Thursday, March 31, 2011

Cheated out of our understandings


Ward Farnsworth gives as one of his examples of conduplicatio this extract from Webster's Senate speech against President Andrew Jackson's removal of the deposits from the Bank of the United States: "Sir, I pronounce the author of such sentiments to be guilty of attempting a detestable fraud on the community; a double fraud; a fraud which is to cheat men out of their property, and out of the earnings of their labor, by first cheating them out of their understandings."

The corporate world seems often to operate on the basis of this species of fraud, and the principal tool employed to cheat managers and governance committees of their understandings is the Powerpoint presentation, and the major culprit is the mode of thought engendered by bullet points. Richard Feynman noticed this when he participated in the investigation of the Challenger space shuttle accident.


"Then we learned about “bullets” – little black circles in front of phrases that were supposed to summarize things. There was one after another of these little goddamn bullets in our briefing books and on the slides."

Webster went on express his faith that his fellow citizens would never sink to being deluded by abominable frauds and so far cease to be men ... "Sir, it shall not be till the last moment of my existence - it shall be only when I am drawn to the verge of oblivion - hen I shall cease to have respect or affection for any thing on earth - that I will believe the people of the United States capable of being effectually deluded, cajoled, and driven about in herds, by such abominable frauds as this. If they shall sink to that point - if they so far cease to be men - thinking men, intelligent men - as to yield to such pretences and such clamour, they will be slaves already; slaves to their own passions - slaves to the fraud and knavery of pretended friends. They will deserve to be blotted out of all the records of freedom; they ought not to dishonour the cause of republican liberty, if they are capable of being the victims of artifices so shallow - of tricks so stale, so threadbare, so often practised, so much worn out, on serfs and slaves."

And yet the shallow artifices seem to flourish and thrive, and what is more: generate substantial revenue.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Moreau exhibition


I've just been to the Moreau exhibition at NGV. Parallels with Cavafy struck me: a somewhat reclusive person who had a deep fascination with sexuality, and who found a way to express the personal relevance of classical stories through distinctive reworkings. The Symbolist common ground with Vrubel was immediately apparent. The blurred violence of one picture of a decpaitated John the Baptist looked like something from Francis Bacon.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Recognition's curse


"One comes back to the thought that every recognition (with very rare exceptions) should make one mistrustful of one's own work. Basically, if it is good, one can't live to see it recognized: otherwise it's just half good and not heedless enough ... " Rilke, letter 16 October 1907

Bunting in a crossed out notebook entry wrote "The scholar ought to be like the poet, an Ishmael, scouted and feared" ... Wild Ishmael, scornful Ishmael (Milton)

Life over Art

"You know how much more remarkable I always find the people walking about in front of paintings than the paintings themselves" - Rilke, 7 October 1907

Friday, March 4, 2011

The calm of passions habitually appeased


"Dans leurs regards indifférents flottait la quiétude de passions journellement assouvies" - "In their coolly glancing eyes lingered the calm of passions habitually appeased." (p.48)

This is a succinct depiction of that possibly indefinable air of success - whether it be in terms of wealth or love or a happy lofe -that some people carry, as opposed to the pent-up frustrations and disappointments of so much of the population.