Author: Sysadmin

A few comments on Bierce and a poem“

From The Devil’s Dictionary:

“Falsehood, n. A truth to which the facts are loosely adjusted to an imperfect conformity.”

I think this is another kind of Irish bull. Most of his comical definitions in this book are bulls in my opinion. I think the point he is making is that total truth is an impossible goal. B.E. Ellis said in a recent novel that “everyone lies,” in some dialogue. I think it true. Even people who tell you they don’t lie, lie sometimes if only subconsciously.

“Famous, adj.  Conspicuously miserable, Etc.”

One of the biographies of my dissertation subject is titled Damned to Fame. There are many examples of celebrities like writers and actors who had short and sad lives. As my Dad told me lately, keep a low profile.

“Fanatic, n.  One who overestimates the importance of conviction and undervalues the comfort of an existence free from the impact of addled eggs and dead cats upon the human periphery.”

This is an odd one. I think it has to do with asceticism being better than having strong desires for anything. “Everything in moderation,” as the saying goes. John Keats, the famous English poet had a term called “negative capability,” which I think meant in part letting go of strong opinions and just accepting life as it is.

 

“Disney” by yours truly

“You’ve been physically tortured repeatedly by the police recently for non-violent ‘crime’, and now it is extremely difficult to find a new apartment or a job; what are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to Disney World!”

 

 

A poem

 

“Yet Another” by yours truly

Heard at yet another protest by Deniers Anonymous:

“It just never happened!

It never really happened.

It’s all a joke in your head.

Abuse of children never happened!

Police brutality never happened!

So put it in your cap, and…

Stop being such a sap, and…

Just consult your map, and…

Consult your map, and…

(It can be a long journey).

P.s. even though you think you are a single weirdo,

You really have a lovely wife and four kids.”

More on Doom and another two poems/jokes

“Never in our lifetimes, it seems, has there been greater uncertainty about the future–and greater ignorance of the past.” So begins the first sentence of Niall Ferguson’s recent text Doom about natural and man-made disasters.

I have not finished the book, but the premise is especially interesting to me because of Covid-19. I think the damage from the virus was mainly the result of government over-reaction. And what government authorities did about it affected me at a very personal level.

I think authorities often over-react. Police physically brutalize non-violent “criminals,” and government officials often over-react to minor or natural problems. “Everyone thinks they are right.” Right.

 

“Another Protest” by yours truly

“We don’t give a s–t!

We don’t give a s–t!

You should have not been born!

Not have been born!

And stop watching porn!

Stop watching porn!

Just sleep ’til morn’.

Just sleep ’til  morn’.

(And drink a  lot of water,

While wearing a Coronavirus mask).”

 

“The Pun-th” by yours truly

“I want the pun-th!”

“You can’t handle the pun-th!”

Just two poems/jokes (plan to return to a brief analytical essay tomorrow)

 

“Care” by yours truly

Heard at a Careless Anonymous meeting:

“We don’t care!!

We don’t care!!

Life’s a nightmare!

(And you’ve lost your hair).

Please don’t stare!

Please don’t stare!

And we don’t care!!

We don’t care!!

We really don’t.”

 

“Always” by yours truly

Heard at a protest by Always-give-ins Anonymous:

“Always give in!

Always give in!

You just can’t win!

So always give in!

Sword is weaker than pen!

So just give in!”

Yet more on Gatsby

More from the text and a response.

“The next day was broiling, almost the last, certainly the warmest, of the summer.
‘We can’t move,’ [say Daisy Buchannan and her friend Jordan Baker while relaxing on a couch].”

One of the things they said when I lived in Singapore was that the heat and humidity made it difficult to do work, and the people there needed to work against it.

The basic plot of the novel is that Gatsby wants Daisy back, even though she is married to another man. That man is also a bit evil and having an affair. I guess the novel is about decadence. Daisy seems a bit stupid or insane. FSF’s wife Zelda was diagnosed with schizophrenia and basically killed herself in a North Carolina asylum. Fitzgerald left her and basically died of alcoholism in L.A. while trying to be a screenwriter.

 

Two quotes and a poem/joke

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” –Mahatma Gandhi

This quote reminds me of the Theodore Roethke villanelle poem “The Waking” mentioned and included in a previous post: “This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.” Paradox bothers some people but fascinates others. It is a different way of looking at the world; it is like the difference between literalism and irony, between seriousness and comedy.

“By love He may be gotten and holden, but by thought and understanding never.” –The Cloud of Unknowing

Wiki defines this source as, “an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer in the late Middle Ages.” To me the above quote from it is about the difference between pathos and logos as Aristotle put it. Sometimes you can only understand a situation through emotion, not logic.

 

“Pun-respectful” by yours truly

“Sir, you are being pun-respectful to others.”

