"[...]a vessel cleaving the dungeon of the waves[...]"
You're Love in the Time of Cholera!
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Like Odysseus in a work of Homer, you demonstrate undying loyalty by
sleeping with as many people as you possibly can. But in your heart you never give
consent! This creates a strange quandary of what love really means to you. On the
one hand, you've loved the same person your whole life, but on the other, your actions
barely speak to this fact. Whatever you do, stick to bottled water. The other stuff
could get you killed.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Never miss a word
You're Infinite Jest!
by David Foster Wallace
While you1 consider yourself2 to be clever,
there are those3 who think you're just full of yourself or, perhaps worse,
playing a joke4 on everyone around you, and yet you are pretty sure that
you really are that brilliant after all, since people would hardly take the time to
get to know you5 if they didn't care very deeply about what you had to
say to them, to wit, about their lives, their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their
drug habits, and of course what videos6 they prefer to watch, since,
after all, your impressive vocabulary and tendency to go on and on7 makes
you seem superior, able to educate them, and really drive a sense of something
ineffable into their measly little skulls while you are not above making a cheap
gag or really going after anyone or anything or telling them about incredible
futures involving tennis, geopolitics, and
1Meaning you personally, not someone like you or your own
personal daddy, for example.
2As well as you can see yourself, which, frankly, may not be that well.
3Though we wouldn't deign to be so peripatetic as to name them here, mind.
4Jokes, though not common in Victorian England, were known to originate
sometime in ancient history, perhaps as early as the time of Babylon, or even before.
It is thought that the history of the joke plays an integral role in the mindset of
the characters depicted here, though you may disagree at this point, in which case I
am facing quite the dilemma in relaying this narrative, no?
5It is rather time consuming, after all.
6Ha!
7and on and on and on...
Take the Book Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid.
You're The Metamorphosis!
by Franz Kafka
Though you think you're in the midst of a dream, the fact of the
matter is that your life has become a nightmare. The nightmare at first seems
horrific to you, but you are slowly able to adjust to the facts of the matter
and settle down and make do with what you've been given. There are those that
would say you're pointless and absurd, but you're really just trying to
demonstrate that people can (and do) adapt to anything, no matter how absurd
it is. Not that this will really inspire them to change, because they probably
don't understand.
Take the Book Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid.
About Me
- Σφιγξ
- possesses wholly unmerited academic pretensions; examines love as an entomologist; collects haunted dollshouses; notes the lunar phase as regularly as the temperature; peruses field guides; reads like a serial magazine subscriptionist; functions through coffee and "mood" music; draws to the very corners of the page; takes notes on unlined paper; reads poetry as prayer; observes textual authority with the incredulity of fiction; suppresses the smart-ass answer(s); adapts as well as anyone beseiged by her own bibelots; she is a sensation seeker in spite of all of this.
15 comments:
This was from Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno series (2008), which was followed by Seduce Me (2010), and Mamma's (2014). I know I was entertained, but how to seduce you? I have said quite a lot, and I know you are opinionated. I decided to stop sending things to your Coulter address because I did not want to be an irritant, and everything bore the impress of what I think you would like. I am off for the next four Saturdays.
The consigned links are here because there is the mundane question of the active voice of whom am I addressing, and then there is the Rock of my pain in times of distress:
Dans la prière de Adon Olam, nous disons: "v'tzur chevli be'eit tsara", souvent traduit par «Rock de mon mal en temps de détresse», ou «chevli» peut être traduit comme «Ma part».
In the prayer of Adon Olam, we say: "v'tzur chevli be'eit tsara", often translated as "Rock of my pain in times of distress", or, 'chevli' can be translated as 'my portion'.
https://context.reverso.net/translation/french-english/de+mon+mal
Rock, or tzur (hei-tzaddi-vav-reish) spelled backwards in Hebrew is willing, reish-vav-tzaddi-hei, which signifies that any immovable position in the human heart can moved.
https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/4014/
A chip of Rock from the sustaining quarry:
https://www.learnhebrewpod.com/jewish-prayers/Tzur-Mishelo
Maoz Tzur, Rock of Ages, predates the Calvinist reworking by Toplady in 1775.
https://books.google.com/books?id=2jdXCGxQOysC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Wisdom+in+the+Hebrew+Alphabet+%22reish%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjYruuysKGGAxWKk4kEHUMCAx44ChDoAXoECAoQAw#v=onepage&q=The%20Wisdom%20in%20the%20Hebrew%20Alphabet%20%22reish%22&f=false
https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-37-years-magrittes-surrealist-masterpiece-still-inspires-at-israel-museum/
https://matzav.com/forest-fire-in-yerushalayim-threatening-israel-museum-now-under-control/
https://books.google.com/books?id=CJP0EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA279&dq=Twelve+Trees+Lewis+%22wandering+salamander%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRsPi7mdGGAxV1JNAFHZ-KDCkQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=Twelve%20Trees%20Lewis%20%22wandering%20salamander%22&f=false
https://geographical.co.uk/wildlife/bird-plane-or-wandering-salamander
https://books.google.com/books?id=vvUJDFxcWeoC&pg=PA74&dq=hebrew+reish&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjNiJ_jsdeGAxVW5MkDHT4lD60Q6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&q=hebrew%20reish%20%22we%20do%20not%20know%20and%20therefore%20cannot%20understand%22&f=false
Exercise 91.
