Since I began this blog

Old wooden table looks like my furrowed brow

I have during the course of this blogging found some new and interesting authors but all the books are really hard.I am struggling to read them but at the same time I am very happy to have found them.

I may not post much for a bit as I want time to mull over these books and what I am learning.I find writing here has lead me to learn a lot and I hope it’s true for some of you readers… a whole new world has opened for me,,,I may not be blogging here but please look at the authors I’ve recommended if you have time to learn.

Levinas,books etc

I have received several books now written by or about Levinas.As you guess,they are quite hard so my time is taken up reading.The most hopeful one,The Cambridge Guide,is not here yet.but I think it will be more understandable than the others to an ignorant person like myself. I am unsure what I’ve done but this is coming out very much to one side so I shall just say.Hello and continue with my studies.I like this shy lion picture.

PS.Just got the Cambridge Guide and it looks quite approachable.

A review of a book about ‘s philosophy (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
A long review of Conversations with Emmanuel Levinas (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
At Wit’s End: Delmore Schwartz’s Poetic Reflections on the Other (schlemielintheory.com)
What is ethics? (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
The crucial importance of the face:More about Levinas (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
Language as site (veraqivas.wordpress.com)
Emmanuel Levinas, Don Quixote, and the Hunger of the Other Man (schlemielintheory.com)
Martin Heidegger Talks About Language, Being, Marx & Religion in Vintage 1960s Interviews (openculture.com)
Book review: The World at a Glance (iupress.typepad.com)
Derrida and the Crisis of French Zionism (jadaliyya.com)

Why and how Sylvia Plath disappointed me

Until last year I had read only the most famous of Plath’s poems like “Daddy”.Then I read many more and also many works of criticism and explanation.And then I realised she was one of the most gifted poets of her era. But alas, her maturity as a poet coincided with the breakdown of her marriage.And so her talents were used to express mainly rage and then meaninglessness and death.

Was it only the tragedy of her life situation that brought about her mature voice ? I believe not. And so I grieve that her wonderful works were full of rage and destructiveness…. what would she have written otherwise.I also believe that her motives in marrying Hughe were mixed…. and so were his to her.Marriage is entered into too lightly and without understanding.I almost feel arranged marriages were better sometimes

Now maybe it is wrong of me to say this but I know we all are acquainted with anger, envy,jealous and other painful emotions .But I believe to cultivate them is not moral. And to utilise them in Art is something dangerous and maybe destructive. And without specifying any religion or ethical system I believe acting ethically is more important than art, music,writing and so on…not that there is always a conflict.

I may appear to counsel perfection but I merely grieve for the loss of a genius and what she might have written if she had been given support and help when left alone with two tiny children in a foreign land.

If we have gifts let us use them for good and for the encouragement of our human companions on this planet and not for harm,destruction ,stealing wealth and creating evil

The Sylvia Plath Effect

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/03/18/writers-who-suffered-from-the-sylvia-plath-effect/#!scilW

I mentioned the writer Plath in my last post.I came across this article… but it is unfair to label this problem as “The Sylvia Plath Effect” as most of the writers referred to lived before Plath.But women writers,are potential writers used to find it very hard to construct an identity which could include love,sex and family and also being a writer and an agent in one’s life rather than just a subject in someone else’s…. perhaps a husband’s/At one time women gave up on love and marriage and were able to be writers but it seems a pity.

Now,that may seem a privilege when most women inn the world struggle to survive.But writers and artists are not a luxury. We need them to express what we cannot; to venture into new parts of life.to express what is below the surface .Not that all art is of equal value.I myself would be very happy if Rr.Wagner had fallen of a horse and tacked his skull before he wrote “The Ring Cycle “and his other loaded musical works. Music is in any case not always of moral benefit/We are too familiar with the top Nazis loving Mozart not to be aware of the dangers of believing art is always a beneficial thing. Plato was very wary of it.

Nor do I naively believe that all that happens is the direct will of God/Even god would be irritated by

The Ride of the Valkyries” and other such inflaming nonsense.I feel it’s blasphemous to mention God at all but looking back at the 20 th century we see his face turned away.

