Labyrinths
It is opaque to me - how connected these short stories are supposed to be. Whether the collection is a result of a publisher's interpretation or the author's thematic intent or ...? But the presentation leads to a connectedness that sometimes appears strongly and at other times elusive.

There is a constraint I feel to these texts - yes, they attempt to address, quite directly in an oblique(?) way, large issues but I feel like if he had a more universal 'intended reader' there might be a greater weight. I am not sure how I want to express this 'lack of breadth of vision'(?).


Sidenote: whether it is being back from lethargic weekend away or the text itself - I am struggling to get back on the reading horse...

Back to the slog, speak to you tommorrow.

OK, so I barely got through English in both high school and college. Well, I did better than that but it was always my weakest subject. So, take this question knowing that.

Every time (in any English class) where we would discuss the authors intentions and all the hidden meanings and everything I couldn't help but think - did the author really intend all that stuff, or are people just reading what they want into the story/book. I mean we would spend weeks analyzing some books. Just seemed to me the writer couldn't have really had all that stuff in mind when they were writing.

Hi bigger.

Perhaps you can think of interpretation of novels divided up into this way.

1) There is meaning created by the author in the text. What he wanted to say both explicitly and symbolically in the novel. If there is an absence of the author's own commentary on the book, which is true for most books, then we can use the historical circumstances (of the story or of the time of writing the novel) to draw conclusions about the moral concerns within the book. We can also look into the biography of the author - what faith did the author have, what political views did the author have, what reading list did the author read (education).

All of the above is one or another school of literary interpretation.

2) Then there is the reader. We have the 'intended' reader - a theoretical construct of who the author is writing toward. Say for Shakespeare's Sonnet: Shakespeare was commissioned to write for a rich patron - so the question would be - is shakespeare writing toward this patron ( an expression of more than a relationship of patron/artist but homosexual love) or toward another person (on behalf of the patron towards the patrons gay lover or his wife or whatever) OR both or all of them!!

So say the gender of an 'intended reader' might be very important to how we may interpret a poem. If it is a love poem between two men - does that mean they are gay? Does that mean they are using a different idea of love? ---> what does that interpretation have on our interpretation of the poet's other works.

3) Then there is the 'real' reader - what meaning you get when reading the text. So you can draw upon your own experiences and interpretation to develop and communicate 'meaning from the text' for others.

4) Then there are schools of interpretation that claim - that the text has a meaning independent of author and reader. Which is to say, you can reduce the phrases to symbolic equations of meaning.

5) Intertextuality - Inter (between) text (books)uality (the quality of connectedness or liveliness): which is the direct and indirect influence of other texts evidenced within the novel. So say I write a book and one of my characters says "was it the best of times? Dunno but it sure could not be the worst after last year..." - That is a intertextual reference to Charles Dicken's work. Readers can then interpret - why did Digger reference Dicken's - how does that fit with other parts of the scene...



With some of the great works - you will find that most of the 'stuff in mind' probably was intended by the author. But, sometimes, it is meaning created just by you and I.

March List
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Cat's Cradle by K Vonnegut
Madame Bovary by G. Flaubert
Catch-22 Joseph Heller
Stalingrad by Antony Beevor
The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
Keep the Aphidistra Flying George Orwell
The Aeneid by Virgil
Part of Labyrinths by Borges

Poems
Canto XXXIII Dante's Purgatory part
Motive for Metaphor Wallace Stevens
The Plough Boy William Blake
Comin thro' the rye Robert Burns
Know It Hoheimer Edgar Lee Masters
Wait For Me Konstantin Simonov
With death an inch above my head Konstantin Simonov
Zemlyanka Alexey Surkov (song)
Autumnal similes Paradise Lost Milton
A Farewell to Arms George Peele
The world is too much with us William Wordsworth
Carpe diem Horace
Golden Grove: Spring and Fall - to a young child Gerard Manley Hopkins
Love is a rebellious bird. G Bizet (Carmen - Opera)
1919 WB Yeats

Need to find
Pourtnoy's Complaint by Roth
Faulkner
Chekov
Rasselas
Voltaire? Candide

MB The Captain and The Enemy by Graham Greene
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith

Wallander


Need Books!!!!!!!!!

