cold mountain
5 Jul 07
Days and months slip by like water,
Time is like sparks knocked off flint.
– Snyder 17:5-6
Posted by pzed on July 5, 2007 at 9.33pm
The Fourth World War
4 May 07
Baudrillard, Jean. “The Spirit of Terrorism.” The Spirit of Terrorism and Requiem for the Two Towers. Trans. Chris Turner. London: Verso, 2002. 3-33.
The first two world wars corresponded to the classical image of war. The first ended the supremacy of Europe and the colonial era. The second put an end to Nazism. The third, which has indeed taken place, in the form of cold war and deterrence, put an end to Communism. With each succeeding war, we have moved further towards a single world order. Today that order, which has virtually reached its culmination, finds itself grappling with the antagonistic forces scattered throughout the very heartlands of the global, in all the current convulsions. A fractal war of all cells, all singularities, revolting in the form of antibodies. A confrontation so impossible to pin down that the idea of war has to be rescued from time to time by spectacular set-pieces, such as the Gulf War or the war in Afghanistan. But the Fourth World War is elsewhere. It is what haunts every world order, all hegemonic domination — if Islam dominated the world, terrorism would rise against Islam, for it is the world, the globe itself, which resists globalization. (11-12)
Posted by pzed on May 4, 2007 at 11.25am
Baudrillard, Simulations
22 Mar 07
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations. Trans. Paul Foss, Paul Patton, and Philip Beitchman. New York: Semiotext(e), 1983.
I seem to recall, deep in my personal history, studying reading comprehension at teachers college and running across a model for reading that outlined six levels of comprehension. I can’t remember exactly what they were, and frankly don’t care to try to look them up.
Reading Baudrillard, I think there must be a lost, seventh level. I know what all the words mean, I really do! And I even know what they mean when you put them together. And I should say his ideas, as I understand them, aren’t entirely new to me—it’s remarkable the extent to which he’s influenced others I have read. But like so many of those French guys, he writes densely and lets the reader do a considerable amount of the work.
Funny thing is, there is an excitement to it. That might be hard to explain, but I find there’s a flow to his thoughts, and so many of his examples are contemporaneous to my life (Disneyland, Watergate, the Tasaday) that I find it fun and relevant even when I know I’m missing the odd nuance. Or maybe even the odd central point. Here’s a Disneyland bit I liked that captures the flavour of this book nicely:
Disneyland is there to conceal the fact that it is the “real” country, all of “real” America, which is Disneyland (just as prisons are there to conceal the fact that it is the country in its entirety, in its banal omnipresence, which is carceral). Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, when in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of the hyperreal and of simulation. (25)
See what I mean? I love the way the parenthetical bit about prisons supports the Disneyland example, introduces a whole new host of assumptions, and adds that little “banal omnipresence” spin.
Posted by pzed on March 22, 2007 at 9.28pm
Kintaro fights the Earth-Spider
12 Mar 07
Edwards, Osman. Japanese Plays and Playfellows. New York: John Lane, 1901.
“Tsuchigumo,” the Earth-Spider. . . is founded on a curious legend, whose chief merit may be that it affords excuse for a fantastic stage-picture. It seems that a band of robbers, who lived in caves and were known by the nickname of earth-spiders, were routed from their lairs and exterminated by Kintaro, servant of Yoremitsu, whose valour was much enhanced in popular estimation by the flattering rumour that the defeated pests were not men at all, but a race of enormous demon-insects. Accordingly, the climax of “Tsuchigumo” is a stirring encounter between Imperial Guards, armed with swords and spears, and masked monsters, who entangle their weapons and baffle their aim in a cloud of long gauzy filaments, resembling the threads of a spider’s web. (55-56)
[plate faces page 56]
“Kintaro fights the Earth-Spider”
Also of interest:
Joly, Henri L. Legend in Japanese Art. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 1967.
TSUCHIGUMO. The invulnerable earth spider which infested the province of Yamato, in the time of Jimmu Tenno. It was proof against steel, and the only way in which it could be killed was devised by Mono-no-Funo-Michi-on-no-Mikoto, who closed the mouth of the cave in which the monster lived, with an iron net, and by means of a huge fire smoked the spider in its den.
Posted by pzed on March 12, 2007 at 4.52pm
Jiraiya
6 Feb 07
Edwards, Osman. Japanese Plays and Playfellows. New York: John Lane, 1901.