I do believe that Plath’s suicide was a very bad thing because any such event seems to produce copycat suicides.. indeed Plath’s husband’s mistress also gassed herself and their child…a dreadful imitation.Tread carefully indeed when you imagine love is a simple and easy sweet there to be grabbed.Assia Wevill plotted to seduce Ted Hughes.

I am very much against planning or plotting to gratify one’s self at the expense of another and in fact she destroyed her own life compounding grief and woe.

I believe in our society it is accepted that women can use their gifts but not at the expense of their duties.Men are also affected by the need to work and support their families when perhaps they would like to imitate Gauguin…!

A new author for me:Kenneth Gergen

http://www.taosinstitute.net/kenneth-j-gergen-phd

Ihave been reading his earlier book,The Saturated Society which I also strongly recommend.I found it good reading and I now know what post modernism is about for better or worse.He can be very funny too When trlating his personal experiences.If you can get these from your library you will be intrigued.And his prose is great too.

I am learning so much.

And laughing too

We are living in a digital world and I am a digital girl (environmentbehavior.wordpress.com)
Virtual Environments (environmentbehavior.wordpress.com)
Constructivism (chiaramae.wordpress.com)
Psychological Illusion (sis640girls.wordpress.com)
Social Constructivism and Schindler’s List (politicsmediasportsmusiclife.wordpress.com)
Adult learning- Social Constructivism (woundsarebad.wordpress.com)
Theory and Research – impact in the learning experience? (oscarolima.wordpress.com)
Social Constructivism: Pandora’s Hope (Part 2/3) (philosiful.wordpress.com)
Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy lecture on meditation and the mind sciences this Thursday (warpweftandway.com)
Social Constructivism (swueduc19.wordpress.com)

How To Use Music And Art Being A Leisure Strategy Relaxation

I like the ideas

nathancopperfield184ccommon6659

The ability of art causes a calm frame of mind, this can be a well-known fact. It’s no use mentioning that the capacities of any beautiful object, be it a flower, a painting, an item of music, a film or even a well-written guide, help us let go all the mental poison and the daily preoccupations. Art and music have the strongest ability to lead us to your meditating path, to produce that condition in which we ignore our doubts, anxieties, problems at work, with the forms, with the mother-in-law.

Music?? The Driving Noise

Imagine a scented space, in which blends combine only to make even more perceptible to the senses the barely audible music that seems to come from the otherworld. Imagine that this music is the one sang by the angels, imagine the notes, the interest that was put while being created. Music should indeed be because it…

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“I imagine that the intelligent people are the ones so intelligent that they don’t even need or want to look ‘intelligent’ anymore.

Funny cartoons

Intelligence ?

http://xwww.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/06/boris-johnson-miss ed-point-

It’s outrageous to accuse the Guardian of aiding terrorism by publishing Snowden’s revelations | Ben Emmerson | Comment is free | The Guardian (theguardian.com)
“I imagine that the intelligent people are the ones so intelligent that they don’t even need or want to look ‘intelligent’ anymore. (samratvision.wordpress.com)
How Can You Develop Your Emotional Intelligence? (youuniversityonline.com)
Boris Johnson fails IQ test and muddles up Tube ticket prices on weekly LBC radio show (metro.co.uk)
Six months after NSA story broke, Edward Snowden looks even more patriotic | Dan Gillmor | Comment is free | theguardian.com (theguardian.com)
On Boris Johnson and intelligence: it’s not clever to pretend IQ doesn’t matter (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)

“Through the tunnel” by Doris Lessing

International english blog

Through the tunnel is a short story written by Doris Lessing, who is a famous author from Britain. She has won many prices; one of them is the Nobel Prize in Literature (2007).

Through the tunnel is about a young boy, Jerry, who goes to the beach with his mom on vacation. Here he sees older boys diving in the water, and he finds an underwater tunnel. His goal is to get through the tunnel, and in the end he achieves this.

I think the story is about growing up. Jerry sees the older boys dive in the ocean, and he wants to be like them. In order to do this he has to go through the tunnel, which is probably a metaphor for him growing up, and leaving his childhood behind.

