‘What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? I never know what you are thinking.’ – Eliot, The Waste Land ‘He’s the sort that you never know what he’s thinking’ defines a recognisable character but carries a curious implication. There is a strong suggestion of duplicity, of inner workings at odds with outer show. Even among … Continue reading A penny for them…
Category: MUSINGS ON . . .
occasional effusions on every subject under the sun
Who’s got the idea?
Suppose you catch me at my usual philosophical musing, mooning about and muttering to myself. I chance to say aloud, ‘I wonder when people first developed the idea of language?’ Being a practical sort, you say ‘Come with me. I happen to have brought a time machine and no end of wizard gadgetry, so we … Continue reading Who’s got the idea?
The trees they grow high, the leaves they do grow green: out on a limb with Schopenhauer
Well now. Suppose a leaf comes to consciousness. Does it say, 'I am a leaf'? Looking around, does it say 'I am one leaf among many'? Does it reflect on the fact that the lot of a leaf is to flourish briefly, wither and die, while the tree just keeps on growing, putting out more … Continue reading The trees they grow high, the leaves they do grow green: out on a limb with Schopenhauer
The Real Enemies of the People
‘This Bill requires a referendum to be held on the question of the UK’s continued membership of the European Union (EU) before the end of 2017. It does not contain any requirement for the UK Government to implement the results of the referendum, nor set a time limit by which a vote to leave the … Continue reading The Real Enemies of the People
The Games We Play
Things we do early are of great interest. Where we show a natural propensity to do something - if we seem, so to speak, programmed to do it - the inference is that the behaviour is both ancient (to have become so ingrained) and important (to have persisted so long). The obvious example here is … Continue reading The Games We Play
An Age without a Name, 2: Progress or Digression?
Myths are stories we tell to explain how we see ourselves and our place in the world. One of the dominant myths of the current age is that of progress, which sees the human story as one of continual improvement over time, with that tendency accelerating in recent centuries, particularly the last. (It is worth … Continue reading An Age without a Name, 2: Progress or Digression?
An Age without a Name, 1: adopting the Anthropocene
‘Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! throughout the sensual world proclaim one crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name’ You may have your doubts about the sentiment - a bit juvenile for my taste, but then I am no longer young - but the curious fact is that we … Continue reading An Age without a Name, 1: adopting the Anthropocene
Seeing Better
‘See better, Lear!’ is the admonition Kent gives his King after he has petulantly banished his youngest daughter, Cordelia, because she ‘lacks that glib and oily art’ to flatter him as her false sisters have done. Sight and blindness is a central theme in King Lear, as is its corollary, deception, both of others and … Continue reading Seeing Better
Eastward Reconnoitre, Glorious First of June
In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne, I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were, In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes, Wente wide in this world wondres to here. Actually, I put on shorts and a hat against the strong sun, it being a glorious day, … Continue reading Eastward Reconnoitre, Glorious First of June
Should we talk about Art?
(my thanks to Wayne redhart, whose comments on But is it REAL? Is Art a Joke? Five Funny Things stimulated this response) Let us suppose two people - for ease of storytelling, we’ll make them a man and a woman, though that is not significant. They have become acquainted in the virtual world of social … Continue reading Should we talk about Art?
COMPLEAT TROWZER 