“Not really, I just have a pun-se of humor that some don’t pun-derstand.”

“Well, this is not really a reprimand.”

“I know that my jokes have been canned.”

More on The Great Gatsby and two poems

More from the novel. Gatsby treats Carraway as a confidant and tells him midway through the book: “And she doesn’t understand. She used to be able to understand. We’d sit for hours–” Carraway goes on to narrate that, “one autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street when leaves were falling and they came to a place where the sidewalk was white with moonlight.”

My understanding is that F.S. Fitzgerald made a mistake by marrying Zelda. And in a way this novel is displacement through fiction about that mistake. Sometimes even otherwise intelligent people don’t realize the mistakes they are making as they make them.

 

Two silly poems:

“Pun-sibbley” by yours truly

“Pun-sibbley, you are being punished for good reason. You may deserve it. Don’t swerve it.”

“If you say so, Mr. Man.”

 

“Pun-ography” by yours truly

“May we speak more, sir, of your pun-ography addiction? ”

“Yes, doctor, sometimes when pun home, I get pun-ded urges to see a nude woman.”

“Pun-kay, it is normal human pun-xuality. Just don’t do anything about it in pun-blic. That would be pun-scene.”

“I pun-derstand.”

A movie review and two brief poems

Recently liked The Owners, a horror film from the U.K. released last year. It is of the home-invasion variety, and that sub-category interests me because it deals with the issue of public versus private, which I think faces everyone everyday.

The idea of the movie’s plot is that a woman played by the English actress Maisie Williams joins with a group of male miscreants to invade the home of a wealthy elderly English couple to steal money from their safe. But the couple returns sooner than expected and turns out to be crazier and more violent than the criminals are.

I like the horror genre because I think it gets to psychological issues very quickly. I think it is why Edgar Allan Poe is so popular. This movie is not well rated on IMDB, and I don’t really recommend it myself unless you have a strong stomach. One of my grad school profs said he had read a translation of the 19th c. decadent writer Huysman’s La-Bas but did not recommend we read it. I feel the same way about American writer Ellis’ American Psycho; it was an interesting novel, but I can’t recommend it.

 

“Pun-creatis” by yours truly

“Is pun-thing wrong?

“I may have pun-creatis. I have daily pun in my side.

“Oh no, please don’t fight us. Your humor is abhorrent:  you think all that matters is your pun is. ”

“No, pun-illingus is okay in theory, and if the man and woman respect one another and are gentle.”

“Pun-kay. Pun-greed.

 

“Better” by yours truly

“You sound better.”

“Maybe, because I have not been tortured recently.

“Come on, life is an orchard. Here is a flower.”

“Oh, such power.”

A quote and two poem/jokes

“A man passes for that he is worth. What he engraves is itself on his face, on his form, on his fortunes. In letters of light. Concealment avails him nothing; boasting nothing. There is a confession in the glances of our eyes; in our smiles; in salutations; and the grasp of hands.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson is an American writer I don’t really know well, but he is esteemed by some English professors. My take-away from this quote is that people in the the 19th century had a simpler perspective on life, like physiognomy: what you do affects how you look. I am more of a Modernist; it seems to me life is more complicated.

 

“Lost in Garlic” by yours truly

Lost in garlic, and I don’t know much.
Was I thinking aloud and fell out of touch?
But I’m back on my feet and eager to be what you wanted.

With kind-of apologies to Air Supply. I think they really did more damage to me than I to them.

 

“No One” by yours truly

Heard at a protest by N.A., aka No-one-cares Anonymous:

“No one cares!

No one cares.

So keep your nightmares!

Keep the nightmares!

This is not a joke, bloke:

No one cares!

We really don’t care!

And you should not stare!

It is not polite.

But well you might (we understand).

So avert your gaze,

And get out of the maze!

Get out of the maze!

Get out of the maze!”

 

On two more Bierce definitions and two poems

Two more entries from Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary:

“Moral, adj.   Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.”

As said before, Bierce went through a lot of difficulty in life, both familial and political/military, so it it is not surprising that he was cynical when older. There is truth in this comical entry: often communal moral standards are matter of conformity, not necessarily about right and wrong.

“More adj.  The comparative degree of too much.”

One of the hardest things in life is regulating desire for things, whatever they may be. I think this entry in the book was about that. Almost everyone wants too much of something.

 

“Has” by yours truly

“The well HAS BEEN poisoned, and you are now a has-been. Get the pun out!”

“Oh, pun-kay.”

 

“Kant” by yours truly

“According to the writings of Immanuel Kant, you have violated the pun-tegorical imperative. It is what civil law is based on, so you should leave at pun-ce!”

“Pun-kay, but please stop locking the door.”