George Steiner: “In Bluebeard’s CastleSome Notes Towards the Redefinition of Culture” 1971 / 2. A Season in Hell Yale University Press © George Steiner 1971

English: A picture taken on June 27, 2008 in P...
English: A picture taken on June 27, 2008 in Prague, Czech Republic of the former house of Franz Kafka. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say?
Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say? (Photo credit: Sol S.)

George Steiner: “In Bluebeard’s CastleSome Notes Towards the Redefinition of Culture” 1971 / 2. A Season in Hell Yale University Press © George Steiner 1971.

You can read the whole article from this genius

George Steiner
George Steiner (Photo credit: fieldus)

Vicious punctuation


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When spreading vicious and damaging gossip about the private affairs of others, one must always use proper grammar and posture.”
― Scott Rhine

Did you seep well?

English: Stone chimney breast The only substan...
English: Stone chimney breast The only substantial part of Cottage of Collithie that remains. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Please avoid thrilling people on the road

Please wave carefully
Please weep to yourself and do not bend
Please do not walk on the toad.
Please do not grow balls here.
Please lie off the band
Please tell the youth.always
Please weep quiet.
Please leap off the chimney breast
Please pass your zest and drive yourself round the clown

Please pay the piano on arrival.

No lies enrolled here

Eccentric beings and sensitive souls: Living well with what others call mental health issues

realsafzoro

When I was fifteen or so, my mother waded through the sea of clothes, books, school work and teenage flotsam and jetsam that covered my floor, and sat on the edge of my bed with tears in her eyes. I had to clean up, she said. It was really important that I get the room sorted. I made some excuse, but she cast her eyes downwards, subtly wiping a tear from the corner.

“I had a friend who never cleaned up. Every time you went into her house, the house was a complete bomb site. She had junk all over every surface. And she ended up in Ward 12B.”

Ward 12B, for those who never had the chance to go there, was the mental health ward at the old Canberra Hospital. So apparently, Mum believed that mess drove you mad and that cleaning was protective. It’s a particularly amusing little…

View original post 2,640 more words

Fantasise about chastity

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Trapped behind bars?

Can’t stop thinking?Read this article.Can’t stop reading.

Think about :

Doris Lessing

Moving house

Extending your kitchen

Getting your hair cut off and buying a wig.

Streaking in church

Shrieking in church

Seeing visions

Having a siesta

Fantasise about sex

Fantasise about chastity

Take a quiz for Aspergers

Take a test for mensa.

Convert to a new religion

See a therapist.

Bake a cake.

Have a bath

Go to bed with the Vicar

Go to bed with the Rabbi

Buy a bike

Another look at Doris Lessing

This is a very good article about Doris Lessing from the Washington Post in 1994

Doris Lessing died today

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10455589/Doris-Lessing-Obituary.html

One of the best writers ever died today.Doris Lessing had a long and intriguing life as a child in Iran and Rhodesia and an adult on England

For the bold:Moral relativism

????

If like me you get hooked on philosophy the NYT has many intriguing articles such has this one.

Is it the case that atheism will damage our morals or those of our children?Can you have morals without religion?Ethics may  or may not need a religious base.Now  Bible reading is diminishing  is that leading to trouble?

Quotes tagged as “relativism”  Goodreads
Michel de Montaigne

“When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?”
Michel de Montaigne, Apology for Raymond Sebond

More on Emmanuel Levinas

PIC00649.JPGSince I came upon the work of Levinas I  have found his writing interesting even though tough for me to understand,,

I just found this useful list of references to him and in case you are interested you can take a look

The Bible add on:Evening at home

NEW RELIGIOUS TAX ON KOSHER DOGS IS UNFAIR!
NEW RELIGIOUS TAX ON KOSHER DOGS IS UNFAIR! (Photo credit: roberthuffstutter)
Easter morning headline
Easter morning headline (Photo credit: c_neuhaus)
Thus Saith The Lord God
Thus Saith The Lord God (Photo credit: premasagar)

And it came to pass that they ate their dinner
and that she did washeth up.
And she did leave the dishes to drain
Whilst she put on the washing machine.
and the man was very pleased.

And it further came to pass
that she gave the man some pudding
and he was more pleased.
And then it came to pass the he fell asleep
By the fire.

And the Lord God,said
who is this man that sleepeth by his fire?
And He said,I shall waken him up
And the man awoke,
And God spake unto him

How is it that the woman laboureth in ye kitchen.
And that thou sleepeth here in an armchair.
And the man said,
But Thou didst order women to labour.
And the Lord God said unto the man
Why dost thou remember so selectively what I have said?
And the man said,
I knoweth not and therefore I will help this woman.
And the Lord God said,
Why dost thou not think of it thyself?
And the man said in reply,
It was Thou that made me,O God.

And the Lord God was displeased with the man.
so he called down a plague of butterflies
To prevent him from sleeping.
And when the woman came in
she was much pleased to see these butterflies
and so she fell onto the man
And he did make love unto her.
And the cat was very pleased.

For it thrilled a cat to watch humans loving
and gave him hope
That the Lord God would take his rib and make a mate for him.
And indeed it doth seem to have happened
Judging by all the cats staring in ye old window here;
And by their ecstatic yelps
That the Lord God was very generous with them
and made them many mates.
For truly there is no jealousy among them
And they mate freely and happily
and never have rows about the washing up..
as they eat straight from the can.Amen

Here endeth today’s lesson.
Be thou kind to thy mate always

Last train for Moscow

"Polonez" train from Moscow to Warsa...
“Polonez” train from Moscow to Warsaw departing Beloruskij Vokazal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Panorama of Moscow, Borodinsky Bridge near rig...
Panorama of Moscow, Borodinsky Bridge near right, Smolensky Metro Bridge far right (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Elena,a baby wrapped in her woollen clothes,
On the last train,Warsaw to Moscow,
[ change Niegoreloje.]
1939.Father,mother,brother
You passed through the Arctic Wastes of life.
Still as if travellng on a train
To an impossibly far destination.
As you left the German Army crashed into Poland
Lost,your aunts
Your cousins.
Your culture.
How does God select the damned?
Later,you had your own baby,here in England,
Not lost like all those others.
Your father died by his own hand,
The hand of history;
The fingers twitching,
Not sure where to point.
Then settling into frozen grief
A sculpture only your mother saw.
You saw too,Elena.
You always saw,though you can’t remember;
The long journey,your mother’s breast,
Your father’s silence.
Only the dead know that silence.
Only the dead weep
With the rocks and stones .
And the ice in each eye
Fell like snow down your cheeks
As you held your own infant.
Warsaw to Moscow,
Moscow to Jerusalem.
Always journeying
Looking for what they can never find:
The home they left behind
The presence of the dead
Lying in gaunt heaps
Like rubbish
Your aunts, Elena.
Your cousins.
You never knew them.
But there’s a hole in your mind
Through which the Polish wind blows for ever.

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