The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays.
Clifford Geertz
Basic Books, Inc., Publishers
NY
1973
Eclecticism is self-defeating, not because there is only one one direction in which it is useful to move; but because there are so many it is necessary to choose.
tyight! Thanks for sharing and making
Inclination of the Needle
(dip of the magnetic needle)
illude
(trick, delude)
illudere
(promising)
illywhacker
(confidence trickster)
Illocution
(an action performed by saying or writing something. promise)
idempotent
( < math. an element of a set which is unchanged in value when operated
on by itself )
idem
( < Latin. ‘same‘ ; French. ‘somme‘ )
idée fixe
( obsession < French lit. ‘fixed idæ‘ )
idée reçue
( generally accepted concept < French lit. ‘received idæ’ )
Thank you Pokey Bear!!
Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum is DENSE and cryptic. Will not be through this one anytime soon.
Had to stop by page 18! mainly because my brain exploded when I read that last quote.
The Pendulum told me that, as everything moved-earth, solar system, nebulae and black holes, all the children of the great cosmic expansion-one single point stood still: a pivot, bolt, or hook around which the universe could move.
It proves the rotation of the earth. Since the point of suspension doesn’t move. p5
By fleeing to another; you cannot escape the revelation of the identical by takeing refuge in the illusion of the multiple.p7
It is as if the progeny of Reason and Enlightenment had been condemned to stand guard forever over the ultimate symbol of Tradition and Wisdom.p8
This catoptric theater was only contrived to take away your identity and make you feel unsure not only of the very objects standing between you and the mirrors.
Then suddenly I saw myself upside down in a mirror.
Intolerable.p13
I was penetrating to the heart of a secret message in the form of a rationalist theatrum.p15
The first Sefirah is Keter, the Crown, the beginning, the primal void. In the beginning He created a point, which became Thought, where all the figures were drawn. He was and was not, He was encompassed in the name yet not encompassed in the name, having as yet no name other than the desire to be called by a name.p18
adj. capable of returning sound; echoing back
n. resonant sound or body
Resonance
prolongation or increase of sound by means of sympathetic vibration
that property of objects having the same vibration frequency that tends to cause them to vibrate in sympathy
Resonator: anything that resounds
American Exceptionalism, as Louis Hartz writes about it, asserts that the U.S. varies qualitatively from other nations. As citizens of the first extended republic, white U.S. men were the first to enjoy nearly universal suffrage; and, also the first to form political parties. As compared to working classes of other countries, the American working class has been politically cautious. For example, the scope of America’s social welfare programs has been distinctly limited.
The U.S. is a paradox of change and continuity. Despite rapid political and economic development, there has been profound resistance to social movements and policies that were typically elicited elsewhere by a dynamic capitalist economy.
The most pervasive explanation for this pattern of development and resistance is that a belief in individual freedom, private enterprise, and republican institutions founded by popular consent has made it difficult for competing collectivist movements and policies to take hold. Hartz frames this as a constraining cultural consensus.
American Exceptionalism: The Consensus Thesis
Starts liberal, stays liberal.
This thesis is rooted in Tocqueville’s discussion of American social relations.
I think there is no other country in the world where there are so few ignorant and so few learned individuals.
Special material conditions, Tocqueville thought, helped produce this result.
Even though a “few great lords” migrated to the thirteen colonies, the soul of America absolutely rejected a territorial [landed] aristocracy.
But social relations and conditions were crucial factors. Even the southern planters lacked the traditional-and inherited-privledges distinguishing aristocrats from commoners, and because their workers were African slaves, the land Master lacked the usual patronage relations aristocrats had with ordinary citizens in Europe.
Tocqueville:
The inhabitants hardly know each other, and each man is ignorant of his nearest neighbor’s history…no man enjoys the influence and respect due a whole life spent publically in doing good deeds.
Americans enjoyed bourgeois liberty, “not the aristocratic freedom of their motherland, but a middle-class and democratic freedom.” (Hartz)
The U.S. had learned to combine liberty and democracy in a manner the French had not. They didn’t suffer a democratic revolution. They all belonged to the middle class. There had been no prolonged struggle to bring down aristocracy.
Americans are… born equal instead of becoming so.
Curious and curiouser.
you’ve heard that, right?
Do you remember Jacob and Esau?
How Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated?
That quintessential golden child and magical child.
Arch.
