Well, and if you were in utter darkness and heard someone whistle a few bars, the merest snatch of music - would your heart not lift? Your world would be transformed.
Category: MUSINGS ON . . .
occasional effusions on every subject under the sun
‘Is there light in Gorias?’ – reflections on metaphor and truth
‘Metaphor: a figure of speech by which a thing is spoken of as being that which it only resembles, as when a ferocious person is called a tiger‘ – Chambers Dictionary Saddling metaphor with a definition like that (which is typical, even down to the threadbare example) is akin to giving it a criminal record … Continue reading ‘Is there light in Gorias?’ – reflections on metaphor and truth
City of Desolation, Chapter 21: Across the Abyss
Jake's attempt to cross the nightmare bridge began badly and soon got worse. So steep was the initial descent that the only way to do it was to clamber down ladder-fashion,using the wooden slats as rungs. Unfortunately, the slats were too wide to grip easily with his hands, while the gaps between them were too … Continue reading City of Desolation, Chapter 21: Across the Abyss
Can you be offside in chess?
(The Football Players by Henri Rousseau) Two people are arguing; one insists that you can score a drop goal in football, the other that you can’t. Eventually it emerges that the first is talking about rugby football, gaelic football and Australian rules; but the other means only association football. So who is right? Once we … Continue reading Can you be offside in chess?
Four Myths
(picture: 'la reve' by Henri Rousseau, Museum of Modern Art, NY)I have touched elsewhere on our ambivalence about stories and story-related words, in particular that we use a range of them as synonyms for lying and falsehood. The word ‘myth’ falls into the same category, except that its case is perhaps more extreme: for the majority … Continue reading Four Myths
One way of thinking about it
For some time now I have been trying to pin down a thing that troubles me about language - to be exact, the relation between its literary form and speech, and my sense that our perception of how they stand to one another is out of kilter.Here’s a way of thinking about it that occurred … Continue reading One way of thinking about it
Saddle Mystery Solved?
Well, maybe... This is an interesting lesson in communication - how can you receive a clear and definitive answer to a question and still doubt whether your question has been answered at all? In the summer, as detailed here, I bought a handsome but anonymous saddle on eBay. Then the other day I came across … Continue reading Saddle Mystery Solved?
Means and ends, motes and beams
‘O wad some power the giftie gie ustae see oursels as ithers see us!it wad frae mony a blunder free us,an foolish notion.’- Burns, ‘to a Louse’The end does not justify the means: you may not do evil that good might come; you may not violate your principles in defence of them. If I had … Continue reading Means and ends, motes and beams
Head and Heart (1)
A thought about therapy in relation to art and music struck me after listening to James Rhodes in a TV programme, Notes from the Inside, in which he - a classical pianist and former psychiatric patient - takes a grand piano into a psychiatric hospital to play pieces he hopes will resonate with patients: calling … Continue reading Head and Heart (1)
The Perils of the Plotted Path: a fable
Let suppose a man or woman who, out walking, comes on a formidable crag and has the impulse to climb - not to get anywhere, but just for the joy of the thing. Without even a brief survey of a likely route - since as yet there is no intention beyond just climbing - the … Continue reading The Perils of the Plotted Path: a fable
COMPLEAT TROWZER 