Archive II: 2024
Wednesday, November 6, 2024 -- 12:30am
The Dead Sea Scrolls
12:00am - 1:00am
1. Blessed is...with a pure heart
and does not slander with his tongue.
He directs his heart towards her ways,
and restrains himself by her corrections,
and always takes delight in her chastisements.
2. He will fill your days with good and you will walk in great peace...
you will inherit glory.
And you will end up in the eternal resting place.
3. Do not pour out your thoughts before you have
heard their words...greatly.
First listen to their utterance and afterwards answer
With long-suffering express them and answer correctly among princes.
4. Indicates the presence of a saviour, who has come to help the people.
5. God heard the voice of Job and forgave them their sins because of him.
6. Some foods are forbidden according to Scripture; some foods should not be eaten.
7. And that which you did see, namely that part of their branch of the first, I explained to him the mystery...And that you did see all of them...they will go around, the majority of them will be wicked. And that which you did see, namely that a man came from the south of the land.
8. Some things on earth are the acts of God.
9. I journeyed along the Euphrates until I came to the Red Sea (Persian Gulf) in the east, and I travelled along the coast of the Red Sea until I came to the tongue of the Sea of Reeds (the modern Red Sea) which flows out from the Red Sea.
10. The Dead Sea Scrolls includes biblical interpretation, or passages from the Bible that are read and then interpreted so that they can be understood for symbolic and moral value.
11. Commentaries on Hosea - Interpreted, this means that he smote them with hunger and nakedness that they might be shamed and disgraced in the sight of the nations on which they relied. They will not deliver them from their miseries.
12. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. - Its intepretation concerns the last Priest who shall stretch out his hand to strike Ephraim.
13. But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. - Its intepretation, they have forsaken God and walked according to the decrees of the Gentiles.
14. Sometimes life is not as smooth as we want it to be.
15. The bible cites several instances of man's nakedness and woman's nakedness.
16. There is quarrelling and contention.
17. They scoff at kings, and princes are their laughing-stock. - Interpreted, this means that they mock the great and despise the venerable; they ridicule kings and princes and scoff at the mighty host.
18. The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill. And their goods shall be plundered and their houses laid waste.
19. The lord knows the days of the perfect and their portion shall be for ever. In evil times they shall not be shamed.
20. And those who love the Lord shall be like the pride of pastures.
Interpreted, this concerns the congregation of His elect, who shall be leaders and princes...of the flock among their herds.
21. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and his tongue speaks justice. The law of God is in his heart.
22. My heart is astir with a good word. My heart wants to do good.
23. Mark the blameless man and behold the upright, for there is posterity for the man of peace.
24. This is the time of which it is written in the book of Daniel the Prophet: But the wicked shall do wickedly and shall not understand, but the righteous shall purify themselves and make themselves white. The people who know God shall be strong.
25. Let no man's garment be worn by a woman, and let no woman's garment be worn by a man.
26. Creditors should be kind toward their debtors.
27. The pseude...known prior to Qumran from a complete Ethiopic and partial Greek, Latin and Syrian translations, has for the first time surfaced in a large number of mostly small nearly extant fragments in its Hebrew original in five Qumran caves.
28. For I know the mysteries of the Lord which the holy ones have explained and showed me and which I read in the heavenly tablets. And I saw written in them that one generation after another will do evil in this way, and evil will last until generations of righteousness arise and evil and wickedness shall end and violence shall cease from the earth and good shall come on the earth.
29. The sun rises and darkness comes and then there is night. Then the sun rises and darkness comes and this is the second night....Then the sun rises and darkness comes and this is the seventh night, and the earth proceeds in this way.
30. Behold the Ruler of heaven descended to earth and thrones were set and the Holy One sat. Thousands and thousands stood before Him. And behold, books were opened and judgement signed. And the Great one reigns over all the living and all those who rule.
31. Words of the Archangel Michael - The dream...Words of the book which Michael addressed to the angels...He said: I found there divisions of fire, and I saw there nine mountains: two to the east, and two to the west, and two to the north and two to the south. I saw there the angel Gabriel...like a vision. Then I showed him the vision. And he said to me, in the books of my Master, the Lord of the world, it is written: Behold, between the sons of Ham and the sons of Shem.
32. The Testament of Levi - Then I raised my eyes and face towards heaven and opened my mouth and spoke, and I prayed and said, Lord, Thou knowest every heart, Thou alone knowest all the thoughts of the heart...
33. The chief of all your deeds shall be truth, and it shall be with you for ever. Righteousness and truth...you will bring in a blessed harvest.
34. Sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice on your body. Then wash your hands of it, then wash your neck of it, then wash your legs of it, then wash your feet of it.
35. His word is like a word of heaven, and his teaching is according to the will of God.
36. Humour is okay, but don't be so foolish that people despise you.
37. 'You are thirty years old.' And he gave a banquet lasting seven days...Then, when the days of the wedding feast came to an end, everything returned to normal.
38. Gather together all the congregation and go up to Mount Nebo and stand there, you and Eleazar son of Aaron. Interpret to the heads of family of the Levites and to all the Priests, the words of the law which I proclaimed to you on Mount Sinai.
39. "Partying is okay, but too much partying is bad." --The Words of Moses
40. You will do all that your God has commanded you from the mouth of the prophet.
41. Let them be gathered, to Thy people and be a help to it and raise it, and deliver their feet from muddy clay and establish for them a rock from of old, for Thy praise is over all the peoples.
42. An Elisha Apocryphon - And Elisha went up. The spirit of Elijah rests over Elisha.
43. A Zedekiah Apocryphon - ...Michael...Zedekiah shall enter into a covenant on that day...to practise and to cause all the Torah to be practised.
Monday, November 4, 2024
The Roman History, Cassius
3:00pm - 4:00pm
1. Generally speaking, it is unclear what subjects are protected by freedom of speech and what subjects are not.
2. Even among the men who conspired against him, he punished only those whose lives would have been of no benefit, even to themselves.
5:00pm - 6:00pm
Heroides, Ovid
1. In the twenty-one poems of the Heroides, Ovid gave voice to the heroines and heroes of epic and myth. These deeply moving literary epistles reveal the happiness and torment of love, as the writers tell of their pain at separation, forgiveness of infidelity or anger at betrayal.
2. In the poetic letters between Paris and Helen the lovers seem oblivious to the disaster prophesied for them, while in another exchange the youthful Leander asserts his foolhardy eagerness to risk his life to be with his beloved hero.
3. People in a relationship should learn to forgive and understand each other.
4. The Penelope of the Heroides asserts that she is primarily and most properly worthy of sympathy and compassion.
5. In a relationship sometimes, when we ask questions, our partner may not give us the exact answer that we're looking for.
6. Imagine if the buildings of a city were not there, and only grass and earth existed.
7. You're so skilled at fighting, you should take on a whole army all by yourself.
8. Be sure that I know how fickle men can be.
9. "Look at how they grow fat on the wealth won by your blood."
10. "Men should do men's work, women should do women's work."
11. Objections to romantic relationships in the workplace/military as the couple won't be able to get any work done.
12. The man was simply too old to work, he was a very old man.
13. He was widely regarded in the Greek world as a man of great wisdom whose advice was actively and often sought on many different matters.
14. Zacynthus is an island in the Ionian Sea, just of the coast of Thraces.
15. "She regretted her decision, because she failed to realize the possible consequences."
16. Yet as she here presents herself as a simple woman swept off her feet by an experienced man of the world, the reader cannot help but remembering that love is blind.
17. "Tell me what have I done? I loved unwisely."
Monday, November 4, 2024
The Roman History, Cassius
12:00pm - 1:00pm
1. Some laws conradict human nature.
2. Do not let the shortcomings of other disturb you, but rather take every precaution to guard your own person and property.
3. Doctors rarely resort to surgery, because this is a drastic solution.
4. Some people would accept this post, yet a man of noble birth and high spirit would rather die than suffer such dishonour.
5. A man can be compelled to fear another, but he ought to be persuaded to love him.
4:00pm - 5:00pm
1. Since the people had been wronged by the government, they discussed plans for an uprising.
2. I shall not describe all these matters minutely; many of the events which took place are not worth mentioning. I shall speak of only those episodes which are memorable.
3. The country has a fine military composed of brave soldiers.
4. They were familiar with the region and lightly equipped, and so could easily move wherever they chose.
5. The spoiled kid was made to prove himself in the army.
6. If the senators could not reach an agreement, then they would try to find another solution.
8. "God created man," implies that god created woman also.
9. A goal of man is to build up a country to the best of his ability.
10. A good experience, is still a good experience, even though it may have slightly bad aspects.
11. Even though the man was fined, the state issued a grace period, and even forgiveness, if he could not pay.
12. All fortresses have their vulnerabilities
13. One fortress was well fortified and armed, but the inhabitants had to leave the fortress regularly to get food and supplies.
14. One fortress was well fortified and armed, and because the enemy saw it operating as though it were its own nation, the enemy retreated, and let it operate independently.
15. The army hurled down volleys of stones and spears onto the enemy's base.
16. The military had to determine what to do in the event of an attack.
17. As a result of the siege, the army retreated.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
The Roman History, Cassius
10:00am - 11:00am
The Roman History
1. In one Greek city-state, it was rather difficult for citizens to join the army.
2. Even though he was an old man and retired from the military, he was allowed to join military functions dressed in military uniform.
3. He also specified by law the number of senators required for the passing of decrees according to the various kinds of decree.
4. Once, when a former comrade asked Augustus to help him present his case, he at first made out that he was busy and asked one of his friends to speak on the man's behalf.
5. He also directed that Roman senators should serve in colonies outside of Rome.
6. They invented a series of short-hand symbols to achieve a faster rate of writing, and taught many people how to use this system.
7. Some gladatorial combats took place between opposing groups of equal numbers.
8. At one point because the Roman army was growing spoiled, the senator introduced a series of reforms.
9. Some legislation had a specific time limit, and some legislation had an approximate time limit.
10. The senators who he appointed were wise men who had displayed their knowledge in certain areas.
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Mencius
1. In life, there a many variables that we cannot control.
2. Our emotions sometimes fluctuate.
3. Sometimes we have more food, and sometimes we have less food.
4. Some music is pleasing, I don't know why, but it's pleasing.
6. There is a character name Ti, and another character, King Hsuan of Ch'i.
7. Your people are responsible for atrocities and crimes against humanity, why should I listen to you?
8. He did this not out of choice, but because he had no alternative.
9. "T'eng is a small state. If it tries with all its might to please the large states, it will only bleed itself white in the end."
10. He tried to buy them off with skins and silks, with horses and hounds, with pearls and jade, but all to no avail. "What the Ti tribes want is our land."
11. It is not easy to provide food for the hungry and drink for the thirsty.
12. In war, I look at defeat as a victory. It gives me an opportunity to refocus and get stronger.
13. You can't even understand words in my language, why should I listen to you?
14. I understand that someone died and a life was lost, but that doesn't make it right to take the life of this person in repayment or punishment.
Friday, November 1, 2024 -- 1:25am
The Roman History, Cassius
1:00am - 2:00am
The Roman History
1. You should, of course, supervise the lives of your subjects, but not probe them too strictly. You should judge cases which are referred to you by others, but if no accusation has been made, act as if you knew nothing.
2. Human nature often tempts men to break the law, and if you were to prosecute in every single instance, few, if any, of the accused would be left unpunished; but if you temper the letter of the law with leniency and humanity, you may succeed in bringing the offenders to see reason.
3. You should never allow gold or silver images to be made of yourself, for not only are they expensive, but they positively invite conspiracy and last only for a short while.
4. There are plenty of urgent needs for which the money can be better used, for genuine wealth is accumulated not by raising large revenues but by effecting large savings.
5. For these and other reasons you need people who will keep their eyes and ears open in all matters touching your leadership of the state, and clearly you must be informed of any situation which may demand preventive or corrective action.
6. If you take time about giving your trust to any of these men, no great harm will be done, but if you act too swiftly you may make a mistake which proves to be irretrievable.
7. Becaue of the civil wars, a large number of knights and persons of still lower status had become members of the Senate without any rightful qualification for being there, so that its membership had increased to one thousand. Although Octavian wished to expel these men, he did not himself strike his names off the roll, but rather urged them in view of what they knew to make themselves judges of their case.
manner.
8. Gladatorial combats between prisoners of war often took place.
9. Octavian paid for these events out of his private means, it was generally supposed. When money was needed for the public treasury, he borrowed the amount and paid it in. For the management of the public funds he ordered two magistrates to be chosen each year from the former praetors.
10. I gave myself to you without stint in all the emergencies which have arisen, and what I sacrificed is known to you all.
4:00pm - 5:00pm
15. As your allies, we will help you, because you are our friends.
16. Since America is comprised of many different world peoples, we have to try to practice tolerance.
17. All world peoples have performed noble, courageous deeds.
18. Immortality is a state which it is not in our power to possess, but by living nobly and dying nobly we do in a certain measure achieve this condition.
19. He brought his lunch with him and ate it in the courthouse.
20. Since he had a cold, the doctor recommended hot baths and hot liquds.
21. Because of this the Senate passed a resolution that Augustus should be a tribune for life and gave him the privilege of introducing before the Senate at each session any one subject at whatever time he chose.
22. Augustus went to the court-room of his own accord, and when he was asked by the praetor whether he had given the man orders to make war, said that he had not.
23. There was a rivalry between two politicians that left the state in turmoil.
24. He provided the city with the water supply and gave it the name Aqua Virgo.
25. After attending to these matters, he again carried out a review of the Senate. He thought its numbers were too large, and he could see no merit in a multitude of senators.
26. It was Augustus's custom to use the regular order of precedence when he invited the senators to vote, he would call one senator first, then another senator second, then a third senator third, and so on, and ultimately they made a decision.
27. He snores, and snoring disturbs me.
28. Citizens were given incentives to marry foreigners.
29. Two tribes took up arms against the Romans, but they were defeated and the revolt quelled by Publius Silius. The uprisings in Dalmatia and Spain were also quickly put down.
30. All this I have brought together, so as to prevent the native inhabitants, if they were in possession of such money, from starting a rebellion.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
The Roman History, Cassius
12:00pm - 1:00pm
The Roman History
4. "We must also maintain a standing army to be recruited from the citizen body, the allies amd the subject nations. Its strength in the different provinces will vary according to the demands of the situation, and these troops should always be under arms and continually training for active service.
5. "Winter quarters should be bult for them in the most suitable places, and the men should serve for a specified term, so that a period of years is allowed for them between their retirement from service and old age."
6. "On the other hand, if we allow all those of military age to bear arms and train for fighting, rebellions and civil wars will constantly arise from their inexperience."
7. "In this way, the most active men in the population, those who are in their physical prime, will be maintained without harming others, and the rest will live their lives free form danger."
8. "Cities should not hold too many festivals, since this would deplete the resources of the city."
9. "The prize for their brave and courageous deeds was free subsistence for life."
10. "Have regular meetings with the best sportsmen of all sports, so as to know what the best men of the country know."
11. "Children should learn in school the skills necessary for survival as adults."
12. "It is difficult for an unarmed man to conspire against an armed man."
13. "Questions that citizens have should be asked to the local Senator, who may then refer the questions to the Senate body."
14. "In the event of possible wrongdoing, Senators should be tried by other Senators."
15. Book Reviews XII: The Dead Sea Scrolls, added.
6:00pm - 7:00pm
16. "The best ruler, the one who is of any real value, should not only perform all the duties which fall to his lot, but should provide for the rest of his subjects, so that they can develop their virtues to the full."
17. "It is better to educate people, than it is to terrorize them with laws and punishments."
18. "You share a stage with the whole world for your audience, don't be ashamed of being human."
Sunday, October 27, 2024
The Arabian Nights - Tales of 1001 Nights
10:00am - 11:00am
The Arabian Nights
1. "Some crimes are forgivable."
2. The king said, "Here is money for food and rent, and here is an additional sum annually for other expenses."
3. "I like him, he is pleasant, sweet and agreeable!"
4. The caliph said, "I want you to find a man in Basra called Abu Muhammad the sluggard."
5. "There is nothing cowardly in doing what is patient and safe."
1:00pm - 2:00pm
6. "Since I have a lot of money, I will tempt him with money, and try to cause him to forget how I wronged him."
7. "In early times its inhabitants had been unbelievers, but Almighty God had transformed them into stones."
8. There was a monkey, and because the monkey was misbehaving, the man put it in a brass jar.
9. "He could not refuse a drink of wine when his companions asked him to drink. It could have gotten him drunk."
10. Some biblical traditions began with the first person receiving the act, and then continued with each successive person.
11. "He presented him with two hundred dirhams, ten Arab horses, five with trappings of silk and five with ornamental processional saddles...as well as an appropriate selection of precious jewels."
12. "Your punishment is to have your beard shaved off."
13. "You cannot return what you have purchased."
14. "For compensation, give me whatever item you have. I will try not to make you poor."
2:00pm - 3:00pm
15. "Beware of drinking wine. This is the source of all evil; it does away with reason and brings the drinker into contempt."
16. "If you spend all your days acquiring and amassing wealth, When are you to enjoy what you have got?"
17. There was a beautiful slave girl, and instead of selling her off to the highest bidder, her kind owner allowed her to choose which man she wanted to be with.
18. The slave girl chose the most handsome and intelligent man to be with.
19. "She can recite the Quran in all seven readings; she can write in seven scripts; and she knows more of the sciences than the most learned scholar."
20. "She told the auctioneer: 'Take my hand and bring me to him, so that I may display myself to him and attract him to me.'"
21. "Up till now I have had nothing to eat, but I am embarrased to say in front of the merchants that I have no money."
22. The man met a Christian. He told the Christian, "Follow behind me, with a drink of water, and if I get thirsty, then give me the water, and I'll pay you at the end of the day."
3:00pm - 4:00pm
23. Omitted.
Friday, October 25, 2024
Mencius
12:00am - 1:00am
1. Take the example of a farmer. A farmer certainly works for a living, but he cannot be expected to also do the hundred and one things necessary to make his farm successful.
6:00am - 7:00am
1. “It is great that today, we can benefit from bookstores and the internet to share information and learn new things.”
2. The king said, “For your courageous and brave actions, I will ensure that you are taken care of for your lifetime.”
7:00am - 8:00am
3. "With the passage of time, new developments and new problems arose, and if Confucianism was to hold its own, it had to take cognizance of these new developments and furnish answers to these new problems."
4. "'He had no right to,' said the King. 'He did not quite run a hundred paces. That is all. But all the same, he ran.'"
5."Now when food meant for human beings is so plentiful as to be thrown to dogs and pigs, you fail to realize that it is time for garnering, and when men drop dead from starvation by the wayside, you fail to realize that it is time for distribution."
6. "No one in the Empire will refuse to give it to him. Does Your Majesty not know about young rice plants?"
7. "Seeking the fulfilment of such an ambition by such means as you employ is like looking for fish by vlimbing a tree."
8. "In good years life is always hard, while in bad years there is no way of escaping death. Thus simply to survive take more energy than the people have. What time can they spare for learning about rites and duty?"
9. Omitted.
10. "Mental health is okay, but at some point, questions and problems about it arose, and these need answers and solutions."
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
History of the Peloponnesian War
12:00am - 1:00am
1. "If you are not neutral in the war, then you are our allies.”
2. “The large army was bullying smaller nations around.”
3. “For peace in a war, write a treaty, and ensure that both sides abide by the terms of the treaty.”
4. “According to the treaty, the Potidaeans were to pull out their troops, allow the Corinthians to repair their country, and return to normal.”
5. “We’re going to call a meeting of our allies to see who can help us.”
6:00am - 7:00am
6. “They are quick to go out and fight a war, while their country itself could use help in other areas.”
7:00am - 8:00am
7. "If a people are deprived of their liberty, then they have the right to fight."
8. "Our aim is to prevent you from coming to the wrong decision on a matter of great importance through paying too much attention to the views of your allies."
9. "A country should have reasonable aims."
10. "As it is, long speeches are unecessary."
11. "You are a leader who waits calmly before taking action."
12. "The chief reason for the failure of the Persian invasion was the mistaken policy of the Persians themselves. We can learn from this."
13. "We are skilled builders, and we have built a lot of arms and ships, and that is what has saved us in war."
14. "The actions of their military brought them economic and trade sanctions, and the disaproval of other nations."
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Misc. Notes
10:00am - 11:00am
1. Updated: Introductory Notes post, June 22, 2024.
5:00pm - 6:00pm
2. Please review on my Facebook page — Research in Law and Psychiatry post - January 15, 2024
:00pm - 7:00pm
3. "This courtroom is being too formal, judge. Lighten up please."
10:00pm - 11:00pm
1. “If you want to prosecute me then prosecute me, you don’t have to constantly torture me and harass me about my past.”
Monday, October 21, 2024
The Dead Sea Scrolls
4:00am - 5:00am
1. At the last judgement, predicts the Commentary, the Wicked Priest will empty 'the cup of wrath of God.' His successors, the 'last Priests of Jerusalem', are also charged with amassing 'money and wealth by plundering the peoples,' i.e. foreigners.
2. It seems to designate here as in rabbinic literature ritually pure food, as well as the vessels and utensils in which it is contained or cooked.
3. "He was not, in effect, to attend the common table and had to eat elsewhere."
4. Many historians focus less on the dates and specific locations of historical events, and more on the meaning and symbolism of the events.
5. During one event in Qumran history "...in Daniel, they humiliate the enemy of the Jews."
6. In the Habakkuk Commentary, "Feared and admired by all, they are seen to be on the point of defeating the 'last Priests of Jerusalem' and confiscating their wealth, as they have done to many others before. Such a representation of a victorious and advancing might would hardly apply to the Greek Seleucids of Syria, who by the second half of the second century BCE were in grave decline."
7. It is also worth noting that the 'Kittim' of the War Scroll, the final opponents of the eschatological Israel, are subject to a king or emperor (melekh).
8. eschatology - the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.
9. "For although biblical names are often used symbolically, including that of 'Israel,' the actions attributed to the 'Wicked Priest' make little sense if the person in question did not exercise both pontifical and secular power."
5:00am - 6:00am
10. "The war with the Romans tried their souls through and through by every variety of test. Racked and twisted, burned and broken...they refused to yield to either demand, nor ever once did they cringe to their persecutors or shed a tear."
11. View religion as "a path to holiness walked in obedience to God's commandments."
12. ...persuaded them to remember their Covenant with God with solemn vows of repentance and national rededication; but the promises were usually short-lived.
13. Cautions congregations against sliding into "mere religious formalism."
6:00am - 7:00am
14. Election and Holy Life in the Community of the Covenant
15. "The aim of a holy life lived within the Covenant was to seek out the secrets of heaven in this world and to stand before God for ever in the next."
16. To judge from the many references to it, the time element both calendric and horary was crucial.
17. The laws of purity were also assuredly essential to the sect, and some practical guidance is given. The dietary laws are dealt with in the Damascus Document and the Temple Scroll. For instance, the eating of 'live creatures' (e.g. larvae of bees, fish and locusts) is declared to be prohibited.
18. Omitted.
19. Omitted.
20. Perfume in excess violates hygeine standards.
21. Priests had to adhere to a strict moral code.
7:00am - 8:00am
22. Certain activities between husband and wife were prohibited.
22. Future Expectations in the Community of the Covenant
23. Using biblical models as vehicles for their own convictions, the Teacher of Righteousness and the Community's sages projected an image of the future which is elaborate and colorful, but which cannot always be fully comprehended by us, partly because some of the associations escape us, and partly because of gaps in the extant texts. They foresaw in their Community's story the fulfilment of the prophetic expectations concerning the salvation of the righteous.
24. Omitted.
25. The Priest was to be the final teacher, he was also to preside over battle liturgy and the eschatological banquet.
9:00am - 10:00am
1. Updated: Food Ideas post.
26. This is the rule for an Assembly of the Congregation - Each man shall sit in his place: the Priests shall sit first, and the elders second, and all the rest of the people according to their rank. No man shall interrupt a companion before his speech has ended, nor speak before a man of higher rank; each man shall speak in his turn. And no man shall speak without the consent of the Congregation. If they let him speak after he asks, he shall speak.
27. These are the Rules by which they shall judge at a Community (Court of) Inquiry according to the cases
10:00am - 11:00am
28. Entry into the Covenant - And the Guardian will come, and the elders with him until...and they shall enter by geneology.
11:00am - 12:00pm
29. The Priests are converts of Israel who departed from the land of Judah, and (the Levites are) those who joined them.
30. No man that approaches them shall be free from guilt; the more he does so, the guiltier shall he be.
31. God remembered the Covenant, and he raised men of discernment and men of wisdom.
12:00pm - 1:00pm
1. The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse
2. Todros Abulafia is one poet in the collection. "Figs," "Three Poems from Prison," and "Zecharia, the Messiah" are some his poems.
3. Three Poems from Prison - "My rings have fallen off, but I still have my fingers; my glory is not in my wealth of rings. I still have my faith, my dignity, and my precious soul, the legacy of my parents, the patrimony of my ancestors...The man of sense laughs at Time, and cheers himself with 'perhaps' or 'if'."
4. Zechariah the Messiah - "The wind of the arrows quivers in the hearts, it burns men's vitals and scatters their spirits, and there is no remedy for the bodies."
5. In one of her poems one female author suggests that the city is filled with grime, filth, and is a dirty place to live.
6. One author writes, "When I make you uncomfortable with my right hand, then focus on my left hand, when I make you uncomfortable with my left arm, then focus on my right arm."
1:00pm -2:00pm
1. Mencius
2. Little is known about Mencius other than what can be gathered from the book named after him. He was, perhaps, born a century or so after the death of Confucius, and it is likely that he died before the end of the fourth century B.C. Only two Chinese philosophers have the distinction of being known consistently to the West by a latinized name. The first is Confucius. The second is Mencius, whose name is Meng K'e. That Mencius should share the distinction is by no means an insignificant fact, for he is without doubt second only to Confucius in importance in the Confucian tradition, a fact officially recognized in China for over a thousand years.
3. Characters include: King Hui of Liang, King Hsiang of Liang, Duke Huan, Duke Wen, Wan Chang, Wang Huan, Kung-ming Yi, Kung-sun Ch'ou...
4:00pm - 5:00pm
1. Since I am trying to perfect my site, I updated the Food Ideas post.
5:00pm - 6:00pm
1. Cut open and examine their stomach to detect the presence of poison, if you want to autopsy a dead body to detect poisoning.
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Misc. Notes
8:00am - 9:00am
1. Pools which hold fresh water can be useful in areas where there are shortages of water. The freshwater can be imported by ship to pools that are created. The people can then line up, get water in buckets, in order to drink and use for other purposes (such as growing vegetables and cooking).
9:00am - 10:00am
2. These “pools” which hold fresh water can at a later date be adapted with pipes and pumps in order to transport the water more easily.
3. The fresh water would be imported from somewhere else and then loaded onto ships and then transported by ship, and then taken off the ship onto trucks, and then emptied into freshwater pools. Then it can be collected by the people in buckets for various uses.
10:00am - 11:00am
4. The water would be imported onto ships in large quantities, about enough water to fill one storage pool per ship. Also the plants that can be grown from the water such as oranges and lemons, can be either grown directly in the ground, or grown in pots, whichever is more convenient.
5. The water can be used to make powdered drink mix such as Kool-Aid or from the oranges and lemons that are grown it can make orange juice and lemonade. The water can also be used to plant vegetables such as carrots, lettuce and tomatoes, which can at some point be eaten.
6. The water can also be used to grow crops such as potatoes and yams, which are popular in many areas.
4:00pm - 5:00pm
1. A water station, like a gas station, located in key points in the city, where water once imported, is stored and then pumped out in a way that permits people to carry the water home is a good idea.
5:00pm - 6:00pm
1. The Dead Sea Scrolls
2. In the spring of 1947 a young Arab shepherd climbed into a cave in the Judean desert and stumbled on the first Dead Sea Scrolls. The cave was located close to the Dead Sea, near Jerusalem.
3. II. The Community - We all live in a community. People have symbolic roles or jobs in the community. People also have certain responsibilities in the community.
4. These are, as may be seen, mostly the sort of recommendations to be expected of men devoting themselves to contemplation. A point to bear in mind, however, is that the contemplative life is not a regular feature of Judaism.
5. The hierarchy at Qumran was strict and formal, from the higest level to the lowest.
6. The highest office was vested in the person of the Guardian, known also, it would seem, as the 'Master' (maskil). The Community was to be taught by him how to live in conformity with the 'Book of the Community Rule', and to be instructed by him in the doctrine of the 'two spirits'. He was to preside over assemblies, giving leave to speak to those wishing to do so. He was to assess, in concert with the brethren, the spiritual progress of the men in his charge and rank them accordingly. And negatively, he was not to dispute with 'the men of the Pit (or Dawn)' and not to transmit to them the sect's teachings.
7. In Judaism as represented by the Mishnah, the priest is superior to the Levite, the Levite to the Israelite, and the Israelite to the 'bastard'. But the priestly precedence is conditional. If the 'bastard' is a man of learning, we are told, and the High Priest an uneducated 'boor', 'the bastard...precedes the High Priest.'
8. The purpose of the meetings of the twelve tribes and three Levitical clans is clear. It was to debate the Law, to discuss their current business, to select or reject newcomers under the guidance of the Guardian, to hear charges against offenders and to conduct a yearly inquiry into the progress of every sectary, promoting or demoting them in rank, again under the Guardian's supervision.
9. During their sessions, order and quiet were to prevail.
6:00pm - 7:00pm
10. The severely handicapped and some foreigners were disqualified from performing priestly duties.
11. There were laws against a Jew stealing from a non-Jew.
7:00pm - 8:00pm
12. The history of religions furnishes scores of examples of sister sects which turned into mortal enemies.
13. Determine the reasons why the sister sects split from the main branch.
14. Drawing the threads of these various aguments together, there would seem to be little doubt not only that the desert and town sectaries were united in doctrine and organization, but that they remained in actual and regular touch with each other, under the ultimate administrative and spiritual authority of the shadowy figure of the Priest, of whom we hear so little...
15. Determine the differences between the different sister sects of a religion.
8:00pm - 9:00pm
16. Many people have tried to record history, but for some, the focus is not on historical events themselves, but on their religious significance.
17. As may be remembered, the superior at Qumran was required to be expert in recognizing 'the nature of all the children of men according to the kind of spirit which they possess.’
Saturday, October 19, 2024
A Harlot High and Low, Honore de Balzac
3:00am - 4:00am
1. The female protagonist said, “I want a diamond; I want to experience owning a diamond. I may in the future turn it in for the cash value.”
2. Towards the end of the novel, the female protagonist who became successful and wealthy finally achieves upper class status.
3. She was dressed in expensive clothing.
4. Reminds readers of the abstract nature of money.
5. "The magistrate and his clerk could not restrain themselves from laughing, despite the gravity of their functions. Jacques Collin joined in their hilarity, though with moderation."
6. "Human justice, in the form in which it flourishes in Paris, that is to say in its cleverest, most mistrustful, wittiest, most educated form, too witty in some ways, for it interprets the law differently on different occasions."
7. "Coquart read over his report of the scene, but the prisoner refused to sign basing his refusal on a lack of knowledge of French legal procedure."
8. "Well, that's quite enough for one day, you must be feeling the need for a little food, I'll have you taken back to the Conciergerie."
9. She wrote a letter, which highlighted her liveliness and wisdom, and this impressed him.
10. She illustrated the troubles that women sometimes endure.
11. "'Don't imagine that I am compromising myself...,' went on Jacques Collin giving the judge to understand that his suspicion had been noted."
12. "'Well, then, believe me, I know Lucien, he has the soul of a woman, a poet, a man of the South, inconstant, lacking in willpower,' he continued."
13. "Do you have to be so evil, judge?"
9:00am - 10:00am
The Histories, Herodotus
1. “What a strange man you are. Have you any fault to find with our army? Isn’t it big enough? What are you afraid of?”
2. “No, sir, quite the contrary. We have the biggest and most powerful army and navy in the world.”
10:00am - 11:00am
3. "A small dog ran under his feet, and then he fell down and hit his head."
4. Omitted.
11:00am - 12:00pm
5. “The farmers took time to fatten up the cattle.”
6. “Some animals panic very easily.”
7. “Soldiers who die for their country are brave and courageous.”
1:00pm - 2:00pm
8. During one war, the decision was made to hold the pass in order to prevent the Persians from entering Greece.
2:00pm - 3:00pm
1. Omitted.
9. A navy ship was sent to dock in order to protect the waters. It did not have orders to protect the land of the country.
8:00pm - 9:00pm
1. I think that many people who've never smoked weed have recently tried cbd oil or cbd oil mixed with their other drugs. I draw this conclusion because they’ve slowed down a bit recently.
Friday, October 18, 2024
The Histories, Herodotus
10:00am - 11:00am
1. The army surrounded the enemy's building.
2. Once the military had surrounded the enemy building, they cut off access to essential supplies, and did not allow the enemy soldiers to go shopping for food or get oil for transportation.
3. The enemy surrendered peacefully.
4. "Amongst the Athenian commanders opinion was divided: some were against risking a battle, on the ground that the Athenian force was too small to stand a chance of success; others -- and amongst them Miltiades -- urged it."
5. "Increase the space between borders of a country, in order to avoid territorial disputes."
6. "He made guest-friendship with a man called Themison, and obtained from him a promise upon oath to perform whatever service should be asked of him."
7. "The mother believed that she was giving birth to an evil daughter."
8. In history there are several examples of people sacrificing children or adults to the gods.
11:00am - 12:00pm
9. "He would add that Europe was a very beautiful place; it produced every kind of garden tree; the land there was everything that land should be -- it was, in short, too good for any mortal except the Persian king."
10. "They were having so much fun, they didn't get any work done."
11. "Anyway, he went to Susa; and now, whenever he found himself in the king's presence the people would talk big about his wonderful powers and he would recite selections from his oracles."
12. "First, however, he sent an army against the Egyptian rebels and decisively crushed them; then, having reduced the country to a condition of worse servitude than it had ever been in the previous reign, he turned it over to his brother, a Libyan."
13. An ion gun is a fascinating modern weapon which can be fired with impressive accuracy.
12:00p, - 1:00pm
14. "Yet, from what I hear, the Greeks are pugnacious enough, and start fights on the spur of the moment without sense or judgement to justify them. When they declare war on each other, they go off together to the smoothest and levellest bit of ground they can find, and have their battle on it -- with the result that even the victors never get off without heavy losses, and as for the losers -- well, they're wiped out. Now surely, as they all talk the same language, they ought to be able to find a better way of settling their differences: by negotiation, for instance, or an interchange of views -- indeed by anything rather than fighting. Or if it is really impossible to avoid coming to blows, they might at least emply the elements of strategy and look for a strong position to fight from. In any case, the Greeks, with their absurd notions of warfare, never even thought of opposing me when I led my army to Macedonia."
15. "But should I be wrong and they be so foolish as to do battle with us, then they will learn that we are the best soldiers in the world.
16. Omitted.
17. "The phantom after uttering these threats was on the point of burning out Artabanus' eyes with hot irons, when he leapt up with a shriek, and ran to find Xerxes."
18. "At the same time other work too was in progress, and provision dumps were being formed for the troops, lest either men or animals should go hungry on the march to Greece. For these dumps the most convenient sites were chosen after a careful survey, the provisions being brought from many different parts of Asia in merchantmen or transport vessels."
Thursday, October 17, 2024
The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse, T. Carmi
12:00am - 1:00am
1. Eleazar Ben Kallir or Killir - the outstanding representative of the classical piyut, probably lived in Palestine before the Arab conquest. Though his poems have figured prominently in printed rituals, and hundreds more have come to light in manuscript collections, his biography remains one of the great mysteries of Hebrew literary history. His radical innovations in the diction, style, and structure of the piyut had a great influence on the poets who succeeded him in Palestine and in other lands of the Near East and Europe. The 'Kallir style' involves a highly allusive use of language, packed with references to written and oral traditions.
The 'Kallir style' was severely criticized in the twelfth century by Abraham ibn Ezra for having corrupted 'classical' (i.e., biblical) Hebrew and for being unduly obscure and esoteric. But Kallir - like other great innovators of the classical and late Eastern periods -- was also capable of writing simple and direct poetry, both lyrical and dramatic, as some of the selections demonstrate.
2. Sa'adiah Gaon - the father of medieval Jewish philosophy, was born in the Faiyum district in Egypt. From 928, except for a period of conflict with the exilarch, he held the post of gaon ('eminence') of the Academy of Sura in Babylonia (Iraq). A bold innovator in many areas, he translated the Bible into Arabic (which had replaced Aramaic as the principle language spoken by the Jews); edited the first 'scientific' prayer-book; and compiled the first comprehensive Hebrew dictionary, including a rhyming dictionary for the use of poets. He was the first to wed Hebrew poetry and philosophy...
3. Joseph Albardani - was chief hazan in the Great Synagogue of Baghdad, and was succeeded in this post by his son and grandson. The following poem, attributed to Albardini, is based on a Midrashic elaboration of the episode in Exodus 14.
4. Simeon Ben Isaac - a native of Mainz, was the outstanding synagogal poet of Ashkenazi Jewry. His distinctive style clearly reflects the influence of the Palestinian classical school, or merkava mysticism, and of his older contemporary, Moses ben Kalonymus. In several of his piyutim, he introduced his son's name in the acrostic. A venerated Talmudic authority, he became the hero of many folk legends. One tradition has it that his son embraced Christianity and rose to the rank of Pope. When Simeon the Great went to Rome to plead his people's cause, he played chess with the Pope and, by the style of his game, recognized him as his son.
5. Poems from the Dead Sea Scrolls
6. The Mystery to Come
A poem which suggests that what will happen in our life is a mystery. "...and they do not know the mystery to come; they have not brooded over the past; they do not know what will befall them; they have not saved their lives from the mystery to come."
7. Anonymous - The Death of Moses Sequence
"How then shall I die?
How then shall I die?
I sinfully answered:
'I am slow of speech,'
and angered You who give man speech -
if this is my crime,
blot it out and do not call it to mind!"
8. Wine, by Samuel Hanagid -
Wine in the cup looks like a normal liquid, but remember that it can be a dangerous substance when it is consumed. "When it is in the bowls, it is feeble; but once it goes to the head, it holds sway over swaying heads."
9. The Jasmine, by Samuel Hanagid - A poem praising jasmine.
1:00am -2:00am
10. Wine Song For Spring, by Moses Ibn Ezra
"Give me the cup that will enthrone my joy and banish sorrow from my heart.
Drink all day long, until the day wanes and the sun coats its silver with gold; and all night long, until the night flees like a Moor, while the hand of dawn grips its heel."
7:00am - 8:00am
1. Learn the difference between am and pm in telling time.
2. Learn how to measure something with a ruler.
12:00pm - 1:00pm
1. "Remember that women are the only sex which can practise strict chastity." --Herodotus
2. "He assumed the identity of another man by dressing like him, and then performed the other man's jobs as though they were his own."
1:00pm - 2:00pm
1. “Sometimes, our neighbors get on the phone with their friends, and they are quiet, and this makes us mad.” —Repost
3:00pm - 4:00pm
1. “Because she was scared for her life, she killed her husband.” —Honore de Balzac
2. “The woman said, ‘either give me a lump sum of money monthly, or I won’t do any work for you in this relationship.’” —Honore de Balzac
3. “Before they were married, they drew up a marriage contract which included $50,000 in savings, which the wife could take if they divorced. And she was not obligated to leave with the children either.” —Honore de Balzac
4. “An education can prepare you for death.” -Preparation for Death, St Alphonsus
5. “Being close to nature can prepare you for death.” —St Alphonsus
6. “There may be moments of life in death.” — St Alphonsus
4:00pm - 5:00pm
1. Omitted.
2. Chicken and vegetables is a good dish!
5:00pm - 6:00pm
1. “If you build more farms (animal/vegetable) then you can avoid food shortages.” —Herodotus
8:00pm - 9:00pm
1. Green Bean Casserole (soup) is easy to make in a pot, on the stovetop. This is in reference to the recipe on the back of the French's Crispy Fried Onions box.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
12:00am - 1:00am
The Histories, Herodotus
1. If a person dies then he should be compensated according to how much he would earn over his lifetime. Compensation should be proportionate to one’s injuries instead of being too excessive.
2. “During all his time with her in Paris, he never left her side.”
7:00am - 8:00am
3. Some people view fire as a living, breathing thing.
4. “The two men drank wine together, and one of the men encouraged the other man to sing and shout.”
8:00am - 9:00am
5. Since she was mad at her husband, she said, "At that I swore a solemn oath that I would commit adultery with the filthiest and dirtiest of men."
6. "It is a saying of the Baghdadis that wine without music may lead to a headache."
7. "He was a bad influence on his friend."
8. "Harun al-Rashid had the chance to turn and look at him. On his body he saw scars of a whipping, and when he was certain of what he had seen, he exclaimed: 'By God, Ja'far, this is a handsome young man but he is also a foul thief!'"
12:00pm - 1:00pm
9. The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves Killed by a Slave Girl, is the last story in the book. It is a story about two brothers, one called Qasim and the other Ali Baba.
1:00pm - 2:00pm
10. "One group of world people lived in a tropical climate, and were known for copulating outside." --Herodotus
2:00pm - 3:00pm
1. The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse, edited and translated by T. Carmi
2. T. Carmi was born in New York City in 1925, to a Hebrew-speaking family, and settled in Israel in 1947, serving with the Israel Defence Forces for two years and then attending the Hebrew University. He was Ziskind Visiting Professor of Humanities at Brandeis University in 1970, Visiting Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies between 1974 and 1976 and poet-in-residence at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1977. Subsequently, T. Carmi became Visiting Professor of Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem, from which post he took a leave of absence in 1979 to be Visiting Professor at Stanford University in the Department of English. In 1986, he was Visiting Professor at Yale University in the Department of Near Eastern Studies and Literature and the Department of Comparative Literature, and at New York University in the Departments of English and Hebrew and Judaic Studies.
3. Over the years, T. Carmi lectured and gave poetry readings at many universities and at the Poetry Center in New York. He took part in the International Poetry Festival in London in 1971 and 1976, in the Poetry International in Rotterdam in 1975, and in the Jerusalem International Poet's Festival in 1990 and 1993. In Israel, he was awarded the Shlonsky Prize for Poetry, the Brenner Prize for Literature, the Prime Minister's Award for Creative Writing, and the Bialik Prize for Literature. Between 1987 and 1988, he held the Guggenheim Fellowship for Poetry and Translation. During his lifetime, he published thirteen volumes of poetry, and a fourteenth volume was published posthumously. Four collections of his work have appeared in English translation: The Brass Serpent, Somebody Like You, T. Carmi and Dan Pagis: Selected Poems, and At the Stone of Losses. His work has also been translated into other languages, among them French and German. He also translated several well-known plays into Hebrew, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Othello, and Cyrano de Bergerac.
T. Carmi died in Jerusalem in 1994.
4. Preface
This anthology spans the full range of Hebrew poetry, from the Bible to contemporary Israeli writing. To the best of my knowledge, it is the first such collection in English. More surprisingly, it is also the first comprehensive selection in Hebrew. This strange state of affairs is partially explained by the fact that the texts representing the first thousand years of post-biblical poetry came to light only at the turn of the century. Many of the major poets are not yet available in collected or critical editions. Scholars are still engaged in the arduous task of processing thousands of manuscripts from the hoard of the Cairo Genizah. No one can predict how much of this will prove to be of literary interest or how it will affect our overall view of the development of Hebrew poetry. Unknown poems, and even poets, are constantly being retreived from the vast storehouse of undeciphered manuscripts. A comprehensive anthology of Hebrew poetry is, therefore, in the nature of a draft which should be revised periodically as new material is presented to the reader.
5. There are, to be sure, Hebrew editions of individual authors, especially from the Andalusian period onwards, and collections which encompass a specific age or geographic area. No student of Hebrew poetry can fail to be indebted to the monumental compilations of J. Schirmann: Hebrew Poetry in Spain and Provence (Jerusalem-Tel Aviv, 1956) and Anthology of Hebrew Poetry in Italy (Berlin, 1934). The innovative publications of H. Brody, M. Zulay and E. Fleisher have radically changed the picture of medieval Hebrew poetry. The collections of D. Yellin, A.M. Habermann, S. Mirsky, D. Yarden, and others have acquainted us with a large variety of previously unknown texts.
6. In compiling this selection I have, of course, drawn on these, and many other, standard sources. However, the desire to present a comprehensive anthology obliged me to track down a multitude of scholarly publications in out-of-the-way journals and Festschriften, rare editions that have not been reprinted for centures, and liturgical collections from all over the world which have never been ransacked for their poetic gems. As a result, this volume includes many poems which have never been previously anthologized or even published in critical editions; poems which have never been dislodged from their original setting in a local liturgical rite; and even poems (e.g., some of the Hekhalot hymn) which have never been printed as poetry, but, strange as it may seem, are printed as prose in the few editions in which they are to be found. Early in the work of the compilation - I should add that, except in rare cases, I have limited myself to printed sources - I realized that I must give chance a chance to proffer its unexpected gifts. Such a moment of delight was the 'discovery' of the unusual 'Death of Moses Sequence' in an Italian rite (Bologne, 1538). The poems were clearly lying in wait for me and testing my patience and persistence.
2:47pm 7. Although I have attempted a systematic review of the corpus of Hebrew poetry, I am fully aware of the extent to which such an endeavour exceeds the capabilities of a single person. Suffice it to mention that I. Davidson's classic Thesaurus of Mediaeval Hebrew Poetry (New York, 1924-33) lists about thirty-five thousand poems from printed sources, and since the index was printed, thousands of additional poems have been published. Ideally, the preparation of a comprehensive anthology should be undertaken by a team of experts. Professor Schirmann has pointed out that
the study of Hebrew poetry demands a knowledge of many subsidiary subjects, such as history, bibliography, palaeography, linguistics and liturgy. The full comprehension of Hebrew texts occasionally necessitates their comparison with texts written in other languages...The research into their origins entails a knowledge of several languages (e.g., Aramaic, Syriac, Byzantine Greek, Latin , Arabic, Spanish, Italian and Provencal) and the closer we approach our own time, the more languages are required.
8. Obviously, poems culled from such a wide variety of sources have presented serious textual problems. Many of the editions are corrupt, the readings are often suspect and the meanings obscure. I would not have been able to cope with these problems withouth the help of the many scholars I consulted over the years. I am especially indebted to Professor Gershom G. Schloem for having placed his unpublished version of the Hekhalot hymns at my disposal; and to Professor Ezra Fleischer for his elucidations of many textual difficulties. Professor M. Greenberg, Dr. J. Licht, Professor Y. Ben Shlomo, Professor H. Blanc, Dr I. Gruenwald and Professor Y. Ratzaby all gave me valuable advice in their respective fields. Other acknowledgements are noted in the Table of Poems; but even a partial list of my benefactors would turn this preface into a 'Scroll of Thanksgiving.' I am, of course, solely responsible for all sins of omission and commission. 'Who can be aware of errors? Cleanse me from mu unknown faults...' (Psalms 19.13).
9. The notes to the biblical translations in this anthology are far from exhaustive. They are meant to indicate to the reader the surprising range of plausible interpretations advanced by authoritative biblical studies. My brief foray into the enchanting maze of biblical scholarship has convinced me of the truth of Professor Greenberg's conclusion: 'The beginning of wisdom in biblical study is the realization that the Bible is an exotic book about which modern readers understand very little."
10. I have not included any poems in order to 'represent' a specific school of poetry, although I have attempted to offer as varied a selection as possible and to draw attention to lesser known centres, such as Yemen, Turkey and North Africa.
11. Mr Stephen Mitchell reviewed the entire English manuscript with a 'cold eye'; I could not wish for a finer blend of critical severity and warm sympathy. Mr Dom Moraes edited some of my earliest drafts and, in fact, initiated the project by suggesting it to Penguin Books in 1963. Mr Hans Schmoller and Mr Nikos Stangos, formerly of Penguin, and Mr William Sulkin, the present peotry editor, have been unfailingly helpful and encouraging. To Dr Moshe Spitzer I am indebted for invaluable typographical, as well as scholarly, guidance. My deepest thanks are due to the Librarian and staff of the Schocken Institute, Jerusalem, and of the Oriental Reading Room of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for their cooperation.
3:00pm - 4:00pm
12. Cultural diffusion with Palestine has affected Hebrew poetry.
13. Hebrew poetry was written in Italy and Spain.
14. Sa'adiah...paved the way for the introduction of philosophical themes into sacred poetry.
15. At the end of the ninth centurty Hebrew poetry made its first appearance on European soil, in southern Italy. The early Italian school was an offshoot of Palestine, and produced a distinctive synthesis of Palestinian (classical) and late Eastern elements. Germany, under the direct influence of Italy, produced its first major poet, Simeon the Great, in the tenth century. Here again, the Palestinian-Babylonian blend is clearly discernible.
3:21pm 16. It was only with Hayim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934) that Hebrew recovered from its stroke of amnesia, began to rediscover important chapters of its long history, and found its modern voice...Under the influence of Yiddish, Russian and German, the syllabic system was discarded in favour of the tonic-syllabic or accentual system. This change was effected mainly by Bialik, the acknowledged leader of the Odessa circle...Bialik had the distinction of providing Hebrew poetry with a new idion which fused together the various strate of the language. The result in Haskalah poetry was a mosaic technique, a patchwork quilt of involuntary quotations and allusions that stifled the individual voice.
17. Songs of everyday life: vestiges of work songs; watchman's songs; drinking songs; elaborate taunt songs; love songs; war and victory songs; and personal or collective dirges. Early Israelite poetry was sung to the accompaniment of music and choral dancing.
3:36pm 18. 'I shall sing to the Lord'
Exodus 15. 1b-18. 'The Song of the Sea,' which celebrates the crucial event in Israel's history, is a hymn, incorporating elements of the victory song and thanksgiving song.
19. 'For the warriors, in Israel'
Judges 5.1-31. 'The Song of Deborah', noted for its dramatic vitality and rapid contrasts, is a religious victory song with a hymn-like beginning and conclusion, and motifs borrowed from taunt songs.
20. 'There is a source for silver'
Job 28 - a wisdom poem with a characteristic refrain, was composed as an independent lyrical unit.
21. 'Return, return, O Shulammite'
Song of Songs 7.1-10 - On the eve of her wedding the bride performs a sword dance to the rhythm of a descriptive song (known in Arabic as the wasf) that celebrates her beauty and her adornments.
3:47pm 22. The Talmud, a vast corpus of law, commentaries and legends, took shape in Palestine and Babylonia over a period of almost five centuries. It occasionally contains short poems: prayers designed for synagogal use, private devotions, elegies, and random snatches of popular verse. The personal prayers are often distinguished by great simplicity of diction and structure; the elegies, however, are highly stylized and because of their frequent use of epithets can sound like riddles. But both genres trstify to a growing freedom from biblical models and to the evolution of new styles, under the impact of rabbinic Hebrew.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
5:00am - 6:00am
The Histories, Herodotus
1. "Ten days' journey from the Garamantes is yet another hill and spring -- this time the home of the Atarantes, the only people in the world, so far as our knowledge goes, to do without names."
2. "The nomad Libyans -- except the Nasamonians -- bury their dead just as in Greece; the Nasamonians, however, bury them in a sitting position, and take care when anyone is dying to make him sit up, and not to let him die flat on his back. Their houses, which are portable, are made of the dry haulms of some plant, knit together with rush ropes."
3. “One of the people of Libya are dog-headed men, headless men with eyes in their breasts.”
4. “In one island is a lake, and the native girls dip feathers into the bottom of it, and bring up gold dust.”
5. Omitted.
6:00am - 7:00am
6. “In some places they grow crops and make them into breakfast cereals.”
7. One group of people used smoke to get help when they were lost, they would send up a smoke signal, and then when their tribe saw it, they would be able to locate the individual.
8. During one war, “though there was no fighting of any kind, the Persians were seized with panic and hastily retreated a distance of some seven miles before they dared come to a halt.”
7:00am - 8:00am
9. In one land they are several little horses, which cannot carry a man, but these small horses are fashioned with a harness and used to pull things.
10. One group of people believed themselves to be immortal.
11. "One group of tribes of a land would have been very powerful if they were not subjugated by another people."
12. "Each member of one tribe has his own hut on platforms, with a trap-door opening on to the water underneath."
13. "We have welcomed you kindly...won't you folow our custom?"
14. "I beg you not to do these men any mischief; for if you do, you will ruin us all. Have the courage to endure the sight of their behavior. As for myself, I will leave the room as you suggest."
15. The king said, "these women are entirely for you to choose, you can date any one of them you like, but there's a catch..."
16. Amyntas said, "You are an old man, father, and should look after yourself. Don't try to sit out the playing, but go to rest."
8:00am - 9:00am
17. "He tried to compete in the Olympic games, on the side of Greece, and his Greek competitors tried to exclude him on the ground that foreigners were not allowed to take part. Alexander, however, proved his Argive descent, and so was accepted as a Greek and allowed to enter for the foot-race."
18. "Darius the king to Histiaeus: On thinking the matter over, I find that I have no friend more loyal than yourself, or more devoted to my prosperity; and the proof of it has been deeds, not words. Therefor, as I have an important enterprise in hand, I beg you to come to me without fail, in order that I may communicate it to you."
19. "Their best men visited the place, and when they saw the widespread ruin there they asked to be allowed to make a thorough inspection of all the land."
20. "The first thing they did when they got there was to ask Aristagoras to lend them some troops, in the hope of recovering their position at home."
21. "Bees don't like the cold weather."
22. After the destruction, however, some of the citizens organized themselves, and left the area.
23. "The plan you propose, is likely to be of great benefit to our royal house, and I think your advice is excellent, except in one particular -- the size of the fleet."
24. "Aristagoras returned to Miletus much pleased with this answer, and Artaphernes at once communicated with Susa. He laid the proposal of Aristagoras before the king, obtained his consent, and set about his preparations..."
25. One group of people were known for erecting commemorative statues and plaques in honor of notable people or events.
26. "...equipping two hundred triremes and a strong force of Persian and allied troops, the whole of which he put under the command of Megabates, one of the Achaemenidae, and a cousin both of Darius and himself. Megabates' daughter -- if there is any truth in the story -- was subsequently betrothed to Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, when he had his heart set on making himself master of Greece."
27. "He then made sail ostensibly for the Hellespont; but on reaching Chios, he brought up at Caucasa, meaning to make a passage from there to Naxos as soon as he got a northerly wind."
9:00am - 10:00am
28. "But to return to Cleomenes: he was, the story goes, not quite right in his head -- even, indeed, on the verge of madness, whereas Doreius was the finest young man of his generation and confident that his merits would assure his succession."
12:00pm - 1:00pm
29. The group found a settlement elsewhere, after consulting with the wise man on a suitable site. There, they settled on a piece of excellent land.
30. The organization gathered to discuss the benefits of moving all of the people in the area to this more suitable location.
31. Omitted.
32. "They reached Sicily, but were defeated and killed, with all the men under their command, in a battle with the Phoenicians and the people of Egesta."
33. Later, after the expulsion of Peithagoras, he attempted to seize power himself, and did actually enjoy it for a while, until the people of the town organized a revolt and killed him, though he took sanctuary at the altar of Zeus of the Market-Place.
34. "This Philippus was an Olympic victor and the best-looking man of his day; and because of his good looks he received from the people of Egesta the unparalleled honour of a hero's shrine erected on his tomb, at which religious ceremonies are still held to win his favour."
35. "He had a plan for world modernization and urbanization."
36. "The Phoenicians introduced into Greece, after their settlement in the country, a number of accomplishments, of which the most important was writing, an art till then, I think, unknown to the Greeks. At first they used the same characters as all the other Phoenicians, but as time went on, and they changed their language, they also changed the shape of their letters. At that period most of the Greeks in the neighborhood were Ionians; they were taught these letters by the Phoenicians and adopted them, with few alterations, for their own use, continuing to refer to them as Phoenician characters -- as was only right, as the Phoenicians had introduced them."
1:00pm - 2:00pm
37. "The Thessalians responded to the appeal, and dispatched a troop of cavalry, a thousand strong, under their king, Cineas of Condia."
38. "This disaster upset all their plans; in order to recover the children, they were forced to accept the Athenian's terms, and agreed to leave Attica within five days."
39. "Answering that he was not a Dorian but an Achaean, Cleomenes paid no attention to the warning, and made his attempt upon the Acropolis, and he and his Spartans were flung out. The rest were put in prison by the Athenians and executed..."
40. "In the fight which followed the Athenians won an overwhelming victory, killing a great many and taking seven hundred prisoners."
41. "Only male children were not forced into military service."
42. "The only way they could punish their women for the dreadful thing they had done was to make them adopt Ionian dress, very similar to the fashion at Corinth; previously Athenian women had worn Dorian dress, now they were made to change to linen tunics."
43. "Moreover they were spurred to action by the discovery of certain prophecies of coming disasters at the hands of the Athenians -- prophecies of which they had known nothing until Cleomenes brought them to Sparta."
2:00pm - 3:00pm
44. "It is easier to impose upon an individual than a crowd."
45. "Come now -- was this well done? Someone is to blame for this."
46. "The common council of Ionia sent us here to guard the sea, not to hand over our ships to you and fight the Persians on land. We will therefore keep the station assigned to us, and in that try to do our duty."
47. "The struggle was long and violent, but the Carians were finally overwhelmed by weight of numbers. Some 2,000 Persians were killed, and about 10,000 Carians."
48. "Crossing to Chios, Histiaeus was arrested by the islander on suspicion of a plot against them."
3:00pm - 4:00pm
49. "..and Histiaeus, taking care to conceal the real reason, declared in reply that he had done so because Darius had been planning a transfer of population, intending to settle the Phoenicians in Ionia and Ionians in Phoenicia."
50. "When Phrynichus produced his play, The Capture of Miletus, the audience in the theatre burst into tears. The author was fined a thousand drachmas for reminding them of their own evils, and thye forbade anybody ever to put the play on the stage again."
51. "In Samos the wealthier citizens...met in conference, and decided not to wait for the arrival of Aeaces, but to abandon the island and settle elsewhere rather than to stay and be slaves to Aeaces and his Persian masters."
6:00pm - 7:00pm
52. If you create more livestock and crop farms, then the price of food will go down, and you can provide food to more people.
Monday, October 14, 2024
6:00am - 7:00am
Misc. Notes
1. Building more livestock farms and crop farms is a good solution for shortages of food in places where this exists.
8:00am - 9:00am
2. Please review Book Reviews I - XI on my blog. They contain a lot of information about the books that I’ve read, and you can learn a lot.
9:00am - 10:00am
3. "Nor from mother, Thetis: this alien earth I stride
will keep me secure at last." —The Iliad, Homer
1:00pm - 2:00pm
4. “Some people have a mania or an obsession about trying to prosecute and criticize other people.”
2:00pm - 3:00pm
A Harlot High and Low, Honore de Balzac
1. "It took the friends no more than a moment to sketch out their plan."
2. "Within a matter of days Esther would be the owner of a private house and she would also have thirty thousand francs' annual income."
3. If you do something right the first time, then you won't have to correct yourself in the future.
4. "Whatever answer he gave was the wrong answer, and insufficient."
5. "He only answered to his superiors."
Sunday, October 13, 2024
6:00am - 7:00am
The Histories, Herodotus
1. “Discusses a man who was half woman.”
2. With countries that have water in a man made water supply, people can then focus on agriculture and grow crops and get more drinking water.
7:00am - 8:00am
3. Describes a people who have certain unique rituals, one which involves sacrificing a large bull.
4. In one war, after some soldiers were captured, they had to live under certain conditions, one of which was to keep silent at all times.
5. People in countries that had a shortage of water, learned to take partial baths, and clean only certain parts of their bodies.
6. If you are a very big person, then take partial baths, and only clean certain parts of the body.
8:00am - 9:00am
7. “The language of the Budini people is half Scythian, half Greek.”
8. “The language of some people, is quite different.”
9:00am - 10:00am
1. Omitted.
11:00am - 12:00pm
9. Home insurance should cover some if not all of the costs of damage due to earthquakes, storms, tornadoes, and other natural disasters.
10. During one war, the king said, "Alright, I'll give you the state, and surrendered the state to the villains, and almost packed up with his team and left the country. However, the villains were incapable of running the country, so they allowed the original king to continue to rule."
11. "He possessed an immense revenue in money and an unlimited number of men to draw upon."
12. One man missed the meaning of what the oracle had told him.
13. One people had a custom that made them dress a certain way and cut their hair in a specific way.
14. One people were exceptionally good at being friends to other people.
15. One people dismissed their dreams as being insignificant.
16. He "returned to his native country, where he found the people in great poverty and ignorance."
17. "He looked out over the Black Sea. No sea is as marvellous as the Black Sea."
18. For one explorer and his crew, sailing was easy, so they sailed to distant lands.
19. Mentions a mythological figure who was a snake from waist down, and was woman from waist up.
20. "Most Greeks assume that Libya was so called after a native woman and that Asia was named after the wife of Prometheus."
1:00pm - 2:00pm
21. In order to get plants to grow, just get a lot of seeds, clear some earth, and throw the seeds on the earth, or plant as many seeds in the earth as possible, and eventually some of them should grow.
10:00pm - 11:00pm
A Harlot High and Low, Honore de Balzac
1. "The poor girl was defending her life in defending herself against infidelity."
2. "The house of Grandlieu requires the dear child to show an estate worth a million before getting him the title of marquess and offering him the hand of that long pole called Clotilde, with whose help he will rise to power. Thanks to us two, Lucien has just acquired his maternal manor, the old house of Rubempre which didn't cost much...but his solicitor, by the luck of the market, has managed to add to it a million's worth of land, on which three hundred thousand francs have been paid."
3. "'Really! I shall be stranded. I need my man with me when I leave. If anybody insulted me, I should have nobody to appeal to...'"
4. "That nabob robbed me, he died without making a will, and the family put me out as though I had the plague."
5. "Word spread fast, in only a couple hours everyone had known the news."
6. "Then they fling themselves into the arms of the of the wardrobe dealer, they sell exquisite jewellry for almost nothing, they run up debts, anything to keep up the appearance of luxury which might help them to regain what they have lost: coffers into which they can dip. The ups and downs of their life sufficiently explain the cost of affairs almost invariably arranged, in reality, as Asia had fixed up that of Nucingen with Esther."
11:00pm - 11:59pm
7. "All-round virtue, the dream of Moliere, in the person of Alceste, is extremely rare; it occurs nevertheless everywhere, even in Paris. Good nature is the product of a certain graciousness of character which proves nothing. A man is like as a cat is smooth-furred, as a slipper is ready for the foot."
8. "'He's dining with me tomorrow, come then, my dear,' said Esther.
'You've got him where you want him...'
'Darling, so far he's only paid my debts...'
'What a little pickpocket she is!' cried Suzanne du Val
9. The little girl asked for money for clothes and toys. Then she asked for a bicycle.
Saturday, October 12, 2024
7:00am - 8:00am
The Histories, Herodotus
1. "It is better to use simple and mild remedies than rough and complicated ones."
2. "Democedes...went first to Aegina, where within a year he proved himself the best doctor."
3. "In the second year of his residence the Aeginetans gave him a state appointment at a salary of a talent; a year later the Athenians emplyed him at a salary of 100 minae; and a year after that Polycrates offered him two talents; and that was how he came to Samos."
4. "While he was in Egypt, Syloson had an extraordinary stroke of luck..."
5. Psilocybin (Sylosibin,) which is prescribed as medication, makes people talkative. It is a compound found in poisonous mushrooms. There is also Psilocin (Sylosin).
7:00pm - 8:00pm
6. Omitted.
8:00pm - 9:00pm
7. Countries that have a surplus of food should export it to countries that have shortages of food.
9:00pm - 10:00pm
8. “Cody the crocodile!”
9. “Robert the rigatoni!”
10:00pm - 11:00pm
10. The king had a man made lake built.
Friday, October 11, 2024
A Harlot High and Low, Honore de Balzac
2:00am - 3:00am
1. “She spoke to me automatically, without paying any attention to my emotions or feelings.”
2. The old woman said, “Open the window and get some fresh air, let some fresh air in the room.”
3. “Opening the windows to let fresh air in the house can be healthy.” —Jane Austen
4. “Sleep with the windows open, it’s like camping outside.” —Jane Austen
3:00am - 4:00am
1. “We already owe money to the firm. I live from day to day.”
2. “He invested a thousand francs in her.”
3. She owned several clothes and garments.
4. “Oh, she has got lovely hair, her asset. When she takes the comb out, it covers her like a tent.”
12:00pm - 1:00pm
5. "'We shan't get rid of that one,' said Blondet to Rastignac. 'It's better to make a friend of him, he's formidable,' said Rastignac.
6. She was the most beautiful woman in London. She said, "Here is my offer: I will marry you if you give me $50,000 a year for the next 10 years, after which time I have the option either to leave with the money or remain in the relationship, at which time we will arrange another contract. If I leave, I will buy my own house with the money I've earned."
7. "Evil, whose poetic representation is called the Devil, in his dealings with him..."
8. "More foreign than any foreigner, this man had finally given up Spanish cigars, which he found too mild."
9. "Esther was ferreting about as women do before going to bed, she darted here and there, fluttered and sang. You would have thought she was a humming-bird."
10. Contrasts the person who drinks, who gambles and who has vices, to the person who doesn't drink, doesn't gamble, and has very few vices.
11. "Contenson, one of the most curious products of the scum which floats upon the waters of the Parisian sink, where everything is in ferment, prided himself above all on being a philosopher."
12. "'If Madame goes out this evening without her,' said Georges to his master whose eyes sparkled like carbuncles, 'she'll come sharp on ten.'"
13. "Like two hunted beasts lapping a little water at the edge of a marsh, they might continue skirting precipices along which the strong man led the weak one..."
14. It, "is a phenomenon still unexplained by medical physiology."
15. "...her wardrobe is three months out of date."
16. "Go and see Biddin, he lives in the rue de l'Arbre, he'll give you pawnshop tickets for ten thousand francs."
7:00pm - 8:00pm
The Histories, Herodotus
*1. "The Arabs, and peoples who have scarcities of water, should have an extensive series of man made reservoirs, dams, and pipes, and should import their water from elsewhere."
Thursday, October 10, 2024
The Histories, Herodotus
8:00am - 9:00am
1. The king says of businessmen, “If they have gained their wealth by treachery, then seize it from them.”
9:00am - 10:00am
2. “A king does at least act consciously and deliberately; but the mob does not.”
10:00am - 11:00am
3. “They further agreed that the king should not marry outside the families of the seven confederates.”
11:00am - 12:00pm
4. Omitted.
1:00pm - 2:00pm
5. You can season canned corn with ingredients from your local supermarket.
5:00pm - 6:00pm
The Penguin Book of French Poetry (1820-1950)
1. Pierre-Jean Jouve
2. "...Restlessness, though, was predominant in Jouve's early creative life as he searched for his true orientation."
3. "The difficulty of transcending man's state of sin, guilt and despair preoccupies him intensely, yet the search for redemption is motivated by a genuine faith in ultimate victory in his battle with evil."
4. Andre Breton
5. "The Surrealist goes beyond reason and logic, beyond the normal waking state of consciousness, and approaches a superior state of awareness by the cultivation of a condition of lucid trance or delirium, often hypnotically induced, and by the notation of his dreams and perceptions in the form of 'automatic writing.'"
6. "The most powerful surrealist image...seems to resolve itself weakly..."
7. Robert Desnos
8. "He already had a remarkable ability to drop into 'hypnotic sleep,' and to practise 'automatic' talking and writing with great immediacy and power."
6:00pm - 7:00pm
9. Henri Michaux
10. "Poetry for Michaux is not an aesthetic game, nor an escape, nor an ornament on life, but a sleeves-rolled-up means of surviving life itself, a way of holding the line in the innumerable tense battles between a limited reality and the activity of a mysterious, comically or fearfully alarming inner self, a self that is sometimes fluid and sometimes explosively fragmented."
11. End of book's author sketches.
12. For one French author, Hitler was synonymous with the devil.
7:00pm - 8:00pm
1. A Harlot High and Low, Honore de Balzac
2. “The friends would often go to a cafe, to drink coffee and discuss politics.”
3. “They picked on him to the point of madness.”
4. “Sir, I’ve earned 100 francs through you, and for that I thank you.”
8:00pm - 9:00pm
5. “She was the best-looking woman in London. Drunk on gin, she killed her lover in a fit of jealousy…the lover was a waster the London police were glad to be rid of…”
6. “Now that we’ve earned the money, we’ll split it fifty-fifty down the middle.”
9:00pm - 10:00pm
7. In order to make him more presentable to a future wife, his parents got him a makeover, they made him over.
10:00pm - 11:00pm
1. I believe that you can live well into your hundreds (120, 130, 140), if you take care of yourself. This is because I learned that in biblical and ancient times, it was common for people to live well into their hundreds.
11:00pm - 11:59pm
1. “Musicians are smart, musicians have to be smart in order to play their instruments and make music.”
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
The Histories, Herodotus
6:00am - 7:00am
1. "The Greeks, after one war, made slaves of their enemies.”
2. A country can capture its enemies, tell them where to live and force them to follow their rules.
3. The Greeks had names denoting notable people. Change your name after you attain a certain level of wisdom.
4. It was common during days of antiquity, for people to live well over a hundred years.
7:00am - 8:00am
5. One group of people, one country, made an offer to buy the islands of another country, but the people of the islands refused to sell.
6. The offer to buy the islands of the other group could have led to a more powerful military, as well as increased trade.
7. Essentially, the people from the islands would have enjoyed the same rights as the people from the mainland country who were offering to buy them.
8. The country offering to buy the islands stated that if there was a flood or natural disaster on the island, then they would help rebuild, or the people would be transported to the mainland for safety.
8:00am - 9:00am
9. During natural disasters such as flooding, storms and earthquakes, the government should send in troops to help and if necessary house and feed the people.
10. The country tried to prevent an uprising with its troops, but they were overwhelmed and defeated, then the country enlisted the help of three other countries which combined their military forces to stop the uprising.
9:00am - 10:00am
11. One country produced a lot of grain, large quantities of grain— more than they could ever use in a year.
12. One country contained inhabitants who had no agriculture, and the people existed only on meat and fish.
13. “…and I actually went to Thebes and Heliopolis…It is at Heliopolis that the most learned of Egyptians are said to be found.”
10:00am - 11:00am
14. Two countries exist close to each other. The boundaries are respected in approximate terms, within 1,000 feet of the border.
11:00am -12:00pm
15. "The names of Egyptian dieties have have specific characteristics.
16. "Imaginary boundaries are the creation of man, people do not have to restrict themselves to imaginary boundaries."
17. The Egyptians, "In writing or calculating, instead of going, like the Greeks, from left to right, the Egyptians go from right to left -- and obstinately maintain that theirs is the dexterous method, ours being left-handed and awkward."
18. "The Egyptian priests shave their bodies all over every other day to guard against the presence of lice, or anything else equally unpleasant, while they are about their religious duties; the priests, too, wear linen only..."
19. "They bathe in cold water twice a day and twice every night -- and observe innumerable other ceremonies besides."
20. "They respect and do not slaughter cows."
21. "Cows are allowed to die a natural death, and receive a decent burial."
22. "...the Thebans do not sacrifice rams but consider them to be sacred animals."
23. "They have puppets for amusement, and the puppets are non-sexual."
24. Due to cultural diffusion, the traditions of the Greeks and the Egyptians are very similar."
25. "Heroes have no place in the religion of Egypt."
26. Take up to five showers a day like the priests of ancient Egypt.
12:00pm -1:00pm
27. During one festival, there is singing and dancing, and more wine is consumed than at any other time in the year.
28. During certain ceremonies the lower classes cut their foreheads with knives, and in similar ceremonies sometimes a few of people even die from their injuries.
1:00pm -2:00pm
29. "There are not a great many wild animals in Egypt, in spite of the fact that it borders on Libya."
30. In some parts of Africa, "the various sorts of animals have guardians appointed to them, who are responsible for feeding them."
31. There are many animal species on the Nile, including several birds. One "sacred bird is the phoenix; I have not seen a phoenix myself, except in paintings, for it is very rare and visits the country only at intervals of 500 years, on the occasion of the death of the parent-bird...Finally it is carried by the bird to the temple of the Sun in Egypt. Such, at least, is the story."
32. "The Egyptians who live in the cultivated parts of the country, by their practice of keeping records of the past, have made themselves much the most learned of any nation of which I have had experience. I will describe some of their habits: every month for three consecutive days they purge themselves, for their health's sake, in the belief that all diseases come from the food a man eats."
33. "... next to the Libyans they are the healthiest people in the world. I should put this down myself to the absence of changes in the climate; for change, and especially change of weather, is the prime cause of disease."
34. “The country in Africa is infested with mosquitoes, and the people have invented various methods of dealing with them…everyone provides himself with a net, which at night he fixes round his bed.”
35. “Mosquitoes are nuisances particularly in tropical climates.”
3:00pm - 4:00pm
35. Ask, “What do the different structures and monuments in this area symbolize or represent?”
4:00pm - 5:00pm
36. “Earth is the house that God built.”
37. “United by intermarriage, the twelve kings governed in mutual friendliness on the understanding that none of them should attempt to oust any of the others, or to increase his power at the expense of the rest.”
38. “To strengthen the bond between the twelve kings, they would regularly hold meetings together and dinners, where they would discuss important issues.”
10:00pm - 11:00pm
39. “There was an old man, who had a lot of stories to tell, but he himself was harmless.”
40. There was a king who sent his scouts out to various regions of the world to collect information: deserts, dense jungles, mountains.
11:00pm - 11:59pm
41. “He took his friend out hunting, and then shot him and killed him and claimed that it was an accident.”
42. In another story, he lured his friend down to the sea and drowned him.
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
12:00am - 1:00am
The Arabian Nights
1. His mother and father said, of their son, "'I want us to find him a wife, as he is now ready for marriage.' Khalid replied: 'He has an ugly face, foul breath and is a filthy brute whom no woman would accept.'" His parents might clean their son up in order to prepare him for marriage.
2. His parents seek to buy him a slave girl, and bid for her, and keep increasing their price in order to get a winning bid for her.
3. One night, a skillful thief robs the caliph's house (of jewels and money). When the caliph awakens to find that he has been robbed, he flies into a rage and threatens to kill whoever robbed him and issues written authorization to break into houses and search them.
4. The group of villains who the thief had fallen in with included a woman. The thief and the woman produced a child.
1:00am - 2:00am
5. One of the thief's had known the caliph whose house had been robbed, so it was an inside job.
6. "The boy's mother, Yasmin, looked for him and, failing to find him, went up to the sitting room, where she saw the emir Khalid sitting there with the boy playing on his lap, God having filled his heart with love for him. When his mother came, she said: 'Whose child is this?' 'He is my son and the fruit of my heart,' she answered. 'And who is his father?' he asked. 'His father was 'Ala al-Din Abu'l-Shamat,' she said, 'and now he has become your son.'...Khalid told her: 'When the child grows up and asks you who his father was, tell him: "You are the son of the emir Khalid, the wali, the chief of police."' 'To hear is to obey,' she replied.
7. "The emir had Aslan circumcised and gave him the best possible upbringing. He provided him with a faqih, who was also a calligrapher and who taught him to read and write. He read through the Quran a first and then a second time, and memorized the whole of it, and he grew up addressing the emir as 'my father.'...and when he was fourteen years old he was appointed to the rank of emir."
8. Omitted.
9. "The captain now ordered 'Ala' al-Din to be brought up from the cabin, and when this was done they gave him a sniff of the antidote to banj. He opened his eyes and said: 'Where am I?' 'You are with me,' replied the captain, 'and I'm holding you as prisoner. Had you gone on saying "Come, come," I would have offered you more.' 'What is your trade?' asked Ahmad. 'I am a sea captain,' the man replied, 'and I want to bring you to the darling of my heart.'"
10. 'Ala' al-Din gets captured, along with forty Muslims. Each of the Muslims is executed, their heads chopped off by an executioner. The king spares 'Ala' al-Din's life, however.
11. Sherbet is eaten in several passages of The Arabian Nights.
9:00am - 10:00am
1. I suspect that psilocybin and psilocin injections are available from psychiatrists.
12:00pm - 1:00pm
The Histories, Herodotus
1. The leaders, the officials say, "We ask you to be calm and comfortable, and not to be any more frightened than we are ourselves."
2. "You foresee the future when you complete what you set out to do for the day."
9:00pm - 10:00pm
The Histories, Herodotus
1. "During the twenty-eight years of Scythian supremacy in Asia, violence and neglect of law led to absolute chaos."
2. "...if he disobeyed, he would be put to death by torture."
3. "To Harpagus was served the flesh of his son: all of it, except the head, the hands, and the feet, which had been put separately on a platter covered with a lid."
4. "If you had to hand the throne over to somebody else rather than keep it to yourself, it would have been more proper to give so fine a prize to a Mede than to a Persian..."
5. One man had been issuing threats against another person.
6. "The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, by Michelangelo, was painted to create an artificial sky."
7. "If an important decision is to be made, they discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day the master of the house where the discussion was held submits their decision for reconsideration when they are sober...Conversely, any decision they make when they are sober, is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk."
8. "I admire also the custom which forbids even the king himself to put a man to death for a single offence, and any Persian under similar circumstances to punish a servant by an irreparable injury. Their way is to balance faults against services, and then, if the faults are greater and more numerous, anger may take its course."
9. "These Ionians to whom the Panionium belongs had the good fortune to establish their settlements in a region which enjoys a better climate than any other we know of. It does not resemble what is found either further north, where there is an excess of cold and wet, or further south, where the weather is both too hot and too dry."
10. "The reason for the separation of Miletus from the other Ionian towns was simply the general weakness of the Hellenic peoples at that date, and particularly of the Ionians, who of all the Greek races had least power and influence."
11. "Even those who started from the Council House in Athens and believe themselves to be of the purest Ionian blood, married Carian girls..."
12. "The soil of Aeolis is better than that of Ionia, but the climate is not so good."
13. "...they chose Pythermus, a Phocaen, as their spokesman....he came forward to make a long speech asking for Spartan aid. The speech was a failure. The Spartans refused to help the Ionians, and the envoys left."
Monday, October 7, 2024
9:00pm - 10:00pm
The Arabian Nights
1. “The night is a perfect opportunity for reading, thinking, and similar intellectual pursuits.” —Islamic author
2. “The king said, ‘What is this enormous army? We are only a small band of resistance fighters.’”
3. We meet ‘Ala’ al-Din, whose grandfather is the leader of a great army.
4. He met a girl. She drew up a marriage contract with him, which included $10,000 savings, then married him, and then the next year divorced him and left with the money.
5. His girlfriend asked him to pay her a monthly sum, for the work that she did in the relationship, or else she wouldn’t do any work.
Sunday, October 6, 2024
7:00am - 8:00am:
Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu
1. Many Chinese words can be used interchangeably to refer to the same thing. Even though there may be slight differences in spelling, the words may represent the same thing. For example, 'Lao Tzu' and 'Lao Tsu,' both refer to the same person, and the 'Tao Te Ching' and the 'Dao De Jing' both refer to the same book.