I liked the story a lot, and I think this is because of how well-written it is. Doris…

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Smile

I once had a cat who loved being

Her eyes were much brighter fot seeing

She foresaw the recession

Though not the depression

If only I `d heard her confession

Motivational Monday – SMILE! (iveynutritionandwellness.wordpress.com)
On top of the world (talkingaboutbipolar.wordpress.com)
Smile, an Exercise (sendingjoy.wordpress.com)

Doctorow

Thr famous writrr

Grief is like….

Grief is like driving at night.You can see only a few feet in front of uou,but you can make a whole journey that way.

E.L.Doctorow

“This ia a good analogy. much of life may be like that

Happy 79th Birthday, Joan Didion: The Beloved Writer on Grief (brainpickings.org)
How to Turn Your Grief Into Generosity (decorative-urns.com)

Levinas

I have got another book by Levinas.I am planning to spend a few days reading and meditating…so i should have much to write about next week.I am very affected by the notion of the meaning of how encounter another and how ethics is the primary essence of philosphy

A long review of Conversations with Emmanuel Levinas (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
At Wit’s End: Delmore Schwartz’s Poetic Reflections on the Other (schlemielintheory.com)
Levinas Defaced (3ammagazine.com)
The crucial importance of the face:More about Levinas (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
Book review: Levinas and James (iupress.typepad.com)
The Art of Connecting to the Other (huffingtonpost.com)
My chemical brother (thechildanimalpoetandsaint.wordpress.com)

Meeting a person’s eyes:Levinas in ordinary life

Corot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face-to-face

The face to face encounter and its ethical meaning/implications is at the heart of Levinas‘ thought.Just today I was thinking over some personal events relating to this.

A few months ago I went into a cafe and found myself just behind an ex-colleague whom I regard [note the word] as friend.I could see her husband sitting at the back of the cafe.She did mutter,Hello,but instead of meeting me eye to eye and saying,”my husband wants to be alone”,she went through an elaborate pantomime of mime indicating rejection or keep a distance…which was unpleasant.I would been much happier with a straightforward look and a few words.

Today I had a similar event.I met a woman who used to be my physiotherapist ,again in a queue.She looked at me full on and greeted me with pleasure.As she picked up her tray she asked me to join her and her husband plus a grandchild.We had a pleasant time,But if she had said,we are with our family,or whatever,that woulded have been fine too.because she looked at me

I am not saying the first woman ought to have done that.But what interests me is the lack of a willingness to “meet” me with her gaze.I am entirely happy if people wish to be alone whilst the have coffee but I prefer them to say so.

Some individuals with autism are almost unable to make eye contact…. and this is because others are not real to them,If we are near someone who will not meet our eyes,it can convey the same feeling.On the other hand,every one has off days and so I feel no anger,just a discomfort as this woman is very articulate and highly educated.I think her husband is quite controlling.

So this made me think about Levinas and about Martin Buber‘s I and Thou

There is also an expression,”he looked right through me”which is also a negative way of facing someone.And also,Cutting someone dead.

Essentially not looking at someone is a form of killing them as you imply they are not part of society.Like not responding to someone verbally or in writing.You are saying,You do not exist.

Eye Contact (hannahandharriet.wordpress.com)
You only have 7 Seconds to Make a First Impression! (top2toestyliestadotme.wordpress.com)
The Art of Connecting to the Other (huffingtonpost.com)
Eric Frydenlund: To know someone requires we meet them in the present (lacrossetribune.com)
At Wit’s End: Delmore Schwartz’s Poetic Reflections on the Other (schlemielintheory.com)
Robert Alter And The King James Bible 2 – James Wood (payingattentiontothesky.com)
Annoying Habits of Some Philosophers (maverickphilosopher.typepad.com)

Could Wittgenstein well?

Do you think philosophy’s monotonous?

Prefer an elephant to a hippopotamus?

Do not feel sad

When joy can be had

From seeing which writes are dichotomous.

Is your spelling far wurse than myne?