Jacob and Esau are both parts comprising Alice Ladder.
But, Alice Ladder does not reduce to the sum of her parts.
Alice Ladder is greater than the sum of her parts. constituency.
Did anyone tell Jacob and Esau that they were two sides of one coin?
Janus.
Bachus.
guarding the present now from the encroachment of past and/or future.
God/dess of doors.
Persephone
God/dess of staircases.
Someone let that poor girl out of the basement.
It’s the time of the season they let her out, right?
Scoop and abscond.
We have many more blind spots than the vehicles we proudly drive
It’s stupid, actually,
Kinda funny.
Like when people fall down.
Highlarious, I don’t care who ya are!
Bipedal locomotion is not the most efficient in terms of energy expenditure.
That really comes through when we fall down.
Just a bunch of stupid, lovesome monkies!
The question insisted on itself a little over 10 years.
Why do I do the things I do?
Why do I do anything?
Do I really know, moment to moment?
Am I just a meatbag at the end? Consume, reproduce, sleep?
What is my motivation to action?
My action under intent?
I could not say then. It was quite alarming to realize. 22 years of acting per the ways one should act.
I still don’t know (don’t contractions make confessional narrator’s sound so much more natural-less like a prick).
I believe the question is worthwhile for all us h. sapiens.
The question in my mind’s eye, by dint of everyone else’s minds’ eyes, is:
Do I need to be brought to heel? Or, is that what others believe should happen.
Beheeled?
When does anyone cross the line separating contribution from domination (or isolation)?
How do we know if our actions end up hurting people? Really, though. Do we / can we care? Is caring creepy nowadays? Rhetorical, and or to be discussed without me. Philosophical systems of morality bumm me out.
Maybe we should answer those questions ourselves and then compare answers. Not the other way around.
No, I don’t really think we can hate anybody.
Least of all ourselves.
Myself is the continuous thread which I may pull,
said Alice Ladder.
Yes.
I did think everyone hated me. I absconded to lonliness.
I did not know it. Could not dig it.
I let it hurt. Ha! I’m a dummy; that is how we do.
The way we get by.
That’s what it is.
Then, I did not feel it.
Isn’t that wild?
I’ve been considering errors in my judgement.
Error. Judge. Does not compute.
Try. How could I try harder? What did the recent “Tries” teach me? How can I use that feedback for my future “Tries?”
After failing, how long did it take me to be able to Iaugh at myself?
I’m effing funny as hell, so not too long. Hopefully.
Silence reduces, extrapolates,
assumes
You and everyone else knows what I might know.
I assumed no one knew my mind. or what it sees.
Before that, I thought my mind and vision were identical to everyone’s.
Unashamed of naivety.
I have rushed at folks, like a real nut, to try to speak it aloud.
Indicate it. You can indicate anything you want.
Shocker (not The shocker).
What I now know is that I know very little.
Groups, collectively, know much.
The appearance of secrets is sometimes more alarming than the secret itself.
People and folks are not different from me, us, and ya’ll-
Specifically, ya’ll privileged.
Us privileged;
NOT entitled.
Life is a dream of a game, but, yet; it’s not such to everyone.
emic. etic.
micro. macro.
Everyone is much more like you than you may think.
So, yeah, you, me, we, us, are NOT special.
Once we stop fretting about being what we cannot be,
we feel special
we feel alive and authentic.
I oscillate between cold-eye wolf stares;
wide-eyed, full of light, terror.
Complete absurdity (shit be funny. re: people falling down).
and curiosity.
and I remain open to be corrected; and,
have only headbutted a few people this week. improvement!
ai’dil ; I’dyl
a short poem; especially a short and highly wrought descriptive poem.
Loosely, a more extended descriptive or narrative poem, picturing chivalric life; as, Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King”
idyll
idyllist
idyllic: of or pertaining to the idyl;
having the essential qualities of an idyl or pastoral poem
(NOT Idol ; Idol ; Idle)
write moves to writhe
with the addition of one [ h ]
knickreads.
write is reduced to Base law without [ e ]
(e is sometimes but not always redundant)
write is a memory if [ o ] slides where [ i ] was…
Wild. Feral. Lovesome.
Pierce.
Desperation ala denial.
Wicked shadow integration.
soft all-cotton ropes
Obsequious ? !
