June 2008
112 posts
A predictable pattern over the past few days. Energy from about 730-12, decline from 12-14, crash from 14-18, bit of energy from 19-22, then sleep. My plans to return home cancelled.
人民网: 日本仙台纪念鲁迅留学百年 →
“鲁迅是中国文化革命的主将，他不但是伟大的文学家，而且是伟大的思想家和伟大的革命家。鲁迅的骨头是最硬的，他没有丝毫的奴仆和媚骨，这是殖民地半殖民地人民最可宝贵的性格...”
– 毛泽东
Why did the Nazis ban Parsifal?
Lost Soul: Confucianism in Contemporary Chinese... →
Humanity requires narrative to live. The collapse of all traditional forms in the philosophical and literary discussions of the twentieth century with the discussion of power dynamics theoretically destroys the possibility of coherent story telling. The threads are too many and any attempt to pull them together reflects the violent impulse to exert one thread’s power over another. In...
As I’ve read only commentary on NT Wright’s book and not the book itself, comments on this especially appreciated.
Send comments to joel.anselm.dietz@ google’s mail service. Please put your name (or preferred moniker) in the subject header (e.g. “from JFargle”) if you would like me to post comment and my response in this space. Any comment not in this format will be considered private.
Viva la Jefferson
Jefferson cast in marble. His children cast into slavery.
Colonialism seems to have been motivated by paternalistic racial theory, advocating for and believing in the possibility of racial uplift. National Socialism by theories of a master race; ideas of polis derived from the Greeks and concerned primarily with inner unity and cultural output; in a certain sense neo-Classical. Modern theory on the fundamental equality of man as exposited by...
A few interesting debates underway on the inter-web: NT Wright and Neuhaus exchange heated words, the main thrust not stated plainly but a deep divide in political opinion (see First Things); NT seems to see the Euro left social gospel as the kingdom we need to strive for, Neuhaus perhaps half way between Spe Salvi and the dogma of the American right, perhaps afraid to say anything substantial,...
btw last attempt at poem was ‘questions for heidegger,’ inspired by a viewing of the Ister
today cries and whispers and blood (Bergman)
and discreet charm (Bunuel)
Against my doctor’s wishes I return home. The pungent odor of unwashed dishes filled with unfinished meals greets me, as do mottled piles of medicine, wires, clothes and a refrigerator full of nothing. I have not washed the dishes but I have closed the door to the kitchen. I will not move for the remainder of the evening, only rest. At least this is the doctor’s orders.
I...
“Evening haze creeps up hill paths,
I lie in the pavilion overlooking
The...”
– Du Fu
where the river goes i do not know, twisting backwards through time. i see only Apollo’s chords breaking with the day. lusty fires bringing with them the impetus for new creation. karmic wheel spins. thor-like destiny takes triumphant seat. the Hebrew is removed from the epigraph.
is that what the river told you? the rock has need of cuts?
Losing the Mean: China and Credit Cards →
“子之中庸也
君子而時中
小人之中庸也
小人而無忌憚也”
– 中庸
“螽
斯
羽
詵
詵
兮
宜
爾
子
孫
振
振
兮”
– SJ
My company offered to cancel my employment this morning. I gave them a tentative yes. I will come back to the east coast for a few days in July. Hope to see some folks
How do we remember? A sequence of images, distilled and carried to a single moment in time. Is this reality? History? Memory? Now? A thousand cascading dreams, all past moments, within three clicks a snapshot of what was before. And all our present knowledge simply the collection of these Polaroid images, splash of color without connecting ligaments. When the body was torn apart, faced...
Special care but not always competence. That might be my summary of my time here. Often kindness in the form of special loans, including bedclothes from the doctor and a stream of sweets to eat. This morning a bitter feeling. 5:50 wake time seems unnecessarily early.
unfinished poem from digital journal
Ceaselessly the river flows, At times an eddy in the sand, When tears from heaven fall, Upon the common man.
Tender is the stream, Bitter is the taste, Catch them if you fall, Else it all is waste.
Fabricated lies, Still the curtain holds Silver-screen transformation. Fabrication. Death.
Never realized Ran was filmed on the slopes of Fuji.
La Jetee →
CMarker | A.K.
“网友们提出的一些建议、意见，我们是非常关注的。我们强调以人为本、执政为民，因此做事情、做决策，都需要广泛听取人民群众的意见，集中人民群众的智慧。通过互联网来了解民...”
– 胡锦涛
The concert turned out to be a fun affair. Even the elder generation of Japanese are able to play simple clapping games and there was much laughter. No reason for disappointment either, as in the end I was not asked to sing.
I have just been told that the weekly hospital concert is approaching in forty-five minutes and everyone wants to hear the Gai-Jin sing. What will he sing? What will he sing?
“After an initial prodrome of 1-2 weeks, the fatigue of infectious mononucleosis...”
– wiki article on mononucleosis
This really is a prison of sorts. One cannot leave until the doctor gives permission. Mine seems, in typical Japanese governmental fashion, to have no interest in my minor protests, moving forever forward purely on the basis of what he thinks best. A minor assurance.