April List
Lolita by Nabokov
Three Men in a Boat Jerome K Jerome

A Midsummer's Nights Dream


March was the month I killed all my bookshelf conceits. Yay me! ---now I need more books cause ldo all have been read.

Here's some book suggestions:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Inimitable Jeeves by P G Wodehouse
The Condition of the Working Class in England by Friedrich Engels
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Oliver Twist by Dickens
Carrie by Stephen King (you can join in my Stephen King Book Club then )

oh and a complete unknown book that I personally found rather good comedy:
The Roaches Have No King by Daniel Evan Weiss (you'll enjoy one literary element of it. The cockroaches in it all grew up eating the contents of a decrepit book case, and seem to have taken on the characteristics/knowledge from the book they grew up in. The book's hero grew in the Bible, and is called Numbers...and thinks he understands Man's nature because of this knowledge...)

Hah, I just rebought the Weiss book, but on the Kindle. Can't find my paperback of it.


Also, I also suggest some weird fiction

Shadow over Innsmouth by H P Lovecraft

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Inimitable Jeeves by P G Wodehouse
The Condition of the Working Class in England by Friedrich Engels
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Oliver Twist by Dickens
Carrie by Stephen King (you can join in my Stephen King Book Club then )

Read Doyle

Wodehouse looks good.
Not sure I am up for Engels.
Have not read Jungle Book - I might read Kipling later in the year.
Not going to do another dickens for a couple of months.

I am only going to do King if I am desperate.

The Inimitable Jeeves by P G Wodehouse Will go onto the to do list.

Engels is nonfiction, to be fair, but it is fine documentary material on the horrendous conditions the factory workers went through. Especially the child workers.

"Do you want to see what human eyes have never seen? Look at the moon. Do you want to hear what ears have never heard? Listen to the bird's cry. Do you want to touch what hands have never touched? Touch the earth. Verily I say that God is about to create the world."
-
Jorge Luis Borges, "The Theologians"

If you read this - it might be confusing if you do not know the early Christian Church (which I did not), Aurelian is not the 3rd century Roman Emperor but a 5th century prominent Christian in the Eastern Roman Empire.

At least that is my view on first reading. (Actually prolly just a fictive figuration - still an interesting figure.)

Aurelianus was the son of the Consul of 361, Taurus, and brother of Caesarius; he had a son called Taurus, Consul in 428. Aurelianus was a Christian, and erected a church to protomartyr Stephen.

Aurelianus was Praefectus urbi of Constantinople between 393 and 394. When the Gothic Magister militum Gainas obtained by Emperor Arcadius the supreme power and the removal of all his opponents in the court, he knew he needed a man of his in Constantinople; discarded all those who had been supporters of his enemy Eutropius, he chose Aurelianus, and had him elevated to the rank of Praetorian prefect of the East (August 399), replacing Eutychianus, Eutropius' choice.[1] Aurelianus, therefore, became the most powerful civilian official of the court of Arcadius, and was involved in the trial against Eutropius, which started at Chalcedon in September of that year, and his execution.[2] He was appointed consul for the year 400, but his colleague in the West, the magister militum Stilicho, did not recognize him in an act of open confrontation with the Eastern court and particularly with Gainas. He was still Prefect at the beginning of 400, when he received the order to confiscate the properties of Eutropius and destroy his statues.[3] In mid-April 400, Gainas, who had rebelled with his Goths, went to Constantinople, where he forced Arcadius to hand him Aurelianus and Saturninus; Aurelian was deposed and into exile (although his properties were not confiscated) and the East was left without a consul.[2]

After the defeat of the Goths at Constantinople (July 12 400), Aurelianus made a triumphant return to the capital, although he did not get back his consular title. It was an important figure in the Senate until late in life, so that the Senate dedicated him a statue in gold; it is known from the laws sent to him and preserved in the Theodosian Code that he was Praetorian prefect of the East a second time between the 414 and 416.



Stephen (Koine Greek: Στέφανος, Stephanos; sometimes spelled "Stephan"), traditionally regarded as the first martyr of Christianity,[1] was, according to the Acts of the Apostles, a deacon in the early church at Jerusalem who aroused the enmity of members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy, at his trial he made a long speech fiercely denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgement on him and was stoned to death. His martyrdom was witnessed by Saul of Tarsus (later better known by his Roman name, Paul), a Pharisee who would later become a follower himself of Jesus and an apostle.