2. Google "Chinese vocabulary," for information about Chinese words.
1:00pm - 2:00pm
1. The Arabian Nights contains several scenes discussing the events in the life of a woman named Marjana.
2:00pm - 3:00pm
1. A beet is a good tasting vegetable.
2. "While I am on vacation, I miss my family dearly. Even though they are out of my sight, they will always be on my mind, because I am always thinking about them." --The Arabian Nights
7:00pm - 8:00pm
1. The Penguin Book of French Poetry
2. Biographical Sketches
3. Tristan Corbiere - "He hides his insecurities and his failures behind a mask of irony and punning black humor, but it is a mask that does not fully conceal either the pain within or the potential for lyricism."
8:00pm - 9:00pm
1. Tristan Corbiere - "His discordant, dislocated verse, almost modernist at times in its clashing of registers and broken rhythms, has a raw energy that seems to explode literary conventions."
2. Arthur Rimbaud - "Disruption of the normal workings of the mind (through sleep deprivation, alcohol, drugs, solitude, sickness...) will be carried out with lucid control, and the personality that emerges out of euphoria and horror will be the prototype of a new human being."
3. Jules Lafourge - Viewed life as boring and, "expanded his interest in the Unconscious and its relationship with sensory perception, and he located Art's future role in that area..."
4. "His first important volume, Les Complaintes...is intermittently brilliant. In each 'lament' he projects his own state of mind into another voice or voices, sometimes identified and sometimes not."
5. For Lafourge, "behaviour is biologically determined, personality is multiple and infinitely complex; morality is fraud and religion a fantasy; only Art has reality and permanence..."
6. Many of the poems of Lafourge (and other poets in this collection), express anarchic ideas.
7. The Symbolist Movement
8. "For the pure Symbolist, language is to be wilfully ellipctical, complex, precious and melodic, excluding social reference and popular taste."
9. Mentions Alfred Jarry, best known today for his remarkable pre-Absurdist Ubu plays.
10. Emile Verhaeren - "He is a melancholy poet of Flemish mists and rural stagnation, but also a vibrant, passionate observer of the glories and horrors of industrial urbanization."
11. "Madman's Song", Emile Verhaeren - "You'll howl in vain at the earth, with your mouth in the pit, not one among the departed souls will ever answer your bitter clamour."
9:00pm - 10:00pm
12. Saint-Pol Roux - "Metaphors abound, as recognizing no barrier between conscious and subconscious orders. The revelatory nature of this poetry was admired by the Surrealists,and he has also been likened to the German mystic Novalis."
13. A Renewal of Lyricism - "This involves a renewal of contact with the organic world, a sensitivity to the natural rhythms of human life, an awareness of the experience, culture and traditional wisdom of ordinary people."
14. Paul-Jean Toulet - "Toulet himself was a rather self-destructive dandy. His origins were in south-western France, but after travelling in Africa and the Far East he became known in Parisian literary circles, and 'burned himself out' rapidly on alcohol, drugs and nocturnal living, chronicling this existence in novels and journalism."
15. Paul Claudel - "...Thought beats like the brain and the heart."
10:00pm - 11:00pm
16. Paul Valery - "His creativity is a parallel experience for the intellect and senses, in which the dynamic process leading to the completion of a poetic event brings satisfaction to both."
17. "Musical Stone," Pierre Musicale - "Here is the place where they recognized each other, the lovers in love with the intermittent flute; Here is the place where they..."
18. "In Praise of Jade," Pierre Musicale - Indicates that for many Asian people, Jade possesses magical qualities.
19. ...Apollinaire's poem suggests that he and Salmon are "'pelerins de la perdition', adventurers risking their entire identity in their radical plunge into experience."
20. Leon-Paul Fargue - As distinguished from the country, "The city becomes a magical yet melancholy symphony of impressions, a dreamlike world made concrete through language."
21. Jules Supervielle - "...he blends in an unproblematic way the abstract and the concrete, the past and the present, cosmic and commonplace perceptions, in a lyrical and humorous amplification of reality...he is drawn in his awareness of inner space towards the idea of an absorption into nothingness and an eventual rebirth."
Saturday, October 5, 2024
2:00am - 3:00am:
The Histories, Herodotus
1. Tells the story of a boy. He went to another neighborhood, where he got into a fight with another boy and his friends. After getting beat up, the boy ran home to his neighborhood and told his friends about it. When his friends heard the story, they went to the other neighborhood and beat the other group of boys up to avenge their friend's loss. Then, this victorious group enjoyed their victory.
2. The king said, "If he disobeys, he will be put to death by torture."
3. Frozen french fries taste good, after you put them in the oven.
10:30am - 11:30am
1. “Confucius, at one point, met, or 'linked up' with Lao Tzu, and the two had a philosophical discussion.” —Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu
2. “The failure of a student represents the failure of the teacher, not the student.” —Plato
Friday, October 4, 2024
8:00am:
Misc. Notes
1. “Yes, you lost the fight, but you’re still a man with courage and heart.” —The Iliad, Homer
7:00pm - 8:00pm:
The Histories, Herodotus
1. "Similar peoples speak a similar language."
2. "One famous Greek philosopher was active in government, and although he held no office, he played an important role as an adviser."
3. One king gave orders that a large, sprawling city be built.
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. French's Green Bean Casserole modified recipe (on the reverse of the French's Crispy Fried Onions box), is to combine 1 can Campbell's Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup, and 1 can Canned Cut Green Beans in a pot.
Then heat until boiling.
Then serve with fried crispy onions.
This dish tastes great!
2. Omitted
3. Philosophers probably got some of their ideas from common sources. From boxers, or sportsmen they might have known that we think, or we process information through our eyes, rather than in our heads, because boxers have to have quick eyes and not too much time to think.
The philosophers probably got from Africa the idea that our sense of time is based on man and not the earth, because in many places in Africa there were no clocks.
6:00pm:
1. Cee 7 Allah is a positive African American brother who I spoke to. Visit his channel on Youtube to learn more about him.
7:30pm:
1. "There exists the law of nature, the law of man, and the law of god."
2. "After spending some time in the desert, he drank a lot of water, and then relieved himself under a tree." --The Arabian Nights
3. "The people left their newborn sons uncircumcised and without adequate care." --The Jewish War, Flavius Josephus
4. "The Indians came upon a chest, and in it contained several papers. Since the Indians didn't understand the value of paper, they crumpled it into balls and played catch with it, and they used it to roll their tobacco. Then the owner of the chest, a white enters, and is surprised at what the Indians are doing, because, she indicates, the papers were titles to property and wealth, and were worth a good deal of money." --James Fenimore Cooper
8:30pm - 9:00pm:
1. "For most Jewish people, the custom is to circumsize as a newborn, however, for some Arabs, the custom is to circumsize at age thirteen." -- Flavius Josephus
2. Night Sonnet, by Tristan Corbiere - "The night is beautiful."
3. Evil Landscape, by Tristan Corbier - "Some frogs are poisonous."
4. Sleep Litany, by Tristan Corbiere - "Wild animals don't sleep, human beings shouldn't sleep either. Sleep is a waste of time. Sleep is for the tired -- stay up, read, write, live!"
9:30pm - 10:30pm:
1. Comte de Lautreamont
2. He became known superficially in Parisian literary circles around 1867, and wrote nocturnally, accompanying his phrases with crashing piano chords.
3. Little is known of him. He was an intense, violent adolescent with a wild imagination, an insomniac who read voraciusly in classical and English literature as well as French.
4. The Hymns of Maldoror, by Comte de Lautreamont - "I dreamt that I was a pig: oink, oink, oink."
5. Arthur Rimbaud - A talented poet who embodied the madman as poet archetype.
6. The Jewish War, Flavius Josephus
7. "During a war with the Romans, the Jews interfered from above in every way possible." --Flavius Josephus
8. "Next came two centurions, Furius and Fabius, followed by their respective units, which completely surrounded the Temple court and killed some as they fled into the Sanctuary, others as they put up a short-lived resistance."
9. "Pompey next deprived the Jews of the towns they had occupied in Coele, Syria, putting them under a Roman governor, specially appointed; this meant that the nation was confined within its own boundaries."
The Arabian Nights
2. Night 231
3. Two travelers were lost in the desert. They were thirsty and tired. They came upon a house and wanted to enter it to seek shelter, but the door was bolted. So the man took a rock and broke the bolt and opened the door. Then they entered the house and ate, drank and restedm and their health was restored. Some time later the owner of the house appeared. She said "It's okay that you have found shelter in my home, as my religion advocates hospitality to others, however, you needn't have broken the door down. Knowledge of mechanics would have taught you that the bolt could have easily been opened by manipulating it in the right way."
4. "Men are the guardians of women, because of the superiority that God has granted to the one sex over the other."
5. "By God, my lady, I thought that Bahadur, my mamluk, had taken some jewelled necklaces of mine, each worth ten thousand dinars."
6. The king said, "Here, take this sword, and kill this man, or I will have you killed."
7. "Additionally, if you kill this man, then I will make you king of your own land."
8. He went into a palace, and in a room, he saw some lines of poetry written on a wall. This may be similar to grafitti.
9. Night 236
10. "...'Are you still alive?' He then took him off to his house, where he had an underground torture chamber for Muslims, and in this he put al-As'ad, with heave fetters on his legs."
11. "It was he, whom he entrusted with the task of torturing al-As'ad night and day until he died."
12. "The father of the daughter, was responsible with torturing the prisoner who had wronged his daughter."
13. “Many clever doctors who were knowledgeable in different subjects existed during this time.”
14. “He was sick because he had no friends.”
15. “The girl’s health is dependent on her seeing him, as the only illness from which she suffers is love for him."
16. The man entered the palace, and in the hallway, instead of turning left, turned right. He saw another hallway with seven doors, and entered the seventh. In the seventh room was a table containing gold treasure. He then wondered what was behind the other doors.
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Harper Collins Russian Dictionary
1. kalechut - to cripple
2. konsol - cantilever
3. koshatnik - cat-lover
4. kofe - coffee
5. kofeen - caffeine
6. kofeunik - coffee-pot
7. kyvirkon narech - head over heels
-----
1. The Arabian Nights contains several instances of people’s fingers and toes getting amputated or cut off due to torture.
2. In the judicial system, the punishments for serious crimes may be too mild.
3. Canned vegetables taste good, if you know how to cook them.
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Stack up two or more pillows, to help you elevate yourself when lying in bed — stack up pillows to help you sit up in bed.
Harper Collins Russian Dictionary
1. koren - preskat - pyskat - to nip something in the bud
2. korzina - basket
3. Kormovaya cbokla - beet
3A. Just buy canned vegetables -- it doesn't matter what kind, all vegetables are good to eat -- just buy canned vegetables.
4. korotkuu - short
5. korotkoe zamikanue - short circuit
6. korpet - to slave away at
7. koco -cmotreet - squint
8. kocoglazue - squint
9. kot - tomcat
10. kotyonok - kitten
11. kottedg - cottage
12. sweet pea - dyshutstie goroshek
13. sweet potato - yams
14. sweet tooth - he/she has a -- on/ona slastyona
15. suicide bid - popitka camoybeestva
16. syrup - curup
17. syrupy - gystoi clashavee
The Arabian Nights
1. Night 216
"Some nights, it is as though the stars and the moon do not move."
2. "She continued to promote him from one grade to the next until she made him a treasurer, giving him control of the revenues."
3. "I shall live poor as far as money goes but rich in ideas and wisdom."
4. "Do not compare a woman to a beardless boy..."
5. "Men ask for pardon with their hands and women with their legs."
6. "If you're in love then you should get married -- that is the ultimate act."
7. "'After tonight you will see nothing to distress you,' she said, and she leaned towards him, kissing and embracing him and twining her legs with his."
8. "This greatly pleased King Armanus, and after assembling the qadis, the witnesses and the leaders of his state, he had a marriage contract drawn up between Qaar al-Zaman and his daughter, Princess Hayat al-Nufus. He organized wedding celebrations, gave magnificent banquets, distributed splendid robes of honour to all the emirs and army commanders, and gave alms to the poor and needy."
9. "...the sequence of my sorrows, the cares that follow on each other's heels, how separation pains me, my melancholy and my burning passion."
10. "When he had read it and grasped its meaning...In a fury, he blamed all women for their actions, and angrily cursed all women."
11. "Budur then perfumed the paper of the letter with pungent musk and wrapped it in her hair bands of Iraqi silk, whose tassels were of emeralds, set with pearls and other gems. This she handed to the old woman, telling her to give it to al-As'ad."
12. Night 219
The two of them, "They advised one another that the affair should be kept secret lest their father, Qamar al-Zaman, come to hear of it and kill the two women. After they had passed a sorrowful night, in the morning Qamar al-Zaman came back from the hunt with his men."
13. After walking for some time in the desert, the men come to a city. “On his way they met a very old man, whose forked beard was quite long and impressive.”
14. “Go slowly, Time! How many injuries will you inflict on me,
And for how many days will you part me from my brothers?”
15. “He ate a little, just enough to keep him alive, and drank some water, and he was still uncomfortable.”
Sunday, September 29, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Canned corn, mixed with pork ramen seasoning, cooked is a kind of seasoned boiled corn that tastes good.
2. Soy milk (or almond milk) tastes good: it goes down silky smooth.
Saturday, September 28, 2024
The Republic and The Laws, Cicero
1. "The people's continual need of the advice and authority of the aristocracy holds the state together."
2. "White is the colour most appropriate to a god in all offerings. Black is a colour meant to represent mourning."
3. "Understand why each law was established. Understand the points on which each law was based."
4. "When a man dies, the traditions established while he was alive continue on after his death. His family continues the traditions that he began."
5. "When a man dies, even his 'enemies' receive some of his inheritance, in the name of honour and kindness."
6. "Everyone makes peace with the man when he's dead. They even act as though minor disagreements never existed in the first place."
7. "The family can hold an annual celebration in the deceased's name once he passes."
8. "The family can go on a vacation or go to a retreat to honor the deceased."
9. "The family writes a speech in praise of the deceased. The speech is delivered by the head of the family."
Framework for Governement
1. "In all towns, there shall be someone responsible for recording ages, children, households, possessions. He shall be the guardian of civil law."
1. “When there is no need for it, there shall be no government. Government exists on an as needed basis.”
1. "There shall be a small number of officials, selected by vote of the people or by other appointment. They shall conduct affairs in a just manner."
2. "Based on needs of the town, the officials should engage in business (politics)."
3. "The senatorial order shall be of unblemished behaviour and shall set an example for the rest."
4. "If anything needs to be addressed, then the people shall appoint someone to attend to it."
5. "Meetings of the people shall be free from violence and peaceful."
6. "When bills have been read at meetings, or judgements have been made, they shall keep their records on file in the treasury."
7. "Officials can now draw up a constitution."
8. The above is a framework for government.
9. “Find a way to determine the needs of the people, and then work on addressing these.”
10. “In some provinces, government may involve building jails to house prisoners.”
11. "Once an acceptable form of government has been formed, follow the laws day to day."
12. "Take a tally of everyone's opinions and needs."
13. "Proceedings with the people and in the Senate shall be conducted with decent restraint, that is, in a quiet, disciplined manner. The presiding magistrate controls and shapes the attitude of those over whom he presides...he should speak in his proper turn, and at moderate length, so as not to run endlessly on.
14. "The law adds: 'He shall have a grasp of public affairs'. It is essential for a senator to be familiar with the state of the country (that has wide implications--knowing what is has in the way of troops, how well off it is financially, what allies, friends, and tributaries the country has, what laws, conditions, and treaties apply to each), to understand legislative procedure, and to be aware of traditional precedent."
15. "You can now appreciate the whole range of knowledge, application, and memory without which no senator can be properly equipped for his job."
16. "Then comes the ruling, 'Anyone who blocks a harmful measure shall be deemed a public benefactor'.
17. "Discusses wicked men who are troublemakers."
18. Questions, what are the principles on which the laws are based?"
19. The end.
Friday, September 27, 2024
Misc. Notes/Food Ideas
1. Cold cuts in pita bread, with Rice a Roni on the side, taste good.
2. "Jails and prisons should be held accountable when inmates get injured or die in altercations while in their custody. This could involve financial compensation, prosecution of any guilty parties, and prison reform."
--Posted to "Research in Law and Psychiatry".
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. "Some people put things in their butt, to make them sound louder when they talk."
2. "Some people's neighbors get their friends on the phone, to 'get other people's air,' which sometimes frustrates other neighbors."
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Omitted.
2. "I don't know, it came like this from the factory." --James Joyce
The Penguin Book of French Poetry (1820-1950)
1. "The Conquistadores," by Jose-Maria de Hereida.
"...from Palos de Moguer soldiers of fortune and captains set out, drunk with a heroic, brutal dream.
They were going to conquer the fabulous metal from Cipangu in its distant mines...towards the mysterious shores of the Western world."
The Arabian Nights
1. Night 206
"An expensive wedding ring is best."
2. Night 208
Refers to the Middle East as the lands of Islam.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Misc. Notes/Food Ideas
1. Cold cuts with a slice of sushi ginger on the side taste good.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Book Reviews XI: Confucius -- Updated.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
The Physiology of Marriage, Honore de Balzac (Project Gutenberg)
1. Marriage involves having good morals.
2. Marriage involves fidelity.
3. That divorce, this admirable release from the misfortunes of marriage, should with one voice be reinstated?
4. Defines an honest woman in a marriage.
5. Discusses a break up of a marriage.
The Republic and The Laws, Cicero
1. "Speech, which interprets the mind, uses different languages but expresses the same ideas."
2. "What community does not love friendliness, generosity, and an appreciative mind which remembers acts of kindness? What community does not reject the arrogant, the wicked, the cruel, and the ungrateful--yes, and hate them too? So, since the whole human race is seen to be knit together, the final conclusion is that the principles of right living make everyone a better person."
3. To what degree do human laws exist in nature?
4. ...by laying down first principles which have not been well considered and carefully examined. Mind you, I do not mean that they should be proved to everyone's satisfaction, but to the satisfaction of those who believe that everything right and honourable should be desired for its own sake..."
5. "There is one, single justice. It binds together human society and has been established by one, single law. That law is right reason in commanding and forbidding."
6. "Goodness itself is good not because of people's opinions but because of nature...Since, then, good and bad are judged to be so on the basis of nature, and they are fundamental principles of nature, surely things which are honourable and dishonourable must also be judged by the same method and assessed by the standard of nature."
7. Cicero writes that goodness exists in nature. This suggests that when animals display anger or aggression, they have been given a drug by a human to do so.
8. Atticus: How can that be done now that Lucius Gellius is no longer alive?
Marcus: What on earth has that to do with it?
9. Philosophy enables men to know themselves and their place in the natural order.
10. "And when that same mind examines the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the nature of all things, and perceives where those things have come from and to where they will return, when and how they are due to die, what part of them is mortal and perishable, and what is divine and everlasting; and when it almost apprehends the very god who governs and rules them, and realizes that it itself is not a resident in some particular locality surrounded by man made walls, but a citizen of the whole world as though it were a single city; then; in the majesty of these surrounding, in this contemplation and comprehension of nature, great God! how well it will know itself..."
11. "With such an instrument it will rule nations, reinforce laws, castigate the wicked, protect the good, praise eminent men, issue instructions for security and prestige in language which will persuade fellow citizens..."
12. Marcus: I note, then, that according to the opinion of the best authorities law was not thought up by the intelligence of human beings, nor is it some kind of resolution passed by communities, but rather an eternal force which rules the world by the wisdom of its commands and prohibitions. In their judgement, that original and final law is the intelligence of God, who ordains or forbids everything by reason. Hence that law which the gods have given to the human race is rightly praised, for it represents the reason and intelligence of a wise man directed to issuing commands and prohibitions.
13. When you view the bust of a philosopher, it is as though you can talk directly to him.
14. "Since everything that possesses intelligence is superior to what lacks intelligence, the statement is accurate."
15. Quintus: Thank you for presenting it, Marcus. I am very pleased that you are concerned with different issues and different ideas from Plato's. As far as I can see, the only thing you imitate is his literary style.
16. Religious Laws
17. "They shall preserve the rituals of their family and fathers."
18. "And the priests shall pay attention to vineyards and patches of withies and the safety of the people."
Friday, September 20, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Updated -- Research in Law and Psychiatry.
2. If you have a day and need to pass the time, go to the library. You can schedule your day there by reading for an hour or two, and then getting up to stretch your legs and grabbing a bite to eat, and then repeat this every hour or two until it is time to go home. You can read great books there, and remember to take notes about what your reading for future discussion.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. “The ideas of right and wrong are not the same for everyone.”
2. “Sometimes we have to make mistakes as children, in order to learn the right way as adults.”
3. Items 1. & 2., added to "Research in Law and Psychiatry."
4. "Some people are rabble rousers who know how to fire up a crowd." --Favorite Notes
The Republic and The Laws Cicero
1. -“Why don’t you spend your time giving advice on points of law.”
-“Sure, I would love to give my interpretation of the law.”
2. Discusses how attorneys should consult with their clients.
3. In nature, animals sometimes fight, and human beings also sometimes fight.
4. Items from 1. - 3. (above,) from Cicero's book, posted to "Research in Law and Psychiatry."
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Grid View, located at the top of my Facebook page, is a great way to view my Facebook posts by title, which saves time scrolling!
2. The Arabian Nights illustrates several instances of hawks preying on other bird species.
3. Hawks -- According to Wikipedia, "Accipitridae is a family of birds of prey which includes hawks, eagles, kites, and harriers. These birds have very large powerful hooked beaks for tearing flesh from their prey, strong legs, powerful talons, and keen eyesight."
4. "View alcohol as poison." --James Joyce
5. The Lady with the Little Dog, by Anton Chekhov:
A story about a lady with a pomeranian.
--Posted to "Book Reviews VI: Russian Literature"
6. “My lungs are healthy, and it’s just a gastric cough...I can put up with hell. So what is the Red Sea, anyway?" --Anton Chekhov
7. "If I can't see it or feel it, then it's not a bad illness."
8. "A true gentleman doesn't look at a woman sexually in public."
9. "The two lovers sucked each other's tongues." --The Arabian Nights
10. Omitted.
11. Ramen seasoning mixed with canned corn tastes good.
Monday, September 16, 2024
Misc. Notes / Food Ideas
1. "American sushi," a version of sushi, replacing seafood with cold cuts, might be a good idea.
2. Police officers or their families should be compensated for injuries that they receive on the job, including death.
3. Compensation for his death was equal to his earnings for his lifetime. --The Arabian Nights.
4. Items 2 & 3, added to Research in Law and Psychiatry.
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Misc. Notes / Food Ideas
1. Chicken breast cold cuts dipped in ginger dressing sauce might taste good!
2. Determine what sauces Asian cooks use for their dishes, then buy them at the store to dip cold cuts in.
3. Dip your cold cuts in hummus if you are health conscious.
4. There's a dipping sauce for every occasion!
Saturday, September 14, 2024
Misc. Notes / Food Ideas
1. Toasted sandwiches taste good.
2. Updated, Food Ideas (below).
3. A variety of potato chips is good, different kinds of potato chips are good.
Friday, September 13, 2024
Research in Law & Psychiatry
1. Determine the reasons why police officers do what they do.
2. "A police officer might do something that appears evil, but it is actually to create a good outcome." --Cicero
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Sophocles
1. "Remember we are women, we're not born to contend with men."
2. "They clashed and won the common prize of death."
Reminds readers that people are not supposed injure or cause harm to any living thing.
The Arabian Nights
1. A dust cloud, a cloud of dust is visible in the desert, when the dust clears, emerges the sultan's army.
2. "For I am one who throws down heroes on the battlefield,
And my sharp sword is like a crescent moon.
3. "You filthy dog, can the highly priced be equal to the low?
4. To the camel, "How can a large creature like you, with your great size, be afraid of the son of Adam, whom you could kill with a single kick?" "Prince," answered the camel, "know that the son of Adam is invincibly cunning and it is only death that can get the better of him. He puts a threat in my nostrils which he calls a nose ring and on my head he puts a halter. Then this little child pulls me along by my nose ring."
5. "While the camel and the lion cub were talking, another dust cloud rose, clearing away after a while to show a small, think-skinned old man, with a basket on his shoulder containing carpenter's tools... when I saw him, I was so afraid that I fell down."
6. When the lion cub heard this, the light turned to darkness in his eyes.
7. He then leapt playfully at the carpenter, struck him with his paw and knocked the basket from his shoulder.
8. "You are a weak creature, carpenter. You have no strength and you can be excused for being afraid of the son of Adam."
9. "Sister, you know how small are my powers of endurance, and had I not seen you here, I would not have done this."
10. "If doom is near at hand, who can save us? No ne dies until he has had the full measure of what has been alotted to him of both sustenance and length of life."
11. "...it eats the grasses that grown on the earth, and, just as you are of the race of birds, so, for its part, it is of the race of beasts. Be calm and don't worry, for worry makes the body thin."
12. Night 148 - Discusses a woman who says, "There is no one with us whom we need fear and I want to stay with you as long as you remain on this mountain. I will be your friend and companion..."
13. "Whether we give prohibitions or commands,
We are like the Seven Sleepers, awake but yet asleep."
14. "It is said, that a certain bird flew high up into the sky and then swooped down to settle on a stone in the middle of a running stream."
15. "The company of birds has always derived blessings from you, and your counsel has taught them to recognize what is good. How can they be left with a burden of cares and damage?"
16. At this, the water fowl recited:
There is many a mishap that leaves a man powerless,
But God supplies him an escape from it.
It closes in, but when it has encircled him,
To my surprise, it opens up again."
17. There was a fox and a wolf who lived in the same den. Often, they didn't get along. One day, after speaking, the wolf "felled the fox with a blow which knocked him unconscious. When the fox had recovered his wits, he laughed at the wolf and excused himself for having spoken out of turn."
18. An assortment of candy bars, different candy bars, is good.
19. "While the camel and the lion cub were talking, another dust cloud rose, clearing away after a while to show a small, thin-skinned old man with a basket on his shoulder containing carpenter's tools."
20. "Whether we give prohibitions or commands,
We are like the Seven Sleepers, awake but yet asleep."
21. "It is said: arrogance is loss; the ignorant have cause to repent; he who fears is safe; justice is one of the characteristics of noble men; and the best thing that can be acquired is culture."
22. "The master pardons the servant who has done wrong and forgives him if he confesses his faults." "I have pardoned your fault and forgiven your error..."
23. "Childbirth is a mixture of pain and joy."
24. "Half of cleverness is caution."
25. "'Abu'l-Husain,' said the wolf, 'you used to pretend to be my friend, to want my favor and to fear my great strength.'"
26. "You ignorant and deluded wolf, wily and treacherous as you are, don't hope to escape, for this is the reward and requital for your evil deeds."
27. The wolf recited these lines,
"You whose favors to me are many
And whose gifts cannot be counted,
No disaster of Time has ever struck me
Without my finding you there to hold my hand."
28. He then recited these lines,
"You who are trying to deceive me,
Your evil intention brought you down."
29. "It is said a sympathetic friend is better than a full brother."
30. "They have pointed out that those with thick bodies and coarse natures are far removed from intelligence and close to stupidity."
31. "To die in company is the best of things, and I shall certainly hurry to kill you before you see my own death."
32. "Pluck fruits, but if you find these out of reach,
Content yourself with grass."
33. Illustrates the productive potential of people.
34. "If what he claims is true, then he will have put right what he did wrong; but if he is lying, then it is the Lord who will repay him."
35. "Yesterday I dreamt that I was dancing at your wedding and when I told this to an interpreter of dreams, he said that I was going to fall into great danger and then escape from it."
36. "Fool, jokes have a limit which the joker must not pass."
37. “Doctors give advice and recommendations, not orders and commands.” —Marcel Proust
38. Some people are rabble rousers, who know how to start up a crowd.
39. "...you will not have to leave because of any harm that I might do you and I hope to be able to reward you with all kinds of benefits for the service that you are doing me."
40. "You can see how he repaid her and gave her the most excellent of rewards."
41. "What will bring me joy will bring you joy; what will happen to you will happen to me."
42. There was a monkey who stole things from people and brought them to his master.
43. There was a sparrow who used to go every day to one of the kings of the birds.
44. "Here are two sparrows fighting. I shall act as peacemaker between them."
45. "Her skin was like silk and her voice gentle."
46. The boy and the girl speak in terms of messages and replies.
47. "My love, because you are so often absent,
You teach my eyes how long they can shed tears."
48. From the house of the sultan emerged ten singing girls.
49. "I stretched out one hand to say goodbye...
May this not be the last time we meet..."
50. The singing girls performed several songs.
51. "Time has opposed me, my patience has run short."
52. "On her hand...was a pattern painted on a wrist."
53. Briefly discusses Jujubes, Chinese dates or red dates.
54. The doctor said, "Were I able to cure you, I would do it for you before you asked."
55. "I struggle with patience in my suffering."
56. He went to Basra to meet Basran merchants.
57. "...during the course of their conversation he kept swearing that he had not spoken a word about the matter."
58. "I understand the girl's position, but if God Almighty wills, I can help you to get what you want."
59. "Speak and I listen; order and I shall obey."
60. "My friend, men's souls are matched in their desires and people depend on each other."
61. "I thought that it would be better to tell the truth than to lie. So I told them everything that had happened to me, from start to finish."
Selected Works, Cicero
1. "Suppose a man's father was stealing from temples -- ought his son to report him?"
2. "Our country will benefit by having sons who are loyal to their parents."
3. "If a wise man inadvertently accepts a counterfeit coin, will he, on discovering his mistake, pass the piece off to someone else as good, in payment of a debt?"
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
The Arabian Nights
1. "After using drugs, he entered the mosque in a dream state."
2. He meets a woman named Marjana.
3. "Your mother had been converted to Islam by Sharkan, your brother, and he took her off secretly to Baghdad."
4. Tells a story which is the reason for the hostility between the people of Rum and those of Baghdad.
5. The woman talks to the sultan and asks him for help.
6. The kings seek to take vengeance by avenging themselves on Shawahi, the old woman known as Dhat al-Dawahi.
7. "'Uncle,' said Kana-ma-Kana, 'you are the only fitting ruler for this kingdom.'"
8. Throughout the Arabian Nights, are stories which include instances where people are kidnapped.
9. "He kissed her hands and thanked her for what she had done, adding: 'By God, you do not allow good deeds to be wasted.'"
10. "She drew back and the kings said: 'Now tell us a story.' 'Kings of the age, if I tell you a wonderful tale, will you pardon me?' When they agreed to this, he began to tell them of his most remarkable experience."
11. "...but then we saw that it was far too hot for us to start, as not only was the heat oppressive but we were parched with thirst."
12. Omitted.
13. “He used healing lotion for help with his wounds.”
14. Kidnappings were common during these days, and they were not necessarily bad.
15. I learned several things reading Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley, by Timothy White: that people had to be fit to survive in Trenchtown, a ghetto of Jamaica; that Zionism Rastafarianism dated back to Africa and Ethiopia and the Coptic church; that marijuana was widely smoked by Rastafarians across Jamaica, because it was a religious accessory; that the slang spoken by Rastafarians was a respected language; and that soccer was a favorite sport in Jamaica, and Jamaican soccer teams would routinely face world soccer teams such as those from South America and Africa.
16. “One of the sultans soldiers was worth a hundred of the other army's fighters.”
17. “When I was a young man, I met a girl, and we spoke. After speaking, we parted and I never saw her again.” —Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
18. "When he had finished, she brought him a jug of wine and, applying himself to this, he drank until the wine went to his head and his face grew red."
19. "The men had convinced her to convert to Islam."
20. James Joyce reminds readers of the dangers of swimming while intoxicated.
21. I told the wild birds where I live, that they can speak as humans do if they work on their words. For example, at night they can chirp, "co, co, co, come, come, come," to attract other birds. To fly together, they can chirp, "up, up, up," or "'ly, 'ly, 'ly," and so on.
I told the birds that they can chirp partial words if not the entire word, in order to communicate.
Italian Folktales, Italo Calvino
The Three Dogs
1. A story about a girl who faces difficulties but is aided by three dogs and ends up victorious.
2. The girl makes a scene, and starts shouting to prove her point in one scene.
3. The girl criticizes the stinking dogs because of their foul smell in one scene.
Invisible Grandfather
1. Reminds us that our grandparents are old people, are seniors who are related to us.
Animal Speech, Italo Calvino
1. “Some people cannot understand animal language.”
Ulysses, James Joyce
1. When cooking, you can smell when food is burning.
2. Some people believe, he said, that we go on living in another body after death, that we lived before. They call it reincarnation. That we all lived before on the earth thousands of years ago or some other planet. They say we have forgotten it. Some say they remember their past lives.
3. Tell him silly Milly sends my best respects. I must now close with fondest love Your fond daughter, MILLY. P. S. Excuse bad writing am in hurry.
4. A paper. He liked to read at stool.
5. He fixed the hair over his head.
6. O, surely he bagged it. Bury him cheap in a whatyoumaycall.
7. Very warm morning. Under their dropped lids his eyes found the tiny bow of the leather headband inside his high grade hat.
8. Then running round corners. Bad as a row with Molly. Cigar has a cooling effect. Narcotic.
9. Tell about places you have been, strange customs. The other one, jar on her head, was getting the supper: fruit, olives, lovely cool water out of a well, stonecold like the hole in the wall at Ashtown
10. Going under the railway arch he took out the envelope, tore it swiftly in shreds and scattered them towards the road. The shreds fluttered away, sank in the dank air: a white flutter, then all sank. Henry Flower. You could tear up a cheque for a hundred pounds in the same way. Simple bit of paper. Lord Iveagh once cashed a sevenfigure cheque for a million in the bank of Ireland.
Monday, September 9, 2024
The Arabian Nights
1. “Read the best literature in every culture.”
2. "..after a month, he arrived at al-Ruhba. He then moved on to the outskirts of Baghdad, from where he sent a message to Dau' al-Makan, announcing his arrival."
3. "On his instructions, she was lodged with his son, Kana-ma-Kana, and the two of them grew to be the most intelligent of the people of their age as well as the bravest."
4. "'Do whatever you think right,' replied the vizier to the king, 'for we shall obey your orders.'"
5. The vizier said, "Know that I am leaving the transitory world for the world of eternity."
6. "I shall be the loser in all things, light or serious,
If God, my master, does not mend my heart."
7. "The situation of Kana-ma-Kana changed and the Baghdadis deposed him, isolating him and his family."
8. "It is enough for you that death's wonders become plain...
These days are only stages on a journey..."
Nothing so saddens me as the loss of noble men,
Who have been victims of great miseries."
9. "Our house is yours; our place is yours; our wealth is yours, together with all that we have."
10. "His eyes filled with tears and he said: 'If you want to see what the world will be like after you have left it, look at when someone else has gone."
11. "...he told her to be sure that she was given an honorable lodging and her poverty relieved."
12. "A beautiful girl, perfect in loveliness,
Whose eyebrows put to shame the use of kohl."
13. "...when the grand chamberlain became king, he was called al-Malik Sasan. He took his place on the royal throne and treated his subjects well."
14. "It is even more necessary that your daughter be kept away from men, as girls like her should be kept in seclusion."
15. "My heart loves one who has enslaved it;
Look for no grain of patience in me.
16. "Forgive me; in my inmost heart there is a page
For which most clearly tears provide a heading."
17. "I have hear, O fortunate king, that news of this reached King Sasan. It was brought to him by the leading emirs, who told him: 'He is the son of our king, of the stock of King 'Umar ibn al-Nu'man, and we have heard that he has left the country."
18. "This land had drunk from the cups of clouds to the sound of thunder and the cooing of doves."
19. "He replied with gentle eloquence: 'Chief of the Arabs, don't talk of my youth, but tell me how you come to be travelling by night through the desert, reciting poetry."
20. "When we both grew up we were kept away from each other, as my uncle saw that I was poor and penniless. The Arab chiefs and the leaders of the tribes went to see him and criticized him for this. He felt ashamed and he agreed to marry my cousin to me, but only on condition..."
21. "Sabbah replied: 'It may be that you are feeble-witted or the extent of your passion may have driven you out of your mind.'"
22. "My strength has now gone and I am no longer concerned with worldly things."
23. "Sasan was sitting on his throne in a state of perplexity when he heard of his arrival."
24. "'By God,' she said, 'my son, your absence distracted me from everything else, including all thought of your beloved, especially as it was she who was the cause of your exile.'"
25. They complained to each other of the pain of separation.
26. The prince refused to fight a woman.
27. The wild animals of a country belong to the government.
28. “Chivalry dictates that gazelles with young should be released.”
29. Examine the degrees to which anarchy is illegal.
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler is a great book for teachers, libraries, and bookstores. It is a book that teaches people how to read a book.
2. "The tapping of one foot of the listener of the blues is deliberate, keeps a beat -- too fast would be a different style altogether. Forms where the beat is abstracted from the melody. A 3/4 beat, for example." —Louis Armstrong: An American Genius
3. Playing the guitar was as easy as riding a bike for Chuck Berry. —Trivial Pursuit
Saturday, September 7, 2024
The Arabian Nights
1. Your personality, are you sweet or sour?
2. The claws of a hawk are powerful weapons.
3. On the seas, there is water everywhere, but it is too salty to drink, unfortunately.
4. When he had finished his poem, he told him that he had removed some of his cares.
5. "You can't buy love."
6. "You shouldn't do a thing backwards, and you should do the important things first."
7. "Don't blame others for your mistakes, be a man and take responsibility for your actions."
8. "When he heard that, it brought great relief and joy to him, and allowed him to live a happy life."
9. "The leaders enjoyed talking to the king's son."
10. "When she fainted, he sprinkled water on her face to revive her."
11. “There are many pubs and taverns in Ireland.” —James Joyce
12. The king was personally responsible for several administrative changes, all of them concerned with wisdom and justice.
13. An assortment of Little Debbie cakes, that is, different kinds of cakes, is good.
Friday, September 6, 2024
The Arabian Nights
1. "She took a fan and sat by my head, fanning my face until the end of the day."
2. "You who seek for separation, go slowly, Time's nature is treacherous."
3. "She did not express her feelings enough."
4. "A shower can be refreshing."
5. "She was decorated with jewelry, rings, and I stared at her in astonishment."
6. "If a child dies then its parents will be compensated for the loss while in its youth."
7. Standard lamps are useful if you want to do work at night such as reading.
8. “You torture me, but your torture is sweet.”
9. If anyone dies prematurely (not of natural causes), then maybe their death should be investigated and their families should be compensated.
10. According to Greek vocabulary, the drug store or pharmacy contains vitamins, etc., that can help with just about any health condition.
11. Stores sell Del Monte Southwestern corn, which might be a good snack — boiled corn!
12. "Bonny" is a Scottish word that means attractive or beautiful.
The Arabian Nights
1. "Here he gave him a house of his own and supplied him with whatever he needed in the way of food, drink and clothing." This allowance was based on necessity.
2. “Family and friends are positive aspects of being in a relationship.”
3. "A man with a muscular, attractive physique, should have brains to go with it."
4. "With a lamp, you have conquered the night."
5. "Fully wash your feet in the baths at the mosque."
6. "You have come and our hills are clothed in green."
7. Omitted.
8. "The next day, the vizier summoned a house painter, an artist, and a skilled goldsmith, and he produced for them all the tools they would need."
Ulysses, James Joyce
1. I used to. Yes, used to carry punched tickets to prove an alibi if they arrested you for murder somewhere. Justice. On the night of the seventeenth of February 1904 the prisoner was seen by two witnesses. Other fellow did it: other me. Hat, tie, overcoat, nose. Lui, c’est moi. You seem to have enjoyed yourself.
2. Feefawfum. I zmellz de bloodz odz an Iridzman.
3. A point, live dog, grew into sight running across the sweep of sand. Lord, is he going to attack me? Respect his liberty.
4. Then from the starving cagework city a horde of dwarfs, my people, with flayers’ knives, running, scaling, hacking in green blubbery whalemeat.
5. The dog’s bark ran towards him, stopped, ran back.
6. Their dog ambled about a bank of dwindling sand, trotting, sniffing on all sides. He turned, bounded back, came nearer, trotted on twinkling shanks. On a field tenney a buck, trippant, proper, unattired.
7. The dog yelped running to them, reared up and pawed them, dropping on all fours, again reared up at them with mute bearish fawning. Unheeded he kept by them as they came towards the drier sand, a rag of wolf’s tongue redpanting from his jaws.
8. He stopped, sniffed, stalked round it, brother, nosing closer, went round it, sniffling rapidly like a dog all over the dead dog’s bedraggled fell. Dogskull, dogsniff, eyes on the ground, moves to one great goal. Ah, poor dogsbody! Here lies poor dogsbody’s body.
9. The simple pleasures of the poor. His hindpaws then scattered the sand: then his forepaws dabbled and delved. Something he buried there, his grandmother. He rooted in the sand, dabbling, delving and stopped to listen to the air, scraped up the sand again with a fury of his claws, soon ceasing, a pard, a panther, got in spousebreach, vulturing the dead.
10. You find my words dark. Darkness is in our souls do you not think?
11. He lay back at full stretch over the sharp rocks, cramming the scribbled note and pencil into a pock his hat.
12. Cup your hands. The cup of your hand.
13. Must get those settled really. Pity. All the way from Gibraltar. Forgotten any little Spanish she knew.
14. Drink water scented with alcohol.
15. Windows open. Fresh air helps memory.
Thursday, September 5, 2024
The Arabian Nights
1. Are tales from the Middle East.
2. Night 107
3. There was a king. "For many years he lived in his kingdom, glorious and secure, but he had neither wife nor child." For this reason he was unhappy.
4. "Buy a slave girl," one of the men says, but be careful, because she comes from a tough background.
5. Night 108
6. There was a king, and while under his rule, his subjects ate well, and his daughter was sent an abundance of gifts and presents.
7. "...My daughter is one of his slave girls, and this is my greatest wish, that she may be my treasure and support."
8. "The celebrations lasted for two months and nothing was omitted that might please the heart or delight the eye."
9. "If they have a child, the child may turn out to be a tyrannical hypocrite and an evil being. She is like a salt marsh, where the seeds that are sown produce bad and weak plants."
10. Night 109
11. "The order was obeyed and a proclamation was made in the city that no girl kept in seclusion, young or old, should stay behind but that they were all to come out to meet the bride."
12. "Days passed and years went by until he was seven years old. The Sulaiman Shah summoned the learned doctors and philosophers and told them to teach his son calligraphy, philosophy and literary culture. They stayed for a number of years doing that until the boy learned all that was needed. Whenever he went out on any business, all who saw him were captivated by him."
13. The prince became a skilled horseman, surpassing all living at his time. Because of his beauty, all who saw him were captivated by him, poems were composed about him and he had many admirers.
14. The prince had a mole on his cheek, and it was thought to be a beautiful mole.
15. "Do not blame him, for blame is hurtful.:
16. "Time did its best with its rough hand."
17. The prince was skilled at hunting, and he often trapped and released many animals, including gazelles.
18. "This year we shall draw up the marriage contract between 'Aziz and 'Aziza."
19. The bride had several gestures each meaning something different.
20. The woman's handwriting was delicate and fine.
21. "Backwards or forwards -- I do not know how love is to be read."
22. Perhaps the old man was under a spell to make him old, and when the spell is broken, he reverts to his youthful form.
23. "I became afraid for myself as I sat there alone, and so I got up, staggering like a drunken man until I got home."
24. Omitted.
25. Because she knew that too much salt is unhealthy, she cooked bland food.
26. "Her grandmother enjoyed it when her granddaughter read the Bible to her."
27. “An education can prepare you for death.” —St. Alphonsus
28. “It is important to have a strong vocabulary.”
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. White rice, canned corn (or mixed vegetables), and Perdue chicken strips, taste good.
2. Crayons are good for making children’s pictures.
3. Updated, Favorite Notes, with Item VII. - Notes about Alcohol.
Greek vocabulary
1. Περού - Peru
2. πιατάκι - saucer
Cicero: Selected Writings
1. During that trip of yours, “your progress was truly magnificent.”
2. “When he left for Rome and approached Aquinum, quite a large crowd came to meet him, since the town has a considerable population.”
3. “There will be crowds within the crowd.”
4. Negative behavior prevents future progress, and is also a step backwards in the present state of development.
German Vocabulary
1. Skelett - skeleton
2. Sodawasser - Soda water
3. Sodbrennen - heartburn
4. Spulen - rinse
5. Staubig - dusty
6. Stehlampe - standard lamp
7. Stimmbander - vocal cords
8. Stimme - voice
9. Strahl - ray, beam
10. Omitted.
Ulysses, James Joyce
1. He hacked through the fry on the dish and slapped it out on three plates, saying: - In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
2. View Irish art.
3. Haines stopped to take out a smooth silver case in which twinkled a green stone. He sprang it open with his thumb and offered it.
- Thank you, Stephen said, taking a cigarette. Haines helped himself and snapped the case to. He put it back in his sidepocket and took from his waistcoatpocket a nickel tinderbox, sprang it open too, and, having lit his cigarette, held the flaming spunk towards Stephen in the shell of his hands.
4. He had been wearing a Panama hat.
5. Stephen turned and saw that the cold gaze which had measured him was not all unkind.
6. Haines detached from his underlip some fibres of tobacco before he spoke.
7. “I don’t know why it’s discolored. It came like this from the factory.”
8. Of course I’m a Britisher, Haines’s voice said, and I feel as one. I don’t want to see my country fall into the hands of German jews either. That’s our national problem, I’m afraid, just now.
Two men stood at the verge of the cliff, watching: businessman, boatman.
9. Briefly refers to Bullock Harbour, Ireland.
10. A voice, sweettoned and sustained, called to him from the sea. Turning the curve he waved his hand. It called again. A sleek brown head, a seal’s, far out on the water, round.
11. Two of the characters discuss Irish history.
12. I have put the matter into a nutshell, Mr Deasy said. It’s about the foot and mouth disease. Just look through it. There can be no two opinions on the matter.
13. May I trespass on your valuable space. That doctrine of laissez faire which so often in our history. Our cattle trade. The way of all our old industries. Liverpool ring which jockeyed the Galway harbour scheme.
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
James Joyce: Writings
1. Examines the difference between public and private life.
2. “You will give me a headache if you make me think today.”
3. The men smoke a cigar after drinking a glass of whiskey.
4. “Humans like simplicity.”
5. “You may make fun of him as much as you like.”
6. “Will you blame me then?”
7. “He sprays perfume in the room as though it were air freshener.”
8. “You know there were rumours here of your life abroad — a wild life.”
9. A goal of prisons may be to reform inmates.
10. A battle of your soul against the spectre of fidelity, of mine against the spectre of friendship. All life is a conquest, the victory of human passion over the commandments of cowardice.
11. “There was an eternity before we were born: another will come after we are dead.”
12. “Then it is my mind that attracts you? Is that it?”
13. “There is a difference between speaking generally and going into detail.”
14. Candles sometimes jump, or flicker.
15. “It was unkind of you towards me. But I forgive you because you were thinking of his happiness and mine.”
16. You have the international versions of people: the English version, the Spanish version, the Indian version, the Chinese version, etc.
17. “There, the article in the newspaper, is it for him or against him?”
18. The little girl in Les Miserables by Victor Hugo represents the youth and the future, and freedom and change.
19. “He passes the greater part of the night in there writing. Night after night.”
20. “Listerine was invented in 1879. It is named after Dr. Joseph Lister, an English surgeon who pioneered antiseptic surgical methods.” —Trivial Pursuit
21. James Joyce discusses a man who poached a fowl in order to eat. Nelson Mandela, in his autobiography, indicates that when he was a young man, he killed a few birds with a contraption like a slingshot.
22. After slavery was abolished, southern blacks moved to the north, (New York, Philadelphia, D.C.) and invented their own trends and adopted their own style of music. --Louis Armstrong: An American Genius
23. Horn of Plenty: The Story of Louis Armstrong, is another popular book about Louis Armstrong.
24. Louis Armstrong, who started out as a poor kid who taught himself how to play the horn was successful. His albums were loved by many people and sold millions of copies.
25. Canned collard greens, canned yams, and several slices of ham cold cuts on the side, taste good!
26. “Some people just know how to lie, they can lie about anything." “Oh, I took this of yours, I did that to yours— No you just know how to lie, you didn’t do anything to my anything.” —Henrik Ibsen, Relationship Advice
27. "Circumcision was invented by the ancient Egyptians, and intended to be used to create a scholar, or intellectual class." --Writings from Ancient Egypt
Virgil: The Aeneid
28. Sports are our realm, we are the victors!
29. "Stop concocting this panic for me, please."
30. "Men will make war and peace. War's their work."
31. Battles involve luck, talent, and skill.
32. The troops all honored their leader.
33. Then he returned, reborn by the healer's potent herbs and his wife's love.
34. "Don't fear the threats of war."
Monday, September 2, 2024
James Joyce: Writings
1. They “sit at long tables eating beef fringed with green fat and vegetables that are still rank of the earth.”
2. She moves backwards towards me mutely.
3. Please, mister God, big mister God! Goodbye, big world!.......
4. She has no smell: an odourless flower.
5. Omitted.
6. Of him we are further told that at the age of six he wrote a school prize essay on kindness to freshwater fish.
7. “…the plain fact of the matter being that being a natural born lover of nature in all her moods and senses…”
8. “…of That Which Itself is Itself Alone exteriorates on this here our plane in disunited solid, liquid and gaseous bodies in…”
9. Three quarks for Muster Mark, Sure he hasn’t got much of a bark, And sure any he has it’s all beside the mark.
10. “He had sought medical advice for a stubborn cough.”
11. “We are born in different places, and we die at different times.”
12. “She wanted a complicated dinner, when a simple dinner would have done her just as good.”
13. “He was between forty and sixty years of age.”
14. King Art MacMurrough Kavanagh, now of parts unknown, God guard his generous soul, that put a poached fowl in the poor man’s pot before he took to his…
15. He was a man with hairy eyebrows.
16. I wouldn’t dream of a sausage of his to poison a cat and it was in all the Sunday papers about Earwicker’s farfamed…
17. Just as there is a God of all, Livvy, my mind is a complete blank.
18. I don’t care a fig for such a letter.
19. He spent quite a lot of time looking at the mirror.
20. “The villains committed their crimes because they themselves were poor and in an impoverished state.” —Cicero
21. “The villains possessed unbelievable stupidity.”
22. “They had repudiated the constitution and established values their country represented.”
23. “After working a tough job, he used lotion for bruising.”
24. “Books about drunks,” and “stories about drinking,” are good terms to learn more about the subjects which James Joyce wrote about.
25. If you make franks and beans, after combining the franks and the beans in the pot, cook everything on low heat, until boiling, so as to cook the franks throughout.
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Cicero, Selected Works
1. Pesticides can be harmful to humans as well as the environment.
2. "Every living thing is entitled to life."
3. "The courtroom is your friend. Attorney's should feel comfortable and at home in the courtroom." --Cicero
4. Rap music began in the playgrounds and the barbershops of NYC during the 1980s. The young men who began rap music wrote the lyrics in their language and about their experiences in the city. Depending on the circumstance, you can call it rap, or hip hop.
--From Hip Hop: A Positive Black Tradition (my Facebook post).
5. Different blacks possessed different styles of music, based on their geographical location. Take the Charleston, a dance originated by southern blacks from Charleston, North Carolina.
--From my Facebook paper about Louis Armstrong.
6. "Their crimes ranged from mild to severe."
7. "Their crimes were both national and international, and represented weaknesses in their character."
8. "All of the villains were tried together in one big trial for each and every one of their offenses."
9. "He selected honorable members of the Senate to be judges at their trial."
10. "The evil men were trying to destroy the country."
11. "Their crimes caused delays in the normal progression and growth of society."
James Joyce
12. “Love's breath in you is stale, worded or sung…”
13. “You reek of alcohol.”
14. James Joyce’s poetry is available on the www.
15. “Alcohol makes you shout.”
16. “She kept playing with his head.”
17. Alcohol makes you rude.
18. “Explores the jolly drinker archetype.”
19. “Alcohol brings out a negative element in society.”
20. "I'm a loud person."
21. "Why are you drinking alcohol to begin with?"
22. "When he drank, he sang songs."
23. “Whatever you’re drinking, I’m drinking.”
24. Omitted.
25. James Joyce told the secrets of the Irish.
26. “Use food coloring and water, to make it look like an alcoholic drink.” —Ulysses, James Joyce
27. "View alcohol as (fermented) sugar water, or medicine."
28. “They pass in an air of perfumes: under the perfumes their bodies have a warm humid smell.”
29. “Great ideas are ‘Thousand dollar ideas.’”
30. “If you use candles at night, then maybe more than one candle will be useful.”
31. “Some people don’t have a strong tolerance for foul smells.”
32. “…she greets me wintrily and passes up the staircase darting at me for an instant out of her sluggish sidelong eyes a jet of liquorish venom.”
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Pesticides can be harmful to humans as well as the environment.
2. "Every living thing is entitled to life."
3. "The courtroom is your friend. Attorney's should feel comfortable and at home in the courtroom." --Cicero
4. Rap music began in the playgrounds and the barbershops of NYC during the 1980s. The young men who began rap music wrote the lyrics in their language and about their experiences in the city. Depending on the circumstance, you can call it rap, or hip hop.
--From Hip Hop: A Positive Black Tradition (my Facebook post).
5. Different blacks possessed different styles of music, based on their geographical location. Take the Charleston, a dance originated by southern blacks from Charleston, North Carolina.
--From my Facebook paper about Louis Armstrong.
6. "Their crimes ranged from mild to severe." --Cicero
7. "Their crimes were both national and international, and represented weaknesses in their character."
8. "All of the villains were tried together in one big trial for each and every one of their offenses."
9. "He selected honorable members of the Senate to be judges at their trial."
10. "The evil men were trying to destroy the country."
11. "Their crimes caused delays in the normal progression and growth of society."
Saturday, August 31, 2024
Selected Works Cicero
1. "The evil men, they had one intention, and that was to murder the citizens of Rome."
2. "The future only exists in our memory." --Marcel Proust
3. cavity - Hohlraum. German.
4. When you're at the dentist, allow the dentist to give you a shot of novocaine, and then let the novocaine take effect, and then you won't feel anything during the procedure.
5. “These evil men, they were anarchists.”
6. “When a new crime is committed, you create a new law.”
7. Kollubo - boiled corn. —The Oxford New Greek Dictionary.
Canned corn cooked, is boiled corn; it tastes good with a piece of ham (cold cuts) on the side.
8. Franks and beans are also inexpensive and easy to make. Just cut up some franks, mix them in a pot with baked beans, cook, serve, and enjoy!
9. Don't watch tv all the time, sometimes turn the tv off and read, or rest.
10. "The repeating rifle, has helped American soldiers on the battlefield in many ways."
11. Electric hairdryers are great tools for drying off your wet dog or cat after a bath!
The Arabian Nights
1. "In fact, she had told the infidels of the trick she had played."
2. "The woman then told them what had happened in order to spread alarm and fear."
3. "Islam is the religion of the best of mankind."
4. "We camped here and it has water colder than snow."
Animals can drink the water from puddles of rain, or melted snow.
5. "We saw a picture on the wall, and it was talking to us."
6. "The infidels had surrounded the Muslims, thinking that they would escape humiliating punishment, and they remained hopeful of success against the followers of the true faith."
7. "He said, 'I am a messenger sent to you all. A messenger's only duty is to deliver his message. Give me safe conduct and permission to speak so that I may deliver mine.' 'You have safe conduct,' said Sharkan, 'so fear neither sword cut nor spear thrust.'"
8. "...God will reward you well, for the reward will be in proportion to the hardship."
9. If the soldiers died, then their families would receive enough money to cover their living expenses and an honorable ceremony.
Friday, August 30, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. "Jails and prisons should be held accountable when inmates die or get injured in altercations while in their custody. This could involve financial compensation, investigations, prosecution of any guilty parties, and prison reform."
2. “Because of the rule of a villain, the country was depressed.” —Cicero
3. Tuna casserole (or just plain tuna and noodles,) is easy to make, with a Kraft Mac & Cheese cup and a tuna pouch!
4. Run - Lauf. German. Additionally, I learned that running suppresses your laughter somewhat.
5. “How to use deodorant,” “how to use body spray,” and “how to use cologne,” are search terms that taught me a lot.
I learned that you should research “how to use” something in order to learn how to use it.
6. Dictionaries in different languages with English translations contain tremendous practical knowledge.
7. "Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries will add an extra layer of juicy sweetness to your coffee without any added sugar."
8. Taste - Geschmack. German
9. Apricot - Aprikose. German
10. The godparents of one’s children should simply be there for the kids: talk to them on the phone, visit them at home somewhat regularly, etc.
11. Take two cod liver oil pills daily, if you want to speed up its effects of removing encrusted snot.
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust
1. Omitted.
2. “…the sight of him still impressed me as might that of an historic personage, upon whom one had just been studying a series of books, and the smallest details of whose life one learned with enthusiasm.”
3. “Classical literature has a unique beauty and nobility to it.”
4. “As for Swann, in my attempts to resemble him, I spent the whole time, when I was at table, in drawing my finger along my nose and in rubbing my eyes.”
5. Her beauty made him melt with emotion.
6. “He had a tongue like a viper, and would sometimes curse people out.”
7. “…who could hold out no longer, and complained that her legs were ‘giving’ beneath her, to stroll up and down with me for another hour…”
8. “They would ask one another, ‘Who is she?’, or sometimes would interrogate a passing stranger, or would make a mental note of how she was dressed so as to fix her identity, later, in the mind of a friend better informed than themselves, who would at once enlighten them.”
9. “It was also the time of day. In places where the trees still kept their leaves, they seemed to have undergone an alteration of their substance from the point at which they were touched by the sun’s light, still, at this hour in the morning, almost horizontal, as it would be again, a few hours later, at the moment when, just as dusk began, it would flame up like a lamp…”
10. “A patch of brightness indicated the approach to almost every one of them, or else a splendid mass of foliage stood out before it like an oriflamme.”
11. Refers to Michelangelo’s Creation.
12. Certain ceremonies require us to act slowly.
13. “Learn about women in history.”
14. “Alas! there was nothing now but flats decorated in the Louis XVI style, all white paint, with hortensias in blue enamel.”
Endnotes:
15. Ali Baba ... resplendent with its unsuspected treasures: Ali Baba discovers a secret treasure cave in a famous story in The Thousand and One Nights, also known as The Arabian Nights, a collection of Persian, Indian, and Arabian tales translated into French in the eighteenth century. It was one of Proust’s favorite books.
16. Discusses the difficulty of bringing Prousts’s novels to the big screen, which include difficulties in following the plot and keeping true to characters.
17. “He fears death by water.” —T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
18. “He is sick of looking at cigarette ends.” —T.S. Eliot
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, Marcel Proust
1. Book two in the seven volume collection. The longest book ever written by French novelist Marcel Proust.
2. MADAME SWANN AT HOME
3. Swann had been a man of simplicity.
4. “Swann…was like those great artists—modest or generous by nature—who, if at the end of their career they take to cooking or to gardening, display a childlike gratification at the compliments that are paid to their dishes or their borders, and will not listen to any of the criticism which they heard unmoved when it was applied to their real achievements…”
5. “No doubt they preferred, socially, to meet certain others who were better read, more artistic, with whom they could discuss Nietzsche and Wagner.”
6. “We don’t have to live in silence.”
7. Our lives involve different activities.
8. “The villains ruled through bribery and intimidation.” —Cicero
9. Some phrases are pleasing to say out loud.
10. She liked when he spoke names and places in French to her. Chevalier, le Sorbonne, villepiers, quatre, Jean-Jacques Rousseau…
11. “After launching this quotation M. de Norpois paused and examined our faces, to see what effect it had had upon us.”
12. “And then that admirable voice…I should almost be tempted to describe it as a musical instrument.”
13. “He was skilled at imitating other people.”
14. Many authors and philosophers have actually published their essays and letters.
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust
1. “…which is rather like being astonished that anyone should condescend to die of cholera at the bidding of so insignificant a creature as the comma bacillus.
2. “‘He was a fine character, and interests me very much, does La Pérouse,’ he ended.”
3. “That’s a house that will be really smart some day, you’ll see!”
4. “‘It’s easy to see that you’re a musician heart and soul, Madame,’ said the General, alluding to the incident of the candle.”
5. After going on vacation overseas, he wrote a book about his experiences. You can tell this story through words or photographs.
6. “…belonged indeed to a mysterious world to which one never may return again once its doors are closed.”
7. “There are in the music of the violin…accents which are so closely akin to those of certain contralto voices, that one has the illusion that a singer has taken her place amid the orchestra.” It is supernatural almost.
8. He was a member of a smart home, an intelligent home.
9. There is a difference between body spray and perfume.
10. There is soft perfume and strong perfume.
11. “From the depths of what well of sorrow could he have drawn that god-like strength, that unlimited power of creation?
When it was the little phrase that spoke to him of the vanity of his sufferings, Swann found a sweetness in that very wisdom which, but a little while back, had seemed to him intolerable when he thought that he could read it on the faces of indifferent strangers, who would regard his love as a digression that was without importance.”
12. “Doubtless the form in which it had codified those graces could not be analysed into any logical elements. But ever since, more than a year before, discovering to him many of the riches of his own soul, the love of music had been born and for a time at least had dwelt in him…”
13. “When a candle or lamp is lit in the darkness, you have to let your eyes adjust to the amount of light that it emits.”
14. “We shall perish, but we have for our hostages these divine captives who shall follow and share our fate. And death in their company is something less bitter, less inglorious, perhaps even less certain.”
15. “…to make it visible, following and respecting its outlines with a hand so loving, so prudent, so delicate, and so sure, that the sound altered at every moment, blunting itself to indicate a shadow, springing back into life when it must follow the curve of some more bold projection.”
16. “And so Swann lost nothing of the precious time for which it lingered. It was still there, like an iridescent bubble that floats for a while unbroken. As a rainbow, when its brightness fades, seems to subside, then soar again and, before it is extinguished, is glorified with greater splendour than it has ever shown; so to the two colours which the phrase had hitherto allowed to appear it added others now, chords shot with every hue in the prism, and made them sing.”
17. Never was spoken language of such inflexible necessity, never had it known questions so pertinent, such obvious replies.
18. But no one, as it happened, dreamed of speaking.
19. “…as none of these men had ever, in conversation with Swann, suggested that he approved of anonymous letters, and as everything that they had ever said to him implied that they strongly disapproved…”
20. After all, M. de Charlus might be most fond of him, might be most good-natured; but he was a neuropath; to-morrow, perhaps, he would burst into tears on hearing that Swann was ill; and to-day, from jealousy, or in anger, or carried away by some sudden idea, he might have wished to do him a deliberate injury.
21. How do we define trends? How do we define our generation?
22. “…the artist’s rather than the business-man’s, the noble’s rather than the flunkey’s.”
23. Lock them up until we are satisfied that they have paid the price for their crime, may be a good approach to incarceration.
24. When she was spending time with one man, she thought that she was spending time with the other man.
25. She told him lies, to make him mad.
26. Omitted.
27. “‘He is more of a man than you are,’ she said.”
28. “Despite all this, she was not a vicious person.”
29. Whipped cream and orangeade might taste good!
30. M. Verdurin asked her, “How in the world can you see what he’s doing, when he’s a thousand miles away?” And Odette answered, “Nothing is impossible to the eye of a friend.”
31. “…like certain novelists, he had distributed his own personality between two characters, him who was the ‘first person’ in the dream, and another whom he saw before him…”
32. The stress of his life had grown too much for him to bear.
33. People sometimes change emotions quickly.
34. “Calm your nerves, calm your nerves.”
35. “Everything appeared to me unknown, uncommon.”
36. What differentiates your days in the present from your days in the past?
37. “…and they made me conscious of as glorious a hope as could have been cherished by a Christian in the primitive age of faith, on the eve of his entry into Paradise.”
38. Towards the end of his days at the cottage, it was like a crescendo, the final segment of a wonderful opera.
39. If you lack in some areas, then make up for it in others.
40. “I had wanted to see her, but had difficulty forming a mental image of her.”
41. He wrote the words repeatedly in his notebooks.
42. “Read grammar books of foreign languages.”
43. “Her hands had been fragrant with soap.”
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
The Arabian Nights
1. During the war, the men shouted, "Allahu akbar!"
2. "Jails and prisons should be held accountable when inmates die or get injured in altercations while in their custody. This could involve financial compensation, investigations, prosecution of any guilty parties, and prison reform."
3. "The man was upset, because his friends had played a trick on him."
4. The Great Wave off Kanagawa, or, the Great Wave, by Katsushika Hokusai, is a Japanese artwork that I admire. The painting depicts small boats amid a large sea, with the formidable Mount Fuji in the background, and illustrates man's relationship with nature.
5. "The doctor said, 'Drop everything else, and look after your physical health.'"
6. Cultural Psychology was a course that taught me that there are collective societies and there are individualistic societies. Collective societies function as a group, and are often centered around family, where individualistic societies are centered around the individual. Traditional socialist African societies are an example of collectivist cultures, and capitalist American society is an example of individualist culture. Additionally, individualist societies are more materialistic than collective ones.
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Italian Folktales, Italo Calvino
1. Encrusted snot in your nose can be annoying, so take cod liver oil pills for it.
2. The Little Girl Sold with the Pears is a story about a little girl who is the hero. Her father harvests four baskets of pears a year to the king, but one year, when he could only harvest three, he puts his little girl into one of the baskets. When the king's guards find Perina among the baskets, they put her to work in the kitchen, and she soon becomes the fastest and best worker in the castle.
3. Perina is envied by many of the other workers, and the king sends her on a mission. She meets an old woman who helps her and gives her three pounds of grease, three pounds of bread, and three pounds of millet. She uses the items that the old woman gave her to assist her in her journey. "On and on she walked and met three mastiffs that barked and rushed at anyone coming their way. Perina threw them three pounds of bread, and they let her pass."
4. In addition to this, Perina uses the grease to fix a broken door and gain entry to the palace containing the treasure.
5. Perina finally gets the treasure chest, opens it, and "out came a hen and her brood of gold chicks. They scuttled away too fast for a soul to catch them. Perina struck out after them...then the hen and chicks reentered the treasure chest." This was the treasure the king had sought.
6. "Upon her arrival, the king's son came out to meet her." He said, "Tell my father that for a reward, you want that box filled with coal in the cellar."
7. She asked the king for this box of coal, "they brought her the box of coal, which she opened, and out jumped the king's son, who was hiding inside. The king was then happy for Perina to marry his son."
The end.
8. A good idea for restaurants is to offer 1pound of cold cuts, along with dipping sauce. This is the main sell. They could also offer fries or a vegetable on the side, and a drink. Ham and Italian dressing; roast beef; etc.
This could also be a good idea for a standalone restaurant offering these at a flat fee.
The Arabian Nights
1. After getting drunk, he spoke in an incomprehensible tongue, or, he cursed people out.
2. The man also sees invisible men, who he believes talks to him.
3. Describes a “Holy War,” of Christians against Muslims.
4. Recites the words of the poet, who has said, ‘Long hair is of no use except when it streams out, On both sides of the head on the day of battle…’
5. There was a girl, the son of a king, "Unequalled as she was in beauty, she would ride with her father dressed as a man, and no one who saw her would know that she was a girl."
6. The men divided the night into different segments.
7. "The doctor prescribes soup for a bad cold."
Saturday, August 24, 2024
The Arabian Nights
1. "According to Hasan of Basra, no man's soul leaves this world without regretting three things. The first is that he did not enjoy what he had collected; the second is that he did not achieve what he had hoped for; and the third is that he had not provided himself with sufficient provisions for the journey on which he was embarked."
2. "The caliph said: 'Almighty God sent Muhammad as a blessing to some and a punishment to others.'"
3. The man made a will, and left money to his wife and children.
4. "O king, this girl is the wonder of the age, unique in her time. Never at any time throughout our lives have we heard the likes of this."
5. "About my children...Were it not for visions of them in my dreams, I would not sleep."
Italian Folktales, Italo Calvino
1. There are several different elements and many different symbols present simultaneously in these stories, and every time I read them, I learn something new. Additionally, many of the endings are uncommon, and often a bit strange, unexpected or unfinished.
2. The Ship with Three Decks
3. A husband and wife do not have a godfather for their baby son, so they are searching for a godfather for him.
4. They meet a stranger from England, who they make the child's godfather. This stranger gives the child many gifts. The stranger enlists the boy to go on an adventure with him. While on the adventure, they meet rats, ants, and vultures, whose animal powers they use to help them. For example, they tie buckets around the necks of the vultures and then the vultures swoop down into a magical lake to retrieve water from it. In the end, their combined efforts help them, although the godfather turns out to be an evil man, who kills himself because he does not have the love of the princess.
5. The Man Who Came Out Only at Night - A story about a man who is under a magic spell to be a turtle by day and a man by night. He seeks a wife to lift the spell, and in so doing, he gives her a magic ring, which she in turn uses to free him of the spell, and they live happily ever after.
6. And Seven! - A story about a greedy daughter who eats bowls of food, after which, her mother says, And one! And two! And three!, and so on after each bowl. After hearing the mother say And Seven!, a man asks what is going on, and the mother, embarrassed by all this, lies and tells him that she is counting about how many dresses the daughter has been weaving. The man is impressed, so he asks to marry the daughter if she can weave several more dresses. The daughter, unable to do this, enlists the help of an old woman, whose fast sewing skills save the day, and in the end, they get married, and don't have to sew dresses anymore.
Friday, August 23, 2024
Swann's Way Marcel Proust
1. “He would go out of his way to make it comfortable and pleasant for her, she would come running to him, happy and grateful.”
2. “He enjoyed one of her glances, the formation of one of her smiles, the utterance of an intonation of her voice.”
3. “He examined what was on the very surface of his consciousness.”
4. “To be kind to your partner, get her something to drink, or something to eat, and make it something healthy.”
5. “On her birthday, he had decided to send her a basket of fruit.”
6. “Find out what your partner likes, and then follow this.”
7. “Two people are supposed to have fun in a relationship.”
8. “Just think, in many ways, we are living life like Bach, Chopin, or Mozart, lived life hundreds of years ago.”
Arabian Nights
1. Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime.
2. During this time, in Saudi Arabia, it was common for people to ride camels for transportation.
3. "You blame me, I am being blamed, for everything I do."
4. "With a knowledge of the information I've posted about philosophy, now you have knowledge about philosophy."
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Swann's Way Marcel Proust
1. "The stress exhausted Swann's brain and made it weary."
2. "He had longed for a state of calm and peace, a favorable atmosphere."
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
The Arabian Nights - Tales of 1001 Nights
1. As a result of his hard work and dedication, the king increased his servant's rank, and put him in charge of more people.
2. In the Middle East, during this time, it was common for people to sing songs to themselves if they were alone, and faced with problems.
3. Indicates the presence of electuaries.
4. "In my struggles against the miseries of Time,
God has forbidden me many things."
5. "The magic of your eyes has captured hearts."
6. "Fearing for his life, he killed her."
7. The couple eat fruits, fresh and dried, as well as meats.
8. "Fetch me students and then bring the wisest men of the age to teach them philosophy and poetry. The teachers are to talk to them on philosophical and religious subjects. They must show patience and endurance."
9. The group enjoyed drinking different sugary drinks.
10. Once you have the components for making Kool-Aid, drink-mix powder juice (Snapple, Skittles, etc.) is easy to make -- no added sugar needed!
11. One girl was very wise, knew the Quran by heart, and had read Aphorisms of Hippocrates; the Mufradat, or the Comprehensive Book on Simple Drugs and Foods; and the Meccan Canon, Avicenna's Canon of Medicine. She also had a great deal of knowledge in other areas.
12. "Expectant mothers should read books about pregnancy."
13. "A good leader has experience and wisdom."
14. "This man, he is kind to his wife, and he spends money liberally on her."
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
The Arabian Nights - Tales of 1001 Nights
1. Omitted.
2. "He enjoyed eating dried fruits."
3. "Time waits for no man. No matter what man does, time of the earth passes."
4. "On seeing that he was hungry, they brought him a bowl of honey and two loaves of bread."
5. "The day will come when Lord God will be the judge, and his angels will be the witnesses."
6. "We love the poor and needy because it is our Christian duty to do so."
7. "Although his body was weak, when he saw the man, his spirit returned."
8. "The caliph gave orders that the history of the town from beginning to end should be written down and placed in the treasury, so that future generations might read it."
9. "Things went on like this until she reached the term of her pregnancy and sat on the birthing chair."
10. "She had hoped for a virtuous son and an easy labor, and received these."
11. He gave instructions that she was to bring the children up with a good education.
12. The people of Baghdad are extremely delighted at the birth of twins.
13. The caliph of Baghdad knew the king of Greece, the ruler of Macedonia, the leader of Christendom, and other leaders. These leaders brought the caliph gifts on special occasions.
14. "Read Arabic books."
15. "Listen to Arabic music."
16. "When the lovely girl commits a single fault, for her beauty she is forgiven."
17. "You are covered by my protection, and so you can set your mind at rest. Should anyone wish you harm, they could only reach you after I had lost my life in your defense."
18. "Don't do too much of one thing: don't stay in bed for too long, don't watch too much tv, don't study one thing too much, enjoy the variety of life."
19. "In the evenings, read for one hour."
21. They discuss the poet Jamil Buthaina. Then he recited Jamil's lines:
...And all their victims die a martyr's death.
When I tell her my love is killing me,
She answers: 'Stand firm and it will increase.'"
22. Then she recited:
"Time is both wrapped away and then spread out,
Now an extended line and now a cone."
23. She then indicates that parting is unfortunate, when two friends have to part from each other, or when a person has to part from a pleasant environment.
24. "Masura replied: 'Your anger will not hurt me but your father's anger will.'"
25. "When Sharkan heard this, he said to himself: 'This girl has played a trick on me and has kept me here."
26. "The king is waiting for us to return with this prince, who is the thorn of the army of Islam..."
27. O auspicious king: 'He is one single man and you are a hundred knights. If you want to fight him, go out to meet him one by one, so that the king may see who is the champion among you.'
28. Reminds us of the presence of guerilla warfare.
29. The king wrote a letter to the leader of the other army, stating his demands and terms.
30. You have the winner of a battle by physical, tangible means, and then you have the hero of the battle in terms of pride and respect, who are often two different people. This means that you can "lose" the battle, but still be its hero.
31. "To be given a "decent burial," means to be buried in a traditional Christian way, so as not to have your remains scattered by wild animals, and to have a pastor preside at your funeral." --James Fenimore Cooper
32. In Arabic mythology, certain gems have possessed magical properties.
33. "I'm doing a job, and time is money." --Ivanov, Anton Chekhov
34. "After he got drunk, he lost all his senses and became rather wild."
Sunday, August 18, 2024
The Arabian Nights - Tales of 1001 Nights
1. "Many people are born of pure race."
2. "Thirty days have now passed, during which I have not tasted sleep."
Night 39
3. During the night, they had brought candles and lamps.
4. During the night, when he was outside, he saw two men, one carrying a lantern, and one carrying a chest.
5. The man who died, "was a man of importance."
6. Nelson Mandela, during one court appearance, wore a traditional Xhosa leopard-skin kaross instead of a suit and tie. “I had chosen traditional dress to emphasize the symbolism that I was...literally carrying on my back the history, culture, and heritage of my people."
7. Murder Trials (Penguin Classics), by Marcus Cicero, is a great book for a defense attorney. "Cicero was in his twenties when he got Sextus Roscius off a charge of murdering his father..."
8. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero (free on Google books), includes some of Cicero's defense writings. One thing he does is indicate that an attorney should take his time when defending a client, especially when the case looks good for him. "When the mob gets hold of the case, then it will be a feeding frenzy -- they don't know the facts and only know one side...I don't belong in jail. I'm a handsome person, I come from a good home, I have a loving family...If I would be set free I would thank all the Gods."
9. Kubla Khan, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is a poem where Coleridge for one, suggests that some art, like the art of the Italian Renaissance for example, (the Sistine Chapel, the Mona Lisa,) is holy and enchanted.
10. Additionally, while it is good to write loops, it can be better and more efficient to write connecting lines as though you were imitating a heart rate monitor: connecting "A's," without the middle line, or upside down connecting "V's".
11. The men find a large chest. The caliph orders the men to bring the chest to his palace. When they open the chest, they find a slave girl in the chest, sleeping. When the men awaken her, she becomes indebted to them, and is the their property forever. This is similar to the part played by Yul Brynner alongside Rita Moreno in The King and I.
12. A similar classic film that I enjoyed watching was From Here to Eternity, with Frank Sinatra and Montgomery Clift.
13. Classic movies and classic Disney movies are good to watch during this time of year!
Saturday, August 17, 2024
The Arabian Nights - Tales of 1001 Nights
1. "Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what he had been allowed to say."
2. "I have heard, that the king of China said: 'Fetch me the barber, for he is the reason why I am letting you all go free.'"
3. "He looked at the dead man's face and then laughed until he fell over backwards. 'Every death is a wonder,' he said, 'but the death of this man deserves to be written in letters of gold.'"
4. "He passed a hand over his face and said: 'I bear witness that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Apostle of God.'"
5. There was a leader who loved the poor, the beggars and all his subjects, distributing his wealth to those who believed in Muhammad -- may God bless him and give him peace."
6. "...for she has studied calligraphy, grammar, philology, Quranic interpretation, the foundations of jurisprudence, religion, medicine, precise calculation and how to play musical instruments."
7. The beautiful young woman, the man's wife, in the end, reverted to her true form, and turned into an old woman, as a result of a magic spell wearing off.
8. Speak for quality, not quantity.
9. "He meets a man who has the power to restore people back to life, he has the magical ability to bring the dead back to life."
10. A high-end car, modified with the top chopped off, is also known as a car with "its brains blown out." --Trivial Pursuit
11. Aladdin is a movie/play that people should watch, while examining the presence of Middle Eastern and Arabic influence within it.
12. The man’s wife, the beautiful woman turns into an old woman, his expensive house also turns into a shack, his money becomes lost, he turns out ruined as a result of the spell wearing off. These elements are similar to those contained in Cinderella.
13. "Some of us are born into negative paths in life."
14. "Soup broth is good for you.” —Jane Austen. Consequently, you can eat Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle, if you first eat some of the broth, and then eat the noodles, and while cooking, remember to dilute it with a half can of water.
15. Help others: link to Scholarlyinformation.com from your site.
16. “He drinks for a time and then falls asleep, leaving me on my own…”
Friday, August 16, 2024
The Arabian Nights -- Tales of 1001 Nights
1. "Don't grind or clench your teeth together."
2. "The government does not allow you to earn more money than can buy you food, shelter, and other basic necessities."
3. "Watch out, or they'll play another trick on you."
4. "He is a man of few words, not loquacious."
5. "All the maids stood up and their mistresses told them to perfume my brother and sprinkle rosewater on his face."
6. "Whoever disobeys me, I expel, but whoever endures reaches his goal."
7. "She is going to pluck out your moustache. Plucking out a moustache is a painful business, so do not disobey the old woman."