In hindsight, I feel guilty linking to a text with "Judeo-Christian Logic" in the title. The two cannot be joined.
https://books.google.com/books?id=JyAvx7bbpt4C&pg=PA51&dq=reish+rasha&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjB-ujX1fWGAxVSF1kFHe8nCcAQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=reish%20rasha&f=false
The vulnerable windows for me are in a car, when I am slightly out of control and at the mercy of conditions, and then after working late due to an unforeseen event. This entails staying over until 9 or 10 pm, and I come home exhausted and famished. I try to eat better, but it is difficult saying that I need to eat at home, for my health, for my relationship (in the future.)
Going out for cigarettes and not coming back. Quips like this, and others, come out when I feel taken for granted; when I need to be more disciplined with my boundaries with others in order to focus on the important things.
Yes. Seducing you. I have deduced that I am apt to perform acts of service, and I actually do not complain about housework or taking care of my pets (I do it all the time), while I sense that want more of my time.
Quality time as it is currently defined: by our focused retrieval of information, with care taken for the accuracy and presentation of that data, which tells us something new and uplifting about our relationship.
I value your cultivation in everything you do.
I seem flippant referring to New Yorker cartoons or seemingly random associations, but it is helpful for me to spotlight the ironies of life, the Surrealist disruptions that occur to me regularly that cohere into the big meaning.
For instance, I had a patient with aortic stenosis and mild heart failure (LVEF 55-60%), but the decision to leave on his postoperative iv fluid to correct his renal function after being hit with strong antibiotics was the wrong call. His serum creatinine improved 2.35 -> 1.90, but he went into flash pulmonary edema from fluid overload, and his family indicted me with glares for a week while he was on a diuretic drip and 20 L humidified high-flow oxygen. I saw this question about increased afterload with aortic stenosis without regard to ejection fraction in my test prep book the night before working with this patient. When talking to the hospitalist, we both agreed that preventing a further decompensation Of his stage III kidney disease got in the way of considering an incompetent aortic valve with increased left ventricular filling pressures. I shared in this mismanagement with the provider, who trusted my judgment. He had to spend over thirty minutes explaining the mechanism to the family, who were not getting it. I will remember this. He will, too.
Another instance, I went to the Home Depot to buy caulk for the kitchen as a late night project, of cutting out the old, discolored caulk, cleaning it with ethyl alcohol, and gliding the new line of sealant in place with the awkward gun. I bought some other things, but I left the caulk in a bag at the self-checkout at 2127. Monday night, the place closes at 2200. I did not get my caulk, so I returned the next morning, and nothing was found at the counter, and I could not redress my missing caulk with a receipt. I went to the ready-made transaction bin up the street under strong inner guidance, and found the motherload of Arthur C. Clarke, Alastair Reynolds and Dilbert books with a Greenleaf kit for the total exact price of the lost caulk.
The key to assembling these kits is to use clear drying Gorilla glue and an e-Xacto knife. Punch out the wood, carefully, and assemble to satisfaction. The schematic has all the walls floating into place.
http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/dollhouse-kits/greenleaf-village-kit.html
It takes a lot to surprise you. I would be tasked with stepping out of the pod bay-door, and taking you out somewhere nice.
The patient was fine until he was not.
https://www.emra.org/emresident/article/the-crashing-patient-with-critical-aortic-stenosis
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theartstory.org/amp/definition/readymade-and-found-object/
*I sense that [you] want more of my time.
https://images.app.goo.gl/Kn1rRreyVoovTnkdA
https://books.google.com/books/about/Century_Rain.html?id=0Yy9DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://books.google.com/books/about/Rama_Revealed.html?id=5p1JwoGWQkwC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://books.google.com/books/about/2061.html?id=6UwqAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
To be very clear: there is no play of chance. It is all in the hands of Hashem.
Exercise 91.
I read this last night, Artscroll Mesorah's Annotated translation of Rashi's commentary on Tehillim LII (gimel-bet) - Doeg the Edomite informed on the Nob, the City of Priests, as abettors of David. He was envious of the priests's righteousness and enlightened Torah learning, and to advance his position with King Saul by disparaging them and David he slandered them. Saul then asked him to slaughter the priests of Nob.
Resh is the letter of the Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination:
"The Evil Inclination tempts a man to sin in the very area where he excels. Therefore, since David's contemporaries were distinguished in their speech, which were devoted to the study of the Oral Law, their Evil Inclination concentrated his advances on sins of the mouth. The nation succumbed to the temptation and sinned with its tongue. David sought to atone for this transgression by composing Tehillim, songs of praise designed to purge and purify their twisted tongues" (Feuer, Scherman, & Zlotowitz, 1977).
*on Nob, the City of Priests
I went to the lake to swim for an hour with my mother. She called me to tell me that a coworker with advanced adenocarcinoma died last night. She was 66 years old.
At times, I do not know how to approach you. You know about my life, but I am not privy the details of yours because you do not trust me.
My shortcoming in life is being very weak in networking. I would have already had my master's degree, if I improved on this. Against the challenge to meet someone on their level, I keep my own company. Not all the time; the temptation is there not to compete or to participate.
This was salient for me, when I was about to begin my life there in 2003. This was the Poet Laureate, who I should be reading. I liked his work, but it seemed a little threadbare.
https://books.google.com/books?id=_uxrn_B6nQIC&pg=PA37&dq=Billy+Collins+%22Not+Touching%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjr1tvL7ZmIAxWFGlkFHbMTGigQ6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=Billy%20Collins%20%22Not%20Touching%22&f=false
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=179&issue=5&page=7
Post a Comment