[lit-ideas] Re: New Program in Psychoanalysis and Culture
- From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:37:59 -0230
Providing denotative referents in illustration of one's understanding of the
meaning of a word does not validate that prior understanding. One may continue
to misunderstand the word even while successfully offering examples of what one
believes the word to mean. We must seek higher sources of semantic authority to
settle our dispute. Suggestions much appreciated.
From his sun-splashed deck by the crystal blue Atlantic ocean,
Walter O.
Quoting Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>:
> >>I respectfully submit that first, it is not possible to "waft"
> between two notions, statements, women, religions, traffic lanes, etc..
>
>
> Gotta disagree, Walter. "Wobbling and wafting between two notions"
> implies an indecision in foreground/background relationships.
>
> Consider the Escher print of angels/devils or the goblet/two profiles
> diagram. I may choose to foreground one way of considering a topic and
> background the rest, only to realize that my decision is arbitrary.
>
> Is "belief" a pure concept or is it a physical operation of the brain?
> Both obviously. Yet one may waft and wobble between foregrounding one
> and backgrounding the other. One is carried along by the wind of nous or
> of one's personal endowments. Below, Wally seems to agree.
>
> Eric
>
> _____
>
> "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
> by Wallace Stevens
>
> I
> Among twenty snowy mountains,
> The only moving thing
> Was the eye of the blackbird.
>
> II
> I was of three minds,
> Like a tree
> In which there are three blackbirds.
>
> III
> The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
> It was a small part of the pantomime.
>
> IV
> A man and a woman
> Are one.
> A man and a woman and a blackbird
> Are one.
>
> V
> I do not know which to prefer,
> The beauty of inflections
> Or the beauty of innuendoes,
> The blackbird whistling
> Or just after.
>
> VI
> Icicles filled the long window
> With barbaric glass.
> The shadow of the blackbird
> Crossed it, to and fro.
> The mood
> Traced in the shadow
> An indecipherable cause.
>
> VII
> O thin men of Haddam,
> Why do you imagine golden birds?
> Do you not see how the blackbird
> Walks around the feet
> Of the women about you?
>
> VIII
> I know noble accents
> And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
> But I know, too,
> That the blackbird is involved
> In what I know.
>
> IX
> When the blackbird flew out of sight,
> It marked the edge
> Of one of many circles.
>
> X
> At the sight of blackbirds
> Flying in a green light,
> Even the bawds of euphony
> Would cry out sharply.
>
> XI
> He rode over Connecticut
> In a glass coach.
> Once, a fear pierced him,
> In that he mistook
> The shadow of his equipage
> For blackbirds.
>
> XII
> The river is moving.
> The blackbird must be flying.
>
> XIII
> It was evening all afternoon.
> It was snowing
> And it was going to snow.
> The blackbird sat
> In the cedar-limbs.
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