meme

[ashcanprobably]

LJ Interests meme results

1. caseation:
   If I'm not mistaken, this is the process by which a thing is converted into cheese. When I first read it, I thought of the cheese one relates to flesh, the sagging, the wrinkly dimples and creases, basically the wasteland left behind when one loses a lot of weight, regains it, and loses it again. Words like

Comments

[mortimer_ford]

But fast talkers have no room for caseation.

[ashcanprobably]

That's because fast-talkers hang out in the middle of busy streets and are too cool for domiciles and rooms and storage closets. Nice try, dude, but I think I specifically said that caseation applies to the written word, porkers and ex-fatties. Oh and dairy products, of course. I appreciate you popping up every few months and being a Negating Nancy or whatever, but ever heard of Plato's dialogues? Speech is automatically the medium proper for the light, winged and sacred, because it is happening in the moment. Writing it is much harder, because the record is exposed to the wear of time, so you have to let it thicken on its own. Some might imagine that those immortal Socratic exchanges were long and pronounced with intervals of nodding agreements and WORD this or WORD on that, Plato, you tha man! from X and Y robed geezer, but personally I like to believe that the back and forth was like some crazy laser show where writing pretends to be instant forever. Zaaap! Fzzzzt!

[one_earth_heart]

I read your criterion peice on Blake; it aroused some curiosity.

In a Romantic period, he scorned Nature and nicknamed it “the vegetable universe”.

What passage(s) in Blake have led to the interpretation you present here? It amazes me how intepretations of Blake can exhibit such wide variance. I'm wondering if there's something I've overlooked. Blake seems to express different sentiments in his second letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler. You might find reading the entire letter illuminating, but here's the pertinent excerpt (from Erdman's volume):

"And I know that This World Is a World of Imagination & Vision I see Every thing I paint In This World, but Every body does not see alike. To the Eyes of a Miser a Guinea is more beautiful than the Sun & a bag worn with the use of Money has more beautiful proportions than a Vine filled with Grapes. The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some See Nature all Ridicule & Deformity & by these I shall not regulate my

[ashcanprobably]

What you read was actually my translation of a prologue J.L. Borges wrote for a collection of Blake's poetry in Spanish. For now, the entirety of the_criterion is composed of translations and obscure literary excerpts/references, and it will remain this way until I am intruded upon by angels that will instruct me otherwise. The misunderstanding we have here lies in the style of Borges and the way it was meant to be understood by Spanish readers. Reading it in English, one might distinguish more force or finality and get the impression that Blake exhibited direct contempt for Nature, but in the original, it is clear that he chided the limits of Nature only when in favor of Imagination as a superior realm. In The Ghost of Abel, Blake writes, "Nature has no Outline, But Imagination has. Nature has no Tune, but Imagination has. Nature has no Supernatural, and dissolves: Imagination is eternity

[one_earth_heart]

Interesting. Do you know if Borges read Blake in English, or did the work of translating Blake into Spanish himself? I can't imagine how Blake sounds in Spanish. Seeing that you've done translation work with Spanish literature, would you be willing to offer any recommendations on decent volumes of Borges work in English (poetry or otherwise)? I'd also be interested in any good Lorca translations that you know of.

Reading it in English, one might distinguish more force or finality and get the impression that Blake exhibited direct contempt for Nature, but in the original, it is clear that he chided the limits of Nature only when in favor of Imagination as a superior realm.

Makes sense. The essential distinction in the quoted letter seems to be his summation: Nature is Imagination. To me, this appears to cast an ironic light on the stark oppositions he presents in The Ghost of Abel, which maybe he intensified to goad Byron "in the wilderness" ? (whom Blake addresses the piece to). The passage in Jerusalem has less of this

[ashcanprobably]

English was actually the first language that Borges had learned growing up in Buenos Aires; his grandmother was a Briton. Some speculate that he read the Quijote in English before reading it in Spanish. He won a literary prize at the age of nine for translating Wilde's "A Happy Prince". So, there's no wonder about why his writing translates so well and concisely, and I conjecture to say that, although he may not think to himself in English, he writes Spanish in its patterns and his flow is almost British in nature. He often said that English was the language of literature, the reason being Shakespeare, but he often followed that by saying Spanish was much richer. He is astoundingly direct and perspicacious in Spanish to the point of constantly bewildering me, and reputably, he's also a veritable juggler of German and the Romance languages.

Hmmmm ... decent volumes of Borges. ciranox asked me about this several posts ago, and I directed him to this link, where I sort of ridicule Andrew Hurley. Hurley's translations are for the most part

[primimproper]

I like Blake because he attached illustrations for people who get bored of poetry very quickly.

I wonder if he would have liked the internet.

[ashcanprobably]

Well, do you think the internet helps or hinders the imagination? It's easy to imagine that famous literary recluses like Dickinson and Pessoa would have LJ's or some sort of blog, but I think mystics like Blake and maybe D.H. Lawrence would do without it or make specific use of it and not fool around. It would seem inappropriate and ridiculous to me, like Wiccans' internet journals. The internet is the manifestation of great vanity. I kind of resent the way any simpleton can become readily armed with information just by knowing how to manipulate Google. It makes imagination wholesale and knowledge trite. I don't think they would be popular on livejournal either ... Behold!.

[primimproper]

As a merger of media himself, I could imagine that Blake would like the idea of the internet as it is intertexual. The internet brings such anonymous baggage and garbage - maybe that lack of origin would be off-putting. You are definitely the scholar and I am definitely the student - I conceed to your opinion.

I think the internet hinders imagination (not my hypothesis - I lean toward a utopic view of technology). The mediums we use to extract and freeze our thoughts are strictly input. Mind to hand to paper. Mind to hand to canvas. Mind to hand to marble block. Mind to hand to internet and the internet will spit something back - breadcrumbs to garbage - to williamblake claiming John Milton's penis.

For the artist the internet is more a paintbrush than a canvas.

[ciranox]

Referring to the_criterion.

Gods

You write these reviews of the old ones like a luminary. I should add my own confidence that you of all people in the country are most worthy to write these reviews. Please publish them sometime and show the others what you are made of

Do list me as a criterion friend so that i may

and louis

I misspelled your name a bit ago. I know you are attuned to this. Do forgive me. I fully realize i have done it.

[ashcanprobably]

I'll be more than glad to share this baby with you. I'm surprised that you weren't on there already. Also, you embarass me. I only half wrote those reviews as they are translations. You can find who it is I'm translating, quoting, paraphrasing, or spoofing by value of the Current Mood. I'm at work right now, so I can't AIM, but we have much to catch up on!

For shame about the name! What do I look like? A Frenchman??

[evrything_but]

Now that you've consoled me, may we be LJ friends?

[evrything_but]

I see you have many fewer friends than friends-of devotees. Perhaps we should just be LJ friends in spirit.

[ashcanprobably]

What does that mean exactly? I'm curious about the entitlements.

[evrything_but]

I merely mean that you probably wouldn't want to friend me, but I'm grateful for your kindness toward me in thebookyoucrew, and I won't soon forget that you called me "a firecracker for things and figures that interest" me. The entitlement would be mutual respect?