Are your thoughts far from sublyme?

Could Jacques Derrida spell?

Could Wittgenstein well?

Answering these questions will take up our tyme

How to Make Progress in Philosophy (3quarksdaily.com)
A Wittgenstein Paradox (maverickphilosopher.typepad.com)
Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard Against Hegel (deandettloff.wordpress.com)
Stephen Mulhall introduces Wittgenstein (externalword.wordpress.com)
Wittgenstein and Science (robertlindsay.wordpress.com)
See the Homes and Studies of Wittgenstein, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche & Other Philosophers (openculture.com)
Suturing Up Pain: Power of Poetry to Heal (samueljfoxblog.wordpress.com)
Jacques Derridas’ “Paper or Me… You know”, Or Rather, Derridas follows the “paper trail” of paper…. (agsmith5060ttu.wordpress.com)
The Democracy of Objects: Derrida and Dinosaurs (theotherjournal.com)
Ontic Cafe – Philosophy in the Public Sphere (onticafe.wordpress.com)

On Not Being Able to Paint – Marion Milner 1950

Innteresting

Currently reading when pussy lets me

My Unwritten Books by George Steiner…I am enjoying this much more than when read his work ten years ago

The Golden Baby by Margaret Drabble…….Good but too similar to all her later works.

How it all began by Penelope Lively…Wonderful like all her books

Writers and critics on the best books of 2013 (theguardian.com)
Drabble #67 (drabbledaily.wordpress.com)
A writer who began to get published late in life (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
The Observer’s books of the year (theguardian.com)
My hero: Doris Lessing by Margaret Drabble (theguardian.com)
confessions of a closet bibliophile (rhondondo.wordpress.com)
Reviews round-up (newstatesman.com)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: Book Review (ladygilraen.wordpress.com)
Currently Listening: Bring Up the Bodies (taylorsbook.wordpress.com)
Quote of Mary Renault (breezydaystories.com)

Object relations link

Add Media http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_relations_theory

In case you don’t know about this…. it’s mentioned in my last post.It’s is a psychoanalytical school based om the work of Dr W D Winnicott

Psychoanalysis: The architecture of the self. (kknightdotcom.wordpress.com)
How To Love Yourself First (cancerisyourbestteacher.wordpress.com)
On Not Being Able to Paint – Marion Milner 1950 (achakra.com)
Foucault: The Mesh of Power (previously untranslated) (jdeanicite.typepad.com)
Psyche, Imagination, Reality and the Influence of Mother in Arkham Asylum (supermastitis.wordpress.com)
Society as a body (musteryou.wordpress.com)
The best stay-at-home art picks (dazeddigital.com)
Feel the Love (ohmeagano.wordpress.com)
Rilke, Poetry and Alchemy; The Asheville Jung Center Will Host This Exciting Internet Webinar from the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco on Saturday, November 9th (prweb.com)
Mythological Healing in Times of Crisis (jeanraffa.wordpress.com)

I am really surprised /pleased about the number of people reading here

Margaret Drabble when young

When I moved from books to Philosophy I was not expecting a lot of readers but I have had far more than I thought and so I have continued again after I thought I’d stop.So as I have thought before,people do like serious reading and thinking about thinking.

I shall try to put on more about books too.I am reading the latest Margaret Drabble this week,The pure gold baby.It seems very light reading after Heidegger and co.Which is nice..

I would like to discover an introduction to modern literary crticism as i find it hard to get into.I am unsure if it needs to be so difficult….

The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble – review (theguardian.com)
Margaret Drabble: ‘At parties, after a few drinks, I start asking people to supper, which I always regret’ (theguardian.com)
Margaret Drabble: Unless you’re Hilary Mantel you don’t have a chance (telegraph.co.uk)
Thinking about what is called thinking [Heidegger] (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
Margaret Drabble: In our head we switch tenses all the time (metro.co.uk)
ANYTHING is Possible (makeitallbelle1.wordpress.com)
Sunday Lit Crit Sermon #77: Orson F. Whitney on poetry and religion (motleyvision.org)
Lit Crit: Vile Bodies (paulgapper.wordpress.com)
Reading and the Reader by Philip Davis – review (theguardian.com)
And now for something completely different: Baudrillard, Disneyland, and Capitalist Ideology (rbday.wordpress.com)

I’m finding Derrida de-structured

And Levinas‘ face makes me smile

Who would have conjectured

That one day I’d lecture

On thoughfullness and all its trials?

