terribly

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Snow-Flakes

 Poems
Nov 202010
 

Out of the bosom of the Air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take
Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession,
The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels.

This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.

Lewis Carroll: “I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory'”

 Quotes  Tagged with: ,
Nov 202010
 

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory’,” Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’ ”

“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

haeccitas and quidditas

 Orts, Words
Nov 202010
 

Haeccitas is a philosophical term associated with the philosopher Duns Scotus used to indicate the “thisness” of things, the singularity of a situation, the phenomenon of the here-and-now, the flesh that you can feel and feels pain. I first ran across this in an terrific article by Marina Warner in TLS “Apocalypse and its aftermath” (August 17, 2005).

Quidditas is a philosophical term referring to the essential “whatness” of a thing, or the ultimate substance of which that thing is made. The term was coined by the medieval Scholastics to describe a concept of “substance” they encountered whilst translating Aristotle.

Epicurean precepts

 Orts
Nov 202010
 

The one who understands having grapsed that he is capable of achieving everything sufficient for the good llife immediately and for the rest of his life walks about already ready for burial, and enjoys the single day as if it were eternity.

Philodemus (1st century BCE philosopher)

For epicureans, the only relevant criterion of completeness, and the only relevant project is the achievement of ataraxia, the pleasurable state of complete absence of pain.

I am not an epicurean. There is no possibility of living a life without pain. There is only the possibility of accepting it and moving on from there.

Dinah Birch: “Abundant sex would be a welcome bonus.”

 Orts
Nov 202010
 

The magnetism of the occult is not confined to history. Failing Christian faith has created an unsatisfied desire for the spiritual, and an accompanying reluctance to believe that commonplace frustrations and anxieties of day-to-day life are all we are ever going to get. Desire for spiritual enlightenment is ineradicable and honorable. But it is often less strong than the longing for spectacular adventure in regions of flame, a miraculous control over the physical world, the ability to see beyond the here and now while carrying shining swords and winning the respect we have always deserved. Abundant sex would be a welcome bonus.

Dinah Birch, “Gripped by beasts.” Times Literary Supplement. 2004.08.06