The only primary source for information about Stephen is the New Testament book Acts of the Apostles.[2] Stephen was one of the Greek-speaking Hellenistic Jews selected for a fairer distribution of welfare to the Greek speaking widows in Acts 6.[3]

Stephen is venerated as a saint in the Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Stephen's name is derived from the Greek language Stephanos, meaning "crown". Traditionally, Stephen is invested with a crown of martyrdom; he is often depicted in art with three stones and the martyr's palm. In Eastern Christian iconography, he is shown as a young, beardless man with a tonsure, wearing a deacon's vestments, and often holding a miniature church building or a censer.


* Note the three stones one on his head, and the other two on each shoulder in the painting.

Sounds intriguing. You will be amused by what Kirkus says about its prospective readership: And you might find this a perfect companion: http://smile.amazon.com/Cockroach-Ra...oach+rawi+hage
I found it a powerful reading experience.

One of the north eastern pog crowd recommended me that cockroach book, I bought it, but I can't remember where it is, or even if I got it on ebook or treebook. I think I got it around the time of the birth of my son, which helps explain the memory failure.

I bet it was me.

It wasn't; what do I win?

Trivia

I think we can agree that free speech is not the same as equal speech. Some in our society have a dominant position in social discourse. The wealthy, politicians, the media - all have positions in the discourse to amplify their viewpoints. Even non-citizens - coroporations, brands, religions - have powerful platforms for speech over and above humble citizens.

trivia noun
plural noun: trivia
1. details, considerations, or pieces of information of little importance or value.


Perhaps only in a particular sense, but maybe essentially: everything that I say and do is trivial. In my society, I am of little import or value and, as such, everything I do is trivia.

It is only the mindless advertisement, the repititious political spin 'catchphrase' or the large wealthy person's proclamation that is important or 'not' trivial.

How disappointingly banal our illusory democracy can look sometimes.

Within the supply and demand construct...

The Iliad can be bought and sold for less than $20 whereas a softdrink commercial can be worth $50000. If you are lucky, you might get less than 150 words published in a letter to the editor - a multi-millionaire can wield $10's of millions and get a seat in Parliament with the only credentials being that he has bought and run a 5 star hotel and turn it into a failed dinosaur park....yet he will get columns of 'free speech' to promote his thought bubbles of idiocy.


Remind me again how 'free' speech is again? No, No....please do. Perhaps after this 30 second message from our sponsors.

'marketplace of ideas'

The above is abit of a rant.

But if you listen closely or interrogate just a little some concepts. Aschew the meaning a little and do not employ the same set of assumptions as the common usage - then the facade of some of our values look more like a movie set of a desert town than an actual town.

Take the phrase - 'marketplace of ideas' - what is commonly inferred in that phrase is that we all participate in a market place of ideas - each idea has its little stall - and the strength, value, validity of the idea ---> will freely manifest itself by dominance over lesser ideas.
There is an implied idea that there is a measure of equality between ideas from the starting point within the marketplace.
Now I, it so happens, do not disagree with the 'marketplace of ideas' as being an instructive even valid metaphor for how ideas function in our society. It is just that all stalls are not equal in size or have the same amount of resources to promote their ideas. Some ideas have a shabby stall only manned by people who volunteer their spare time and have to shut it up at other times. Other ideas have a huge stall in the marketplace of ideas can buy advertising space in other peoples stalls, can have hordes of people in the marketplace hawking their ideas for money, have the best location and can purchase 24 hour licenses to trade seven days a week.

Sure it is a 'marketplace of ideas' - the ideas with the most resources behind them succeed - the others barely subsist - but it certainly is not a 'free marketplace of ideas'.

Sir, your rent on this stall is due in two weeks.

Equal Justice

"If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way" Pericles 431BC

Pericles (/ˈpɛrɪkliːz/; Greek: Περικλῆς [periklɛ̂ːs], Periklēs, "surrounded by glory"; c. 495 – 429 BC) was arguably the most prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age— specifically the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family.


Anaxagoras and Pericles by Augustin-Louis Belle

Augustin-Louis Belle , born in 1757 in Paris, where he died 12 January 1841. He is a French neo-classical painter.


"they afford equal justice to all in their private differences"

Why is equality of standing the limit of 'equal' in the concept 'equal justice'?