Night 32
8. Omitted.
9. "I took him back into the city secretly and, I gave him an allowance for food and drink."
10. "The caliph laughed at the story and ordered that I should be given a reward and allowed to leave..."
11. "Citizens are under an unwritten contract with their governments."
12. "The man laughed until he fell over, and then spoke."
13. "I ask you in God's Name to listen to what I have to say and not to judge me hastily."
14. Omitted.
15. "I shall enter the city, with my mamluks behind and in front of me, as well as to my right and left. It will be a grand scene."
16. "If he addresses me in ten words, I shall reply in two."
17. "When they bring her, I shall again look down towards the ground and I shall continue in this way until the ceremony is complete."
18. "People who get rich, sometimes do not adequately compensate the people who helped them earn their riches."
19. "He is a bearded man with a young face."
20. "Eat this delicious white bread, plain bread."
21. “He pretended to be drunk, and then left the house.”
22. His captor said, “Buy your life from me with cash, or else I’ll kill you.”
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Swann's Way, Marcel Proust
Chapter: PLACE-NAMES: THE NAME
1. Omitted.
2. “Some people are more photogenic than others. This regards head size and facial dimensions.” —The Autobiography of Greta Garbo
3. Greta Garbo, although she achieved fame and fortune, always yearned for the contentment offered by her small country cottage in the Swiss Alps.
4. Horror movies may be flawed, because they do not account for people who do not fear death, due to their bravery, or intelligence, such as American Indians, and philosophers like Aristotle and Plato.
5. The notes from the previous chapter, Swann in Love, suggest that a candlelight dinner would be an enjoyable occasion.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Creativity with the rhyming poetry of William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and other classic poets, can allow anyone to create a song that rhymes!
2. "Some books are better than others."
3. “You can tell if someone has smoked weed before based on how wisely they lead their life.”
4. “After eating a light breakfast, he left the house.”
Swann's Way, Marcel Proust
1. “The pianist played a song to the couple.”
2. “The couple enjoyed listening to love songs.”
3. “The woman was so active in her job, it was as though she was being worked to death.”
4. “One of the songs was the love anthem for the couple.”
5. “He did a little dancing: simple, graceful movements.”
6. “They appreciated what the sonata expressed.”
7. “During this time, they did not find fault with each other: they accepted one another for who they were.”
8. “They enjoyed this moment together.”
9. “The winter afternoon was almost nocturnal.”
10. “She represented his ideal of happiness, particularly because he could express his refined tastes in art and music with her.”
11. “This opened up a new world for her, where she assumed a new and nobler form.”
12. Omitted.
13. "He left the restaurant after drinking a cup of chocolate.”
14. “The interval of space separating her from him was insignificant.”
15. "Then she would pretend to stop, saying: ‘How do you expect me to play when you keep talking to me? I can’t do everything at once. Make up your mind what you want; am I to play the phrase or do you want to talk to me?"
16. "What a torture it was to her to act a lie."
17. Made minor edits to Research in Law and Psychiatry post.
Monday, August 12, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Updated: Favorite Notes with Item V. Philosophy Notes.
The Oxford New Greek Dictionary
T
1. Tekno - child
2.Tzatziki - yogurt and cucumber dip
3. Tonic - tonic water
4. Toxikos - toxic
5. Toxini - toxin
6. tost - toasted sandwich
7. tostiera - toaster
8. toulipa - tulip
9. trapoula - pack of cards
10. trapoulaxarto - playing card
11. traxeia - windpipe
12. traxilos - neck
13. trela - madness
14. tralabiko - loony bin
15. Triti - Tuesday
16. triton - newt
17. tsigaro - cigarette
18. tsigarothiki - cigarette box
19. tsikna - smell of burning food
20. turi - cheese
21. turopita - cheese pie
Y (I)
1. igieinos - hygienic, healthy
2. igiis - healthy, sound
3. idatikos - moisturizing -krema, mouisturizer
4. iperilikos - very old
5. iponops - imply
F
1. fagito - food
2. Omitted.
3. Febrouarioc - February
4. feggari - moon
5. feta - soft white cheese, feta
6. flegma - phlegm
7. froutosalata - fruit salad
Sunday, August 11, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. My Story about Kool-Aid: Kool-Aid is a drink mix powder that makes juice when mixed with sugar. There are many different flavors of Kool-Aid and they taste great. When I was growing up, my big family always had pitchers of Kool-Aid in the fridge ready for us to drink. When I would watch my favorite cartoons, often the Kool-Aid commercial would come on (Youtube: Kool-Aid videos). And you can show off your strength by carrying the 4-lb bags of sugar home to mix with Kool-Aid. Additionally, Kool-Aid is easy to make, with a wooden stirring spoon, a large pitcher, a measuring cup, and, of course, water (2 packets, and 2 cups of sugar, to every gallon of water) -- good luck!
2. Kolluba - boiled corn. —-The Oxford New Greek Dictionary.
Saturday, August 10, 2024
The Arabian Nights - Tales of 1001 Nights
1. The information contained on this blog, the book reviews, etc., can be used to help English students in high school and college. If a review doesn't fall under a specific category, then maybe it can be used towards extra credit, or general literature coursework.
2. He was stopped in the street by a man. "I was carrying a quantity of gold in readiness for a day or a crisis like this. So I began to scatter it among the people to distract their attention, which it did, as they picked it up. Then I started to make my way throught the lanes of Baghdad, with this man on my heels."
3. "You wanted to go by yourself, but I don't hold your folly against you, as you are an impatient young man of limited intelligence." You should try to increase your intelligence.
4. There was a governor. This governor loved the poor and unfortunate and would sit with men of learning and virtue.
5. "All this, my friends, was caused by my sense of chivalry and the fact that, as a man of few words, I kept silence and did not allow myself to speak."
6. Plato was a philosopher who was fond of taking partial baths.
7. Added -- Book Reviews X: Homer, with notes from The Iliad and The Odyssey.
8. “When you’re with a friend, and you two are getting along well, that’s what friendship is all about, that's success.”
Friday, August 9, 2024
Misc. Notes.
1. You can even write connecting lines as though you were imitating a heart rate monitor.
2. Alexander Pushkin was born in Moscow, and his maternal great-grandfather was an Abyssinian (Ethiopian) princeling who was sent as a gift to Peter the Great. The Stationmaster, by Alexander Pushkin is a popular story. The story begins by speaking badly about stationmasters, people whose job it is to administer duties of a clerk in a train station. Toward the story's end however, we meet a stationmaster face to face, and learn that he is actually a human being after all, after which, he dies. It is believed that Pushkin was using this story to describe the struggles of Negroes abroad.
Thursday, August 8, 2024
The Arabian Nights - Tales of 1001 Nights
1. "On a business trip to Cairo, I met a girl, and we hung out. We got drunk on several nights. It was a great deal of fun."
2. I met her friend, another girl. We hung out too, and one night I even fed her mouthfuls of food. We fell asleep, and when I woke up, this second girl was dead. The first girl, who had learned of evil ways from the Egyptians, killed the second girl in the night and absconded.
3. I was scared, so I buried the girl and left the house. I was questioned by the authorities, who beat me, and eventually, because I was scared, I confessed to the murder, plead guilty, and spent a great deal of time in jail.
4. A kind governor intervened, and talked with me. I told him my story and that I was innocent. He freed me. For my courage and suffering, he also made me the mayor of a nearby village.
5. Omitted.
6. Check back for updates.
7. "The old woman said: 'You have plenty of time, so why not go to the baths and have your hair cut, especially after your illness? That would restore you.' 'A good idea,' I said." After having my head shaved, and being sprinkled with oils, I felt better, and it was the first time that I viewed the barber as being a "holistic barber," a barber who is also an astrologer, a chemist, an expert in philology, rhetoric, logic, religious law, the traditions of the Prophet and the interpretation of the Quran."
9. Muslims use perfumed oils for the body.
10. "There is also a proverb: 'Whoever has no elder to help him will not himself be an elder.'
11. "Master, haste comes from the devil and patience from the Merciful God. Act slowly and not with haste in what you want."
12. "Crafts are like necklaces, and here this barber
Is like the pearl hung on a necklace string,
Standing above all men of wisdom,
While under his hand are the heads of kings."
13. He prayed when the sun rose.
14. "Rather, I would like to know the time exactly, for guesswork leads to shame."
15. "You're trying to deceive me so that you can go alone and involve yourself in a disaster from which you won't be able to escape."
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
Writings from Ancient Egypt
1. "The evil-doer will be lost in death as he was in life."
2. "The people would proceed by repeating the list of sins he committed."
3. "...the Egyptian term connotes an effeminate man."
4. "In government there are leaders, who plan works, and followers, who do not plan things."
5. "There are several statues, which I shall not go beyond."
6. "...The Egyptian word means 'sunrise' rather than 'east'."
7. "The death of Akhenaten, after only seventeen years on the throne, ushered in a period of great political turmoil in Egypt, as the forces of conservatism sought to overturn his revolution and re-establish the old orthodoxies."
8. "When his majesty rose as king, the temples and the cities of the gods and goddesses were fallen into ruin. Their shrines were fallen into decay and had become weed-strewn mounds. For the earth was like a sickness. The gods had turned their back on this land. If an army was sent to extend the borders of Egypt, it met with no success. If a god was beseeched likewise, he did not come at all. Their spirits were weak in their bodies and they were destroying creation." Then came a leader who restored the land to life, prosperity, and health.
9. "Psamtek took pains to uphold the established line of succession, rather than simply promoting his daughter immediately to the top job."
10. "The reward for this is a million years of life, a million years of stability and a million years of dominion."
11. "Their decision was confirmed in writing, as follows: 'We hereby give to you all our property in country and town. You shall be established upon our throne and shall endure and abide until the end of eternity.'" Their witnesses were all the priests, and friends of the temple.
12. One of the songs expressed a "common scepticism about life after death, suggesting that such doubts were less rare in ancient Egypt than the official texts would lead us to believe."
13. The nurses who delivered two children said, "What did we come here for, if we do not perform a wonder for these children that we can report to their father who sent us?"
14. "Be wary of subordinates who have not yet come into their own.
Do not get too close to them; do not be alone with them."
15. "Be a writer. Become skilled in writing. To be able to write a book is a valuable skill."
The Arabian Nights - Tales of 1001 Nights
1. "Muslims are required to pray five times a day."
2. There is an Egyptian term that refers to the patterns of sexual intercourse, or the patterns people go through when they're having sex.
3. "I met a woman, who I befriended and we spent a great deal of time together. We enjoyed ourselves. The woman told me, however, that she was ill. Soon afterwards, she died, and after I saw to it that she was properly laid to rest, a clerk came to me and informed me that the woman had left me a great deal of money. I became rich overnight."
4. "I met a beautiful woman who also had the sweetest voice. We spent a good deal of time together. Unfortunately, she swindled me and took a great deal of money from me."
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Lately my Facebook page has been updated first with the reading, and then a day or so afterwards, I update this blog.
The Tain Bo Cúalnge
1. The hero meets 50 of the kings men, and scatters them across the field; he stuns them with his blows.
2. The hero meets a superior, who calms him down and talks to him.
3. The hero meets other warriors.
4. All of the men have a feast, and eat roasted pig.
5. M.A. Nanga is one of the characters' names in a Chinua Achebe novel. There is also nangavanga.
6. “He is the loneliest boy on earth.” —William Wordsworth
7. "Get your partner something to eat, something to drink, if you want to do something nice for her." --Sappho
8. "Just lay beside each other and rest, or watch the stars, or a movie." --Sappho
9. “You and your partner can talk just for the sake of talking.” —Sappho
10. “The ‘talk for talking,’ could be accompanied by soft laughter.”
11. “Then repeat this, and do the same things over again day after day with your partner.”
The Arabian Nights - Tales of 1001 Nights
1. When a woman wants something, nothing can get the better of her."
2. What is a cause for wonder is a man, Whom women have not trapped by their allure."
3. "Shahrazad had read books and histories, accounts of past kings and stories of earlier peoples, having collected, it was said, a thousand columes of these, covering peoples, kings and poets."
4. "You must know, my daughter, that a certain merchant had both wealth and animals and had been given by Almighty God a knowledge of the languages of beasts and birds."
5. "Time passes slowly sometimes."
6. "You think your life is bad now, well you could have it worse."
7. The old man owned a gazelle, which he had on a leash. The gazelle used to be his sister, but was trapped in the gazelle's animal body by a magic spell. The gazelle can speak to the man.
8. The old man also owned two Salukis (dogs). The two dogs used to be his brothers, and were also trapped in their animal bodies by a sorcerer. The dogs can also speak to the old man.
9. A good idea for a movie is to have animals who talk.
10. "The evil-doer's own deeds are punishment enough for him."
"" Research in Psychiatry and Law
11. Omitted.
12. "I wandered into a butcher shop, where one of the butcher's daughters sprinkled some water over my head, said some magic words, and I then returned to human form."
11. A poor old fisherman is out one morning casting his net to catch fish. He casts the net several times unsuccessfully, bringing in worthless fish, mud, wood pieces. After several hours of this, he casts his net, and in it he retrieves a bottle, an ancient bottle with text inscribed on it indicating that it belongs to Solomon, son of David. After examining the bottle for some time, a genie appears.
12. At first, the old fisherman is scared of the powerful genie, but then the two men begin to speak.
13. The genie explains his past, that he was the son of David, a warrior enmeshed in a holy war. A magician trapped him inside the bottle, and this was his state, for four hundred years, until now.
14. Omitted.
15. The genie will now grant the fisherman three wishes.
16. Briefly refers to the mamluks, slave warriors.
Monday, August 5, 2024
The Arabian Nights
1. In The Arabian Nights tale the Three Calendars, Sons of Kings, there is a government official who gets drunk and then tries to pass laws. This injures one honest man, who is then saved by an honest politician.
2. “You are not allowed in the castle, because you are uncircumcised and eat fish.” —The Arabian Nights
3. “This rebellious vizier had conceived a strong hatred against me, and had for a long time cherished it. The cause of his hostility was as follows: When I was very young, I was fond of shooting with a cross-bow. One day I carried my weapon to the upper part of the palace, and amused myself with it on the terrace. A bird happened to fly up before me; I shot at it, but missed; and the arrow, by chance, struck the vizier on the eye, and destroyed the sight, as he was taking the air on the terrace of his own house." As a result of this, he has been trying to prosecute and jail me ever since.
4. “Read commentary about the Koran.”
5. “Write in script as an excellent alternative to print. Use them both to show off your handwriting skills.”
6. “I met the king, who made me swear an oath of secrecy, made me swear that I would never tell anyone his secret.”
7. “As I spoke, the count could tell that I was lying, that I had something to hide.”
8. “Many biblical peoples had to undergo the covenant of circumcision.”
Saturday, August 3, 2024
I. The Tain Bo Cúalnge (Irish Epic)
2. We meet a well off woman who is a rich man’s wife. Her rich husband is known for gift-giving.
3. One of the characters is named Fiachna, Fiachina, Fia, Fianna.
4. When they were drunk, they spoke foolish words.
5. “It is not easy to exercise after drinking.”
6. “Some people come from large families, and some people come from small families.”
7. “Her voice and speech were as melodious and sweet as the strings of lutes when played by master hands.”
8. “Beauty pageants should weigh the cultural qualities that make a woman beautiful.”
II. 1. “Different tribes and different districts existed in Ireland.”
2. “Not perplexed,” answered Cuchulain; “ it is easier for me than for thee. For I have three magical virtues: Gift of sight, gift of understanding, and gift of reckoning.
3. “Now, many and divers were the magic virtues that were in Cuchulain that were in no one else in his day. Excellence of form, excellence of shape, excellence of build, excellence in swimming, excellence in horsemanship, excellence in chess and in draughts, excellence in battle…”
4. “He reduced the chariot to fragments and splinters, bits and pieces.”
5. “All the tribes of Ireland came out for this one small boy.”
6. “Thou findest not there one that could equal his age and his growth, his dress and his terror, his size and his splendour, his fame and his voice, his shape and his power, his form and his speech, his strength and his feats and his valour, his smiting, his heat and his anger.”
7. “He closed one of his eyes so that it was no wider than the eye of a needle. He opened the other wide so that it was as big as the mouth of a mead-cup.”
8. “To cause social change, it is best to do so through government ways, instead of through rioting and protests.” —Nelson Mandela
9. “Soup broth is good for you.” —Jane Austen. With this in mind, you can eat Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle, if you first eat some of the broth, and then eat the noodles.
10. Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle is good, and don’t be afraid to dilute it with half a can of cold water.
11. St Augustine was a religious figure who spent a good deal of time working in Hippo, Africa, or what is now Annaba, Algeria.
12. In the Tain, there are several instances of the Irish heroes feasting and drinking.
The Arabian Nights
1. Introduction - The first book to be written with this content was the book Hazar Afsan, which means ‘A Thousand Stories’. The basis for this was that one of their kings used to marry a woman, spend a night with her and kill her the next day.
2. In their originating habitat, the stories were basically meant as entertainments for coffeehouse audiences and urban communities at a time when storytelling was a central entertainment.
3. It is understandable that European neoclassicists rejected writing that did not correspond to their standards of composition, but their disdain did not keep the tales from becoming popular, given their appeal to perennial sentiments and human needs. Writers and poets in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe and America received the tales with joy and admiration. There were, for example, the enthusiastic responses of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville in America, and of Samuel Johnson, Horace Walpole, William Beckford, Samuel T. Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, John Keats, Charles Dickens, George Elliot, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and George Meredith in Britain.
4. The Arabian Nights include elements of criticism, history, philosophy, comedy and more.
5. These tales, according to critic William E. A. Axon, came at a time when the European reading public was sick “of sham classical romances of interminable and portentous unreality.”
6. Indeed, while some tales in the Arabian Nights are realistic, others operate by means of magical machinery and supernatural agency. The natural and the supernatural fuse in many tales, something that appealed not only to the Romantics but also to their late-nineteenth-century descendants. Les Mille et une nuits, contes arabes, in its first translation in French and then in English, was next to the Bible in popularity among readers in England, France, and other countries. In 1889 C. H. Toy wrote for the Atlantic Monthly on the vogue of the tales in France. He emphasized their Oriental garb, their charming sentiments, the mystery they conveyed of a “strange life,” and their delicacy of humor.
7. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, for Longman’s Magazine that the collection was “more generally loved than Shakespeare,” for it “captivates in childhood, and still delights in age.”
8. In other words, knowledge becomes power when it is exercised; Scheherazade resorts to storytelling and suspense to captivate the Sultan, keeping him thereby from further brutality.
9. Arose during a time when unremarkable literature was being written.
10. Warnings increase curiosity, and may interfere with clear thinking, for the propensity to satisfy one’s curiosity can be more powerful than contravening considerations of comfort and security. In “The History of the Third Calender, the Son of a King,” the third calender is told: “Friend, sit down upon the carpet in the centre of this room, and seek not to know anything that regards us, nor the reason why we are all blind of the right eye”
11. Oaths and promises are effective narrative devices, too; to breach them is to invite consequences. In “The History of the Greek King and Douban the Physician,” the physician who cures the King is promised wealth but instead receives death at the hands of the King (p. 34). For breaking his promise, the King himself suffers death. The same happens to the genie rescued by the fisherman in “The Story of the Merchant and the Genie”: He is imprisoned in the sealed jar again, and not released until he vows to serve the fisherman.
12. Finally, the Arabian Nights narrative celebrates the art of storytelling by celebrating itself: To tell a good story is to put yourself in the way of great rewards. The ransom motive (especially in this edition’s part two, the ransom frame) is central to Scheherazade’s initiative.9 Believing in her art, she not only encourages the Sultan to let her survive as queen and live happily ever after but also saves other women and influences a new social order of merits and punishments.
13. To the non-Arabist their world is out of space, out of time.
14. Influenced artists such as John Keats and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
15. The pleasure gotten by both poets and the common reader from the Arabian Nights should be seen, too, in relation to a growing Orientalism that fed the colonial desire for lands and riches. More than any other book, the tales became for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century readers an unparalleled repository for images of the Orient (that is, the present Middle East) as sensuous, luxurious, rich, dormant and exotic.
16. In the tales the supernatural has a religious explanation, for the jinn (genies) are recognized in the Qur’an. Third, there are human concerns that relate to love, beauty, women, jealousy, travel, geography, business, social mobility, and culture; a feeling for these themes shapes the tales as a whole and give a reader the sense that the unifying subject matter is something immutably human.
17. There is always an association between love and beauty, for beauty in itself can arouse the lover; music and singing—the more beautiful the better—are often part of courtship.
18. But love can lead to death, for separation from one’s partner drives a lover to languish in agony, an issue that always appealed to the Romantics. The topic drew the attention of many, including George Meredith, as it brought something new to the concept of love.
19. All the tales of Iraqi origin treat wine in a very free manner; Abu Hanifa’s advice is to drink in moderation to avoid intoxication.
20. Genie (Jinn). Demons are among the spirits that populate the universe, as mentioned in the Qur’an. In the tales, these powerful creatures can be subdued through human intelligence, by other supernatural beings, or by caliphs, in their role as vicars of God. In the Qur’an genies belong to another world, but they are part of this universe, too. Only Solomon has been endowed with control over the world of the genies; those who disobey Solomon are punished, usually by imprisonment in a sealed jar. Among genies there are believers and unbelievers; the Koran (Qur’an) divides them as such, exactly as it does human beings.
21. In The Story of the Three Calenders, Sons of Kings, and of Five Ladies of Bagdad, a man got intoxicated and then his friends sent him on a mission to go get things from the store.
22. He got into trouble when he went out, since he was drunk. The moral of the story is be careful when drinking.
Friday, August 2, 2024
Writings from Ancient Egypt
1. "War is bad, because it involves death and destruction; peace is better."
2. Holy bodies of water exist, where people go to purify themselves.
3. "The god's seed is in me." Due to our divine creation, we all possess traces of god.
4. "Officials don't have to enact a thousand laws in government, just let people rule themselves, and peace and harmony will be achieved."
5. The number of mayors, senators, and governors are so numerous, that often, they are in the dark, or ignorant about many things.
6. He lived as a monk, his clothes were in tatters, he ate only a little, he was not rich.
7. Some hymns in ancient Egypt were designed to be read aloud.
8. "In the Cannibal Hymn, it is the gods who are butchered, cooked and eaten by the kings, so that he may absorb and deploy their powers to assist him in his resurrection and apotheosis after death."
9. ""When it rains and thunders, people are arguing."
10. "The people should be happy for things such as a plentiful harvest, and plenty of food; shelter from rain and snow; being allowed to breathe freely."
11. Refers to the sun as the living Orb.
12. Gives thanks to the sun for giving light to the earth. When the sun shines, it brings life to the world. The sun makes fruits and vegetables grow.
13. "Everyone has his food, his allotted lifespan.
Their tongues differ in speech, their characters likewise.
Their skins are different, because you made the foreigners distinct."
14. Discusses a man who no one will remember when he's gone.
15. "Changes are happening; it is not like last year.
Each year is more burdensome than another.
The land is in confusion and has become injurious to me."
16. "The commander is in the same position as the commanded."
17. "The poor man has not the strength to defend himself against the more powerful." --Posted to Research in Psychiatry and Law
18. "People should be compensated for everything that they do at their jobs, not just what is stated in writing. This includes putting up with bad behavior."
19. A clause in the contract of workers which applies to if they receive bad behavior and compensates them for it might be appropriate as well.
Thursday, August 1, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. 4:45pm -- please review my Facebook page for notes from today's reading.
Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust
Thursday, August 1, 2024 — 3:45pm
1. Swann began to take an interest in the character of a girl he admired.
2. Lust vs love - physical attraction to someone vs physical and intellectual admiration for someone.
3. “And yet I should so much like to learn, to know things, to be initiated. What fun it would be to become a regular bookworm, to bury my nose in a lot of old papers!”
4. “He was a man who wanted a woman who knew how to cook.”
5. She engaged him on an intellectual level. She entertained his thoughts and held discussions with him.
6. They got along well together.
7. There were not many different levels to Swann.
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust
1. Toys for children can be played like adults look at photographs of actors and actresses. Children look at their favorite toys and sometimes interact with them.
2. St Augustine was a religious figure who spent a great deal of time in Africa, in what was then called the Hippo region of Africa.
3. One ancient Egyptian term focuses on the individual, or the characteristics of a person that makes them unique.
4. “It's fun to watch the cable music channels (classical, 70’s, jazz,) on your tv at night!"
5. “Classical music is perfect for a garden.”
6. “…and especially Mme Verdurin, for whom—so strong was her habit of taking literally the figurative accounts of her emotions—Dr Cottard, who was then just starting in general practice…”
7. “It is nice when the sky has blue tints in it, even when there is a pink tint among the blues, and especially when there is a bird flying through it.”
8. If the pianist suggested playing the Ride of the Valkyries, or the Prelude to Tristanan, Mme Verdurin would protest, not that the music was displeasing to her, but, on the contrary, that it made too violent an impression.
9. “The morning is a perfect time to play classical music.”
10. “If you don’t do this, then you’ll do that. If you don’t do that, then you’ll do a third. If you don’t do a third, then you’ll do a fourth.”
11. “He never formed an opinion on any subject until she had formed hers, his special duty being to carry out her wishes and those of the ‘faithful’ generally, which he did with boundless ingenuity.”
12. “‘What do you say?’ ‘Why, as if anybody could refuse anything to a little piece of perfection like that. Be quiet; no one asked your opinion.’”
13. “To do this, would have been viewed as a cowardly act in the game of life.”
14. “A starving man might barter a diamond for a crust of bread.”
15. “Indeed, when it was too late, he would laugh at himself for it, for there was in his nature, redeemed by many rare refinements, an element of clownishness.”
16. “Then he belonged to that class of intelligent men who have led a life of idleness, and who seek consolation and, perhaps, an excuse in the idea, which their idleness offers to their intelligence, of objects as worthy of their interest as any that could be attained by art or learning, the idea that ‘Life’ contains situations more interesting and more romantic than all the romances ever written.”
17. “He had met a woman on the train, and had taken her home with him, before discovering that she was the sister of a reigning monarch, in whose hands were gathered, at that moment, all the threads of European politics, of which he found himself kept informed in the most delightful fashion…”
18. Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? - a popular poem by William Shakespeare. Compares a woman’s beauty to a summer day. “But thy eternal summer shall not fade…” - Mourns the end of summer, yet praises its immortal essence.
19. “The tints, which live along the raptured sky.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Sunday, July 28, 2024
Writings from Ancient Egypt,
Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust
& Confessions, St Augustine
1. “The action of touching the forehead to the ground was a sign of respect (compare the tradition of the Pope kissing the ground on arrival in another country.)” —Writings from Ancient Egypt
2. Tells the story of a king who is praised by statues with quotes, inscriptions, and sayings, rather than his detailed biography. —Writings from Ancient Egypt
3. The window was partly open; the lamp was lighted...
Confessions, St Augustine:
4. “You are great, lord…Still he desires to praise you, this man who is only a small part of your creation.”
5. “Have mercy on my client, kind men and women.”
Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust:
6. “…an artist in evil, which a wholly wicked person could not be, for in that case the evil would not have been external, it would have seemed quite natural to her, and would not even have been distinguishable from herself…”
7. “I would amuse myself by watching the glass jars which the boys used to lower into the Vivonne, to catch minnows…”
8. “It was evident to me then that I existed in the same manner as all other men, that I must grow old, that I must die like them, and that among them I was to be distinguished merely as one of those who have no aptitude for writing.”
9. “Her eyes waxed blue as a periwinkle flower, wholly beyond my reach, yet dedicated by her to me…”
10. “The zone of melancholy which I then entered was totally distinct from that other zone, in which I had been bounding for joy a moment earlier, just as sometimes in the sky a band of pink is separated, as though by a line invisibly ruled, from a band of green or black. You may see a bird flying across the pink; it draws near the border-line, touches it, enters and is lost upon the black.”
11. “Additionally, while it is good to write loops, it can be better and more efficient to write connecting u's or connecting v's instead.”
"" Write with Both Hands post.
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust
1. “…which, at the moment when I heard it, seemed to me fuller, more portentous than any other name, because it was burdened with the weight of all the occasions on which I had secretly uttered it in my mind.”
2. “Study the trajectory of the bullet, in order to solve the crime.”
3. “I did not, however, hear her. ‘Oh, my poor little hawthorns,’ I was assuring them through my sobs, ‘it is not you that want to make me unhappy, to force me to leave you.”
4. “And, drying my eyes, I promised them that, when I grew up, I would never copy the foolish example of other men, but that even in Paris, on fine spring days, instead of paying calls and listening to silly talk, I would make excursions into the country to see the first hawthorn-trees in bloom.”
5. “I was taught to recognize the more subtle harmonies, in the music she played.”
6. Discusses the novels of Saintine, the art of Gleyre.
7. “They held that one ought to set before children, and that children showed their own innate good taste in admiring, only such books and pictures as they would continue to admire when their minds were developed and mature.”
8. “As a reward for his hard work, a man was given by the government, land, so that he could live on it with his friends.” —Writings from Ancient Egypt
9. The Egyptian term ka denoted the life-force.
10. “A good race/match is when the men match each other, stride for stride, blow for blow.” —Virgil
Friday, July 26, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. 7:30pm -- please review my Facebook page for notes from today's reading.
Swann's Way Marcel Proust
1. “He viewed a portrait of Mahomet II.”
2. “You can know a neighborhood by street names, or by sight and landmarks.”
3. “Anyhow, my father’s fears were dissipated no later than the following evening. As we returned from a long walk we saw, near the Pont-Vieux, Legrandin himself, who, on account of the holidays, was spending a few days more in Combray.”
4. “He admired French because it is a guttural language.”
5. References the writings of Paul Desjardins.
6. “What fascinated me was a rainbow-loveliness that was not of this world.”
7. “Some brands of coffee are more fragrant than others.”
8. “Learn first aid for help in an emergency.”
9. Omitted.
10. “When we cook meat, we are also cooking flesh.”
11. “Don’t be a lifeless puppet to other people’s desires.”
12. “A can of Goya black bean soup, and a can of Yams (sweet potatoes), cooked on the stovetop, and mixed together, tastes great — an Afro-Latino dish!”
13. Of my father’s uncertainty, “It was like every attitude or action which reveals a man’s deep and hidden character; they bear no relation to what he has previously said…”
14. “He was skilled at imitating women.” —Dante Alighieri
15. “‘Now you really are a man.’ And since he did not understand what she meant, she spelled it out to him. ‘You’re going to be a father.’” —One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
16. “There are tints in the clouds this evening, violets and blues, which are very beautiful, are they not, my friend?’ he said to my father.” Degrees of dark blue and light blue.
17. “It’s like looking at your portion of the sky from space.”
18. Historical sites where they are now building hotels or restaurants on.
19. “View your last days and death as a dream sequence.”
20. “Ballet is a dramatic art.”
21. Briefly discusses “young houris.”
22. “Somewhere in one of the tall trees, an invisible bird was exploring.”
23. “And it was indeed a hawthorn, but one whose flowers were pink, and lovelier even than the white. It, too, was in holiday attire, for one of those days which are the only true holidays, the holy days of religion…”
24. “…by burying the bush in these little rosettes, almost too ravishing in colour, this rustic ‘pompadour’. High up on the branches, like so many of those tiny rose-trees, their pots concealed in jackets of paper lace, whose slender stems rise in a forest from the altar on the greater festivals…”
25. “…of a pink as fragrant and as faded as old Spanish leather…”
26. “‘Gilberte, come along; what are you doing?’ called out in a piercing tone of authority a lady in white.”
27. “…she would send down to say that she was tired at the moment and resting, but that she would be happy to see him another time.”
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. 1:30pm -- please see my Facebook page for notes from today's reading.
Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust
1. “Russian Fables,” by Ivan Krylov, is a popular collection of stories.
Added to “Russian Literature” post.
2. Watercolors are for when you want to draw the sky, the morning.
“Imitate other artists who draw watercolors.”
3. “I saw a woman, but was uncertain whether I ought to address her as Madame or Mademoiselle.”
4. “She enjoyed looking at photographs of actresses.”
5. The plot of a novel is different from its details (quotes, ideas gained).
6. “The beauty of women varies, from natural and simple, to makeup and jewelry.”
7. “She was a woman of good family and refinement.”
8. “I admired the image of a butterfly poised upon a flower.”
9. “Read the works of Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir.”
10. Simone de Beauvoir, in The Second Sex, discusses “masculine women,” who compete with men. Also discusses the double standard that exists where women are expected to be attractive, but not too attractive to threaten men. Discusses the ignorance of male chauvinistists.
11. “Day to day, you do your best, that’s all that you can do.”
12. “Examine the difference between the state of Nature and the state of Culture.”
13. “The division of the sexes is a biological given, not a moment in history.”
14. “Women are equal, and should, if they do not already, receive some concessions in society due to their biological makeup.”
15. Affirmative action has benefited women and blacks.
16. Women sometimes experience an alienation in society.
17. “Beautiful things have a magical power over us.”
18. “Notre-Dame de Paris is a beautiful, impressive architectural structure.”
19. “It is good to look at masterpieces of art.”
20. “…they kiss and believe that beneath the crushing breastplate there beats a heart different from the rest.”
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
The Aeneid, Virgil
1. After the crown taunts him, asks, “Where’s your humanity?”
2. “What did I do to deserve this treatment?
3. “Have you no pity for me?”
4. “You’re expending all that energy taunting me, save your energy and be reasonable.”
5. "Be a man of your word, a person who represents honesty and integrity, ideas which nations were founded on.”
6. "I dismissed his statements as random ramblings of a crazy person.”
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Swann's Way, Marcel Proust
1. Draw the sky, watercolors are for drawing the sky.
2. Home fries/hash browns are easy to make, they're just potatoes cut into small pieces, seasoned, and cooked.
Monday, July 22, 2024
Swann's Way, Marcel Proust
1. ‘I do not agree with you: there are some days when I find reading the papers very pleasant indeed!’
2. Swann was puzzled, but went on: ‘ “I cannot say whether it was his ignorance or a trap,”...
3. "Hasn't he been punished enough?"
" " Research in Psychiatry and Law
4. “When I tucked the kids in bed at night, it was okay if I laughed.”
5. "Look, since you can’t sleep, and Mamma can’t either, we mustn’t go on in this stupid way; we must do something; I’ll get one of your books."
Maybe your children are at the age when you can read them fairy tales (or children's books).
6. "...and had there fallen back upon the four pastoral novels of George Sand."
7. Engage in activities where intellectual profit is to be derived.
Writings from Ancient Egypt
1. Certain things we do because it is proper behavior in society; there are established norms and customs that we follow in our society.
2. “Our ability to write affects our speech; the better we can write, the better we can speak.”
3. “When we get along with our wife, that is a thing to be cherished.”
4. "Benefits of script handwriting" is a term that I searched for on the web. "Cursive provides a flow of thought as well as a flow of words," and "cursive is a smoother form of writing," are some comments that are stated.
5. In Nelson Mandela's autobiography he writes that he met a girl who he liked and then she left and they never saw each other again.
6. “In ancient Egypt words had a magical power: to utter a thought made it effective.”
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Writings from Ancient Egypt
1. The tale of the royal children
2. "Go forth and let her give birth to the three children, who will carry out this excellent office in the entire land. For they will build your temples, provision your altars, endow your offering-tables and increase your offerings." They will be the future kings, future celebrities, who will have lots of friends.
3. The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor
4. ...the work reveals itself on closer study to possess a complexity and sophistication of structure, symbolism and meaning. The structure involves a tale within a tale. At the outset of the story, the sailor recounts a tale of his triumph over adversity.
5. Omitted.
Teachings
6. The survival of a relatively large number of teachings is no accident. They were considered ideal texts for use in scribal training schools -- imparting both writing skills and lessons in morality at the same time, and so were extensively copied by trainee scribes.
7. ...all six texts emphasize the same broad themes: balance and restraint in one's personal life, respect for social norms and deference to one's superiors.
7. Indeed, 'perfect speech' -- the public delivery of finely crafted words that reflected the wisdom and experience of the speaker, championed the correct order of things and served to educate as well as entertain the listener -- was one of the most highly esteemed skills in ancient Egypt at all periods.
8. "Script handwriting is a great way to display your writing skills."
To be continued.
9. "A good writing exercise it to write essays on different subjects."
10. Twenty-third maxim
11. Know when to speak, when to remain silent. Your silence will be more effective than idle chatter. Speak (only) when you have thought of a solution.
The Teaching of King Amenemhat I for His Son
12. "I was a maker of grain, beloved of Nepri.
No one was hungry during my years, no one was thirsty.
One sat (comfortably) because of what I did, and spoke well of me.
For I had ordained everything in its proper place."
13. "Laws can always be reversed or changed."
14. The king built for himself and his family a house decorated with gold, lavishly furnished.
15. "We like the reign of some rulers better than that of others."
16. Discusses the theme of loyalty to a ruler and its relation to social cohesion. Also discusses people who rebel against the current ruler.
17. "Writing is useful if you want to be an author, journalist, or poet." Note famous writers of the past.
18. "Some people are skilled in writing."
19. "A book is more effective than a well-built house or a chapel."
20. "They are gone, their names forgotten, but writings cause them to be remembered."
21. Discusses characteristics of certain jobs, including: the carpenter, the barber, and the potter.
22. The job of a scribe or scholar is in many ways better than work as a carpenter or manual laborer.
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Swann's Way, Marcel Proust
1. “I would go for long walks in the mornings and evenings.”
2. "It's good to tell stories about the good old days."
3. “I spent my time looking at the door handle.”
4. “She spent a great deal of time sitting in her garden.”
5. "It is a pity to shut oneself indoors in the country."
6. Discusses his feeling of uncertainty about the future.
7. “I spent a good deal of time, just sitting and listening to the sounds around me.”
8. "The memories of the old days were important to him."
9. "He entered with a basket of peaches or raspberries from his garden."
10. “Penny toys are great gifts for kids.”
Writings from Ancient Egypt
1. “The king is wise, partly because of the contributions of his wife and children.” --Ancient Egyptain writer.
2. In one story, for their contributions to the king, his wife and children were entitled to his fortune.
3. “Socially speaking, a family of a high bloodline was more valuable than a low-ranking family.”
4. In one story, after the king’s death, his wife succeeds him on the throne, and becomes queen.
5. “Knowledge of the past, and of past family members is valuable history.”
6. Stories are a feature of every known culture. In most societies until recent times, stories were passed down orally. Yet it would be a mistake to dismiss these works as mere children's tales, for the imagery is richly layered and the subject matter is at times highly controversial.
7. Tales of Wonder, or The Tale of the Court of King Khufu. In this story, there is a king who is very rich, but cannot find peace and contentment. To contrast this, there is the poor man, who has little or nothing, but lives in peace and contentment.
8. Prince Hordedef's Tale. In this story, Prince Hordedef indicates that old age is different from one's youth, and that one should act differently in old age than one does in youth.
9. "Why do you look upset? You should be happy, your wife is about to give birth. This is a reason to be happy."
Friday, July 19, 2024
Writings from Ancient Egypt, Toby Wilkinson
The Will of Naunakht.
1. Women in pharaonic Egypt enjoyed a legal status equal to that of men. They shared their husband's wealth, and sometimes, even spent more of their husband's wealth than their husband.
2. "...And women were free to dispose of their wealth as they wished." Examine, for example, the last will and testament of Naunakht, a woman of modest means who lived in Thebes in the mid Twentieth Dynasty, at the end of the New Kingdom, during the reign of Ramesses V. In it, Naunakht sets out how she wishes her property to be divided after her death.
3. "In many cultures (even today), all children would have an equal claim on a parent's estate. Not in ancient Egypt. Naunakht makes it very clear that she intends to leave her property to be divided among those five of her eight children who have looked after her in her old age. The other three children she disinherits -- although she cannot prevent them from inheriting their father's property."
4. "Her favourite son is singled out for special favour, receiving not only his share of her estate but also her single most valuable asset, a bronze statuette."
5. "Her will offers fascinating insights, not only into ancient Egyptian law, but also into the dynamics of an ancient Egyptian family."
6. Naunakht determined which of her children were her favorite through their degree of respect for her, for themselves, for their god and for their outlying society. For the children who she didn't like, she wrote them out of the will, and gave them nothing.
7. The end.
8. To be continued.
9. "You can’t talk to your soul so much.” —Ancient Egyptian writings
10. “It is easier to do some things, than it is to do others.” —Ancient Egyptian writings
11. Tells the story of a person who credited the success and conquest of a nation, to its leader, or its head.
12. Don’t get mad at a man in an administrative position of power, he has to do a job too, and the decision can sometimes be reversed, as is the nature of government.
13. An option for people who are being persecuted, may be to retreat, or leave the area.
14. During a flood, in the city, everything was destroyed. The leader had to rebuild the city from ruble, even administrative agencies.
15. The king created several commemorative scarabs, or coins, praising people for their good deeds.
Jane Austen and George Eliot would be good women for commemorative coins— I learned a lot reading their books. This applies to all of the authors I've read.
16. The scarabs also contained explanatory notes with information about each person.
Misc. Notes
1. “He viewed the gods with reverence and awe.” —Hesiod, Homeric Hymns
2. “A teddy bear is a lot like a bear cub.” —Greek dictionary.
3. “He didn’t know that he was talking to a drunk person.”
4. “Alcohol impairs your memory, and ability to perform simple tasks.”
5. γεύμα -- gévma -- meal
6. vaselini -- vaseline
7. Omitted.
8. Some people have difficulties with patience, that is, they have problems being patient.
Thursday, July 18, 2024
The Oxford New Greek Dictionary
1. ham -- ζαμπόν -- zampón
2. herb -- βότανο -- vótano
3. hermit -- ερημίτης -- erimítis
K
4. kebab -- souvlaki
5. khaki -- χακί
6. kitten -- γατάκι -- gatáki
7. kitchen -- κουζίνα -- kouzína
You are supposed to be cozy, in your apartment or house.
8. Rice a Roni and Perdue chicken strips (chopped into small pieces, mixed with chopped tomato, and a little bit of mayo,) tastes great!
A
9. amamilos -- witch hazel
10. αλογοουρά -- alogoourá -- ponytail
11. απιδιά -- pear
Don't exclude some fruits arbitrarily -- eat all fruits, just because they're there!
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. “He drank whisky diluted with water.” —James Joyce
2. “He drank a beverage with only a few drops of alcohol in it.” —James Joyce
3. “The two friends played nose goes, or the nose game.” — James Joyce
In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
1. "I would close my eyes, and lie down for a long time, and play like I was asleep.”
2. “I would play the same games that I played in my boyhood.”
3. Many of the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Marcel Proust are available for free on Project Gutenberg.
4. “All of a sudden, he began to act like a man.”
5. “The couple sat in the garden and drank coffee.”
6. “My heart began to beat fast, and I had to order myself to keep calm.”
7. "It is simple to make iced coffee."
8. "He possessed a great deal of practical wisdom."
9. “The cakes that are sold in supermarkets might go good with iced coffee.”
10. “The best judges, are judges who are capable of understanding and compassion.” —Victor Hugo
11. “White-collar crimes are different than criminal crimes. White-collar crimes are often not physical in nature, for example.” -- Victor Hugo
"" Research in Psychiatry and Law
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Remember that many cable companies have music channels that you can watch on your tv.
2. “Don’t worry and obsess about trying to hit the right note in your songs, just sing man," said one of Al Green’s band members, in Soul Survivor: A Biography of Al Green by Jimmy McDonough.
3. Juneteenth, by Ralph Ellison is a book that I want to read.
4. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, indicates that there are certain prayers, or recitations that the living can give to the dead.
The Oxford New Greek Dictionary
1. decipher -- αποκρυπτογραφώ -- apokryptografó
It is good to decipher the meaning of words from different languages.
2. defy -- προκαλώ -- prokaló
3. demon -- δαίμων -- daimon
4. dictionary -- lexico
5. discolour -- αποχρωματίζω -- apochromatízo
6. discount (n) -- έκπτωση -- ékptosi
Going to the stores and shopping for discounts is good!
7. disease -- νόσος
A disease is not something that you're born with.
8. dolphin -- δελφίνι -- delfíni
9. domino -- ντόμινο -- ntómino
10. dream -- όνειρο -- óneiro
11. doctor -- γιατρός -- giatrós
12. doubt -- distazō
E
13. ear -- αυτί -- aftí
Use headphones to block out noise.
14. energy -- ενέργεια -- enérgeia
15. ermine -- ερμίνα -- ermina
16. evergreen -- αειθαλής -- aeithalís
F
18. fable -- μύθος -- mýthos
19. fabric -- ύφασμα -- ýfasma
20. fictitious -- φανταστικός
21. fig -- Σύκο -- Sýko
22. fried -- τηγανητό -- tiganitó
23. friend -- φίλος -- fílos
24. frizzy -- σγουρός
G
25. Gaelic -- keltikos -- γαλελικός
galelikós
26. ghost -- φάντασμα -- fántasma
27. girl -- κοπέλα
28. guard -- προστατεύω
29. guess -- μαντεύω
H
30. heaven -- παράδεισος -- parádeisos
Sunday, July 14, 2024
The Oxford New Greek Dictionary
1. saliva — σάλιο — salio
Omitted.
2. acoustic -- ακουστικός -- akoustikós
3. additive -- πρόσθετο ουσ ουδ
4. adrenaline -- αδρεναλίνη
5. air -- αέρας -- aéras
6. almond -- αμύγδαλο -- amýgdalo
7. ankle -- αστράγαλος -- astrágalos
8. ant -- μυρμήγκι -- myrmínki
9. appetite -- όρεξη -- órexi
10. appetizing -- ορεκτικός -- orektikós
11. apple -- μήλο -- mílo
12. apron -- ποδιά -- podiá
13. aquarium -- ενυδρείο -- enydreío
14. ashtray -- σταχτοδοχείο
15. aspirin -- ασπιρίνη -- aspiríni
16. Asia -- Ἀσία
17. aunt -- θεία -- theía
B
18. bean -- φασόλι -- fasóli
19. black -- μαύρος -- mávros
20. blueprint -- προσχέδιο -- proschédio
21. book -- Βιβλίο -- Vivlío
C
22. cabin -- καμπίνα -- kampína
Many people live in cabin-style homes.
23. cab -- ταξί -- taxí
24. cabinet -- ντουλάπι -- locker -- ερμάριο
25. camel -- καμήλα -- kamíla
26. candy -- καραμέλα -- karaméla
27. caramel -- καραμέλλα -- karamélla
28. caress -- χάδι, χαϊδεύω
chádi, chaïdévo
29. cattle -- βοοειδή -- vooeidí
30. caterpillar -- κάμπια -- kámpia
31. cereal -- δημητριακό -- dimitriakó
Cereal tastes good, but you just have to keep buying it before it gets stale.
32. cheap -- φτηνός -- ftinós
33. chin -- πηγούνι -- pigoúni
34. China -- Κίνα -- Kína
35. chive -- είδος κρεμμυδιού -- eídos kremmydioú
36. Christ -- Χριστός -- Christós
37. claustrophobia
38. Coca Cola -- Κόκα-κόλα
39. corn -- καλαμπόκι -- kalampóki
40. complexion -- χροιά -- chroiá
41. cracker -- μπισκότο
42. baby carriage -- καροτσάκι (μωρού)
43. crayon -- κραγιόν
44. crochet -- κροσέ
45. cruise -- κρουαζιέρα -- krouaziéra
46. crust -- κόρα
47. daffodil -- νάρκισσος
The origins of Narcissus - The drooping flowers that characterise most daffodils are said to represent Narcissus bending over to catch his reflection in a pool of water. The name derives from the Greek 'narco', which is the root of the word narcotic.
48. Determine what cereals are good for adults, as well as children.
Saturday, July 13, 2024
The Aeneid, Virgil
1. “She kindles fragrant cedar through the night.”
2. Readers are introduced to Caesar Augustus, of the line Iulus.
3. “He felt a refreshing breeze at night.”
4. In the palace lay a sacred laurel, named Laurentes. This shrub is treated similarly to the burning bush in the Bible.
5. “Here all the Italian tribes and all Oenotria’s land, seek out the oracle’s response in hours of doubt.”
6. “There, before the city,
boys and young men in their vibrant strength
are trained as riders, challenging friends to race or box
when a herald comes riding up ahead of the Trojans."
7. "All stand in the forecourt, and all the other kings
from the start of time, and those who had taken
wounds in war, fighting to save their country.
Many weapons too, hang on the hallowed doors,
captured chariots, curved axes, crested helmets,
enormous bolts from gates, and lance, shields."
8. "Many Indians admired the chameleon, for its ability to blend in with the environment." --James Fenimore Cooper.
9. Plato, I believe, said, An education prepares you for death, and in The Apology, when he is threatened, he says, I am not afraid of death.
10. Larynx and laryngitis are words that I found in The Oxford New Greek Dictionary that taught me that there is an upper, middle and lower part of the throat, or, the pharynx, larynx, and esophagus.
11. Deontology, or ethics is another word I found in the Greek dictionary. Following this, I found a good article, Deontological Ethics, on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. One of the things that the article indicates is that according to deontologists, negative acts are sometimes required in life, for the good of the whole. The article also discusses the advantages of deontological theories and the disadvantages of deontological theories. The article also discusses how deontologists deal with "moral catastrophes." One of the last items in the article is, "Deontology and Uncertainty About Outcomes," where "deontologists have begun to ask how an actor should evaluate courses of action in which it is uncertain whether a deontological constraint will be violated."
The Oxford New Greek Dictionary:
12. lemonade -- λεμονάδα -- lemonada.
13. lozenge -- pastillia.
14. lung -- pnévmonas.
15. dog -- skulos
16. monkey -- Πίθηκος -- pithikos
17. onion -- κρεμμύδι -- kremmýdi
18. pancake -- τηγανίτα -- tiganíta
19. peppermint -- μέντα -- ménta
20. penicillin -- πενικιλλίνη -- penikillíni
21. pigtail -- κοτσιδά -- kotsida
22. pregnant -- έγκυος -- énkyos
23. ranch -- ράντσο -- rántso
24. play -- παίζω -- paízo
25. rattle - κρόταλο - krotalo
26. reservation — κράτηση — krátisi
27. rest -- υπόλοιπο -- ypóloipo
28. silk — μετάξι — metáxi
29. smooth — λείος — leíos
30. rye -- σίκαλη -- síkali
31. to salt -- στο αλάτι -- sto aláti
32. soup -- σούπα -- soúpa
33. stair — σκαλί — skalí
34. star -- άστρο -- astro
35. starlight -- αστροφεγγιά -- astrofengiá
36. stance -- στάση -- stási
37. steak -- μπριζόλα -- brizóla
38. stew — ραγού — ragou
39. suntan lotion — sunbathe — sunburn
40. subject -- υποκείμενο -- epokeimivo
41. theology -- θεολογία -- theologia
42. thunder -- βροντή -- vrontí
43. thyme -- θυμάρι -- thymári
44. vegetable -- χορταρικά -- hortarika
II. A. "Dauntless Little John" is a short story in Italian Folktales, by Italo Calvino. It is about a fearless young hero named John who courageously explores a castle.
B. "The Man Wreathed in Seaweed" is a story about a sailor who goes through a lot of adventures, and in the end, gets the princess.
Friday, July 12, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. House of the Dead, by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a novel which illustrates the horrors of prison life. It is available for free on Project Gutenberg.
" " Research in Psychiatry and Law
2. Writing a few lines in script, or fake script, each day, helps you to think clearly.
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Preparation for Death, St Alphonsus Liguori
1. Acquiring Perfection - We are not perfect; don’t obsess over trying to perfect yourself.
2. Do many people return from the dead?
3. “At the time of death, there may be pain involved.”
4. "Stay close to nature."
5. “Let us then persuade ourselves that the proper time for repairing disorders of the soul, is not the hour of death, but the time of health.”
6. "Eternal happiness, or eternal misery is not determined at the time of death, but during the time of health."
7. Of sinners, “they who have led a bad life shall never die a good death.”
8. Many people want a big funeral, attended by all of their friends and family.
9. The departure of the soul from the body should not be called death but the beginning of life. “To the just death is only a passage to eternal life.”
10. “There may be certain moments of life in death.”
11. “The world is such that if you lose in one way, you may win in another way.”
12. “The present life is a journey to eternity.”
13. m. “Answer a fool according to his folly.” —John Henry Cardinal Newman
14. m. "Whether there is a visible or invisible church, people still ascribe to religious doctrines.” --John Henry Cardinal Newman
15. m. "II. Sea Food" added to "Food Ideas".
16. m. The generous amount of food in our supermarkets is great!
17. m. Script handwriting is useful, particularly when you want to write an essay.
The Aeneid, Virgil
1. "And Apollo fills his soul with truth, one prophecy."
2. Goes into a cave and meets a priestess who gives him advice and prepares him for his battles.
3. "I said a last farewell:
'Live on in your blessings, your destiny's been won.'"
4. We stretch out, as sleep comes to our weary bodies.
5. "Here I saw it--our first omen, four horses, horses armed for war.
6. In a scene of desolation and destruction, out of the smoke, a solitary man appears.
7. "Hear the tremendous groaning of waters, pounding rocks,
it is only an inch between the devil and the deep blue sea."
8. m. Some poisonous mushrooms are stronger than others."
9. m. "This woman, who I was to marry in the future, it is as though she were already my wife." --Leo Tolstoy
10. "Examine the case of bullies, who beat up on people weaker than them."
11. “He’d speak his heart, but his voice chokes from exhaustion.”
12. “What good is our hard work, when it can be ruined in an instant by war?”
13. “All progress is suspended now, because of this war.”
14. “The war doesn’t only affect the two sides involved, it also affects the entire world.”
15. "They perceived how to stop fighting, and thought about how to stop fighting, then they just decide flat out to stop fighting.”
16. "Now that we have decided to end the war, let us focus on peace, eternal peace."
17. "Borders are merely imaginary lines, people come and go as they like."
18. "I am assured that I can count on your good will and your word."
20. "The earth created you, and the earth loves you."
21. "Rumor flies through Libya's great cities,
Rumor, the swiftest of all the evils in the world.
She strives on speed, stronger with every stride...
the people's ears pricked up for news."
22. "Now rumor is in her glory, filling the country,
with tale on tale of intrigue, of facts and falsehoods mingled."
23. "Mercury puts on a pair of golden sandals, which contain magic powers that can make him run faster."
24. "He plunged to the sea as a seahawk skims the waves,
rounding cliffs to hunt for fish inshore."
25. "What can he dare say now to the queen?
Where to begin, what opening?"
26. "She fears everything now...
Rumor, vicious as ever, brings her word,
that Trojans are rigging out their galleys, gearing to set sail."
27. Omitted.
28. "You cruel, heartless-- Even if you were not
pursuing alien fields and unknown homes,
even if ancient Troy were standing, still,
who'd sail for Troy across such heaving seas?"
29. "Thanks to you, the African tribes, Numidian warlords
hate me, even my own Tyrians rise against me...
Do you leave me here to meet my death?"
30. "I shall never deserve what you deserve, my queen,
never regret my memories of Dido, not while I can recall myself and draw the breath of life."
31. "Come, stop inflaming us both
with your appeals. I set sail for Italy -- all against my will."
32. "Why hide it? Why hold back? To suffer greater blows? Never! What can I say first? So much to say."
33. "Some herbs are more potent than others."
34. Iris, hovering over Dido's head, declares
"'So commanded, I take this lock as a sacred gift
to the God of Death, and I release you from your body.'
With that, she cut the lock with her hand and all at once the warmth slipped away, the life dissolved in the winds."
Funeral Games for Anchises
35. "but the Trojans know the pains of a great love
defiled, and the lengths a woman driven mad can go,
and it leads their hearts down ways of grim foreboding."
36. "And with that he issues orders."
37. The ships assumed battle formation.
38. To the crowd, "Why don't you come down here and play the sport that I'm playing."
39. "If you enjoy this sport so much, why don't you arrange to have it played more often."
40. "My love of glory, my pride
still holds strong, not beaten down by fear.
It's slow old age, that's what dogs me now."
41. He learned more about his entire race.
42. "But good Aeneas, consoling them all with heartfelt words,
weeps as he commends them to Acestes, their blood kin."
The Kingdom of the Dead
43. One of the things that the queen knew how to do well was shout.
44. "Corynaeus, circling his comrades three times with pure water,
sprinkling light drops from a blooming olive spray,
he cleansed the men and voiced the last farewell."
45. "And the Sibyl says no more but
into the yawning cave she flings herself, possessed--
he follows her boldly, matching stride for stride."
46. "and sleep, twin brother of Death, and twisted, wicked Joys..."
47. "they are mere disembodied creatures, flimsy
will-o'-the-wisps that flit like living forms..."
48. "Some sports are more civilized than others."
49. "When he fell down, the lights went out, and he saw stars."
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Poor Folk and Other Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Polzunkov
1. In this story, Dostoevsky is giving the recommendation that people enjoy life, and have fun, because life is short, so laugh sometimes, and smile.
2. During a disagreement, one of the men asks, Are you a dancing man? The other man replies, Well I don't dance much nowadays, but these days, I'm known to dance on occasion. --Story by Leo Tolstoy
3. "Let us examine the magical properties of herbes." --Edmund Spenser
4. "While the world around him was changing, he was changing too." --Dante Alighieri
5. "The crowd were bloodthirsty savages, and would have cheered for anything.” --The Iliad, Homer
6. Philadelphia Cream Cheese's different flavors, on white bread tastes great!
7. Book clubs could even use my book reviews that I have on my blog for content for their subscribers.
Monday, July 8, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. Plain cream cheese on white bread is a good snack!
Sunday, July 7, 2024
The Aeneid, Virgil
1. “These lands, they say, were once an immense unbroken mass
but long ago—such is the power of time to work great change
as the ages past—some vast convulsion sprang them apart
dividing lands and towns."
2. The soldiers meet mythical creatures such as a two-headed serpent and a dog-like beast.
3. The "other" group owns slaves, who they treat badly.
4. The heroes' parents are gods.
5. M. - “Every person has their positive qualities, every person has his or her own strengths.” --Chinua Achebe
Saturday, July 6, 2024
Sevastopol Sketches, Leo Tolstoy
1. “Let us examine the horrors of war and the dead, how their limbs can be distorted in death, the stench of the dead, etc.”
2. "No matter how rich you are, you can’t buy your way out of this war."
3. “Maybe we should all stop fighting on account of this small boy.”
4. “He was skilled in all forms of weaponry, but didn’t know how to use a pair of scissors.”
Friday, July 5, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. If you want to be closer to nature, and world peoples who do not have air conditioning, then buy an electric fan for your home or room.
2. My observations suggest that many world peoples, such as in Asia and India, spend a large amount of time gathering, preparing and eating food.
3. In addition to running or brisk walking, women can benefit from strength training/weight lifting (lifting heavy), and then they can compete with men.
Thursday, July 4, 2024
Exiles, James Joyce
1. Discusses how to control painful memories. This involves knowing when you've been successful in doing so.
1b. "You can control the memories of a previous relationship, if you work on them in your current relationship." --" " Favorite Notes (Item II, 15)
2. “Sometimes, recovery involves a gradual improvement over time.”
3. Some instructional lessons can be longer, and some lessons can be shorter.
4. One of the characters had been working half the night, writing.
5. Beatrice indicates that what happened was long ago, when she was a child.
6. Robert describes the "asthmatic voice of protestantism."
7. In business, it is important to have a professional appearance and attitude.
8. M. - To book reviewers: don’t forget about classical literature, the classics! In fact, try to cover all the genres of literature.
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. The Best Of Ashford & Simpson, is a great compact music disc. The text insert included with the cd indicates that Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson believed that good karma and positive chemistry are important elements for a successful music group, and they also say, If you’re not having fun, you’re doing something wrong.
2. “Almost immediately after signing with Jobete Music, the team began writing tunes for Marvin Gaye and his then duet-partner Tammi Terrell. The Top 20 hit “‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “‘Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” “Good Lovin’ ‘Ain’t Easy to Come By,” and “You’re All I Need to Get By”; all written and produced by Ashford & Simpson." Ashford & Simpson’s “Gimme Something Real,” and “Solid,” are also favorites. "Tell Me Something Good," by Chaka Khan and Rufus is a related song in this genre.
3. How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler, teaches people how to read a book. This would be a great book to be reviewed on websites, on tv talk shows and in the media, since it encourages reading.
4. Grouping people on land with apartments, who are all friends with each other, might be a good idea. This is based on Aristotle's idea to separate a country into small states based on people with similar interests, in this case, friendship is the common interest.
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
The Aeneid Virgil
1. For the Greeks and Romans, life during the time of the Trojan War was rough: the people often slept outside, used harsh language, and didn't have many of the trappings of civilization that we enjoy today. This makes us question how far we have actually progressed since this era in history.
2. “They hate him when he’s there, but when he’s gone, they miss him.”
3. “He left the land of the living.”
4. "That was my first step on the road to ruin.”
5. "We are citizens of the country we inhabit."
6. “We burn to question him, blind to how false the cunning Greeks could be.”
7. "As the word spread, the army rose in uproar."
8. “For an advantage, we have to sacrifice the life of a Greek in return." They single out one poor person.
9. “If I save you, you must save me too.”
10. M. - “The crowd was bloodthirsty, and would have cheered for anything.” --Homer
11. M. - Wrapping cold cuts in flour tortilla wraps, with dipping sauce on the side, tastes great!
Monday, July 1, 2024
The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri
1. "To test our patience and display our creativity, let us decorate regular (unboiled) eggs." Origami also requires patience.
2. "Tell me the ways that I was wrong."
3. "We see like those who have imperfect sight."
Misc. Notes
1. Cooking tongs can make cooking bacon a lot easier!
2. Honore de Balzac presents characters who have many dimensions, who are round, dynamic characters.
Sunday, June 30, 2024
Ulysses, James Joyce
1. "You should not drink alcohol as though you were drinking water."
2. Discusses "the evils of alcohol.”
Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
1.Omitted.
2. The chal and his chi, their roammerin over, gribgrobgrab reining trippetytrappety.
3. Why, wonder of wenchalows, what o szeszame open, v doer s t doing?
4. The aged crafty nummifeed confusionary overinsured ever-Iapsing accentuated katekattershin clopped, clopped, clopped...
5. ...a weerpovy willowy dreevy drawly and the patter of so familiars, farabroads and behomeans, as she shure sknows...
6. ...nonce at a time, with them Murphy’s puffs she dursted with gnockmeggs and the bramborry cake for dour dorty dompling obayre Mattom Beetom...
7. And this is defender of defeater of defaulter of deformer of the funst man in Danelagh, willingtoned in with this glance dowon his browen and that born appalled noodlum the panellite pair’s cummal delimitator, odding: Oliver White, he’s as tiff as she’s tight. And thisens his speak quite hoarse.
8. The sound of maormaoring The Wellingthund sturm waxes fuercilier. The whackawhacks of the sturm. Katu te ihis ihis! Katu te wana wana! The strength of the rawshorn generand is known throughout the world.
9. Leave the letter that never begins to go find the latter that ever comes to end, written in smoke and blurred by mist and signed of solitude, sealed at night.
10. And oodlum hoodlum dood-lum to yes, Donn, Teague and Hurleg, who the bullocks brought you here and how the hillocks are ye?
11. But da. But dada, mwilshsuni. Till even so aften. Sea vaast a pool!
12. The guberniergerenal in laut-lievtonant of Baltiskeeamore, amaltheouse for leporty hole! Endues paramilintary langdwage. Ullahbluh!
13. Come alleyou jupes of Wymmingtown that graze the calves of Man!
14. Omitted.
15. Omitted.
16. ...fumfing to a fullfrength with this wallowing olfact). Mortar martar tartar wartar.
17. Pitsy Riley! Gurragrunch, gurragrunch! They are at the turn of the fourth of the hurdles. By the hross of Xristos...
18. To be continued.
19. M. - “He was a colorful man, and he dressed in colorful clothes.”
20. To be continued.
21. Norfolk Virginia, Nor’folk, or North folk, the folk from the north of Virginia, as distinguished from the folk from other parts of the state.
22. Many people grew up in military households. --" " Research in Psychiatry and Law
23. “She sipped her drink slowly, while he gulped his down,” writes James Joyce. Joyce also reminds us that different drinks have different alcoholic content. --Favorite Notes.
Saturday, June 29, 2024
Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
1. This early work by James Joyce was originally published in 1939 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introduction. 'Finnegans Wake' is a an experimental novel of comic fiction.
2. Joyce wrote and published articles in Italian in the local newspaper Piccolo della Sera, and continued to work on his English-language fiction.
3. After the war, the modernist poet Ezra Pound persuaded Joyce to come to Paris. His wartime publications had provided him with some fame as an avant-garde writer, as well as a degree of financial security, and he was now able to focus fully on Ulysses. Upon its completion, the American journal The Little Review began to serialize it, but this came to a halt in 1921 when a court banned the work as obscene. Following a similar reaction in England, Joyce was only able to publish Ulysses with the help of Sylvia Beach, an American expatriate living in Paris who owned and ran the bookshop Shakespeare & Co. The novel appeared in February of 1922, and is now regarded as one of the most important works of Modernist literature, and one of the most groundbreaking English language works of all time.
Joyce’s last and perhaps most challenging novel, Finnegans Wake, was published in 1939. A year later, with the prospect of a Nazi invasion looming, he fled to the south of France, before dying in 1941, at the age of 59.
Finnegans Wake
4. She carried a nice kettle of fruit.
5. His sister played in the mirror.
6. His sister cleverly tooted.
7. Sometimes she sits gloomy, “glooming so gleaming in the gloaming.”
8. Sometimes she corrected his language.
9. Then she says, “Let’s study grammar.”
10. She has a lot of stories to tell.
11. She wants to get her fortune read.
12. She had her other ways about her also.
13. "And he did a get, their anayance, and slink his hook away, aleguere come alaguerre."
14. She was a tomboy.
15. "For poor Glugger was dazed and late in his crave, ay he, laid in his grave."
16. Helpmeat too, contrasta toga, his fiery goosemother, laotsey taotsey, woman who did, he tell princes of the age about.
17. Omitted.
18. The why if he but would bite and plug his baccypipes and renownse the devlins in all their pumbs and kip the streelwarkers out of the plague and nettleses milk from sickling the honeycoombe and kop Ulo Bubo selling foulty treepes...
19. It darkles, (tinct, tint) all this our funnaminal world.
20. "Spickspuk! Spoken."
21. Glamours hath moidered’s lieb and herefore Coldours must leap no more. Lack breath must leap no more.
22. Aghatharept they fleurelly to Nebnos will and Rosocale.
23. "But listen to the mocking birde to micking barde making bared!"
24. "...king’s game, if he deign so, are in such transfusion just to know twigst timidy twomeys, for gracious sake, who is artthoudux from whose heterotropic, the sleepy or the glouch, for, shyly bawn and showly nursured, exceedingly nice girls can strike exceedingly bad times unless so richtly chosen’s by..."
25. Till they go round if they go roundagain before breakparts and all dismissed. They keep. Step keep. Step. Stop. Who is Fleur? Where is Ange? Or Gardoun
26. "A condamn quondam jontom sick af a..."
27. He does not know how his grandson’s grandson’s grandson’s grandson will stammer up in Peruvian for in the ersebest idiom I have done it equals I so shall do. He dares not think why the grandmother of the grand-mother of his grandmother’s grandmother coughed Russky with suchky husky accent since in the mouthart of the slove look at me now means I once was otherwise.
28. The Zionist lion is cryin'.
29. Only the caul knows his thousandfirst name, Hocus Crocus, Esquilocus, Finnfinn the Faineant, how feel full foes in furrinarr!
30. To be continued.
31. "Attach him! Hold! Yet stir thee, to clay, Tamor!"
32. "Too soon are coming tasbooks and goody, hominy bread and bible bee, with jaggery-yo to juju-jaw, Fine’s French phrases from the Grandmere des Grammaires and bothered parsenaps..."
33. "...about old Father Barley how he got up of a morning arley and he met with a plattonem blondes named Hips and Haws and fell in with a fellows of Trinity some header Skowood Shaws like..."
34. You’re well held now, Missy Cheekspeer, and your panto’s off! Fie, for shame, Ruth Wheatacre, after all the booz said!
35. For the Clearer of the A* from on high has spoken in tumbul-dum tambaldam to his tembledim tombaldoom worrild and, mogu--
36. To see in his horrorscup he is mehrkurios than saltz of sulphur. Terror of the noonstruck by day, cryptogam of each nightly bridable...
37. Hearasay in paradox lust. seldomers that most frequent him. That same erst crafty hakemouth which under the assumed name of Ignotus Loquor, of foggy old, harangued bellyhooting fishdrunks on their favorite stamping ground, from a father theo-balder brake.
38. But is was all so long ago. Hispano–Cathayan-Euxine, Castillian—Emeratic—Hebridian, Espanol—Cymric—Helleniky? Rolf the Ganger, Rough the Gang—ster, not a feature alike and the face the same...
39. Pastimes are past times. Now let bygones be bei Gunne’s. Saaleddies er it in this warken werden, mine boerne, and it vild need older-wise 3 since primal made alter in garden of Idem. The tasks above are as the flasks below, saith the emerald canticle of Hermes...
40. We dont hear the booming cursowarries, we wont fear the fletches of fightning, we float the meditarenias and come bask to the isle we love in spice.
41. Even Canaan the Hateful. Ever a-going, ever a-coming. Between a stare and a sough. Fossilisation, all branches.
42. A phantom city, phaked of philim pholk, bowed and sould for a four of hundreds of manhood in their three and threescore fylkers for a price partitional of twenty six and six.
43. By this riverside, on our sunnybank, 2 how buona the vista, by Santa Rosa! A field of May, the very vale of Spring. Orchards here are lodged; sainted lawrels evremberried. You have a hoig view ashwald, a glen of marrons and of thorns.
44. The Big Bear bit the Sailor’s Only. Trouble, trouble, trouble.
45. Making it up as we goes along. The law of the jungerl.
46. ...knowledge that often hate on first hearing comes of love by second sight.
47. The O’Connor, The Mac Loughlin and The Mac Namara with summed their appondage, da, da, of Sire Jeallyous Seizer, that gamely torskmester,1 with his duo of druidesses in ready money rompers...
48. You may fail to see the lie of that layout, Suetonia,3 but the reflections which recur to me are that so long as beauty life is body love4 and so bright as Mutua of your mirror holds her candle to your caudle, lone lefthand likeless, sombring Autum of your Spring, reck you not one spirt of anyseed whether trigemelimen cuddle his coddle or nope.
49. All his teeths back to the front, then the moon and then the moon with a hole behind it.
50. "Shake eternity and lick creation."
51. "My globe goes gaddy at geography giggle pending which time I was looking for my shoe all through Arabia."
52. "It must be some bugbear in the gender especially when old which they all soon get to look."
53 Amum. Amum. And Amum again. For tough troth is stronger than fortuitous fiction and it’s the surplice money, oh my young friend and ah me sweet creature, what buys the bed while wits borrows the clothes.
54. Slash-the-Pill lifts the pellet. Run, Phoenix, run!
55. "The bookley with the rusin’s hat is Patomkin but I’m blowed if I knowed who the slave is doing behind the curtain."
56. Vieus Von DVbLIn, ’twas one of dozedeams a darkies ding in dewood) the Turnpike under the Great Ulm (with Mearingstone in Fore ground).
57. When I’m dreaming back like that I begins to see we’re only all telescopes. Or the comeallyoum saunds. Like when I dromed I was in Dairy and was wuckened up with thump in thudderdown.
58. Sewing up the beillybursts in their buckskin shiorts for big Kapitayn Killykook and the Jukes of Kelleiney.
59. Till its nether nadir is vortically where (allow me aright to two cute winkles) its naval’s napex will have to beandbe. You must proach near mear for at is dark. Lob. And light your mech. Jeldy! And this is what you’ll say.
60. Vely lovely entilely! Like a yangsheep-slang with the tsifengtse. So analytical plaus—ible! And be the powers of Moll Kelly, neigh—bour topsowyer, it will be a lozenge to me all my lauffe.
61. He was mister-mysterion. Like a purate out of pensionee with a gouvernament job. All moanday, tearsday, wailsday, thumpsday, frightday, shatterday till the fear of the Law.
62. ACCORDING TO COCKER. TROTHBLOWERS. FIG AND THISTLE PLOT A PIG AND WHISTLE.
63. Old Keane now, you’re rod, hook and sinker, old jubalee Keane!
64. Thou in shanty! Thou in scanty shanty!! Thou in slanty scanty shanty!!! Bide in your hush! Bide in your hush, do! The law does not aloud you to shout.
65. Not Kilty. But the manajar was. He! He! Ho! Ho! Ho!
66. Sometimes, wild animals don't eat anything.
67. Oikey, Impostolopulos?1 Steady steady steady steady steady studiavimus. Many many many many many manducabimus.2 We’ve had our day at triv and quad and writ our bit. Art, literature, politics, economy, chemistry, human-ity, &c. Duty, the daughter of discipline, the Great Fire at the South City Markets, Belief in Giants and the Banshee, A Place for Every-thing and Everything in its Place, Is the Pen Mightier than the Sword? A Successful Career in the Civil Service,3 The Voice of Nature in the Forest,4 Your Favorite Hero or Heroine...
68. Do you Approve of our Existing Parliamentary System? The Uses and Abuses of Insects, A 1 The divvy wants that babbling brook. Dear Auntie Emma Emma Eates. 2 Strike the day off, the nightcap’s on nigh. Goney, goney gone!
69. Noah. Plato. Horace. Isaac. Tiresias. Marius. Diogenes. Procne, Philo-mela. Abraham. Nestor. Cincin-natus. Leonidas. Jacob. Theocritus. Joseph. Fabius. Samson. Cain. Esop. Prometheus. Lot. Pompeius Magnus, Miltiades Strategos. Solon. Castor, Pollux. Dionysius. Sappho. Moses. Job. Catilina. Cadmus. Ezekiel. Solomon. Themistocles. Vitellius
70. Visit to Guinness’ Brewery, Clubs, Advan-tages of the Penny Post, When is a Pun not a Pun? Is the Co–Education of Animus and Anima Wholly Desirable?1 What Happened at Clontarf? Since our Brother Johnathan Signed the Pledge or the Meditations of Two Young Spinsters,2 Why we all Love our Little Lord Mayor, Hengler’s Circus Entertainment, On Thrift,3 The Kettle–Griffith-Moynihan Scheme for a New Electricity Supply, Travelling in the Olden Times,4 American Lake Poetry, the Strangest Dream that was ever Halfdreamt. 5 Circumspection, Our Allies the Hills, Are Parnellites Just towards Henry Tudor? Tell a Friend in a Chatty Letter the Fable of the Grasshopper and the Ant,6 Santa Claus, The Shame of Slumdom, The Roman Pontiffs and the Orthodox Churches,7 The Thirty Hour Week, Compare the Fistic Styles of Jimmy Wilde and Jack Sharkey, How to Understand the Deaf, Should Ladies learn Music or Mathematics? Glory be to Saint Patrick! What is to be found in a Dustheap, Who No One Likes Darkness, The Value of Circumstantial Evidence, Should Spelling? Outcasts in India, Collecting Pewter, Eu,8 Proper and Regular Diet Necessity For,9 If You Do It Do It Now.
71. Then sagd he to the ship’s husband. And in his translaten-tic norjankeltian. Hwere can a ketch or hook alive a suit and sowterkins?
72. But first, strongbowth, they would deal death to a drinking. Link of a leadder, dubble in it, slake your thirdst thoughts awake with it. Our svalves are svalves aroon!
73. Nummers that is summus that is toptip that is bottombay that is Twomeys that is Digges that is Heres. In the frameshape of hard mettles. For we all would fain make glories. It is minely well mint.
74. Thus as count the costs of liquid courage, a bullyon gauger, stowed stivers pengapung in bulk in hold (fight great finnence! brayvoh, little bratton!).
75. Paradoxmutose caring, but here in a present booth of Balla-clay, Barthalamou, where their dutchuncler mynhosts and serves them dram well right for a boors’ interior.
76. ...willpip futurepip feature apip footloose pastcast with spareshins and flash substittles of noirse-made-earsy from a nephew mind the narrator but give the devil his so long as those sohns of a blitzh call the tuone tuone and thonder alout makes the thurd.
77. There were no pea-nats in her famalgia so no wumble she tumbled for his famas roalls davors.
78. Burniface, shiply efter, shoply after, at an angle of lag, let flow, brabble brabble and brabble, and so hostily, heavyside breathing, came up with them and, check me joule, shot the three tailors, butting back to Moyle herring.
79. ...bump as beam and buttend, roller and reiter, after the diluv’s own deluge, the seasant samped as skibber breezed in, tripping, dripping, threw the sheets in the wind, the tights of his trunks at tickle to tackle and his rubmelucky truss rehorsing the pouffed skirts of his overhawl.
80. Heaved two, spluiced the menbrace. Heirs at you, Brewinbaroon! Weth a whistle for methanks.
81. Is gossiping a lost art?
82. He was the care-lessest man I ever see but he sure had the most sand. One fish—ball with fixings!
83. And a disk of osturs for the swanker! Allahballah! And he salaamed his friends.
84. Osler will oxmaul us all, sayd he, like one familiar to the house, while Waldemar was heeling it and Maldemaer was toeing it.
85. The because of his sosuch. Uglymand fit himshemp but throats fill us all! And three’s here’s for repeat of the unium! Place the scaurs wore on your groot big bailey bill, he apullajibed, the O’Colonel Power.
86. Yet never shet it the brood of aurowoch, not for legions of donours of Gamuels. I have performed the law in truth for the lord of the law, Taif Alif I have held out my hand for the holder of my heart in Anna-polis, my youthrib city.
87. He made one summery (Cholk and murble in lonestime) of his the three swallows like he was muzzling Moselems and torched up as the faery pangeant fluwed down the hisophenguts.
88. Afferika is a beautiful continent.
89. Till Irinwakes from Slumber Deep. How they succeeded by courting daylight in saving darkness he who loves will see.
90. That’s fag for fig, metinkus, confessed, mhos for mhos.
91. ...that a hole in his tale and that hell of a hull of a hill of a camelump bakk. Fadgest-fudgist!
92. With the old sit in his shoulders, and the new satin atlas onder his uxter, erning his breadth to the swelt of his proud and, picking up the emberose of the lizod lights, his tail toiled of spume and spawn, and the bulk of him, and hulk of him as whenever it was he reddled a ruad to riddle a rede from the sphinxish pairc while Ede was a guardin, ere love a side issue.
93. Thus street spins legends while wharves woves tales but some family fewd felt a nick in their name.
94. Hooks are used in hunting and fishing trips.
95. To be continued.
Friday, June 28, 2024
A Portrait of the Artist, James Joyce
1. "I can't answer you at this exact moment, please ask me the question at a later date when I will be more ready to give you an answer."
THE GLORIES OF MARY, St Alphonsus
1. “Don’t be a cruel and evil leader, instead be a mild and gentle leader, who through teaching, shows people the error of their ways and forgives their sins." Especially don't punish someone as an adult, for something they did when they were in their childhood.