I was dazzled by Jiraiya. He bewildered my senses with sleight of hand and foot; he soothed my conscience with bold sophistries. For two rin I would have caught up an uncouth pike, assumed outrageous armour, and followed that robber-chief unhesitatingly to glory or to death. Vaguely I could remember being stirred in boyhood by the prowess of Robin Hood, by the fortunes of Aladdin, but here was a magnificent being who rivalled and surpassed both heroes in his own person. Like the outlaw of Sherwood Forest, he defied the powerful and helped the humble; judges and soldiers trembled at his name, which was breathed with blessings by the poor but grateful receivers of stolen goods. When the Government at last put forth its strength to crush him (and here his superiority was incontestable), instead of calling on his men in green to empty their trusty quivers, he had merely to summon his attendant sprite, a green frog, which could be trusted to spout fire until the last representative of futile authority shoud be utterly consumed. I had seen him dancing on the back of an awful dragon, which the frog vanquished before the beast had time to swing its tail; I had seen him dancing defiantly on a mountain covered with snow, while his whirling spear threatened a score of enemies dancing round the base: suddenly the mountain changed to a fire-spitting frog, and the enemies danced no more. Perhaps it was this decorative fashion of dancing in battle which reconciled me to the wholesale slaughter of so many brave men. At the moment I merely felt that they were hostile to Jiraiya and well deserved their doom. Similarly, it seemed no more than the deserts of my loyal enthusiasm when a courteous attendant, bowing to the ground, brought a message to my box to the effect that Jiraiya would be pleased to see me in his dressing-room when the curtain fell. (262-263)
Speaking of Jiraiya, am I the first to notice the resemblance?
Posted by pzed on February 6, 2007 at 7.40pm
here we go again
23 Nov 06
Reeve, Clara. The Old English Baron: A Gothic Story. 1778. Ed. James Trainer. London: Oxford UP, 1967.
Reeve originally published The Old English Baron anonymously in 1777 under the title The Champion of Virtue: A Gothic Story. In the anonymous preface to the first edition, she claimed to have transcribed the text from an old English manuscript. All this sounds very familiar somehow.
Plotwise, too: A mere eight pages in, the central character, a knight named Sir Philip Harclay, meets a peasant boy name Edmund Twyford:
The young gentlemen came up, and paid their respects to him; he apologized for intruding upon their sports, and asked which was the victor? upon which the youth he spoke to beckoned to another, who immediately advanced, and made his obeisance: As he drew near, Sir Philip fixed his eyes upon him, with so much attention, that he seemed not to observe his courtesy and address.
And you KNOW Sir Philip reacted this way because the youth looks so much like his dead friend, one-time Baron of the local castle (believed to have died in battle but doubtless assassinated and usurped). Edmund will turn out to be the true heir, blood will triumph over villainy, etc.
I’m interested in the use of the term “gothic” in the subtitle. There are accepted definitions of “gothic”, but for fun I’ve been allowing some of those definitions to accrue as I make my way ever so slowly through the literature. I wondered if there might be a contemporary definition, but Dr. Johnson didn’t deign to include the word in his Dictionary, so here’s the next best thing, from the OED Online:
3. †a. Belonging to, or characteristic of, the Middle Ages; mediæval, ‘romantic’, as opposed to classical. In early use chiefly with reprobation: Belonging to the ‘dark ages’ (cf. sense 4). Obs. [Cf. F. les siècles gothiques.]
1695 [see 4]. 1710 SHAFTESBURY Charact. (1727) I. III. 217 [The Elizabethan dramatists] have been the first of Europeans, who since the Gothick Model of Poetry, attempted to throw off the horrid Discord of jingling Rhyme. 1762 HURD Lett. Chiv. & Rom. 56 He [Spenser] could have planned, no doubt, an heroic design on the exact classic model: Or, he might have trimmed between the Gothic and Classic, as his contemporary Tasso did..Under this idea then of a Gothic, not classical poem, the Faery Queen is to be read and criticized. 1765 H. WALPOLE (title) The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story. —— Let. to Cole 9 Mar., A very natural dream for a head filled like mine with gothic story. 1771 BEATTIE Minstrel I. xi, There liv’d in gothic days, as legends tell, A shepherd swain. Ibid. I. lx, Here pause, my gothic lyre, a little while. 1773 JOHNSON Let. to Mrs. Thrale 21 Sept., A castle in Gothick romance. 1782 COWPER Table Talk 564 He sunk in Greece, in Italy he rose, And, tedious years of Gothic darkness past, Emerged all splendour in our isle at last.
