching with his head and feet the two walls of the cabin. The roof flew off, the firmament spread out; and Julien climbed toward the blue spaces, face to face with Our Lord Jesus, who carried him away in the sky.”

Questions/ Notes “Signifying Nothing” [David Foster Wallace]

–TITLE (Why the title?). (1) The narrator an “idiot” who tells a meaningless story? (does the story otherwise suggest Macbeth?) (2) The story does signify something, but about signifying nothing; for example — how treating exceptionally weird outlying events as if they were nothing is a successful strategy for coping with such events (the story concludes— “it was good”.) (3) The story may signify something but the characters themselves do not: they don’t openly express what they’re thinking or feeling. (“His face had zero expression” = his face signifies nothing.)

Plot/ structure. Four Scenes: (I) the protagonist is a young man packing to leave home for the first time when he has a memory of an incredible event from his childhood; (II) in the moving van with his father, in transit to his first living on his own situation, he discloses this memory to his father and becomes enraged at his father’s response; (III) this rage continues for a year during which (living away from home) he doesn’t speak to his parents; (IV) he reconciles with his parents during a dinner at an Italian restaurant.

Time. The narrator (21) is telling of an event that occurred “two years ago”, when he was 19. The event he remembered when he was 19 occurred when he was “around 8 or 9.” We don’t know how much time elapses between the story’s first scene (packing up boxes) and the second (transporting them to the narrator’s first apartment.) But it’s probably brief. “Over a year” then passes before the story’s final scene at the Italian restaurant. (And, I guess, another year passes before he gives this narration.)

Of the passage of time, we know that between the time the narrator was “8 or 9” and the time when he was 19, the TV set had been replaced by an “entertainment center”, while the mother’s TV afghan has remained the same (“the same as in the memory”) (We don’t know at all that the past and the narrator’s memory of the past are the same or rough equivalents –indeed, he is unsure himself). Also his younger sister has come to adopt the same restaurant as her special birthday dinner spot that he once had…. The one specific date mentioned in the story is July Fourth –his sister’s birthday.

Repeated words, phrases, concepts. “Wierd” (very often); “pissed off” (very often); “chicken”; “get the fuck outta here” […] the idea of being expressionless; the idea of not saying anything […]

psychology. A general psychological landscape of the feelings that might attend a young man’s leaving home for the first time –the menacing intercession of his father between him and his TV (he has to leave the house), his mother’s comforting afghan (it’s okay to sit around and watch TV); the narrator’s growing resemblance to an engorged penis (he’s pissed off, red, then pink)… Does “to leave the nest” mean for a young man to “become a dick” in some sense? […] the wax candles, the mention of shitting in public, the feeling of wanting the van to “swallow him whole” … Does the long hair of his sister’s boyfriend correspond to the narrator’s own early obsessive interest in wax candles — a young woman responding to signs of womanhood as a young man does to more masculine signs?

*
Conclusion My baseline view is that the story is a condensed and mysterious form of bildungsroman –a young character encounters and passes over a major hurdle to his personal growth; but, different from traditional narratives of this sort, the challenges the protagonist face more involve troubling “impressions” than concrete physical or professional hurdles.

I’m noticing a sort of parallel construction here with the two phrases of the line each beginning with prepositions (epi and ek although what is the “ek” doing?) chiasmus is it almost? with Odysseus dropping and the night coming and with the night smelling fragrant and Odysseus fighting for his life (as if the night’s fragrance suggested its own continuing struggle to exist?):

And out I fell, fighting for my life, and on came the fragrant smelling night.

εκ δε επεσον θυμηγερεων, επι δ’ αμβροσιη νυξ ηλυθ’.

*
θυμηγερεων: endeavoring to rally one’s spirit, making a fight for life. αμβροσιη: sweet-smelling, fragrant.

*
[And I fell, fighting for my life; and the night came, smelling fragrant.]

*
Lat.: I came out and dropped, nursing a hold on life, and immortal/ night came on..

Fag.: So, fighting for life, I flung myself ashore/ and the godsent, bracing night came on at once.