" " Research in Psychiatry and Law
2. Oh, most loving mother! Oh, most compassionate mother, be ever blessed! and may that God be ever blessed, who has given us thee as a mother, and as a secure refuge in all the dangers of this life.
3. M. - Greek and Roman writers suggest that ambitious writers can be more flexible with their plot and characters. For example, how the character remained in the same time period for decades, and how much of the seemingly impossible action transpired, is attributed to the author's magic.
A Portrait of the Artist
Notes
4. novena...patron saint, the first martyr: a novena period of nine days devoted to a special prayer dedicated to a saint or the Virgin for a particular goal or purpose. Stephen was the first Christian martyr, stoned to death outside the walls of Jerusalem.
5. the fainting sickness of his stomach: because he would, as a novice, be fasting from the night before in order to be able to receive Holy Communion.
6. References The Idea of a University, by Newman.
7. References The Testimony of the Rocks; or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, by Hugh Miller.
8. Groceries: a pub that also sold groceries.
9. nuns' madhouse beyond the wall: St Vincent's Lunatic Asylum in Fairview, run by nuns.
10. Guido Cavalcanti: Italian poet (1259-1300) whose famous poetic style, developed for the expression of pure feeling, would be a contrast to the cheap world of commerce and provision shops.
11. References A Synopsis of Scholastic Philosophy for the Understanding of St Thomas, by St Thomas Aquinas.
12. Ivoire, avorio, ebur: French, Italian and Latin for 'ivory'.
13. References Metamorphoses, by Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso).
14. Horace: a selection of the poems of Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 bc), the great Roman poet.
15. You've no call...no one in it: 'You've no reason to be frightened; there's no one here' (Hiberno-English speech).
16. Vive l'Irelande!: 'Long live Ireland!'
17. levite...canonicals...ephod: a levite is a subordinate priest under Mosaic law.
18. Bonum est...appetitus: 'The good that which all things desire.' Stephen is again quoting, but strategically, from the same passage in Aquinas.
19. cliffs of Moher: dramatic cliffs in County Clare.
20. tundish: this is in fact an English (Elizabethan) word, not an Irish word.
21. the souls of the lax...the prudent: the Jesuits were often accused of being worldly and of catering to the more comfortable classes.
22. two photographs: of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorvina. The Tsar issued a 'Peace Rescript' in 1898. It resulted in the Hague Peace Conference of 1899. MacCann (Sheehy-Skeffington) was an ardent supporter of this plan for world peace.
23. Ego habeo: dog-Latin, 'I have'. This schoolboy joke Latin is continued in the subsequent conversation.
24. Per pax universalis: 'for universal peace'.
25. handball: used in the game of that name. Handball was one of the games revived by the Gaelic Athletic Association. It is played on a court with an end wall and side walls.
26. Collins: Anthony Collins (1676-1729), one of the eighteenth-century deists and freethinkers. His most famous work was Discourse of Free-Thinking. In fact the first man to be called a freethinker was the Irish deist John Toland (1670-1722)
27. Lynch...criticism of life: an ironic reminder of Matthew Arnold's dictum that 'Poetry is a criticism of life'.
28. Long pace, fianna!...one, two!: military instructions from the Fenian handbook. The word 'fenian' derives from Irish 'fianna', 'warriors'.
29. To be continued.
30. M.- Dip your favorite cold cuts in salad dressing or dipping sauce, and also add a sliced tomato on the side!
" " Food Ideas
Thursday, June 27, 2024
A Portrait of the Artist, James Joyce
1. M. - "One person turned the hearts of the people against another person, he started a campaign in the eyes of the people to tarnish the reputation of the other person, and cause his destruction." --Homer
2. M. - "There are good ideas, and there are bad ideas."
3. M. - "He only thought evil thoughts." --The Fairie Queen, Edmund Spenser
4. --With guns and cattle, added Stephen, pointing to the titlepage of Cranly's book on which was printed Diseases of the Ox.
5. --The captain has only one love: sir Walter Scott. Isn't that so, captain?
--I love old Scott, the flexible lips said. I think he writes something lovely. There is no write can touch sir Walter Scott.
He moved a thin shrunken brown hand gently in the air in time to his praise and his thin quick eyelids beat often over his sad eyes.
6. The park trees were heavy with rain and fell still and ever in the lake, lying grey like a shield.
7. --Tell us, Temple, O'Keefe said, how many quarts of potter have you in you?
--All your intellectual soul is in that phrase, O'keefe said Temple with open scorn.
8. "Our speeds and clarity of speech differ according to varying conditions: fast, slow, with a slight stutter, clearly."
9. --What age is your mother?
--Not old, Stephen said. She wishes to make my easter duty.
10. The characters have a discussion about religion.
11. It is important to speak clearly and with coherence.
12. "...in certain circumstances it is not unlawful to rob."
" " Research in Psychiatry and Law
13. Apply to the Jesuit theologian Juan Mariana de Talavera who will also explain to you what circumstances you may lawfully kill your king.
14. --Alone, quite alone. You have no fear of that. And you know what that word means? Not only to be separate from all others but to have not even one friend.
15. "I wonder if William Bond will die
For assuredly he is very ill."
16. 25 March, morning: Strange figures advance from a cave. They are not as tall as men. One does not seem to stand apart from another. Their faces are phosphorescent, with darker streaks. They peer at me and their eyes seem to ask me something. They do not speak.
17. 11 April: Read what I wrote last night. Vague words for a vague emotion.
18. 13 April: That has been on my mind for a long time. I looked it up and find it English and good old blunt English too. Damn the dean of studies and his funnel! What did he come here for to teach us his own language or to learn it from us? Damn him one way or the other!
19. 15 April: Met her today in Grafton Street...This confused her more and I felt sorry and mean...I made a sudden gesture of a revolutionary nature.
20. 26 April: So be it. Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience...
21. Notes
22. rector: the rector is the ecclesiastic who has charge of the government of a college. He is superior to the prefect of studies and the prefect of a discipline, both of whom are also ecclesiatics.
23. seventyseven to seventysix: the number of days to go to the end of the first term.
24. green rose: possibly the references to red, green and roses are covert allusions to Ireland, traditionally associated with the rose in its dark or sacrifically crimson shades.
25. dead mass: a Mass for the dead, a Requiem Mass. The colours of the vestments for such a Mass would be black and gold.
26. Bodenstown: this townland in County Kildare contains the churchyard in which Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish republicanism, is buried.
27. boss: a kind of footstool.
28. Bless us, O Lord...Amen: a standard prayer recited before meals.
29. The bishops...the English people?: in November 1890, Parnell's divorce case came up for trial... On 29 November he published his Manifest to the Irish People, an intemperate attack on his enemies. The Catholic hierarchy intervened decisively in December, just before the Parliamentary Party met to consider Parnell's position.
30. renegade catholics: the practice, quite common under the Penal Laws of Ireland, of changing one's faith from Catholicism to Protestantism in order to retain property or the means of survival. A proper nationalist pedigree would bear no such stain.
31. Tower of Ivory...House of Gold!: a litany is a form of united prayer by alternate sentences, in which the clergy lead and the people respond. The Litany of Our Lady came into general use about the thirteenth century...
32. priestridden: the reorganization of the Catholic Church in Ireland after the Famine was undertaken by Cardinal Paul Cullen.
33. whiteboy: the Whiteboys were an agrarian secret society that flourished initially in the 1760s. They wore white garments to help identify one another at night during their raids on stock, farmhouses and the like. Their grievances were payments of tithes, raised tents, enclosures and various taxes. Whiteboyism endured, in different forms, into the nineteenth century. The movement was condemned on several occasions by the Catholic Church.
34. car: a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle.
35. boatbearer: the server who carries the vessel that holds the incense before it is transferred to the censer in the rite of Benediction...The incense is then transferred to the thurbile, burnt and the thurbile swung before the Host.
36. a sprinter: a racing cyclist.
37. cricket was coming: rugby football, a winter sport, was giving way to cricket, a summer game.
38. rounders: a mild version of baseball.
39. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: Macbeth, Act V, scene v.
40. Magnall's Questions: Richmal Magnall (1769-1820) published Historical and Miscellaneous Questions for the use of Young People in 1800. It remained in use throughout the nineteenth century.
41. Peter Parley's Tales: Peter Parley was the pseudonym of Samuel Griswold Goodrich, author of Peter Parley's Tales about Ancient and Modern Greece and Peter Parley's Tales about Ancient and Modern Rome.
42. saint Francis... John Berchmans: St Francis Xavier (1506-52), the most famous of Loyoloa's disciples, went as a missionary to India and Japan. He is often portrayed pointing to the crucifix on his chest, indicating the centrality of the cross to his mission.
43. To be continued.
44. black twist: tobacco twisted in a cord.
45. All serene: equivalent of 'no problem.'
46. Madame, I never eat Muscatel grapes: a quotation from "The Count of Monte Cristo.' Dantes twice makes this declaration to Mercedes.
47. without...ever reaching: Stephen's heresy consists in the fact that he has denied that the soul could never come closer to divine perfection. It is orthodox, of course, to say that it can never attain it.
48. bake: hot and bothered.
49. 'Tis youth and folly...The mountain dew: the verses are from an anonymous ballad.
50. come-all-yous: popular street ballads that traditionally began with the invocation 'Come all you...'
51. Dilectus: a phrase book of Latin quotations.
52. the particular judgement: the belief that souls are judged at the moment and in the place of death.
53. He founded...prevail: Matthew 16:18-19. Joyce liked the idea that the Church was founded upon a pun -- i.e., the Latin for Peter, Petrus, also means a rock.
54. To be continued.
55. Mercedes: the beloved of Dantes who ultimately comes to live in a cottage in Marseilles.
56. in a sack...a serpent: the Roman punishment for parricide.
57. beatific vision: the sight of God, face to face, the essential bliss of angels and humankind.
58.mortal sin...venial sin: mortal sin destroys the soul; venial sin infects it but leaves it in a reparable condition.
59. The face of conscience...O why? Stephen, associating sexual arousal with sin, is, according to Catholic doctrine, in error. Concupiscence is the appetite of the fallen state. It is an incentive to sin, not a sin in itself.
60. angel guardian: Catholic belief assigns an angel guardian to every person as a defence against evil and a help towards salvation.
61. heroic offering: 'heroic' in this instance means an act by which the agent offers to God all the satisfactory works which he performs in his lifetime for the sake of another or others -- in this case for the sake of the Pope.
62. interleaved prayerbook: a prayerbook containing devotional and in memoriam cards; a serious sign of piety.
63. ...mysteries: Stephen says three chaplets to strengthen his hold on the three theological virtues -- Faith, Hope and Charity -- each identified with one of the Three Persons in God and each assigned to one of three sets of mysteries.
64. Whose symbols...fire: the New Testament emblems for the Holy Ghost were the dove and the wind. The six sins against the Holy Ghost are Presumption of God's Mercy, Despair, Resisting Christian Truth, Envy at another's spiritual good, Obstinacy in Sin, Final Impenitence. For the last of these there is no forgiveness.
65. books...saint Alphonsus Liguori: St Alphonsus (1696-1787) wrote Visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament, and Preparation for Death.
66. saint Thomas and saint Bonaventure: St Bonaventure, a Franciscan, and St Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican, were friends at the University of Paris.
67. Lord Macaulay: Thomas Babington Macaulay, English historian, essayist, politician.
68. Victor Hugo: dominant figure in French Romanticism.
69. Simon Magus...no forgiveness: Simon Magus offered money in exchange for spiritual power -- hence the sin of simony. The sin against the Holy Ghost was Final Impenitence, involving a refusal to acknowledge even the existence of a spiritual force for good.
70. "To prepare for death, treat all creatures kindly while on earth." --St Alphonsus, "Preparation for Death,"
71. "Try to live life according to your current circumstances." --St Alphonsus, "Preparation for Death"
72. To be continued.
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser:
Introduction
1. Edmund Spenser was born in London, probably in 1552. "...Spenser met, or reacquainted himself with his neighbor, Sir Walter Ralegh, who in 1589 brought him to London to present three books of The Faerie Queene to its deidcatee, Queen Elizabeth, who rewarded him with pensions of fifty pounds a year."
Canto I
1. What are the uses of Hollandaise sauce?
2. The first character who we meet is a gentle knight.
3 "On his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore...
But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad,
Yet nothing did he dread, but euer ydrad.
2. There is also the Dwarfe. The dwarf is probably a warrior who has a helmet and an axe, and is skilled in battle.
3. There is also the Elfe. The elf is probably also a warrior who has a bow and arrow, and is skilled in battle.
4. Contains a passage which describe different species of trees.
5. Refers to some substances as "poisonous drugs."
6. These characters are about to embark on a journey.
7. They encounter an evil lady who spewed, and her vomit was full of books and papers.
8. The evil woman sends forth an army of deformed monsters to attack the heroes.
9. The "soueraigne Queene," is also a character in the book. She leads the heroes.
10. To be continued.
11. "As when old father Nilus gins to swell
With timely pride above Aegyptian vale,
His fattie waues do fertile slime outwell,
And ouerflow each plaine and lowly dale:"
12. M. - "There in each other's arms, they found pleasure in making love." --The Odyssey, Homer
13. M. - "Come, my beloved, let us go to bed and find pleasure in love." --The Odyssey, Homer
14. To be continued.
15. An aged Sire joins the heroes.
16. The heroes are going to begin a new adventure.
17. Near the stream, the atmosphere was silent, no noise. In the area there was eternal silence.
18. One of the sprites had a lumpish head.
19. "Sometimes we endure tests to prove our sense."
20. To be continued.
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
1. "Rhythm is a characteristic of being soulful."
2. How to Read a Book is a book where Mortimer Adler recommends "systemic skimming," or reading the first line of every paragraph, when a reader does not want to read the entire book.
3. "Yes, his mother was hostile to the idea, as he had read from her listless silence."
4. "He set to chewing the crusts of fried bread that were scattered near him."
5. "...to distinguish between moral beauty and material beauty."
6. "Some people can talk in a deep bass note."
7. "...it was a great day for European culture, he said."
8. "...that seems to be a maze out of which we cannot escape. I see however, two ways out."
9. Distinguishes pure science from applied science.
10. To be continued.
11. "He's taking pure mathematics and I'm taking constitutional history. There are twenty subjects."
12. "I'm taking botany too. You know I'm a member of the field club."
13. "Aquinas says pulcritudinem tria reuiruntur, integritas, consonantia, claritas. I translate itso: Three things are needed for beauty, wholeness, harmony and radiance."
14. "The anonymous artist is a strong figure."
15. Discusses midwifery.
16. "He lay still, as if his soul lay amid cool waters, conscious of faint sweet music."
17. "A spirit filled him, pure as the purest water, sweet as dew, moving as music."
18. Possessed an Irish phrasebook.
19. "And yet he felt that, however he might revile and mock her image, his anger was also a form of homage."
20. She represented the womanhood of her country.
21. To be continued.
22. M. - Ham cold cuts dipped in Italian dressing tastes great!
23. M. - Find out what different cold cuts taste good with different dressings -- chicken breast and French dressing for example.
23. M. - "Let my words disappear in the wind, like rain disappearing after a storm."
Monday, June 24, 2024
Misc. Notes
1. “I want to see everyone’s hands at all times,” said a security guard in a Charles Dickens novel.
2. “Apologize to me! I want you to apologize.”
3. Campbell's Chunky Beef with Country Vegetables is a great soup/stew! It contains big chunks of beef, carrots, and potatoes. It also tastes good when you add a little bit of salt.
" " Food Ideas
4. Running regularly has many benefits, including increasing your self-defense skills.
" " Favorite Notes III, 21.
5. Mycophagist - a person who eats mushrooms. —Collins Dictionary
6. War of the Worlds hysteria - Orson Welles's 1938 radio drama The War of the Worlds caused some confusion and panic in the United States, but some say the stories of mass hysteria were exaggerated. The broadcast's realistic documentary style and naturalistic dialogue led some listeners to mistake it for real news, especially those who tuned in late and missed the introduction that provided context.
Sunday, June 23, 2024
A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man, James Joyce
1. Stephen grew up, aged a few years.
2. "Mr Dedalus went over to the sideboard. He brought forth a great stone jar of whisky from the locker and filled the decanter slowly, bending now and then to see how much he had poured in, Then replacing the jar in the locker he poured a little of the whisky into two glasses, added a little water and came back with them to the fireplace."
2. Stephen's companion's name is Mercedes.
3. "One of the jobs of the priest was to prevent people from sinning." Emphasizes the importance of being pious.
4. Stephen observed a spirit of quarrelsome comradeship in his rival.
5. The road smelled like horse pee and rotted straw, he thought. "But it is a good odor to breathe. It will calm my heart. My heart is quite calm now. I will go back."
6. To be continued.
7. M. - "Many of the people of Africa speak quietly and slowly."
8. To be continued.
9. M. - Our emotions can sometimes control us more than our sense of reason.
" " Research in Psychiatry and Law.
Poor Folk and Other Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Mr Prokharchin
1. The family paid rent not only for lodging, but also for peace and calm.
2. Mr Prokharchin could never have hoped to make a particularly advantageous appearance on anyone, and yet his appearance did not count against him.
3. "He rarely drank tea, but when the need a rose imbibed a rather pleasant infusion of wild flowers and certain medicinal grasses, of which he always kept a plentiful supply."
4. "If you feel comfortable picking wild flowers outside and making them into a tea, then do that -- our tastes vary."
5. He "made do with a few slices of white bread garnished with onion, cottage cheese, pickled cucumber or other condiments, which was far less expensive, and only returned to his half dinner when he could stand such fare no longer."
6. "White bread garnished with onion, cottage cheese, pickled cucumber or other condiments, was a snack that he enjoyed eating."
" " Food Ideas
7. "Coffee with a maraschino cherry tastes good."
To be continued.
8. "The Lady with the Dog,' by Anton Chekhov, is a short story about a woman with a pomeranian dog.
9. ...a state of affairs that will become more clearly evident in what follows. We shall, however, take care not to bore the reader with a description of all Ivanovich's caprices...
10. Then one of them would rather wittingly begin, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, to relate various items of news, which nearly always contained fictitious and entirely improbable material.
11. "...and more suitable for promotion as they were quiet and had their aptitudes considerably enhanced by marriage, and for this reason he...
12. Semyon Ivanovich was entirely impervious to any idea unfamiliar to his intelligence and that having, for example, received some piece of news he was invariably compelled to chew it over and digest it, search for its meaning, in order at last, after a process of trial and error, to master it, in a thoroughly perculiar way that was quite special to himself.
13. "...neither Semyon Ivanovich nor Ustinya Fyodorovna could even remember exactly when fate had brought them together. 'Oh, it'll be ten years by now, no, fifteen, no, twenty-five."
14. Okeanov's nose grew red and swollen from their games of 'noses' and 'three leaves'.
15. "Opening the envelope in the staircase, he took a quick look around him, hurriedly counted off half of his rightful wages and hid the money in his boot.
16. "'Money!' Andrey Yefimovich said to him, with a shake of his head. 'If there's no money, there's no bacon,' he added grimly, going downstairs.
17. omitted
18. "And indeed there was a muzhik of some kind dressed in a torn, unbelted cloth coat, who began to incite the whole vast crowd against Semyon Ivanovich."
19. Sometimes, when Ivanovich spoke, "the further he got, the more each word seemed to give rise to another word, which at once gave rise to a third, a third to a fourth and so on, so that his mouth was full, and the words came out in the most picturesque order."
20. There had been a fire which was caused by a scatter-brained girl living there.
21. When Mr. Zimoveykin quietly entered, "it was as if they all had been waiting for him, everyone began to signal to him to come in as quickly as he could."
22. "But they pay you an annual salary! You're a Thomas, a doubting Thomas, you man of little faith!"
23. Here Zimoveykin actually did bow down to the ground in a sweeping movement that included everyone, performing the action with a kind of pedantic dignity.
25. To be continued.
The Landlady
1. A woman with a silvery voice begins to sing a song.
2. "Ordynov could make out the words. But he paid no attention to them, listening to the sounds alone."
3. Ordynov met Katerina. "All the ardor, the entire conflagration that had raged within him seemed to die away in a single instant.
4. "He was satisfied...and he wore slippers on his feet."
5. "The old man flinched from his gaze. With a kind of animal instinct he sensed near him the presence of a deadly enemy."
6. "Ordynov attempted to get up, but his legs seemed paralysed by an unseen force."
7. "'Your wine is strong, my little dove, but you are only moistening your lips!' said the old man.
'Yes, I shall only take a mouthful, but you must drain your cup to the bottom. Drink, old man."
8. "After all, you can't live an entire life in the space of one minute."
9. "Don't be too hard on people. One person is one way, and another person is another way."
10. Katerina asks the old man to tell her her future.
11. Reminds us that falcons often live in forests.
12. "He went on pouring wine for himself and gulping down mouthfuls of it, not knowing what to do in order to quell his increasing excitement."
13. She says, "Let me tell your fortune -- I will tell you the whole truth. I am indeed a sorcerer; you are not mistaken Katerina!"
14. "You ask me if you will know sadness and sorrow? Heavy is human sadness. But calamity does not strike feeble hearts. It is strong hearts that grow acquainted with calamity...your suffering, will be like a footprint in the sand -- the rain will wash it, the sun will dry it, the stormy wind will blow it and sweep it away."
15. "'Ha! Live and let live,' he cried."
16. "...The merchant's goods have grown rotten from lying around too long, he's giving them away for nothing."
17. "'You've read an awful lot of books, sir; I'd say you'd gotten to be awful clever; or, as we muzhiks say in Russian: your mind's gone ahead of your reason..."
18. Reminds us that certain natural laws apply to every man.
20. "It seemed to him that Katerina was of perfectly sound mind."
21. Praises German honesty and punctuality.
22. "But his hand, with the cup in it, seemed to grow paralysed and stopped moving..."
22. "Ordynov began to feel faint...Katerina watched him motionlessly, seeming to breathe no longer...Katerina screamed, as though she had woken from oblivion, from a nightmare, from some terrible, fixed hallucination.
24. The end.
25. Notes
26. Devushkin: the name is derived from the Russian word devushka, 'a girl'.
27. Many of the stories presented involve psychology and philosophy.
28. A Romany wine: Romaneya, a sweet wine.
29. izbas: huts, small wooden dwellings.
30. In one short story, James Joyce describes a drink which contains only a few drops of alcohol.
31. Slippers, or slipper-socks, can be useful.
Saturday, June 22, 2024
A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man, James Joyce
1. Tells a humorous story about a moocow coming down the road. And the moocow came down the road where Betty Byrne lived: she sold lemon platt (lemon candy).
2. His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a glass: he had a hairy face.
3. When Stephen was younger, he hid under the table.
4. Pull out his eyes...apologise - derived from Song XXIII of Isaac Watts' Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children.
5. The wide playgrounds were swarming with boys. The evening air was pale and chilly and after every charge and thud of the footballers the greasy leather orb flew like a heavy bird through the grey light.
6. If you have a dog in a blanket, then you have a dog-in-a-blanket. If you have a dog in a bag, then you have a doggie-bag.
7. Nasty Roche asks his name, he replies, --Stephen Dedalus.
"Then Nasty Roche had said: --What kind of name is that?"
And Stephen had not been able to answer, so Nasty Roche asked a different question.
8. Cantwell says: --Go and fight your match. Give Cecil Thunder a belt. I'd like to see you.
9. Then at the door of the castle the rector, his soutane fluttering in the breeze, the car had driven off with his father and mother in it.
10. Dante knew a lot of things. She taught him where the Mozambique Channel was and what was the longest river in America and what was the name of the highest mountain in the moon.
11. And the air in the corridor chilled him too. It was queer and wettish. But soon the gas would be lit and in burning it made a light noise like a little song.
12. "He enjoys drinking hot tea, and he enjoys drinking hot cocoa."
Many people from different world cultures enjoy drinking tea year round.
13. Stephen Dedalus - the name conjoins the first Christian martyr, St Stephen, stoned to death outside Jerusalem in 34 AD, and the great pagan artificer-artist hero, Daedalus.
14. After being impressed by a silk badge, "he tried his best so that York might not lose."
15. kiss your mother - probably a reference to St Aloysius Gonzaga, a famous Jesuit who is reported to have avoided even looking at his mother. This version of the Oedipal complex understandably worries Stephen. Kissing his mother or being kissed by her is an anxiety that recurs throughout the novel.
16. Dingdong!...carry my soul away - anonymous nursery rhyme.
17. He heard the noise of the refrectory every time he opened the flaps of his ear. It made a roar. When he closed his ears, the sound abruptly went off. He closed his eyes and the train went on, roaring and then stopping, roaring again, stopping.
18. And how cold and slimy the water had been! And a fellow had once seen a big rat jump plop into the scum.
19. Recommends that you stay in school.
20. He was writing. "He read the verse backwards but then they were not poetry."
21. He could only think of God. God was God's name just as his name was Stephen.
22. Dieu was the French for God and that was God's name too; and when anyone prayed to God and said Dieu then God knew at once that it was a French person praying. This applied to people praying in all the different languages of the world, too.
23. It pained him that he did not know what politics meant and that he did not know where the universe ended.
Poor Folk and Other Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky
1. "Life is good; do you enjoy life?"
2. One of the characters was fond of reading religious books.
3. "...it was as though he had been stabbed in the heart with a knife. He gave a faint cry and lost consciousness...then, in a moment of intense and desperate struggle, he felt himself losing consciousness again, as again the impenetrable, bottomless gloom opened up before him and he fell into it with a howl of anguish and despair."
4. ...and occasionally looking in bewilderment at him, her strange lodger, whom she believed to have gone insane from sitting so long over his books...He fell into confusion, into alarm, and he had a fantastic dream sequence.
5. He saw Katerina flutter and tremble all over, saw the old man's eyes begin to glitter under his heavily knit eyebrows as a sudden fury distorted his features.
7. This character was slowly going insane.
6. “It is important to bathe, and wear clean clothes, and not neglect this area of your health.”
7. Questions whether one of the characters is in full possession of his mental faculties.
8. "He could hear two sets of breathing: one was heavy, painful and intermittent, the other quiet but uneven, and also somehow filled with emotion."
9. "He greedily inhaled the air which had been rendered warm and electric by her close breathing."
10. We are different in our childhood from when we're adults.
11. “Mother recovered, and asked me to get her shroud ready for her.”
12. "After being frustrated, he became temporarily mad, temporarily insane."
" " Research in Psychiatry and Law.
13. "Lanterns, candles, and old fashioned lamps have historically been used at night."
14. Visit this blog on Facebook: "Toren Spencer-Gray."
" " Favorite Notes.
Friday, June 21, 2024
The Cossacks and Other Stories, Leo Tolstoy
1. Sevastopol in August 1855
2. One of the soldiers calls his big scar a little scratch.
3. One of the soldiers was known for having killed many men.
4. One of the soldiers lived life impulsively, as opposed to in a predetermined way.
5. One of the soldiers had a nervous stutter.
6. "War isn't a vacation."
7. "We've been in the army for 6 months, going on 20 years."
8. One of the soldiers was missing an arm, which he had lost in a previous war.
9. While most of the men were drafted into the army, one of the soldiers volunteered for duty.
10. The soldier had been transformed from a skinny, inexperienced kid, to a built up, trained soldier.
11. "Straight to Sevastopol, that hell on earth -- how dreadful!"
12. "What sort of stakes were you playing for, anyway?"
13. "If the female soldiers are that tough, then the male soldiers must be ten times tougher."
14. One of the officers was laid back, and down to earth.
15. In a barracks filled with veteran soldiers, a fresh-faced recruit walks in.
16. Some of the soldiers were crippled as a result of the war.
17. Literally every second the air was shaken by artillery discharges and explosions that followed one another in rapid succession.
18. What he was experiencing was new to him; much of it didn’t make sense.
19. Updated: Favorite Notes 2, with some structural edits.
20. You don't have to reduce sentences down to word meaning and sentence structure in order for someone to understand you, just talk. --Aristotle
Thursday, June 20, 2024
The Aeneid, Virgil
1. In a fight:
by Diomedes splattered with their blood, lashing
back to the Greek camp.
2. As a thousand mountain-spirits crowd around it...
thrills with joy too deep for words.
3. We escaped and floated toward your coast.
What kind of men are these? What land is this,
that you can tolerate such barbaric ways?
We are denied the sailor's right to shore--
4. If you have no use for humankind and mortal armor,
at least respect the gods. They know right from wrong.
5. Cast fear to the winds Trojans, free your minds.
6. We are not so dull of mind, we Carthaginians here.
7. But may the gods,
if there are Powers who still respect the good and the true,
if justice still exists on the face of the earth,
may they and their own sense of right and wrong
bring you your just rewards.
8. What destiny hunts you down through such ordeals?
What violence lands you on this rightful coast?
9. "Reminds us that wars should be fought over tangible goods, such as treasure, or land."
10. So come, young soldiers, welcome to our palace.
11. But now Venus is mulling over some new schemes,
new intrigues.
12. They were trying to drive the queen mad, trying to drive the queen to madness.
13. Servants pour them water to rinse their hands,
quickly serving them bread from baskets.
14. A hundred other townsfolk and a hundred men, all matched in age,
are sreading the feast on trestles, setting out the cups.
15. The Final Hours of Troy
16. The Trojan Horse:
helped by Minerva's superhuman skill,
they built that mammoth horse, immense as a mountain,
lining its ribs with ship timbers hewn from pine.
They pick by lot the best, most able-bodied men
and stealthily lock them into the horse's dark flanks
till the vast hold of he monster's womb is packed
with soldiers bristling weapons.
17. Some gaze wonderstruck at the gift for Pallas,
never wed -- transfixed by the horse.
'Drag it inside the walls,' he urges, 'plant it high
on the city heights.'
18. Capys, suspecting a trap, says,
'Fling it into the sea or torch the thing to ash
or bore into the depths of its womb where men can hide!'
The common people are split into warring factions.
19. A second soldier is also suspicious. He says "either the Greeks are hiding, shut inside those beams, or the horse is a battle-engine geared to breach our walls, overwhelm us."
Divine Comedy: Inferno, Dante
1. The desire to have fun is a powerful desire.
2. He stopped attentive, like a man who listens,
Because the eye could not conduct him far.
3. But none the less his saying gave me fear,
Because I carried out the broken phrase,
Perhaps to a worse meaning than he had.
4. Seldom it cometh to pass that one of us
Maketh the journey upon which I go.
5. This pen...
Encompasses about the city dolent,
Where now we cannot enter without anger.
6. What helpeth it to butt against the fates?
7. Than that of him who in his presence is,
After those holy words all confident.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Dubliners, James Joyce
1. A Painful Case
2. The protagonist in this story is named Mr Duffy.
3. Duffy. The name derives from the Irish Dubh: black or dark.
4. He met a young girl, and they talked. "While they talked he tried to fix her permanently in his memory."
5. After he reads news about the girl in the newspaper, he begins to think. In the end, because of his faulty thinking, he is alone.
6. In modern phraseology or slang, the moral of this story is: even though we don't always understand our partner, don't get upset. Just let your girlfriend get you; women have a way about them.
7. Notes
8. saturnine. Medieval medicine attributed psychological states to the influence of the body, and the influence of the planets.
9. Mozart's music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Austrian composer whose works were acclaimed in late Victorian times for their genial good spirits.
10. reefer over-coat. A tight-fitting jacket of thick cloth.
11. Ivy Day in the Committee Room
12. The protagonist in this story is named Mr O'Connor.
13. Mr O'Connor rolls tobacco into cigarettes meditatively.
14. Omitted.
15. What's the world coming to when people behave that way?
16. Won't he? said Mr Hynes. Wait till you see whether he will or not. I know him. Is it Tricky Dicky Tierney.
17. Uses the slang "floosie," to refer to women.
18. Mr Henchy began to snuffle and to rub his hands over the fire at a terrific speed.
19. It's no go, said Mr Henchy, shaking his head. I asked the little shoeboy, and he agreed.
20. --What did I tell you, Mat? said Mr Hynes. Tricky Dicky Tierney.
--O, he's as tricky as they make 'em.
21. You can play with anyone's name.
22. Military voice, military mind.
23. Some of these people are a little too clever if you ask me, said Mr Henchy.
24. Sure, that'll be alright. I'm sure she has forgotten all about it.
25. Yes...but he's not worth anything as a canvasser. He hasn't a word to throw to a dog.
26. People have things to say, people have things to talk about, if you give them time to talk about them.
27. The French have a tradition of looking down and thinking while walking, that is, they look down, walk, and think.
28. Mr Crofton got up from his box and went to the fire.
--Right you are, Crofton! said Mr Henchy.
29. "The Death of Parnell"
He fell as the mighty ones,
No sound of strife disturb his sleep.
Calmly he rests: no human pain
Or high ambition spurs him now.
Rise, like a Phoenix from the flames,
When breaks the dawning of the day.
30. It can be useful to put a towel between the pillowcase and the pillow.
31. The human body is simply a combination of bone and skin. --Homer
32. Notes
33. the thin end of the wedge. In logging the thin end of the wedge opens the wood to prepare for the thicker end which finishes the job. The implication of this proverbial phrase is that, the first step taken, there is no going back.
34. the Irish Revival. The Irish literary and cultural renaissance, a movement which since the 1880s had sought to raise Irish national awareness through cultivation of aspects of Celtic and Gaelic civilization.
35. "Dubliners," contains stories which are based on the lives of real people in Ireland.
36. A Mother
37. The protagonist in this story is named Mr Holohan.
38. He had a game leg and for this his friends called him Hoppy Holohan.
39. Reminds us that a smoked ham is simply a bigger version of thinly sliced ham.
40. To be continued.
41. Notes
42. the real cheese. Slang: the real thing, the authentic experience.
43. Allan Line. A passenger shipping line out of Liverpool in England that served the Pacific coast of North America by way of a voyage which involved sailing round Cape Horn, calling at Beunos Aires en route.
44. Persia. Now Iran. Throughout the nineteenth century the Orient was associated with romance and mystery.
45. High Toast. Brand of snuff, i.e. pulverized tobacco to be snuffed up the nostrils.
46. racing tissues. Cheap publications about horse racing.
47. (name lost). - the Irish name for a drink with only a few drops of alcohol in it.
48. Lanterns, in addition to candles, can also be helpful at night.
49. A Mother
50. Miss Devlin often tried to console herself by eating a great deal of Turkish Deligh in secret.
51. She bought the dress. I cost a pretty penny; but there are certain occasions when a little expense is justifiable.
52. One of these gentlemen was Mr O'Madden Burke. His magniloquent western name was the moral umbrella upon which he balanced the fine problem of his finances. He was widely respected.
53. He had paid his money and wished to be at peace with men. However, he said that Mrs Kearney might have taken the artistes into consideration.
54. "If you're a lady, then act like a lady."
55. To be continued.
56. Grace
57. ...a tall agile gentleman of fair complexion, wearing a long yellow ulster, came from the far end of the bar.
58. Mr Kernan was helped into the house. His wife put him to bed while Mr Power sat downstairs in the kitchen asking the children where they went to school and what book they were in.
59. I know you're a friend of his not like some of those others he does be with. They're all right so long as he has money in his pocket to keep him out from his wife and family. Nice friends!
60. The part of mother presented to her no insuperable difficulties and for twenty-five years she had kept house shrewdly for her husband.
61. Mr Cunningham was the very man for such a case. He was an elder colleague of Mr Power. His own domestic life was not very happy. People had great sympathy with him because he had married a woman who was an incurable drunkard.
62. The scheme might do good and, at least, it could do no harm.
63. Tell the truth, I want you to tell me the truth.
64.--It keeps coming like down from my throat; sickening thing.
--Yes, yes, said Mr M'Coy, that's the thorax.
65. Mr Power said:
--Ah, well, all's well that ends well.
66. Mr Power did not relish the use of his Christian name.
67. --You see, we may as well all admit we're a nice collection of scoundrels, one and all.
68. --And tell me, Martin...Is he a good preacher?
--Mmmno...It's not exactly a sermon, you know. It's just a kind of a friendly talk, in a common-sense way.
69. --Pope Leo XIII., said Mr Cunningham, was one of the lights of the age. His great idea, was the union of the Latin and Greek churches.
70. --The old system was the best: plain honest education. None of your modern trumpery.
71. In one of the benches near the pulpit sat Mr Cunningham and Mr Kernan. In the bench behind sat Mr M'Coy alone: and in the bench behind him sat Mr Power and Mr Fogarty.
72. The preacher read a verse from the Bible. It was one of the most difficult texts in all the Scriptures, to interpret properly.
73. Jesus Christ was not a hard taskmaster. He understood our little failings, understood the weakness of our poor fallen nature, understood the temptations of this life. But one thing only, he said, he would ask of his hearers. And that was: to be straight and manly with God.
74. The Dead
75. Miss Kate and Miss Julia were there, gossiping and laughing and fussing, walking after each other to the head of the stairs, peering down over the banisters and calling down to Lily to ask her who had come.
76. Enjoy life while you're young, because before you know it, you'll be old, and about to die.
77. For they are jolly gay fellows,
For they are jolly gay fellows,
For they are jolly gay fellows,
Which nobody can deny.
78. The end.
79. Notes
80. Royal Irish Constabulart in Dublin Castle. The R.I.C. an armed militia-like poliice force that was responsible for the security of the state in the country at large.
81. the holy alls of it. Slang from the Irish: the truth of the matter, all that's to be said about it.
82. good with the mits. - skilled at fighting.
83. Robert Browning. English Victorian poet. Although his passionate wooing of his wife, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was a famous love story, his poetry was often reckoned by Victorian and Edwardian readers to be obscure and difficult.
84. references Joyce's poem "She Weeps for Rahoon."
85. snow was general all over Ireland. A very rare occurrence indeed given Ireland's generally temperate climate.
86. The end.
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Poor Folk and Other Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky
1. It is good to read books written by the gods of literature!
2. I am unwell today. It's so cold in our apartment, and everything is in such terrible chaos. Mr Bykov's aunt is so old that she is barely alive. I'm afraid she may die before we manage to get away.
Sincerely, V.D.
3. Oh, what will become of me? I'm afraid to look into the future.
4. For some reason I keep seeing those accursed furbelows -- oh I can't stand them, those furbelows, furbelows!
5. His Excellency has flown off the handle -- he lost his temper with Yemelyan Ivanovich, and shouted at him, so that the poor fellow was worried nearly to death.
6. Overreliance on doctors, causes us to lose our independence. --Added to "Research in Psychiatry and Law."
8. James Joyce, and many other authors questioned convention.
9. "After all, I’m just a simple, stupid fellow, I just write whatever comes into my head.”
10. The decision to take medication, involves considerable moral conflict.
11. One smile from me was enough to make you happy, one line of my handwriting.
12. The Landlady
13. Ordynov was startled by the solemnity of this scene, and awaited its conclusion with impatience.
14. At last, worn out and incapable of putting two ideas together, he went home to his room.
15. To live one's life properly one must live long.
16. Ordynov got into some trouble. It was very difficult for Ordynov to lose the stigma that was attached to him, and return to normal again.
17. Confounded! I've been ruined!
Dubliners, James Joyce
18. Counterparts
19. A story about a businessman, Mr Alleyne. He was a little old man, with a bald head, which looked like a large egg.
20. Do you take me for a fool? Do you think me an utter fool?
21. You ruffian! You apologise to me for your impertinence! You apologise to me!
22. He felt annoyed at himself and with everyone else.
23. I don't think that's a fair question to put to me, says I.
24. After drinking, they were all beginning to feel mellow.
25. When Paddy Leonard called him he found that they were talking about feats of strength. Weathers was showing his biceps muscle to the company and boasting. The two arms were examined and compared and finally it was agreed to have a trial of strength. The two began arm wrestling.
26. --You're not to put the weight of your body behind it. Play fair, he said.
27. --Light the lamp. What do you mean by having the place in darkness? Are the other children in bed?
28. Clay
29. Maria was a very, very small person indeed but she had a very long nose and a very long chin. She talked a little through her nose, always soothingly.
30. And Ginger Mooney was always saying what she wouldn't do...Everyone was so fond of Maria.
31. Joe was a good fellow. She had raised him and Alphy too, and Joe used to always speak kindly of them.
32. In a few minutes the women began to come in by twos and threes.
Notes:
33. coppers. Slang:penny coins.
34. tracts on the walls. Religious and biblical texts hung on the walls for the moral improvement of the inmates.
35. tincture. Literally a slight trace; euphemism for a drink which is hardly a drink at all and scarcely counts.
36. smahan. Irish: a taste, used similar to 'a tincture.'
37. In Virgil's ten pastoral poems Bucolica the Roman poet characterized rustic life as essentially innocent.
38. six shillings. A considerable sum for a man, with a wife and family to support on a clerk's wages.
39. caraway seed. A particularly pungent seed of a herbal plant of the carrot family. Useful in disguising the smell of alcohol on the breath, so available in the pub.
30. lambabaun. Irish term of affection: lamb-child. Jesus in the Gospel of St John is described by John the Baptist as 'the lamb of God'.
31. very flush. Slang: with lots of spending money.
32. gone to the dogs. Slang. deteriorated markedly, especially in moral and personal matters.
33. Lithia. A mineral water characterized by the presence of mineral salts, especially lithium.
34. Atalantas. In Greek mythology Atalanta would marry no one who could not beat her in a foot-race. In archaic art Atalanta is often shown as a huntress and as an athlete in short tunic.
35. when his hour had struck. When his working day had ended.
36. Silent O Moyle. One of the Irish Melodies by Thomas Moore.
37. strangers. Traditional mode of reference to the English invasion and occupation of Ireland.
38. Bunsen Burner. A gas burner which produces an extremely hot blue flame, often used in chemistry experiments in the classroom.
39. ragged boys...ragged girls...the ragged troop. Possibly a reference to pupils of charitable schools run by Catholic and Protestant agencies for the education of the city's poor.
40. After the Race, is the correct title of the short story.
41. electric candle lamps. Electric bulbs shaped to look like lit candles. In 1903 only the most pretentious of hotels would have boasted such amenities.
42. Candles and lamps (old fashioned,) have historically been used at night.
43. To be continued.
44. We are taught in life, not to accept things that don’t make sense.
Monday, June 17, 2024
Dubliners, James Joyce
Two Gallants
1. The grey warm evening of August had descended upon the city and a mild warm air, a memory of summer, circulated in the streets.
2. Lenehan said no more. He did not wish to ruffle his friend’s temper, to be sent to the devil and told that his advice was not wanted.
3. Refers to Silent O' Moyle, from Songs of Ireland, by Mary O'Hara.
4. Make up your own life, write the script of your own life.
5. The Irish people were overwhelmingly Catholic.
6. See Great Famine (Ireland), or the Irish Potato Famine.
7. In the city, make life up as you go along: sometimes go to a restaurant to sit and eat, sometimes do this, sometimes do that.
8. The end.
9. To be continued.
10. The Boarding House
11. Mrs Mooney was a butcher's daughter. She had married her father's foreman. But as soon as his father-in-law was dead Mr Mooney began to go to the devil. He drank, gambled, and ran into debt.
12. One night he went for his wife with a cleaver. After that they lived apart. She went to the priest and got a separation from him with care of the children.
13. He was a shabby stooped little drunkard with a white face and a white moustache. Mrs. Mooney was a big, imposing woman.
14. Mrs Mooney set up a boarding house. Jack Mooney was her son. When he met his friends he had always a good one to tell them and he was always sure to be on to a good thing.
15. During one ordeal, Mrs Mooney intervened. She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat: and in this case she made up her mind.
16. In the end of the story, Mrs Mooney's daughter marries her boyfriend.
17. The Little Cloud
18. The protagonist in this story's name is Gallaher.
19. There was no doubt about it: if you wanted to succeed you had to go away. You could do nothing in Dublin.
20. It was a pity his name was not more Irish-looking. Thomas Malone Chandler, or T. Malone Chandler perhaps would be better.
21. --Does a fellow good, a bit of a holiday. I feel a ton better since I landed again in dear dirty Dublin. Here you are, Tommy. Water? Say when.
Little Chandler allowed his whisky to be very much diluted.
22. --I drink very little as a rule, said Little Chandler modestly.
--Ah, well, said Ignatius Gallaher, cheerfully, here's to us and to old times and old acquaintance.
They clinked glasses and drank the toast.
23. --I met some of the old gang today: O'Hara, Hogan.
24. After some discussion, "The old personal charm was still there under this new gaudy manner. And, after all, Gallaher had lived, he had seen the world. Little Chandler looked at his friend enviously."
25. --Everything in Paris is gay. They believe in enjoying life. And mind you, they've a great feeling for the Irish there.
26. --Ignatius Gallaher puffed thoughtfully at his cigar and then, in a calm historian's tone, he proceeded to sketch some pictures of the corruption which was rife abroad. He summarised the vices of many capitals...He revealed many of the secrets of religious houses on the Continent...
27. --Well Tommy, he said, I wish you and yours every joy in life, and may you never die till I shoot you. And that's the wish of a sincere friend.
28. Gallaher gave Little Chandler a chance to talk. Little Chandler impresses Gallaher.
29. A volume of Byron's poems lay before him on the table. He began to read the first poem in the book.
30. The child awoke and began to cry. It was useless. He couldn't read. The child was crying too loudly.
31. The end.
32. Dubliners, by James Joyce (a collection of short stories): to be continued.
Poor Folk, Fyodor Dostoevsky
1. It was a good life we had, and that way we lived for twenty years.
2. I became terribly sad when I saw that you were displeased with me.
3. After each visit Father would become so ill-pleased and angry; I can remember that he used to pace the floor hour after hour, frowning, and never exchanging a word with anyone.
4. “I would arrive home cheerful and joyful, and would hug all the members of our household fiercely, as though I had been away for ten years.”
5. Omitted.
6. It was common to educate children at home during those days.
7. In several works of Russian literature, there are characters who write notes in the margins of their books.
8. During the education of the protagonist, “we talked about everything that came into our heads, that begged to be given expression.”
9. Of old man Pokrovsky, writes, “he laughed, and made jokes in his own peculiar way.”
10. Emphasizes the importance of behaving well.
11. When some things are all over, things gradually return to how they were before.
12. "I was full of hope and apprehension -- both at the same time."
13. "Learn how to smoke tobacco from a pipe."
14. Makar Alekseyevich, you take everything too much to heart; because of that, you will always be an unhappy man.
15. You are still living exclusively through me: my joys, my griefs, my emotions!
16. “You’d ruin the brush, master, and it's government property.”
17. Do what makes you happy.
18. I expect you to act that way, you don’t know what I have to endure because of you.
19. It’s just one thing after another, I no longer know what to do!
20. Right by the edge of the water the fisherman would have a faggot burning, and its light would flow far away, out over the water.
21. The fire would be crackling in the stove, and our black dog Polkan, chilled to the marrow from being out all night, would look in at the window with a friendly wag of his tail.
22. As adults, we don’t cry as we did when we were kids.
23. In the city, they were all poor, and one of the people pushed him.
24. "You have this dark, dirty city, a ghetto, and then you have this innocent little girl walking around in it.”
25. To be continued.
26. Such shops, such rich department stores. You might think that all this had simply been displayed here for show -- but that's not the case -- I mean, there are people who actually buy these things!
27. He doesn't want to beg, so he toils in order to give people entertainment.
28. To be continued.
29. Sometimes, one trudges onwards with a shrug of one's shoulders as quiet as a mouse...
30. I'm an old man who has a great deal of wisdom, listen to my words.
31. Oh, poverty! How is it, old chap, that you're in such a plight, yet you're renting a room that costs five silver rubles a month?
32. He's litigating with some merchant or other who swindled the state authorities over the matter of a contract.
33. I feel really sorry for Gorshkov, and I know what he's going through.
34. Christ be with you. I have only to remember you, and it is like having medicine applied to my sick soul.
35. Sometimes it's good to elevate your legs.
36. Thank you, Mother. I have kissed all your letters today.
37. It's so sad to think that one really can have no knowledge of the day or the hour.
38. Christian soldiers would endure many hardships, rather than renounce their religion.
Sunday, June 16, 2024
The Aeneid, Virgil
Introduction, by Bernard Knox, continued.
1. Briefly discusses the mythological twins Romulus and Remus.
2. Briefly discusses the mythological king Alba of Longa.
3. The battle of Actium is shown to the Roman reader as the victory of Italy and the West over the barbarous tribes of the East.
4. In the Aeneid Virgil combines mythological epic with themes from Roman history.
5. But the catalog of the Etruscans was another opportunity to do what he does so well -- to recall in his lines the glories of the Italian countryside, its towns and its history.
6. As copies appeared and multiplied, the Aeneid became the textbook for the Roman school and the medieval school after that. In fact, the whole of post-Virgilian Latin literature, is saturated with Virgilian quotations, adaptations, and allusions, as much as English literature for the last three hundred years has been with Shakespeare.
7. Dante admired Virgil, and depicted him in the Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy).
8. ...was destined to echo down the ages until its appearance in a remarkable twentieth-century context in the Italy of Mussolini, who was trying to restore the warlike image of Roman Italy and make the Mediterranean once more mare nostrum, "our sea."
9. "...moguls in Washington figured that since I had studies Latin at Cambridge I would have no trouble picking up Italian."
10. Omitted.
11. Book One - Safe Haven After Storm
12. "The more blows you take, the more of an underdog you are."
13. "Sometimes, the victors in fights, did not come up 'brawling to break free.'"
14. "They bluster in protest, roaring round their prison bars
with a mountain above them all, booming with their rage."
15. In one battle, they were all hardened men.
16. "Bear up.
Save your strength for better times to come. Brave words."
17. He had mounting worries elsewhere.
18. "We are abandoned, thanks to the rage
of a single foe, cut off from Italy's shores."
19. Had been trying to relive past times which had been good.
20. Indicates that Aeneas "will wage a long, costly war in Italy."
21. Suggests that the villains have very little friends.
22. Here enters a young girl, with curls streaming free in the wind, and flowing skirts.
23. "Your face, your features--hardly a mortal's looks
and the tone of your voice is hardly human either.
Oh a goddess, without a doubt!"
24. "But her brother held power in Tyre--Pygmalion,
a monster, the vilest man alive.
A murderous feud broke out between both men."
25. "...where her temples stand and a hundred altars steam
with Arabian incense, redolent with the scent
of fresh-cut wreaths."
26. Aeneas “feeds his spirit on empty, lifeless pictures."
Saturday, June 15, 2024
The Aeneid, Virgil
Introduction, by Bernard Knox
1. "When Publius Vergilius Maro -- Virgil in common usage -- was born in 70 b.c., the Roman Republic was in its last days."
2. Virgil's poetry reflects much of the history of the period, which included: Greek wars, the conquests of Julius Caesar, and Roman war in Africa and Egypt.
3. "Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide in Alexandria rather than walk to execution in Rome in Octavian's triumph, and Egypt became a Roman province."
4. "In his comparatively short life Virgil became the supreme Roman poet; his work overshadowed that of his successors, and his epic poem, the Aeneid, gave Homeric luster to the story of Rome's origins and its achievement -- the creation of an empire that gave peace and rule of law to all the territory surrounding the Mediterranean, to what are now Switzerland, France, and Belgium, and later to England."
5. "Virgil was an Italian long before he became a Roman, and in the second book of the Georgics he follows a passage celebrating the riches of the East with a hymn of praise for the even greater riches of Italy. In the passage, he indicates that none could rival Italy, because the land is full...And rivers gliding under ancient walls...The same has bred a vigorous race of men..."
6. "And in the Aeneid, Virgil's poem about the origins of Rome, there is a constant and vibrant undertone of sympathy for and identification with the Italians."
7. "Biographical information about Virgil is scant and much of it unreliable, but we learn from Suetonius' "Life" of the poet, that Virgil 'was tall...with a dark complexion and a rustic appearance' and that 'he spoke very slowly and almost like an uneducated man.' Yet when he read his own poems, his delivery of them was 'sweet and wonderfully effective.'"
8. "Like most Roman poems, the Ecologues (a word that means something like "Selections") have a Greek model, describing themes such as: the singing contests, love affairs, and rivalries of shepherds and hersmen who relieved the boredom of their lonely rural life by competing in song and pursuing their love affairs and rivalries far from the city and the farmlands, in the hills with their sheeps, goats, and cattle."
9. "Not all of Theocritus' poems feature shepherds; one of them, for example, is a delightful dramatic sketch of two light-headed, gossipy housewives on their way to the festival of Adonis in Alexandria, and another is a hymn of praise to Ptolemy II, the ruler of Alexandria and Egypt." This evident in the art of the Italian Renaissance and in Elizabethan England.
11. The Georgics
12. Of Virgil's four books the first is on field crops, the second on trees, the third on herds, and the fourth on bees.
13. The only source of sweetness to the ancient Western world was honey -- hence the importance of bee-keeping.
14. Virgil's poem, with its devotion to the land, the crops, and the herds, fits admirably into the old Roman ideal: the Roman farmer is equally adapted to work on the land and to do the work of a soldier in the legion in time of war. The model was the legendary figure Cincinnatus...
15. Book 2 is concerned with trees and vines, principally with the olive and the wine grape. There is much good advice here for the farmer, and also for its praise of the happy life of the farmer as compared to that of the city dweller.
16. Book 3 is concerned with the breeding and raising of farm animals: horses and cattle in the first part and sheep and goats in the later section.
17. The Aeneid
18. The word pius does indeed refer, like its English derivative, to devotion and duty to the Divine. But the words pius and pietas have in Latin a wider meaning. Perhaps the best English equivalent is something like "dutiful," "mindful of one's duty" -- not only to the gods but also to one;s family and to one's country. Aeneas' devotion to his family was famous. He carries his father, Anchises, on his shoulders out of the burning city of Troy.
19. But pietas is not a virtue confined to Aeneas; it is also an ideal for all Romans...the Romans had a profound sense of national unity, and the talents and virtues necessary for a race of conquerors and organizers, of empire-builders and rulers. One of the virtues besides pietas that they admired was gravitas, a profound seriousness in matters political and religious. They admired discipline, the mark of their legionary soldiers who conquered and held for centuries an empire that included almost the whole of Western Europe and much of the Middle East.
20. The Aeneid is to be Rome's Iliad and Odyssey, and it derives also from Homer its picture of two different worlds, each with its own passions and actions. In the Aeneid the heavens are the home of Jupiter the supreme god...They preside over the world of the heroes -- Aenas, Turnus, Evander, Pallas, and Camilla down below. As in Homer, the passions and actions of the gods affect the passions and actions of the heroes on earth.
21. "...Juno never forgot this insult; it is mentioned at the beginning of Virgil's poem, "the judgement of Paris, the unjust slight to her beauty." And this is one of the reasons why she curses the Roman people.
22. History
23. Whereas the Homeric epics have no historical background to speak of, the Aeneid is always conscious of history, Roman history, many centuries of it.
24. In this paradise Aeneas finally meets the ghost of his father, who explains to him the workings of this spiritual world and in particular the nature of the spirits who roam about. They are the souls of those, who are destined to return to the world after drinking the water of the Lethe and forgetting their previous existence.
25. Omitted.
26. To be continued.
The Odyssey, Homer
1. Eurycleia Recognizes Odysseus
2. “So noble Odysseus was left in the hall plotting the destruction of the Suitor’s with Athens’s aid."
3. "'My lady,’ answered the resourceful Odysseus, ‘there is not a man in the wide world who could find fault with you.’”
4. Suggests that some people can find fault with anyone, no matter how good, or normal they are.
5. Prelude to the Crisis
6. “As he lay there wide awake brewing trouble for his rivals, a group of people came out of the house.”
7. "But though Odysseus' heart was wrung by his wife's distress, his eyes, as if made of horn or iron, remained steady between their lids."
8. It is important to have a sense of right and wrong.
Various Notes
1. Updated: Favorite Notes & Favorite Notes 2.
2. Item 4 (above), added to "Research in Psychiatry and Law."
3. Updated: Food Ideas.
4. Updated: Favorite Notes 2, 4:30pm.
Thursday, June 13, 2024
The Odyssey, Homer
1. Odysseus Goes to the Town
2. Odysseus puts on a pair of "elegant sandals," and prepares for a journey.
3. "...I have too many troubles on my mind. And if he is annoyed by this, so much the worse for him. I believe in plain speaking."
4. Emphasizes the importance of bathing and wearing clean clothes.
5. Indicates that bathing is a ritual for some people.
6. "But as to your appeal and the questions you asked me -- I have no wish to deceive you or put you off with evasive answers. On the contrary I shall pass on to you without concealment or reserve every word that I heard myself from the infallible lips of the Old Man of the Sea."
7. "This accomplished I left him. The immortal gods sent me a favourable wind and brought me quickly back to my beloved Ithaca."
8. "Sir, may what you say prove true! If it does, you will soon receive from me such friendship and generosity that anyone who meets you will call you a fortunate man."
9. "So now let us be on our way. The best part of the day is gone and you may well find it chilly towards evening."
10. "He'd much rather fill his belly by grovelling and begging round the town. You mark my words, and time will prove me right. If he goes to noble Odysseus' palace..."
11. "Close on his heels Odysseus entered the buildings. He looked like some wretched old beggar leaning on a stick, his body covered with filthy rags."
12. "He who was dressed like a beggar spoke like a beggar, while he who was dressed like a gentleman spoke like a gentleman."
13. "For plenty of these Achaeans harbour evil thoughts. May Zeus destroy them before they destroy us!"
14. To be continued.
15. The Beggar in the Palace
16. "There now appeared a common vagrant who used to beg in the town of Ithaca...He was a big fellow, yet in spite of appearances he had no stamina or muscle."
17. "'Friends,' he said, 'there's no way in which an old fellow taken on by hardships can take on a younger man...So now I ask you all to take an oath. No one must side with Irus: I don't want to lose him through an unfair blow from one of you.'"
18. "At this they all took the oath he asked of them, and when they had sworn the full oath, the great Telemachus put in his word: 'Stranger, if you have the heart and pluck to match yourself against this man, you need not be afraid of any of these gentlemen.'"
19. "I'll tell you this, and it will happen. If this fellow beats you and shows himself the better man, I'll throw you into a ship and send you over to the mainland to King Echetus the Destroyer..."
20. "The patient, good Odysseus considered carefull whether he should fell him with a mortal blow or knock him to the ground with a gentler punch. In the end he decided on the lighter blow, so that the Achaeans would not suspect him."
21. "Your health, my ancient friend! You are having a hard time now; but here's to your future happiness!"
22. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. A History of the Yoruba People by Stephen Adebanji Akintoye, is a paper begun Monday, December 18, 2023, that was also added to Book Reviews I.
2. The Iliad and The Odyssey, both contain passages about a character who was of noble and wealthy birth, who became "transformed" by wearing rags and such, into a poor person or beggar.
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
The Cossacks and other Stories, Leo Tolstoy
1. "'Come on soldier, let's hear that war voice!' the officer shouted."
2. Reminds us that there is a reason why soldiers use their war voices in war.
3. When the soldier was in the trenches, he was in darkness, he felt constricted, and felt a cold chill run up his spine.
4. Called his battle scar a “first-class decoration.”
5. In the firefight, one of the soldiers says “Thank God I’m only contused,” then looks to his right, and sees his friend who had been killed by a wound to the chest.
6. Indicates that authors may be joking when they tell stories of their characters throwing stones at each other. Plato indicates that sometimes, philosophers get drunk.
7. One of the soldiers goes to get his wound treated, then another of the soldiers says “That’s not a wound,” and then shows off his huge battle scar.
8. We meet four veteran soldiers, who had been through a lot.
Various Notes
1. Maybe a person's normal heartbeat is irregular, that is, does not beat to a "normal" rhythm.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Daniel Deronda, George Eliot
1. The Spoiled Child, is a chapter in the novel where the narrator indicates that one of the characters is spoiled by wealth and upbringing, by a wealthy family member.
2. Because of dissatisfaction with life in America, one of the characters wants to go to "the colonies" to live.
3. "'I used to think archery was a great bore,' Grandcourt began."
4. "'One may understand jokes without liking them,' he said."
The Symposium, Plato
1. "And why is reproduction the object of love? Because reproduction is the closest mortals can come to being permanently alive and immortal. Perhaps it's immortality they are in love with."
2. Indicates that love is synonymous with friendship.
3. Indicates that love is not only the romantic type, but can also be of knowledge, or cooking, for example.
4. "That's a good idea. But I don't think it's fair to make someone who's drunk compete against speeches made by people when they were sober."
Monday, June 10, 2024
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
1. "I want to see the world, to understand all the knowledge that it contains, not when I'm dead, in some infinite time and space, years after I'm gone, but in my lifetime, while I'm still alive. This knowledge will grant me peace and rest, at last."
2. "You cannot fit the whole of human history and wisdom in three sentences, it takes a book, at least."
3. Cites an instance of God granting a woman a gift as a result of her faith and devotion.
4. Cites an instance where one of the characters caused confusion amongst the people.
5. "How many times can you watch the same thing? Isn't there something more productive to do?"
Sunday, June 9, 2024
The Cossacks and other Stories, Leo Tolstoy
Sevastopol in May - VII
1. "'Where are you going, and on whose orders?' Galtsin thundered at him."
2. Galtsin expected the other soldiers to act strictly according to orders.
The Odyssey, Homer
Odysseus Meets His Son
1. "But it is difficult for a man to do anything single-handed against a crowd, however strong he may be. They have an overwhelming advantage."
2. "I wish I were as young as you, or as young as I feel."
3. "...and those villains gorging themselves, just for the sport of the thing, on and on, and not likely to get anywhere."
4. "So father and son discussed the situation, and the good ships that had brought Telemachus and his men from Pylos began to approach the harbor at Ithaca."
5. "As it happened, this messenger and the worthy swineherd, conveying the same news to the lady, met on the way."
The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Dante Alighieri
Canto VIII
1. "As he who listens to some great deceit
That has been done to him, and then resents it,
Such became Phlegyas, in his gathered wrath."
2. "And I: 'Its mosques already, Master clearly
Within there in the valley I discern
Vermilion, as if issuing from the fire.'"
3. "So onward goes and there abandons me
My Father sweet, and I remain in doubt,
For No and Yes within my head contend."
Various Notes
1. "As a result of another person's actions, how do you judge their behavior?" Is a question posed by Plato in The Symposium
Saturday, June 8, 2024
The Symposium, Plato
1. Some of the fictional characters of legend were one of three genders: male, female, and hermaphrodite.
2. "Her ideas of love are centered on the themes of pregnancy, childbirth, and the joint rearing of the children."
3. Briefly discusses instances of competition for love. This could cause bad blood in the community, as well as have negative effects due to the reliance on physical skill, money, and even humiliation and deception. Reminds us that a healthy relationship involves intellectual admiration for one another.
4. "Love involves an understanding of human nature."
5. Hephaestus asked, "What is it, humans, that you want from each other?"
6. "He also holds out to us the greatest hope for the future: that if we show reverence to the gods, he will restore us to our original nature, healing us and so giving us perfect happiness."
Various Notes
1. “No one ever said that life would be easy.” --Nelson Mandela. In his village, he had to collect water from the river every morning.
2. "And this is she who is so crucified
Even by those who ought to give her praise,
Giving her blame amiss, and bad repute."
--The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Dante Alighieri
3. The above quotation suggests that some people know how to play the "blame game," and throw blame to everything and everyone.
Friday, June 7, 2024
Various Notes
1. "Cheap tobacco is trash, it's best to smoke expensive tobacco." --The Cossacks, Leo Tolstoy
2. I made some updates/edits to Favorite Notes, including the addition of the above item.
3. "The man was born at 12:00 midnight on a Friday. When he grew up, he was invincible, survived gunshots and knives, then an ant bit him, and he died." --Inspired by David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Thursday, June 6, 2024
American Notes for General Circulation, Charles Dickens
1. Even though one of the characters was blind, she enjoyed human contact a great deal. In a safe context, of course.
2. "They were in their school-room when I came upon them, and answered correctly, without book, such questions as where was England; how far was it; what was its population; its capital city; its form of government; and so forth."
3. One other establishment closes the catalogue. It is the House of Correction for the State, in which silence is strictly maintained, but where the prisoners have the comfort and mental relief of seeing each other, and of working together.
4. For this very reason though, our best prisons would seem at the first glance to be better conducted than those of America. The treadmill is conducted with little or no noise; five hundred men may pick oakum in the same room, without a sound; and both kinds of labour admit of such keen and vigilant superintendence, as will render even a word of personal communication amongst the prisoners almost impossible.
5. On the other hand, the noise of the loom, the forge, the carpenter's hammer, or the stonemason's saw, greatly favour those opportunities of intercourse - hurried and brief no doubt, but opportunities still - which these several kinds of work, by rendering it necessary for men to be employed very near to each other, and often side by side, without any barrier or partition between them, in their very nature present. A visitor, too, requires to reason and reflect a little, before the sight of a number of men engaged in ordinary labour, such as he is accustomed to out of doors, will impress him half as strongly as the contemplation of the same persons in the same place and garb would, if they were occupied in some task, marked and degraded everywhere as belonging only to felons in jails.
6. In an American state prison or house of correction, I found it difficult at first to persuade myself that I was really in a jail: a place of ignominious punishment and endurance. And to this hour I very much question whether the humane boast that it is not like one, has its root in the true wisdom or philosophy of the matter.
7. My reason is as well convinced that these gentry were as utterly worthless and debauched villains, as it is that the laws and jails hardened them in their evil courses, or that their wonderful escapes were effected by the prison-turnkeys who, in those admirable days, had always been felons themselves, and were, to the last, their bosom-friends and pot-companions.
8. At the same time I know, as all men do or should, that the subject of Prison Discipline is one of the highest importance to any community; and that in her sweeping reform and bright example to other countries on this head, America has shown great wisdom, great benevolence, and exalted policy. In contrasting her system with that which we have modelled upon it, I merely seek to show that with all its drawbacks, ours has some advantages of its own.
9. The House of Correction which has led to these remarks, is not walled, like other prisons, but is palisaded round about with tall rough stakes, something after the manner of an enclosure for keeping elephants in, as we see it represented in Eastern prints and pictures. The prisoners wear a parti-coloured dress; and those who are sentenced to hard labour, work at nail-making, or stone- cutting.
10. Behind these, back to back with them and facing the opposite wall, are five corresponding rows of cells, accessible by similar means: so that supposing the prisoners locked up in their cells, an officer stationed on the ground, with his back to the wall, has half their number under his eye at once; the remaining half being equally under the observation of another officer on the opposite side; and all in one great apartment. Unless this watch be corrupted or sleeping on his post, it is impossible for a man to escape; for even in the event of his forcing the iron door of his cell without noise (which is exceedingly improbable), the moment he appears outside, and steps into that one of the five galleries on which it is situated, he must be plainly and fully visible to the officer below. Each of these cells holds a small truckle bed, in which one prisoner sleeps; never more. It is small, of course; and the door being not solid, but grated, and without blind or curtain, the prisoner within is at all times exposed to the observation and inspection of any guard who may pass along that tier at any hour or minute of the night. Every day, the prisoners receive their dinner, singly, through a trap in the kitchen wall; and each man carries his to his sleeping cell to eat it, where he is locked up, alone, for that purpose, one hour. The whole of this arrangement struck me as being admirable; and I hope that the next new prison we erect in England may be built on this plan.
11. I was given to understand that in this prison no swords or fire- arms, or even cudgels, are kept; nor is it probable that, so long as its present excellent management continues, any weapon, offensive or defensive, will ever be required within its bounds.
Such are the Institutions at South Boston! In all of them, the unfortunate or degenerate citizens of the State are carefully instructed in their duties both to God and man; are surrounded by all reasonable means of comfort and happiness that their condition will admit of; are appealed to, as members of the great human family, however afflicted, indigent, or fallen; are ruled by the strong Heart, and not by the strong (though immeasurably weaker) Hand. I have described them at some length; firstly, because their worth demanded it; and secondly, because I mean to take them for a model, and to content myself with saying of others we may come to, whose design and purpose are the same, that in this or that respect they practically fail, or differ.
12. To an Englishman, accustomed to the paraphernalia of Westminster Hall, an American Court of Law is as odd a sight as, I suppose, an English Court of Law would be to an American. Except in the Supreme Court at Washington (where the judges wear a plain black robe), there is no such thing as a wig or gown connected with the administration of justice. The gentlemen of the bar being barristers and attorneys too (for there is no division of those functions as in England) are no more removed from their clients than attorneys in our Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors are, from theirs. The jury are quite at home, and make themselves as comfortable as circumstances will permit. The witness is so little elevated above, or put aloof from, the crowd in the court, that a stranger entering during a pause in the proceedings would find it difficult to pick him out from the rest. And if it chanced to be a criminal trial, his eyes, in nine cases out of ten, would wander to the dock in search of the prisoner, in vain; for that gentleman would most likely be lounging among the most distinguished ornaments of the legal profession, whispering suggestions in his counsel's ear, or making a toothpick out of an old quill with his penknife.
13. But seeing that he was also occupied in writing down the answers, and remembering that he was alone and had no 'junior,' I quickly consoled myself with the reflection that law was not quite so expensive an article here, as at home; and that the absence of sundry formalities which we regard as indispensable, had doubtless a very favourable influence upon the bill of costs.
14. Still, I cannot help doubting whether America, in her desire to shake off the absurdities and abuses of the old system, may not have gone too far into the opposite extreme; and whether it is not desirable, especially in the small community of a city like this, where each man knows the other, to surround the administration of justice with some artificial barriers against the 'Hail fellow, well met' deportment of everyday life.
15. ”'Pepper' is an English phrase, used to express excitement."
16. The fruits of the earth have their growth in corruption.
17. Yet the general character of his countenance was pleasant and agreeable. The service commenced with a hymn, to which succeeded an extemporary prayer. It had the fault of frequent repetition, incidental to all such prayers; but it was plain and comprehensive in its doctrines, and breathed a tone of general sympathy and charity, which is not so commonly a characteristic of this form of address to the Deity as it might be.
18. Indeed if I be not mistaken, he studied their sympathies and understandings much more than the display of his own powers.
The Odyssey, Homer
1. "With unfaltering speed she forged ahead, and not even the wheeling falcon, the fastest creature that flies, could have kept her company."
2. "There was a pitch-black sky that night covering the heavens and not a soul was nearby..."
3. "Any other man on returning from his travels would have rushed home in high spirits to see his children and his wife. You, on the contrary, are in no hurry even to ask questions and to learn the news."
4. "Oh no! Whose country have I come to this time? Are they some brutal tribe of uncivilized savages, or a kindly and god-fearing people?"
5. "He was busy shaping a pair of sandals to his feet, cutting them out of a piece of good brown leather."
6. "Yet the blessed gods don't like wicked acts. Justice and fair play are what they respect in men."
7. "But now, old friend, you must tell me about your own troubles. Tell me the truth; I want to know everything."
8. To be continued.
9. "There should be moderation in all things."
10. "Oh no, my friend! What on earth put such a scheme into your head?"
11. "I will tell you all, Laertes is alive, but every day he prays to Zeus that death may visit his house and release his spirit from his flesh."
12. Discusses a place where there are lots of pigs, lots of pig stys and lots of pigs.
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
The Odyssey, Homer
1. In his analysis of sportsmen, reminds us that as we age, we lose our strength.
2. "That would be to spite himself. But the rest of you, there is no one I'll back away from and no one I'll consider beneath me. I'm ready to meet and match myself against anyone."
3. There were wolves and lions. "They did not attack my men, but rose on their hind legs to fawn on them, with much wagging of their long tails, like dogs fawning on their master as he comes from table for the tasty bits he always brings."
4. "Why are you looking for trouble? It was this man's reckless folly that cost them their lives."
5. "Go round this trench and pour offerings, first with a mixture of honey and milk..."
6. "As for your own end, Death will come to you far away from the sea, a gentle Death. When he takes you, you will die peacefully of old age, surrounded by a prosperous people."
7. "My eyes fell next on Iphimedeia, wife of Aloeus. She told me that she was the mother of the godlike Otus and Ephialtes famed in story, the largest men Earth ever nourished."
8. Relates the story of a warrior who was haunted by the ghosts of the men he'd slain.
9. "He took his share of the spoils and his special prize, and embarked safe and sound on his ship without a single wound either from a flying spear or from a sword at close quarters. Such wounds are common in battle: the War-god in his fury is no respecter of persons."
10. "Terrible too was the golden belt he wore, depicting miraculous scenes -- bears, wild boars and glaring lions, conflict and battle, bloodshed and massacre." This represented the mindset of the wearer.
11. "So you too are working out some such miserable doom as I endured when I lived in the light of the sun."
The Greatest Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy
1. A Spark Neglected Burns the House
2. A town in Bulgaria, the scene of fierce and prolonged fighting between the Turks and the Russians in the war of 1877.
3. Based on one spark, the whole house burns down. Based on one event, a whole series of events follows.
4. Sometimes, a dispute between neighbors can look like a whole catastrophe or comedy where he said this, she said that, one neighbor does one thing, the other neighbor does another, etc.
5. “You have everything else figured out, but you can’t agree on simple things and have a simple dialogue with someone.”
6. Two Old Men
7. One of the characters is an old man who is a religious figure, who advocates kindness towards others, virtue, and patience. Then he goes about wandering as though he was a wise man. Then, he is a wise man of the land. This is a way to be more religious.
8. "Little Russia is situated in the south-western part of Russia, and consists of the Governments of Kief, Poltava, Tchernigof, and part of Kharkof and Kherson."
9. An icon (properly ikón) is a representation of God, Christ, an angel, or a saint, usually painted, enamelled, or embossed.
10. "He said his prayers, and lay down; but he could not sleep. On the one hand he felt he ought to be going, for he had spent too much time and money as it was; on the other hand he felt sorry for the people."
11. All day they sailed smoothly, but towards night a wind arose, rain came on, and the vessel tossed about and shipped water. The people were frightened: the women wailed and screamed, and some of the weaker men ran about the ship looking for shelter. Efím too was frightened, but he would not show it, and remained at the place on deck where he had settled down when first he came on board, beside some old men from Tambóf.
12. "‘Much water flows away in a year,’ the proverb says. It takes a lifetime to build up a homestead, but not long to ruin it, thought he."
13. Where Love is, God is
14. Martin buried his son, and gave way to despair so great and overwhelming that he murmured against God. In his sorrow he prayed again and again that he too might die, reproaching God for having taken the son he loved, his only son, while he, old as he was, remained alive. After that Martin left off going to church.
One day an old man from Martin’s native village, who had been a pilgrim for the last eight years, called in on his way from Tróitsa Monastery. Martin opened his heart to him, and told him of his sorrow.
‘I no longer even wish to live, holy man,’ he said. ‘All I ask of God is that I soon may die. I am now quite without hope in the world.’
The old man replied: ‘You have no right to say such things, Martin. We cannot judge God’s ways. Not our reasoning, but God’s will, decides. If God willed that your son should die and you should live, it must be best so. As to your despair—that comes because you wish to live for your own happiness.’
15. ‘What else should one live for?’ asked Martin.
'For God, Martin,’ said the old man. ‘He gives you life, and you must live for Him. When you have learnt to live for Him, you will grieve no more, and all will seem easy to you.’
Martin was silent awhile, and then asked: ‘But how is one to live for God?’
The old man answered: ‘How one may live for God has been shown us by Christ. Can you read? Then buy the Gospels, and read them: there you will see how God would have you live. You have it all there.’
These words sank deep into Martin’s heart, and that same day he went and bought himself a Testament in large print, and began to read.
At first he meant only to read on holidays, but having once begun he found it made his heart so light that he read every day.
16. He continued to read every night, and the more he read the more clearly he understood what God required of him, and how he might live for God.
17. When Martin read these words his soul was glad within him. He took off his spectacles and laid them on the book, and leaning his elbows on the table pondered over what he had read. He tried his own life by the standard of those words, asking himself:
‘Is my house built on the rock, or on sand? If it stands on the rock, it is well.'
18. "And turning to the woman, he said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath wetted my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. Thou gavest me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but she hath anointed my feet with ointment."
19. "You see, friend, last night I was reading the Gospel, about Christ the Lord, how he suffered, and how he walked on earth. You have heard tell of it, I dare say."
20. “You call me Lord,” he said, “and I will wash your feet.” “He who would be first,” he said, “let him be the servant of all; because,” he said, “blessed are the poor, the humble, the meek, and the merciful.”
21. ‘Ask her forgiveness!’ said he. ‘And don’t do it another time. I saw you take the apple.’
The boy began to cry and to beg pardon.
22. ‘God bids us forgive,’ said Martin, ‘or else we shall not be forgiven. Forgive every one; and a thoughtless youngster most of all.’
23. It’s true enough,’ said she, ‘but they are getting terribly spoilt.’
‘Then we old ones must show them better ways,’ Martin replied.
Various
1. "Tomatoes with a few grains of salt on them taste great -- it's healthy to eat them plain, too!"
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
The Odyssey, Homer
1. "The decorations in the rooms of Egyptian Thebes, are more luxurious than anywhere in the world."
2. "...it only makes things worse to think that such qualities as these could not shield Odysseus from disaster. Even a heart of iron could not have saved him."
3. "With this wand in his hand, the mighty giant-killer made his flight. From the upper air he dropped to the range, and from there swooped down on the sea, and skimmed the waves like a sea-gull drenching the feathers of its wings with spray as it pursues the fish down fearsome troughs of the unharvested deep."
4. Calypso asks, "Hermes of the golden wand, what brings you here? You are an honored and welcome guest, though in the past your visits have been few."
5. "But I will not help him on his way. I have no ship fitted with oars, no crew to carry him so far across the seas. Yet I do promise with a good grace and unreservedly to give him such directions as will bring him safe and sound to his native land."
6. "So I shall not entrust myself to a raft unless...you give me your solemn oath that you will not plot some other mischief against me."
7. "There was a time when sailors could sail based on the stars."
Sunday, June 2, 2024
The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Dante Alighieri
1. "Thus I descended out of the first circle,
Down to the second, that less space begirds,
And so much greater dole that goads to wailing."
2. "'The first of those, of whom intelligence
Thou fain wouldst have,' then said unto me,
'The empress was of many languages.'"
3. "At the return of consciousness, that closed...
New torments I behold, and new tormented
Around me, whichsoever way I may move,
And whichsoever way I turn, and gaze."
The Odyssey, Homer
1. "The sun brought light to the land."
2. "In the ceremony of libation the first few drops of wine were poured on to the ground or on to the fire as an offering to the gods."
3. "Indeed, I cannot help looking at you in awe: you talk exactly as he did, and I should have sworn no young man could so resemble him in speech."
4. "Don't let a day pass where you learn nothing. Try to learn something new every day."
5. "Tell me, do you tamely submit to this, or have the people of Ithaca been listening to some rumour inspired by a god that has turned their hearts against you?"
6. To be continued.
7. "Eteoneus, son of Boethus, you have not always been a fool; but at the moment you are talking nonsense like a child...and we could expect that Zeus might grant us a life without suffering in time to come."
8. "Meanwhile a carver served them with plates of various meats he had selected from his board, and put gold cups beside them."
9. "When they had satisfied their appetite and thirst, Telemachus spoke to Nestor's son, leaning close so that the rest might not hear him."
10. "How happy I could be...so far from Argos where the horses graze."
