Moby Dick… Is it just me or are there covert undertones of homo-eroticism in this book (even the whale itself is a sperm whale; plus his name is Moby Dick ← ok, that part may just be me, but there are passages that I could quote that are undeniable)? I’m only at Chapter 11 (it’s a huge book) so we’ll have to wait and see.
No, it’s not just you, gib. The book is replete with homo-erotic images and hints especially between Ishmael and Queequeg. I wouldn’t read it through a modern ‘queer eye’ perspective, though. In my opinion, that would miss the point. I think the sexual suggestions should be seen on a psychological level and read with the mindset of the time it was written.
These men are emotional/sexual beings. They’re thrown together through some of the most extreme situations where they’re broken down physically, mentally and emotionally. They have to rely on each other. They have to develop strong bonds between each other or they’ll die. Testosterone is pumping at abnormally high levels over long periods of time. In these circumstances, beliefs about how relationships supposed to work, start to fracture and boundaries begin to crumble.
I can so totally relate to everything you’ve said here. We do become so attached to things which hold meaning to us.
There was a time a few years ago that I was concerned that my faithful companion 
, my Oak, would be cut down. Some other trees have been cut down to make way for a parking lot. [size=200]ROAR[/size]!!! But mine was not.
But alas, in a way, the way I am only now able to view it and it’s landscape and presence has changed because of a children’s playground within its vicinity.
It isn’t simply the space itself but the surrounding space that also adds or added beauty and such substance to it. Its harmony and balance and majesty has been transformed in a way because of that playground. But still…it holds a part of myself within it and a part of itself within me that can never really change. And all I have to do is to close my eyes and it is there instantly before me. I have taken a few pictures of my tree but really is that necessary?
Are you speaking of a photo here, obe?
Actually, no Arcturus
It’s a turn of the century painting of an old Eglish park. The uncanny resemblance to my tree is akin to Your description of the the surroundings, which seem to define it within am almost hidden and mysterious backdrop. It seems oddly a kind of unexplainable set of ideas and events which brought it to me.
Almost as if it was meant for me to have it. It has become my prized possession, and strangely I convinced that the artist and I meet on a sort of spiritual level in this representation.
I do not have your ability to recreate images in my mind so if anything I would like to hold on to is this painting.
Did you put this image here in ilp, obe? If I remember, in a post I think you said you would. Is it here?
Actually I have posted it I don’t remember now where but I will look for it later on today, and send You the forum name. Incidentally its kind of strange, but my spelling corrector just brought up Rodin. I remember vaguely a picture of the thinker which I posted early on upon joining ilp.
I look forward to it with bated breath, obe. Do not disappoint - unless you want to.
You know what. The other day, while I was out taking a walk, with all of this snow which we still have, I came upon this big mound of snow and within it, I saw the shape of Rodin’s thinker…instantly. It was kind of wild. I love seeing certain unexpected images in things.
Another day while out walking, I saw the form of a wolf, a white one to boot, relaxing in the street…from about a block away. What was awesome about it was that the closer I came to it, I still saw this wonderful shape of a wolf in the street. I examined the “snow” wolf closely. It really was so incredibly random but at the same time, appeared as if a sculptor might have done it - at least to me. No, no one sculpt or shaped it except for nature. It was remarkable how the snow shaped the “thinker” and this beautiful wild animal. I’m not sure how many other people would have seen the things i saw but there they were. I don’t know how they could not! lol
The painting is in this forum titled (post your favorite art here ) 3rd page. Gotta run, sorry to be rude
lol Rude? Why would you consider that to be rude? Obe, if I felt that you were being rude, that just might make me the most sensitive (negatively speaking) person here. You weren’t being rude…you were just being busy.
Thank You for that, and of I may comment on shapes and forms appearing out of formed elements.
Oh,Arcturus, I would be exagerating,if I were to claim some special route to some kind of gateway into the spiritual and the occult, and I wouldn’t want to exhaust myself as Gobbo did in trying to prove anything unusual .
The only point worthwhile mentioning is the focus achieved through the various levels of abstraction, tend to be become more objective, and even without referring to Jung’s synchronicity, coincidental events tend to emerge a pattern of unexplainable sililar events.
There has been a few laughable recorded cases of obvious Paxilm merit, the one which comes most clearly to my mind happened about a year ago.
A chocolate factory, in the midst of producing candy formed the image of the Virgin Mary. Production was halted, the neighberhood’a mostly Catholic community becoming aware of what’a in their backyard, arranged pilgrimiges ,firmly in the belief that an imimminent miracle is at hand.
This is not the type of experience I am referring to William James work is well documented with arguable but credible instances of this kind
I CANNOT furnish any concrete evidence other then personal anecdotes which surfaced in unusual circumstances. l
John Grisham - The Street Lawyer
Yay, Sheldrake!
Plutarch’s Lives
So sweet. Highly recommend it to anyone.
Just finished a book on the life and times of Machiavelli (Paul Stathern). Quite a good overview.
I read The Prince eons ago – they make you read war and strategy books in business school – but I didn’t know much about the background to writing the book.
It was a tumultuous time in Italy and Machiavelli was at the heart of it. City states, the Medici and the Papal armies battled it out over and over again. It was the Renaissance and the religious and intellectual landscape was also at war.
I’ve never thought of Machiavelli as being evil. He was simply attempting to develop a ‘science’ of politics without sentimentality. Like all good science he stripped it of any sentimentality, moral, ethics or ideology. Something either worked or it didn’t.
I’ve come to realize that his ‘science’ is particularly cruel and amoral because of the time it was written. I’m sure it would have been less harsh if it was written in a modern era.
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Just finished “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” by W.Y. Evans-Wentz.
Laurence Sterne: “Tristram Shandy, Gentleman”. Nietzsche called Sterne (1713-1768) a ‘free spirit’.
value free science : ideals and illusions
Hugh Allone - Sailor; by John Marshall Doggett
THE WAY OF RESPONSE: Martin Buber
Selections from his Writings
I’m working on The Road to Serfdom by Hayek, FREE: The future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson, and The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley.
I just finished Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson and look forward to The Skin Game by Jim Butcher next month.
Words of Radiance is a sequel, a thousand page sequel to a thousand page book, but Brandon Sanderson once again amazes me with his writing. If you’ve ever attempted to created any sort of art in your life, The Emperors Soul just might be the best book you’ve ever read, and it’s a novelette… Took like three hours to read the last time I read it, which was for the fifth or sixth time. Anytime I want to feel inspired, I pick it up.