Stagefright ; Michael Wilding ; Laziest Gal in Town (Porter) ;

prolusion ; adduct, Tulsa Sound, compendious, schlaft

homo sacer ; ; ἐξαπίνης (on a sudden) ; knot / nautical mile ;

***

Cypress (cupressus): (Ep.5.17).Fig tree, wild (caprificus): (Ep.5.18).Fig (ficus): (Ep.16.46).Garlic (allium): (Ep.3.3).Grape-berry (uva): (Ep.2.20).Grape-vine (vitis): (Ep.2.9).Grass (gramen): (Ep.2.17).Hemlock (cicuta): (Ep.3.3).Ivy (hedera): (Ep.15.5).Mallow (malva): “that eases an overloaded body” (Ep.2.68).Oak (ilex): (Ep.2.23); (Ep.10.8); (Ep.15.5), (Ep.16.47).Olive (oliva): (Ep.2.56); (Ep.16.45).Pear (pirum): (Ep.2.19).Poplar (populeus): vine married to(Ep.2.10).Sorrel (lapathum): “that loves the meadow” (Ep.2.57). “Tree” (arbor): (Ep.2.56); tree on hillside (Ep.12.20), (Ep.16.46).

General References: slip, shoot (propago) (Ep.2.9); branches (ramos) (Ep.2.13); fruit tree (pomus) (Ep.2.17), woods (silva) (Ep.2.17), fire wood (lignis) (Ep.2.43), branches of trees (ramis arborum)(Ep.2.56), “blades, leaves” (herba)(Ep.2.57); “salad” (herbis) (Ep.3.7); herba (Ep.5.21), herba and root (radix) (Ep.5.67-68); woods (nemus) (Ep.6.9); woods (silva) (Ep.11.6); woods (silva) (Ep.13.2), “nard” (nardus) (Ep.13.2); Ceres, floreo (Ep.16.43-44), vine-garden (vinea) (Ep.16.44), branch (termes) (Ep.16.45), seed (semen) (Ep.16.55).

Citron (citreus): citron roof (4.1.20). Cypress (cupressus): Achilles compared to (4.6.10). Grape-vine (vitis): (4.5.30). Grass (gramen): ((4.7.1), (4.12.9). Grassy (herbosus): herba (4.2.55). Ivy (hedera): (4.11.4). Laurel (laurus): of Apollo (4.2.9). Oak (quercus): (4.13.10). Oak (ilex): roman people are like (4.4.57). Palm (palma): (4.2.18). Parsley/ celery (apium): (4.11.3). Pine (pinus): Achilles compared to (4.6.10). Pine / Pitch-pine (taeda): (4.4.43). Rose (rosa): (4.10.4). “Spikenard” (costum) *: (4.12.16), (4.12.17). Thyme (thymum): (4.2.29). Tragopogon (come): (4.7.2). “Tree” (arbor): “unmarried” (4.5.30); ((4.7.2).

General References: flos (4.1.32); nemus (4.2.30); leaves (frons) (4.2.36); folium (4.3.7), nemus (4.3.11); frons (4.4.58); Ceres (4.5.18); “crops” (frux) (4.6.39); pomifer, frux (4.7.11); vine-leaf (pampinus)(4.8.33); “blossom, flower” (flos) (4.10.4); garden (hortus) (4.11.2) leafy twig (verbena)(4.11.7).

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Ash (ornus): (3.27.58). Ash (fraxinus): (3.25.16). Balsam (balanus): (3.29.4). Grape-vine (vitis): Falernian (3.1.44); (3.23.6). Grass (gramen): (3.7.26). Grassy (herbosus): (3.18.9). Laurel (laurus): (3.4.19); (3.14.2); (3.30.16). Myrrh (myrrha): myrrh scented (murreus) (3.14.2). Myrtle (myrtum): (3.4.19); (3.23.16). Oaken (robustus): (3.16.2). Oak (quercus): (3.23.10). Oak (aesculus): (3.10.17). Oak (ilex): (3.13.14), (3.23.10). Palm (palma): (3.20.12). Pine (pinus): to Diana (3.22.5). Rose (rosa): (3.15.15); (3.19.22); (3.29.3). Rosemary (ros marinus): (3.23.15-16). Seaweed (alga): (3.17.10). “Spikenard” (costum) *: (3.1.44). “Tree” (arbor): (3.1.30); (3.4.27); “almost sent to my grave by a–“(3.8.8).

