Month: December 2022
Give and take
Too much talking wears the listener out
Keep silent then until you feel no doubt.
Learn how you can take in what they say
But don’t reply until another day
Incontinence in)2 speech can overwhelm
We can drown the other with our tongue.
If you go dumb because you feel deep grief
Emulate the insect on its leaf
Your words will not destroy your
anger’s good.
Chew your meat, for you will taste no blood
Vasily Grossman: Loser, Saint | The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/vasily-grossman-loser-saint
There are echoes here of the sclerotic cruelties, mass killing and frightened conformity of Putin’s Russia, which makes Life and Fate especially compelling now. But Grossman’s portrait is timelessly relevant. Tolstoy refused to describe War and Peace as either novel or history; it explained an era. Grossman does the same, illuminating why people are moved to savagery or sacrifice.
Nobody should be sacrificed to transcendent ideals

D
Ikonnikov’s fierce conclusion is that there are no transcendent schemes for which people should be sacrificed. These ideals are delusions. “Those who most wish for the good of humanity are unable to diminish evil by one jot.”
There are echoes here of the sclerotic cruelties, mass killing and frightened conformity of Putin’s Russia, which makes Life and Fate especially compelling now. But Grossman’s portrait is timelessly relevant. Tolstoy refused to describe War and Peace as either novel or history; it explained an era. Grossman does the same, illuminating why people are moved to savagery or sacrifice.
Mental lexicon

His mental lexicon was full of words
Though very few of them were ever heard
He made up sentences inside his head
Before he went to sleep in a strange bed
But no one ever shared his own bedstead m
He might have wished for marriage, never said
He was extremely shy so we observe
H never got the happiness deserved
The Grammarphobia Blog: Sentence interruptus
Don’t assume you know what speech is for

is too often forgotten that the gift of speech, so centrally employed, has been elaborated as much for the purpose of concealing thought by dissimulation and lying as for the purpose of elucidating and communicating thought.
Psycho analysis is not a science and never can be
“It is very important to be aware that you may never be satistied with your analytic career if you feel that you are restricted to what is narrowly called a ‘scientific’ approach. You will have to be able to have a chance of feeling that the interpretation you give is a beautiful one, or that you get a beautiful response from the patient. This aesthetic element of beauty makes a very difficult situation tolerable.” ~ Wilfred Bion
Qqqq
Dumped again
I didn’t know that love could die so soon
I didn’t know you would leave me lone
I was still humming that special tune
I didn’t know love could die so soon
Without you here I hate my room
We can’t even talk on the telephone
How was it love when it went so soon
I didn’t think you could leave me alone 0
Triolet
Rondel (Triolet)
By Jean Froissart (1337-1404)
Love, love, what wilt thou with this heart of mine?
Naught see I fixed or sure in thee!
I do not know thee,–nor what deeds are thine:
Love, love, what will though with this heart of mine?
Shall I be mute, or vows with prayers combine?
Ye who are blessed in loving, tell it me:
Love, love, what wilt thou with this heart of mine?
Naught see I permanent or sure in thee!