11. To be continued.
12. One of the characters gives another a drug, "that had the power of robbing grief and anger of their sting and banishing all painful memories...It was one of the many drugs which had been given to the daughter of Zeus by an Egyptian woman, Polydanna, the wife of Thon. The soil of Egypt is very rich in herbs, many of which are beneficial in solution, though many are poisonous. And in medical knowledge Egyptians are supreme among men."
13. "I had no further use for life, no wish to see the sunshine anymore. But then the Sea Prophet spoke to me and said, 'Menelaus, you have wept too long. Enough of this grief, which gains us nothing. Better make every effort to get back to your own land as quickly as you can. For either you will find Aegisthus still alive or Orestes will have forestalled you...'"
14. Discusses the importance of each person not worrying too much, and getting some enjoyment out of life.
Various Notes
1. “Yams are eaten as snacks, in many African villages.” —Chinua Achebe
Saturday, June 1, 2024
The Odyssey, Homer
1. Discusses the interaction between past and present.
2. Poseidon is obsessed with persecuting Odysseus.
3. "Men blame the gods for things that are the responsibility of men."
4. "Poseidon will relent. For he will not be able to struggle on alone against the unified will of the immortal gods."
5. "But tell me honestly who are you and where you come from. What is your native town? Who are your parents? What brought you here? And what do you hope to do?"
6. "His death would have made him less stressful to us."
7. "People party 'with never a thought for all the wealth that is being wasted.'"
8. "We are not able to defend it ourselves...Yet I would willingly fight if I had the strength. For I tell you, the things I do are past all bearing."
9. "...For three years she took us in by this trick. A fourth began, and the seasons were slipping by, when one of the women who knew all about it gave it away."
10. Zeus urged two eagles into flight from the mountain-top. "For a while they sailed down the wind, wing to wing." Then, with their talons, the two birds had a fight in the air. Then, one of the men below took this opportunity to make a speech.
Various Notes
1. Historical fiction and philosophical fiction are genres that contain great books. Other great book categories include, "historical science fiction," and "philosophical science fiction." “Children’s fiction,” is also a great category to inspire young readers.
2. “The book of all books is a valuable resource. A book that has all the best secrets, tips, recipes and information, the book of all books is a valuable treasure.”
3. Project Gutenberg has a great selection of free ebooks to read at night, on your smartphone. Browse around for titles that interest you, and then review them at night, and don't be afraid to talk about what you've read!
Thursday, May 30, 2024
The Iliad, Homer
1. In one scene, one of the characters says that he does not want to leave his friend who is injured.
2. "For all your grief—what sorrow
siezes on your heart. I know it well myself.”
3. "Take care of yourself; how can you help our family if you are hurt?"
4. The end.
Notes
1. Ocean River: in the Homeric imagination, Ocean is a river that, encircles the whole world. All the rivers of the world flow from it, connected often by subterranean channels.
2. Heracles is the greatest of the Greek heroes, he eventually, after his death, became an immortal god.
3. The afterlife in Greek mythology, is filled with gods and goddesses.
4. “As in many tribal societies, compensation for a killing might be offered to and accepted by the victim’s relatives. If it were not offered, the relatives would pursue the killer to exact blood for blood."
5. Refers to the mythical figure Linus, a great musician.
6. "Or share the riches with its people, ie, they would cease hostilities if offered half the cities wealth."
7. The end.
Various Notes
1. Updated: "Research in Psychiatry and Law."
2. How to Be Content, by Horace, involves a passage that suggests that happiness can be increased by eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. He also suggests that happiness can be increased by being around animals.
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
1. One of the characters who had a garden, said, "My friends, remember this: There are no bad herbs, and no bad men; there are only bad cultivators."
The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Dante Alighieri
1. In one canto, uses the greyhound as imagery.
2. "He shall not feed on either earth or pelf,
But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;"
3. ”To whom, then, if thou wishes to ascend,
A soul shall be for that than I am worthy;”
4. "There
were lamentations none, but only sighs,
that tremble made the everlasting air.”
5. “‘Tell me, my Master, tell me, thou my Lord,’
Began I with the desire of being certain.”
6. Refers to Charon, in Greek mythology.
7. Homer, Horace, and Ovid are philosophers referenced.
8. Refers to several early Greek philosophers, including: Democritus, Diogenes, Anaxagoras, Thales, Zeno, Empedocles and Heraclitus, as well as Euclid, Ptolemy, Galen, Hippocrates and Avicenna.
9. "Thus I beheld assemble the fair school…
who o’er the others like an eagle soars.”
Various Notes
1. "Your family and friends aren’t really concerned with your recovery.”
2. ”Really? There’s no cure for disorganized thoughts? Schizophrenia? Just change your way of thinking. I mean, that’s what we go to school for, right? Seems simple enough to change, simple enough to cure."
3. "If I listen to all the complaints and requests of doctors, psychiatrists, and social workers, then I’ll never live a happy life."
4. The above ideas were acquired after reading The Works of Horace.
5. Stand your ground in a debate or discussion, is a suggestion I learned.
6. "I don’t believe that I have a thought disorder, I believe that I think like any normal human being."
Monday, May 27, 2024
The Iliad, Homer
1. "But Hector, his helmet flashing, never flinched:
'Don't think for a moment, Achilles, son of Peleus,
you can frighten me with words like a child, a fool--
I'm an old hand myself at trading taunts and insults.'"
2. "Then on the twelfth day
some god cast him into Achilles's hands again
and now he would send him off on a new journey."
3. Achilles “killed in a blur of kills,” eight men. He would have killed more, had not it been for the river rising.
4. Refers to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
5. Held a ceremony commemorating the dead soldiers.
6. “What if I put down my sword and my shield, to meet Achilles, noble Prince Achilles.”
7. "Past these they raced, one escaping, one in pursuit
and the one who fled was great but the one pursuing
greater, even greater--their pace mounting in speed."
8. The group decides whether to make peace or to continue fighting.
9. Achilles was known for his speed while running.
10. Achilles and Hector fight, and Achilles kills Hector. The war ends.
11. A competition similar to the Olympics begins.
12. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. "'Essential needs,' such as biological, food, and shelter, should have priority over other needs." --Voltaire
2. "Keeping the windows open in your house is a lot like camping outside."
3. "When he couldn't fall asleep, he lay down on his pillow, and strained to keep his eyes close, he tried really hard to close his eyes, and he eventually fell asleep."
Sunday, May 26, 2024
The Iliad, Homer
1. "And across its vast expanse with all his craft and cunning
the god creates a world of gorgeous immortal work."
2. "Treachery never crossed their minds."
3. "He laid it all at the feet of Achilles' mother Thetis--
and down she flashed like a hawk from snowy Mount Olympus"
4. "As the sun rose, bringing light to immortal gods and mortal men,"
5. "Enough. Let bygones be bygones. Done is done."
6. "When a man stands up to speak, it's well to listen.
Not to interrupt him, the only courteous thing."
7. "And rushed in person to give the word to Zeus:
'Zeus, Father, lord of the lightning bolt--'"
8. "But since I was blinded and Zeus stole my wits,
I am intent on setting things to rights, at once:
I'll give that priceless ransom paid for friendship."
9. "And the famous cripples Smith replied, 'Courage!
Anguish for all that armor--sweep it from your mind.'"
10. "It's no quick skirmish shaping,
once the massed formations of men begin to clash
with a god breathing fury in both sides at once."
11. "Yet I might surpass you in seasoned judgement
by quite a lot, since I have years on you."
12. "You want the men to grieve for the dead by starving?
Impossible. Too many falling, day after day--battalions!"
13. "And there with the Myrmidons hold my marriage feast.
So now I mourn your death--I will never stop--
you were always kind."
14. "That, or else one of us might stant beside Achilles
and lend him winning force--his courage must not flag."
15. "Let him know he's loved by the greatest gods on high
while the gods who up till now have shielded Troy
from war and death are worthless as the wind!"
16. "Come, Achilles...
A man's tongue is a glib and twisty thing...
plenty of words there are, all kinds at its command--
with all the room in the world for talk to range and stray."
Saturday, May 25, 2024
The Iliad, Homer
1. "So follow my advice, hard as it may seem...
Tonight conserve our strength in the meeting place,"
2. "By his own possessions, let him collect the lot,
pass them round to the people--a grand public feast."
3. "The god of war is impartial:
he hands out death to the man who hands out death."
4. "Troy is a world away."
5. "Nor from mother, Thetis--this alien earth I stride
will keep me secure at last."
6. "Tell me what's on your mind. I am eager to do it--
whatever I can do...whatever can be done."
7. "I go to his side--nothing I do can help him. Nothing."
Various Notes
1. "Some men can have appetites, and can be hungrier than the wildest of wild animals." --The Divine Comedy: Inferno
2. Lentil soup is good, and even though it contains a lot of lentils, you can just save or throw away the portion that you don't eat.
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Various Notes
1. The paragraph below is the result of recent work I've been doing in the Spanish language:
Yo estudio por la universidad: historia, literatura, y filosofia. Aristotle, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Anton Chekhov, y mucho mas. Por Aristotle, la alma es responsible por movimiento y conocimiento. Tambien, la historia de el Negro no es verdad. Tienes mucho falso informacion y mentiras.
2. How to tell when a person is telling a lie, is a web search that taught me a great deal. The search results were presented after researching one of the above Spanish words.
3. Tornado Alley and Tornado Valley, are high-frequency tornado areas in the United States that are described on a deck of Trivial Pursuit cards.
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
The Faerie Queen Edmund Spenser
1. "An education 'raises one's thoughts' from lowly to noble."
2. "One night when the stars were out, he was under a 'happy sky.'"
3. "The Sunne that measures heaven all day long,
At night doth baite his steedes the Ocean waves emong.
Then with the Sunne take Sir, your timely rest,
And with new day new worke at once begin."
4. "Live in your house as though it were a monastery, or hermitage."
5. "Full of the makers guile, with usage sly
He taught to imitate that Lady trew,
Whose semblance she did carrie under feigned hew."
6. “How’s the world going to act when I’m dead? In a few years, they’ll be dead too, so why worry?”
7. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. Maruchan Yakisoba noodles are a great alternative to "regular" ramen noodles!
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
The Cossacks and Other Stories, Leo Tolstoy
1. In the war, unfortunately, there were casualties on both sides.
2. "One of two things appears to be true: either war is madness, or, if men perpetrate this madness, they thereby demonstrate that they are far from being the rational creatures we for some reason commonly suppose them to be."
3. In the town of Sevastopol, cannons and artillery shells were constantly flying overhead.
4. "In the besieged town of Sevastopol a regimental band was playing next to the pavilion on the Boulevard, and crowds of people were moving gaily along the paths in a holiday mood."
5. One of the women describes one of the soldiers, Lieutenant-Captain Mikhailov, as a hero.
6. "It's quite likely that I'll be made a battalion commander this year, because a lot of men have already been killed in this campaign, and a lot more are going to die before it's over. There'll be another battle and I, as a famous man, will be given a regiment to lead...."
7. "Just then, however...he found himself on the Boulevard, a lieutenant-captain as before, awkward, timid, and of no significance."
8. "Moreover, what possible enjoyment could be had from walking with Messrs Obzhogov and Suslikov when he already met them and shook hands with them six times a day? It was not for the sake of this that he had come to hear the band."
9. "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity -- even on the brink of the grave, and among men who are ready to die for the sake of a lofty conviction. Vanity! It must be the distinguishing characteristic and special malady of our age."
10. "I saw how pleased the regimental commander was when I asked to be allowed to go since Lieutenant Nieprzysiecky was ill...I'll probably be given the Order of St Vladimir. After all, this'll be my thirteenth time on the bastion. Thirteen's an unlucky number! I'm going to be killed, I just know it, I'm bound to be killed."
11. "...and so he calmed down for a while, had a few nibbles of the soapy cheese, lit a cigarette and, after saying his prayers, tried to sleep for a while."
12. "A servant came in with a silver tray bearing tea with cream and krendelki.
13. "The poor officer...was really at a loss as to what he should do -- his gloveless hands dangled limply in front of him."
14. "'I suppose I can tell you. After all, you've been in the bastions, haven't you?' Galtsin made a sign that this was so, although in fact he had been in the 4th bastion only once."
15. "You know, I'm so used to these shells now that I'm sure when I get back to Russia I'll see them whenever there's a starry night. That's how used to them one gets."
16. "At that moment a terrible crackel of small-fire arms sounded above the din of the artillery...thousands of tiny, constantly flaring points could be seen blazing along the whole length of the line.
'It's really getting started now!' said Kalugin."
17. "'Lord Almighty, Mother of Jesus,' the old woman was saying to herself, in between sighs, as she watched the shells hurtling constantly back and forth like balls of fire. 'Horrible things, horrible things, aye-aye-aye!'"
18. 'There's only one word for it,' Nikita concluded, pointing to the window of his master's lighted room where in the lieutenant-captain's absence the Polish cadet Zwadczeski had invited a couple of guests to help him celebrate the military cross he had just been awarded. These guests, who were also Poles, were Lieutenant Colonel Ugrowicz and Lieutenant Nieprzysiecki, the very same man whose turn it was to go to the bastion that night and who was supposed to be incapacitated by a piece of shrapnel."
19. One of the soldiers nearly gets a splinter.
20. More and more wounded men, some on stretchers, come in. One of the men came running, shouting 'Allah! Allah!.'
21. "Galtsin stopped the man at this point in his narrative." Then the French troops enter. Then one of the troops starts asking specific questions to the other soldiers. And then one of the soldiers answers each question exactly right.
22. "'Well, you ought to be ashamed -- giving up a trench to the enemy! This is terrible! You ought to be ashamed!' he repeated, turning away from the soldier. 'Shame on you, men, shame on you! Giving up one of our trenches!'"
23. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. "No one looks good sleeping."
2. "In our class, it was Jim, the Russian kid, Tom, the Irish kid, Jacob, the Jewish kid, and me, I was the black kid, and we were all friends."
3. "You made your money, don't spend it all in one place."
4. "In life, women have normal, platonic relationships with other men." --Anton Chekhov
5. "Don't believe everything you read, don't believe everything you hear." --Leo Tolstoy
Sunday, May 19, 2024
The Iliad, Homer
1. Both sides fought valiantly in the war.
2. "There his brothers and countrymen will bury the prince
with full royal rites, with mounded tomb and pillar.
These are the solemn honors owed the dead."
3. "Then send him on his way wih the wind-swift escorts
twin brothers Sleep and Death, who with all good speed
will set him down in the broad green land of Lycia."
4. "then the Argives mounted a fiercer new attack.
fighting beyond their fates..."
5. To be continued.
6. "If he hadn't fought one of the soldiers, he would have fought twenty."
7. The courageous act of the low-ranking soldier humbled the 'high and mighty Atrides, captain of armies.'
8. One of the soldiers was a fresh, brand new soldier, compared to the military veteran.
9. "When you fight a man against the will of the gods,
a man they have sworn to honor--then look out,
a heavy wave of ruins about to overwhelm you."
10. "But you--you lacked the nerves to go up against Great Ajax,
and fight the man head-on--he's a better man than you."
11. The war raging is the Trojan war, with the Trojans against the Argives.
12. "He dispelled the mist at once,
and the whole war swung into view, clear, that instant--"
13. "The eagle has the sharpest eyes of all birds that fly the heavens."
14. "They swept in like hounds that fling themselves
at a wounded boar before young hunters reach him,
and the hounds cringe and bolt and scatter left and right."
15. "If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men
bitter gall--sweeter than dripping streams of honey,
that swarms in people's chests and blinds like smoke--"
16. "Not that he will glory in it long, I tell you:
his own destruction hovers near him now."
17. "Three times illustrious Hector shouted for support,
three times the Aeantes, armored in battle-fury
fought him off the corpse."
18. "And show yourself to the Trojans. Struck with fear
at the sight of you, they might hold off from attack."
19. "So wild the man's fury he will never rest content,
holding out on the plain where Trojans and Argives
met halfway..."
20. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. "Day to day life involves nothing spectacular going on, often, nothing spectacular happens for a long amount of time."
--The Iliad, Homer
Saturday, May 18, 2024
The Iliad, Homer
1. "Down from Ida's peaks he swooped like a hawk,
...the fastest thing on wings."
2. "So up now, Hector--
command your drivers here in all their hundreds
to lash their plunging teams at the hollow ships."
3. "Tense as a chalk-line marks the cut of a ship timber,
drawn taut and true in a skilled shipwright's hands--
some master craftsman trained in Athena's school--"
4. "Quick, better to live or die, once and for all,
than die by inches, slowly crushed to death--"
5. "And Hector lunged again
like a murderous lion mad for kills, charging cattle
grazing across the flats of a broad marshy pasture,"
6. To be continued.
Friday, May 17, 2024
The Iliad, Homer
1. One of the characters leaps and springs, in one action scene.
2. "Don't think struggle and pain will be ours alone--
your day will come to die in blood like him."
3. One of the characters has wealth, but no way to spend it.
4. "I speed this word to you from storming Zeus.
He commands you to quit the war and slaughter now,
go back to the tribes of gods or down to your bright sea."
Various Notes
1. The wife inherits her wealthy husband’s money, after he dies, in one popular book.
2. "It is refreshing to drink pure water." The previous sentence is a quote from a popular book.
3. "Love of life, love for life, is an admirable quality." This sentence is a quote from another popular book.
Thursday, May 16, 2024
The Iliad, Homer
1. "And the two Aeantes ranged all points of the rampart,
calling out commands to spur their comrades' fury."
2. "Glaucus
why do they hold us both in honor, first by far,
with pride of place, choice meats and brimming cups,
in Lycia where all our people look on us like gods?"
3. "A brisk command, and the runner snapped to it--
he dashed along the wall of the Argive men-at-arms"
4. "Soon as he noticed Glaucus slipping clear,
the pain overcame Sarpedon
but even so he never forgot his lust for battle."
5. "Ajax lunged at the man, he struck his shield but the point...
Not that Sarpedon yielded all the way, never,
his heart still raced with hopes of winning glory,"
6. Of the great warrior Hector, writes,
"No one could fight him, stop him,
none but the gods as Hector hurtled through the gates
and his eyes flashed fire."
7. "Victory is sweet, defeat is bitter."
8. "So they roused each other, exulting in the fire,
the joy of battle the god excited in their hearts."
9. "How on earth can we hang back from combat now?
Heal our feuds at once! Surely they can be healed,
the hearts of the brave. How can you hold back
your combat fury any longer? Not with honor--
you, the finest men in all our ranks..."
10. "immense floods breaking the bank's grip, and the reckless boulder
bounding high, flying with timber rumbling under it,
nothing can stop it now, hurtling on undaunted"
11. "...and down he went like a tall ash
on a landmark mountain ridge that glistens far and wide--
chopped down by an ax, its leaves running with sap,
strewn across the earth...So Imbrius fell,"
12. "A fight of equals, that's a fight."
13. To be continued.
14. "and out for blood he charged Idomeneus now.
But nothing could make him panic.
he stood his ground like a wild mountain boar,"
15. "'The worst wounds are wounds near the navel, near the stomach,'
the worst the god of battles deals to wretched men."
16. "One can achieve his fill of all good things...
But not these Trojans--
no one can glut their lust for battle."
17. "Impossible man! Won't you listen to reason?
Just because some god exalts you in battle
you think you can beat the rest at tactics too."
18. "Now all towering Troy is ruined top to bottom.
Now one thing's certain--your own headlong death!"
19. "If you have the daring to stand against my heavy spear
its point will rip your soft warm skin to shreds!"
20. "Think, noble Machaon, what shall we do now?
The cries are fiercer--fighters beside the ships!"
21. "Why come back here to shore? I'm filled with fear
that breakneck Hector will bring his word to pass--"
22. "And they have no stomach left
to fight to the end against the warship's sterns."
23. "Then, commander of armies, your plan will kill us all!
So now, whoever can find a better plan, let him speak up,
young soldier or old. I would be pleased to hear him."
24. "That man has got no heart in him, not a pulsebeat.
So let him die, outirght--let a god wipe him out!"
25. "A shattering cry--so huge that voice the god of the earthquake
let loose from his lungs."
26. "Sleep, master of all gods and mortal men...
And then I put the brain of thundering Zeus to sleep,"
27. "And filled with guile the noble Hera answered,
'I am off to the ends of the fruitful, teeming earth
I go to visit them and dissolve their fendless feud--'"
28. Hera sleeps with Zeus, to make him forget about the war. Then Hera becomes powerful.
29. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. 10:00pm, beginning with Item 14, updated notes on today's reading of "The Iliad".
2. "Sometimes sit at the table, like a religious monk."
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
1. "In what way did it assist him? To marry Grushenka? But that Alyosha considered the worst thing possible."
2. "It must be noted that Alyosha felt ashamed of his own thoughts and blamed himself when they kept recurring to him during the last month."
3. The narrator needs his friends, he depends on them.
4. "'And you begin explaining that you are not glad of that but sorry to be--losing a friend. But that was acting too--you were playing a part--as in a theatre.'
'In a theatre? What? What do you mean?' exclaimed Katerina Ivanovna."
5. There was some serious business in the street, and "a boy, quite a child," stood up for his father.
6. "Thinking of another subject was a relief, and he resolved to think no more about the 'mischief' he had done, and not to torture himself with remorse, but to do what he had to do, let come what would."
7. Presents readers with "a clever woman."
8. "So in the evening we went for a walk, we go for a walk every evening, always the same way, along which we are going now."
9. "She said just now that you were a friend of her childhood, 'the greatest friend of her childhood.'"
10. "When he poured out his heart, he felt ashamed at having shown me his inmost soul like that."
11. "How can it be contempt when we are all like him, when we are all just the same as he is. For you know we are just the same, no better."
12. "In the first place, you've known me from a child and you've a great many qualities I haven't. You are more lighthearted than I am."
13. "'Listen, Alyosha. What will you wear when you come out of the monastery? What sort of suit? Don't laugh, don't be angry.'
'I haven't thought about the suit; but I'll wear whatever you like.'"
14. "'But I am not going to give it to you. Look at it from here.'
'Why, then you told a lie? You, a monk, told a lie!'
'I told a lie if you like. I told a lie so as not to give you back the letter. It's very precious to me."
15. "'Come, now go. Christ be with you!' and she made the sign of the cross over him."
16. "To be serious about it is impossible, unthinkable, and in the first place I shall never be at home to you again, you may be sure of that."
17. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. Evil Allures, but Good Endures, and Little Girls Wiser than Men, by Leo Tolstoy, are two short stories that suggest that black people are the catalyst for the reactions of white people. He suggests that simply because of black people, white people have created myths and images, started slavery and wars, etc.
2. Sandwich meat (ham, roast beef, etc.), is a good snack!
3. Jam (cherry, blueberry, etc.), on bread, is a good snack!
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Poor Folk and Other Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky
1. "That is why, perhaps, I have such enthusiasm and such fondness gone over in my mind the most insignificant details of my insignificant life in those happy days of mine."
2. "He was seldom in possession of his faculties; frequently he would be in delirium; he would talk about God knows what; his job, his books, about me, about his father..."
3. "Truly what a good man you are, Makar Alekseyevich! Yesterday you really looked into my eyes in order to read in them what I was feeling, and you were delighted by my enthusiasm."
4. "50 pages in a book cannot compare to a happy feeling."
5. "All right, let me be a rat, since they've found a resemblance! But this rat is needed, this rat is of use, this rat is relied upon, and this rat receives a bonus -- that's the sort of rat it is!"
6. "But I have not the strength now to talk about my past; I don't even want to think about it; I grow frightened by all those memories."
7. "Fedora says that it is all just gossip, that they will eventually leave me alone. Pray God she is right."
8. To be continued.
9. "O, how he writes. He has a bold pen and oceans of style; in his each and every word, I mean -- each one of them -- in the most trivial, the most ordinary."
10. "I attend the evenings he holds in his room, too. We smoke tobacco, and he reads to us, reads for nearly five hours at a stretch and we listen all the time. It's so lovely: like flowers, just like flowers; one can gather a bouquet from every page."
11. "Oh, literature is a wonderful thing, Varenka, a very wonderful thing. It is a profound thing!"
12. Tells the story of a prince and a princess. "And after all that Yermak, unable to go on living without his Suleika, throws himself into the Irtysh, and there the story ends."
13. "You know, sometimes I have an idea...well, what if I were to write something, what would come of it? Say, for example, that quite suddenly, for no particular reason, a book were to appear with the title "The Poems of Makar Devushkin"? Well, what would you say then, my little angel? How would that seem to you, what would you think?"
14. "For what do I do in my free time now? I sleep, fool that I am. Yet indulging in sleep I don't need, I might be doing something agreeable; like sitting down and writing something."
Various Notes
1. One Russian short story, presents a big Russian man, who bullies some Chinese people in the area, suggesting that white people are the reason why Chinese people learned martial arts.
2. Poor Folk, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, includes a scene with a family of five children. The narrator indicates that if one of the children dies, even though it would be bad, it would be good because the family wouldn't have to ration food and the death would lighten the family's load.
Monday, May 13, 2024
Poor Folk and Other Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky
1. "Why am I not a bird, a bird of prey?"
2. "I had not yet set off for the office, yet there you were, just like a bird in springtime."
3. To be continued.
4. "He is a food expert. He likes all kinds of different foods: Chinese, Italian, Greek, etc."
5. "Once again I beg you: please do not spend so much money on me."
6. "You may be assured that I shall never have the effrontery to make jokes about your years or your character."
7. "The African American experience, the black experience, and the human experience, is not a joke or subject for jokes to be made about."
8. "Oh, my little mother, whatever is the matter with you? Each time you frighen me in the same way. In each of my letters I tell you to look after yourself, but you do not listen to me."
9. Describes the constant arguing of the people next door, and one of the characters wears dirty clothes.
10. "One thing is certain, and that is that they're poor -- my, how they're poor."
11. "Their room is always quiet and peaceful. You don't even hear their children. You never ever see the children out enjoying themselves, playing around, and that's a bad sign...my heart almost broke."
12. "I write what wanders into my mind, so as to provide you with some diversion."
13. Of Anna Fyodorovna, writes, "I do not think she will ever stop trying to make my life a misery."
14. "I send you a few grapes...the doctor recommends them for the alleviation of thirst."
15. "I had the idea, heaven knows why, of jotting down random moments of my life, that I have no doubt my parcel will bring you great enjoyment."
16. "I would sit down somewhere in a corner with a book, as quiet as a mouse, not daring to make the slightest movement."
17. The narrator had pleasant childhood memories.
18. "Also, he had an irritable disposition -- he constantly got angry, losing his temper over the merest trifles."
19. "He saw it all, and with every day that passed became more attached to me."
20. "'Look, here's what I have,' he said, taking out all his money, wrapped up in a greasy scrap of newspaper." With his money, he brought several items, and was very happy.
21. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. Chinua Achebe, in one of his novels, presents a character who is a man, but does women's work around the house.
2. Perhaps the hearing impaired can draw pictures to express themselves, in addition to writing down how they're feeling with a pen and a pad.
Sunday, May 12, 2024
The Iliad, Homer
1. "Up with you, Diomedes! What, sleep all night?"
2. "Take us alive, Atrides, take a ransom worth our lives!
Vast treasures are piled up in Antimachus' house,
bronze and gold and plenty of iron--
father would give you anything, gladly, priceless ransom
if only he learns we're still alive in Argive ships!"
3. "Now pay for your father's outrage, blood for blood!"
4. Omitted.
5. Suggests that war is just one result of an enmity between nations.
6. "So then and there under royal Agamemnon's hands
the two sons of Antenor filled out their fates
and down they plunged to the strong House of Death."
7. "Trojans! Lycians! Dardan fighters hand-to-hand--
Their best man goes and runs--
Zeus is handing me glory, awesome glory."
8. In a previous passage, mentions that many of the people in the town were skilled in crafts.
9. "Hector rejoined his men
with a strong hand planted against the earth
and the world went black as night across his eyes."
10. "The spear stuck fast in the ground.
And loosing a heady laugh of triumph Paris leapt
from his hiding-place and shouted out in glory,
'Now you're hit--no wasted shot, my winging arrow!'"
11. "Ajax, royal son of Telamon, captain of armies,
He sounds like a man cut off and overpowered,
by Trojan ranks in the rough assault.
I'm afraid he may be hurt, alone with the Trojans,"
12. "A man who can cut out shafts and dress our wounds--
a good healer is worth a troop of other men."
13. "Hector kept on raging, battling ranks on ranks,
but he stayed clear of attacking Ajax man-to-man."
14. Ajax's spirits were dashed.
15. To be continued.
16. "And then through camp we took our evening meal
by rank and file, and slept when we could."
17. "And to his eldest daughter, Agamede,
skilled with as many drugs as the wide world grows."
18. "We'd come to the strong and storied house of Peleus,
out for recruits across Athena's good green land."
19. "So in the years to come Poseidon and god Apollo
would set all things to rights once more.
But now,
the war, the deafening crash of battle blazed,"
20. “Not without fame, the men who rule in Lycia,
these kings of ours who eat fat cuts of lamb,”
Various Notes
1. "The houses and buildings are nice, but the people inside of them, have problems."
2. 9:00pm - beginning with Item 16, updated today's reading.
Friday, May 10, 2024
The Greatest Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy
1. In one of the short stories, writes, "I feel insignificant when I consider the great blue sky, the radiant, brilliant sun."
2. In one of the short stories, writes, you don’t have to remember religious teachings and declare adherence to a religion at the time of death in order to be admitted to heaven.
3. ”The Godson” is a short story about a kind and generous man who becomes godfather to a young man and raises him as though he were his own son.
4. “The Bear-Hunt” is about a group of men who are hunting a bear. They track the bear through the snow, and then when one man sees the bear he shoots at it, but the bear gets away. Then the men get separated and the bear attacks the man who shot at it, but another of the men chases the bear off. Then the men find the bear and one of the men shoots and kills it, but again, not until the bear causes great injury to the other man in the party.
5. Omitted.
6. In one story, refers to an old South American folk tale that says that at first, God created man to live independently, but he was not satisfied, so he made it so that people had to work in order to be together more.
7. To be continued.
The Iliad, Homer
1. "Yes, we'll keep clear of the war as you command.
We'll simply offer the Argives tactics that may save them
so they won't all fall beneath your blazing wrath."
2. "Their morale had not been broken. The spirits of the troops soared."
3. "Few can match your power in battle, Diomedes,
and in council you excel all men your age.
So no one could make light of your proposals,
not the whole army--who could contradict you?"
4. "The troops focused on his words and took his orders.
Seven chiefs of the guard, a hundred under each,"
5. "I will even honor him on a par with my Orestes,
full-grown by now, reared in the lap of luxury."
6. "Songs are supposed to lift our spirits."
7. Many of the characters have a feast, of sheep, goat, and pig.
8. As a gift, the god gives one of the soldiers seven small cities, filled with people, rich in sheep and cattle.
9. Even though the cities are separate, they cooperate with each other on some levels.
10. Briefly discusses the limitations of old age.
11. "How can you ask me to poison myself, and take medication?”
12. "No, what lasting thanks in the long run
for warring with our enemies, on and on, no end?"
13. "I say no wealth is worth my life!"
14. "Even the gods themselves can bend and change,
and theirs is the greater power, honor, strength."
15. "Still you could bring them round with gifts and winning words."
16. "There's no achieving our mission here, I see,
not with this approach. Best to return at once."
17. "The more you battle him, the stronger he fights."
18. "Not a man in sight will take
that mission on, I fear, and go against our enemies."
19. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. After handling a cucumber this morning, I accidentally touched my face, and then I felt great. I continued to apply cucumber slices to areas on my face and eyes, and the feeling was awesome!
2. “I act fast, I walk and talk fast, but I write slow.”
3. "Too little sleep is problematic, but too much sleep can also be problematic."
4. The Odyssey, by Homer, includes a scene where the goddess leads one of the heroes to the table, and says, "Relax, the war has ended. Eat some fruit, eat some meat."
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
The Cossacks and Other Stories, Leo Tolstoy:
1. The Cossacks
2. Life on the mountainous Cossacks was free of many of the restraints of life in the cities of Russia.
3. One of the characters listens to his wife's breathing, however, she says, "Don't focus on me so much."
4. Omitted.
5. "'So what? He doesn't do anyone any harm,' Maryana said suddenly."
6. Briefly discusses the Russian game lapta.
7. "The sun was not up yet, yet it seemed that there was an unusual amount of commotion in the street: people were walking, riding to and fro on horseback and talking."
8. "Out on the steppe the sun is red when it sets."
9. Examines the difference between love for someone and physical attraction to someone.
10. Some of the Cossacks hide under some hay, in a cart, and then ambush their enemies with their gunfire and are victorious.
11. One of the Cossack characters gets wounded in the back by a bullet, and his friend, also a Cossack encourages him to smoke with him to lessen the pain.
12. "The air did not move; all that could be heard was the movement and snorting of horses; and even this sound was faint and died away at once."
13. Sevastopol Stories
14. Sevastopol is an area much like a small city. There are different groups of soldiers and other various people, it is a dirty place, there are puddles of filthy water everywhere, and rotting animal carcasses.
15. "Most of a man's troubles come from thinking too much."
16. "'Well, may God grant you a speedy recovery,' you say to him as you move on."
17. "There you will see surgeons, deep in concentration over a bed on which a wounded man is lying, and uttering meaningless words which are occasionally simple and affecting."
18. You can talk to people about experiences when you were younger, current experiences, you can talk about what you watched on the news, or what you read in a magazine, for example.
19. Omitted.
20. "You enter beat up buildings: the doorways are boarded up, the windows are broken, the walls are smashed in."
21. "...whether it has not all been far too terrible and extraordinary, it can be seen that he is straying too far from the strict relation of the truth."
22. "During the half-hour you have spent in the tavern the weather has had time to change."
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
The Iliad, Homer:
1. "True, and what profit for us in the long run?"
2. "No more of your hot insistence--it repels me.
You must have something better than this to say."
3."Now take your evening meal throughout the city,
just as you always have, and stand your watches,
each man wide awake."
4. "And home Idaeus came,
delivered his message standing in their midst,
and they fell to making hurried preparations,
dividing the labors quickly--two detachments,
one to gather the bodies, one the timber."
5. "Father Zeus, is there a man on the whole wide earth
who still informs the gods of all his plans, his schemes?"
6. To be continued.
7. "Yes, but all night long the Master Strategist Zeus
plotted fresh disaster for both opposing armies--"
8. "Then they lay down at last and took the gift of sleep."
9. "and the thunder of struggle roared and rocked the earth.
Screams of men and cries of triumph breaking in one breath,"
10. "Now there would have been havoc, irreversible chaos,
but the father of men and gods was quick to the mark."
11. "He hands the glory to Hector, today at least--
tomorrow it's ours, if he wants to give us glory."
12. "I'll never yield, you'll never mount our towers,
never drag our people back to your ships of war--
I'll pack you off to the god of darkness first!"
13. "corpse on corpse he dropped to the earth that rears us all."
14. "But Father rages now, that hard black heart,
Not a thought for the many times I saved his son"
15. "Those two alone, Athena and Hera, sat apart from Zeus--
not a word would they send his way, not a question."
But Zeus knew what they were trying to say.
16. "as Athena and Queen Hera muttered between themselves,
huddled together, plotting Troy's destruction."
Monday, May 6, 2024
The Greatest Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy
1. Introduction -- Wonderfully wide-ranging and enjoyable, this outstanding collection features highly acclaimed short stories by Tolstoy who is regarded as one of the greatest writers in history.
Among Russian writers, Leo Tolstoy is probably the best known to the Western world, largely because of War and Peace, his epic in prose, and Anna Karenina, one of the most splendid novels in any language. But during his long lifetime, Tolstoy also wrote enough shorter works to fill many volumes.
The seven parts into which this book is divided include ‘God Sees the Truth, but Waits’ and ‘A Prisoner in the Caucasus’ which Tolstoy himself considered as his best. ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’ depicting the greed of a peasant for land; the most brilliantly told parable, ‘Ivan the Fool’—these are all contained in this volume. The book includes an active table of contents for easy navigation.
2. About the Author -- Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works — ‘War and Peace’ and ‘Anna Karenina’, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world’s greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.
His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on non-violent resistance, expressed in such works as ‘The Kingdom of God is Within You’, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
3. How Much Land does a Man Need?
4. Tolstoy suggests that one should determine how to live life modestly, say in an apartment, instead of possessing the desire to live on a lot of land.
5. Suggests that you’d be better off living in a city or small town, than putting up with the trouble of living on your own large lot of land.
6. Like the character in the story, Tolstoy is saying that you could work yourself to death trying to maintain the land.
7. The Repentant Sinner
8. repent - feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin.
9. The Imp and the Crust
10. A friend of the Devil shows a peasant a pleasure -- drinking.
11. The Coffee-House of Surat
12. A Persian enters a coffee house. With him he has an African slave. The two have a discussion. The discussion is heard by a Brahmin.
13. Omitted.
14. A Prisoner in the Caucasus
15. "'Eh!’ thought Zhílin, ‘the more one fears them the worse it will be.’"
16. "The whole village collected round. Little boys and girls, Tartar men and women, all came and clicked their tongues.
'Ah, Russ! Ah, Iván!’
Various Notes
1. One popular Russian author suggests that nighttime can be boring.
2. "So now Pahóm had land of his own. He borrowed seed, and sowed it on the land he had bought. The harvest was a good one, and within a year he had managed to pay off his debts both to the lady and to his brother-in-law." --"How Much Land does a Man Need?", Leo Tolstoy
3. "If you do the research, you can find out how to use everything in the supermarket."
Sunday, May 5, 2024
The Iliad, by Homer:
1. Diomedes says,
"Fighting is not for you, my child, the works of war.
See to the works of marriage, the slow fires."
2. During a war, ask ourselves, "Why are they fighting again?"
Reminds us that wars are sometimes fought over money or territory.
3. The captain of the army as a charismatic leader.
4. "Aeneas replied in kind and killed two Argive captains."
5. "So here the twins were laid low at Aeneas' hands,
down they crashed like lofty pine trees axed."
6. "Once they'd dragged the bodies back to their lines
they dropped the luckless twins in companions' open arms
and round they swung again to fight in the first ranks."
7. "For all your power, soldier,
crushed at my hands you'll breach the gates of Death!"
8. "Heroic Sarpedon--
his loyal comrades bore him out of the fighting quickly,
weighed down by the heavy spearshaft dragging on..."
9. “They loosed this manic Ares — he has no sense of justice.”
10. "And again she lashed her team
and again the stallions flew, holding nothing back,
careering between the earth and starry skies as far
as a man's glance can pierce the horizon's misting haze..."
11. "poured a dense shrouding mist and before their hoofs
the Simois sprang ambrosial grass for them to graze."
12. "So Hera trumpeted,
lashing the nerve and fighting-fury in each man"
13. When Diomedes killed Ares,
"A shudder swept through all ranks, Trojans and Argives both,
terror-struck by the shriek the god let loose,"
14. "And we all must battle you--
you brought that senseless daughter into the world,
that murderous curse -- forever bent on crimes!
But that girl --
you never block her way with a word or action, never,
you spur her on, since you, you gave her birth"
15. "But I, I'm so fast on my feet I saved my life.
Else for a good long while I'd have felt the pain...
beaten down by bronze."
16. Briefly discusses fig-juice and fig spread.
17. To be continued.
18. "Take me alive, Atrides, take a ransom worth my life!
Treasures are piled up in my rich father's house,
bronze and gold and plenty of well-wrought iron--
father would give you anything, gladly, priceless ransom
if only he learns I'm still alive in Argive ships!"
19. Helenus, son of Priam says,
"My captains! You are our bravest men, whatever the enterprise,
pitched in battle itself or planning our campaigns,
so stand your ground right here!"
20. "And the Lycians carved him out a grand estate,
the choicest land in the realm, rich in vineyards
and good tilled fields for him to rule over."
21. "when Hector reached the Scaean Gates and the great oak,
the wives and daughters of Troy came rushing up around him,
asking about their sons, brothers, friends and husbands.
But Hector told them only, 'Pray to the gods'--"
22. "I've learned it all too well. To stand up bravely,
always to fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers,
winning my father great glory, glory for myself."
23. "Nor did Paris linger long in his vaulted halls.
As a stallion full-fed at the manger, stalled too long,
breaking free of his tether gallops down the plain,
out for his favorite plunge in a river's cool currents,
thundering in his pride--his head flung back, his mane
streaming over his shoulders, sure and sleek in his glory,
knees racing him on to the fields and stallion-haunts he loves."
24. "We'll set all this to rights,
someday, if Zeus will ever let us raise
the bowl of freedom high in our halls,
high to the gods of cloud and sky who live forever."
25. Ajax Duels with Hector
26. "No doubt you'll hand your Argives victory soon,
you'll turn the tide of battle."
27. "'But tell me,
how do you hope to stop the men from fighting?'
'We'll spur his nerve and strength, that breaker of horses,
see if he'll challenge one of the Argives man-to-man
and they will duel in combat to the death.'"
28. "And Apollo lord of the silver bow and Queen Athena,
like carrion birds, like vultures
slowly settled atop the broad towering oak"
29. "Our oaths, our sworn truce has brought them all to nothing
and all the Father decrees is death for both sides at once."
30. "'Here are the terms that I set forth --
let Zeus look down, my witness!'
'If that man takes my life....
he will give my body to friends to carry home again,
so Trojan men and Trojan women can do me honor once I am dead...'"
31. "Once more the fine old horseman gave commands:
'Now shake the lots for all,
the first to the last man--we'll see who wins.'
And each soldier scratched his mark on a stone
and threw it into Atrides Agamemnon's helmet."
32. "Pray to yourselves in silence, so Trojans cannot hear
no, pray out loud!"
33. "The men of Argos exulted at the sight of him there
Hector himself, his heart pounding against his ribs."
34. For protection, Ajax wore heavy bronze over seven layers of oxhide.
35. "Don't toy with me. War--I know it well."
36. The characters begin to do battle. Then the herald Idaeus comes, and breaks it up.
37. "No more, my sons--don't kill yourselves in combat!"
Zeus who marshals the storm cloud loves you both.
You're great fighters--we know that full well.
The night comes on at last. Best to yield to night."
38. "Nestor was the first to speak--from the early days
his plans and tactics always seemed the best."
39. "So at dawn you must call a halt to fighting by Achaeans,
form your units, bring on wagons, gather up the dead"
40. To be continued.
Various Notes:
1. "Since there is a chain of causes in the life of every human being, it follows that the human mind is a system of mechanism."
"The mind is very subtle in its operations."
“All relations terminate in simple ideas.”
-- "Book Reviews III: Rousseau, Descartes, Locke."
Saturday, May 4, 2024
The Iliad, by Homer:
1. "Athena! If you ever stood by father...
Bring that man into range and let me spear him!
He's wounded me off guard and now he triumphs --
he boasts I won't look long on the light of day."
2. "Now take heart, Diomedes, fight it out with the Trojans!
Deep in your chest I've put your father's strength."
3. "So now if a god comes up to test your mettle,
you must not fight the immortal powers head-on."
3. Suggests that different people are built differently and thus can succeed different sports.
4. To be continued.
5. "He passed them on to Deipylus, a friend-in-arms
he prized beyond all comrades his own age--"
6. Suggests that you do not fight an opponent who is mismatched, but rather, you fight an opponent who is your equal.
Various Notes:
1. Many works of Russian literature suggest that a big person needs a big car, a big house, has a big appetite, etc.
2. In one of his works, Aristotle suggests separating people in a country based on similar interests.
3. Omitted.
Friday, May 3, 2024
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky:
1. "I've been talking aloud so many years, that I've got into the habit of talking, and so much so that it's almost more difficult for me to hold my tongue than to talk, even now."
2. Indicates that monks were a respected class in Russian society.
3. As they spoke, "Sometimes he broke off altogether, as though to take breath and recover his strength."
4. "The monk, as he related afterwards, approached in the utmost apprehension. It was rather late in the evening. Father Ferapont was sitting at the door of his cell on a low bench. A huge old elm was lightly rustling overhead.
'Do you want me to bow down to you, monk?' said Father Ferapont."
5. Suggests that the elders knew about the matters of the younger monks without them having to confess them.
6. Asks, when it is our time to face death, how do we want to spend our last days?
7. Omitted.
8. Omitted.
9. To be continued.
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Various Notes
1. Perdue chicken strips cooked for a little while in the frying pan, then taken out and mixed with chopped cucumber and chopped tomato, and a little bit of mayo, on bread, tastes great -- it's like chicken salad!
2. Tba.
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
The Cossacks and Other Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. The Cossacks
2. "Things that were neither thoughts, nor memories, nor dreams roamed about in his head -- fragments of all three."
3. "He was angry with Beletsky, and with himself, and yet against his will he inserted French phrases into his conversation, took an interest in the commander-in-chief..."
4. Many of the characters in the story either own or ride horses.
5. "Olenin read, but did not take in anything of what was written in the book that lay open before him."
6. "They're all nonsense, all those things I thought before... Happiness is the only thing that matters: he who is happy is right."
7. Of a horse, "And its stride! How it runs!"
8. They sat down at the table. "Even in the shade the heat was unbearable."
9. "When Maryana had finished her dinner, she put out some more grass for the oxen, tucked her beshmet under her head and lay down under the ox cart."
10. "'He once said something to me, the lodger,' she said quietly, chewing on a blade of grass."
11. To be continued.
Poor Folk and Other Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. Introduction
2. "Dostoevsky began his literary career as a translator of French fiction...like the theater, French novels were extremely popular in the St Petersburg of the 1830s and 40s."
3. Briefly discusses Pushkin and Gogol.
4. Dostoevsky writes, "For several years I had been reading Belinsky with enthusiasm... 'he'll make a laughing-stock of my Poor Folk,' I sometimes used to think. I had written the work with passion, with tears, almost..."
5. To be continued.
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
The Cossacks and Other Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. The Cossacks
2. Describes the Cossack people as a mountainous, or mountain-dwelling people.
3. "On leaving Yeroshka's, Lukashka called in at home. As he returned, a damp, dewy mist was rising from the ground and enveloping the settlement."
4. Suggests that pronunciation of a language is different for foreigners than it is for native speakers.
5. One of the characters indicates that a shaven head meant a Chechen.
6. "...and thus we can always do business together by stages, like all gentlemen."
7. The people of the Cossacks have unique rituals and customs.
8. "Again the old man told his endless stories of hunting, of Abreks...of a bold and carefree life."
9. "He felt cool, comfortable; there was nothing in his mind, he had no desires."
10. "The need for happiness has been placed in every human being; therefore it is lawful."
11. "He began to pray, fearing only one thing -- that he would die without ever having done anything kind or good; and he so much wanted to live."
12. "...but none of them shouted to him in reply, as army men would, 'We wish you health, yer honor!' -- and only one or two replied with a simple bow."
13. "The Cossack's eyes laughed as they looked at Olenin. It seemed he had understood everything that Olenin was trying to say to him, but was above such considerations."
14. "'Well, you've got the wrong man!' thought Lukashka. 'I have the horse, and so we'll see. I'm nobody's fool either. As for who can trick whom, we shall see!' he thought, sensing a need to be on his guard against Olenin..."
16. “In spite of such misgivings, this action aroused in them a great respect for Olenin’s simplicity and wealth."
17. Omitted.
Monday, April 29, 2024
The Cossacks and Other Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. The Cossacks
2. "'Though I've done a lot of stupid things, I'm still a very, very fine young man,' he thought."
3. He meets a Circassian slave girl. “She was lovely, but she was uneducated, wild, coarse. In the long winter evenings he began to educate her."
4. "And the conquered territory that will give me more wealth than I’ll need for a whole lifetime?”
5. Olenin was impressed by the mountains and the sky. They made him think of the composer Bach. These thoughts were in contrast to his memories of Moscow, the city.
6. "In addition, the constant heavy male labor and and the cares entrusted to her hands have given the Grebensk woman a particularly independent, masculine character, and have wrought in her a remarkable development of physical strength, common sense, determination, and steadfastness."
7. In the Cossacks, a good deal of the people’s time is spent outdoors: hunting, fishing, collecting vegetables, chopping firewood, etc.
8. “'I’ll take a nap, we’ll sleep in short turns; you’ll sleep next, and I’ll sit; that’s the way to do it.'
'Thanks, but I don't feel like sleeping,' replied Lukashka."
9. “No one made any reply, and again the angel of silence flew above the Cossacks.”
10. “Arriving in the settlement, the Cossacks drank and then lay down to sleep until evening.”
11. Many of the characters tease each other, that is make fun of, or joke about one another.
12. “All his rested limbs exuded tranquility and strength. His state of mind also felt fresh and clear.”
13. “‘Oh, they’re just teasing an old man. It doesn’t matter. Let them have their fun,’ he said.”
14. “Don’t try to bully me, Lukashka, but listen to what I have to say. Yes, I know I'm just a girl, but you listen to me."
15. “‘Love me as you are,’ said Lukashka, suddenly changing from being angry to once again being calm."
16. To be continued.
17. "He stood and spoke quietly, in a measured way; but in his slow and measured movements there was more strength and animation than in all of Nazarka's chatter and bustle."
18. "Or they drink themselves silly; and drink not like men but like I don't know what. But who was I? I was Yeroshka the thief..."
19. "'And how old are you?'
'God knows! About seventy.'
'You must be. But you're still in fine shape.'
'Well, I thank God that I'm healthy, quite healthy...'"
20. Brifely discusses "the slender trees" in the settlement.
21. "What people, what a life!"
22. “That’s how real men behave, not like nowadays.”
23. One of the men is eating seeds and spitting out the shells.
24. Briefly discusses razryv-trava, or the lovebreak-herb, traditionally placed under the head of one's bed to stimulate prophetic dreams. Magical herbs have a history in Slavic culture.
25. "Times are different now, you're not the Cossack men you were, you've turned to rubbish!"
Sunday, April 28, 2024
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Short Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. The Death of Ivan Ilyich
2. A shocking act occurred. "The act brought Ivan Ilyich to his senses."
3. "He was thinking of so many ideas, that he could hardly make sense of anything."
4. "'For Christ's sake, let me die in peace!' he said."
5. "What if I really have been wrong in the way I've lived my whole life, my conscious life?"
6. The end.
7. The Forged Coupon
8. "From the same drawer he took some Russian cigarette papers with their cardboard holders, stuffed a quantity of tobacco into one of them using a piece of cotton wool and started to smoke."
9. “‘Master, be sure your sins will find you out. One day we all must die,’ said Ivan Mironov.
'What's the matter with him? You must be dreaming.'"
10. One of the characters proceeds to explain his philosophy on life.
11. "It's common knowledge they're a stupid lot. Uneducated. Don't you worry, sir, I know what to say to the likes of him."
12. All because of Ivan's decision to forge a coupon, he goes on a whole chain of events and experiences: he winds up in jail, gets released and then goes to a new town to live, meets different people along the way, etc.
13. The end.
14. To be continued.
The Cossacks and Other Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. Introduction
2. "The three works in this volume all relate to the years 1851-5 which Tolstoy spent soldiering in the Caucasus and the Crimea."
3. "The Caucasus with its majestic mountain scenery and exotic peoples stirred Tolstoy as it had earlier writers, such as Pushkin and Lermontov."
4. "War with the Turks, which began in 1853, led Tolstoy, now an artillery officer...to the Danube front..."
5. "The Russian soldier is a calm, efficient soldier, unique for his skill."
6. "Yeroshka has a deep respect for life in all its forms."
7. "Each of them illustrates an aspect of Cossack life; together they provide a composite picture of the integrity and self-sufficiency of their community."
8. "In the December sketch he portrays them as heroes, united by their common Russian nature and determination to serve their country. In the May sketch he concerns himself with the psychology of war and examines the feelings, motives and conduct of the individuals involved."
9. "Despite the pain of defeat after so much suffering and sacrifice, the retreating troops who turn and shake their fists in defiance at the enemy suggest Tolstoy's continuing faith in the strength of the heroes of 'Sevastopol in December' -- the Russian people."
10. "Most striking is his understanding of his fellow men: like Yeroshka in The Cossacks, Tolstoy is aware of the common humanity in man as well as of the features which make him an individual."
11. The Cossacks
12. "Everything has grown quiet in Moscow. At rare, rare intervals the squeak of wheels is heard somewhere along the winter street...The streets are empty."
13. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. One Russian author who I've recently read, briefly discusses life on a farmstead.
2. Tba.
Saturday, April 27, 2024
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Short Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. The Death of Ivan Ilyich
2. "After two years working in the new town Ivan Ilyich met his future wife. Praskovya Fyodorovna Mikhel was the most attractive, intelligent, and colorful young lady in the social circle frequented by Ivan Ilyich."
3. "Praskovya listened to all of this, pretending to believe it and not querying anything, but her real interest was only in sketching out the new way of life that they would lead in the city to which they were moving."
4. Where he was working with coworkers, the relationships had to be strictly official. Discusses friendly human relations. “At the point where an official relationship breaks off, everything else breaks off too."
5. "Personal relationships can interfere with business in the workplace."
6. "After dinner, if there were no guests, Ivan Ilyich sometimes read a book that people were talking about, and later in the evening he sat down to do some work, reading through papers, studying the law, comparing depositions and sorting them by statute. This neither bored nor amused him."
7. "There were more and more quarrels between husband and wife, the pleasant, easy-going way of life lapsed, and they were hard put to keep up an appearance of decency."
8. Ivan Ilyich went to see a doctor. "He was made to wait, the doctor was full of his own importance -- an attitude he was familiar with because it was one that he himself assumed in court..."
9. "Just place yourself in our hands and we'll sort it out, we know what we're doing, there's no doubt about it, we can sort things out the same way as we could for anyone you care to name."
10. "The doctor was holding forth...As far as Ivan Ilyich was concerned there was only one question that mattered: Is this condition life threatening or not?"
11. "And after this, however hard Ivan Ilyich tried to raise the subject of his appearance, his brother-in-law wouldn't say a word."
12. He was recovering from an illness. "'Yes, that's how it goes,' he said to himself. 'All you have to do is give nature a helping hand.'"
13. "'Can I get you some tea, sir?'
'He likes good order. The masters must have their tea in the morning,' he thought, but all he said was, 'No.'"
14. To be continued.
The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. In a relationship, in comparison, ask yourself, “Am I really worse than other men?”
2. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. Many of the books I've read, illustrate the difference between speaking generally, and going into detail.
2. "Some people just know how to lie, they know how to lie about just about anything." --Henrik Ibsen
3. Campbell's Chunky Old Bay Seasoned, Manhattan or New England Clam Chowder mixed with an extra can (or two) of chopped clams tastes great! Campbell's Chunky Old Bay Seasoned Clam Chowder, is like a stew, or a "bouillabaisse with fragrant peppercorns and bay leaves." - Anton Chekhov.
Friday, April 26, 2024
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Short Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. Polikushka
2. Examines the contrast between “dirty money,” or money gained by evil means — “the devil’s money,” and money that makes people happy.
3. The Death of Ivan Ilyich
4. “I must apply to have my brother-in-law transferred from Kaluga. My wife will be delighted. She won’t be able to tell me I never do anything for her people."
5. “Pyotr Ivanovich heard that she had made detailed enquiries about the cost of various plots of land before settling on the one she wanted.”
6. "Ivan Ilyich’s transfer to a new town meant meeting new people and making new contacts; he also struck a new attitude, and slightly changed his tone."
7. “For no reason that Ivan Ilyich could fathom, his wife began to disrupt the pleasant and decent run of his life. She became jealous of him for no apparent cause, demanded his closest attention…"
Thursday, April 25, 2024
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Short Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. Polikushka
2. "Others -- the majority -- considered him a bad man but a great master of his trade."
3. "A pair of rubber boots would be a good investment."
4. "Aksyuta... instead of bending her arms she swung them, not at her sides but out in front of her body, like two pendulums keeping time with her running speed."
5. "Tinklin' away she were, tinklin' away while she got it right. What a treat! Mind you, I could've played, you know."
6. The children in the town played a game like tag, of hawk-and-chickens.
7. "This is a Christian village, not somewhere where they listen to a ranting drunk."
8. "It's obvious, isn't it? This is what you get for being honest."
9. "...by the yellow-green jacket which functioned in her family as blanket, coat, hood, carpet, overcoat, and many other things as well."
10. "Despite everything, though, Polikey was thinking pleasant thoughts."
11. "No tavern or shop, nothing could tempt him."
12. "Dutlov walked over, and lay down. Another peasant went out to sleep with the horses."
13. To be continued.
Various Notes:
1. "It is important to remain calm at all times."
2. "It is important to use calm language at all times."
3. I cleaned up the layout for Food Ideas (below).
4. Updated, Favorite Notes, Item II., 11 - 14.
5. I combined two pages and created "Notes about Psychiatry and Law."
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Short Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. Introduction
2. There was a giant in Leo Tolstoy's family. Tolstoy himself was also a large man. "He could lift 180lb (82 kilos) with one hand -- a large ego, a colossal appetite for life and learning, along with a formidable intellect. He was also recognized across the globe as a titan of moral and spiritual leadership."
3. Collected Works, by Tolstoy, ran to ninety volumes.
4. For Leo Tolstoy, the only scale was gargantuan.
5. Tolstoy was concerned with "the improvement of our lives."
6. Tolstoy lost four close family members to death, by the time he was thirteen.
7. "...her husband had been fiddling around with second-rate works of philosophy, morality, and religion that no one wanted to read."
8. "Ordinariness is the currency Tolstoy chooses to deal in, the ordinary."
9. "...the French writer Guy de Maupassant, before he died, is reported to have signed off with these unhappy words: 'I realize that everything I have done was to no purpose and that my ten volumes are worthless.'"
10. To be continued.
11. "'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' is an object lesson in style, construction and the sensitive use of language.
12. "Terrible contrasts are examined: sickness versus health, for example."
13. Omitted.
14. "Three Deaths," has very little purpose other than to tell us how to die: stay close to nature and the dying will be easy. Additionally, an education can help us face death bravely.
15. Examine the difference between masses of soldiers who die, and two young civilians who die.
16. Omitted.
17. "After the Ball," is considered by some as one of the very greatest things Tolstoy ever wrote. Its power is drawn from the shocking contrast between two opposite personalities displayed by an elderly colonel, seen first at a ball dancing serenely with his daughter and charming the company..."
18. "The sad truth is that, throughout his life, Tolstoy wanted to tell us all how we should conduct our lives, how we should love other people as a first priority, and how we should learn to die well. But the only way to do any of this would be to treat his life story like one of his cautionary tales, as an object lesson in how not to love and how not to prepare for death."
19. The Raid - "Well, please allow me to ignore your advice. I've been waiting here a whole month just for the chance of seeing some action and you want me to miss it!"
20. "If you really want to know what battles are like, read Mikhaylovsky-Danilevsky's Description of War -- it's a fine book and you'll find what you want there, where each corps was positioned, how battles are fought."
21. "However silly I felt at the captain's misinterpretation of my motives I did not start arguing with him."
22. "The old lady was absolutely delighted that I would be seeing her Pashenka (her pet name for the elderly, grey-haired captain)."
23. "After treating me to some excellent pie and smoked duck, she went away."
24. "He had been severely wounded in the Caucasus but, needless to say, had not written one word to his mother either about wounds or campaigns."
25. "'So let him wear his holy image now,' she continued. 'My blessing goes with it. May the Holy Mother of God protect him! Especially in battles -- that's when he must never forget to wear it.'"
26. "The captain lived frugally...and he smoked very cheap tobacco which, for some reason, he was too proud to call shag, giving it some obscure brand name instead. I had taken to the captain from the start: he had one of those simple, calm Russian faces that are easy to look straight in the eye."
27. "Although the good captain's appearance had nothing particularly martial or handsome about it, it expressed such equanimity towards everything around it that it could only inspire respect."
28. "The road ran along a deep and wide ravine by the side of a small stream in full spate. Flocks of wild pigeons circled over it, settling on its rocky banks or turning, swiftly wheeling and disappearing from sight."
29. "The other side of the ravine and the valley, were damp and gloomy and presented an elusive medley of colors -- pale lilac, shades of black, dark green and white. Directly in front of us rose the dazzling white masses of snowy mountains..."
30. "The air smelled of water, grass, mist -- all the scents of a beautiful early summer's morning. The captain struck a flint and lit his pipe. I found the smell of his cheap tobacco and tinder extremely pleasant."
31. "The captain seemed more pensive than usual, never took his Daghestan pipe from his mouth and at every step prodded his little horse with his heels."
32. Omitted.
33. The captain was a stern gentleman.
34. "The infantry, rifles and kitbags on their backs, slowly marched along the dusty road. Now and then their laughter and the sound of Ukranian could be heard in their ranks. A few old campaigners in white tunics -- mostly non-commissioned officers -- were walking by the roadside smoking their pipes and in solemn conversation."
35. Introduces us to another officer. "He was one of those young, daredevil officers who model themselves on Marlinsky's or Lermontov's heroes."
36. Briefly discusses A Hero of Our Time, by Mikhail Lermontov.
37. One of the things that the soldier carried was a large icon (pendant) which hung around his neck.
38. "Filled with curiosity, I listened to the soldiers' and officers' conversations and closely studied their expressions. But I could find absolutely no trace in any of them of the nervousness I was feeling..."
39. "I shall not say what I was thinking about then, firstly because I am too ashamed to admit to the succession of gloomy thoughts that kept nagging at me... and secondly because they would be quite irrelevant to my narrative."
40. "Most of the sky was overcast... The air was so warm and still that not one blade of grass, not one cloud moved. It was so dark that it was impossible to make out even the closest objects..."
41. "In war, it's best to be serious and stern."
42. "The whole village came alive. All of the townspeople were doing their duties."
43. "The captain sat on the roof of a hut smoking his cheap tobacco and sending streams of smoke from his short pipe with such a casual air that when I saw him I forgot that I was in an enemy village and felt quite at home."
44. Omitted.
45. "I saw a soldier killed by an enemy cannon ball. But why go into detail over a terrible scene I would give anything to forget?"
46. "'We'll beat them back,' he said convincingly.
'It's not necessary,' the captain replied softly. 'What we must do is retreat.'"
47. "Physical skill is only one element of military life."
48. "The wounded man looked round and a sad smile passed over his pale face.
The doctor then, rolled up his sleeves and went over to the ensign with an encouraging smile.
'Well, it seems they've given you a hole where you didn't have one before!' he said in a light-hearted, jocular tone."
49. The Woodfelling
50. "When I went to the fire to light a cigarette, Velenchuk...pulled a burning coal from the heart of the fire in a fit of zeal, with his bare hand, tossed it a couple times from one hand to the other then let it fall to the ground... I finally managed to light my cigarette with out the asistance of Velenchuk, who was again attempting to pick out a live coal. He then rubbed his burnt fingers on the flaps of his sheepskin coat and, most probably for want of something to do, lifted a huge piece of plane-tree wood and with a mighty swing hurled in on to the fire."
51. "'Man, I've forgotten my pipe. What a nuisance, lads!' Velenchuk repeated.
'Then you should smoke cigars, old chap,' Chikin said, twisting his mouth and winking. 'When I'm at home I always smoke cigars -- they're sweeter!'"
52. "There they are, twisting away and you can't stop laughing -- yes, you laugh yourself to death, you do!"
53. "Kirsanov was a shortish, stout man with a black moustache...when he laughed all that remained of his eyes were two moist little stars. Kirsanov behaved and bore himself better than anyone else in the regiment...although he was thought to be very dense. He knew the army, was industrious, diligent..."
54. Another soldier, "would bow, sit in one corner without saying a word for several hours, roll cigarettes and smoke them, after which he would get up, bow and leave."
55. "The guns were going off: Ta-ta-ta-ta! Pop-pop-pop-pop!"
56. To be continued.
57. "So, you see, death didn't call on him for nothing this morning when I had to wake him up..."
58. Three Deaths
59. "It's sad, it's hard to bear, but what can you do?"
60. "'Not jealous, are you?' Sergey replied, half-rising and tucking the bottom of his coat round his legs."
61. "'Throat giving you trouble, with all that coughing?'
'It all hurts. Time for me to die -- and that's it...' moaned the sick man."
62. "It was now spring. In little fenced-off gardens the buds had begun to swell on the trees, and you could just catch the murmur of branches rocking in the breeze...Sparrows squawked and twittered amidst a fluttering of tiny wings."
63. "'...inside, the lady who had been rushing to travel abroad lay dying.'
'The sick lady's husband and an elderly woman stood by the closed doors of her room. On the sofa sat a priest with downcast eyes...In one corner an old woman reclined in a high-backed armchair -- the sick lady's mother -- weeping bitter tears.'"
64. Sometimes, birds chirp, or sing, from trees, or bushes.
65. To be continued.
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky:
1. "Alyosha knew that she lived with two aunts. One of them, a woman of little education, was that aunt of her half-sister Agafya Ivanovna who had looked after her in her father's house when she came from boarding-school."
2. "For his opinion had struck him as awfully foolish immediately after he had uttered it. He felt ashamed too of having given so confident an opinion about a woman."
3. "'I've only been waiting behind the curtain for you to call me,' said a soft, one might say sugary, feminine voice.
The portiere was raised and Grushenka herself, smiling and beaming, came up to the table."
4. "No, she really was fascinated by Grushenka, that's to say, not by Grushenka, but by her own dream, her own delusion-- because it was her dream, her delusion!"
5. To be continued.
Various Notes:
1. Beginning with No. 57, updated, notes about today's Tolstoy reading. 8:00pm.
2. Tba.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky:
1. "You worthless, puny weakling."
2. "Everything you touch, you defile."
3. "Why are you looking at me? Why do you look like that?... You ugly drunkard!"
4. "To my mind there are no ugly women."
The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, by Leo Tolstoy:
1. Introduction
2. Tolstoy attempted to create new definitions of old ideas.
3. In his diary, Tolstoy indicates that there is no love, only physical desire and "the demand of reason for a life partner."
4. "Love involves several dimensions."
5. Omitted.
6. "Being in love must yield to other forces."
7. Omitted.
8. Family Happiness
9. One of the characters listens to obscure, little-known, unpopular classical music.
10. “I don’t look like the average American, I don’t look like the typical American, but I am a good American nonetheless.”
11. "We want a partner who is on our level."
12. "Reading a book over and over again is like listening to a good piece of music over and over again."
13. Omitted.
14. "Two people in a relationship are supposed to be happy together."
15. "It can be rewarding to think about reasons why you’re happy. This expression of thankfulness is like giving thanks to God in prayer.
16. Omitted.
17. Omitted.
18. “When we spoke, it was as though we were alone in the whole world.”
19. "There is a special, unique effect "when 'we' hang out, that can not be duplicated with anyone else."
20. A house, "one of those old country houses in which several generations of kindred have lived their lives."
21. "...the maid who with folded hands reported that Tatyana Semyonovna wished to know how I had slept after my walk yesterday..."
22. "After tea maman played patience or listened to Marya Minichna's fortune-telling...then she made the sign of the cross over us, and we went off..."
23. Eventhough the couple was uncomfortable living there, neither of them ever let it show that anything displeased them.
24. "His perpetual calmness impressed me."
25. "We are supposed to govern feeling, not have feeling govern us."
26. Omitted.
27. "I know, you’re right. You’d do better not to say anything, you’re right.”
28. “Sometimes, people are guilty of ‘talking nonsense.’”
29. “Like when the whole world revolves around your friend. The waiter in the restaurant serves him first. They get the special seat in the movie theater. They get treated with preference the entire day.”
30. “Like in the ball, or party, when everyone’s eyes turn toward him.”
31. To be continued.
The Iliad, by Homer:
1. "The elderly should teach, and give spoken orders, and let the younger generation use their strength."
2. "Leaders should keep their word, and not break agreements. This displays courage and honesty."
3. Omitted.
4. "Fools. Their own bravado killed them."
5. "...and not one cry, no common voice to bind them."
6. "So now if a god comes up to test your mettle
you must not fight the immortal powers head-on."
Various Notes
1. "...just to write a series of connecting loops, as though you were writing in script -- a 'fake script.'"
Added to "Write with Both Hands" page.
2. I reposted several notes from The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, by Leo Tolstoy.
3. I edited Favorite Notes and Favorite Notes 2, and moved Food Ideas to the bottom of the page.
4. Omitted.
Monday, April 22, 2024
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky:
1. "What a saint he was! I will remember him...and I will pray for your husband's health."
2. The narrator emphasises the importance of being good in life, of going to church, and praying to God.
3. "No wounds, no festering sore could at that moment frighten me. I would bind them up and wash them with my own hands. I would nurse the afflicted. I would be ready to kiss such wounds."
4. "And if the patient whose wounds you are washing did not meet you with gratitude, but worried you with whims, without valuing or remarking your charitable services...what then?"
5. "I am a hired servant, I expect my payment at once--that is, praise, and the repayment of love with love. Otherwise I am incapable of loving any one."
6. In one scene, one of the characters said every word in a sing-song voice.
7. Two of the characters get into a discussion about separation of church and state, then one of the men indicates that one shouldn’t go against the church.
8. "...the Church ought to be transformed into the State...making way for science, for the spirit of the age, and civilization."
9. Reminds us that many churches accept all peoples.
10. One of the men argues that if society was not so state oriented, and was more oriented towards the church, then people would not face such severe punishments as they do in criminal law cases.
11. Suggests that you examine the major world religions.
12. “…the state is eliminated and the church is raised to the position of the state.”
13. Chapter 6 - Why Is Such a Man Alive?
14. Reminds us of the religious saying, "Love thy neighbor."
15. "But thank the Creator who has given you a lofty heart capable of such suffering; of thinking and seeking higher things, for our dwelling is in the heavens. God grant that your heart will attain the answer on earth, and may God bless your path."
16. "After such an escapade how can I go to dinner, to gobble up the monastery's sauces. I am ashamed, I can't."
17. To be continued.
18. "Alyosha believed that impicitly. But how could he be left without him? How could he live without seeing and hearing him? Where should he go? [What should he do?]"
19. The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky is also available for free, online. You can follow along with the reading, review previous passages, or jump ahead in the novel.
20. "But the truth is not to be found in eating gudgeon and that I proclaim aloud! Father monks, why do you fast! Why do you expect a reward in heaven for that?"
21. To be continued.
22. “Marfa Ignatyevna was by no means foolish; she was probably, indeed, cleverer than her husband, or, at least, more prudent than he in worldly affairs…”
23. “It was almost a morbid condition. Corrupt and often cruel, like some noxious insect.”
24. "Beauty is a terrible and awful thing! The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible.”
25. Reminds us that often, cycles end, then begin again.
26. “I have often been friendly with women quite innocently. I used to talk to her with shocking frankness, and she only laughed.”
27. Briefly discusses the concept of self-incrimination.
28. Briefly mentions fish patties and fish soup.
29. Briefly discusses Smaragdov's Universal History.
Various Notes:
1. Omitted.
2. Tba.
Sunday, April 21, 2024
The Three Musketeers, by Alexander Dumas:
1. In one passage, the narrator indicates that the nobleman was surrounded by a large group of attorneys, bankers, and soldiers.
2. In one passage, one of the musketeers says, “If the worst case scenario presents itself, then I am willing to surrender my sword in order to preserve the safety of the group."
3. In one scene, indicates that the queen was surrounded by several of her ladies, Madame de Guitaut, Madame de Sable, Madame de Monthazon…who were entertaining the queen.
4. The queen and her ladies were deciding what they were going to do. The queen gets money from the king to pay for her expenses.
The Iliad, by Homer:
1. One of the soldiers in the story was a man who "had fought to exhaustion."
2. A son of Iphiclus, son of Phylacus, was “rich in flocks.”
3. “But their captain lay on an island…where the armies had marooned him.”
4. “Both men armed at opposing sides of the forces
into the no man’s land between the lines they strode…"
5. “Hurl your challenge at Menelaus dear to Ares
fight it out together, man-to-man again.”
6. To be continued.
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky:
1. "...Dmitri's major question concerns ethics. 'What is ethics?' he asks, and what is the right thing for me to do?"
2. Some question Dostoevsky poses include: What is human happiness? Is there a God? When does one forgive?
3. One of the characters in the novel has a wife, who he sometimes argues with. The wife is always dominant in their arguments.
4. Of the husband, “...he was even glad of a new comic part in which to play the buffoon.”
5. “You can easily imagine what a father such a man could be and how he would bring up his children. His behavior as a father was exactly what might be expected. He completely abandoned the child of his marriage, not from malice, nor because of his matrimonial grievances, but simply because he forgot him.”
6. “Fyodor Pavlovitch was all his life fond of acting, of suddenly playing an unexpected part, sometimes without any motive for doing so, and even to his own direct disadvantage, as, for instance, in the present case.”
7. Omitted.
8. Of one childhood memory, writes, “he rarely cared to speak of this memory to anyone.”
9. Apparently, there is a connection to Hinduism and Russian religion.
10. Introduces readers to a student. "He was thoughtful and absent-minded. There was a strange fixity in his gaze at times. Like all very absent-minded people he would sometimes stare at a person without seeing him.”
11. “So there are loopholes, after all, to creep out of the hermitage…”
12. “‘Now, I know myself, I am annoyed, I shall lose my temper and begin to quarrel—and lower myself and my ideas,’ he reflected.”
13. "Near it were two other holy pictures in shining settings, and, next them, carved cherubims…engravings from the great Italian artists of past centuries…Russian prints of saints aand martyrs…portraits of Russian bishops, past and present."
14. “At the first moment he did not like Zossima. There was indeed, something in the elder's face which many people besides Musov might not have liked.”
15. “The minute I see my joke isn’t coming off, both my cheeks feel as though they were drawn down to the lower jaw and there is almost a spasm in them.”
16. Refers to the philosopher Denis Diderot.
17. Briefly discusses the Lives of the Saints.
18. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. "There was a gentleman, an elderly man, and a young woman. This gentleman loved the young woman as he would a daughter, and treated her as such."
2. Tba.
Saturday, April 20, 2024
King Lear of the Steppes, by Ivan Turgenev:
1. The giant had an enmity with a small person who lived nearby.
2. Suggests that one of the characters is a small person, who just eats moderate-sized meals.
3. “Just you go on being the big bully!…you go on being the bully-boy!"
4. At one point, the little dog ran under the table in fright.
5. “There are your daughters, Vladimir, making as much fun of you as they like in your very own house and home!”
6. One of the young girls, Yevlampia, says, “Forget the past. You can trust me now.”
7. "The speaker fell silent, we chatted for a while and then went our separate ways."
8. The end.
Asya, by Ivan Turgenev:
1. The story begins with the narrator indicating that he intends to travel to see the world. During his travels, he encounters different people, and it is people who interest him, their faces, their mannerisms, etc. he is not interested in monuments or buildings, but rather, is interested in people.
2. The narrator indicates that some of the people are smiling, and some of the people are not.
3. At one point, when some music was played, the narrator writes, "I felt all the strings of my heart quiver in response to its enticing melody."
4. In one passage, the narrator indicates that one of the characters was "as fresh-looking as the morning."
5. "The tenor of my thinking seemed exactly suited to the tranquil nature of that region."
6. "One has to know her well in order to pass judgement on her...you wouldn't blame her if you knew her background."
8. To be continued.
9. "No, what Asya needs is a hero...Look, I've been talking too much and holding you up," he added, getting to his feet.
10. Indicates the importance, in certain settings, of being serious.
11. "The expression on his face was very entertaining, but I was not in the mood for laughter."
12. "'One can't play with fire'-- Gagin's words, like arrows, buried themselves in my soul."
13. "Wrapped in a long shawl, she was hidden in a chair beside the window, her head turned away and almost hidden, like a frightened bird...I went up to her. She turned her head still further from me..."
14. "She suddenly straightened up, and tried to look at me--and couldn't."
15. "There was a slight rustling sound, like a sigh cut short, and I felt on my hair the touch of a feeble hand quivering like a leaf."
16. To be continued.
17. “She still can’t forget the moment when they dressed her in a silk dress for the first time and kissed her hand.”
18. Omitted.
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky:
1. "The Brothers Karamazov is an encounter with passion. For Dostoevsky the passions are the most mysterious dimension of the human being, and, therefore, this is the dimension that obsesses and compels him."
2. "Dostoevsky persists in pointing to an impassable joy as well as a blocked darkness and muteness at the core of our being."
3. "At these moments, Dostoevsky attempts to answer what he calls the eternal questions: What is heaven and what is hell? What pleasure or pain do these grand original metaphors represent within the psychic human domain?...What could give Ivan those two seconds of senseless, useless, speechless joy that he so desperately desires and for which he would give a 'quadrillion quadrillions'?"
4. "Parricide and regicide are motivated by a desire to destroy something foundational -- all law, representation, and order, or the fundamental gift of the father that makes these possible: language...Rather than submit to the law that demands giving an account, narrating, speaking, and being judged by others, Smerdyakov escapes by suicide. He returns to the solitude of his languageless body."
5. Should one punish or forgive? Should one impose law or give way to loving trust, charity, and hope?
6. Dostoevsky’s characters are all rebellious against something.
7. Of Ivan, “his is the vision of a godless and masterless society where all would be equal, though he understands that godlessness would also mean lawlessness.”
8. In the novel, “no answer or resolution is ever imposed.”
9. “Dmitri’s body governs his mind.”
10. “Against all of them Zossima preaches the doctrine of responsibility to one’s fellow man.”
11. Suggests that even if you do not have someone to love, try to follow the teachings of Christianity, and take care of yourself.
Friday, April 19, 2024
First Love and other Stories, by Ivan Turgenev:
1. "I didn’t ask myself when and how it had all happened. I didn’t feel surprised at not having guessed the truth for so long and I didn’t even blame my father. What I had learned was too much for me. The unexpected revelation had crushed me."
2. "We returned to town. I didn’t quickly throw off the past and I didn’t quickly start my studying again. My wound was slow to heal."
3. The narrator’s father has a horse named Electric.
4. “An unpleasant rawness rose from the river."
5. “Let psychologists explain this contradiction as best they can.”
6. To be continued.
7. Zinaida was upset. She was saying words of only one syllable.
8. Suggests that we let some things disappear like snow in the heat of the sun, disappear in the wind.
9. “Oh, the things I could have done if only I hadn’t wasted my time.”
10. “But I am not being fair to myself.”
11. The narrator was present, at the death of a poor old woman who lived with them in the same house. Covered in rags, she was dying painfully and with difficulty. Her whole life had been one of bitter struggle…
12. The end.
King Lear of the Steppes, by Ivan Turgenev:
1. Introduces readers to Harlov, a tall, big man who, when he was home, had to be cautious not to knock things over and break them.
2. Indicates that Harlov descended from a line of Russian royalty.
3. The giant, “had great faith in himself and feared no man. ‘What can they do to me? Where is there a man on this earth who can?’ he used to ask and suddenly burst out laughing with a short but deafening guffaw.”
4. “Due to his size Harlov hardly went anywhere on foot: the ground wouldn’t bear his weight.”
5. “Besides, as a man he was completely straight, sought no one’s favor, was not in debt and did not drink — and he was no fool, though he’d received no education.”
6. He had a very healthy appetite.
7. Harlov, the colossus, also possessed a thunderous voice.
8. “I gazed at him in silence and could scarcely marvel enough at the mountainous size of the man.”