A mega corporation could have an actual legion of lawyers - to exercise its 'rights'. I could barely pay the copying fee of one contract out of a law firm - let alone engage a law to write one for me.

Fun fact

Did you know? The Catholic Church is not a legal entity in the Commonwealth of Australia.

Is there beauty in incomprehension?
Is there beauty in writing styles that resist your embrace?
Borges is not elusive - I think - not that sense of evading by escape but like a magician he distract the mind's eye from what is really happening.
Some of the tales are explicitly representations of labyrinths, others it appears that the theme or the meaning is labyrinthian (?)

If I was to read these short stories again - I would read them more closely and one at a time. It was too much for my particular palette to do - I dunno the 20 sequentially. I am going to forsake the essays for now. Perhaps I will return later in the year to them but I cannot do it now. Maybe that is childish or petulant...meh I dunno.

Begone Borges Begone.



Neither Lolita nor Three men in a boat look appealing to me right now.


So I guess it is time to pull out the 'behemoth' which is my full Norton edition of Shakespeare's complete works.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The_Quarrel_of_Oberon_and_Titania
Sir Joseph Noel Paton FRSA, LL. D. (13 December 1821 – 26 December 1901) was a Scottish artist. He painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style and became a painter of historical, fairy, allegorical and religious subjects.

Freedom without opportunity is worth little.

Institutionalised

It is quite widely known that if you lock someone in a gaol for an extended period of time - then you will find that the prisoner's behaviour will change significantly. They will become 'instutionalised'.

That is an extreme. But I wonder how every employee of a large 'institution' becomes institutionalised. How else can you explain the behaviour of 'ammoral' investment bankers across the board other than being individuals who have had their behaviour institutionally modified?

The 21st investment banker reminds me of a 17th-18th century privateer.

A privateer or "corsair" was a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign vessels during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend treasury resources or commit naval officers. They were of great benefit to a smaller naval power or one facing an enemy dependent on trade: they disrupted commerce and pressured the enemy to deploy warships to protect merchant trade against commerce raiders. The cost was borne by investors hoping to profit from prize money earned from captured cargo and vessels. The proceeds would be distributed among the privateer's investors, officers, and crew.


Basically the investment bank works under the same principle: privateer officer (management) gets 1/3 of profits, employees (the crew) gets 1/3 of profits and investors or the crown (shareholders) get 1/3 of profits. Sometimes - you will hear the comparison between investment bankers and pirates but I think it is not as good as the privateer who operates with the mandate of royal 'letters of marque'.

Privateers can become respectable like Ben Bernanke...the most famous was

Sir Henry Morgan (Harri Morgan in Welsh; ca. 1635 – 25 August 1688) was a Welsh privateer, pirate and admiral of the English Royal Navy[3][4][5] who made a name for himself during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements. He earned a reputation as one of the most notorious and successful privateers in history, and one of the most ruthless among those active along the Spanish Main.


Whilst Morgan was not as powerful as Federal Reserve Chariman, as LT. Gov of Jamaica, he was nearly as important to the interest of the Wealthy in Britain with their 'sugar' a.k.a slave plantations.


Social and cultural contexts and their discourses are explicitly interrogated/condemned with 'values' - like prisons, other instances of institutionalisation like 21st century privateers are not.

I have read through to the 2.2 of A Midsummer Night's Dream. There are many wonderful passages but perhaps the best so far is Helena's soliloquy at the end of Act 1.

Helena... 233-239 (Norton Internal students Ed.)

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is love said to be a child
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

The Norton Edition of the Complete works of Shakespeare is one of my most prized possessions. It is not so much of great 'value' in the economic sense but it is a receptacle of some many gifts that have been received by my imagination that it would be unconscionable to rate it any other way. It is a superior edition as it provides a supportive architecture to reading of almost extravagant detail.

Of course, knowing very little of the play I was delighted to see Theseus! Oh wow - intertextuality smacks me hard in the face from the get go. But it was the play within the play that caught my eye...

Act 1.2 9
Quince: Marry, our play is The most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe

(marry = Virgin Mary - prolly equal Good God man..)


