[lit-ideas] Wittgenstein's Ladder
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 19:38:05 EST
6.54 My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who
understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used
them - as steps - to climb up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away
the
ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions,
and then he will see the world aright.
----
Santa Maria della Scala
Opera started as a 'counter-reformation' thing. It was anti-Papal, although
it did become fashionable with the Roman classes too. The Roman opera was
distinguished by the use of 'castrati' (or emasculated). The reason was
religious, rather than musical. "Women should not be allowed on the stage", the
Pope
had said. But the scores demanded a high pitch. The result is Farinelli.
R. Paul:
>if he did so he'd surely be struck with
>Treppenwitz, or l'esprit de l'escalier
-- What _is_ a stairway?
Does Nature provide for them?
Did the Romans use 'stairways', as we know them? Yes, they did. They called
it 'scala' (literally, a ladder). The most famous one being perhaps the one
which The Virgin Mary used to ascend Heaven.
The Italians worship this Virgin, and many churches in Italy bear the name.
The most famous perhaps being on Strada Regia, in Milano.
"A beautiful little church, of red stone"
P. Hoare, "Travels in Lombardy".
--- When opera became fashionable, it was thought that the place should be
deconsecrated and demolished to give way to the now celebrated, "Teatro alla
Scala".
Geary thought for ages the 'scales' ('scale' in Italian, plural) referred to
the 'blooming' stairs up the first floor.
The idea of a 'scala' should not be confused with the 'ascensorium' of the
Romans. When Aelfric translated his Glossay he has
ascensorium = stæer.
But stairwit doesn't do it for me.
Cheers,
JL
---
L'esprit d'escalier (literally, stairway wit) is a French term used in
English that describes the predicament of thinking of the right comeback too
late.
Originally a witticism of Denis Diderot, the French encyclopedist, in his
Paradoxe sur le Comédien (1769) The German term is old, but it was made popular
by W. Lewis Hertslet, who published his book in 1882 entitled Treppenwitz der
Weltgeschichte.
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