Anyhow Stories, Moral & Otherwise

[salimondo]

Canon and counter-canon. Early on, the work of Hans Christian Andersen inspired much the same urge to panic in me that department store mannequins did. Later on, of course, my baby sister and I could spend a happy Saturday morning laughing it up at the expense of a campy early '70s TV version of "The Little Match Girl," and who wouldn’t enjoy the

Comments

not to go off track but

[daoistraver]

do you have an IM at which you are available? (feel free to screen this for security purposes, if so)

At any rate, this is one of my favorites. If I had time I'd make a proper response, hopefully later on tonight I will.

Re: not to go off track but

[ayrkain]

He's a conscientious objector.

Re: not to go off track but

[daoistraver]

ahh... :)

"The man's so old school he drives a yellow bus with Gothic Arch windows."
- Ray from Achewood (about Cornelius Bear)

Re: not to go off track but

[ayrkain]

Very nice.

"George was supposed to smell like a forest, like a magic sword giving off a mossy scent before its metal when pulled from the ancient oak's heart."

- Little, Big by John Crowley

[ayrkain]

And yet, I have been on the receiving side of advice to identify oneself with "The Ugly Duckling" more than once (during my teenage depression years, no less). Is this passivism in the face of Doom a vector of modernism?

quacks like a duck

[salimondo]

There are worse stories, but there are also better ones. When boiled, the Duckling basically has two meaty bits on its bones: (1) you probably don't have it as bad as that poor duck so stop your crying (2) if you are simply patient enough and surrender, you will succeed

[daoistraver]

I feel that this post resonates very well with my last couple of posts... the integration synchronized with the music I was listening to in an eerie way. Such that I felt a spectral coldness, almost an anxiety, that something very crucial was being uncovered by more than one of us at once.

And I feel that the essential bit of it is not to give up, but instead to move forward with all our plans and projects. This is no time to abandon ship, this is the verging point. Even if the situation is suboptimal.
To quote myself:
"still, being free, we are now free to act, and thus all is not yet lost"

[empressdaleth]

just a quick thought -

How long have people felt "on the verge"? It seems that this feeling has been pervasive for quite some time.

Is anxiety like this part of modernity? A result of a radically and quickly changing world?

Is it a feeling has been around longer? What has led man to seek signs and portents?

Are we always at the verging point, and does it only require looking at it properly to see (a tilting of the head)? Or is it wishful thinking, a desire to be present during important moments, a desire to be part of the new way?

Or even something in us that wants to be "better" and thinks that if we are just ugly ducklings in this world, perhaps we'll be swans in the next?

hmm... where to begin?

[daoistraver]

"Is anxiety like this part of modernity? A result of a radically and quickly changing world

[daoistraver]

"How long have people felt "on the verge"? It seems that this feeling has been pervasive for quite some time."

I think to the extent this is true, it's because more and more people are getting close to the root. The journey is always a microcosmic one, after all is said and done.

This is actually kind of an interesting line to follow, so I'll expand on it more after work, when I have some time.

[empressdaleth]

hm - now, I have always seen the ugly duckling as a story about not knowing who you are, versus knowing it

that is, if you know who you are, you can fulfill that grandly - and otherwise, you are likely to be discontent that you don't measure up, quite simply because you are applying the wrong standards

[ayrkain]

Perhaps the story is ill-suited to its intended moral. If there were a possibility that the cygnet would not become a swan due to its lack of self-knowledge, it might portray the moral that knowledge of self allows one to defy (presumed) fate - somewhat like the Observer Effect - and become something more. As is, it seems to be saying something more like, "Don't worry about it, we all end up in the right place anyway."

"success" is his proof

[salimondo]

I think the disposition of the Little Mermaid may shed some light here. What did she want? How did she go about that? What did she get?

The misplaced swan, on the other hand, spent most of his time suffering. Now, it's interesting that he had to give up all hope of being a successful duck before he surrendered to the swan world. But how many mermaids give up their tails and end up only losing their legs in the bargain? How many would-be mermaids go the wrong way and end up with less? When was Krishnamurti doing his best work? Who licked Hitler?

This story may serve people who don't have anything else to draw on. But are there better ways? What the child who feels downtrodden needs is not compassion for others who are in the same predicament, but rather the conviction that he can actively escape this fate.

narcissus and the swan

[salimondo]

This is a chance for you to read the story again in preparation for talk of the mirror stage. We tend to breeze past the aspects that terrify three-year-olds, but even if this is an internal journal of self-discovery, now what? Isn't that the exciting and aspirational story, what the swans get up to and how their prodigal brother participates in that?

I am fond of the axiom that a great writer begins where a merely good one leaves off.

[salimondo]

I think I can let you all talk this stuff out for a bit. But maybe all us relations should stick closer together.

"This struggle between gods, which has been going on behind visible events, is not yet over on this planet, but the formidable progress in human knowledge made over the last few years is about to give it another form." -- Louis Pauwels

[empressdaleth]

love the quote... now I'll have to add that book to my reading list

[salimondo]

It was a pretty shocking thing in junior high and if anything has gotten more bizarre as the horizon recedes. But first Lacan!

[empressdaleth]

agreed - have we selected a text to start with?