I prefer Kierkegaard to Sartre

Who sometimes makes me feel queer.

Who would have expected

That words would be texted

As men smoked cigarettes and drank beer?

Some people like reading Jane Austen

While others juggle with Wittgensein.

Who would have discarded

The notes in the margins?

How sweetly these words recombine

Levinas’ Ethics (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
A review of a book about ‘s philosophy (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
“God and the Other” Symposium: Part 1 (churchandpomo.typepad.com)
The Art of Connecting to the Other (huffingtonpost.com)
A long review of Conversations with Emmanuel Levinas (complexnumberblog.wordpress.com)
Wittgenstein’s Architecture (deandettloff.wordpress.com)
A Wittgenstein Paradox (maverickphilosopher.typepad.com)
Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument (kierkeguardians.wordpress.com)
Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard Against Hegel (deandettloff.wordpress.com)
Interview of Niklas Luhmann (syntheticzero.net)

Beech Trees

Stunning

LensScaper

Yesterday we were blessed with another beautiful, albeit cold, day. Time for a visit to the Ashridge Estate – a favourite area of protected woodland, close to Ivinghoe Beacon and Bluebell woods that have been familiar sites for posts on this blog in the past.

Beech Trees produce a beautiful palette of colours in Autumn, they are one of the most eye-catching of British trees. Yesterday I took images in my usual style – getting up-close to the individual leaves – as seen in the previous post. But today I’m going to show you something quite different.

I was struck by the way light was filtering through trees on the edge of the wood – vertical slices of bright coloured light interspersed between the dark trunks of the trees. I wanted to capture that panoramic sweep of the woodland.

But also at the taking stage I had something else in…

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Day Shift Gallery (26 Photos)

Sweet

Break Room Stories

Click the image to view gallery

A little gallery to get you through your shift!

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Too chaste?

That’s a bit personal..I know

Is there an ideal level of chastity?

Can one be 40 per cent chaste?

Are there grades of chastity?

Is there a test for chastity?

If not,why is that?

If there is,hide it!

Is chastity a good idea?

Or just an idea…

Too chaste for whom?

In defense of chastity (manusdb.wordpress.com)
Chastity and Almsgiving – a New Thought (roadkillrhapsody.com)
Why this topic? (carolinedeldarling.wordpress.com)
Nude women snapped in webcam hack (stuff.co.nz)
Love, death, classic beauty and two sculptures by Antonio Canova (passionforartandbeauty.wordpress.com)
Nudity: Art vs. photography (blogs.montrealgazette.com)
Naturism and The Need to Keep Children Safe (getnakedgetawesome.wordpress.com)
The man who seduced a Romanian village (thestar.com)

Capitalism, Part 1

Such fab cartoons

Waiting for Satan

In a capitalist society, I think it’s very easy for human emotions to get all out of whack because everyone’s your competitor.

shat1

This starts right from when you’re babies. Before their offspring can even shit without crying, parents are already trying to give their little pink pudgeballs a “competitive edge.” Even fetuses aren’t safe from the melodramatic ramblings of Germans in powdered wigs who arn’t fooling anybody (suck it, Mozart!)

What ends up being sculpted into the head of these new life creatures is not so much the overrated compositions of overgrown child piano prodigies (suck it, Mozart!), but rather these children are encumbered by a terrible competitive streak. This demon of Darwinism hangs on the shoulder of capitalists citizens like a very knowledgeable scientist who likes to start fights. I know this because I have one of my own. His provocations are unprovoked, loud, and never appropriate.

This…

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Secret destinations

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”
― Martin Buber

I think he is talking about our life journeys not our outing to the park.

	“When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature.” –Sigmund Freud			(
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