Latin: obsequiosus, < obsequor, follow
syn: attentive, compliant, (cringing), deferential, fawning, flattering, obedient, servile, (slavish), submissive, sychophantic
See: BASE; SUPPLE
Syc(h)ophantical [Theater]
a. Of or pertaining to a sychophant; Servile
syc(h)ophant: 1. to Act the Part of a sycophant. 2. to Play the sycophant
effing idiots will never dig it;
yet, Blind Men Can See It.
But I’m the dummy, see (c).
obsequious is too.
not kind.
obeisance
an act of courtesy or reverence, consisting of bowing or bending of the knee;
(see BALLET aka stand on your toes)
a bow or courtesy; homage
(See CURTSY ; PLIE)
French: obéissance, < Obèir, OBEY
The Troubadour remembers obeisance,
disavows Obsequious as wanton manipulation of the lowest order
She takes up Prettyfication as purification.
Beauty transmutes through effort under intent.
No trick, no prestige, no prevarication,
perhaps, just a little, procrastination.
restrain to stimulate
stimulate thru restrained refrains
votary?
vassal?
this mess we are (all) in.
rendering obeisance to the shrine.
you hope.
that unicorn come like inside your favorite pedal.
knickreads.
WROUGHT: of Work (verb): now archaic except in the senses of to effect, and to work into shape.
wrought iron
wrought iron casting
excited
SUPPLE: to render or become pliant, yielding, or docile.
easily bent; flexible; pliant;
as, a supple bow
yielding to the humor or wishes of others
Syn: compliant, elastic, fawning, flexible, limber, lissom, lithe, lithesome, yielding
Knick reads;
and,
I
am still inexorably supple.
Inscenced not indignant.
Indignity nonetheless.
Bemused not befuddled.
Bespoke not beholden.
Beloved not betrothed.
Vouchsafed by dint of condescension.
I am howling.
Interference for interference sake.
It’s raining, so I bought three pens for two dollars and ninety nine cents before tax.
What surprises Them about me, breaks my dummy heart.
I smile unconciously.
Caseface as Britt said back when we are all servers,
going home at night to the Isleland of Misfit toys.
And how my upper lift now curls upward.
trembling and pulsing up and down over white teeth.
A wolf’s mouth starting to growl.
Starting again to howl.
Fear? nah. maybe.
replete
the timbre was ash and cherry.
Cinnamon and cheesecloth.
Poetry is everywhere and we’re the only ones who can see it?
But then I read what I’ve written and its just word lists.
no pomp puffery, no pithy trick for the wolves playing sheep.
so I show it to you.
Why?
Cuz I’ve Written it regardless, despite, in spite of everyone and everything.
But, really, simply because you asked.
And I looked at you hard and cold.
the lip recovers my teeth.
my brow unfurrows.
infinitely written meets unwriteable.
effing idiots will never get it, will they?
Isn’t that wild?
Casey is to cagey
as ca8ey is to teak.
before I was me, ‘suppose I was a tree.
Teak: (Tectona grandis) tree of the vervain family, yielding durable timber/timbre highly prized for
ship=building [ < Malayalam tekka, teak.]
Nevermind that middle derivation.
Don’t remember that one, but don’t wanna go that way, said Alice Ladder.
i.e. word nonsense
can’t type it.
que ridiculoso.
What is renter insurance? by Casey Adams https://www.quora.com/What-is-renter-insurance-1/answer/Casey-Adams-78?ch=99&share=552038f8&srid=CWTwk
Easy and quick
Know your policy.
Anon, anon.
tried to guess different ways to write it.
she’s cagey!
There was still plenty of food and fuel and so on for all the the human beings on the planet, as numerous as they had become, but millions upon milions of them were starving to death now.
And this famine was as purely a product of oversized brains as Beethoven’s Symphony.
It was all in people’s heads. People had simply changed their opinions of paper wealth, but, for all practical purposes, the planet might as well have been knocked out of orbit by a meteor the size of Luxembourg.
The financial crisis was simply the latest in a series of murderous 21st century catastrophes which had originated entirely in human brains.
More and more humans were saying that their brains were irresponsible, unreliable, hideously dangerous, wholly unrealistic— were simply no damn good.