Which refers to: Cambyses

Preston was a pioneer of the English drama, and published in 1569 A lamentable tragedy mixed ful of pleaſant mirth,conteyning the life of CAMBISES King of PERCIA, from the beginning of his kingdome vnto his death, his one good deed of execution, after that many wicked deeds and tirannous murders, committed by and through him, and laſt of all, his odious death by Gods Juſtice appointed, Doon in ſuch order as foloweth. By Thomas Preston



Thomas Preston (1537 – 1598) was an English master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and possibly a dramatist.

Midsummer

Midsummer, also known as St John's Day,[1] is the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, and more specifically the Northern European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice or take place on a day between June 21 and June 25 and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different cultures. Because he was alleged to have been born on that day, the Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian martyr St John the Baptist, and the observance of St John's Day begins the evening before, known as St John's Eve. These are commemorated by many Christian denominations.[2] Midsummer is especially important in the cultures of Scandinavia, and the Baltics. In Sweden the Midsummer is such an important festivity that there have been serious discussions to make the Midsummer's Eve into the National Day of Sweden, instead of 6 June. It may also be referred to as St. Hans Day.


North American's realise - with Thanksgiving, how Christians used and usurped traditional 'pagan' celebration days for their own purposes. What is interesting with St John's Day or Midsummer, is that it also coincides with the 'quarter days' within the medieval taxation/rent cycle. Powerful reinforcement of hierarchies/celebration with cultural ideas of influence in the society.

St John
John the Baptist
John is described as having the unique practice of baptism for the forgiveness of sins.[15] Most scholars agree that John baptized Jesus.[16][17] Scholars generally believe Jesus was a follower or disciple of John[18][19][20] and several New Testament accounts report that some of Jesus's early followers had previously been followers of John.[21] John the Baptist is also mentioned by Jewish historian Josephus.[22] Some scholars maintain that John was influenced by the semi-ascetic Essenes, who expected an apocalypse and practiced rituals corresponding strongly with baptism,[23] although no direct evidence substantiates this.[24]

According to the New Testament, John anticipated a messianic figure greater than himself,[25] and Jesus was the one whose coming John foretold. Christians commonly refer to John as the precursor or forerunner of Jesus,[26] since John announces Jesus' coming. John is also identified with the prophet Elijah.


Infant Jesus with John the Baptist by Bartolome Esteban Murille

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times.

The bard does stun you when you return to read him after a break. The melodic lyricism is without peer. The seemingly bottomless capacity to weave poetry into his plays. Poetry when the lovers interact - then plain dialogue when the players talk. There are levels upon levels of meaning that can be inferred from these transitions - the playful commentary upon drama within the main action. What a brilliant way for the playwright to ruminate with his audience about performativity. I am not fully through this play, and this next comment is not to reduce this particular text, but as a reflection on performativity you can see how it is an early not yet fully formed iteration that we see in Hamlet.

April List
Purchases

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Washington Square by Henry James
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
The Invisible Man by H G Wells

Lolita by Nabokov
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome Jerome


I am making a special exception for:
The Iliad - Homer

The exception being that I have read it before but it was more than 10 years ago and I do not think I read it properly - skipping and skimming bits. A semi-conceit book.


I am in the middle of Act 3 of A Midsummer Night's Dream..

I will probably read the essays of Labyrinths sometime this month and do I write up for the text when I am complete the read.

Comedic elements of AMND

Sometimes it is easy to forget, at least for me, that these are plays to be performed. I suspect the skills of performance bring forth the comic elements to the play within.

Act 5.1 (108)

Quince: (as Prologue)

If we offend, it is with our own good will.
That you should think: we come not to offend
But with good will. To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider then we come but in despite.
We do not come as minding to content you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight
We are not here. That you should here repent you
The actors are at hand, and by their show
You shall know all that are like to know.

Theseus: This fellow doth not stand upon points

As the notation in the Norton states;
The humour of Quince's speech rests in its mispunctuation; repunctuated, it becomes a typical courteous address.(p888 Norton ISE)


I think a good actor will have the audience rolling given the context of the Hippolyta/Theseus discussion just prior and the ambitions that the actors have for their most important performance. Without the performativity, it requires a close reading to appreciate what is taking place, I am not sure I would have picked it up without the Norton - as I am not reading the play out loud.

So try reading out loud or a couple of times and picture a common actor addressing a King and find the irony between what he means to say and what he actually says.

Marvellous.

I am going to start on The Invisible Man by HG Wells. I will write up the Shakespearean play later.