General References: arbustum (3.1.10); vineyard (vinea) (3.1.29); grove (lucus)(3.4.7); leaves (frons) (3.4.12); “glade” (saltus) (3.4.15); “trunks” (truncus)(3.4.55) [see entry for “tree” in book ii]; thicket (dumetum) (3.4.63), woods (silva) (3.4.63); Flower (flos) (3.8.2); turf (caespes) (3.8.4); cork (cortex) (3.8.10); cork (cortex) (3.9.22); nemus, satum (3.10.5-6); woods (sylva) (3.11.13; thicket (fruticetum) (3.12.12); Flower (flos) (3.13.2); “garland” (corona and vitta) (3.14.8,17); flos (3.15.15); silva (3.16.29); woodland (nemus) (3.17.9), leaf (folium) (3.17.9), firwood (lignum) (3.17.14); woods, leaves (sylva, fronds) (3.18.14); “Rosy” (Rhode) (3.19.27); woodland (nemus) (3.22.1); fruit (frux) (3.23.4), fruit bearing (pomifer) (3.23.8), crop (seges) (3.23.6), herbage (herba) (3.23.11), “a sort of grain” (far) (3.23.20); fruit (frux) (3.24.13), Ceres (3.24.13); woodland (nemus) (3.25.2); vine-leaf (pampinus) (3.25.20); Flower (flos)/ garland (corona) (3.27.29-30), pluck (carpere) flowers (flos), (3.27.44), sap (sucus) (3.27.54); flos (3.29.3), Sylvanus, thickets (dumetum) (3.29.23), stock, stem (stirps) (3.29.37).

Ash (ornus): (2.9.8). Cypress (cupressus): (2.14.22). Elm (ulmus): (2.15.5). Grape-berry (uva): “immitis” (2.5.6); (2.6.16). Grass (gramen): (2.3.6). Laurel (laurus): (2.1.15); (2.2.22); (2.7.19); (2.15.9). Myrtle (myrtum): (2.7.25); (2.15.6). Oak (quercus): quercetum of Garganus (2.9.7). Olive (oliva): oliveta (2.15.7). Parsley/ celery (apium): (2.7.24). Pine (pinus): (2.3.9); (2.10.10); (2.11.14). Plane Tree (platanus): (2.11.13); “bachelor“(2.15.4). Poplar (populeus): (2.3.9). Rose (rosa): (2.3.14); (2.11.14). “Tree” (arbor): tree (arbos) almost killing Horace (2.13.3) same tree referred to as “truncus” in (2.17.27); [truncus again (2.19.11)]; (2.14.22). Violet (viola): violarium (2.15.5). Willow (grove) (salictum): (2.5.6).

General References: branches (ramus) (2.3.11); “blooms” (flos)(2.3.14); “woodland” (saltus)(2.3.17); “green meadows” (virentis compos) (2.5.6); “berry, round fruit” (baca) (2.6.16); garland/ garlanded (2.7.7/24); leaves (folium)(2.9.8); flowers (flos) (2.11.9); lumber (lignum) (2.13.3); branches (ramus) (2.15.9); thyrsus (2.19.11).

“The most plausible reason why tax havens defend bank secrecy is that it allows their clients to evade their fiscal obligations, thereby allowing the tax havens to share in the gains. Obviously this has nothing whatsoever to do with the principles of the market economy. No one has the right to set his own tax rates. It is not right for individuals to grow wealthy from free trade and economic integration only to rake off the profits at the expense of their neighbors. That is outright theft.” Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, pp.521-522. (Trans. Arthur Goldhammer)

*
To the extent that Capital offered an actionable, politically plausible way forward, I thought this was it: to abolish or comprehensively regulate tax havens, or at least bank secrecy (in the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, etc.), which would first of all help to ensure that everyone was paying their fair share of taxes, and, secondly, give us a better idea of the size and disposition of global wealth.

I can imagine a number of good or at least lawful reasons for people to want to keep their financial information a secret — however, in the main, these accounts can hardly be thought to serve a legitimate function.

… I believe the main purport of these States is to found a supreme friendship, exalté, previously unknown
…Because I perceive it waits, and has been always waiting, latent in all men.
……………… Song of Myself

*

[Kafka] sought “the right thing” elsewhere [than in zionism]; the right thing was direct, authentic, genuine expression, in writing, onstage, and in life; even the wrong thing could emerge as “the right thing” in the proper context.… Kafka The Decisive Years, Reiner Stach.

*

Their pilos cap identifies the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, in sculptures, bas-reliefs and vase-paintings; their caps were already explained in Antiquity as the remnants of the egg from which they hatched… pilos