9. We are introduced to Anna Martinova, Harlov’s eldest daughter, who has a slight temper.
10. “Martin Petrovich’s face, when he lumbered into the room, and instantly sank down into a chair beside the door, had such an unusual expression…that my mother repeated her exclamation aloud and despite herself.”
11. “…that’s a bad sign. It’s a sign he has a weight on his heart and unhappiness…”
12. The group go for a trip, in a large four-seat family carriage drawn by six horses. Harlov’s mother had given the suggestion for this extraordinary vehicle to be used.
13. Omitted.
14. The group go to a court proceeding, and the superintendent asks, “Do you know of any just impediments?”
15. One of the characters turns down the corner of a page in a book as a makeshift bookmark.
16. Briefly discusses a horse, poor creature, whose ribs were almost breaking through the skin, and whose sides were sweating.
17. The giant writes only in large letters.
18. "Such silence dwelt everywhere that at a hundred paces one could hear a squirrel bounding through the dry leaves or catch the sound of a broken twig as it caught in other branches and fell at last into the soft grass…"
19. To be continued.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
First Love and other Stories, by Ivan Turgenev:
1. "I didn’t feel happy and had left home…but youth, the beautiful weather, the fresh air, had got the better of me…"
2. Omitted.
3. “…there was not the slightest sound anywhere; everything was sound asleep; even our dog was fast asleep, curled up by the gate.”
Various Notes:
1. "There are just too many inaccuracies, so I don't believe those old stories. And it is clear that they were based on lies."
Added to the paper "Why I Don't Believe the Story About the Slave Trade..."
2. In Ward No. Six: A Novella, by Anton Chekhov, one of the questions Chekhov asks, is, "Should you treat someone with medication and therapy, and ignore philosophy and religion?"
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
First Love and other Stories, by Ivan Turgenev:
1. "Nobody restricted my freedom. I was able to do just what I wanted…"
2. "…my mother hardly paid any attention to me; she was consumed by other cares. My father, a man who was still young and very handsome, had married her for her money; she was ten years his senior."
3. Briefly discusses Schiller’s The Robbers.
4. Indicates that one couple often conversed in French.
5. "Zinaida paid no attention to me at all.”
6. Omitted.
7. "'Read me some poetry,' said Zinaida... 'I like it when you read poetry.'"
8. "Oh, you'll start arguing again about Romanticism and Classicism..."
9. "The next morning I got up early... and set off for a walk outside the town limits. I'll walk, I thought, and forget my sorrows. It was a beautiful day..."
Various Notes
1. Anton Chekhov reminds us that sometimes, medication makes people feel like they're going to faint.
Added to Notes about Psychiatry.
2. A cucumber and some lettuce go nicely with sliced tomatoes!
3. Edited: Notes about Psychiatry -- Item 4.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
First Love and other Stories, by Ivan Turgenev:
1. Introduction
2. Turgenev suggests that we have to work at love and relationships, in order to make them work.
"'Love!' he went on. 'Everything is mysterious about it: how it comes, how it grows, how it goes."
3. The Diary of a Superfluous Man, by Anton Chekhov
4. "In the face of eternity, they say, all things are as nothing..."
5. “For a long time I couldn’t make myself say anything, because my heart was beating so strongly.”
6. “My perpetually strained smile, agonizing awareness of everything, stupid silence and fretful and vain desire to leave— all this was probably very remarkable of its kind.”
7. Indicates that he couldn’t sleep because he was too excited, too happy.
8. “‘Quiet, quiet,” he remarked. ‘Respectable people don’t shout.’”
9. “I’ll never find a better, truer friend. I’ll be your wife.”
Various Notes:
1. Omitted.
2. Tba.
Monday, April 15, 2024
Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev:
1. "'Ectually I want to prove, my dear sir,' (whenever he grew angry Pavel Petrovich deliberately said 'ectually' and 'ectual,' although he knew only too well that they were incorrect. This quaint habit was a hangover from the Alexandrine epoch. Dandies in those days, on the rare occasions when they spoke Russian, used the terms 'ectually' and 'ectual' as much as to say that 'We native-born Russians though we are, are at the same time such grandees we're allowed to break school rules!') 'ectually I wanted to prove that..."
2. Many of the scenes in Fathers and Sons are deeply philosophical and reflective.
3. Two of the characters briefly discuss what it means to be a "real man."
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev:
1. "Really? Well, now I see why we've got on so well. You're the same as I am."
2. "You can't bring back the past, Anna Sergeevna..."
3. Briefly discusses The Friend of Health, “a newspaper for the medical profession published in St. Petersburg from 1833 to 1869."
4. “Just you take a look at how my little garden’s doing now! I planted every sapling myself. I’ve got fruit trees and berries and all kinds of medicinal herbs.”
5. Briefly discusses Paracelsus, Swiss physician and alchemist, "who advocated the use of specific treatments for particular illnesses 'through herbs, words, and minerals.’”
6. Briefly discusses a woman who believed in “folk remedies.”
7. One of the characters galloped off to obtain some “Circassian beef.”
8. To be continued.
9. "'In that case it'd be good to have a doze,' Arkady remarked.
'Maybe. Only don't you look at me. A person's face always looks silly when he's asleep.'"
10. "'Just let's say we'll be friends as we were before. That was a dream, wasn't it? And who remembers dreams?'
'Who remembers them?'"
11. "Live a long life, that's best of all, and enjoy it while there's time."
The Iliad, by Homer:
1. "...words, endless words--that is your passion, always,
...true, but they speak a thousand different tongues,"
2. "...miles east where the mother lode of silver came to birth."
3. "The minds of the younger men are always flighty,
but let an old man stand his ground among them,
one who can see the days behind, the days ahead--"
4. "That's Laertes' son, the great tactician Odysseus...
the man of twists and turns."
Various Notes:
1. Anton Chekhov indicates that daydreaming is fun, and that some people do not know how to daydream.
2. Anton Chekhov indicates that some questions, a person has to find the answers for himself.
Saturday, April 13, 2024
Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev:
1. His wife, "in short, lived her life to her heart's content."
2. "A bedraggled-looking cat, curled up foppishly against the railings, eyed it in an unfriendly way."
3. "A large grey dove flew down to the road and hurriedly set about drinking from a puddle beside the well."
4. "Nikolai Petrovich turned quickly round and...firmly squeezed his ungloved red hand, which the other had not immediately offered him."
5. "His chief subject is natural science. But he knows all sorts of things."
6. "But the latter did not move at all. He was a man of the old school who didn't share the latest ideas."
7. "How marevellous the air is here! What a wonderful scent it's got! It really does seem to me that nowhere in the world smells as good as here!"
8. "...but, firstly, I can't hide things and, secondly, you know that I've always had particular principles about the relationship between a father and a son."
9. "...the cows hungrily munched at the grass in ditches."
10. "He threw his greatcoat from him and looked at his father so happily, so like a small boy, that his father embraced him once again."
11. "Having done with the preliminary European 'shake hands', he kissed him in the Russian fashion three times, that is to say he brushed his cheeks three times with perfumed whiskers and said:
'Welcome home.'
12. "But your father's a splendid chap. He wastes his time reading poetry and he's hardly got any idea about running a farm, but he's a really good type."
13. "Pavel Petrovich...simply replaced the patent-leather shoes with red heelless Chinese slippers."
14. "I dissect the frog and have a look at what's going on inside it. Because you and I are just like frogs, 'cept we walk about on legs, I'll be able to find out what's going on inside us as well."
15. To be continued.
16. "We, men of another age, we suppose that without principes...' (Pavel Petrovich pronounced the word softly, the French way, while Arkady, by contrast, pronounced it 'principles' with the accent falling hard on the first syllable)..."
17. Briefly discusses German philosophers Schiller and Goethe.
18. "'Yes,' he declared without looking at anyone, 'it's a great misfortune to have spent five years of so in the country far removed from great minds! In a flash you become a perfect fool. You try not to forget what you've been taught and then--just like that!--it turns out everything you've been taught is nonsense and you're told sensible people don't concern themselves with such rubbishany more and that you're, so to speak, old hat."
19. "But Nikolai had the enduring consolation of a life well spent and a son who was growing up before his very eyes..."
20. Nikolai Petrovich "took up reading more and more in English and in general modelled his life on English tastes..."
21. "'His education?' queried Bazarov. 'Each man's got to educate himself--well, as I do, for instance."
22. "And both friends went off to Bazarov's room, in which some kind of medicinal, surgical smell had already established itself along with the smell of cheap tobacco."
23. "In response to these words Pavel Petrovich would simply turn away, but he didn't spoil his brother's illusions."
24. "Nikolai Petrovich, like all longstanding country residents, engaged in looking after the sick and had even ordered homeopathic remedies to be sent to him."
25. Briefly discusses The Gypsies, by Alexander Pushkin, notable for the 'realistic' treatment of gypsy life and the dilemma of the Byronic hero Aleko.
26. "The human personality must be strong as a rock, because everything is built on it."
27. Omitted.
28. "Civilization is what's dear to us--yes, indeed, my good sir."
29. To be continued.
30. "On such occasions he would say: 'What one needs is energy.'"
31. "...Such forms of expression were quite familiar to him. He even followed--true, with a certain majestic casualness--the developments in contemporary literature..."
32. "'Do you dance?'
'I do dance, only badly.'"
33. Briefly discusses George Sand and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
34. "Earlier I used to spend my winters in Moscow...What's more, Moscow's now--oh, I don't know--it's not what it was."
35. "Evdoksiya rolled a cigarette with her nicotine-stained fingers...and lit up."
36. "At last a point was reached when Evdoksiya...set about singing in a hoarse voice some gypsy songs..."
37. "...from several of her remarks Arkady concluded that here was a young woman who had already managed to experience a great deal emotionally and mentally in her life."
38. "'Why don't you want to allow the idea of freedom of thought among women?' he asked under his breath."
39. “…Odintsova never for a moment took her crystal-clear eyes off him.”
40. “Time, sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a worm.”
41. “Bazarov’s eyes glittered for an instant beneath his dark brows.”
Various Notes:
1. According to one of the books that I've read, birds sometimes eat carrion, or the decaying flesh of dead animals.
2. Omitted.
3. Much of the literature that I've read reminds us that music is an art, and that some music is slow, and some music is fast. Take the blues, classical music, or pop music, or the styles of different musicians, for example.
Friday, April 12, 2024
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo:
1. Brimming with emotion, she watched them. The presence of angels is a herald of paradise.
2. There are certain natures that cannot have love on one side without hatred on the other.
3. Introduces readers to a gentleman who “had extracted a fortune for himself and a fortune for the whole region.”
4. Despite this, emphasizes the importance of feeding the poor and investing in education.
5. Suggests that this businessman might be corrupt.
6. Indicates that this businessman brought so much prosperity to the area, that the king appointed him mayor of the city.
7. “Nevertheless he remained as simple as at first. He had gray hair, a serious eye, the tanned complexion of a laborer, and the thoughtful expression of a philosopher."
8. "He usually wore a hat with a wide brim, and a long coat of coarse cloth, buttoned to the chin.”
9. ”He fulfilled his duties as mayor but beyond that his life was solitary. He talked with very few.”
10. “He loved books; books are cold but sure friends. As his growing fortune gave him more leisure, it seemed that he took advantage of it to cultivate his mind.”
11. “…it was noted that from year to year his language became more polished, more carefully chosen, and gentler.”
12. “With his eyes raised to heaven, he listened with a sort of longing toward all the mysteries of the infinite, to the sad voices that sing on the brink of death’s dark abyss.”
13. “He did a multitude of good deeds…”
14. “He was good-natured and sad. The people used to say, “There is a rich man who does not show pride. There is a fortunate man who doesn’t seem self-satisfied.”
15. “Introduces us to a gentleman named Javert”
16. “From some words Javert had let drop, it was guessed that he had secretly hunted up, with that curiosity belonging to…all traces of his previous life that Father Madeleine had left elsewhere.”
17. Briefly discusses how much Fantine receives for her day’s work.
18. "There is in all small towns…a set of young men…They are beings... parasites, nobodies who have a little land, a little folly, and a little wit, who would be clowns in a drawing room…hunt, smoke, gawk, drink, take snuff…"
19. To be continued.
20. She touched the unfortunate with charming fingers, delicate and pure... she said just what was necessary, and she had a tone of voice that would have both edified a confessional and enchanted a drawing room.
21. These two thoughts were so closely associated in his mind that they fused into one: both were equally absorbing and imperious and rules his smallest actions. Ordinarily they harmonized in regulating the conduct of his life; they turned him toward the dark side of life; they made him benevolent and simple-hearted...
22. For the rest of the day he was in this state, tempest within, perfect calm without; he took only what might be called precautionary measures.
The Iliad, by Homer:
1. Introduction - The poem, in other words, is some 2,700 years old.
2. Briefly discusses Milton and Shakespeare.
3. Suggests that we can create our own crude script handwriting, containing complicated shapes.
4. Omitted.
5. "The most likely date for the composition of the Iliad is the fifty years running from 725 to 675 b.c."
6. "The Iliad is a poem that lives and moves and has its being in war..."
7. "The gods are immortal; they are not subject to time. They have all the time in the world. And so they are not subject to change, to the change brought by age, to the change brought by learning and suffering and a realization of limitations."
8. "And shattered with anger, the old man withdrew
but Apollo heard his prayer--he loved him, deeply--"
9. "How can you sleep all night, a man weighed down with duties?"
10. "No, don't give up now. Range the Achaean ranks,
with your winning words hold back each man you find--
don't let them haul their rolling ships to sea!"
11. "Their morale was low but the men laughed now,
good hearty laughter breaking over Thersites' head--"
The Cook's Wedding, by Anton Chekhov:
1. GRISHA, a little urchin of seven, stood at the kitchen door with his eye at the keyhole, watching and listening. Something was taking place in the kitchen that seemed to him very strange and that he had never seen happen before. At the table on which the meat and onions were usually chopped sat a huge, burly peasant in a long coachman's coat.
Thursday, April 11, 2024
The Greatest Novellas & Short Stories of Anton Chekhov, by Anton Chekhov:
1. At the Barber's, by Anton Chekhov is one of the short story's that I read.
2. After reading many short story's by Anton Chekhov, is is clear that Chekhov influenced Henrik Ibsen.
3. A Living Chattel, by Anton Chekhov:
4. "Rain had just fallen, and made the fresh, transparent fragrant air still fresher."
5. "Throughout the whole night she had the most fascinating dreams…. She dreamed whole romances, novels, Arabian Nights…."
6. "Oh, dreams! In one night, lying with one’s eyes shut, one may sometimes live through more than ten years of happiness…."
7. "A grey cat with its tail in the air was rubbing itself against one of the table legs, and with a plaintive mew proclaiming its desire for food."
8. It seems that it is fated. I can imagine the awkwardness of his position when he meets us.
9. But the dinner did not pass off so quietly. During dinner precisely that “awkward position” which Groholsky so dreaded occurred. Just when the partridges, Groholsky’s favorite dish, had been put on the table, Liza was suddenly overcome with confusion, and Groholsky began wiping his face with his dinner napkin.
10. And at the word “here” Ivan Petrovitch passed his open hand from his neck down to the middle of his stomach.
11. Unluckily for her, Ivan Petrovitch’s papa spent his whole time in the open air, and even slept on the verandah.
12. He slept well,” he informed them. “Yesterday he was put out because I had no salted cucumbers… He has taken to Mishutka; he keeps patting him on the head.”
13. There was a worm gnawing at her vitals…. That worm was misery….
14. To be continued.
15. Bliss & Joy, by Anton Chekhov:
16. This short story is about a man who sustains an injury to his neck, after a horse accident.
17. You live like wild beasts, you don’t read the newspapers and take no notice of what’s published, and there’s so much that is interesting in the papers. If anything happens it’s all known at once, nothing is hidden! How happy I am! Oh, Lord!
18. A Classical Student, by Anton Chekhov:
19. The lodger was sitting at his table reading "Dancing Self-Taught." This Kuporosoff was considered a clever and learned person. He spoke through his nose, washed with scented soap that made every one in the house sneeze, ate meat on fast-days, and was looking for an enlightened wife; for these reasons he thought himself an extremely intellectual lodger. He also possessed a tenor voice.
20. The Death of a Government Clerk, by Anton Chekhov:
21. It is not reprehensible for anyone to sneeze anywhere. Peasants sneeze and so do police superintendents, and sometimes even privy councillors. All men sneeze.
22. "I ventured to disturb your Excellency yesterday,” he muttered, when the general lifted enquiring eyes upon him, “not to make fun as you were pleased to say. I was apologising for having spattered you in sneezing… . And I did not dream of making fun of you. Should I dare to make fun of you, if we should take to making fun, then there would be no respect for persons, there would be… .”
23. Reaching home mechanically, without taking off his uniform, he lay down on the sofa and died.
24. A Daughter of Albion, by Anton Chekhov:
25. Suggests that patience is related to fishing: sometimes you have to wait a very long time, before something exciting happens.
26. The Trousseau, by Anton Chekhov:
27. Tea, biscuits, butter, and jam were brought in, followed by raspberries and cream.
28. My husband’s pay is not very ample, and we are not able to permit ourselves luxuries. So we have to make up everything ourselves.
29. He is going into a monastery. He was unfairly treated in the service, and the disappointment has preyed on his mind.
30. To be continued.
31. The Man in a Case, by Anton Chekhov:
32. “Ukrainian is like Ancient Greek in its softness and pleasant sonority.”
33. “The things we get up to in the provinces from sheer boredom—so many unnecessary and stupid things! And it is because we do not do what actually needs to be done.”
34. “The atmosphere here is suffocating, it’s totally vile.”
35. “This is no sacred place of learning, it’s more like a police station, and it smells as sour as a sentry box.”
36. “I have been teaching for a long time, but you have just started your career, so I consider it my duty as your senior colleague to warn you. You have been riding a bicycle, and it is a pastime which is totally improper for an educator of young people.”
37. "Please leave me in peace. I am an honest man and do not wish to talk to a gentleman like you. I do not like sneaks.”
38. “But I do have to warn you that someone may have heard us, and lest our conversation is interpreted the wrong way, or there are repercussions, I will have to report the contents of our discussion to the principal…in general terms.”
38. Briefly discusses books about agriculture.
39. Omitted.
40. Omitted
41. About Love, by Anton Chekhov:
42. "The next day for lunch delicious pies, crayfish, and lamb rissoles were served…"
43. "They worried that instead of engaging in academic or literary work, here I was, an educated man who knew foreign languages, living in the countryside, running round and round like a hamster in a wheel, working fiendishly hard but never making any money."
44. The Lady with the Little Dog, by Anton Chekhov:
45. “She looked up at him and went pale…clearly doing her best not to faint.”
46. Explanatory Notes: The Black Monk
47. "A healthy mind in a healthy body."
48. Explanatory Notes: The House with the Mezzanine
50. Gogol’s Petrushka: Petrushka, Chichikov’s servant in the novel “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Gogol, was fond of reading things he did not understand.
51. Omitted.
52. At Christmas Time, by Anton Chekhov:
53. Suggests that a good writing exercise, is to write a series of connecting loops, as though you were writing in script.
54. Chekhov suggests that if you add some additional characters, then you have created your own handwriting.
55. The Bishop, by Anton Chekhov:
56. As the worshippers surged forward in the twilight like the waves of the sea, it seemed to his Reverence Peter, who had been feeling ill for three days, that the people who came to him for palm leaves all looked alike, and, men or women, old or young, all had the same expression in their eyes.
The people in the crowd all looked identical.
57. The bishop is distinguished from everyone else.
Various Notes:
1. As a result of recent readings, I learned about ornithology, that wild birds sometimes eat worms and insects.
2. In one short story by Anton Chekhov, he suggests that we think differently when we’re alone than when we’re with someone.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
About Love and Other Stories, by Anton Chekhov:
1. “The past, he realized, was linked to the present by an unbroken chain of events, which flowed from one into another.
2. “The men carried the baskets out of respect, not because they were paid to.”
3. The House with the Mezzanine:
4. "To my right, in an old orchard there was an oriole singing, reluctantly and feebly; it was probably old too."
5. “I’ve lost touch with good people, I really have! It’s just work, work, work, all the time.”
6. "Lida was never affectionate and always talked about serious matters."
7. “They always prayed together and shared a strong faith, and they understood each other, even when they were silent.”
8. “If you get caught up in books and handing out medicines you might not notice life going by…She ought to get married.”
9. To be continued.
10. “Belokurov arrived, decked out in his embroidered peasant shirt and coat.”
11. “…I carried away with me an impression of an incredibly long day spent in complete idleness…”
Cautions against wasting the day away.
12. Suggests that we should not make life more complicated and burdensome.
13. Suggests that when life is more complicated, we waste a lot of time and energy.
14. Briefly discusses Fables, by Ivan Krylov.
15. Suggests that people should not live in fear.
16. The Man in a Case, by Anton Chekhov:
17. Because of one of the characters "strange name," the people in the province called him only by his first name and his patronymic.
18. Omitted.
Various Notes:
1. In one Anton Chekhov story, one of the characters is rich, and has gold, and enjoys looking at his gold fortune. It is pleasant and even entertaining for the man to look at his fortune of gold. Chekhov even indicates that sometimes, the yellow image of the gold fortune is so strong that it remains imprinted in his eyes for some time after looking at it.
2. In one Anton Chekhov story, one of the characters mother tells him that eating soup is good for his health, so the son, in trying to attain good health, eats soup "like ten times a day," eats it until it makes him sick, eats soup religiously.
3. Sometimes, a deck of playing cards can be entertaining.
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
About Love and Other Stories, by Anton Chekhov:
1. On the Road & The Letter - "...there was a tall, broad-shouldered man of about forty sitting at the large, unpainted table. With his elbows resting on the table and his head propped up on his fist, he was sleeping...Taken separately, his nose, his cheeks, and his eyebrows were crude and cumbersome, like the furniture and the stove in the travellers' room, but together they combined to look harmonious and even handsome." That is the hallmark of the Russian face, so they say: the larger and sharper its features, the softer and more kind-hearted it seems.
2. On one of the benches that stretched all the way along the wall, sleeping on a fox-fur coat, was a girl of about eight, dressed in a brown frock and long black stockings. She had a pale face, fair hair, narrow shoulders, and a body that was thin and frail...She was fast asleep...
3. The travellers' room had a festive appearance. There was a smell of freshly scrubbed floors in the air, for once there were no cloths hanging off the rope that stretched diagonally right across the room...
4. In this short story, Chekhov give quite accurate descriptions of Russian peoples' faces and other appearances.
5. The Fish, by Anton Chekhov, is another short story that I read. It is a comic story, about a group of three or so men, who go into a lake, and try to catch a big fish, but all of the mens' work is in vain, and the fish gets away.
6. The introduction of About Love and Other Stories, by Anton Chekhov indicates that the newspaper that Chekov wrote for, also contained comic strips, and a variety of other journalistic content, and was a great experience for Chekhov to learn about writing.
7. Suggests that breakfast, or to break the fast, is when you eat after "fasting" for hours at night when you're at rest.
8. Briefly discusses pharmacognosy.
9. Briefly discusses zoology.
10. Omitted.
11. Suggests that when we die, we do not “leave this world forever.”
12. “You have to teach! You have children yet, and you don’t instruct them! It’s a sin! It’s bad! It’s shameful!"
13. “…you will perish because you possess riches but you do not cherish them.”
14. “God forgive me, but there are some dreadful women in the world! Don’t you think? Where is her sense of shame?”
15. “When he saw the table already covered with Easter cakes and red painted eggs, he for some reason started crying, probably because he was remembering his own home…”
16. “I used to live like other people and didn’t have too many worries, but now that I have fallen from the one true path, all I want is for kind people to forgive me.”
17. “No, you should be forgiving the people who you feel pity for…really!”
18. “Anastasy propped his head up on his fist and became lost in thought.”
19. Fortune
20. "To judge from his upright, motionless posture, his manner, and the way that he behaved...he was a serious, level-headed man who knew his own worth..."
21. "Everyone was waiting for Zhmenya to show us the places, or dig them up himself, but it was like he was cutting off his nose to spite his face--he went and died..."
22. "The government has the same plan up its sleeve. It says in the law that if a peasant finds treasure, he has to report it to the authorities."
23. Suggests that the treasure could hold a spell or curse on it which only the government is capable of controlling.
24. “The old man was not able to give an answer as to what he would do with the treasure if he found it.”
25. “…everything which had moved and made noises in the night, sank into somnolence.”
Gusev, by Anton Chekhov:
1. “Human life is what is important, not plans! You’ve only got one life, and you’ve got to respect it."
2. “My lungs are healthy, and it’s just a gastric cough... I can put up with hell. So what is the Red Sea, anyway?"
3. “Everything will collapse without me and my father and his old lady will end up begging, I know it.”
4. "Actually my legs are a bit wobbly, and it’s a bit stuffy in here.”
5. “He is tormented like before with a vague desire for something but he cannot work out what it is that he wants.”
The Black Monk, by Anton Chekhov:
1. Andrew Kovrin, master of arts, was exhausted and on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He did not go for treatment, but managed to have an informal chat with a doctor friend, who advised him to spend the spring and summer in the country.
2. “Then, when the roads became passable he set off by carriage to stay with his former guardian and tutor Pesotsky, a horticulturalist renowned through Russia."
3. “Yes. I teach psychology, but my work generally is in philosophy.”
4. “Well, let’s hope it stays that way, said Yegor Semyonich, stroking his grey sideburns thoughtfully.”
5. “He suddenly felt stirring in his chest the feelings of youth and joy he used to have when he ran about the gardens as a child.”
6. “…they both went into the house and drank tea from old porcelain cups, with cream and thick pastries…”
7. Briefly discusses horticultural textbooks.
8. “But the ideas in the book he was reading did not satisfy him. He wanted something massive, uncontainable, earth-shattering.”
9. “I exist in your imagination, and your imagination is part of nature, so that must mean I also exist in nature.”
10. “An exalted mood, excitement, ecstasy—everything which distinguishes prophets, poets, and those who martyr themselves for an ideal, from ordinary people—is inimical to a person’s animal nature, that is, his physical health.”
11. “His look, the way he moved and talked, was gentle and refined, just like his mother. And his brain? His brain always astonished us. Well he’s not got his degree for nothing, you know! Absolutely not!”
12. “One long winter night Kovrin was lying in bed reading a French novel.”
13. "The greater a person’s intellectual and moral development, the greater his freedom, and the greater the pleasure he will derive from life.”
14. Briefly discusses Socrates, Diogenes, and Marcus Aurelius.
15. "Tanya put her arms around Kovrin…and covered his eyes with her hand.”
16. “It was quiet, and the sweet scent of tobacco plants came in through the open windows from the garden.”
17. To be continued.
Eugenie Grandet, by Honore de Balzac:
1. In certain provicial towns whose appearance arouses a melancholy as great as that of the gloomiest cloisters, the most desolate moorland, or the saddest ruins...the sepulchral gloom of the ruins.
Illustrates instances in the history of towns, where there are depressed, gloomy-looking houses.
2. "Life is nearly always lived in the open air. Every household sits at its front door, where it lunches, dines, and quarrels. There is not a passer-by in the street who is not closely examined. And so it is like olden times..."
3. Introduces us to Monsieur Grandet. "Grandet's manners were very simple. He spoke little. Usually he expressed his ideas in brief sententious phrases, uttered in a low voice." Monsieur Grandet was in the military, and was also a successful businessman.
4. "Few people know how important a living-room is in the little towns of Anjou, Touraine, and Berry...It is the theater of domestic life, the center of the home."
5. Introduces us to Big Nanon. Big Nanon was a woman who was over six feet, and built "like Hercules." She excelled in tasks which required physical strength.
Various Notes:
1. In a Charles Dickens novel, there is a character who leaves his mail unopened for days, on the table, after he retrieves it from his mailbox.
2. Problems are normal for people to have. Maybe it is wrong for doctors to say that people are mentally ill (schizophrenic or bipolar), just because they have problems.
Edited, on Notes about Psychiatry.
3. In one of the books I’ve read, the narrator describes a bird, that swoops down from its perch.
4. "In general, the healthiest choices are oil and vinegar or a light vinaigrette," for a salad dressing. -Everyday Health
5. In Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, Hugo suggests that it is the mark of a wise man, it is the mark of an educated man, to know when to stop.
6. Updated with notes about Eugenie Grandet, by Honore de Balzac - 4:30pm.
7. Updated with notes about today's Chekhov reading, beginning with The Black Monk, Item 8 - 9:00pm
Monday, April 8, 2024
About Love and Other Stories, by Anton Chekhov:
1. Introduction
2. Industrialization belatedly reached Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, and with it came the inevitable mass exodus from the villages, where it was becoming increasingly difficult for Russia's peasant population to earn a living.
3. Chekhov began his literary career by writing short stories for newspapers. This was also a way for him to support himself financially.
4. His pious family background provided him with an intimate knowledge of the Russian Orthodox Church and its clergy.
5. What is immediately striking about Chekhov's stories is his evenhanded approach to his characters. What interests him as a writer are individual human qualities...with persuading the Russian educated public of the virtues of simple peasant living...
6. Some of the pieces which Chekhov authored are comic stories.
7. Chekhov's On the Road, so inspired Rachmaninov that in 1893 he wrote an orchestral fantasy (op. 7, The Rock) based on it.
8. Chekhov's admiration for Tchaikovsky was reflected in his dedication of a short story collection to the composer.
9. Chekhov filled his writing with characters from all walks of Russian life. 'Rothschild's Violin' features a Jew, and is a sensitive exploration of Russian anti-Semitism.
10. Suggests that in life, we ask questions, and even if we do not have all of the answers, at least we have some of them, some of the answers.
11. What is also remarkable about both Pushkin and Chekhov is the apparent timelessness of their writing; when reading their works, one often has the impression that they are our contemporaries, so modern does their language seem. Suggests that these classic authors can also set trends in modern language and thought.
12. The beauty of his language lies not in the words themselves, however, but in the way they are put together.
13. To be continued.
Sunday, April 7, 2024
Minds in Ferment, by Anton Chekhov:
1. The same evening Akim Danilitch sat in the grocer’s shop drinking limonade gaseuse, and writing...
2. "Limonade gazeuse is a French phrase that translates to "sparkling lemonade" or "gaseous lemonade" in English." -Google
A Chameleon, by Anton Chekhov:
1. "No, that’s not the General’s dog"... “the General hasn’t got one like that. His are mostly setters.”
I know it, too. The General has valuable dogs, thoroughbred, and this is goodness knows what!
2. It’s a stray dog! There’s no need to waste time talking about it….
3. A dog is a delicate animal…. And you put your hand down, you blockhead.
Oysters, by Anton Chekhov:
1. It needs no straining of memory to recall the rainy twilight autumn evening when I stood with my father in a crowded Moscow street and felt overtaken by a strange illness. I suffered no pain, but my legs gave way, my head hung helplessly on one side, and words stuck in my throat. I felt that I should soon fall on the pаvement and swoon away.
2. Had I been taken to hospital at the moment, the doctor would have written above my bed the word: “Fames” — a complaint not usually dealt with in medical text-books.
3. I must have kept my eyes on the notice at least half an hour. Its whiteness beckoned to me, and, it seemed, almost hypnotised my brain. I tried to read it, and my attempts were fruitless.
4. “Papa, what does ‘oysters’ mean?” I repeated.
“It is a kind of animal. . . . It lives in the sea. . . .”
And in a wink I visualised this mysterious animal. Something between a fish and a crab, it must be, I concluded; and as it came from the sea, of course it made up into delightful dishes, hot bouillabaisse with fragrant peppercorns and bay leaves, or sour solianka with gristle, crab-sauce, or cold with horse-radish. . . . I vividly pictured to myself how this fish is brought from the market, cleaned, and thrust quickly into a pot . . . quickly, quickly, because every one is hungry . . . frightfully hungry. From the restaurant kitchen came the smell of boiled fish and crab soup.
5. This smell began to tickle my palate and nostrils; I felt it permeating my whole body.
6. Frenchmen, they said, ate frogs. But children — never! And I saw this fish being carried from market in its shell, with claws, bright eyes, and shiny tail. . . . The children all hide themselves, and the cook, blinking squeamishly, takes the animal by the claws, puts it on a dish, and carries it to the dining-room.
7. I frowned disgustedly. But why did my teeth begin to chew.? An animal, disgusting, detestable, frightful, but still I ate it, ate it greedily, fearing to notice its taste and smell.
8. One animal was finished, already I saw the bright eyes of a second, a third. ... I ate these also.
9. Give me some oysters! Give me some oysters.” The cry burst from my lips, and I stretched out my hands.
10. "And so you'll eat oysters! Such a little whipper-snapper!” I heard a voice beside me.
11. In a minute a crowd had gathered, and looked at me with curiosity and amusement. I sat at a table, and ate something slippy, damp, and mouldy. I ate greedily, not chewing, not daring to look, not even knowing what I ate. It seemed to me that if I opened my eyes, I should see at once the bright eyes, the claws, the sharp teeth.
12. After this, I remember only my terrible thirst. I lay on my bed, kept awake by repletion, and by a strange taste in my hot mouth.
The Swedish Match, by Anton Chekhov:
1. Ten minutes later he was sitting on a stool, carefully nibbling lumps of sugar, and sipping tea as hot as a red-hot coal.
2. You should read Dostoevsky! And what does Lyeskov say… and Petchersky!
3. “You are convinced of the guilt of Nikolashka and Psyekov,” he said, nervously pulling at his youthful beard.
4. It was evident that he had not come back without news. “Veni, vidi, vici!” he cried, dashing into Tchubikov’s room and sinking into an armchair.
5. To her, to the fourth…. We must make haste, or… I shall explode with impatience!
The Marshal's Widow, by Anton Chekhov:
1. Lyubov Petrovna has taken a vow never to have in her house cards or spirituous liquors — the two sources of her husband’s ruin.
2. The guests approach the table and hesitatingly attack the pie. But the progress with eating is slow. In the plying of forks, in the cutting up and munching, there is a certain sloth and apathy…. Evidently something is wanting.
Small Fry, by Anton Chekhov:
1. A story about a man who kills a cockroach.
IN AN HOTEL, by Anton Chekhov:
1. Day and night! Sometimes he fires off such things that it simply makes one’s ears blush! Positively like a cabman. It’s a good thing that my poor girls don’t understand or I should have to fly out into the street with them…
BOOTS, by Anton Chekhov:
1. A PIANO-TUNER called Murkin, a close-shaven man with a yellow face, with a nose stained with snuff, and cotton-wool in his ears, came out of his hotel-room into the passage, and in a cracked voice cried: “Semyon! Waiter!”
NERVES, by Anton Chekhov:
1. From thought-reading they had passed imperceptibly to spirits, and from spirits to ghosts, from ghosts to people buried alive….
2. He had called up among others the spirit of his deceased uncle, Klavdy Mironitch, and had mentally asked him...
3. Suggests that you ask your doctor, "Do you think that I'm mentally ill?"
A Country Cottage, by Anton Chekhov:
1. "What have you got for our supper tonight?” “Chicken and salad…. It’s a chicken just big enough for two…. Then there is the salmon and sardines that were sent from town.”
2. Is a story about a happy family.
Malingerers, by Anton Chekhov:
1. MARFA PETROVNA PETCHONKIN, the General’s widow, who has been practising for ten years as a homeopathic doctor, is seeing patients in her study on one of the Tuesdays in May. On the table before her lie a chest of homeopathic drugs, a book on homeopathy, and bills from a homeopathic chemist.
2. I went home from you that Tuesday, looked at the pilules that you gave me then, and wondered what good there could be in them.
3. Omitted.
4. Suggests that doctors can assess their patients' health just by looking at them.
5. Compares homeopathic medicine to allopathic medicine.
A Horsey Name, by Anton Chekhov:
1. Suggests that there are dog names, and there are human names.
Gone Astray, by Anton Chekhov:
1. "Petya, my dear fellow…. I can’t…. I feel like dying if I’m not in bed in five minutes.”
2. Then through his sleep he hears the barking of dogs. First one dog barks, then a second, and a third…. And the barking of the dogs blends with the cackling of the fowls into a sort of savage music.
3. "What are you saying? Call the elder. He knows me.”
4. "Whew! Do you take this for the Dale? This is Sicklystead, but Rottendale is farther to the right, beyond the match factory. It’s three miles from here.” “Bless my soul! Then I’ve taken the wrong turn!”
The Huntsman, by Anton Chekhov:
1. A SULTRY, stifling midday. Not a cloudlet in the sky…. The sun-baked grass had a disconsolate, hopeless look: even if there were rain it could never be green again…. The forest stood silent, motionless, as though it were looking at something with its treetops or expecting something.
2. You know yourself I am a pampered man…. I want a bed to sleep in, good tea to drink, and refined conversation…
3. Omitted.
4. To be continued.
Various Notes:
1. "Sure, we can talk, I have nothing to hide." -Henrik Ibsen.
"There are different degrees of dysfunctional behavior." -Henrik Ibsen.
Added to Notes about Law.
2. Tba.
Saturday, April 6, 2024
Rosmersholm, by Henrik Ibsen:
1. Rosmer - My dear Kroll, ask about whatever you like. I have nothing to hide.
2. Kroll - That’s exactly why. I know how easily you are influenced by those you associate with.
3. Kroll - Listen. Whatever went on here in secret when Beata was still alive…and whatever is still going on here…I don’t want to inquire any further.
4. Kroll - What I say is this: if this madness must go on, then in Heaven’s name go ahead and think whatever you like…about anything under the sun.
5. Kroll - But see that you keep your opinions to yourself. After all, it’s a purely personal affair.
6. Rosmer - And have you returned to the Church yourself then, of late?
Mortensgaard - We needn’t go into that.
7. Mortensgaard - Even if you were to scrutinize your own conduct as thoroughly as you once scrutinized mine?
8. Rosmer - You say that so strangely. What are you getting at?
9. Mortensgaard - Yes, there is one thing. Just one. But that could be bad enough if any of those malicious people on the other side got wind of it.
10. Rosmer - You know of course that my wife had a mental breakdown at that time.
Mortensgaard - She begins by saying more or less that she is living in fear and trembling; there are so many wicked people in the district, she says; and all these people think about is what harm they can do you.
11. Rosmer - Who brought you the letter?
Mortensgaard - I promised not to tell. It was brought to me one evening after dark.
12. Rosmer - I had good grounds for keeping the relations between us concealed. It was a dangerous secret.
13. Rebecca - Oh, why must we worry about what others think? We know, you and I, that we have no reason to feel guilty.
14. Rebecca - Surely you are not beginning to doubt that she was very nearly insane?
15. Rosmer - What I mean is…where are we to look for the immediate cause that tipped her sick mind over into madness?
16. Rebecca - Oh but that’s a dangerous thing to do…turning this morbid affair over and over in your mind.
17. Rosmer - She must have noticed how happy I began to feel after you had come to live here.
18. Rosmer - She must have been going about here…sick with passion…never saying a word…watching us…noticing everything…and misinterpreting everything.
19. Indicates that Beata died by suicide.
20. Rosmer - Oh, how do I what I would or wouldn’t do? I can think of nothing but this one thing…this one irrevocable thing.
21. Rosmer - How do you ever suppose I could put all this behind me?
Rebecca - By forming new associations. Yes, new associations with the world outside. Living, working, doing things. Not sitting here brooding and stewing over insoluble problems.
22. Rebecca - I still think our friendship can endure…whatever happens.
23. Rosmer - I mean that that kind of relationship…doesn’t it go best with the sort of life that’s lived quietly, serenely, happily…
24. Rosmer - But the sort of life I see opening up in front of me is one of strife and unrest and strong passion. Nobody is going to decide my life for me...
25. To be continued.
26. Rosmer - Inexperience and lack of judgment…
27. Rebecca - Now you ought to go out for a walk in the fresh air, my dear Johannes. A good long walk, you should make it.
28. Rebecca - Then we had best make the most of our time.
29. Kroll - That shows you how uncertain he is in his judgment when it concerns his fellow men and their practical affairs.
30. Rebecca - But between you and full and complete freedom was this grim, insurmountable barrier.
31. Rosmer - And the poor sick creature went be believed it, all this web of lies and deceit.
32. Rosmer - How could you…how could you play such a horrible game?
33. Rebecca - Forgive me, Mr Kroll…but that’s something that concerns nobody but me. That’s something I shall settle with myself.
34. Rebecca - Rosmersholm has broken me. Completely and utterly broken me.
35. Rosmer - But I don’t understand you, Rebecca. You yourself…and the way you behaved…it’s all a complete mystery to me.
36. Rebecca - Once I dared tackle anything that came my way; now that time is gone. I have lost the power to act, Johannes.
37. Rebecca illustrates the benefits of living in peace and solitude.
38. Rebecca - It is the Rosmer philosophy of life...or in any case your philosophy...that has infected my will.
And made it stick. Made it a slave to laws that had meant nothing to me before.
39. Rebecca - You need have no doubts about that. The Rosmer philosophy of life ennobles all right. But...but...but...
40. To be continued.
41. Rebecca - But I am in the power of the Rosmersholm view of life now. Where I have sinned…it is right that I should atone.
42. The end.
Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen:
1. ACT FIFTH - PEER GYNT, a vigorous old man, grizzled hair and beard, is standing aft on the poop. He is dressed half sailor-fashion, with a pea-jacket and long boots. His clothing is rather the worse for wear; he himself is weather-beaten, and has a somewhat harder expression.The CAPTAIN is standing beside the steersman at the wheel.The crew are forward.
2. THE PASSENGER - It’s just a hypothesis. But when one is placed with one foot in the grave, One grows soft-hearted and open-handed——
3. THE PASSENGER - I heard you shout.— It’s pleasant finding you again. Well? So my prophecy came true!
4. PEER - If the luck goes against you, at least you’ve the honour Of a life carried through in accordance with principle.— Though fate to the end may be never so biting— Still old Peer Gynt will pursue his own way, And remain what he is: poor, but virtuous ever.
5. THE MAN IN MOURNING - That’s the end of the ditty; it’s over and done.
PEER - All the ditties end just alike; And they’re all old together; I knew ’em as a boy.
A LAD OF TWENTY [With a casting-ladle.] - Just look what a rare thing I’ve been buying! In this Peer Gynt cast his silver buttons.
6. THE MAN IN GREY - Oh, rubbish; blood’s never so thin as all that; One cannot but feel one’s akin to Peer Gynt.
7. Peer briefly discusses “the knowledge that lay the pyramid’s foundation.
8. THE THREAD-BALLS [On the ground.] - We are thoughts; Thou shouldst have thought us;—
9. THE BUTTON-MOULDER - Why that is precisely the rub, my man; You’re no sinner at all in the higher sense...
10. THE BUTTON-MOULDER - Here it is, empty and scoured. Your grave is dug ready, your coffin bespoke. The worms in your body will live at their ease...
11. THE BUTTON-MOULDER - But what else? Come now, be reasonable. You know you’re not airy enough for heaven...
12. THE BUTTON-MOULDER - Bless me, my dear Peer, there is surely no need To get so wrought up about trifles like this. Yourself you never have been at all;— Then what does it matter, your dying right out?
13. Omitted.
14. PEER - Love, power, and glory at once I renounced...
15. THE OLD MAN - Oh, come now, the Prince can’t complain of the word. And if he could manage by hook or by crook——
16. PEER - My man, you have got on the wrong scent entirely; I’m myself, as the saying goes, fairly cleaned out...
17. THE BUTTON-MOULDER - You seem bent on beginning all over again——
18. Peer - But then there’s a proverb of well-tried validity Which says that as long as there’s life there is hope.
19. THE LEAN ONE - But the retrospect o’er recollection’s domain Would be, both for heart and for intellect...
20. THE LEAN ONE - That depends; the door, at least, stands ajar for them. Remember, in two ways a man can be Himself—there’s a right and wrong side to the jacket.
21. PEER - Do you think that I haven’t been whistling and shouting As hard as I could?
22. PEER - Ay, everything’s over. The owl smells the daylight. Just list to the hooting!
23. PEER - And that wailing sound——? THE BUTTON-MOULDER - But a woman singing.
24. PEER - Set my house in order? It’s there! Away! Get you gone! Though your ladle were huge as a coffin, It were too small, I tell you, for me and my sins.
25. PEER - Then tell what thou knowest! Where was I, as myself, as the whole man, the true man? Where was I, with God’s signal upon my brow?
SOLVEIG - In my faith, in my hope, and in my love.
26. The end.
Various Notes:
1. Beginning with Item 25, today's notes on Rosmersholm, updated - 8:00am.
2. Updated: Book Reviews II, with notes about A Treatise on Government by Aristotle, and Book Reviews IX, with notes about Henrik Ibsen's plays.
3. 7:00pm - updated with notes about Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen.
4. “There came the sound of cheerful voices.” -The Steppe, Anton Chekhov.
5. The Bird Market, by Anton Chekhov, is one short story that I enjoyed reading.
The story is about a square or market in Russia, that sells, amongst other things, birds in cages to be used as pets. Fish are also sold in the market. "The carp is a grand fish! The carp’s the fish to keep, your honour, plague take him! You can keep him for a year in a pail and he’ll live!"
6.Omitted.
Friday, April 5, 2024
An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen:
1. Hovstad - But I have profited from the advice of experienced and thoughtful men that, when it comes to local affairs, a paper should proceed with a certain caution.
2. Hovstad - And in the matter under discussion it is now undeniably true that Dr Stockmann has public opinion against him.
3. Dr Stockmann - The truths the masses recognize today are the same truths as were held by advanced thinkers in our grandfathers’ day.
4. Dr Stockmann - No oxygen, no conscience! And there must be an awful lot of houses in this town short of oxygen, it seems…
5. Hovstad - It might also seem that Dr Stockmann is set on ruining the town.
6. Omitted.
7. Kit - If you persist with these stupid ideas, then things will not be worth much, you know.
8. Dr Stockmann - If I don’t come to the aid of the Herald then you’ll take a pretty poor view of things. The hunt will be up, I dare say….You’ll be after my blood…you’ll be on to me like a dog on to a hare.
Hovstad - That’s the law of nature. Every animal must fight for survival.
9. Dr Stockmann - …Jump, I tell you. And quick about it!
10. Dr Stockmann - Yes, and I could even go as far as to say that now I’m one of the strongest men in the whole world.
Dr Stockmann - The thing is, you see, that the strongest man in the world is the man who stands alone.
The end.
Rosmersholm, by Henrik Ibsen:
1. The action takes place at Rosmersholm, an old family estate near a small coastal town in Western Norway.
2. Rebecca - They cling long to their dead here at Rosmersholm.
3. Rebecca - Oh, Mrs Helseth! You will try to find something special for supper please, won't you?
4. Kroll - Now that is the most incredible thing of all. All her life she has shared my opinions and agreed with my views - in big things as well as small.
5. Rosmer - My dear fellow, you know very well how little understanding I have of politics...
6. Rosmer - You are heartily welcome here now. Of that you may be sure.
7. Rosmer - Don't you think it's nice and comfortable out here?
Kroll - Yes, it certainly is nice and comfortable - and peaceful.
8. Kroll - Well, yes. But we two are pretty well agreed. On the big questions, at any rate.
9. Rosmer - That is precisely what makes me define the true aim of democracy.
Kroll - What is that?
Rosmer - To make all my countrymen noblemen.
Kroll - By what means?
Rosmer - By liberating their minds and purifying their wills, I should say.
10. Rosmer - There was no escaping my duty. In the present struggle men are growing evil.
11. Rosmer - Kroll! Things must not end like this between us.
12. Rebecca - As long as he doesn't meet the White Horse, that's all.
I don't think anything of the sort. But there are so many kinds of White Horses in the world.
13. Omitted.
14. Kroll - Today I see things in an altogether different light from yesterday.
15. Rosmer - But, Kroll...you are like a different person today.
16. Kroll - Can you remember if you had any books in the house at the time dealing with the institution of marriage, giving the modern, advanced view?
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo:
1. It has been said that to err is human.
Added to Notes about Law.
2. Suggests that sometimes, a system of doing things is desirable.
3. Describes a hawk flying, who can detect a circle on a rock below.
Various Notes:
1. Beginning with Item 9, today's notes on Rosmersholm, updated - 11:00pm.
2. Tba.
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo:
1. Indicates that the Viscountess de Cette has sea-green eyes.
2. Fantine was beautiful, without really being conscious of it.
3. Suggests that it can be rewarding to sing sometimes, infrequently and occasionally, that is.
Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen:
1. INTRODUCTION
2. WRITTEN AFTER HIS FIRST SUCCESS, Brand (1865), Peer Gynt (1867) is Ibsen’s second “dramatic poem,” the second play he wrote after having left Norway and the theater, after deciding to settle in Italy and to write no longer for the stage. This decision to break with the theater, with the perceived limitations imposed by the stage, had an enormously liberating effect. The Aristotelian unities of time, place, and action had become a suffocating set of mechanical rules limiting dramatic literature, and Ibsen realized that a new drama could be written only outside and against the theater. The reading public had different and less rigid expectations than theater producers and audiences, and the printed page lent itself well to fantastic and imaginative material such as the adventures of Peer Gynt, which Ibsen had borrowed from a Norwegian folktale. Ibsen’s decision was unusual, but not unique. There existed a long tradition of reading or closet dramas, including Goethe’s Faust and the Romantic closet dramas of Shelley and Byron, as well as the tradition of the dramatic monologue—a heterogeneous group of plays that have in common their refusal to be put on stage. It is in this tradition that Ibsen placed Peer Gynt, which became an important precursor for the veritable explosion of closet dramas at the turn of the century, with Strindberg’s A Dream Play being probably the best-known example.
3. Peer Gynt himself is a liar, a character who creates his own version of reality, his own fantastic world in defiance of all common sense and realism. The most theatrical scene is the one with the trolls; reality and fantasy are so blurred that one simply doesn’t know the difference between them anymore. The troll world itself functions by imposing a different character on reality, by masking and deceiving the senses; in fact, the trolls want to operate on Gynt’s eye so that their temporary charade will become permanent, so that he will see the world their way forever. This is the moment, however, when Gynt runs, because he does not want to accept any fabrication of reality except his own. Just as he had refused the realism of his mother, who wants him to become a good citizen, so he refuses the permanent fantasy of the trolls and chooses his own path, tells his own lies, fashions himself as best as he can until he returns to Norway to die.
4. One consequence of Ibsen’s liberation from the stage was that he could write a play that moved freely from the Norwegian mountains to Morocco, developing a plot closer to that of an epic or a novel, one that follows the travels and adventures of a single character across different locales, spanning his entire lifetime from teenage boy to old man. Such dramatic structures would become common for later playwrights...
5. ACT FIRST
6. ASE - Ah, you’re big and strong enough, You should be a staff and pillar For your mother’s frail old age,— You should keep the farm-work going...
7. PEER - [Hotly.] I will be a king, a kaiser!
8. A MAN [In conversation as they pass.] - His father was drunken, his mother is weak.
9. ASLAK THE SMITH [To some other young men, passing along the road.] - Just look at Peer Gynt there, the drunken swine——!
10. HIS FATHER - You’re a nincompoop!
11. ACT SECOND
12. SOLVEIG [To ÅSE.] - Say on; tell me more.
13. SCENE THIRD
14. PEER - In quagmire and filth knee-deep!
15. PEER - You shall eat all you want, till you’re ready to burst.
16. THE OLD MAN - True enough; in that and in more we’re alike. Yet morning is morning, and even is even.
17. THE OLD MAN - The cow gives cakes and the bullock mead...
18. PEER [Pushing the things away from him.] The devil fly off with your home-brewed drinks.
19. THE IMPS - Come brownies! Come nixies! Bite him behind!
20. HELGA - Let go; there’s the basket of food.
21. ACT THIRD
22. PEER - Lies! ’Tis an old tree and nothing more. Lies! It was never a steel-clad churl; It’s only a fir-tree with fissured bark.— It is heavy labour this hewing timber; But the devil and all when you hew and dream too.—
23. PEER - Can shut out cantankerous hobgoblin-thoughts?
24. ÅSE - Alas, Peer, the end is nearing; I have but a short time left.
25. ÅSE - Ay, Peer; all will soon be o’er.— When you see that my eyes are glazing, You must close them carefully. And then you must see to my coffin; And be sure it’s a fine one, dear. Ah no, by-the-bye——
26. ÅSE - Has he cakes as well, Peer?
PEER - Cakes? Ay, a heaped-up dish. And the dean’s wife is getting ready Your coffee and your dessert.
27. ACT FOURTH
28. PEER - I was a brisk and handsome lad, And she to whom my heart was given, She was of royal family——
29. Omitted.
30. To be continued.
31. PEER - …And the soul, moreover, is not, Looked at properly, the main thing. It’s the heart that really matters.
32. PEER - Oh, stuff! The prophet’s not old at all, you goose! Do you think all this is a sign of age?
33. PEER - Not yet——. Crazy? Heaven forbid! [A commotion. The Minister HUSSEIN forces his way through the crowd.]
HUSSEIN - They tell me a Kaiser has come to-day. [To PEER GYNT.] It is you?
The Master Builder, by Henrik Ibsen
1. One thing that Ibsen does is invoke Becker’s theory, or the argument “that human beings need to create a meaningful world.”
2. In the last pages of the play, Ibsen suggests that someone who is not a master builder, can ruin the operation for everyone.
An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen:
1. Suggests that newspapers write for the class of reader they can expect the greatest response from.
2. Dr. Stockman - Yes, isn’t it grand to see young people eating well? Such an appetite they’ve got! That’s as it ought to be. They need food…need to build up their strength. They’ll be the ones to stir things up a bit in the coming years.
3. Billing - Ah! A supper like that and, if it doesn’t make you feel like a new man!
4. Dr. Stockmann - …Now let them come as they always do, and say it’s some madman’s crazy idea!
5. Dr Stockmann - Last year there were a number of curious cases of sickness among the visitors…typhoid and gastric fever...
6. Dr Stockmann - It testifies to the presence in the water of putrefied organic matter…it’s full of bacteria. It is extremely dangerous to health, internally and externally.
7. Suggests that people’s medical problems can interfere with their performance at work.
8. Hovstad - Do you mind if we put a little paragraph in the Herald about your discovery?
The sooner the public hears about this the better.
Act Two
9. Dr Stockmann - Aha, let us see. Your manuscript is herewith returned.
10. Hovstad - [In government,] this myth of official infallibility must be destroyed.
11. Suggests that in government, certain functions such as parades, are easier to administer than other more complicated functions.
12. Hovstad - Most of them are like that round here, teetering along, wobbling one way then the other; they are so cautious and scrupulous that they never dare commit themselves to any proper step forward.
13. Petra - What makes me cross is that you haven’t played straight with Father.
To be continued.
Various Notes:
1. One book that I’ve read by Leo Tolstoy, suggests that chai, or Russian tea, is a mixture of spices such as cloves, nutmeg, and orange peel.
2. I began notes on An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen, and posted them above.
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo:
1. Hugo implies, "He may have his problems, but otherwise, he is a noble, kind, religious, good person."
2. Of one character, Hugo writes, “…he had one of those philosophies peculiar to our age…”
3. Briefly discusses certain "pantheistic features."
4. “What enlightened this man was the heart. His wisdom was formed from the light emanating from there.”
5. “There are geniuses who are, so to speak, above all dogmas—present their ideas to God.”
6. Suggests that this is direct religion, a more efficient way of living.
7. "Human thought has no limit."
8. Briefly discusses "a humble approach to ideal perfection."
9. Briefly discusses Swedenborg and Pascal.
10. Suggests that there are moments when nature seems your friend, and moments when nature seems your enemy.
11. “He was carefully dissecting all that the Fathers and Philosophers have said on this serious topic.”
12. “The duties of all are the principal duties; there are four, as set forth by St. Matthew: duty toward God (Matt 6); toward ourselves (Matt. 5:29, 30); toward our neighbor (Matt. 7:12); and toward animals (Matt 6:20, 25)."
13. “Mademoiselle Baptistine so often told what happened at the bishop’s house that evening, that many still alive can recall the tiniest details.”
14. “Then turning towards his guest, he added,” “The night wind is raw in the Alps, you must be cold monsieur.”
15. “The bishop looked at him again and said, “You have suffered a great deal?””
16. “The man paid no attention to anyone. He ate with the voracity of a starving man.”
17. “It’s a hard journey. If the nights are cold, at least the days are warm.”
18. “It was certainly a golden opportunity to get in a little sermon and to set the bishop above the convict in order to make an impression on his mind.”
19. “He was a man who had no systems about him.”
20. When he was silent, she acted differently, from when he spoke.
21. “Jean Valjean was thoughtful though not sad, a characteristic of affectionate natures.”
22. “On the whole, however, there was something immature and passive, to all appearances at least, in Jean Valjean.”
23. “Can man, created good by God, be made wicked by man?”
24. "Sometimes, in the midst of prison work, he would stop and begin to think. His reason, more mature and yet more disturbed than before, would rebel.”
25. VIII - Deep Waters, Dark Shadows
26. Indicates that for a healthy adult, certain behaviors are normal.
27. He feels buried by two infinities together, the ocean and the sky…
28. “Jean Valjean had been dazzled with the idea of liberty, had believed in a new life.”
29. ”…the sensation was too novel not to disturb his sleep.”
30. "He was in one of those times when our minds are agitated with ideas.”
31. He opened it; but because the cold, crisp air rushed into his room, he closed it immediately.
32. He looked into the garden with an intensity that studies rather than sees.
33. At the far end of the room he could hear the even, quiet breathing of the sleeping bishop.
34. The souls of the upright in sleep contemplate a mysterious heaven.
35. And Madame Magloire, who was grumbling to herself, that there was really no need of a wooden spoon or fork to dip a piece of bread into a cup of milk.
36. Inexpressible thoughts gathered in his mind this way all day long.
37. He was still standing…His chest heaved with deep breaths at irregular intervals.
38. His cries died away into the mist, without even awaking an echo.
39. His brain was in one of those violent, yet frighteningly calm states where reverie is so profound it swallows up reality.
40. He saw himself then…and at the same time through that hallucination he saw at a mysterious distance, a sort of light...
41. The year 1817 was the one Louis XVII, with a certain royal presumption...called the twenty-second year of his reign. It was the year of M. Bruguiere de Sorsum's fame.
42. Indicates that Pleignier, Carbonneau, and Tolleron, were all sent to the guillotine.
The Wild Duck, by Henrik Ibsen:
1. HEDVIG - There is one great big book called Harrison’s History of London. It must be a hundred years old; and there are such heaps of pictures in it.
2. HEDVIG - Oh, an old sea captain once lived here, and he brought them home with him. They used to call him “The Flying Dutchman.” That was curious, because he wasn’t a Dutchman at all.
3. HEDVIG - No. But at last he was drowned at sea; and so he left all those things behind him.
4. HEDVIG - I don’t think father likes it; father is strange about such things. Only think, he talks of my learning basket-making, and straw-plaiting! But I don’t think that would be much good.
5. In this play, perhaps Ibsen is simply encouraging discussion and dialogue of all kinds: two of the characters have a lengthy discussion about the Muscovy duck.
6. HIALMAR - I swore that if I consecrated my powers to this handicraft, I would so exalt it that it should become both an art and a science.
GREGERS - And what is the nature of the invention? What purpose does it serve?
7. An earlier introduction indicates that many of Ibsen's works are feminist plays.
8. HIALMAR - No no no; quite the contrary. You mustn’t say that. I cannot be everlastingly absorbed in the same laborious train of thought.
9. GREGERS - Don’t be afraid; I shall find a way to help you up again. I too have a mission in life now; I found it yesterday.
10. RELLING Molvik got it into his head that he could smell herring-salad, and then there was no holding him.—Good morning again, Ekdal.
11. HIALMAR - Oh, come now, don’t let us get upon unpleasant subjects again!
12. MOLVIK - Let us draw a veil over last night’s proceedings. That sort of thing is totally foreign to my better self.
13. EKDAL - Salted it too. It’s good tender meat, is rabbit; it’s sweet; it tastes like sugar. Good appetite to you, gentlemen!
14. RELLING - Drink some soda water, man!
15. Indicates that sometimes, people “shuffle in and out,” when they’re wearing slippers.
16. HIALMAR - Yes indeed—then you shall see——! Hedvig, I have resolved to make your future secure. You shall live in comfort all your days.
17. HIALMAR - Ah yes, I really prize these social hours.
18. RELLING - But devil take it—don’t you see that the fellow’s mad, cracked, demented!
GINA - There, what did I tell you! His mother before him had crazy fits like that sometimes.
19. ACT FOURTH
20. HIALMAR EKDAL’s studio. A photograph has just been taken; a camera with the cloth over it, a pedestal, two chairs, a folding table, etc., are standing out in the room. Afternoon light; the sun is going down; a little later it begins to grow dusk.
21. HIALMAR - Well? Oh yes, well enough. We have had a tiring walk, Gregers and I.
GINA - You didn’t ought to have gone so far, Ekdal; you’re not used to it.
22. HIALMAR - Oh yes, by-the-bye——. Well, the day after, then. Henceforth I mean to do everything myself; I shall take all the work into my own hands.
23. HIALMAR [Walks about.] And this is my Hedvig’s mother. And to know that all I see before me—
[Kicks at a chair] —all that I call my home—I owe to a favoured predecessor! Oh that scoundrel Werle!
24. HIALMAR - [Placing himself in front of her.] Have you not every day, every hour, repented of the spider’s-web of deceit you have spun around me?
25. HIALMAR - “Bad ways” do you call them? Little do you know what a man goes through when he is in grief and despair—especially a man of my fiery temperament.
26. GINA - And now we’d got everything so nice and cosy about us; and me and Hedvig was just thinking we’d soon be able to let ourselves go a bit, in the way of both food and clothes.
27. GREGERS - After so great a crisis—a crisis that is to be the starting-point of an entirely new life—of a communion founded on truth, and free from all taint of deception——
28. HIALMAR - A man’s whole moral basis may give away beneath his feet; that is the terrible part of it.
29. HIALMAR - What is all this hocus-pocus that I am to be kept in the dark about!
30. HIALMAR - [Puts on his overcoat.] In this case, there is nothing for a man like me to think twice about.
31. ACT FIFTH
32. GREGERS - When he ought to have been yearning for solitude, to collect and clear his thoughts——
33. GREGERS - [After a short silence.] I never dreamed that this would be the end of it. Do you really feel it a necessity to leave house and home?
34. HIALMAR - Why, great heavens, what would you have me invent? Other people have invented almost everything already. It becomes more and more difficult every day——
35. RELLING - We will talk of this again, when the grass has first withered on her grave. Then you’ll hear him spouting about “the child too early torn from her father’s heart;” then you’ll see him steep himself in a syrup of sentiment and self-admiration and self-pity.
36. The end.
Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen:
1. The character Hedda Gabler is a quick, lively young woman.
2. BRACK - To make a long story short—he landed at last in Mademoiselle Diana’s rooms.
3. BRACK - Good heavens, Mrs. Hedda—we have eyes in our head.
4. LÖVBORG - Yes, I tell you! Tore it into a thousand pieces—and scattered them on the fiord—far out. There there is cool sea-water at any rate—let them drift upon it—drift with the current and the wind. And then presently they will sink—deeper and deeper—as I shall, Thea.
Various Notes:
1. 8:00pm: updated, today's notes on Les Miserables, with Item 26.
2. One of the books that I've read, suggests that the power of life, or the power that keeps one alive, is a powerful entity.
3. 10:15pm: updated, today's notes on Les Miserables, beginning with Item 27.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
The Wild Duck, by Henrik Ibsen:
1. WERLE - But was it not Ekdal that drew the map of the tracts we had bought—that fraudulent map! It was he who felled all that timber illegally on Government ground. In fact, the whole management was in his hands.
2. WERLE - Acquittal is acquittal. Why do you rake up these old miseries that turned my hair grey before its time?
3. WERLE - What would you have had me do for the people? When Ekdal came out of prison he was a broken-down being, past all help.
4. WERLE Then perhaps your mind would be easier than it seems to be now. What can be your object in remaining up at the works, year out and year in, drudging away like a common clerk, and not drawing a farthing more than the ordinary monthly wage? It is downright folly.
5. GREGERS - Oh, don’t let us be nice in our choice of words—not when we are alone together, at any rate.
6. GREGERS - [Without heeding.] And there he is now, with his great, confiding, childlike mind, compassed about with all this treachery—living under the same roof with such a creature, and never dreaming that what he calls his home is built upon a lie!
7. HIALMAR - [Comes to a standstill.] It may be a fine wine. But of course you know the vintages differ; it all depends on how much sunshine the grapes have had.
8. HIALMAR [Pacing up and down the room.] It’s monstrous what absurd things the father of a family is expected to think of; and if he forgets the smallest trifle, he is treated to sour faces at once. Well, well, one gets used to that too.
9. GREGERS - [Goes over to him.] I bring you a greeting from your old hunting-grounds, Lieutenant Ekdal.
EKDAL - Hunting-grounds?
GREGERS - Yes, up in Höidal, about the works, you know.
EKDAL - Oh, up there. Yes, I knew all those places well in the old days.
GREGERS - You were a great sportsman then.
10. ACT THIRD
11. One of the characters indicates that his medical condition is hereditary.
Various Notes
1. You can collect the notes, from the books you read, and post them to your social media account.
2. Updated: Monday, March 25, 2024 -- Various Notes -- Item 4.
Sunday, March 31, 2024
The Wild Duck, by Henrik Ibsen:
1. INTRODUCTION
2. It is a play that recycles most of Ibsen’s earlier themes and topics: a harsh truth that is being covered up with lies...
3. ...an isolated character who is willing to force out the truth. Gregers Werle returns to his father and his poor high school friend Hialmar Ekdal and slowly learns that this friend has been coaxed into marrying Gregers’s father’s mistress and to bring up their illegitimate child as his own. Financially relying on Gregers’s father and his own competent wife, Hialmar has created for himself a fantasy world in which he is working on a great invention when in truth he does nothing of the sort.
4. All of these elements can be reassembled into a play such as Ibsen’s earlier ones—but this is not what happens. Rather than celebrating the difficult search for truth and the destruction of lies, here it is the very attempt to undo these lies that wreaks havoc among these characters.
5. The term Ibsen employs is that of the “life lie” (livslögnen), implying that a certain amount of self-deception is necessary to bear life on this earth. A misguided idealist such as Gregers, who will have the truth no matter what the cost, only creates more misery for everyone.
6. Gregers seems like an Ibsenite character run amok, a preacher of truth who takes no prisoners and risks the happiness of everyone in the process.
7. He did not allow himself to break with realism altogether, but he created a limited space in which wild fantasies may dwell
8. Set designers realized that everything in this play hinges on the contrast between inner and outer space, which Ibsen also detailed in his extensive stage directions. The entire play lives by these objects and how they are employed: the old uniform of Hialmar’s grandfather; his rifles; the decoration of the winter garden; the old books and maps; the work tools in the front room that doubles as a photography studio.
9. PETTERSEN - [Lights a lamp on the chimney-place and places a shade over it.] Hark to them, Jensen! now the old man’s on his legs holding a long palaver about Mrs. Sörby.
JENSEN - [Pushing forward an arm-chair.] Is it true, what folks say, that they’re—very good friends, eh?
10. JENSEN You can see he’s been through a lot.
PETTERSEN Yes; he was an army officer, you know.
JENSEN You don’t say so?
11. A THIRD GENTLEMAN I hear the coffee and maraschino are to be served in the music-room.
12. THE FLABBY GENTLEMAN Bravo! Then perhaps Mrs. Sörby will play us something.
13. GREGERS Why should that give me any feeling against you? Who can have put that into your head?
14. GREGERS [Starts.] My father! Oh indeed. H’m.—Was that why you never let me hear from you?—not a single word.
15. HIALMAR You see, life is itself an education. Her daily intercourse with me——And then we know one or two rather remarkable men,
16. To be continued.
Various Notes
1. In The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell, Gaskell indicates that sometimes, insults, acts of disrespect, or petty disputes, have influenced historical events.
2. In one James Fenimore Cooper novel, one of the characers indicates that he especially enjoys eating easily digestable food.
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Various Notes
1. In Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, by David Ritz, Ritz indicates that Marvin Gaye's father, Marvin Sr. sometimes would dress up in women's clothing. "Soft things of all kinds fascinated him." "Sometimes Marvin would see him that way," his mother indicates. Perhaps this behavior of Gaye's father influenced Marvin Jr.
2. Skittles Green Apple drink mix makes great juice!
3. In Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen, one thing that Ibsen does is suggest that male and female in a relationship do not have to do much to enjoy themselves and have fun in the relationship. He suggests that man and woman do not have to go to the movies and dinner to enjoy themselves, and can just have fun together being around one another talking and being in each other's presence.
The Master Builder, by Henrik Ibsen
1. HILDA - I mean that your conscience is feeble—too delicately built, as it were—hasn’t strength to take a grip of things—to lift and bear what is heavy.
2. SOLNESS - [Growls.] H’m! May I ask, then, what sort of a conscience one ought to have?
3. Omitted.
4. SOLNESS - Stay where you are, Hilda!—I ought to tell a lie, you say.
5. SOLNESS - It is hopeless, Hilda. The luck is bound to turn.
6. ACT THIRD
7. HILDA - You understand nothing—since you can talk like that!
8. The end.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Iliad, by Homer
1. Book II
Now the other gods and the armed warriors on the plain slept soundly, but Zeus was wakeful, for he was thinking how to do honor to Achilles and destroy much people at the ships of the Achaeans
2. With this he led the way from the assembly, and the other sceptered kings rose with him in obedience to the word of Agamemnon;...
3. The king rose, and the other kings rose with him. Then, the king makes an inspirational speech to the assembly.
4. “Sir,” said he, “this flight is cowardly and unworthy.
5. Achilles is a much better man than he is, and see how he has treated him...
6. Lead the Argives on to battle, and leave this handful of men to rot, who scheme, and scheme in vain, to get back to Argos ere they have learned whether Zeus be true or a liar.
7. The men go on a series of adventures. They meet different people and do different things as the story progresses.
8. Hector knew that it was the goddess, and at once broke up the assembly. The men flew to arms; all the gates were opened, and the people thronged through them, horse and foot, with the tramp as of a great multitude.
9. Book III
10. “Paris,” said he, “evil-hearted Paris, fair to see, but woman-mad and false of tongue, would that you had never been born, or that you had died unwed.
11. Suggests that you do not speak in a way that betrays your tongue.
12. Young men’s minds are light as air, but when an old man comes he looks before and after, deeming that which shall be fairest upon both sides.
13. Book IV
14. Athene and Hera muttered their discontent as they sat side by side hatching mischief for the Trojans.
15. Do as you will, but we other gods shall not all of us approve your counsel.
The Master Builder, by Henrik Ibsen
1. INTRODUCTION IN GHOSTS, THE LACK OF fire insurance exposed the destructive hypocrisy of a pastor, but in The Master Builder (1892; Bygmester Solness ) Ibsen realized that the theme of insurance provides a much more powerful tool for the genre most dear to his heart: the tragic double bind. Master Builder Solness owes his fame as a builder of homes to the fire that destroyed his own house and, indirectly, his children’s and their mother’s happiness. His whole life has been spent attempting to rebuild a home that would somehow compensate for this original loss. But no matter how much he tries, no matter how great his powers as a Master Builder, everything he does will be nothing but a shallow substitute. The fire made him Master Builder and at the same time marks the limits of his skill; it makes and unmakes him at the same time.
2. Suggests that despite appearances, many people are not master builders.
3. On one of his first assignments, the Master Builder had met a child and promised to build her a castle in the air.
4. CHARACTERS
HALVARD SOLNESS, Master Builder.
ALINE SOLNESS, his wife.
DOCTOR HERDAL, physician.
KNUT BROVIK, formerly an architect, now in SOLNESS’s employment.
RAGNAR BROVIK, his son, draughtsman.
KAIA FOSLI, his niece, book-keeper.
MISS HILDA WANGEL.
5. The action passes in and about SOLNESS’s house.
6. The Master Builder was the first play Ibsen wrote after returning to Norway when he was in his early sixties...
7. KNUT BROVIK is a spare old man with white hair and beard. RAGNAR BROVIK is a well-dressed, light-haired man in his thirties.
8. SOLNESS Has any one been here for me?
RAGNAR [Rising.] Yes, the young couple who want a villa built, out at Lövstrand.
SOLNESS [Growling.] Oh, those two! They must wait. I am not quite clear about the plans yet.
RAGNAR [Advancing, with some hesitation.] They were very anxious to have the drawings at once.
SOLNESS [As before.] Yes, of course—so they all are.
BROVIK [Looks up.] They say they are longing so to get into a house of their own.
SOLNESS Yes, yes—we know all that! And so they are content to take whatever is offered them. They get a—a roof over their heads—an address—but nothing to call a home. No thank you! In that case, let them apply to somebody else. Tell them that, the next time they call.
BROVIK [Pushes his glasses up on to his forehead and looks in astonishment at him.] To somebody else? Are you prepared to give up the commission?
9. BROVIK Yes. You see, he knows the family. And then—just for the fun of the thing—he has made drawings and estimates and so forth——
10. SOLNESS Oh, it comes to the same thing.
[Laughs angrily.]
So that is it, is it? Halvard Solness is to see about retiring now!
To make room for younger men!
11. SOLNESS But confess now—you want to get married!
12. SOLNESS [Clasps her head with his two hands and whispers.] For I cannot get on without you, you see. I must have you with me every single day.
KAIA [In nervous exaltation.] My God! My God!
13. MRS. SOLNESS enters by the door on the right. She looks thin and wasted with grief, but shows traces of bygone beauty.
14. MRS. SOLNESS [With a glance at KAIA.] I am afraid I am disturbing you.
SOLNESS Not in the least. Miss Fosli has only a short letter to write.
15. SOLNESS What do you want with me, Aline?
MRS. SOLNESS I merely wanted to tell you that Dr. Herdal is in the drawing-room. Won’t you come and see him, Halvard?
16. MRS. SOLNESS and DR. HERDAL enter by the door on the right. He is a stoutish, elderly man, with a round, good-humoured face, clean shaven, with thin, light hair, and gold spectacles.
17. MRS. SOLNESS [Still in the doorway.] Halvard, I cannot keep the doctor any longer.
18. SOLNESS Then I daresay you fancy that I am an extremely happy man.
19. DR. HERDAL Afraid? Because you have the luck on your side!
SOLNESS It terrifies me—terrifies me every hour of the day. For sooner or later the luck must turn, you see.
DR. HERDAL Oh nonsense! What should make the luck turn?
SOLNESS [With firm assurance.] The younger generation.
20. HILDA For you must know I have run through all my money.
21. ACT SECOND
22. SOLNESS sits by the little table with RAGNAR BROVIK’s portfolio open in front of him. He is turning the drawings over and closely examining some of them
23. SOLNESS No, nothing of the kind. From the outside it looked like a great, dark, ugly wooden box; but all the same, it was snug and comfortable enough inside.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
The Iliad, by Homer:
1. O Atreus’ son! canst thou indulge thy rest?
Suggests that sometimes, you indulge others’ ideas.
2. Suggests that you have different names for things: the eyes, eyeballs; sight, vision...
3. Suggests that women have a power about them.
4. The vision spoke, and pass’d in air away.
5. What grieves the monarch? Is it thirst of gold?
Questions the goal of the monarch.
6. Suggests that there is a difference between a person at rest, and a person in motion.
7. And all who live to breathe this Phrygian air.
8. From Jove himself the dreadful sign was sent.
9. The Phocians next in forty barks repair;
10. Fierce in the fight their nostrils breathed a flame,
11. Speeds on the wings of winds through liquid air;
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Various Notes
1. Tesman: Oh, well, his relations...I'm afraid they've disowned him entirely.
Brack: They used to regard him as the white hope of the family.
2. Hedda uses potpourri in all of the rooms.
3. The above items were taken from Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen.
4. Maybe a certain number of apartments in every complex which are dedicated to women in abusive relationships would be good. Apartments that are available to help women leave abusive relationships.
5. Sometimes, wisdom is concealed.
6. Henrik Ibsen reminds us that it can be refreshing to drink cold punch!
7. I speak from my innermost soul.
8. Long as Achilles breathes this vital air, Also reminds us of the benefits of breathing in the fresh, open air.
9. And from his eye-balls flash’d the living fire
10. What cause have I to war at thy decree?
11. Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!
12. The raging king return’d his frowns again.
To calm their passion with the words of age,
Reminds us that the words we use have been in existence for ages.
13. Suggests that it is good to have a code of honor.
14. The gods command me to forgive the past:
But let this first invasion be the last.
15. The sable fumes in curling spires arise,
And waft their grateful odours to the skies.
16. Unskill’d to judge the future by the past.
17. Omitted.
18. The generous Greeks their joint consent declare,
The priest to reverence, and release the fair;
And thus the sorrows of his soul explores
19. To avert the vengeance of the power divine.
20. Unhappy son! (fair Thetis thus replies,
While tears celestial trickle from her eyes)
21. Now mix with mortals, nor disdain to grace
The feasts of Ethiopia’s blameless race
22. Refuse, or grant; for what has Jove to fear?
23. The thunderer spoke, nor durst the queen reply;
24. And unextinguish’d laughter shakes the skies.
25. Aristotle suggests that we examine whether one's actions were good or bad.
Added to Notes about Law.
26. Aristotle suggests that perhaps in society, there are not enough rewards for being good.
*Items 7 continuing, drawn from The Iliad, by Homer.
Monday, March 25, 2024
Various Notes
1. Omitted.
2. Omitted.
Added to Favorite Notes
3. Henrik Ibsen reminds us that there are some people who will go to war over their girlfriends.
4. Should men and women repress, and hide the pain they're in, or should they be able to freely express their pain? - A philosopher I've read.
5. In one Henrik Ibsen play, one of the main characters tries her best to forget about someone from her past.
6. Henrik Ibsen suggests that you store the notes that you take reading, in a chest or notebook, or even post them on your social media account.
7. James Fenimore Cooper suggests that it is unlawful to drastically change the exterior of your house in such a way that changes it from the original look intended for your neighborhood.
8. The quote by Alexander Pushkin, "What is time, in the face of eternity?" means that you can view time in terms of one hour in the future, or five thousand hours in the future.
9. Sometimes I find it useful to say, "I'm not black, no one’s black or white. You're not white, no one's black or white."
Added to page: Write with Both Hands, No One’s Black or White, and More
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Various Notes
1. Omitted.
2. “If you have dry lips, moisturize them with lip balm.”
--Charles Dickens.
3. According to Ray Charles: Man and Music by Michael Lydon, Ray Charles helped the Beatles create music, and the Beatles helped Ray Charles create music. Additionally, Ray Charles and the Beatles would work together in the recording studio to create music. Yesterday was a Lennon-McCartney song that intrigued Ray, and Ray also performed Eleanor Rigby, written by the Beatles.