. . .
4. Barbarous, rude, uncouth, unpolished, in bad taste. Of temper: Savage.
1695 DRYDEN Du Fresnoy’s Art Paint. 93 All that has nothing of the Ancient gust is call’d a barbarous or Gothique manner. 1710 SHAFTESBURY Charac. (1733) I. III. 274 We are not so Barbarous or Gothick as they pretend. a1715 BURNET Own Time (1753) V. 222 His [Chas. XII] temper grew daily more fierce and Gothick. 1732 BERKELEY Alciphr. v. §13 This Gothic crime of duelling. 1749 FIELDING Tom Jones VII. iii, ‘Oh more than Gothic ignorance,’ answered the lady. 1782 F. BURNEY Cecilia IV. ii, What he holds of all things to be most gothic, is gallantry to the women. 1812 SHELLEY Lett. Prose Wks. 1888 II. 384 Enormities which gleam like comets through the darkness of gothic and superstitious ages. 1833 CHALMERS Const. Man II. i. (1835) I. 173 Such a gothic spoliation as this. 1841 J. T. J. HEWLETT Parish Clerk I. 111 Dinner, which was eaten at the gothic hour of one o’clock.
I’m particularly fond of this Hewlett quotation at the end. I like to eat what the English call dinner at the paleolithic hour of 11.30am!
Posted by pzed on November 23, 2006 at 3.42pm
Is this the future of the book?
15 Nov 06
I found this via the Harvard UP Publicity Blog, and I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of it before. Or if I did, I didn’t really see it in action and therefore didn’t twig to how interesting it is. “It” is the future of the book. (Funny how I’d run across this after spending the day at the Future of the ILS.)
Mackenzie Wark is the author of a forthcoming book through Harvard UP (Gamer Theory, April 2007). Here’s the blog post that mentions it: McKenzie Wark interview, but HERE is the book as drafted and redrafted on the Institute for the Future of the Book website: GAM3R 7H30RY / Mackenzie Wark / Version 1.1.
Posted by pzed on November 15, 2006 at 10.38pm
deep, dark secrets
14 Nov 06
I’ve been thinking whether Fall On Your Knees has staying power as literature beyond its gripping, Cape Breton Gothic plot. In response to an email exchange with my beloved, I searched Amazon’s “Search in this Book” feature for the keywords frances cut hair. Here’s what comes up:
- on Page 98: “… Mercedes and Frances breathe the name to each other as a kind of … woman in a wide hat and an old- fashioned dress cut low, with a rose in her lap. …”
- on Page 174: “… Otherwise it has been obliterated by a riot of rust and brassy browns. Frances wears her hair in braids too, just like Lily and Mercedes, although hers writhe with escape-artist locks that by the end of the day bounce free. She cuts her own bangs. …”
- on Page 189: “… you how much we love you and you forgive us for ever teasing you and then you die, okay?” “Okay, Frances.” Mercedes would be motherly Meg, and Frances would be tomboy Jo who cuts off her hair but gets married in the end, …”
- on Page 193: “… “Why did she say look after me?” Frances doesn’t take her eyes off Lily, she just says evenly, “Because she loved you, Lily.” .. I love her too.” Tears. Frances puts out a hand and barely strokes Lily’s long hair that’s never been cut. …”
- on Page 233: “… The Old French Mine 233 Eustace does is poke at an old and tender bruise that reminds Frances what a bad apple she really is. Frances has been going stir-crazy waiting for her life to begin. She has cut the sleeves off most of her dresses and shortened them herself-uneven is all the rage. …”
- on Page 272: “… She shows him a picture of Louise Brooks. He shakes his head. “I don’t know how to cut ladies’ hair-” “I’m not a lady.” “Listen, dear-” She grabs his scissors, lops off one of her braids and says, “Now fix …”
- on Page 332: “… Pearleen Campbell works at Ferguson’s Funeral Parlor, she washed the body, there was a homemade cut in the belly, Pearleen and Teresa were girls together that’s how Teresa knows. Years ago, Teresa took a big check …”
- on Page 396: “… pen, crisp memos scrolled into pigeonholes. This is the type of office Mercedes would like some day. Someday I will cut off all my hair and enter the convent. I will teach. …”
The results are a bit clumsy, but 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 resonate strongly. There’s at least an undergrad essay in hair imagery and character in the novel.