Arbutus (arbutus, *): “viridis” (1.1.21); (1.17.5). Ash (ornus): (1.9.12). Blackberry bush (rubus): (1.23.6). Cornfield (seges): (1.31.4). Cypress (cupressus): (1.9.11). Elm (ulmus): fish in the tops of (1.2.9). Endive (chickory) (cichorium): (1.31.16). Grape-berry (uva): (1.20.10). Grape-vine (vitis): (1.18.1); (1.20.11); (1.31.10); (1.38.8). Grass (gramen): deer’s food (1.15.30). Ivy (hedera): (1.1.29); (1.25.17); (1.36.20). Lily (lilium): “short lived” (contrasted with apium) (1.36.16). Linden tree (philyra): (1.38.2). Mallow (malva): (1.31.16). Myrtle (myrtum): “viridis“(1.4.9); (1.25.18); (1.38.5), (1.38.7). Oak (robur): (1.1.3). Oak (quercus): (1.12.12). Oak Forest (aesculetum): (1.22.14). Olive (oliva): (1.7.7), olive oil (1.8.8); (1.31.15). Palm (palma): (1.1.5). Parsley/ celery (apium): “long-lived” (1.36.16). Pine (pinus): Pontic pine (1.14.11). Poplar (populeus): (1.7.23). “Sacred Bough” (verbena): (1.19.14). Rose (rosa): (1.5.1); (1.36.15); (1.38.3). Thyme (thymum): (1.17.6). Tragopogon (come): (1.21.5). “Tree” (arbor): “glory grows like” (1.12.45); (1.18.1); (1.22.18); “lyre once heeded by trees” (1.24.14).

General References: Flower (flos) (1.4.10); grove (lucus) (1.4.11); grove (lucus) (1.7.13); orchard (pomarius)(1.7.14); garland (corona) (1.7.23); woods (sylvae) (1.9.3), logs (lignum) (1.9.5); “carpe diem” (carpe has sense of ‘cull’, ‘pluck’) (1.11.8); woods (sylvae) (1.12.8), grove (lucus) (1.12.60); “rosy” (1.13.2); sylvae (1.14.11); woodland (nemus) (1.17.5), “garland” (1.17.27), leaves (frons) (1.18.12); turf, cut sod (caespes) (1.19.14); woodland (nemus) (1.21.5), silva & viridis (1.21.8); Sabine wood (sylva) (1.22.9); sylva (1.23.4), leaf (folium) (1.23.6); leafy branch (frons) (1.25.19); flower (flos) (1.26.7), garland (1.26.8); “woods of Venusia” (1.28.27); garland (1.38.2)

–The foyer to the Dambreuse residence has a red carpet (tapis rouge), Arnoux’s boutique has a green carpet (tapis vert).

–The foyer to the Dambreuse residence has a double stairway (escalier double), Arnoux’s boutique a “small stairway” (petit escalier).

–Both these spaces include porcelain objects, unspecified at Anroux’s boutique, at the Dambreuse residence “two porcelain globes”.

–The idea of “two” is frequently repeated in Sentimental Education. In the description of the Dambreuse foyer, it’s mentioned three times: the stairs, the globes, the strong boxes.

–The two strong boxes Frederic encounters in the “small room” of the Ambreuse house will make an important reappearance at the novel’s close.

–The idea of thin walls (first found in Frederic’s dorm room) will also make a reappearance.

–Description of Frederic’s room on the quai Napoleon has again the idea of two, [1.3.31].

–Like the Dambreuse residence, Arnoux’s “office” (an un-named room above the shop) has two candelabra… (The word two is repeated twice in this paragraph.) We also saw bronze objects at the Dambreuse’s (here a statue of Venus) and in the boutique downstairs. [1.4.39];

–Arnoux’s office, like the shop below it, has a curtained door (actually –two).

Surprised, though I don’t know that I should be, to find these Gaddis-like stylings of Faulkner here (The Hamlet, pp.288), the Texan detailing the fine points of a wild pony he is trying at the same time to hold down:

“Look him over boys,” the Texan panted, turning his own suffused face and the protuberant glare of his eyes toward the fence. “Look him over quick. Them shoulders and–” He had relaxed for an instant apparently. The animal exploded again; again for an instant the Texan was free of the earth, though he was still talking “–and legs you whoa I’ll tear your face right look him over quick boys worth fifteen dollars of let me get a holt of who’ll make me a bid whoa you blare-eyed jackrabbit, whoa!”

Coal lay in ledges under the ground since the Flood, until a laborer with pick and windlass brings it to the surface. We may well call it black diamonds. Every basket is power and civilization. For coal is a portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to Labrador and the polar circle; and it is the means of transporting itself whithersoever it is wanted. Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta; and with its comfort brings its industrial power.

(Emmerson, Wealth). The unintended irony of coal as a “portable climate” and the unintended sense of it carrying the heat of the tropics to the poles of the world and of making “Canada as warm as Calcutta” was what caught my eye here.

It somewhat reminded of the Moby Dick chapter (105) where Ishmael says that fears of the whales’ extinction by human hunting are overblown (they can just hide beneath the ice caps, he says).

Anyway, no lesson to be drawn from this but that perhaps prominent nineteenth century American intellectuals had yet to guess at the capacity of humankind to negatively impact the environment.