An article by Borges in defence of Bouvard and Pecuchet, written in 1954 seeks to answer some of the criticisms levelled against that magnificent work. I personally have a feeling that my almost reverent appraisal of that work has got something to do with a faint foreboding I have always carried with in me. It is like, I always tend to repeat to myself in moments solitude - That one either has to be born a genius to change the world or stupid enough to swallow whatever is. I don't belong to the former, so my lot is to swallow, however bitter whatever...
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
And the Scheme of Things...
Indian people are inclined to consider the universal seriously in expressing their ideas of things. This can be easily seen in the fact of their verbal usage in which they have so great an inclination to use abstract nouns. In Sanskrit, an abstract noun is formed by adding -ta function doPopup(windowTitle, windowUrl, windowFeatures) { var popupWindow; windowUrl='nlReader.dll?BookID=39028&FileName='+windowUrl; popupWindow=window.open(windowUrl,windowTitle,windowFeatures); if( window.focus )...
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Just so that....
..you don't miss it, there is an insightful article here on The Guardian. Author mulls at length over the eroding barriers of fact and fiction which raises serious concerns. The seminal point is ' entertainment history is now the main source of supposedly historical knowledge for more and more people', and that is reason for far reaching consequences. The example he cites is the best in this regard: the movie 'The Da Vinci Code'. We are on a strange path indeed. Where, alas, is this species heading? Read it.WikipediaWictionaryChambers (UK)Google...
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
I have always imagined....
....that Paradise will be a kind of library -- Jorge Luis Borges------------------------------------------------------------------------THEODOTUS (on the steps, with uplifted arms). Horror unspeakable! Woe, alas! Help!RUFIO. What now?CAESAR (frowning). Who is slain?THEODOTUS. Slain! Oh, worse than the death of ten thousand men! Loss irreparable to mankind!RUFIO. What has happened, man?THEODOTUS (rushing down the hall between them). The fire has spread...
Friday, April 3, 2009
Of Other Reasons
Phaedr. I should like to know, Socrates, whether the place is not somewhere here at which Boreas is said to have carried off Orithyia from the banks of the Ilissus?Soc. Such is the tradition.Phaedr. And is this the exact spot? The little stream is delightfully clear and bright; I can fancy that there might be maidens playing near.Soc. I believe that the spot is not exactly here, but about a quarter of a mile lower down, where you cross to the temple of Artemis, and there is, I think, some sort of an altar of Boreas at the place.Phaedr. I have never...
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Title Submerged by the Text that Followed
"The dreaming collective knows no history. Events pass before it as always identical and always new. The sensation of the newest and most modern is, in fact, as much a dream formation of events as the "eternal return of the same". The perception of space that corresponds to this perception of time is superposition. Now, as these formations dissolve within the enlightened consciousness, political-theological categories arise to take their place. And it is only within the purview of these categories, which bring the flow of events to a standstill,...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Weltschmerz - Possibilities to Dodge?
Dawn - Kayhan Kalhor & Shujaat Hussain KhanBut we, when moved by deep feeling, evaporate; webreathe ourselves out and away; from moment to momentour emotion grows fainter, like a perfume. Though someone may tell us:"Yes, you've entered my bloodstream, the room,the whole springtimeis filled with you . . . "--what does it matter? he can't contain us,we vanish inside him and around him. And those who are beautiful,oh who can retain them? Appearance...
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Arbeit Macht Frei
To move one's fingers, to lift the eye lids, to pick words and to be, in order to write about what is happening in Gaza is an absurdity. Absolutely. To speak about it is to acknowledge to oneself that Gaza as a geographical entity exists, it is populated, populated by human beings, they too eat, sleep, and give birth. No. It's the avalanche of temptation one has to learn to resist. One has to learn to erase. No. One has to learn to stop learning. One has to learn from them, the miraculous way in which they have forgotten EVERYTHING, they who have...