It seems like stating the obvious to say I wish I had tools like this when I was studying English. It also seems obvious that by clamping down on content through ever tightening copyright restrictions, publisher’s are limiting if not prohibiting this kind of research. I’d like to dig a little deeper but can’t pull up lengthier excerpts to view these quotes in context. Of course, I could just look at the book itself, but I happen to have left it at home today.
I also discovered the book’s truly deepest, darkest secret.
Posted by pzed on November 14, 2006 at 11.39am
fruit of the loom
6 Nov 06
MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Fall on Your Knees. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 1996.
I’ve been reading and rather enjoying Fall on Your Knees. It’s gripping enough I keep forgetting to look for things to write down. There’s lots of good stuff, here. The writing is engaging, and the story is compelling—although occasionally a bit melodramatic. Melodrama being the stage version of gothic, I’ve wondered whether to include this book in that seemingly long forgotten project. There’s certainly a lot of Roman Catholicism (which is barely this side of the supernatural) and one of the central characters has started having dreams that include details of real events she could not possibly know; unless, subconsciously, she has cobbled together these important bits from the stories her sister has told her.
At any rate, today I ran across this and just had to make note of it:
But she hasn’t had a chance to read the little book herself because Frances grabbed it, turned to the last page — as is her habit with all books — and read it aloud. Lily has understood everything in the happy-death prayer except one word.
“What’s a viaticum?”“It’s a holy word for clean underwear.”“Can I see the book now Frances?”Lily reaches, but Frances pulls the book away and explains, “When you’re about to die and the priest comes and gives you extreme unction, he takes a set of clean underwear out of your drawer and blesses them. Then he puts them on you. Or if it’s an emergency and there’s no priest, anyone can bless the clean underwear. That’s were Fruit of the Loom underwear comes from, it comes from the Hail Mary when you say ‘Blessed is the fruit of thy loom, Jesus.’ ”
Posted by pzed on November 6, 2006 at 8.57pm
London Public Library book sale
22 Oct 06
Today was the last day for the LPL book sale. The sale runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and on Sunday everything is $3 a bag. Here’s what I got for $3, unannotated. Can you guess which one is to slip in my Mom’s stocking this xmas?
Brookner, Anita. Hotel du Lac. London: Triad, 1985.
–––––. Incidents in the Rue Laugier. Toronto: Random House, 1995.
Burstall, Aubrey F. Simple Working Models of Historic Machines (easily made by the reader). London: Edward Arnold, 1968.
Clark, Roger. Art Education: A Canadian Persepective. Toronto: Ontario Society for Education through Art, 1994.
David, Ira E. Christ Our Coming King. Harrisburg, PA: The Christian Alliance P Co., 1928.
Diderot, Denis. The Encyclopedia: Selections. Ed. and transl. Stephen J. Gendzier. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1967.
Family Circle Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, Bas-Bui. Garden City, NY: Rockville House, 1973.
Foundation for Inner Peace. A Course in Miracles, Volume Three: Manual for Teachers. Farmingdale, NY: Coleman Graphics, 1975.
Hole, Christina. Saints in Folklore. New York: M. Barrows and Co., 1965.
Jeffrey, Robert and Paul Russell. The Canadian Royal Tour: Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, June 14-July 1, 1983. Toronto: Methuen, 1983.
Mobil Travel Guide: Coastal Southeast. Park Ridge, IL: EMTG, 2004.
Norgate, Sheila. Storm Clouds over Party Shoes: Etiquette Problems for the Ill-bred Woman. Vancouver: Press Gang P, 1997.
Oram, Sandie. England. London: Macdonald Educational, 1972.
Parker, Robert B. and John R. Marsh. Training with Weights: The Athlete’s Free-weight Guide. New York: Time, 1990.
Patterson, Freeman. Photography for the Joy of It. Toronto: Van Nostrand Rheinhold, 1977.
Robinson, Dave. Nietzsche and Postmodernism. Duxford, UK: Icon Books, 1999.
Reveen, Peter. The Superconscious World. Montreal: Eden P, 1987.
The Sun People. London: Macdonald Education, 1972.
Tester, Sylvia Root. A Visit to the Library. Chicago: Children’s Press, 1985.
Vaughan, Jennifer, ed. Wool and String. London, Macdonald Education, 1973.
Posted by pzed on October 22, 2006 at 8.34pm