Friday, March 15, 2024
Various Notes
1. Omitted.
2. Even though I haven't done any running, I updated my running log for the past two weeks.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen,
1. One of the characters is Jorgen Tesman, the holder of a University Fellowship in cultural history.
2. Miss Juliane Tesman is a good-looking lady of benevolent aspect, some 65 years old, neatly but simply dressed.
3. Berte is a serving-maid getting on in her years, with a plain and somewhat countrified exterior.
Miss Tessman: Well, well...let them have a good rest and welcome. But we'll give them a breath of the fresh morning air when they do come down.
4. Berte: And what about me then, Miss? What am I to say? For so many years now I've been with you and Miss Rina.
5. Miss Tessman: We must make the best of it, Berte. There's really no other way. Jorgen must have you in the house with him, you see. He simple must.
6. Berte: I'm really so scared I'll never give satisfaction to the young mistress.
7. Tessman: Just think, Auntie...the whole of that case was crammed full of nothing but notes. It's quite incredible, really, all the things I managed to dig up round about in those old archives. Fantastic old things that no one knew anything about...
8. Miss Tessman: Well to be sure, I don't expect you wasted your time on your honeymoon, did you, Jorgen?
9. Tessman: Hey, wait a moment...take this along, will you.
10. Miss Tessman: How wonderfully good it is to see you here again, as well as ever, and full of life, Jorgen!
11. Tesman: For me too! To be with you again, Auntie Julle! You've always been both father and mother to me.
Miss Tesman: Yes, I know you'll always have a soft spot in your heart for your old aunts.
12. Miss Tessman: But you were telling me about the journey...It must have cost a pretty penny, Jorgen?
13. Tesman [looks at her rather crestfallen]: Why yes, I suppose it will, Auntie?
14. Miss Tesman: There now...don't get so excited about it. It's just a formality, you know.
15. Tesman: [When I write], it will be an account of the domestic crafts of mediaeval Brabant.
"The Duchy of Brabant, a state of the Holy Roman Empire, was established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant of 1085-1183." --Wikipedia
16. Tesman: Incidentally, it may be quite a while before I get it finished. There are all these extensive collections of material, you know, they all have to be sorted out first.
17. Miss Tesman: Yes, collecting things and sorting them out...you've always been good at that. You're not Joachim's son for nothing.
18. Miss Tessman: Ah, and most of all, now that you've won the wife of your heart, dear Jorgen.
19. [Hedda enters. She is a lady of 29. Her face and figure are aristocratic and elegant in their proportions.]
20. Tesman: Think of it...Aunt Rina lay there and embroidered them for me. Weak as she was. Oh, you can't imagine how many memories they have for me.
21. Hedda: Yes, we can do with a bit of fresh air. All these blessed flowers...won't you take a seat?
22. [While this is going on Hedda walks about the room, raises her arms and clenches her fists as though in a frenzy.]
23. Hedda: Do you think she was very put out about that hat business?
24. Hedda: Well, what manner of behavior is that, anyway, flinging her hat just anywhere in the drawing-room! It's not done.
25. Hedda: Exactly. That woman with the provoking hair that everyone made such a fuss of. An old flame of yours, too, I'm told.
26. Hedda: It's odd that she should come here. I hardly know her, apart from school.
27. Tesman: No, and I haven't seen her for...oh good Lord, it must be years.
28. Mrs Elvsted: And I don't know another soul here, not anyone I could turn to, apart from you.
29. Hedda: Come...we'll sit down here on the sofa...
Mrs Elvsted: Oh, I can hardly keep still, let alone sit down!
30. Mrs Elvsted: Well...it both is and yet isn't. Oh, I do so hope you won't misunderstand me.
31. Mrs Elvsted: ...you were such good friends before. And then you're both interested in the same subject. The same field of studies...so far as I understand it.
32. To be continued.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Various Notes,
1. In order to determine a person's innocence or guilt, perhaps you can consult with their friends and family, neighbors, spiritual advisors, etc.
Added to Notes about Law
2. If you’re not hungry enough to eat a big meal, then Campbell’s Condensed soup broths should taste great!
3. Perhaps watching exercise videos late at night, on low volume, prevents others from sleeping. Because people rest in the day, this could also be problematic.
Ghosts, by Henrik Ibsen
1. Engstrand: We men shouldn't judge a woman too harshly.
2. Engstrand: But Jacob Engstrand, I says, he's a man that stands firm on his own two feet, he is...
3. Engstrand: I accept your offer, thank you for working with me.
4. Manders: You see how extremely careful one has to be when passing judgement on one's fellow men.
5. Mrs Alving: I thought you'd gone for a little walk up the road.
Oswald: In this weather?
6. Mrs Alving [gripping his arm]: Oswald, what is it?
7. Oswald: Yesterday and again today, I tried to shake off these thoughts...fight myself free. But it's no use.
8. Oswald: Oh, if only I could live my life over again...undo everything I've done!
9. Mrs Alving: Perhaps you think we don't know how to live out here in the country?
10. Oswald: ...it was then I realized that she was my salvation. Because she was filled with the joy of life.
11. Oswald: Yes, Mother, the joy of life...You don't see much of that around this place. I never feel it here.
12. Engstrand: Oh, you just let things take their course. It's not the first time somebody I know has taken the blame for somebody else.
13. Manders: Jacob! Characters like you are rare.
14. Mrs. Alving: Let me dry your face, Oswald, you are wet.
15. This reminds me of a scene in an old black and white movie where the male character asks the female character to take his temperature, and tell him if he is sick, by feeling his forehead.
16. Oswald: I don't understand a word of what you are saying.
17. Mrs Alving: You should have seen your father when he was a young lieutenant. He had plenty of the joy of living.
Is like a story by Charles Dickens: "I bet you were a strong young man when you were younger."
18. Regine: No more's the pity. And anyway, now that there can never be anything serious between us...No, you don't catch me staying out here in the country, working myself to death...
19. Regine: No thank you. Pastor Manders will look after me all right. And if the worst comes to the worst, I know a place I can make my home.
20. Oswald [stands at the window looking out]. Has she gone?
21. Oswald: Yes, surely you realize that, Mother. It's simply one of those ideas that get around and...
Mrs Alving: Ghosts!
Oswald: Yes, call them ghosts if you like.
22. Mrs Alving: Oswald...then you don't love me either.
23. Oswald: Yes, but these are just empty words.
24. The end.
25. To be continued.
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Ghosts, by Henrik Ibsen
1. One of the characters is Mrs. Helene Alving, widow of Captain (and Chamberlain) Alving.
2. The action takes place on Mrs. Alving's country estate by one of the large fjords of Western Norway.
3. Jacob Engstrand is standing beside the door into the garden.
4. Engstrand: Well, we are frail creatures, all of us, my child...
5. ...and many are the temptations of this world, you know...but still, there I was up and at work at half-past five this morning.
6. Omitted.
7. Regine: What are you going to try and talk him into this time.
8. Engstrand: Sh! Are you crazy? Me talk Pastor Manders into anything? Oh no, Pastor Manders has been far too good to me for that. But look, what I really wanted to talk to you about was me going back home again tonight.
9. Regine: The sooner the better, as far as I'm concerned.
10. Regine: Not likely! You'll never get me coming home with you.
11. Engstrand: Oh? We'll see about that.
12. Regine: Who's been brought up here like a lady like Mrs. Alving...? Who's been treated like one of the family, almost...? Expect me to go home with you? To a place like that? Puh!
13. Regine: Often enough you've said I wasn't any concern of yours.
14. Engstrand: Huh! You are not going to bother your head about that...?
15. Engstrand: I'll be damned if I ever used such filthy language.
16. Regine: Oh, I know well enough what language you used.
17. Engstrand: Well, but only when I'd had a few...Many are the temptations of this world, Regine.
18. Engstrand: Or else when your mother started her nagging...
19. Regine: Poor mother! You drove her to her death the way you tormented her.
20. Engstrand: Oh that's right! Blame me for everything.
21. Regine: How many times haven't I heard that one before! But you always made a mess of it.
22. Engstrand: Because what can you spend your money on, stuck out here in the country?
23. Engstrand: To lend a hand, that's right. Just help to look after the place, if you know what I mean.
24. Engstrand: Because we'd want a bit of fun in the evenings, singing and dancing and that sort of thing.
25. Henrik Ibsen suggests that it can be rewarding for a guy and his girlfriend to do all the things she did with her previous boyfriends, with her current boyfriend.
26. Omitted.
27. Regine: No, if things worked out as I wanted them to...Well, it could happen. It could happen!
28. Engstrand: Ah, but it's better with a father's hand to guide you, Regine.
29. I bet you wouldn't stay very long with me. Not much chance of that. Not if you played your cards properly.
30. Regine: I wouln't marry anybody like that. Sailors have no savoir vivre.
31. Regine: I know what sailors are, let me tell you. No use marrying them.
32. Regine: Out, and quick about it! You're barmy man!
33. Suggests that children cannot compete with adults, because they do not have deep, quick or clear enough voices, or strong enough bodies capable of working to earn money, or the other skills possessed by adults necessary to survive.
34. Engstrand: Now, now, you wouldn't hit me, would you!
35. Manders: But pretty busy, I imagine, getting ready for tomorrow?
36. Regine: Yes, thank you, quite well. But horribly tired after his journey.
37. Regine: Did he? He's always glad to have a talk with you, Pastor.
38. Regine: It's awfully lonely out here...and you know well enough yourself, Pastor, what it's like to be alone in the world.
39. Mrs. Alving: Can't you be persuaded even yet to stay the night in my house?
40. Manders: Well, of course you must be feeling extremely pleased with yourself today.
41. Manders: My dear lady, there are many occasions in life when one must rely on others. That's the way of the world, and things are best that way.
42. Please see Notes about Psychiatry, Item IV., for a conclusion drawn from this reading.
43. Manders: Nor can I blame you for wanting to get to know something about the new trends of thought which, so they tell me, are current in the great world outside...
44. Manders: But one doesn't talk about it, Mrs. Alving. One doesn't have to account to all sundry for what one reads and thinks in the privacy of one's own room.
45. Here, Ibsen is suggesting that people don't have to account and explain and replay every little event in their lives. They're people, they should just live their lives in peace.
46. Manders: You decided to found it at a time when your opinions and beliefs were very different from what they are now...
47. Manders: I chose 'Captain' rather than 'Chamberlain' for the name. 'Captain' looks less ostentatious.
48. Manders: And in this Bank Book you have details of the capital sum, the interest on which is to cover the running expenses of the Orphanage.
49. Manders: With pleasure. I think we'll leave the money in the bank for the time being. The interest isn't very attractive...then we could discuss the thing again in more detail.
50. Mrs. Alving: I keep everything insured--the buildings, the contents, the crops and the stock.
51. Suggests that sometimes we use too much opinion, and not enough facts.
52. Manders: I'm thinking principally of men in independent and influential positions of the kind that makes it difficult not to attach certain importance to their opinions.
53. Manders: You've only got to think of those who support my colleague!
54. Manders: So you don't want any insurance?
Mrs. Alving: No, we'll let it go.
Manders: But if there did happen to be an accident? You never know...
55. Manders: From what I hear, he's trying very hard to turn over a new leaf, thank God.
56. Manders: He told me so himself...
To be continued.
57. Manders: He has a lot on his mind, that man...all sorts of worries.
58. Mrs. Alving: Oh? Who told you that?
Manders: He told me himself. He's a good workman, too.
Mrs. Alving: Oh yes, when he's sober.
59. Manders: Good. What I wanted say, my dear Oswald, was this--you mustn't think I want to condemn out of hand all artists and their ways.
60. Mrs Alving.: Even an artist must rest now and again.
61. Manders: A child's proper place is and must be the home.
62. Oswald: When some of our model husbands and fathers took themselves a trip to Paris...Then we got to know what was what.
63. [Mrs. Alving follows with close attention, and nods but says nothing.]
64. Oswald: Well, you can believe every word they say. Some of them are experts.
65. And I would be the last person to condone his conduct as a young man, assuming these rumors told the truth.
66. Manders: Yes, you should thank God...that I managed to dissuade you from your hysterical intentions, and that it was granted to me to lead you back into the path of duty, and home to your lawful husband.
67. Manders: All your life, you've always been quite disastrously selfish and stubborn. In everything you've done, you have tended to be headstrong and undisciplined... Turn back yourself, and save what can perhaps still be saved in him. Because Mrs. Alving [with raised forefinger], you are in truth a very guilty mother...I see it as my duty to tell you this.
68. Mrs. Alving [slowly, and with control]: You have had your say, Pastor Manders. And tomorrow you will make a speech in my husband's memory. I shall not speak tomorrow. But now I'm going to talk to you just as you have talked to me.
69. Mrs. Alving: None of these things you have been saying about my husband and me and our life together after you hadled me back to the path of duty, as you put it--absolutely none of these things do you know from first-hand. From that moment on, you--our closest friend, who regularly used to call every day--you never once set foot in our house.
70. Manders [fumbling for a chair] What did you say?
71. Alving: That was the expression our doctor used.
72. Manders: I don't understand you.
73. Manders: Am I to believe that your entire married life...all those years together with your husband...were nothing but a facade?
74. Manders: How was it possible...How could a thing like that be kept hidden?
75. That was the endless battle I fought, day after day. And then I had to battle twice as hard, fight tooth and nail to prevent anybody from knowing what sort of person my child's father was...then came the most hideous thing of all.
Manders: More hideous than this?
76. Mrs. Alving: I had to put up with a lot in this house. To keep him home in the evenings...and at nights...I had to sit there with him, just the two of us drinking, and listen to his remarks, and then struggling with him to get him dragged into his bed.
77. Mrs. Alving: And now you understand why he was never allowed to set foot in this place as long as his father was alive.
78. Mrs. Alving: I was obsessed by the thought that inevitably the truth must come out sometime and be believed.
79. Act Two
80. Omitted
81. Mrs. Alving: Oh, all this law and order! I often think that's the cause of all the trouble in the world.
Added to the newest page here, Notes about Law.
82. Mrs. Alving: Oh, I know! I know! I find the idea shocking myself. What a coward I am!
83. Manders: But I saw enough to realize that his father represents a kind of ideal to him.
84. Manders: You have built up a beautiful illusion in your son's mind, Mrs. Alving...
85. Mrs. Alving: I'll tell you what I mean. The reason I'm so timid and afraid is that I can never get properly rid of the ghosts that haunt me.
86. Omitted.
87. Manders: Are you in the right frame of mind for a meeting of this kind?
88. Engstrand: God help us Pastor, there's not much point in talking about consciences.
89. Engstrand: And isn't a man bound to keep his promise.
90. Engstrand: I must say it fair broke my heart to listen to her.
91. To be continued.
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Various Notes
1. A movie about the life of Bob Marley has recently been released. I learned several things reading Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley, by Timothy White: that people had to be fit to survive in Trenchtown, a ghetto of Jamaica; that Zionism Rastafarianism dated back to Africa and Ethiopia and the Coptic church; that marijuana was widely smoked by Rastafarians across Jamaica, because it was a religious accessory; that the slang spoken by Rastafarians was a respected language; that soccer was a favorite sport in Jamaica, and Jamaican soccer teams would routinely face world soccer teams such as those from South America and Africa.
2. Tba.
Saturday, March 9, 2024
A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen,
A. Today's reading by Henrik Ibsen is about empowering women who are in unhappy relationships. It suggests that women can leave abusive relationships and gain their independence, and go on to lead rewarding, happy lives.
1. Suggests that despite the kind of room, the characters remain the same and act the same.
2. Mrs. Linde - We have a great deal to talk about.
Mrs. Linde - That's because you never really understood me.
3. Krogstad - When I lost you, it was just as if the ground had slipped away from under my feet. Look at me now: a broken man clinging to the wreck of his life.
Mrs Linde - Help might be near.
4. Mrs Linde - I know how far a man like you can be driven by despair.
5. Mrs Linde - All this secrecy and deception, it just can't go on.
6. Mrs Linde - How things change! How things change! Somebody to work for…to live for. A home to bring happiness into.
7. Helmer - So you knit, eh?
Helmer - You should embroider instead, you know.
Suggests that because of the motions, embroidery is much more elegant.
8. Suggests that at certain stages, you take life slow.
9. Nora - Yes I’m very tired, I just want to fall straight off to sleep.
10. Nora - You mustn’t talk to me like that tonight.
11. Helmer - You still have the Tarantella in your blood, I see. And that makes you even more desirable.
12. Helmer - You know, whenever I’m out at a party with you…do you know why I never talk to you very much, why I always stand away from you and only steal a quick glance at you now and then…
13. Helmer - What’s this? It’s just your little game isn’t it, my little Nora.
14. Nora - Torvald also drank a lot of champagne this evening.
15. Rank - Well, you never get anything for nothing in this life.
16. Rank - At the next masquerade, I shall be invisible.
Rank - There’s a big black cloak…haven’t you heard of the cloak of invisibility?
17. Rank - But I’m clean forgetting what I came for. Helmer, give me a cigar, one of those dark Havanas.
18. Nora - It is true. I loved you more than anything else in the world.
Helmer - Don’t come to me with a lot of paltry excuses.
19. Helmer - Oh stop pretending! What good would it do to me if you left this world behind, as you put it? Not the slightest bit of good.
20. Helmer - Yes you do. You try and get some rest, and set your mind at peace again. Have a good long sleep. You know you are safe and sound under my wing. What a nice, cozy little home we have here!
21. Nora - Eight whole years, ever since we first knew each other—and never have we exchanged one serious word about serious things.
22. Nora - That's why I'm leaving you. If I’m ever to reach any understanding of myself and the things around me, I must learn to stand alone. That’s why I can’t stay here with you any longer.
23. Helmer - First and foremost, you are a wife and a mother.
Nora - That I don’t believe anymore. I believe that first and foremost I am an individual, just as much as you are…
24. I have to think things out for myself, and get things clear.
25. Nora - I don’t really know what religion is.
Nora indicates that she feels that she needs to go on a religious journey, in search of knowledge.
26. Helmer - Then only one explanation is possible. You don’t love me anymore.
Nora - Exactly.
Helmer - Nora! Can you say that!
27. Nora - It was tonight, when the miracle didn’t happen. It was then I realized you weren’t the man I thought you were.
28. Nora - I was absolutely convinced you would say to him: Tell the whole wide world if you like. And when that was done…
29. Nora - I was absolutely convinced you would come forward and take everything on yourself, and say: I am the guilty one.
30. Nora - …It was to prevent it that I was ready to end my life.
31. Helmer - …But nobody sacrifices his honor for the one he loves.
32. Nora - …Look, here’s your ring back. Give me mine.
33. Nora - …I don’t accept things from strangers.
Helmer - Nora, can I never be anything more to you than a stranger.
Nora - Ah, Torvald, only by miracle of miracles…
Helmer - ...The miracle of miracles…
[The heavy sound of a door being slammed is heard from below.]
The end.
To be continued.
Friday, March 8, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Tortilla chips and salsa are a good snack!
2. Tba.
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Various Notes,
1. It’s useful to say, “Toadstools, shrooms, poisonous mushrooms make you shout.”
2. Omitted.
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Various Notes,
1. If you start by first eating the broth, and then eat the rest, Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle soup or Campbell's Condensed Chicken with Rice soup is great! This is in reference to the soup in the small, red and white can. This is related to the statement, in a Jane Austen novel, that soup broth is good for you. Just make sure to mix with 1 can of water (as directed) to dilute it.
-Edited.
2. With the knowledge that the Greek word for salt is alati, tomatoes sprinkled with salt taste great!
(άλας {n} [form.] αλάτι {n} [coll.])
3. Lentil soup tastes great -- it has been in existence since biblical times!
Friday, March 1, 2024
Various Notes,
1. If you're in a place and you don't have pillows available, you can stack up things like clothes, sheets, or blankets, to help you sit up in bed, and these will take the place of pillows.
2. "He was already a movie lover-his dad gets credit for his taste in films." - Esquire, March 2024.
3. In one George Eliot novel, she writes, "Time heals all wounds."
4. Aristotle suggests that when people sing, you can hear in their voices if they're being timid, or sneaky, or aggressive, or shy, or funny, etc.
Thursday, February 29, 2024
A Treatise on Government, by Aristotle
1. ... he conceives that nature will then produce bad men, who will not submit to education, and in this, probably, he is not wrong; for it is certain that there are some persons whom it is impossible by any education to make good men; but why should this change be more peculiar to what he calls the best-formed government, than to all other forms, and indeed to all other things that exist? and in respect to his assigned time, as the cause of the alteration of all things, we find that those which did not begin to exist at the same time cease to be at the same time; so that, if anything came into beginning the day before the solstice, it must alter at the same time.
2. Suggests that an education makes "good men."
3. But we will first consider what particular sort of democracy is fitted to a particular city, and also what particular oligarchy to a particular people; and of other states, what is advantageous to what. It is also necessary to show clearly, not only which of these governments is best for a state, but also how it ought to be established there, and other things we will treat of briefly.
4. All founders of states endeavour to comprehend within their own plan everything of nearly the same kind with it; but in doing this they err, in the manner I have already described in treating of the preservation and destruction of governments. I will now speak of these first principles and manners, and whatever else a democratical state requires.
5. Suggests that the founders of government should not be surprised if they meet with a unique circumstance while governing. This is like saying that parents shouldn't be surprised if they meet a unique circumstance while parenting.
6. Now the foundation of a democratical state is liberty, and people have been accustomed to say this as if here only liberty was to be found; for they affirm that this is the end proposed by every democracy... This, then, is another criterion of a democracy.
7. In the next place we must inquire how this equality is to be procured. Shall the qualifications be divided so that five hundred rich should be equal to a thousand poor, or shall the thousand have equal power with the five hundred? or shall we not establish our equality in this manner? but divide indeed thus, and afterwards taking an equal number both out of the five hundred and the thousand, invest them with the power of creating the magistrates and judges.
8. Cautions against ruling based on episodes of anger.
9. It is also the business of the legislator and all those who would support a government of this sort not to make it too great a work, or too perfect; but to aim only to render it stable: for, let a state be constituted ever so badly, there is no difficulty in its continuing a few days: they should therefore endeavour to procure its safety by all those ways which we have described in assigning the causes of the preservation and destruction of governments; avoiding what is hurtful, and by framing such laws, written and unwritten, as contain those things which chiefly tend to the preservation of the state; nor to suppose that that is useful either for a democratic or [1320a] an oligarchic form of government which contributes to make them more purely so, but what will contribute to their duration: but our demagogues at present, to flatter the people, occasion frequent confiscations in the courts; for which reason those who have the welfare of the state really at heart should act directly opposite to what they do, and enact a law to prevent forfeitures from being divided amongst the people or paid into the treasury, but to have them set apart for sacred uses: for those who are of a bad disposition would not then be the less cautious, as their punishment would be the same; and the community would not be so ready to condemn those whom they sat in judgment on when they were to get nothing by it: they should also take care that the causes which are brought before the public should be as few as possible, and punish with the utmost severity those who rashly brought an action against any one; for it is not the commons but the nobles who are generally prosecuted: for in all things the citizens of the same state ought to be affectionate to each other, at least not to treat those who have the chief power in it as their enemies.
10. Suggests that some governments should operate by a system of rank.
11. Let us therefore be well assured, that every one enjoys as much happiness as he possesses virtue and wisdom, and acts according to their dictates; since for this we have the example of GOD Himself, who is completely happy, not from any external good, but in Himself, and because such is His nature. For good fortune is something different from happiness, as every good which depends not on the mind is owing to chance or fortune; but it is not from fortune that any one is wise and just: hence it follows, that that city is happiest which is the best and acts best: for no one can do well who acts not well; nor can the deeds either of man or city be praiseworthy without virtue and wisdom; for whatsoever is just, or wise, or prudent in a man, the same things are just, wise, and prudent in a city.
12. Thus much by way of introduction; for I could not but just touch upon this subject, though I could not go through a complete investigation of it, as it properly belongs to another question: let us at present suppose so much, that a man's happiest life, both as an individual and as a citizen, is a life of virtue, accompanied with those enjoyments which virtue usually procures. If there are any who are not convinced by what I have said, their doubts shall be answered hereafter, at present we shall proceed according to our intended method.
13. Suggests that government and being governed is a tricky task. No one wants to be in chains and governed and controlled, but government it is a “necessary evil” in our lives.
14. ...but if it was proper to determine the strength of the city from the number of the inhabitants, it should never be collected from the multitude in general who may happen to be in it; for in a city there must necessarily be many slaves, sojourners, and foreigners; but from those who are really part of the city and properly constitute its members; a multitude of these is indeed a proof of a large city, but in a state where a large number of mechanics inhabit, and but few soldiers, such a state cannot be great; for the greatness of the city, and the number of men in it, are not the same thing. This too is evident from fact, that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to govern properly a very numerous body of men; for of all the states which appear well governed we find not one where the rights of a citizen are open to an indiscriminate multitude.
15. Reminds us that one function of government is to preserve the society.
16. When, judging court cases, suggests that we consider race, class, gender, etc.
17. Besides, as in every business and art there are some things which men are to learn first and be made accustomed to, which are necessary to perform their several works; so it is evident that the same thing is necessary in the practice of virtue. As there is one end in view in every city, it is evident that education ought to be one and the same in each; and that this should be a common care, and not the individual's, as it now is, when every one takes care of his own children separately; and their instructions are particular also, each person teaching them as they please; but what ought to be engaged in ought to be common to all.
18. Suggests that an education can give you information to think about when at rest.
19. The end.
Various Notes,
1. In one Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, the narrator indicates that the couple would often breathe together, would simply lay in the bed with one another and breathe together.
2. In one Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, one of the characters first name is Gerineldo.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Omitted.
2. In Louis Armstrong: An American Genius, by James Lincoln Collier, Collier indicates that it meant something, that Louis Armstrong was proud, when he would go into a store or restaurant and hear his music playing.
Monday, February 26, 2024
Various Notes,
1. With the knowledge that the brain is in the eyes, perhaps foods and/or vitamins that benefit the eyes would be helpful.
2. Tba.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
A Treatise on Government, by Aristotle
1. CHAPTER XIII
2. Suggests that government should focus on and encourage work in certain areas. For example, encourage work in arts and science if they are areas that need work.
3. The last spoken of, and the Lacedaemonian, for the chief of the others are placed between these, which are as it were at the extremities, they having less power than an absolute government, and yet more than the Lacedaemonians; so that the whole matter in question may be reduced to these two points; the one is, whether it is advantageous to the citizens to have the office of general continue in one person for life, and whether it should be confined to any particular families or whether every one should be eligible: the other, whether it is advantageous for one person to have the supreme power over everything or not.
4. Suggests that if in experimenting with different forms of government, one form fails, members can revert to the old forms of government, in part or in entirety.
5. ...but if he did it sooner it was at his own peril: from whence it is evident, on the very same account, that a government of written laws is not the best; and yet general reasoning is necessary to all those who are to govern, and it will be much more perfect in those who are entirely free from passions than in those to whom they are natural. But now this is a quality which laws possess; while the other is natural to the human soul. But some one will say in answer to this, that man will be a better judge of particulars.
6. It will be necessary, then, for a king to be a lawgiver, and that his laws should be published, but that those should have no authority which are absurd, as those which are not, should. But whether is it better for the community that those things which cannot possibly come under the cognisance of the law either at all or properly should be under the government of every worthy citizen, as the present method is, when the public community, in their general assemblies, act as judges and counsellors, where all their determinations are upon particular cases, for one individual, be he who he will, will be found, upon comparison, inferior to a whole people taken collectively: but this is what a city is, as a public entertainment is better than one man's portion: for this reason the multitude judge of many things better than any one single person.
7. Moreover, let the people be free, and they will do nothing but in conformity to the law, except only in those cases which the law cannot speak to. But though what I am going to propose may not easily be met with, yet if the majority of the state should happen to be good men, should they prefer one uncorrupt governor or many equally good, is it not evident that they should choose the many? But there may be divisions among these which cannot happen when there is but one. In answer to this it may be replied that all their souls will be as much animated with virtue as this one man's.
8. Suggests that it is better to have a good king rule, than a group of corrupt councilors.
9. Asks, should the laws be written, or spoken or a mixture of the two.
10. BOOK IV - CHAPTER I
11. There is, moreover, a third sort, an imaginary one, and he ought, if such a one should be presented to his consideration, to be able to discern what sort of one it would be at the beginning; and, when once established, what would be the proper means to preserve it a long time. I mean, for instance, if a state should happen not to have the best form of government, or be deficient in what was necessary, or not receive every advantage possible, but something less. And, besides all this, it is necessary to know what sort of government is best fitting for all cities: for most of those writers who have treated this subject, however speciously they may handle other parts of it, have failed in describing the practical parts.
12. He, therefore, who aspires to the character of a legislator, ought, besides all we have already said, to be able to correct the mistakes of a government already established, as we have before mentioned. But this is impossible to be done by him who does not know how many different forms of government there are: some persons think that there is only one species both of democracy and oligarchy; but this is not true: so that every one should be acquainted with the difference of these governments, how great they are, and whence they arise; and should have equal knowledge to perceive what laws are best, and what are most suitable to each particular government: for all laws are, and ought to be, framed agreeable to the state that is to be governed by them, and not the state to the laws: for government is a certain ordering in a state which particularly respects the magistrates in what manner they shall be regulated, and where the supreme power shall be placed; and what shall be the final object which each community shall have in view...
13. We ought not to define a democracy as some do, who say simply, that it is a government where the supreme power is lodged in the people; for even in oligarchies the supreme power is in the majority. Nor should they define an oligarchy a government where the supreme power is in the hands of a few: for let us suppose the number of a people to be thirteen hundred, and that of these one thousand were rich, who would not permit the three hundred poor to have any share in the government, although they were free, and their equal in everything else; no one would say, that this government was a democracy. In like manner, if the poor, when few in number, should acquire the power over the rich, though more than themselves, no one would say, that this was an oligarchy; nor this, when the rest who are rich have no share in the administration.
14. Suggests that you maybe divide the country into parts with people of similar interests, then have a spokesperson in government for each group of people with similar interests.
15. These parts would still have to observe certain universal laws.
16. CHAPTER VII
17. Commotions also arise in aristocracies, from there being so few persons in power (as we have already observed they do in oligarchies, for in this particular an aristocracy is most near an oligarchy, for in both these states the administration of public affairs is in the hands of a few; not that this arises from the same cause in both, though herein they chiefly seem alike): and these will necessarily be most likely to happen when the generality of the people are high-spirited and think themselves equal to each other in merit...
18. Maybe the day will come when the separate parts of the country can get unified.
19. Indeed an oligarchy and a tyranny are of all governments of the shortest duration.
20. To be continued.
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Various Notes
1. In one of the books that I've read, in the Russian literature category, some of the characters snack on bread and butter.
2. Tba.
Friday, February 23, 2024
A Treatise on Government, by Aristotle
1. Ethics - Every art, and every science reduced to a teachable form, and in like manner every action and moral choice, aims, it is thought, at some good: for which reason a common and by no means a bad description of the Chief Good is, “that which all things aim at.”
2. Government
3. And when many villages so entirely join themselves together as in every respect to form but one society, that society is a city, and contains in itself, if I may so speak, the end and perfection of government: first founded that we might live, but continued that we may live happily.
4. As we see that every city is a society, and every society Ed. is established for some good purpose; for an apparent good is the spring of all human actions; it is evident that this is the principle upon which they are every one founded, and this is more especially true of that which has for its object the best possible, and is itself the most excellent, and comprehends all the rest.
5. Suggests that people should not be slaves to their government, should not feel oppressed by their government.
6. Those men therefore who are as much inferior to others as the body is to the soul, are to be thus disposed of, as the proper use of them is their bodies, in which their excellence consists; and if what I have said be true, they are slaves by nature, and it is advantageous to them to be always under government.
7. Suggests that rather than lock everyone up or classify everyone as mentally ill, government should encourage people to learn and use their skills and follow their dreams.
8. Of beasts, some live in herds, others separate, as is most convenient for procuring themselves food; as some of them live upon flesh, others on fruit, and others on whatsoever they light on, nature having so distinguished their course of life, that they can very easily procure themselves subsistence; and as the same things are not agreeable to all, but one animal likes one thing and another another, it follows that the lives of those beasts who live upon flesh must be different from the lives of those who live on fruits; so is it with men, their lives differ greatly from each other...
9. Suggests that in many ways, our lives are totally unconnected, that at times, one’s life is completely unconnected from his neighbors.
10. Now of all the works of art, those are the most excellent wherein chance has the least to do, and those are the meanest which deprave the body, those the most servile in which bodily strength alone is chiefly wanted, those most illiberal which require least skill; but as there are books written on these subjects by some persons, as by Chares the Panian, and Apollodorus the Lemnian, upon husbandry and planting; and by others on other matters, let those who have occasion consult them thereon...
11. our consideration. The members of every state must of necessity have all things in common, or some things common, and not others, or nothing at all common. To have nothing in common is evidently impossible, for society itself is one species of community; and the first thing necessary thereunto is a common place of habitation, namely the city, which must be one, and this every citizen must have a share in.
12. And upon what principles would they do it, unless they should establish the wise practice of the Cretans? for they, allowing everything else to their slaves, forbid them only gymnastic exercises and the use of arms.
13. ...notwithstanding Socrates says they will not want many laws in consequence of their education, but such only as may be necessary for regulating the streets, the markets, and the like, while at the same time it is the education of the military only that he has taken any care of. Besides, he makes the husbandmen masters of property upon paying a tribute; but this would be likely to make them far more troublesome and high-spirited than the Helots, the Penestise, or the slaves which others employ; nor has he ever determined whether it is necessary to give any attention to them in these particulars, nor thought of what is connected therewith, their polity, their education, their laws; besides, it is of no little consequence, nor is it easy to determine, how these should be framed so as to preserve the community of the military.
14. Besides, if he makes the wives common, while the property continues separate, who shall manage the domestic concerns with the same care which the man bestows upon his fields?
15. Suggests that countries with large populations, can just give their citizens instructions in basic combat send them to war with other countries, or defend their homeland, and win.
16. It may also be considered whether the quantity of each person's property may not be settled in a different manner from what he has done it in, by making it more determinate; for he says, that every one ought to have enough whereon to live moderately, as if any one had said to live well, which is the most comprehensive expression.
17. Asks, if you’re rich, how far do you want your riches to take you?
18. And upon the same principle there are laws which forbid men to sell their property, as among the Locrians, unless they can prove that some notorious misfortune has befallen them. They were also to preserve their ancient patrimony, which custom being broken through by the Leucadians, made their government too democratic; for by that means it was no longer necessary to be possessed of a certain fortune to be qualified to be a magistrate. But if an equality of goods is established, this may be either too much, when it enables the people to live luxuriously, or too little, when it obliges them to live hard. Hence it is evident, that it is not proper for the legislator to establish an equality of circumstances, but to fix a proper medium. Besides, if any one should regulate the division of property in such a manner that there should be a moderate sufficiency for all, it would be of no use; for it is of more consequence that the citizen should entertain a similarity of sentiments than an equality of circumstances; but this can never be attained unless they are properly educated under the direction of the law. But probably Phaleas may say, that this in what he himself mentions; for he both proposes a equality of property and one plan of education in his city. But he should have said particularly what education he intended, nor is it of any service to have this to much one; for this education may be one, and yet such as will make the citizens over-greedy, to grasp after honours, or riches, or both.
19. For men are not guilty of crimes for necessaries only (for which he thinks an equality of goods would be a sufficient remedy, as they would then have no occasion to steal cold or hunger), but that they may enjoy what they desire, and not wish for it in vain; for if their desire extend beyond the common necessaries of life, they were be wicked to gratify them; and not only so, but if their wishes point that way, they will do the same to enjoy those pleasures which are free from the alloy of pain. What remedy then shall we find for these three disorders. And first, to prevent stealing from necessity, let every one be supplied with a moderate subsistence, which may make the addition of his own industry necessary; second to prevent stealing to procure the luxuries of life, temperance be enjoined; and thirdly, let those who wish for pleasure in itself seek for it only in philosophy, all others want the assistance of men.
20. As he was very desirous of the character of a universal scholar, he was the first who, not being actually engaged in the management of public affairs, sat himself to inquire what sort of government was best; and he planned a state, consisting of ten thousand persons, divided into three parts, one consisting of artisans, another of husbandmen, and the third of soldiers; he also divided the lands into three parts, and allotted one to sacred purposes, another to the public, and the third to individuals.
21. He also made a law, that those should be rewarded who found out anything for the good of the city, and that the children of those who fell in battle should be educated at the public expense; which law had never been proposed by any other legislator, though it is at present in use at Athens as well as in other cities, he would have the magistrates chosen out of the people in general, by whom he meant the three parts before spoken of; and that those who were so elected should be the particular guardians of what belonged to the public, to strangers, and to orphans.
22. We know, indeed, that it is possible to propose to new model both the laws and government as a common good; and since we have mentioned this subject, it may be very proper to enter into a few particulars concerning it, for it contains some difficulties, as I have already said, and it may appear better to alter them, since it has been found useful in other sciences.
23. Suggests that officials get creative with government rewards, advancements and enhancements.
24. Thus the science of physic is extended beyond its ancient bounds; so is the gymnastic, and indeed all other arts and powers; so that one may lay it down for certain that the same thing will necessarily hold good in the art of government. And it may also be affirmed, that experience itself gives a proof of this; for the ancient laws are too simple and barbarous; which allowed the Greeks to wear swords in the city, and to buy their wives of each other.
25. Nor is it, moreover, right to permit written laws always to remain without alteration; for as in all other sciences, so in politics, it is impossible to express everything in writing with perfect exactness; for when we commit anything to writing we must use general terms, but in every action there is something particular to itself, which these may not comprehend; from whence it is evident, that certain laws will at certain times admit of alterations.
26. For a law derives all its strength from custom, and this requires long time to establish; so that, to make it an easy matter to pass from the established laws to other new ones, is to weaken the power of laws. Besides, here is another question; if the laws are to be altered, are they all to be altered, and in every government or not, and whether at the pleasure of one person or many? all which particulars will make a great difference; for which reason we will at present drop the inquiry, to pursue it at some other time.
27. CHAPTER IX
28. There are two considerations which offer themselves with respect to the government established at Lacedaemon and Crete, and indeed in almost all other states whatsoever; one is whether their laws do or do not promote the best establishment possible? the other is whether there is anything, if we consider either the principles upon which it is founded or the executive part of it, which prevents the form of government that they had proposed to follow from being observed; now it is allowed that in every well-regulated state the members of it should be free from servile labour; but in what manner this shall be effected is not so easy to determine; for the Penestse have very often attacked the Thessalians, and the Helots the Lacedaemonians, for they in a manner continually watch an opportunity for some misfortune befalling them.
29. Suggests that if the laws are too harsh, simply try lessening them, decreasing their severity.
30. But we are not now considering where the fault lies, or where it does not lie, but what is right and what is wrong; and when the manners of the women are not well regulated, as I have already said, it must not only occasion faults which are disgraceful to the state, but also increase the love of money.
31. Suggests that we should first, give a general description of a good citizen.
32. There are many sorts of slaves; for their employments are various...
33. I have already mentioned in my treatise on the management of a family, and the power of the master, that man is an animal naturally formed for society, and that therefore, when he does not want any foreign assistance, he will of his own accord desire to live with others...
34. Formerly, as was natural, every one expected that each of his fellow-citizens should in his turn serve the public, and thus administer to his private good, as he himself when in office had done for others; but now every one is desirous of being continually in power, that he may enjoy the advantage which he makes of public business and being in office; as if places were a never-failing remedy for every complaint, and were on that account so eagerly sought after.
35. If what is now said does not make this clear, we will explain it still further: if there should be any one, a very excellent player on the flute, but very deficient in family and beauty, though each of them are more valuable endowments than a skill in music, and excel this art in a higher degree than that player excels others, yet the best flutes ought to be given to him; for the superiority in beauty and fortune should have a reference to the business in hand; but these have none.
36. To be continued.
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Mesh basketball (or running) shorts are way more comfortable than conventional pajamas! They can be found for low prices at Walmart, Marshall’s, or Burlington. And women can wear them as pajamas too!
2. Omitted.
Monday, February 19, 2024
A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen
1. Krogstad - “That job in the bank was like the first step on the ladder for me. And now your husband wants to kick me off the ladder again, back into the mud.”
2. Suggests that sometimes, people in society wear masks, (figurative) masks that conceal their true selves.
For example, the Banker wears the mask of a strict businessman, but when he comes home to his children, he is actually a kind, loving father.
3. Nora - “If only…I mustn’t think about it.”
4. Helmer - “My dear little Nora, there is a considerable difference between your father and me.”
5. Rank - “Anyway, you know now that I’m at your service, body and soul. So you can speak out.”
6. Rank - “Give me a chance, I’ll do anything that’s humanly possible.”
7. One of the character's continually finds ways to embarrass his friend.
8. Nora - “You can do nothing for me now…It’s all just my imagination, really it is.
9. Nora - “I always think it’s tremendous fun having you.”
10. Krogstad - “You can’t frighten me either. People don’t do that sort of thing, Mrs. Helmer."
11. Helmer - “Now, now, not so wild and excitable! Let me see you being my own little singing bird again."
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Some people just know how to talk. They can talk about anything; there is no real problem, and no real solution, they can just talk and make things up and ramble on about any given subject.
2. "No, whatever makes you think that?"
3. “Any bad feeling is someone somewhere talking about you.”
4. “Just think about being without a care in the world.”
It’s like with children, life is without a care in the world; but once you’re an adult, life becomes more complicated.
5. Omitted.
6. Nora - “What makes you think I’ve got any influence of that kind over my husband?”
7. The previous quotes were drawn from A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen.
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Omitted.
2. Tba.
Friday, February 16, 2024
The Collected Poems of William Wordsworth,
1. An Evening Walk
2. Omitted.
3. "A mind that, in a calm angelic mood,"
4. Omitted.
5. "Sweet are the sounds that mingle from afar,"
6. Omitted.
7. "Upward he looks--'and calls it luxury:"
8. Omitted.
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Added to Favorite Notes 2.
2. Added to Favorite Notes 2.
3. "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang that occurred on Saint Valentine's Day 1929.
The murders resulted from the competition for control of organized crime in the city during Prohibition between the largely Irish North Siders, headed by George "Bugs" Moran, and their largely Italian Chicago Outfit rivals led by Al Capone." - Wikipedia, & Trivial Pursuit.
Monday, February 12, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Omitted.
2. In The Bible, the Book of Proverbs contains a passage which says that "night, though long, is a good opportunity for rest, thought, and reflection." This is a great passage, and it also hold true for the daytime.
3. Omitted.
Four Major Plays, by Henrik Ibsen
1. Introduction
2. "In an age when literature addressed itself to the debating of problems, Henrik Ibsen waited for question time and cast his dramas in an interrogative mould. 'I do but ask,' he at one point insisted, 'my call is not to answer.'"
3. “Nevertheless in the intervening years between the two pairs—a distinct shift in the author’s preoccupations is evident; from the social to the visionary, from the naturalistic to the symbolic, from the problematical to the psychological, from the demonstrative to the evocative.”
4. Power is a theme of one of Ibsen’s plays, particularly the power of one mind to influence and impose itself upon another.
5. Omitted.
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Please see Item 7. & 20., in today's James Fenimore Cooper reading.
2. Instead of saying "White world, and black world, and boys world, and girls world," just say "We as humans share the world together." That statement is simple, not confusing, and effective.
The Pioneers, by James Fenimore Cooper
1. Chapter VII
”From Sesquehanna’s utmost springs,
Where savage tribes pursue their game,
His blanket tied with yellow strings,
The shepherd of the forest came.”
—Freneau
2. Before the Europeans, or, to use a more significant term, the Christians, dispossessed the original owners of the soil, all that section of country which contains the New England States, and those of the Middle which lie east of the mountains, was occupied by two great nations of Indians, from whom had descended numberless tribes. But, as the original distinctions between these nations were marked by a difference in language, as well as by repeated and bloody wars, they were never known to amalgamate, until after the power and inroads of the whites had reduced some of the tribes to a state of dependence that rendered not only their political, but, considering the wants and habits of a savage, their animal existence also, extremely precarious.
3. These two great divisions consisted, on the one side, of the Five, or, as they were afterward called, the Six Nations, and their allies; and, on the other, of the Lenni Lenape, or Delawares, with the numerous and powerful tribes that owned that nation as their grandfather The former was generally called, by the Anglo-Americans Iroquois, or the Six Nations, and sometimes Mingoes. Their appellation among their rivals, seems generally to have been the Mengwe, or Maqua. They consisted of the tribes or, as their allies were fond of asserting, in order to raise their consequence, of the several nations of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas; who ranked, in the confederation in the order in which they are named. The Tuscaroras were admitted to this union near a century after its foundation, and thus completed the number of six.
Of the Lenni Lenape, or as they were called by the whites, from the circumstances of their holding their great council-fire on the banks of that river, the Delaware nation, the principal tribes, besides that which bore the generic name, were the Mahicanni, Mohicans, or Mohegans, and the Nanticokes, or Nentigoes. Of these the latter held the country along the waters of the Chesapeake and the seashore; while the Mohegans occupied the district between the Hudson and the ocean, including much of New England. Of course these two tribes were the first who were dispossessed of their lands by the Europeans.
The wars of a portion of the latter are celebrated among us as the wars of King Philip; but the peaceful policy of William Penn, or Miquon, as he was termed by the natives, effected its object with less difficulty, though not with less certainty. As the natives gradually disappeared from the country of the Mohegans, some scattering families sought a refuge around the council-fire of the mother tribe, or the Delawares.
4. Chapter XXIX
5. “The court awards it, and the law doth give it.”
—Merchant of Venice
6. When the curtain rises on the reader, the Judge is seen walking up and down the apartment, with a tender melancholy in his air, and his child reclining on a settee, with a flushed cheek, and her dark eyes seeming to float in crystals.
7. Suggests that overall, people are supposed to be calm.
8. “Of what didst thou think, love? where did thy thoughts dwell most, at that fearful moment?”
“The beast! the beast!” cried Elizabeth, veiling her face with her hand. “Oh! I saw nothing, I thought of nothing but the beast. I tried to think of better things, but the horror was too glaring, the danger too much before my eyes.”
“Well, well, thou art safe, and we will converse no more on the unpleasant subject. I did not think such an animal yet remained in our forests; but they will stray far from their haunts when pressed by hunger, and—”
A loud knocking at the door of the apartment interrupted what he was about to utter, and he bid the applicant enter. The door was opened by Benjamin, who came in with a discontented air, as if he felt that he had a communication to make that would be out of season.
“Here is Squire Doolittle below, sir,” commenced the major-domo.
9. “Ay, ay, you have it, sir,” cried Benjamin; “it’s summat about a complaint that he has to make of the old Leather-Stocking, who, to my judgment, is the better man of the two. It’s a very good sort of a man is this Master Bumppo, and he has a way with a spear, all the same as if he was brought up at the bow-oar of the captain’s barge, or was born with a boat-hook in his hand.”
10. There’s some folks talk of a deer or two being killed out of season, over on the west side of the Patent, by some of the squatters on the ‘Fractions.’”
11. “I congratulate you, sir; from the bottom of my soul, I congratulate you, Judge Temple. Oh! it would have been too horrid to have recollected for a moment! I have just left the hut, where, after showing me his scalps, old Natty told me of the escape of the ladies, as the thing to be mentioned last. Indeed, indeed, sir, no words of mine can express half of what I have felt “—the youth paused a moment, as if suddenly recollecting that he was overstepping prescribed limits, and concluded with a good deal of embarrassment—“what I have felt at this danger to Miss—Grant, and—and your daughter, sir.”
But the heart of Marmaduke was too much softened to admit his cavilling at trifles, and, without regarding the confusion of the other, he replied:
“I thank thee, thank thee, Oliver; as thou sayest, it is almost too horrid to be remembered. But come, let us hasten to Bess, for Louisa has already gone to the rectory.”
12. But Hiram, emboldened by the advance of the deputed constable, now ventured to approach also, and took up the discourse with the air of authority that became his commission. His first measure was to read the warrant aloud, taking care to give due emphasis to the most material parts, and concluding with the name of the Judge in very audible and distinct tones.
13. I demand entrance into this house,” said Hiram, summoning all the dignity he could muster to his assistance, “in the name of the people; and by virtue of this war rant, and of my office, and with this peace officer.”
“Stand back, stand back, squire, and don’t tempt me,” said the Leather-Stocking, motioning him to retire, with great earnestness.
“Stop us at your peril,” continued Hiram. “Billy! Jotham! close up—I want testimony.”
Hiram had mistaken the mild but determined air of Natty for submission, and had already put his foot on the threshold to enter, when he was seized unexpectedly by his shoulders, and hurled over the little bank toward the lake, to the distance of twenty feet. The suddenness of the movement, and the unexpected display of strength on the part of Natty, created a momentary astonishment in his invaders, that silenced all noises; but at the next instant Billy Kirby gave vent to his mirth in peals of laughter, that he seemed to heave up from his very soul.
“Well done, old stub!” he shouted; “the squire knowed you better than I did. Come, come, here’s a green spot; take it out like men, while Jotham and I see fair play.”
“William Kirby, I order you to do your duty,” cried Hiram, from under the bank; “seize that man; I order you to seize him in the name of the people.”
But the Leather-Stocking now assumed a more threatening attitude; his rifle was in his hand, and its muzzle was directed toward the wood-chopper.
“Stand off, I bid ye,” said Natty; “you know my aim, Billy Kirby; I don’t crave your blood, but mine and your’n both shall turn this green grass red, afore you put foot into the hut.”
While the affair appeared trifling, the wood-chopper seemed disposed to take sides with the weaker party; but, when the firearms were introduced, his manner very sensibly changed. He raised his large frame from the log, and, facing the hunter with an open front, he replied:
"I didn’t come here as your enemy, Leather-Stocking; but I don’t value the hollow piece of iron in your hand so much as a broken axe-helve; so, squire, say the word, and keep within the law, and we’ll soon see who’s the best main of the two.”
14. But no magistrate was to be seen! The instant the rifle was produced Hiram and Jotham vanished; and when the wood-chopper bent his eyes about him in surprise at receiving no answer, he discovered their retreating figures moving toward the village at a rate that sufficiently indicated that they had not only calculated the velocity of a rifle-bullet, but also its probable range.
15. Nothing now remained but to collect the fine and assert the dignity of the people; all of which, it was unanimously agreed, could be done as well on the succeeding Monday as on Saturday night—a time kept sacred by large portion of the settlers. Accordingly, all further proceedings were suspended for six-and-thirty hours.
16. Chapter XXXI
17. "It seems that the old man has been out in the hills, and has shot a buck this morning, and that, you know, is a criminal matter in the eyes of Judge Temple.”
“Oh! he has, has he?” said Edwards, averting his face to conceal the color that collected in his sunburnt cheek. “Well, if that be all, he must even pay the fine.”
18. “Why, killing the buck is but a small matter compared to what took place this afternoon,” continued Mr. Lippet, with a confidential and friendly air that won upon the youth, little as he liked the man. “It seems that a complaint was made of the fact, and a suspicion that there was venison in the hut was sworn to, all which is provided for in the statute, when Judge Temple granted the search warrant.”
“A search-warrant!” echoed Edwards, in a voice of horror, and with a face that should have been again averted to conceal its paleness; “and how much did they discover? What did they see?”
“They saw old Bumppo’s rifle; and that is a sight which will quiet most men’s curiosity in the woods.”
“Did they! did they!” shouted Edwards, bursting into a convulsive laugh; “so the old hero beat them back beat them back! did he?” The lawyer fastened his eyes in astonishment on the youth, but, as his wonder gave way to the thoughts that were commonly uppermost in his mind, he replied:
“It is no laughing matter, let me tell you, sir; the forty dollars of bounty and your six months of salary will be much reduced before you can get the matter fairly settled. Assaulting a magistrate in the execution of his duty, and menacing a constable with firearms at the same time, is a pretty serious affair, and is punishable with both fine and imprisonment.”
“Imprisonment!” repeated Oliver; “imprison the Leather-Stocking! no, no, sir; it would bring the old man to his grave. They shall never imprison the Leather-Stocking.”
19. “Well, Mr. Edwards,” said Lippet, dropping all reserve from his manner, “you are called a curious man; but if you can tell me how a jury is to be prevented from finding a verdict of guilty, if this case comes fairly before them, and the proof is clear, I shall acknowledge that you know more law than I do, who have had a license in my pocket for three years.”
20. Suggests that Mr. Lippy would be an interesting name for a character.
21. Notwithstanding the confused state of his mind, Oliver soon discovered that most of the expedients of the lawyer were grounded in cunning, and plans that required a time to execute them that neither suited his disposition nor his necessities. After, however, giving Mr. Lippet to under stand that he retained him in the event of a trial, an assurance that at once satisfied the lawyer, they parted, one taking his course with a deliberate tread in the direction of the little building that had a wooden sign over its door, with “Chester Lippet, Attorney-at-law,” painted on it; and the other pacing over the ground with enormous strides toward the mansion-house. We shall take leave of the attorney for the present, and direct the attention of the reader to the client.
22. Miss Temple, when I first heard of your horrid situation, my feelings were too powerful for utterance; and I did not properly find my tongue, until the walk to Mr. Grant’s had given me time to collect myself. I believe—I do believe, I acquitted myself better there, for Miss Grant even wept at my silly speeches.” For a moment Elizabeth did not reply, but again veiled her eyes with her hand. The feeling that caused the action, however, soon passed away, and, raising her face again to his gaze, she continued with a smile:
23. “No one, I believe, doubts the sense of justice which Judge Temple entertains!” returned Edwards bitterly.
“But let us converse calmly, sir. Will not the years, the habits, nay, the ignorance of my old friend, avail him any thing against this charge?”
“Ought they? They may extenuate, but can they ac quit? Would any society be tolerable, young man, where the ministers of justice are to be opposed by men armed with rifles? Is it for this that I have tamed the wilder ness?”
24. "Yes, he is my friend,” cried Edwards, “and I glory in the title. He is simple, unlettered, even ignorant; prejudiced, perhaps, though I feel that his opinion of the world is too true; but he has a heart, Judge Temple, that would atone for a thousand faults; he knows his friends, and never deserts them, even if it be his dog.”
25. "I should think, sir, that the appearance of Mohegan and the Leather-Stocking, stalking through the country, impoverished and forlorn, would wither your sight.”
26. To be continued.
Friday, February 9, 2024
Various Notes,
1. The Bible has many passages which represent Arabic influence: interesting. This makes sense, however, since many biblical traditions were passed down by Arabic peoples. For example, in the Book of Proverbs, one passage says, "the night, though long, is a good opportunity for thought, rest, and reflection," and this passage like many others, seems, instead of European in origin, like Arabic wisdom.
2. Tba.
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Bewick's British Birds: Over 180 Classic Illustrations by the Famed Engraver and Naturalist, by Thomas Bewick, is a book that has appeared frequently in my research. The book gives a rather comprehensive review of a wide variety of birds. It is a great book!
A. I learned that of the birds where I live, some are more common than others, and some have more distinctive markings, etc. than others.
B. Additionally, I learned for example that, "The Eagle Owl, is one of the largest of the British Owls, and has a powerful as well as a dignified look." Additionally, Bewick indicates that the Eagle Owl hunts rabbits and grouse.
2. Gustave Flaubert, Three Tales - First published in 1877, these three stories are dominated by questions of doubt, love, loneliness, and religious experience--together they confirm Flaubert as a master of the short story. "A Simple Heart" relates the story of F licit , an uneducated serving-woman who retains her Catholic faith despite a life of desolation and loss.
3. I looked up Henrik Ibsen books. One of his books suggests that “nothing’s there, that is, often times, people just make up and invent the problems in their lives.”
Monday, February 5, 2024
Various Notes
1. Reading The History of the Yorubas from the Earliest Times... by Samuel Johnson, I learned that sometimes, the Yoruba speak just to be "nice." That is, their speech often does not have the same purpose as English speech.
2. Added to Favorite Notes 2.
3. Added to Favorite Notes 2.
Saturday, February 3, 2024
Various Notes
1. Minute Rice, with a little bit of Soy Sauce, and a little bit of Orange Sauce on the side, all found at Wal Mart, tastes great!
2. Stove Top Stuffing is a great side dish!
Friday, February 2, 2024
Various Notes
1. A character in one of the books I've read, taught his pet parrot not to fear people.
2. Tba.
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Various Notes
1. Omitted.
2. Tba.
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Various Notes
1. Omitted.
2. Omitted.
3. Omitted.
4. Pasta & Tuna is easy to make like Tuna Casserole, just don’t add the cheese to the Kraft cup near the end.
4B. In principle, ANY macaroni dish is easy to make with Kraft Mac and Cheese Cups, they save you time making macaroni (whether you add the cheese or not)!
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Various Notes
1. “The memory of the elderly sometimes is not so strong. Consequently, this is a reason for the youth to help them.” - A philosopher who I’ve read.
2. “So what are you trying to say? What are you getting at? What are you accusing me of?" - The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Alexander Dumas
3. Essentially, George Eliot is saying, in a man's voice, “Since many men are slow, can barely read, only possess a high school education, and have multiple other flaws about them, why should I be jealous of them? I am confident in who I am."
4. Additionally, when Alexander Pushkin writes that one of his character’s “lightly scolded his girlfriend, the princess" that meant you don’t have to shout or scream at your girlfriend, if anything just lightly talk to them.
4B. In fact, if you take this a few steps further, you’ll see that if you’re in a healthy relationship, “just let your girlfriend get you,” you don’t have to get upset at all because of her actions.
5. George Eliot also suggests that in a relationship, your girlfriend in many ways is like your sister, or your mother.
6. Towards the end of one of Plato’s philosophy texts, he describes The “Spindle of Necessity.”
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Various Notes
1. I posted The Tree of Evil, about a tree with poison, and "vile venom" in it, by Alexander Pushkin, to this page (Thursday, December 28, 2023). Apparently there are several versions of the poem, and the version that I posted came from a very reputable source.
2. Omitted.
3. Updated: Food Ideas.
Saturday, January 20, 2024
Various Notes
1. The Affirmative Action Debate: do you overlook the established rules in society’s institutions for racial equality, and if so, how much?
2. Omitted.
3. The White Pine is the State Tree of Maine.
American Notes for General Circulation, by Charles Dickens,
1. CHAPTER IV - AN AMERICAN RAILROAD. LOWELL AND ITS FACTORY SYSTEM
2. Indicates that despite trains being segregated by race— negroes in some cabs, whites in the others, despite this, the negroes can enjoy themselves through their own forms of entertainment.
3. Describes a charismatic conductor.
4. "...which is an unspeakable comfort to all strong politicians and true lovers of their country: that is to say, to ninety-nine men and boys out of every ninety-nine and a quarter."
5. "The train calls at stations in the woods, where the wild impossibility of anybody having the smallest reason to get out, is only to be equalled by the apparently desperate hopelessness of there being anybody to get in. It rushes across the turnpike road, where there is no gate, no policeman, no signal: nothing but a rough wooden arch, on which is painted 'WHEN THE BELL RINGS, LOOK OUT FOR THE LOCOMOTIVE.'"
6. Approaches a house, then says, “Looks like this house was built on a deck of cards. It’ll probably come down if I have to sneeze.”
7. The very river that moves the machinery in the mills (for they are all worked by water power), seems to acquire a new character from the fresh buildings of bright red brick and painted wood among which it takes its course; and to be as light- headed, thoughtless, and brisk a young river, in its murmurings and tumblings, as one would desire to see. One would swear that every 'Bakery,' 'Grocery,' and 'Bookbindery,' and other kind of store, took its shutters down for the first time, and started in business yesterday. The golden pestles and mortars fixed as signs upon the sun-blind frames outside the Druggists', appear to have been just turned out of the United States' Mint; and when I saw a baby of some week or ten days old in a woman's arms at a street corner, I found myself unconsciously wondering where it came from: never supposing for an instant that it could have been born in such a young town as that.
8. These girls, as I have said, were all well dressed: and that phrase necessarily includes extreme cleanliness. They had serviceable bonnets, good warm cloaks, and shawls; and were not above clogs and pattens. Moreover, there were places in the mill in which they could deposit these things without injury; and there were conveniences for washing. They were healthy in appearance, many of them remarkably so, and had the manners and deportment of young women: not of degraded brutes of burden. If I had seen in one of those mills (but I did not, though I looked for something of this kind with a sharp eye), the most lisping, mincing, affected, and ridiculous young creature that my imagination could suggest, I should have thought of the careless, moping, slatternly, degraded, dull reverse (I HAVE seen that), and should have been still well pleased to look upon her.
9. Suggests, “The people in the pictures of the slave trade, where’d they get these people? The dust bowl? They’re all dirty and unkempt.”
10. It is their station to work. And they DO work. They labour in these mills, upon an average, twelve hours a day, which is unquestionably work, and pretty tight work too. Perhaps it is above their station to indulge in such amusements, on any terms. Are we quite sure that we in England have not formed our ideas of the 'station' of working people, from accustoming ourselves to the contemplation of that class as they are, and not as they might be? I think that if we examine our own feelings, we shall find that the pianos, and the circulating libraries, and even the Lowell Offering, startle us by their novelty, and not by their bearing upon any abstract question of right or wrong.
11. For myself, I know no station in which, the occupation of to-day cheerfully done and the occupation of to-morrow cheerfully looked to, any one of these pursuits is not most humanising and laudable. I know no station which is rendered more endurable to the person in it, or more safe to the person out of it, by having ignorance for its associate.
12. Writes, "I know it was slavery, but geez, there's no one cheerful in the pictures or smiling, or playing...that's just not right. No one learning religion or literature...really?"
13. Reminds us that farmers are usually strong, muscular men, not puny women and children.
Or become at least, after years of farming, muscular and strong.
Strong enough and in enough numbers, to start their own organizations.
14. But glancing all the way out at window from the corners of my eyes, I found abundance of entertainment for the rest of the ride in watching the effects of the wood fire, which had been invisible in the morning but were now brought out in full relief by the darkness: for we were travelling in a whirlwind of bright sparks, which showered about us like a storm of fiery snow.
15. CHAPTER V - WORCESTER. THE CONNECTICUT RIVER. HARTFORD. NEW HAVEN. TO NEW YORK
16. These towns and cities of New England (many of which would be villages in Old England), are as favourable specimens of rural America, as their people are of rural Americans. The well-trimmed lawns and green meadows of home are not there; and the grass, compared with our ornamental plots and pastures, is rank, and rough, and wild: but delicate slopes of land, gently-swelling hills, wooded valleys, and slender streams, abound. Every little colony of houses has its church and school-house peeping from among the white roofs and shady trees; every house is the whitest of the white; every Venetian blind the greenest of the green; every fine day's sky the bluest of the blue. A sharp dry wind and a slight frost had so hardened the roads when we alighted at Worcester, that their furrowed tracks were like ridges of granite. There was the usual aspect of newness on every object, of course. All the buildings looked as if they had been built and painted that morning, and could be taken down on Monday with very little trouble. In the keen evening air, every sharp outline looked a hundred times sharper than ever. The clean cardboard colonnades had no more perspective than a Chinese bridge on a tea-cup, and appeared equally well calculated for use. The razor-like edges of the detached cottages seemed to cut the very wind as it whistled against them, and to send it smarting on its way with a shriller cry than before. Those slightly-built wooden dwellings behind which the sun was setting with a brilliant lustre, could be so looked through and through, that the idea of any inhabitant being able to hide himself from the public gaze, or to have any secrets from the public eye, was not entertainable for a moment. Even where a blazing fire shone through the uncurtained windows of some distant house, it had the air of being newly lighted, and of lacking warmth; and instead of awakening thoughts of a snug chamber, bright with faces that first saw the light round that same hearth, and ruddy with warm hangings, it came upon one suggestive of the smell of new mortar and damp walls.
17. It rained all day as I once thought it never did rain anywhere, but in the Highlands of Scotland.
18. The river was full of floating blocks of ice, which were constantly crunching and cracking under us; and the depth of water, in the course we took to avoid the larger masses, carried down the middle of the river by the current, did not exceed a few inches. Nevertheless, we moved onward, dexterously; and being well wrapped up, bade defiance to the weather, and enjoyed the journey.
19. After two hours and a half of this odd travelling (including a stoppage at a small town, where we were saluted by a gun considerably bigger than our own chimney), we reached Hartford, and straightway repaired to an extremely comfortable hotel: except, as usual, in the article of bedrooms, which, in almost every place we visited, were very conducive to early rising.
20. Met a person who shows him a gun then says, "that's a big gun, but I've seen guns bigger than that."
21. New Haven, known also as the City of Elms, is a fine town. Many of its streets (as its ALIAS sufficiently imports) are planted with rows of grand old elm-trees; and the same natural ornaments surround Yale College, an establishment of considerable eminence and reputation. The various departments of this Institution are erected in a kind of park or common in the middle of the town, where they are dimly visible among the shadowing trees. The effect is very like that of an old cathedral yard in England; and when their branches are in full leaf, must be extremely picturesque. Even in the winter time, these groups of well-grown trees, clustering among the busy streets and houses of a thriving city, have a very quaint appearance: seeming to bring about a kind of compromise between town and country; as if each had met the other half-way, and shaken hands upon it; which is at once novel and pleasant.
22. Reminds us that each state has a State Tree.
23. After a night's rest, we rose early, and in good time went down to the wharf, and on board the packet New York FOR New York. This was the first American steamboat of any size that I had seen; and certainly to an English eye it was infinitely less like a steamboat than a huge floating bath. I could hardly persuade myself, indeed, but that the bathing establishment off Westminster Bridge, which I left a baby, had suddenly grown to an enormous size; run away from home; and set up in foreign parts as a steamer. Being in America, too, which our vagabonds do so particularly favour, it seemed the more probable.
24. But I woke from my nap in time to hurry up, and see Hell Gate, the Hog's Back, the Frying Pan, and other notorious localities, attractive to all readers of famous Diedrich Knickerbocker's History. We were now in a narrow channel, with sloping banks on either side, besprinkled with pleasant villas, and made refreshing to the sight by turf and trees. Soon we shot in quick succession, past a light- house; a madhouse (how the lunatics flung up their caps and roared in sympathy with the headlong engine and the driving tide!); a jail; and other buildings: and so emerged into a noble bay, whose waters sparkled in the now cloudless sunshine like Nature's eyes turned up to Heaven.
25. Then there lay stretched out before us, to the right, confused heaps of buildings, with here and there a spire or steeple, looking down upon the herd below; and here and there, again, a cloud of lazy smoke; and in the foreground a forest of ships' masts, cheery with flapping sails and waving flags. Crossing from among them to the opposite shore, were steam ferry-boats laden with people, coaches, horses, waggons, baskets, boxes: crossed and recrossed by other ferry-boats: all travelling to and fro: and never idle. Stately among these restless Insects, were two or three large ships, moving with slow majestic pace, as creatures of a prouder kind, disdainful of their puny journeys, and making for the broad sea. Beyond, were shining heights, and islands in the glancing river, and a distance scarcely less blue and bright than the sky it seemed to meet. The city's hum and buzz, the clinking of capstans, the ringing of bells, the barking of dogs, the clattering of wheels, tingled in the listening ear. All of which life and stir, coming across the stirring water, caught new life and animation from its free companionship; and, sympathising with its buoyant spirits, glistened as it seemed in sport upon its surface, and hemmed the vessel round, and plashed the water high about her sides, and, floating her gallantly into the dock, flew off again to welcome other comers, and speed before them to the busy port.
26. CHAPTER VI - NEW YORK
27. THE beautiful metropolis of America is by no means so clean a city as Boston, but many of its streets have the same characteristics; except that the houses are not quite so fresh-coloured, the sign- boards are not quite so gaudy, the gilded letters not quite so golden, the bricks not quite so red, the stone not quite so white, the blinds and area railings not quite so green, the knobs and plates upon the street doors not quite so bright and twinkling. There are many by-streets, almost as neutral in clean colours, and positive in dirty ones, as by-streets in London; and there is one quarter, commonly called the Five Points, which, in respect of filth and wretchedness, may be safely backed against Seven Dials, or any other part of famed St. Giles's.
28. The great promenade and thoroughfare, as most people know, is Broadway; a wide and bustling street, which, from the Battery Gardens to its opposite termination in a country road, may be four miles long. Shall we sit down in an upper floor of the Carlton House Hotel (situated in the best part of this main artery of New York), and when we are tired of looking down upon the life below, sally forth arm-in-arm, and mingle with the stream?
29. Warm weather! The sun strikes upon our heads at this open window, as though its rays were concentrated through a burning-glass; but the day is in its zenith, and the season an unusual one. Was there ever such a sunny street as this Broadway! The pavement stones are polished with the tread of feet until they shine again; the red bricks of the houses might be yet in the dry, hot kilns; and the roofs of those omnibuses look as though, if water were poured on them, they would hiss and smoke, and smell like half-quenched fires. No stint of omnibuses here! Half-a-dozen have gone by within as many minutes. Plenty of hackney cabs and coaches too; gigs, phaetons, large-wheeled tilburies, and private carriages - rather of a clumsy make, and not very different from the public vehicles, but built for the heavy roads beyond the city pavement. Negro coachmen and white; in straw hats, black hats, white hats, glazed caps, fur caps; in coats of drab, black, brown, green, blue, nankeen, striped jean and linen; and there, in that one instance (look while it passes, or it will be too late), in suits of livery. Some southern republican that, who puts his blacks in uniform, and swells with Sultan pomp and power. Yonder, where that phaeton with the well-clipped pair of grays has stopped - standing at their heads now - is a Yorkshire groom, who has not been very long in these parts, and looks sorrowfully round for a companion pair of top-boots, which he may traverse the city half a year without meeting. Heaven save the ladies, how they dress! We have seen more colours in these ten minutes, than we should have seen elsewhere, in as many days. What various parasols! what rainbow silks and satins! what pinking of thin stockings, and pinching of thin shoes, and fluttering of ribbons and silk tassels, and display of rich cloaks with gaudy hoods and linings! The young gentlemen are fond, you see, of turning down their shirt-collars and cultivating their whiskers, especially under the chin; but they cannot approach the ladies in their dress or bearing, being, to say the truth, humanity of quite another sort. Byrons of the desk and counter, pass on, and let us see what kind of men those are behind ye: those two labourers in holiday clothes, of whom one carries in his hand a crumpled scrap of paper from which he tries to spell out a hard name, while the other looks about for it on all the doors and windows.
30. Irishmen both! You might know them, if they were masked, by their long-tailed blue coats and bright buttons, and their drab trousers, which they wear like men well used to working dresses, who are easy in no others. It would be hard to keep your model republics going, without the countrymen and countrywomen of those two labourers. For who else would dig, and delve, and drudge, and do domestic work, and make canals and roads, and execute great lines of Internal Improvement! Irishmen both, and sorely puzzled too, to find out what they seek. Let us go down, and help them, for the love of home, and that spirit of liberty which admits of honest service to honest men, and honest work for honest bread, no matter what it be.
31. This narrow thoroughfare, baking and blistering in the sun, is Wall Street: the Stock Exchange and Lombard Street of New York. Many a rapid fortune has been made in this street, and many a no less rapid ruin. Some of these very merchants whom you see hanging about here now, have locked up money in their strong-boxes, like the man in the Arabian Nights, and opening them again, have found but withered leaves. Below, here by the water-side, where the bowsprits of ships stretch across the footway, and almost thrust themselves into the windows, lie the noble American vessels which have made their Packet Service the finest in the world. They have brought hither the foreigners who abound in all the streets: not, perhaps, that there are more here, than in other commercial cities; but elsewhere, they have particular haunts, and you must find them out; here, they pervade the town.
We must cross Broadway again; gaining some refreshment from the heat, in the sight of the great blocks of clean ice which are being carried into shops and bar-rooms; and the pine-apples and water- melons profusely displayed for sale. Fine streets of spacious houses here, you see! - Wall Street has furnished and dismantled many of them very often - and here a deep green leafy square. Be sure that is a hospitable house with inmates to be affectionately remembered always, where they have the open door and pretty show of plants within, and where the child with laughing eyes is peeping out of window at the little dog below. You wonder what may be the use of this tall flagstaff in the by-street, with something like Liberty's head-dress on its top: so do I. But there is a passion for tall flagstaffs hereabout, and you may see its twin brother in five minutes, if you have a mind.
32. That's well! We have got at the right address at last, though it is written in strange characters truly, and might have been scrawled with the blunt handle of the spade the writer better knows the use of, than a pen. Their way lies yonder, but what business takes them there? They carry savings: to hoard up? No. They are brothers, those men. One crossed the sea alone, and working very hard for one half year, and living harder, saved funds enough to bring the other out. That done, they worked together side by side, contentedly sharing hard labour and hard living for another term, and then their sisters came, and then another brother, and lastly, their old mother. And what now? Why, the poor old crone is restless in a strange land, and yearns to lay her bones, she says, among her people in the old graveyard at home: and so they go to pay her passage back: and God help her and them, and every simple heart, and all who turn to the Jerusalem of their younger days, and have an altar-fire upon the cold hearth of their fathers.
33. Again across Broadway, and so - passing from the many-coloured crowd and glittering shops - into another long main street, the Bowery. A railroad yonder, see, where two stout horses trot along, drawing a score or two of people and a great wooden ark, with ease. The stores are poorer here; the passengers less gay. Clothes ready-made, and meat ready-cooked, are to be bought in these parts; and the lively whirl of carriages is exchanged for the deep rumble of carts and waggons. These signs which are so plentiful, in shape like river buoys, or small balloons, hoisted by cords to poles, and dangling there, announce, as you may see by looking up, 'OYSTERS IN EVERY STYLE.' They tempt the hungry most at night, for then dull candles glimmering inside, illuminate these dainty words, and make the mouths of idlers water, as they read and linger.
34. What is this dismal-fronted pile of bastard Egyptian, like an enchanter's palace in a melodrama! - a famous prison, called The Tombs. Shall we go in?
So. A long, narrow, lofty building, stove-heated as usual, with four galleries, one above the other, going round it, and communicating by stairs. Between the two sides of each gallery, and in its centre, a bridge, for the greater convenience of crossing. On each of these bridges sits a man: dozing or reading, or talking to an idle companion. On each tier, are two opposite rows of small iron doors. They look like furnace-doors, but are cold and black, as though the fires within had all gone out. Some two or three are open, and women, with drooping heads bent down, are talking to the inmates. The whole is lighted by a skylight, but it is fast closed; and from the roof there dangle, limp and drooping, two useless windsails.
35. 'Pray, why do they call this place The Tombs?' 'Well, it's the cant name.' 'I know it is. Why?' 'Some suicides happened here, when it was first built. I expect it come about from that.'
36. The prison-yard in which he pauses now, has been the scene of terrible performances. Into this narrow, grave-like place, men are brought out to die. The wretched creature stands beneath the gibbet on the ground; the rope about his neck; and when the sign is given, a weight at its other end comes running down, and swings him up into the air - a corpse.
The law requires that there be present at this dismal spectacle, the judge, the jury, and citizens to the amount of twenty-five. From the community it is hidden. To the dissolute and bad, the thing remains a frightful mystery. Between the criminal and them, the prison-wall is interposed as a thick gloomy veil. It is the curtain to his bed of death, his winding-sheet, and grave. From him it shuts out life, and all the motives to unrepenting hardihood in that last hour, which its mere sight and presence is often all- sufficient to sustain. There are no bold eyes to make him bold; no ruffians to uphold a ruffian's name before. All beyond the pitiless stone wall, is unknown space.
Let us go forth again into the cheerful streets.
37. But how quiet the streets are! Are there no itinerant bands; no wind or stringed instruments? No, not one. By day, are there no Punches, Fantoccini, Dancing-dogs, Jugglers, Conjurers, Orchestrinas, or even Barrel-organs? No, not one. Yes, I remember one. One barrel-organ and a dancing-monkey - sportive by nature, but fast fading into a dull, lumpish monkey, of the Utilitarian school. Beyond that, nothing lively; no, not so much as a white mouse in a twirling cage.
38. Writes, "In New York, the streets are quiet, in Louisiana, by contrast, there are bands that play music in the streets."
39. Are there no amusements? Yes. There is a lecture-room across the way, from which that glare of light proceeds, and there may be evening service for the ladies thrice a week, or oftener. For the young gentlemen, there is the counting-house, the store, the bar- room: the latter, as you may see through these windows, pretty full. Hark! to the clinking sound of hammers breaking lumps of ice, and to the cool gurgling of the pounded bits, as, in the process of mixing, they are poured from glass to glass! No amusements? What are these suckers of cigars and swallowers of strong drinks, whose hats and legs we see in every possible variety of twist, doing, but amusing themselves? What are the fifty newspapers, which those precocious urchins are bawling down the street, and which are kept filed within, what are they but amusements? Not vapid, waterish amusements, but good strong stuff; dealing in round abuse and blackguard names; pulling off the roofs of private houses, as the Halting Devil did in Spain; pimping and pandering for all degrees of vicious taste, and gorging with coined lies the most voracious maw; imputing to every man in public life the coarsest and the vilest motives; scaring away from the stabbed and prostrate body-politic, every Samaritan of clear conscience and good deeds; and setting on, with yell and whistle and the clapping of foul hands, the vilest vermin and worst birds of prey. - No amusements!
40. Let us go on again; and passing this wilderness of an hotel with stores about its base, like some Continental theatre, or the London Opera House shorn of its colonnade, plunge into the Five Points. But it is needful, first, that we take as our escort these two heads of the police, whom you would know for sharp and well-trained officers if you met them in the Great Desert. So true it is, that certain pursuits, wherever carried on, will stamp men with the same character. These two might have been begotten, born, and bred, in Bow Street.
41. To be continued.
Various Notes,
1. Russian Literature
2. Tales of Belkin: The Undertaker
3. The Undertaker is the third short story in the collection.
4. In the story, the Russian-drinker stereotype is explored. We meet an undertaker who "is a very straight-forward man, and does not tolerate deviation from the norm." After attending a party, however, we learn that the undertaker get's drunk and the next day, does not do his job as he is supposed to, and gets into a good deal of trouble.
5. A similar story by Pushkin, also explores this theme in the Russian army. Due to a soldier playing cards, getting drunk, and failing to do his job, he has to explain himself to his superior officer, who lets him off the hook with only a warning.
6. In one Russian short story, the author describes a woman who goes into the forest, and finds a baby bear who lost his mother. Then the woman is kind to this baby bear, and brings him home with her and raises him.
7. The short story mentioned above, may be related to the popular painting, Morning in a Pine Forest, by Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky, as well as the overall symbolism of the bear in Russian culture.
8. Scorpio (1981) is a good song by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, off their genius album, The Message.
9. Many of the books that I’ve read include characters who have impressive sharp shooting skills, often times being able to display great accuracy with a gun.
10. In one novel that I’ve read, one of the characters says, after being questioned by another character, “I don’t want to tell you, because I don’t want you to know my feelings.”
11. Ramen noodles taste great with Bacon Bits!
Thursday, January 18, 2024
Various Notes
1. Walmart sells, in their Asian Foods section, Neoguri Ramen. Neoguri Ramen tastes great with canned lump crabmeat. I put the ramen in one bowl, and the lump crabmeat in another. Then I take out some ramen noodles, and dip them into the crabmeat bowl to get both on the fork, then eat, then I repeat this, until finished. Next, I want to try the Kimchi Ramen, which is also sold in the Asian foods section.