Kurt Vonnegut. Galàpagos. 1999
Embodying an absolute moral ethos, “Americanism,” once it is driven onto the world stage by events, is inspired willy-nilly to reconstruct the very alien things it tries to avoid. Its Messianism is the polar counterpart of its isolation. Americans seem to oscillate between fleeing from the rest of the world and embracing it with too ardent a passion. An absolute national morality is inspired to withdraw from “alien” things or to transform them-It cannot live in comfort constantly by their side.
Louis Hartz. American Exceptionalism. 1955.
Thoughts are with those hurting tonight after the violent events.
Let’s try harder to do better.
No rights, just homage
Live version of a song (if memory served) was not her fave.
A little corny? maybe.
Not here.
Just wait til she sings harmony with the guitar lead.
Wild!
Conviviality: C17 from Latin convivialis “a feast”
“fit for a feast”
(of an atmosphere or event) friendly, lively, enjoyable
potential. hy/Poten/use
potentiate
potent. pot. Portia (circa Antigone)
portent (n) ; portend (vb)
– portentious
port
porter
Deceit…. disgust
Conceit…. disguise. (dis/g -)
Receipt… despise
(- cei/P/t)
DISAMBIGUATION
Pretext: ostensible reason (false) used to justify an action.
Pretense: act of pretending, false ambitions / claim
Pretend: imaginative same / fantasy
Pretension: claim of aspiration to something pretentious
Pretentious: attempting to impress with falsehood
Prevaricate: act or speak in an evasive way
Prima facie: (law) at first sight [ / site / cite]; accepted as so until proven otherwise
The Old English spelling of pretty = prættig, meaning
‘cunning or crafty’ coming as it did from a West Germanic base meaning
‘trick’.
By the Middle Ages, pretty had come to mean ‘clever, skilful, or ingenuious’.
The sense development [ deceitful, cunning, clever, skilful, admirable, pleasing, attractive ] has parallels in adjectives such as nice.
PRETTY
1. attractive in a delicate way, without being truly* (common) * beautiful. *author’s change*
2. used ironically to express displeasure: fairly ; trinket ; (used condescendingly) attractive person.
Pretty is to prevericate in order to increase Prestige?
A pretty face is a prentious face?
Pretty is pretension?
Beauty is.
Is being pretty pretentious? or prestigous?
The pretension of the face being ‘pretty’ was pretentious?
Pretty is prevarication to gain? [Prevaricate and procrastinate have similar but not identical meanings.
Prevaricate means ‘act or speak in an evasive way’.
Procrastinate, on the other hand, means ‘put off doing something’.
Prestigious.
A face being pretty is a pretension.
That’s beautiful, that is, Pretty!
PRESTIGE entered English in the mid 17th century (tricksy, cuz it means the 1600’s) from French, and ultimately derives from the Latin plural noun praestigiae ‘conjuring tricks’.
It took on its modern meaning in the 19th century (the 1800’s) by way of the sense ‘dazzling influence, glamo/u/r’, which at first [only] had a derogatory implication.
Aren’t we beautiful, Pretties?!
Extra Credit: speak the 17 words below aloud. Wild right? They kinda stopped making sense after a while. Lovesome.
Pretty ; Prettify ; Prettifies ; Prettifying
Prettified ; Prettification ; Prettifier ;
Prettier ; Prettiest ; Prettyish. . . . . Prettyboy.
Prettily ; Prettiness ; Prettyish ;
Pretties.
Prettied.
Prettying.
* Knock Knock…Orange… Orange you glad the other (stars) astericks didn’t make you scroll all the effing way down here? Hyuck.
I. All words cited from OED Concise (pic below-citations take forever)
II. All 17 “Pretty” derivations were taken from 3 dictionaries.
I did not know about James Brown.
Ha! I believed it was sexy-good-time music: good beat; easy to dance to.
It is.
It is also so much more.
Powerful medicine. I compiled a list of tracks to hike to.
Thought I’d share. Will continue to update as I find more.
It’s all good for productivity.
So take a walk, guys.
or destress and jam this when you carry wood (work).
Because like a ball on the bound,
you’ve got to get down, down, down!
Talking Loud and Saying Nothing. 1972. There It Is.
Blind Man Can See It. extended cut. bonus track. Jungle Groove.
Soul Power. 1971. “12 inch long version”
The Good Foot. Pts I & II.Mind Power. 1973Cold Sweat. 1967
Bonus points:
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
16 June 1972 (released).
8 November 1971 to 4 February 1972 (recorded)
Side 1
2nd track
cheers.
WrittenCasey 