2. Great Value Iced Tea with Peach Drink Mix, makes great peach iced tea!
3. Kraft Mac & Cheese cups, mixed with a Tuna Pouch, makes great tuna casserole! - Added to Food Ideas.
4. Alexander Pushkin suggests that readers should look at a map of Russia, Mongolia, and China, as well as a map of Europe.
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
Various Notes
1. In Louis Armstrong: An American Genius, by James Lincoln Collier, Collier indicates that early in his career, Louis Armstrong and his band would play, or perform music on the steamboats in Louisiana, and this was good exposure for Louis.
2. Tba.
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Various Notes
1. On my Facebook page, I added several pages of notes from this blog.
2. Tba.
Monday, January 15, 2024
Various Notes
1. A. Perhaps foreign librarians with little or no access to digital ebooks, could coordinate with American librarians, with access to millions of digital ebooks, a way to allow their foreign patrons online access to American library ebook applications. I use a library digital ebook application to reserve books for work on this blog, which is really helpful.
B. This would allow library patrons in foreign countries access to the same digital ebooks that American libraries present to their patrons. Then, library patrons across the globe -- who otherwise would not have access to so many digital ebooks -- will now have access to more digital ebooks, in order to then pursue their studies.
C. My libraries' digital ebook application (that I use on my iPhone) even has a link on their website which allows users to "Get [the digital ebook company's application] for your library."
2. I can no longer run the maximum length of time, or the distance, that I was able to run when I began running. I guess I had more stamina when I was beginning. I'm lucky if I can run 3 minutes these days. However, I feel healthy, well I don't feel very unhealthy, and I feel as though I enjoyed moderate gains since beginning to run.
3. I learned that different magic (poisonous) mushroom pills, enable users to talk based on different emotions and other stimuli.
4. Updated: Item XXIII. on Notes about Psychiatry. This Item directs visitors to Favorite Notes 2, Item XII. Notes about Law, on this page.
5. Larry Bird said, about basketball, "But it is a black man's game, and it will be forever."
Saturday, January 13, 2024
American Notes for General Circulation, by Charles Dickens,
1. CHAPTER III - BOSTON
2. IN all the public establishments of America, the utmost courtesy prevails. Most of our Departments are susceptible of considerable improvement in this respect, but the Custom-house above all others would do well to take example from the United States and render itself somewhat less odious and offensive to foreigners. The servile rapacity of the French officials is sufficiently contemptible; but there is a surly boorish incivility about our men, alike disgusting to all persons who fall into their hands, and discreditable to the nation that keeps such ill-conditioned curs snarling about its gates.
When I landed in America, I could not help being strongly impressed with the contrast their Custom-house presented, and the attention, politeness and good humour with which its officers discharged their duty.
As we did not land at Boston, in consequence of some detention at the wharf, until after dark, I received my first impressions of the city in walking down to the Custom-house on the morning after our arrival, which was Sunday. I am afraid to say, by the way, how many offers of pews and seats in church for that morning were made to us, by formal note of invitation, before we had half finished our first dinner in America, but if I may be allowed to make a moderate guess, without going into nicer calculation, I should say that at least as many sittings were proffered us, as would have accommodated a score or two of grown-up families. The number of creeds and forms of religion to which the pleasure of our company was requested, was in very fair proportion.
Not being able, in the absence of any change of clothes, to go to church that day, we were compelled to decline these kindnesses, one and all; and I was reluctantly obliged to forego the delight of hearing Dr. Channing, who happened to preach that morning for the first time in a very long interval. I mention the name of this distinguished and accomplished man (with whom I soon afterwards had the pleasure of becoming personally acquainted), that I may have the gratification of recording my humble tribute of admiration and respect for his high abilities and character; and for the bold philanthropy with which he has ever opposed himself to that most hideous blot and foul disgrace - Slavery.
2. To return to Boston. When I got into the streets upon this Sunday morning, the air was so clear, the houses were so bright and gay: the signboards were painted in such gaudy colours; the gilded letters were so very golden; the bricks were so very red, the stone was so very white, the blinds and area railings were so very green, the knobs and plates upon the street doors so marvellously bright and twinkling; and all so slight and unsubstantial in appearance - that every thoroughfare in the city looked exactly like a scene in a pantomime. It rarely happens in the business streets that a tradesman, if I may venture to call anybody a tradesman, where everybody is a merchant, resides above his store; so that many occupations are often carried on in one house, and the whole front is covered with boards and inscriptions. As I walked along, I kept glancing up at these boards, confidently expecting to see a few of them change into something; and I never turned a corner suddenly without looking out for the clown and pantaloon, who, I had no doubt, were hiding in a doorway or behind some pillar close at hand. As to Harlequin and Columbine, I discovered immediately that they lodged (they are always looking after lodgings in a pantomime) at a very small clockmaker's one story high, near the hotel; which, in addition to various symbols and devices, almost covering the whole front, had a great dial hanging out - to be jumped through, of course.
The suburbs are, if possible, even more unsubstantial-looking than the city. The white wooden houses (so white that it makes one wink to look at them), with their green jalousie blinds, are so sprinkled and dropped about in all directions, without seeming to have any root at all in the ground; and the small churches and chapels are so prim, and bright, and highly varnished; that I almost believed the whole affair could be taken up piecemeal like a child's toy, and crammed into a little box.
The city is a beautiful one, and cannot fail, I should imagine, to impress all strangers very favourably. The private dwelling-houses are, for the most part, large and elegant; the shops extremely good; and the public buildings handsome. The State House is built upon the summit of a hill, which rises gradually at first, and afterwards by a steep ascent, almost from the water's edge. In front is a green enclosure, called the Common. The site is beautiful: and from the top there is a charming panoramic view of the whole town and neighbourhood. In addition to a variety of commodious offices, it contains two handsome chambers; in one the House of Representatives of the State hold their meetings: in the other, the Senate. Such proceedings as I saw here, were conducted with perfect gravity and decorum; and were certainly calculated to inspire attention and respect.
There is no doubt that much of the intellectual refinement and superiority of Boston, is referable to the quiet influence of the University of Cambridge, which is within three or four miles of the city. The resident professors at that university are gentlemen of learning and varied attainments; and are, without one exception that I can call to mind, men who would shed a grace upon, and do honour to, any society in the civilised world. Many of the resident gentry in Boston and its neighbourhood, and I think I am not mistaken in adding, a large majority of those who are attached to the liberal professions there, have been educated at this same school. Whatever the defects of American universities may be, they disseminate no prejudices; rear no bigots; dig up the buried ashes of no old superstitions; never interpose between the people and their improvement; exclude no man because of his religious opinions; above all, in their whole course of study and instruction, recognise a world, and a broad one too, lying beyond the college walls.
It was a source of inexpressible pleasure to me to observe the almost imperceptible, but not less certain effect, wrought by this institution among the small community of Boston; and to note at every turn the humanising tastes and desires it has engendered; the affectionate friendships to which it has given rise; the amount of vanity and prejudice it has dispelled. The golden calf they worship at Boston is a pigmy compared with the giant effigies set up in other parts of that vast counting-house which lies beyond the Atlantic; and the almighty dollar sinks into something comparatively insignificant, amidst a whole Pantheon of better gods.
It is a great and pleasant feature of all such institutions in America, that they are either supported by the State or assisted by the State; or (in the event of their not needing its helping hand) that they act in concert with it, and are emphatically the people's. I cannot but think, with a view to the principle and its tendency to elevate or depress the character of the industrious classes, that a Public Charity is immeasurably better than a Private Foundation, no matter how munificently the latter may be endowed. In our own country, where it has not, until within these later days, been a very popular fashion with governments to display any extraordinary regard for the great mass of the people or to recognise their existence as improvable creatures, private charities, unexampled in the history of the earth, have arisen, to do an incalculable amount of good among the destitute and afflicted. But the government of the country, having neither act nor part in them, is not in the receipt of any portion of the gratitude they inspire; and, offering very little shelter or relief beyond that which is to be found in the workhouse and the jail, has come, not unnaturally, to be looked upon by the poor rather as a stern master, quick to correct and punish, than a kind protector, merciful and vigilant in their hour of need.
The maxim that out of evil cometh good, is strongly illustrated by these establishments at home; as the records of the Prerogative Office in Doctors' Commons can abundantly prove. Some immensely rich old gentleman or lady, surrounded by needy relatives, makes, upon a low average, a will a-week. The old gentleman or lady, never very remarkable in the best of times for good temper, is full of aches and pains from head to foot; full of fancies and caprices; full of spleen, distrust, suspicion, and dislike. To cancel old wills, and invent new ones, is at last the sole business of such a testator's existence; and relations and friends (some of whom have been bred up distinctly to inherit a large share of the property, and have been, from their cradles, specially disqualified from devoting themselves to any useful pursuit, on that account) are so often and so unexpectedly and summarily cut off, and reinstated, and cut off again, that the whole family, down to the remotest cousin, is kept in a perpetual fever. At length it becomes plain that the old lady or gentleman has not long to live; and the plainer this becomes, the more clearly the old lady or gentleman perceives that everybody is in a conspiracy against their poor old dying relative; wherefore the old lady or gentleman makes another last will - positively the last this time - conceals the same in a china teapot, and expires next day. Then it turns out, that the whole of the real and personal estate is divided between half-a- dozen charities; and that the dead and gone testator has in pure spite helped to do a great deal of good, at the cost of an immense amount of evil passion and misery.
The Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, at Boston, is superintended by a body of trustees who make an annual report to the corporation. The indigent blind of that state are admitted gratuitously. Those from the adjoining state of Connecticut, or from the states of Maine, Vermont, or New Hampshire, are admitted by a warrant from the state to which they respectively belong; or, failing that, must find security among their friends, for the payment of about twenty pounds English for their first year's board and instruction, and ten for the second.
3. Suggests that music schools are good because they focus on the talents of their students. Similar to the benefits of cooking schools, for helping people learn how to cook.
4. Her name is Laura Bridgman. 'She was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on the twenty-first of December, 1829. She is described as having been a very sprightly and pretty infant, with bright blue eyes. She was, however, so puny and feeble until she was a year and a half old, that her parents hardly hoped to rear her. She was subject to severe fits, which seemed to rack her frame almost beyond her power of endurance: and life was held by the feeblest tenure: but when a year and a half old, she seemed to rally; the dangerous symptoms subsided; and at twenty months old, she was perfectly well.
'Then her mental powers, hitherto stinted in their growth, rapidly developed themselves; and during the four months of health which she enjoyed, she appears (making due allowance for a fond mother's account) to have displayed a considerable degree of intelligence.
'But suddenly she sickened again; her disease raged with great violence during five weeks, when her eyes and ears were inflamed, suppurated, and their contents were discharged. But though sight and hearing were gone for ever, the poor child's sufferings were not ended. The fever raged during seven weeks; for five months she was kept in bed in a darkened room; it was a year before she could walk unsupported, and two years before she could sit up all day.
It was now observed that her sense of smell was almost entirely destroyed; and, consequently, that her taste was much blunted. 'It was not until four years of age that the poor child's bodily health seemed restored, and she was able to enter upon her apprenticeship of life and the world.
'But what a situation was hers! The darkness and the silence of the tomb were around her: no mother's smile called forth her answering smile, no father's voice taught her to imitate his sounds:- they, brothers and sisters, were but forms of matter which resisted her touch, but which differed not from the furniture of the house, save in warmth, and in the power of locomotion; and not even in these respects from the dog and the cat.
'But the immortal spirit which had been implanted within her could not die, nor be maimed nor mutilated; and though most of its avenues of communication with the world were cut off, it began to manifest itself through the others. As soon as she could walk, she began to explore the room, and then the house; she became familiar with the form, density, weight, and heat, of every article she could lay her hands upon. She followed her mother, and felt her hands and arms, as she was occupied about the house; and her disposition to imitate, led her to repeat everything herself. She even learned to sew a little, and to knit.'
'At this time, I was so fortunate as to hear of the child, and immediately hastened to Hanover to see her. I found her with a well-formed figure; a strongly-marked, nervous-sanguine temperament; a large and beautifully-shaped head; and the whole system in healthy action. The parents were easily induced to consent to her coming to Boston, and on the 4th of October, 1837, they brought her to the Institution.
The first experiments were made by taking articles in common use, such as knives, forks, spoons, keys, and pasting upon them labels with their names printed in raised letters. These she felt very carefully, and soon, of course, distinguished that the crooked lines SPOON, differed as much from the crooked lines KEY, as the spoon differed from the key in form.
'Then small detached labels, with the same words printed upon them, were put into her hands; and she soon observed that they were similar to the ones pasted on the articles.' She showed her perception of this similarity by laying the label KEY upon the key, and the label SPOON upon the spoon. She was encouraged here by the natural sign of approbation, patting on the head.
'The same process was then repeated with all the articles which she could handle; and she very easily learned to place the proper labels upon them. It was evident, however, that the only intellectual exercise was that of imitation and memory. She recollected that the label BOOK was placed upon a book, and she repeated the process first from imitation, next from memory, with only the motive of love of approbation, but apparently without the intellectual perception of any relation between the things.
'After a while, instead of labels, the individual letters were given to her on detached bits of paper: they were arranged side by side so as to spell BOOK, KEY, &c.; then they were mixed up in a heap and a sign was made for her to arrange them herself so as to express the words BOOK, KEY, &c.; and she did so.
'Hitherto, the process had been mechanical, and the success about as great as teaching a very knowing dog a variety of tricks. The poor child had sat in mute amazement, and patiently imitated everything her teacher did; but now the truth began to flash upon her: her intellect began to work: she perceived that here was a way by which she could herself make up a sign of anything that was in her own mind, and show it to another mind; and at once her countenance lighted up with a human expression: it was no longer a dog, or parrot: it was an immortal spirit, eagerly seizing upon a new link of union with other spirits! I could almost fix upon the moment when this truth dawned upon her mind, and spread its light to her countenance; I saw that the great obstacle was overcome; and that henceforward nothing but patient and persevering, but plain and straightforward, efforts were to be used.
5. Added to Various Notes.
6. She was exercised for several weeks in this way, until her vocabulary became extensive; and then the important step was taken of teaching her how to represent the different letters by the position of her fingers, instead of the cumbrous apparatus of the board and types. She accomplished this speedily and easily, for her intellect had begun to work in aid of her teacher, and her progress was rapid.
This was the period, about three months after she had commenced, that the first report of her case was made, in which it was stated that "she has just learned the manual alphabet, as used by the deaf mutes, and it is a subject of delight and wonder to see how rapidly, correctly, and eagerly, she goes on with her labours. Her teacher gives her a new object, for instance, a pencil, first lets her examine it, and get an idea of its use, then teaches her how to spell it by making the signs for the letters with her own fingers: the child grasps her hand, and feels her fingers, as the different letters are formed; she turns her head a little on one side like a person listening closely; her lips are apart; she seems scarcely to breathe; and her countenance, at first anxious, gradually changes to a smile, as she comprehends the lesson. She then holds up her tiny fingers, and spells the word in the manual alphabet; next, she takes her types and arranges her letters; and last, to make sure that she is right, she takes the whole of the types composing the word, and places them upon or in contact with the pencil, or whatever the object may be."
The whole of the succeeding year was passed in gratifying her eager inquiries for the names of every object which she could possibly handle; in exercising her in the use of the manual alphabet; in extending in every possible way her knowledge of the physical relations of things; and in proper care of her health.
'At the end of the year a report of her case was made, from which the following is an extract.
'"It has been ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt, that she cannot see a ray of light, cannot hear the least sound, and never exercises her sense of smell, if she have any. Thus her mind dwells in darkness and stillness, as profound as that of a closed tomb at midnight. Of beautiful sights, and sweet sounds, and pleasant odours, she has no conception; nevertheless, she seems as happy and playful as a bird or a lamb; and the employment of her intellectual faculties, or the acquirement of a new idea, gives her a vivid pleasure, which is plainly marked in her expressive features. She never seems to repine, but has all the buoyancy and gaiety of childhood. She is fond of fun and frolic, and when playing with the rest of the children, her shrill laugh sounds loudest of the group.
'"When left alone, she seems very happy if she have her knitting or sewing, and will busy herself for hours; if she have no occupation, she evidently amuses herself by imaginary dialogues, or by recalling past impressions; she counts with her fingers, or spells out names of things which she has recently learned, in the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes. In this lonely self-communion she seems to reason, reflect, and argue; if she spell a word wrong with the fingers of her right hand, she instantly strikes it with her left, as her teacher does, in sign of disapprobation; if right, then she pats herself upon the head, and looks pleased. She sometimes purposely spells a word wrong with the left hand, looks roguish for a moment and laughs, and then with the right hand strikes the left, as if to correct it.
'"During the year she has attained great dexterity in the use of the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes; and she spells out the words and sentences which she knows, so fast and so deftly, that only those accustomed to this language can follow with the eye the rapid motions of her fingers.
'"But wonderful as is the rapidity with which she writes her thoughts upon the air, still more so is the ease and accuracy with which she reads the words thus written by another; grasping their hands in hers, and following every movement of their fingers, as letter after letter conveys their meaning to her mind. It is in this way that she converses with her blind playmates, and nothing can more forcibly show the power of mind in forcing matter to its purpose than a meeting between them. For if great talent and skill are necessary for two pantomimes to paint their thoughts and feelings by the movements of the body, and the expression of the countenance, how much greater the difficulty when darkness shrouds them both, and the one can hear no sound.
'"When Laura is walking through a passage-way, with her hands spread before her, she knows instantly every one she meets, and passes them with a sign of recognition: but if it be a girl of her own age, and especially if it be one of her favourites, there is instantly a bright smile of recognition, a twining of arms, a grasping of hands, and a swift telegraphing upon the tiny fingers; whose rapid evolutions convey the thoughts and feelings from the outposts of one mind to those of the other. There are questions and answers, exchanges of joy or sorrow, there are kissings and partings, just as between little children with all their senses."
'During this year, and six months after she had left home, her mother came to visit her, and the scene of their meeting was an interesting one.
'The mother stood some time, gazing with overflowing eyes upon her unfortunate child, who, all unconscious of her presence, was playing about the room. Presently Laura ran against her, and at once began feeling her hands, examining her dress, and trying to find out if she knew her; but not succeeding in this, she turned away as from a stranger, and the poor woman could not conceal the pang she felt, at finding that her beloved child did not know her.
'She then gave Laura a string of beads which she used to wear at home, which were recognised by the child at once, who, with much joy, put them around her neck, and sought me eagerly to say she understood the string was from her home.
'The mother now sought to caress her, but poor Laura repelled her, preferring to be with her acquaintances.
'Another article from home was now given her, and she began to look much interested; she examined the stranger much closer, and gave me to understand that she knew she came from Hanover; she even endured her caresses, but would leave her with indifference at the slightest signal. The distress of the mother was now painful to behold; for, although she had feared that she should not be recognised, the painful reality of being treated with cold indifference by a darling child, was too much for woman's nature to bear.
'After a while, on the mother taking hold of her again, a vague idea seemed to flit across Laura's mind, that this could not be a stranger; she therefore felt her hands very eagerly, while her countenance assumed an expression of intense interest; she became very pale; and then suddenly red; hope seemed struggling with doubt and anxiety, and never were contending emotions more strongly painted upon the human face: at this moment of painful uncertainty, the mother drew her close to her side, and kissed her fondly, when at once the truth flashed upon the child, and all mistrust and anxiety disappeared from her face, as with an expression of exceeding joy she eagerly nestled to the bosom of her parent, and yielded herself to her fond embraces.
'After this, the beads were all unheeded; the playthings which were offered to her were utterly disregarded; her playmates, for whom but a moment before she gladly left the stranger, now vainly strove to pull her from her mother; and though she yielded her usual instantaneous obedience to my signal to follow me, it was evidently with painful reluctance. She clung close to me, as if bewildered and fearful; and when, after a moment, I took her to her mother, she sprang to her arms, and clung to her with eager joy.
'The subsequent parting between them, showed alike the affection, the intelligence, and the resolution of the child.
'Laura accompanied her mother to the door, clinging close to her all the way, until they arrived at the threshold, where she paused, and felt around, to ascertain who was near her. Perceiving the matron, of whom she is very fond, she grasped her with one hand, holding on convulsively to her mother with the other; and thus she stood for a moment: then she dropped her mother's hand; put her handkerchief to her eyes; and turning round, clung sobbing to the matron; while her mother departed, with emotions as deep as those of her child.
'Her social feelings, and her affections, are very strong; and when she is sitting at work, or at her studies, by the side of one of her little friends, she will break off from her task every few moments, to hug and kiss them with an earnestness and warmth that is touching to behold.
'When left alone, she occupies and apparently amuses herself, and seems quite contented; and so strong seems to be the natural tendency of thought to put on the garb of language, that she often soliloquizes in the FINGER LANGUAGE, slow and tedious as it is. But it is only when alone, that she is quiet: for if she becomes sensible of the presence of any one near her, she is restless until she can sit close beside them, hold their hand, and converse with them by signs.
7. I had previously been into another chamber, where a number of blind boys were swinging, and climbing, and engaged in various sports. They all clamoured, as we entered, to the assistant-master, who accompanied us, 'Look at me, Mr. Hart! Please, Mr. Hart, look at me!' evincing, I thought, even in this, an anxiety peculiar to their condition, that their little feats of agility should be SEEN. Among them was a small laughing fellow, who stood aloof, entertaining himself with a gymnastic exercise for bringing the arms and chest into play; which he enjoyed mightily; especially when, in thrusting out his right arm, he brought it into contact with another boy. Like Laura Bridgman, this young child was deaf, and dumb, and blind.
As I rose to quit the room, a pretty little child of one of the attendants came running in to greet its father. For the moment, a child with eyes, among the sightless crowd, impressed me almost as painfully as the blind boy in the porch had done, two hours ago. Ah! how much brighter and more deeply blue, glowing and rich though it had been before, was the scene without, contrasting with the darkness of so many youthful lives within!
* * * * * *
At SOUTH BOSTON, as it is called, in a situation excellently adapted for the purpose, several charitable institutions are clustered together. One of these, is the State Hospital for the insane; admirably conducted on those enlightened principles of conciliation and kindness, which twenty years ago would have been worse than heretical, and which have been acted upon with so much success in our own pauper Asylum at Hanwell. 'Evince a desire to show some confidence, and repose some trust, even in mad people,' said the resident physician, as we walked along the galleries, his patients flocking round us unrestrained. Of those who deny or doubt the wisdom of this maxim after witnessing its effects, if there be such people still alive, I can only say that I hope I may never be summoned as a Juryman on a Commission of Lunacy whereof they are the subjects; for I should certainly find them out of their senses, on such evidence alone.
8. This,' he said aloud, taking me by the hand, and advancing to the fantastic figure with great politeness - not raising her suspicions by the slightest look or whisper, or any kind of aside, to me: 'This lady is the hostess of this mansion, sir. It belongs to her. Nobody else has anything whatever to do with it. It is a large establishment, as you see, and requires a great number of attendants. She lives, you observe, in the very first style. She is kind enough to receive my visits, and to permit my wife and family to reside here; for which it is hardly necessary to say, we are much indebted to her. She is exceedingly courteous, you perceive,' on this hint she bowed condescendingly, 'and will permit me to have the pleasure of introducing you: a gentleman from England, Ma'am: newly arrived from England, after a very tempestuous passage: Mr. Dickens, - the lady of the house!'
We exchanged the most dignified salutations with profound gravity and respect, and so went on. The rest of the madwomen seemed to understand the joke perfectly (not only in this case, but in all the others, except their own), and be highly amused by it. The nature of their several kinds of insanity was made known to me in the same way, and we left each of them in high good humour. Not only is a thorough confidence established, by those means, between the physician and patient, in respect of the nature and extent of their hallucinations, but it is easy to understand that opportunities are afforded for seizing any moment of reason, to startle them by placing their own delusion before them in its most incongruous and ridiculous light.
Every patient in this asylum sits down to dinner every day with a knife and fork; and in the midst of them sits the gentleman, whose manner of dealing with his charges, I have just described. At every meal, moral influence alone restrains the more violent among them from cutting the throats of the rest; but the effect of that influence is reduced to an absolute certainty, and is found, even as a means of restraint, to say nothing of it as a means of cure, a hundred times more efficacious than all the strait-waistcoats, fetters, and handcuffs, that ignorance, prejudice, and cruelty have manufactured since the creation of the world.
In the labour department, every patient is as freely trusted with the tools of his trade as if he were a sane man. In the garden, and on the farm, they work with spades, rakes, and hoes. For amusement, they walk, run, fish, paint, read, and ride out to take the air in carriages provided for the purpose. They have among themselves a sewing society to make clothes for the poor, which holds meetings, passes resolutions, never comes to fisty-cuffs or bowie-knives as sane assemblies have been known to do elsewhere; and conducts all its proceedings with the greatest decorum. The irritability, which would otherwise be expended on their own flesh, clothes, and furniture, is dissipated in these pursuits. They are cheerful, tranquil, and healthy.
The orphans and young children are in an adjoining building separate from this, but a part of the same Institution. Some are such little creatures, that the stairs are of Lilliputian measurement, fitted to their tiny strides. The same consideration for their years and weakness is expressed in their very seats, which are perfect curiosities, and look like articles of furniture for a pauper doll's-house. I can imagine the glee of our Poor Law Commissioners at the notion of these seats having arms and backs; but small spines being of older date than their occupation of the Board-room at Somerset House, I thought even this provision very merciful and kind.
Here again, I was greatly pleased with the inscriptions on the wall, which were scraps of plain morality, easily remembered and understood: such as 'Love one another' - 'God remembers the smallest creature in his creation:' and straightforward advice of that nature. The books and tasks of these smallest of scholars, were adapted, in the same judicious manner, to their childish powers. When we had examined these lessons, four morsels of girls (of whom one was blind) sang a little song, about the merry month of May, which I thought (being extremely dismal) would have suited an English November better. That done, we went to see their sleeping-rooms on the floor above, in which the arrangements were no less excellent and gentle than those we had seen below. And after observing that the teachers were of a class and character well suited to the spirit of the place, I took leave of the infants with a lighter heart than ever I have taken leave of pauper infants yet.
9. The Boylston boys, as may be readily supposed, have very much the advantage of the others in point of personal appearance. They were in their school-room when I came upon them, and answered correctly, without book, such questions as where was England; how far was it; what was its population; its capital city; its form of government; and so forth. They sang a song too, about a farmer sowing his seed: with corresponding action at such parts as ''tis thus he sows,' 'he turns him round,' 'he claps his hands;' which gave it greater interest for them, and accustomed them to act together, in an orderly manner. They appeared exceedingly well-taught, and not better taught than fed; for a more chubby-looking full-waistcoated set of boys, I never saw.
America, as a new and not over-populated country, has in all her prisons, the one great advantage, of being enabled to find useful and profitable work for the inmates; whereas, with us, the prejudice against prison labour is naturally very strong, and almost insurmountable, when honest men who have not offended against the laws are frequently doomed to seek employment in vain. Even in the United States, the principle of bringing convict labour and free labour into a competition which must obviously be to the disadvantage of the latter, has already found many opponents, whose number is not likely to diminish with access of years.
For this very reason though, our best prisons would seem at the first glance to be better conducted than those of America. The treadmill is conducted with little or no noise; five hundred men may pick oakum in the same room, without a sound; and both kinds of labour admit of such keen and vigilant superintendence, as will render even a word of personal communication amongst the prisoners almost impossible. On the other hand, the noise of the loom, the forge, the carpenter's hammer, or the stonemason's saw, greatly favour those opportunities of intercourse - hurried and brief no doubt, but opportunities still - which these several kinds of work, by rendering it necessary for men to be employed very near to each other, and often side by side, without any barrier or partition between them, in their very nature present. A visitor, too, requires to reason and reflect a little, before the sight of a number of men engaged in ordinary labour, such as he is accustomed to out of doors, will impress him half as strongly as the contemplation of the same persons in the same place and garb would, if they were occupied in some task, marked and degraded everywhere as belonging only to felons in jails. In an American state prison or house of correction, I found it difficult at first to persuade myself that I was really in a jail: a place of ignominious punishment and endurance. And to this hour I very much question whether the humane boast that it is not like one, has its root in the true wisdom or philosophy of the matter.
I hope I may not be misunderstood on this subject, for it is one in which I take a strong and deep interest. I incline as little to the sickly feeling which makes every canting lie or maudlin speech of a notorious criminal a subject of newspaper report and general sympathy, as I do to those good old customs of the good old times which made England, even so recently as in the reign of the Third King George, in respect of her criminal code and her prison regulations, one of the most bloody-minded and barbarous countries on the earth. If I thought it would do any good to the rising generation, I would cheerfully give my consent to the disinterment of the bones of any genteel highwayman (the more genteel, the more cheerfully), and to their exposure, piecemeal, on any sign-post, gate, or gibbet, that might be deemed a good elevation for the purpose. My reason is as well convinced that these gentry were as utterly worthless and debauched villains, as it is that the laws and jails hardened them in their evil courses, or that their wonderful escapes were effected by the prison-turnkeys who, in those admirable days, had always been felons themselves, and were, to the last, their bosom-friends and pot-companions. At the same time I know, as all men do or should, that the subject of Prison Discipline is one of the highest importance to any community; and that in her sweeping reform and bright example to other countries on this head, America has shown great wisdom, great benevolence, and exalted policy. In contrasting her system with that which we have modelled upon it, I merely seek to show that with all its drawbacks, ours has some advantages of its own.
The House of Correction which has led to these remarks, is not walled, like other prisons, but is palisaded round about with tall rough stakes, something after the manner of an enclosure for keeping elephants in, as we see it represented in Eastern prints and pictures. The prisoners wear a parti-coloured dress; and those who are sentenced to hard labour, work at nail-making, or stone- cutting. When I was there, the latter class of labourers were employed upon the stone for a new custom-house in course of erection at Boston. They appeared to shape it skilfully and with expedition, though there were very few among them (if any) who had not acquired the art within the prison gates. The women, all in one large room, were employed in making light clothing, for New Orleans and the Southern States. They did their work in silence like the men; and like them were over-looked by the person contracting for their labour, or by some agent of his appointment. In addition to this, they are every moment liable to be visited by the prison officers appointed for that purpose.
The arrangements for cooking, washing of clothes, and so forth, are much upon the plan of those I have seen at home. Their mode of bestowing the prisoners at night (which is of general adoption) differs from ours, and is both simple and effective. In the centre of a lofty area, lighted by windows in the four walls, are five tiers of cells, one above the other; each tier having before it a light iron gallery, attainable by stairs of the same construction and material: excepting the lower one, which is on the ground. Behind these, back to back with them and facing the opposite wall, are five corresponding rows of cells, accessible by similar means: so that supposing the prisoners locked up in their cells, an officer stationed on the ground, with his back to the wall, has half their number under his eye at once; the remaining half being equally under the observation of another officer on the opposite side; and all in one great apartment. Unless this watch be corrupted or sleeping on his post, it is impossible for a man to escape; for even in the event of his forcing the iron door of his cell without noise (which is exceedingly improbable), the moment he appears outside, and steps into that one of the five galleries on which it is situated, he must be plainly and fully visible to the officer below. Each of these cells holds a small truckle bed, in which one prisoner sleeps; never more. It is small, of course; and the door being not solid, but grated, and without blind or curtain, the prisoner within is at all times exposed to the observation and inspection of any guard who may pass along that tier at any hour or minute of the night. Every day, the prisoners receive their dinner, singly, through a trap in the kitchen wall; and each man carries his to his sleeping cell to eat it, where he is locked up, alone, for that purpose, one hour. The whole of this arrangement struck me as being admirable; and I hope that the next new prison we erect in England may be built on this plan.
I wish by this account of them, imperfect in its execution, but in its just intention, honest, I could hope to convey to my readers one-hundredth part of the gratification, the sights I have described, afforded me.
* * * * * *
10. To an Englishman, accustomed to the paraphernalia of Westminster Hall, an American Court of Law is as odd a sight as, I suppose, an English Court of Law would be to an American. Except in the Supreme Court at Washington (where the judges wear a plain black robe), there is no such thing as a wig or gown connected with the administration of justice. The gentlemen of the bar being barristers and attorneys too (for there is no division of those functions as in England) are no more removed from their clients than attorneys in our Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors are, from theirs. The jury are quite at home, and make themselves as comfortable as circumstances will permit. The witness is so little elevated above, or put aloof from, the crowd in the court, that a stranger entering during a pause in the proceedings would find it difficult to pick him out from the rest. And if it chanced to be a criminal trial, his eyes, in nine cases out of ten, would wander to the dock in search of the prisoner, in vain; for that gentleman would most likely be lounging among the most distinguished ornaments of the legal profession, whispering suggestions in his counsel's ear, or making a toothpick out of an old quill with his penknife.
11. I could not but notice these differences, when I visited the courts at Boston. I was much surprised at first, too, to observe that the counsel who interrogated the witness under examination at the time, did so SITTING. But seeing that he was also occupied in writing down the answers, and remembering that he was alone and had no 'junior,' I quickly consoled myself with the reflection that law was not quite so expensive an article here, as at home; and that the absence of sundry formalities which we regard as indispensable, had doubtless a very favourable influence upon the bill of costs.
In every Court, ample and commodious provision is made for the accommodation of the citizens. This is the case all through America. In every Public Institution, the right of the people to attend, and to have an interest in the proceedings, is most fully and distinctly recognised. There are no grim door-keepers to dole out their tardy civility by the sixpenny-worth; nor is there, I sincerely believe, any insolence of office of any kind. Nothing national is exhibited for money; and no public officer is a showman. We have begun of late years to imitate this good example. I hope we shall continue to do so; and that in the fulness of time, even deans and chapters may be converted.
In the civil court an action was trying, for damages sustained in some accident upon a railway. The witnesses had been examined, and counsel was addressing the jury. The learned gentleman (like a few of his English brethren) was desperately long-winded, and had a remarkable capacity of saying the same thing over and over again. His great theme was 'Warren the ENGINE driver,' whom he pressed into the service of every sentence he uttered. I listened to him for about a quarter of an hour; and, coming out of court at the expiration of that time, without the faintest ray of enlightenment as to the merits of the case, felt as if I were at home again.
The tone of society in Boston is one of perfect politeness, courtesy, and good breeding. The ladies are unquestionably very beautiful - in face: but there I am compelled to stop. Their education is much as with us; neither better nor worse. I had heard some very marvellous stories in this respect; but not believing them, was not disappointed. Blue ladies there are, in Boston; but like philosophers of that colour and sex in most other latitudes, they rather desire to be thought superior than to be so. Evangelical ladies there are, likewise, whose attachment to the forms of religion, and horror of theatrical entertainments, are most exemplary. Ladies who have a passion for attending lectures are to be found among all classes and all conditions. In the kind of provincial life which prevails in cities such as this, the Pulpit has great influence. The peculiar province of the Pulpit in New England (always excepting the Unitarian Ministry) would appear to be the denouncement of all innocent and rational amusements. The church, the chapel, and the lecture-room, are the only means of excitement excepted; and to the church, the chapel, and the lecture-room, the ladies resort in crowds.
Wherever religion is resorted to, as a strong drink, and as an escape from the dull monotonous round of home, those of its ministers who pepper the highest will be the surest to please. They who strew the Eternal Path with the greatest amount of brimstone, and who most ruthlessly tread down the flowers and leaves that grow by the wayside, will be voted the most righteous; and they who enlarge with the greatest pertinacity on the difficulty of getting into heaven, will be considered by all true believers certain of going there: though it would be hard to say by what process of reasoning this conclusion is arrived at. It is so at home, and it is so abroad. With regard to the other means of excitement, the Lecture, it has at least the merit of being always new. One lecture treads so quickly on the heels of another, that none are remembered; and the course of this month may be safely repeated next, with its charm of novelty unbroken, and its interest unabated.
12. The fruits of the earth have their growth in corruption. Out of the rottenness of these things, there has sprung up in Boston a sect of philosophers known as Transcendentalists. On inquiring what this appellation might be supposed to signify, I was given to understand that whatever was unintelligible would be certainly transcendental. Not deriving much comfort from this elucidation, I pursued the inquiry still further, and found that the Transcendentalists are followers of my friend Mr. Carlyle, or I should rather say, of a follower of his, Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson. This gentleman has written a volume of Essays, in which, among much that is dreamy and fanciful (if he will pardon me for saying so), there is much more that is true and manly, honest and bold. Transcendentalism has its occasional vagaries (what school has not?), but it has good healthful qualities in spite of them; not least among the number a hearty disgust of Cant, and an aptitude to detect her in all the million varieties of her everlasting wardrobe. And therefore if I were a Bostonian, I think I would be a Transcendentalist.
13. The only preacher I heard in Boston was Mr. Taylor, who addresses himself peculiarly to seamen, and who was once a mariner himself. I found his chapel down among the shipping, in one of the narrow, old, water-side streets, with a gay blue flag waving freely from its roof. In the gallery opposite to the pulpit were a little choir of male and female singers, a violoncello, and a violin. The preacher already sat in the pulpit, which was raised on pillars, and ornamented behind him with painted drapery of a lively and somewhat theatrical appearance. He looked a weather-beaten hard- featured man, of about six or eight and fifty; with deep lines graven as it were into his face, dark hair, and a stern, keen eye. Yet the general character of his countenance was pleasant and agreeable. The service commenced with a hymn, to which succeeded an extemporary prayer. It had the fault of frequent repetition, incidental to all such prayers; but it was plain and comprehensive in its doctrines, and breathed a tone of general sympathy and charity, which is not so commonly a characteristic of this form of address to the Deity as it might be. That done he opened his discourse, taking for his text a passage from the Song of Solomon, laid upon the desk before the commencement of the service by some unknown member of the congregation: 'Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on the arm of her beloved!'
He handled his text in all kinds of ways, and twisted it into all manner of shapes; but always ingeniously, and with a rude eloquence, well adapted to the comprehension of his hearers. Indeed if I be not mistaken, he studied their sympathies and understandings much more than the display of his own powers. His imagery was all drawn from the sea, and from the incidents of a seaman's life; and was often remarkably good. He spoke to them of 'that glorious man, Lord Nelson,' and of Collingwood; and drew nothing in, as the saying is, by the head and shoulders, but brought it to bear upon his purpose, naturally, and with a sharp mind to its effect. Sometimes, when much excited with his subject, he had an odd way - compounded of John Bunyan, and Balfour of Burley - of taking his great quarto Bible under his arm and pacing up and down the pulpit with it; looking steadily down, meantime, into the midst of the congregation. Thus, when he applied his text to the first assemblage of his hearers, and pictured the wonder of the church at their presumption in forming a congregation among themselves, he stopped short with his Bible under his arm in the manner I have described, and pursued his discourse after this manner:
'Who are these - who are they - who are these fellows? where do they come from? Where are they going to? - Come from! What's the answer?' - leaning out of the pulpit, and pointing downward with his right hand: 'From below!' - starting back again, and looking at the sailors before him: 'From below, my brethren. From under the hatches of sin, battened down above you by the evil one. That's where you came from!' - a walk up and down the pulpit: 'and where are you going' - stopping abruptly: 'where are you going? Aloft!' - very softly, and pointing upward: 'Aloft!' - louder: 'aloft!' - louder still: 'That's where you are going - with a fair wind, - all taut and trim, steering direct for Heaven in its glory, where there are no storms or foul weather, and where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.' - Another walk: 'That's where you're going to, my friends. That's it. That's the place. That's the port. That's the haven. It's a blessed harbour - still water there, in all changes of the winds and tides; no driving ashore upon the rocks, or slipping your cables and running out to sea, there: Peace - Peace - Peace - all peace!' - Another walk, and patting the Bible under his left arm: 'What! These fellows are coming from the wilderness, are they? Yes. From the dreary, blighted wilderness of Iniquity, whose only crop is Death. But do they lean upon anything - do they lean upon nothing, these poor seamen?' - Three raps upon the Bible: 'Oh yes. - Yes. - They lean upon the arm of their Beloved' - three more raps: 'upon the arm of their Beloved' - three more, and a walk: 'Pilot, guiding- star, and compass, all in one, to all hands - here it is' - three more: 'Here it is. They can do their seaman's duty manfully, and be easy in their minds in the utmost peril and danger, with this' - two more: 'They can come, even these poor fellows can come, from the wilderness leaning on the arm of their Beloved, and go up - up - up!' - raising his hand higher, and higher, at every repetition of the word, so that he stood with it at last stretched above his head, regarding them in a strange, rapt manner, and pressing the book triumphantly to his breast, until he gradually subsided into some other portion of his discourse.
I have cited this, rather as an instance of the preacher's eccentricities than his merits, though taken in connection with his look and manner, and the character of his audience, even this was striking. It is possible, however, that my favourable impression of him may have been greatly influenced and strengthened, firstly, by his impressing upon his hearers that the true observance of religion was not inconsistent with a cheerful deportment and an exact discharge of the duties of their station, which, indeed, it scrupulously required of them; and secondly, by his cautioning them not to set up any monopoly in Paradise and its mercies. I never heard these two points so wisely touched (if indeed I have ever heard them touched at all), by any preacher of that kind before.
14. CHAPTER IV - AN AMERICAN RAILROAD. LOWELL AND ITS FACTORY SYSTEM
15. BEFORE leaving Boston, I devoted one day to an excursion to Lowell. I assign a separate chapter to this visit; not because I am about to describe it at any great length, but because I remember it as a thing by itself, and am desirous that my readers should do the same.
I made acquaintance with an American railroad, on this occasion, for the first time. As these works are pretty much alike all through the States, their general characteristics are easily described.
There are no first and second class carriages as with us; but there is a gentleman's car and a ladies' car: the main distinction between which is that in the first, everybody smokes; and in the second, nobody does. As a black man never travels with a white one, there is also a negro car; which is a great, blundering, clumsy chest, such as Gulliver put to sea in, from the kingdom of Brobdingnag. There is a great deal of jolting, a great deal of noise, a great deal of wall, not much window, a locomotive engine, a shriek, and a bell.
The cars are like shabby omnibuses, but larger: holding thirty, forty, fifty, people. The seats, instead of stretching from end to end, are placed crosswise. Each seat holds two persons. There is a long row of them on each side of the caravan, a narrow passage up the middle, and a door at both ends. In the centre of the carriage there is usually a stove, fed with charcoal or anthracite coal; which is for the most part red-hot. It is insufferably close; and you see the hot air fluttering between yourself and any other object you may happen to look at, like the ghost of smoke.
In the ladies' car, there are a great many gentlemen who have ladies with them. There are also a great many ladies who have nobody with them: for any lady may travel alone, from one end of the United States to the other, and be certain of the most courteous and considerate treatment everywhere. The conductor or check-taker, or guard, or whatever he may be, wears no uniform. He walks up and down the car, and in and out of it, as his fancy dictates; leans against the door with his hands in his pockets and stares at you, if you chance to be a stranger; or enters into conversation with the passengers about him. A great many newspapers are pulled out, and a few of them are read. Everybody talks to you, or to anybody else who hits his fancy. If you are an Englishman, he expects that that railroad is pretty much like an English railroad. If you say 'No,' he says 'Yes?' (interrogatively), and asks in what respect they differ. You enumerate the heads of difference, one by one, and he says 'Yes?' (still interrogatively) to each. Then he guesses that you don't travel faster in England; and on your replying that you do, says 'Yes?' again (still interrogatively), and it is quite evident, don't believe it. After a long pause he remarks, partly to you, and partly to the knob on the top of his stick, that 'Yankees are reckoned to be considerable of a go-ahead people too;' upon which YOU say 'Yes,' and then HE says 'Yes' again (affirmatively this time); and upon your looking out of window, tells you that behind that hill, and some three miles from the next station, there is a clever town in a smart lo-ca-tion, where he expects you have concluded to stop. Your answer in the negative naturally leads to more questions in reference to your intended route (always pronounced rout); and wherever you are going, you invariably learn that you can't get there without immense difficulty and danger, and that all the great sights are somewhere else.
If a lady take a fancy to any male passenger's seat, the gentleman who accompanies her gives him notice of the fact, and he immediately vacates it with great politeness. Politics are much discussed, so are banks, so is cotton. Quiet people avoid the question of the Presidency, for there will be a new election in three years and a half, and party feeling runs very high: the great constitutional feature of this institution being, that directly the acrimony of the last election is over, the acrimony of the next one begins; which is an unspeakable comfort to all strong politicians and true lovers of their country: that is to say, to ninety-nine men and boys out of every ninety-nine and a quarter.
The train calls at stations in the woods, where the wild impossibility of anybody having the smallest reason to get out, is only to be equalled by the apparently desperate hopelessness of there being anybody to get in. It rushes across the turnpike road, where there is no gate, no policeman, no signal: nothing but a rough wooden arch, on which is painted 'WHEN THE BELL RINGS, LOOK OUT FOR THE LOCOMOTIVE.' On it whirls headlong, dives through the woods again, emerges in the light, clatters over frail arches, rumbles upon the heavy ground, shoots beneath a wooden bridge which intercepts the light for a second like a wink, suddenly awakens all the slumbering echoes in the main street of a large town, and dashes on haphazard, pell-mell, neck-or-nothing, down the middle of the road. There - with mechanics working at their trades, and people leaning from their doors and windows, and boys flying kites and playing marbles, and men smoking, and women talking, and children crawling, and pigs burrowing, and unaccustomed horses plunging and rearing, close to the very rails - there - on, on, on - tears the mad dragon of an engine with its train of cars; scattering in all directions a shower of burning sparks from its wood fire; screeching, hissing, yelling, panting; until at last the thirsty monster stops beneath a covered way to drink, the people cluster round, and you have time to breathe again.
16. There are several factories in Lowell, each of which belongs to what we should term a Company of Proprietors, but what they call in America a Corporation. I went over several of these; such as a woollen factory, a carpet factory, and a cotton factory: examined them in every part; and saw them in their ordinary working aspect, with no preparation of any kind, or departure from their ordinary everyday proceedings. I may add that I am well acquainted with our manufacturing towns in England, and have visited many mills in Manchester and elsewhere in the same manner.
I happened to arrive at the first factory just as the dinner hour was over, and the girls were returning to their work; indeed the stairs of the mill were thronged with them as I ascended. They were all well dressed, but not to my thinking above their condition; for I like to see the humbler classes of society careful of their dress and appearance, and even, if they please, decorated with such little trinkets as come within the compass of their means. Supposing it confined within reasonable limits, I would always encourage this kind of pride, as a worthy element of self- respect, in any person I employed; and should no more be deterred from doing so, because some wretched female referred her fall to a love of dress, than I would allow my construction of the real intent and meaning of the Sabbath to be influenced by any warning to the well-disposed, founded on his backslidings on that particular day, which might emanate from the rather doubtful authority of a murderer in Newgate.
These girls, as I have said, were all well dressed: and that phrase necessarily includes extreme cleanliness. They had serviceable bonnets, good warm cloaks, and shawls; and were not above clogs and pattens. Moreover, there were places in the mill in which they could deposit these things without injury; and there were conveniences for washing. They were healthy in appearance, many of them remarkably so, and had the manners and deportment of young women: not of degraded brutes of burden. If I had seen in one of those mills (but I did not, though I looked for something of this kind with a sharp eye), the most lisping, mincing, affected, and ridiculous young creature that my imagination could suggest, I should have thought of the careless, moping, slatternly, degraded, dull reverse (I HAVE seen that), and should have been still well pleased to look upon her.
The rooms in which they worked, were as well ordered as themselves. In the windows of some, there were green plants, which were trained to shade the glass; in all, there was as much fresh air, cleanliness, and comfort, as the nature of the occupation would possibly admit of. Out of so large a number of females, many of whom were only then just verging upon womanhood, it may be reasonably supposed that some were delicate and fragile in appearance: no doubt there were. But I solemnly declare, that from all the crowd I saw in the different factories that day, I cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression; not one young girl whom, assuming it to be a matter of necessity that she should gain her daily bread by the labour of her hands, I would have removed from those works if I had had the power.
17. Firstly, there is a joint-stock piano in a great many of the boarding-houses. Secondly, nearly all these young ladies subscribe to circulating libraries. Thirdly, they have got up among themselves a periodical called THE LOWELL OFFERING, 'A repository of original articles, written exclusively by females actively employed in the mills,' - which is duly printed, published, and sold; and whereof I brought away from Lowell four hundred good solid pages, which I have read from beginning to end.
It is their station to work. And they DO work. They labour in these mills, upon an average, twelve hours a day, which is unquestionably work, and pretty tight work too. Perhaps it is above their station to indulge in such amusements, on any terms. Are we quite sure that we in England have not formed our ideas of the 'station' of working people, from accustoming ourselves to the contemplation of that class as they are, and not as they might be? I think that if we examine our own feelings, we shall find that the pianos, and the circulating libraries, and even the Lowell Offering, startle us by their novelty, and not by their bearing upon any abstract question of right or wrong.
For myself, I know no station in which, the occupation of to-day cheerfully done and the occupation of to-morrow cheerfully looked to, any one of these pursuits is not most humanising and laudable. I know no station which is rendered more endurable to the person in it, or more safe to the person out of it, by having ignorance for its associate. I know no station which has a right to monopolise the means of mutual instruction, improvement, and rational entertainment; or which has ever continued to be a station very long, after seeking to do so.
Of the merits of the Lowell Offering as a literary production, I will only observe, putting entirely out of sight the fact of the articles having been written by these girls after the arduous labours of the day, that it will compare advantageously with a great many English Annuals. It is pleasant to find that many of its Tales are of the Mills and of those who work in them; that they inculcate habits of self-denial and contentment, and teach good doctrines of enlarged benevolence. A strong feeling for the beauties of nature, as displayed in the solitudes the writers have left at home, breathes through its pages like wholesome village air; and though a circulating library is a favourable school for the study of such topics, it has very scant allusion to fine clothes, fine marriages, fine houses, or fine life. Some persons might object to the papers being signed occasionally with rather fine names, but this is an American fashion. One of the provinces of the state legislature of Massachusetts is to alter ugly names into pretty ones, as the children improve upon the tastes of their parents. These changes costing little or nothing, scores of Mary Annes are solemnly converted into Bevelinas every session.
It is said that on the occasion of a visit from General Jackson or General Harrison to this town (I forget which, but it is not to the purpose), he walked through three miles and a half of these young ladies all dressed out with parasols and silk stockings. But as I am not aware that any worse consequence ensued, than a sudden looking-up of all the parasols and silk stockings in the market; and perhaps the bankruptcy of some speculative New Englander who bought them all up at any price, in expectation of a demand that never came; I set no great store by the circumstance.
18. To be continued.
Various Notes,
1. Suggests that mental health classes should give students: education on literacy, how to read and write; education on the art of other cultures; on music, classical and jazz; etc.
Added to Notes about Psychiatry.
2. Charles Dickens suggests that you can read, and reread over interesting books or articles, like those contained on this blog, for entertainment!
3. Upon rereading An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, by William Godwin, the paper presented on this blog, I learned that Godwin, "Suggests that the mind is very subtle in its operations." He also, "Briefly discusses political justice," and writes, "Nothing can be more certain than the omnipotence of truth." He also, "Discusses being logical and not eloquent in speech." This information was valuable to learn.
Friday, January 12, 2024
Various Notes,
1. YouTube has videos of people jogging and army marching music.
2. Tba.
Thursday, January 11, 2024
Various Notes,
1. In Louis Armstrong: An American Genius, by James Lincoln Collier, Collier indicates that Louis Armstrong could play a piece by ear better than professional white musicians could play it by reading it on paper. He couldn’t afford to learn like the white musicians, but still he could play better music than most of them.
2. Louis Armstrong also smoked a lot, many people did those days. I learned that another musician who I admire, Nat King Cole, also smoked a lot, and died of cancer in his 40s. I guess this is the tragic element of their lives.
Added to Favorite Notes 2, Item IX.
3. Updated: Notes about Psychiatry,
Item XXI. 1, and XXII. 1.
4. I recently learned reading that actors should get to play the right role for their movies. For example, a kind mother should play a nice mother in a movie, and an intelligent guy should play a college professor in a movie, because it fits their personalities.
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
American Notes for General Circulation, by Charles Dickens,
1. CHAPTER II - THE PASSAGE OUT
2. WE all dined together that day; and a rather formidable party we were: no fewer than eighty-six strong.
3. The vessel being pretty deep in the water, with all her coals on board and so many passengers, and the weather being calm and quiet, there was but little motion; so that before the dinner was half over, even those passengers who were most distrustful of themselves plucked up amazingly; and those who in the morning had returned to the universal question, 'Are you a good sailor?' a very decided negative, now either parried the inquiry with the evasive reply, 'Oh! I suppose I'm no worse than anybody else;' or, reckless of all moral obligations, answered boldly 'Yes:' and with some irritation too, as though they would add, 'I should like to know what you see in ME, sir, particularly, to justify suspicion!'
4. Notwithstanding this high tone of courage and confidence, I could not but observe that very few remained long over their wine; and that everybody had an unusual love of the open air; and that the favourite and most coveted seats were invariably those nearest to the door.
5. Omitted.
6. I had left the door open, a moment before, in the bosom of a gentle declivity, and, when I turned to shut it, it was on the summit of a lofty eminence. Now every plank and timber creaked, as if the ship were made of wicker-work; and now crackled, like an enormous fire of the driest possible twigs. There was nothing for it but bed; so I went to bed.
7. It is the third morning. I am awakened out of my sleep by a dismal shriek from my wife, who demands to know whether there's any danger. I rouse myself, and look out of bed. The water-jug is plunging and leaping like a lively dolphin; all the smaller articles are afloat, except my shoes, which are stranded on a carpet-bag, high and dry, like a couple of coal-barges. Suddenly I see them spring into the air, and behold the looking-glass, which is nailed to the wall, sticking fast upon the ceiling. At the same time the door entirely disappears, and a new one is opened in the floor. Then I begin to comprehend that the state-room is standing on its head. Before it is possible to make any arrangement at all compatible with this novel state of things, the ship rights. Before one can say 'Thank Heaven!' she wrongs again. Before one can cry she IS wrong, she seems to have started forward, and to be a creature actually running of its own accord, with broken knees and failing legs, through every variety of hole and pitfall, and stumbling constantly. Before one can so much as wonder, she takes a high leap into the air. Before she has well done that, she takes a deep dive into the water. Before she has gained the surface, she throws a summerset. The instant she is on her legs, she rushes backward. And so she goes on staggering, heaving, wrestling, leaping, diving, jumping, pitching, throbbing, rolling, and rocking: and going through all these movements, sometimes by turns, and sometimes altogether: until one feels disposed to roar for mercy.
8. A steward passes. 'Steward!' 'Sir?' 'What IS the matter? what DO you call this?' 'Rather a heavy sea on, sir, and a head-wind.'
9. A head-wind! Imagine a human face upon the vessel's prow, with fifteen thousand Samsons in one bent upon driving her back, and hitting her exactly between the eyes whenever she attempts to advance an inch. Imagine the ship herself, with every pulse and artery of her huge body swollen and bursting under this maltreatment, sworn to go on or die. Imagine the wind howling, the sea roaring, the rain beating: all in furious array against her. Picture the sky both dark and wild, and the clouds, in fearful sympathy with the waves, making another ocean in the air. Add to all this, the clattering on deck and down below; the tread of hurried feet; the loud hoarse shouts of seamen; the gurgling in and out of water through the scuppers; with, every now and then, the striking of a heavy sea upon the planks above, with the deep, dead, heavy sound of thunder heard within a vault; - and there is the head-wind of that January morning.
10. I say nothing of what may be called the domestic noises of the ship: such as the breaking of glass and crockery, the tumbling down of stewards, the gambols, overhead, of loose casks and truant dozens of bottled porter, and the very remarkable and far from exhilarating sounds raised in their various state-rooms by the seventy passengers who were too ill to get up to breakfast. I say nothing of them: for although I lay listening to this concert for three or four days, I don't think I heard it for more than a quarter of a minute, at the expiration of which term, I lay down again, excessively sea-sick.
11. Once - once - I found myself on deck. I don't know how I got there, or what possessed me to go there, but there I was; and completely dressed too, with a huge pea-coat on, and a pair of boots such as no weak man in his senses could ever have got into. I found myself standing, when a gleam of consciousness came upon me, holding on to something. I don't know what. I think it was the boatswain: or it may have been the pump: or possibly the cow. I can't say how long I had been there; whether a day or a minute. I recollect trying to think about something (about anything in the whole wide world, I was not particular) without the smallest effect. I could not even make out which was the sea, and which the sky, for the horizon seemed drunk, and was flying wildly about in all directions. Even in that incapable state, however, I recognised the lazy gentleman standing before me: nautically clad in a suit of shaggy blue, with an oilskin hat. But I was too imbecile, although I knew it to be he, to separate him from his dress; and tried to call him, I remember, PILOT. After another interval of total unconsciousness, I found he had gone, and recognised another figure in its place. It seemed to wave and fluctuate before me as though I saw it reflected in an unsteady looking-glass; but I knew it for the captain; and such was the cheerful influence of his face, that I tried to smile: yes, even then I tried to smile. I saw by his gestures that he addressed me; but it was a long time before I could make out that he remonstrated against my standing up to my knees in water - as I was; of course I don't know why. I tried to thank him, but couldn't. I could only point to my boots - or wherever I supposed my boots to be - and say in a plaintive voice, 'Cork soles:' at the same time endeavouring, I am told, to sit down in the pool. Finding that I was quite insensible, and for the time a maniac, he humanely conducted me below.
12. There I remained until I got better: suffering, whenever I was recommended to eat anything, an amount of anguish only second to that which is said to be endured by the apparently drowned, in the process of restoration to life. One gentleman on board had a letter of introduction to me from a mutual friend in London. He sent it below with his card, on the morning of the head-wind; and I was long troubled with the idea that he might be up, and well, and a hundred times a day expecting me to call upon him in the saloon. I imagined him one of those cast-iron images - I will not call them men - who ask, with red faces, and lusty voices, what sea-sickness means, and whether it really is as bad as it is represented to be. This was very torturing indeed; and I don't think I ever felt such perfect gratification and gratitude of heart, as I did when I heard from the ship's doctor that he had been obliged to put a large mustard poultice on this very gentleman's stomach. I date my recovery from the receipt of that intelligence. It was materially assisted though, I have no doubt, by a heavy gale of wind, which came slowly up at sunset, when we were about ten days out, and raged with gradually increasing fury until morning, saving that it lulled for an hour a little before midnight. There was something in the unnatural repose of that hour, and in the after gathering of the storm, so inconceivably awful and tremendous, that its bursting into full violence was almost a relief.
13. And yet, in the very midst of these terrors, I was placed in a situation so exquisitely ridiculous, that even then I had as strong a sense of its absurdity as I have now, and could no more help laughing than I can at any other comical incident, happening under circumstances the most favourable to its enjoyment.
14. When I approached this place with my specific, and was about to administer it with many consolatory expressions to the nearest sufferer, what was my dismay to see them all roll slowly down to the other end! And when I staggered to that end, and held out the glass once more, how immensely baffled were my good intentions by the ship giving another lurch, and their all rolling back again! I suppose I dodged them up and down this sofa for at least a quarter of an hour, without reaching them once; and by the time I did catch them, the brandy-and-water was diminished, by constant spilling, to a teaspoonful. To complete the group, it is necessary to recognise in this disconcerted dodger, an individual very pale from sea- sickness, who had shaved his beard and brushed his hair, last, at Liverpool: and whose only article of dress (linen not included) were a pair of dreadnought trousers; a blue jacket, formerly admired upon the Thames at Richmond; no stockings; and one slipper.
15. Of the outrageous antics performed by that ship next morning; which made bed a practical joke, and getting up, by any process short of falling out, an impossibility; I say nothing. But anything like the utter dreariness and desolation that met my eyes when I literally 'tumbled up' on deck at noon, I never saw. Ocean and sky were all of one dull, heavy, uniform, lead colour. There was no extent of prospect even over the dreary waste that lay around us, for the sea ran high, and the horizon encompassed us like a large black hoop. Viewed from the air, or some tall bluff on shore, it would have been imposing and stupendous, no doubt; but seen from the wet and rolling decks, it only impressed one giddily and painfully. In the gale of last night the life-boat had been crushed by one blow of the sea like a walnut-shell; and there it hung dangling in the air: a mere faggot of crazy boards. The planking of the paddle-boxes had been torn sheer away. The wheels were exposed and bare; and they whirled and dashed their spray about the decks at random. Chimney, white with crusted salt; topmasts struck; storm-sails set; rigging all knotted, tangled, wet, and drooping: a gloomier picture it would be hard to look upon. I was now comfortably established by courtesy in the ladies' cabin, where, besides ourselves, there were only four other passengers. First, the little Scotch lady before mentioned, on her way to join her husband at New York, who had settled there three years before. Secondly and thirdly, an honest young Yorkshireman, connected with some American house; domiciled in that same city, and carrying thither his beautiful young wife to whom he had been married but a fortnight, and who was the fairest specimen of a comely English country girl I have ever seen. Fourthly, fifthly, and lastly, another couple: newly married too, if one might judge from the endearments they frequently interchanged: of whom I know no more than that they were rather a mysterious, run-away kind of couple; that the lady had great personal attractions also; and that the gentleman carried more guns with him than Robinson Crusoe, wore a shooting-coat, and had two great dogs on board. On further consideration, I remember that he tried hot roast pig and bottled ale as a cure for sea-sickness; and that he took these remedies (usually in bed) day after day, with astonishing perseverance. I may add, for the information of the curious, that they decidedly failed.
16. The weather continuing obstinately and almost unprecedentedly bad, we usually straggled into this cabin, more or less faint and miserable, about an hour before noon, and lay down on the sofas to recover; during which interval, the captain would look in to communicate the state of the wind, the moral certainty of its changing to-morrow (the weather is always going to improve to- morrow, at sea), the vessel's rate of sailing, and so forth. Observations there were none to tell us of, for there was no sun to take them by. But a description of one day will serve for all the rest. Here it is.
17. The captain being gone, we compose ourselves to read, if the place be light enough; and if not, we doze and talk alternately. At one, a bell rings, and the stewardess comes down with a steaming dish of baked potatoes, and another of roasted apples; and plates of pig's face, cold ham, salt beef; or perhaps a smoking mess of rare hot collops. We fall to upon these dainties; eat as much as we can (we have great appetites now); and are as long as possible about it. If the fire will burn (it WILL sometimes) we are pretty cheerful. If it won't, we all remark to each other that it's very cold, rub our hands, cover ourselves with coats and cloaks, and lie down again to doze, talk, and read (provided as aforesaid), until dinner-time. At five, another bell rings, and the stewardess reappears with another dish of potatoes - boiled this time - and store of hot meat of various kinds: not forgetting the roast pig, to be taken medicinally. We sit down at table again (rather more cheerfully than before); prolong the meal with a rather mouldy dessert of apples, grapes, and oranges; and drink our wine and brandy-and-water. The bottles and glasses are still upon the table, and the oranges and so forth are rolling about according to their fancy and the ship's way, when the doctor comes down, by special nightly invitation, to join our evening rubber: immediately on whose arrival we make a party at whist, and as it is a rough night and the cards will not lie on the cloth, we put the tricks in our pockets as we take them. At whist we remain with exemplary gravity (deducting a short time for tea and toast) until eleven o'clock, or thereabouts; when the captain comes down again, in a sou'-wester hat tied under his chin, and a pilot-coat: making the ground wet where he stands. By this time the card-playing is over, and the bottles and glasses are again upon the table; and after an hour's pleasant conversation about the ship, the passengers, and things in general, the captain (who never goes to bed, and is never out of humour) turns up his coat collar for the deck again; shakes hands all round; and goes laughing out into the weather as merrily as to a birthday party.
18. As to daily news, there is no dearth of that commodity. This passenger is reported to have lost fourteen pounds at Vingt-et-un in the saloon yesterday; and that passenger drinks his bottle of champagne every day, and how he does it (being only a clerk), nobody knows. The head engineer has distinctly said that there never was such times - meaning weather - and four good hands are ill, and have given in, dead beat. Several berths are full of water, and all the cabins are leaky. The ship's cook, secretly swigging damaged whiskey, has been found drunk; and has been played upon by the fire-engine until quite sober. All the stewards have fallen down-stairs at various dinner-times, and go about with plasters in various places. The baker is ill, and so is the pastry-cook. A new man, horribly indisposed, has been required to fill the place of the latter officer; and has been propped and jammed up with empty casks in a little house upon deck, and commanded to roll out pie-crust, which he protests (being highly bilious) it is death to him to look at. News! A dozen murders on shore would lack the interest of these slight incidents at sea.
19. "...when suddenly the ship struck upon a bank of mud... and much backing of paddles, and heaving of the lead into a constantly decreasing depth of water, we dropped anchor in a strange outlandish-looking nook which nobody on board could recognise, although there was land all about us, and so close that we could plainly see the waving branches of the trees."
20. It was strange enough, in the silence of midnight, and the dead stillness that seemed to be created by the sudden and unexpected stoppage of the engine which had been clanking and blasting in our ears incessantly for so many days, to watch the look of blank astonishment expressed in every face: beginning with the officers, tracing it through all the passengers, and descending to the very stokers and furnacemen, who emerged from below, one by one, and clustered together in a smoky group about the hatchway of the engine-room, comparing notes in whispers. After throwing up a few rockets and firing signal guns in the hope of being hailed from the land, or at least of seeing a light - but without any other sight or sound presenting itself - it was determined to send a boat on shore. It was amusing to observe how very kind some of the passengers were, in volunteering to go ashore in this same boat: for the general good, of course: not by any means because they thought the ship in an unsafe position, or contemplated the possibility of her heeling over in case the tide were running out. Nor was it less amusing to remark how desperately unpopular the poor pilot became in one short minute. He had had his passage out from Liverpool, and during the whole voyage had been quite a notorious character, as a teller of anecdotes and cracker of jokes. Yet here were the very men who had laughed the loudest at his jests, now flourishing their fists in his face, loading him with imprecations, and defying him to his teeth as a villain!
21. The boat soon shoved off, with a lantern and sundry blue lights on board; and in less than an hour returned; the officer in command bringing with him a tolerably tall young tree, which he had plucked up by the roots, to satisfy certain distrustful passengers whose minds misgave them that they were to be imposed upon and shipwrecked, and who would on no other terms believe that he had been ashore, or had done anything but fraudulently row a little way into the mist, specially to deceive them and compass their deaths. Our captain had foreseen from the first that we must be in a place called the Eastern passage; and so we were. It was about the last place in the world in which we had any business or reason to be, but a sudden fog, and some error on the pilot's part, were the cause. We were surrounded by banks, and rocks, and shoals of all kinds, but had happily drifted, it seemed, upon the only safe speck that was to be found thereabouts. Eased by this report, and by the assurance that the tide was past the ebb, we turned in at three o'clock in the morning.
22. I was dressing about half-past nine next day, when the noise above hurried me on deck. When I had left it overnight, it was dark, foggy, and damp, and there were bleak hills all round us. Now, we were gliding down a smooth, broad stream, at the rate of eleven miles an hour: our colours flying gaily; our crew rigged out in their smartest clothes; our officers in uniform again; the sun shining as on a brilliant April day in England; the land stretched out on either side, streaked with light patches of snow; white wooden houses; people at their doors; telegraphs working; flags hoisted; wharfs appearing; ships; quays crowded with people; distant noises; shouts; men and boys running down steep places towards the pier: all more bright and gay and fresh to our unused eyes than words can paint them. We came to a wharf, paved with uplifted faces; got alongside, and were made fast, after some shouting and straining of cables; darted, a score of us along the gangway, almost as soon as it was thrust out to meet us, and before it had reached the ship - and leaped upon the firm glad earth again!
23. The town is built on the side of a hill, the highest point being commanded by a strong fortress, not yet quite finished. Several streets of good breadth and appearance extend from its summit to the water-side, and are intersected by cross streets running parallel with the river. The houses are chiefly of wood. The market is abundantly supplied; and provisions are exceedingly cheap. The weather being unusually mild at that time for the season of the year, there was no sleighing: but there were plenty of those vehicles in yards and by-places, and some of them, from the gorgeous quality of their decorations, might have 'gone on' without alteration as triumphal cars in a melodrama at Astley's. The day was uncommonly fine; the air bracing and healthful; the whole aspect of the town cheerful, thriving, and industrious.
24. The indescribable interest with which I strained my eyes, as the first patches of American soil peeped like molehills from the green sea, and followed them, as they swelled, by slow and almost imperceptible degrees, into a continuous line of coast, can hardly be exaggerated. A sharp keen wind blew dead against us; a hard frost prevailed on shore; and the cold was most severe. Yet the air was so intensely clear, and dry, and bright, that the temperature was not only endurable, but delicious.
25. 'Dinner, if you please,' said I to the waiter. 'When?' said the waiter. 'As quick as possible,' said I. 'Right away?' said the waiter. After a moment's hesitation, I answered 'No,' at hazard. 'NOT right away?' cried the waiter, with an amount of surprise that made me start.
26. The hotel (a very excellent one) is called the Tremont House. It has more galleries, colonnades, piazzas, and passages than I can remember, or the reader would believe.
27. End of chapter. To be continued.
Various Notes,
1. Hotkeys, or Keyboard shortcuts are very popular in Windows, learn some!
2. I’m not sure of the validity of this, but maybe locations can end a drought, and make it rain, by making adults who are 18+ run 🏃, jog for a few minutes for a few days. This is because in the summer when I run 🏃, it consistently causes it to rain a few days afterwards.
3. Pillsbury Cookie Dough, on Parchment paper, on a cookie pan, can be a great way to bake cookies! The parchment paper prevents the dough from sticking to the pan, and all of these ingredients can be found at your local Walmart.
Added to Food Ideas.
3. Updated: Favorite Notes 2.
Monday, January 8, 2024
Various Notes,
1. At all times, I have three different pitchers filled with three different flavors of Kool-Aid (or pre-sweetened drink mix), in my refrigerator, in order to drink an increased variety of liquids!
2. Tba.
Sunday, January 7, 2024
American Notes for General Circulation, by Charles Dickens,
1. Writes, buy all the meat in the store, the sausages, the corned beef, the chicken wings, all the poultry, the pork chops…
2. It’s like, buy all the toys in the store for Christmas presents.
3. As opposed to the Native citizen, who scorns materialism and excess consumer goods, and lives a life with as little as possible, and is focused on religion and spiritual enlightenment.
4. "My own opinion is, that whether one is discreet or indiscreet in these particulars, on the eve of a sea-voyage, is a matter of little consequence; and that, to use a common phrase, 'it comes to very much the same thing in the end.'"
5. Omitted.
6. "And there she is! all eyes are turned to where she lies, dimly discernible through the gathering fog of the early winter afternoon; every finger is pointed in the same direction; and murmurs of interest and admiration - as 'How beautiful she looks!' 'How trim she is!' - are heard on every side."
7. The kind of force that makes, “the lazy gentleman with his hat on one side and his hands in his pockets,” get up and dance with excitement.
8. The kind of force that makes the poorest student in the class the genius of the class.
9. That makes the slowest runner the fastest runner.
10. That makes serious, hardened men, soft, gentle creatures.
11. That makes the person who is constantly late, always early.
12. That makes the person who doesn't like music, a music aficionado.
13. "It is the boat we wait for! That's more to the purpose. The captain appears on the paddle-box with his speaking trumpet; the officers take their stations; all hands are on the alert; the flagging hopes of the passengers revive; the cooks pause in their savoury work, and look out with faces full of interest. The boat comes alongside; the bags are dragged in anyhow, and flung down for the moment anywhere. Three cheers more: and as the first one rings upon our ears, the vessel throbs like a strong giant that has just received the breath of life..."
14. To be continued.
Various Notes,
1. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, taught me that:
A. One of the character's had knowledge about some things, but not about other things.
B. Omitted.
2. Charles Dickens suggests that people should be judged based on their effort and natural talent, instead of otherwise predefined means.
3. Playing the drums, playing a drum beat on the furniture in your home can be rewarding and fun. I learned this reading either Chinua Achebe or Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Saturday, January 6, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Omitted.
2. Omitted.
3. After the Races, a story in Dubliners, by James Joyce gave me a great movie idea! The story is about a time of celebration and victory among friends in Ireland, and the movie could be about the victory and celebration that of a group of friends in America experience, who are involved in organized crime, and are victorious. In the movie, the friends would enjoy lavish food, good clothes, luxurious houses, expensive cars, steady income, and happiness, for years, until the end of their lives. A movie with no conflict, a celebratory movie.
4. Omitted.
Friday, January 5, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Omitted.
2. One author says, "we shouldn’t let a flower pass our eyes without appreciating it."
3. "Helios, the sun god, drove a four-horse chariot across the sky each day, giving the earth its hours and seasons. Each night, with his team and chariot, he boarded a golden ferry to sail home."
Thursday, January 4, 2024
Various Notes,
1. Edited, or arranged numerically, Hip Hop the paper on Book Reviews X: Various.
2. Updated: Notes about Psychiatry, with an item about Philosophical Dictionary, by Voltaire.
3. Added: Items No. 5, 10, 11, & 12 to Hip Hop on Book Reviews X: Various (denoted with an asterisk).
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Philosophical Dictionary, by Voltaire,
1. Persecution: Persecution
2. In this chapter, Voltaire explains the process through which a persecutor persecutes other people, and he cites historical instances when this has happened. He also speaks critically of this behavior.
3. Philosophe: Philosopher
4. Indicates that throughout history, there have been philosophers who have given men examples of virtue and lessons in moral truth.
5. Quotes the sage Confucius in writing,
A. "Regulate a state as you regulate a family; a man can govern his family well only by setting an example."
B. "Virtue must be common to the laborer and the monarch."
C. "Do to others as to yourself."
D. "Love men in general, but cherish those who are good."
6. Peter
7. "Christian society only took shape at about the end of the second century."
8. "As for Peter personally, it must be admitted that Paul was not the only one who was shocked by his behavior...Paul bitterly reproached him for eating forbidden flesh, that is, pork...hare, eel, ixion and griffin."
9. Prejuges: Prejudices
10. "A prejudice is an irrational opinion. Thus throughout the world all sorts of opinions are instilled into children before they are able to use judgement."
11. "In all countries children are taught to acknowledge a god who rewards and avenges; to respect and love their fathers and mothers; to regard theft as a crime..."
12. "There are therefore very good prejudices: they are those ratified by the judgement when one is able to use reason."
13. "When one is twelve one takes these fables for truths, at twenty-one regards them as ingenious allegories."
14. Pretre: Priest
15. Religion
16. "One always begins with the simple, then comes the complex, and by superior enlightenment one often reverts in the end to the simple. Such is the course of human intelligence."
17. "All children see the sky with indifference, but they tremble and hide themselves when it thunders. The first men undoubtedly behaved in the same way. Only philosophers of a sort noticed the movements of the stars, and caused them to be admired and worshipped."
18. "The name Israel translated into Greek can achieve nothing, but pronounce it in Hebrew, with the other words required, and you will operate the conjuration."
19. "After our holy religion, which is undoubtedly the only good one, which would be the least bad? Would it not be the simplest? Would it not be that which taught much morality and very little dogma? that which tended to make men just without making them absurd?...which taught only the worship of one god, justice, tolerance and humanity?"
20. Resurrection
21. "It is said that the Egyptians built their pyramids only to use them as tombs; and that their bodies, embalmed inside and outside, waited for their souls to revive them after a thousand years."
22. "...but we must consider that most of the ancients believed that the soul is in the chest."
23. "In the Acts of the Apostles is recorded a very odd incident...Saint James and several of his companions advised saint Paul, Christian as he was, to go to the temple of Jerusalem to observe the ceremonies of the ancient law..."
24. "The kingdoms of Sidon and Tyre flourished. Surrounded by powerful estates he certainly displayed his intelligence in remaining at peace with all of them. The extreme abundance which enriched his country could have been the fruit only of this profound wisdom..."
25. Omitted.
26. "Can it be believed that an enlightened king compiled a collection of sayings among which there is not one about government, politics, the morals of courtiers, the customs of the court?"
27. "Would he have said that 'the terror of a king is as the roaring of a lion?'"
28. Secte: Sect
29. "Now on what dogma are all minds in accord?...All the philosophers on earth who had a religion said at all times: 'There is a god, and we must be just.' So here we have the universal religion established in all times among all men.
The point on which they all agree is therefore true, and the systems about which they differ are therefore false."
30. "'My sect is the best,' a Brahman told me. But, my friend, if your sect is good, it is necessary; for if it were not absolutely necessary, you must agree that it would be useless; if it is absolutely necessary, it is so to all men."
31. "It has been demonstrated that god spoke to the sybils, for the word sybil means god's council. They must have had long lives, for it is only to be expected that people to whom god speaks should have this privilege. There were twelve of them, for this number is sacred. They had certainly foretold all the events of the world..."
32. Sens commun: Common sense
33. "How can this strange mental disorder come about?" Questions the origin(s) of mental disorders in patients.
Added to Notes about Psychiatry.
34. Songes: Dreams
35. "But all the sense being dead during sleep, how can there be an internal one that is alive? When our eyes no longer see and our ears hear nothing, how do we nevertheless see and hear in our dreams?"
36. Superstition
37. "Protestants regard relics, indulgences, mortifications, prayers for the dead, holy water, and nearly all the rites of the Roman church as superstitious dementia. According to them superstition consists of taking useless practices to be necessary practices."
38. Tolerance: Toleration
39. "What is toleration? It is the prerogative of humanity...let us forgive one another's follies, it is the first law of nature."
40. "Why did Rome tolerate these cults? It was because neither the Egyptians, nor even the Jews, tried to exterminate the ancient religion of the empire."
41. "Dissension is the great evil of mankind, and toleration is its only remedy."
42. Transsubstantiation: Transsubstantiation
43. "Not only a god in bread, but a god in place of bread; a hundred thousand crumbs become in a flash as many gods...whiteness without a white body; roundness without a round body...and contempt in the enemies of the catholic, apostolic and Roman religion..."
44. Tyrannie: Tyranny
45. "The sovereign who knows no laws but his own whim, who seizes the property of his subjects, and who then enlists them to seize that of his neighbors is called a tyrant."
46. "Under which tyranny would you like to live? Under none, but if I had to choose I should detest less the tyranny of one than the tyranny of several... If I have only one despot I can get off by drawing back against the wall when I see him pass...but if there is a company of a hundred despots I am in danger of having to repeat this ceremony a hundred times a day..."
47. The end.
Various Notes
1. Cultural Psychology, included a lesson suggesting that some intellectual concepts are like math, you have to know addition and subtraction before you can understand multiplication and algebra, for example, you have to know how to spell, and then how to compose a persuasive essay before you can write a newspaper article.
2. I was thinking that maybe one reason why I don't sleep so much is because of my fitness level from running, being able to breathe a lot of air, related to the fact that you fall asleep from being almost suffocated or smothered with heavy comforters and lack of fresh air to breathe.
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Various Notes
1. Omitted.
2. Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a popular bodybuilding book!
3. Omitted.
Monday, January 1, 2024 -Happy New Year!
Various Notes
1. Updated: Favorite Notes, Item II. No. 2. - 5.
2. Tba.
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