tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post6449416707660550495..comments2024-02-25T01:48:45.848-07:00Comments on Mr. Center's Wall: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana III -- chapter 2: I AM A BURNING LOGJoseph Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00090686611405364311noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-39085500588022220382011-03-17T18:56:56.299-06:002011-03-17T18:56:56.299-06:00LOLLOLJameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11708022607046379611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-42518159369759670972011-03-16T17:24:03.079-06:002011-03-16T17:24:03.079-06:00Jack of all trades master of.... wait....
Thos...Jack of all trades master of.... wait.... <br /><br />Those who can't do tea--<br /><br />No.<br /><br />I can do anything! Yes. That's it!Joseph Centerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00090686611405364311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-49419181823945770862011-03-16T16:25:58.791-06:002011-03-16T16:25:58.791-06:00Ahh, come on, you don't have to study philosop...Ahh, come on, you don't have to study philosophy! I'm all for amateurism in every field. It shows that diplomas are really just pieces of paper.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11708022607046379611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-803874101055547392011-03-15T22:10:52.650-06:002011-03-15T22:10:52.650-06:0011. I think your philosophy studies suit you bett...11. I think your philosophy studies suit you better for full discussion on this than what I'm prepared for. I think you're right, by the way.Joseph Centerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00090686611405364311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-72839013904402720832011-03-15T22:09:34.277-06:002011-03-15T22:09:34.277-06:005. No worries! I just didn't recognize the r...5. No worries! I just didn't recognize the reference. The words are indeed essentially parallel, and I'm all for variations of translations, if my collection of Dante is any evidence. The original seems so often to lie between the translations -- kinda like the jazz quarter tone (between 3rd and m3rd) derived from the African pentatonic scales, which we can't play, so we just push the third and its minor simultaneously.<br /><br />Hmm.... Sorry.<br /><br />7. Agreed.<br />11.Joseph Centerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00090686611405364311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-56214422858436396692011-03-15T20:13:49.761-06:002011-03-15T20:13:49.761-06:005. Ahh sorry, I've grown up on the NRSV. Dark...5. Ahh sorry, I've grown up on the NRSV. Darkly/dimly mean pretty much the same thing in this context, though, I think. <br />7. Yeah, I think that's right, except it's really not so blissful because there are a lot of things that he would like to know that he can't, which is sort of like Adam and Eve. <br />11. The thing is... morals consist of two parts. One is the intention of the actor. The other is the expectation of society. I think that someone who kills 30 people even unwittingly still commits an immoral act by the standards of the society. So it might not be right to call him amoral because what he does will have a real impact upon those around him, but at the same time, he himself does not understand morality. So to me at least it's a very odd between state.<br /><br />Your comment was actually probably what made me think of it.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11708022607046379611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-873944227036769352011-03-15T19:19:27.778-06:002011-03-15T19:19:27.778-06:003 – I wonder if might have intended that. That’s ...3 – I wonder if might have intended that. That’s a really good point.<br />4 – If it’s autobiographical, it’s not quite as transparent as, oh, say “Beatrice and Virgil.”<br />5 – I had to look up your reference. I’m used to the King James Version, which says “darkly” rather than “dimly.” The interesting thing about fog in this case is its translucence. The whatever that’s through the fog is not irretrievable, like what’s through the dim mirror isn’t invisible.<br />6 – I didn’t mean this to be a loaded question. I’m trying to figure out the borders of the allegory here, which I didn’t pay much attention to the first time. The first time through, I just let myself sort of get lost in the language and experience of it.<br />7 – So what’s the garden? This bliss of his ignorance? I think it might be, But the “sin” that casts him from his paradise would be the trigger (or whatever) that pulls him out of his amnesia. What do you think? I’m not decided.<br />8 – I love the analogies he comes up with. I wonder if he had them before he began the book and built it up from and around them.<br />11 – So maybe the question becomes what is morality? Is he currently amoral, as a result of his lack of connection and emotion?<br /><br />Your final comment is a much better way of putting what I was trying to get at in 10. I agree fully. Eco is fairly well-known for a pretty high level of ego (deserved, I guess). I wonder, now as I know more and have read more of him, if this book will show Yambo for humbler than his writer. His other novels (two of which I’ve read) also have first person narrators who are totally different than Eco (clearly not autobiographical), and strong and fully developed.Joseph Centerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00090686611405364311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-85274517058716477482011-03-15T18:46:15.848-06:002011-03-15T18:46:15.848-06:002. Yeah, I think that that's true. I can smel...2. Yeah, I think that that's true. I can smell every house that someone lives in except for my own.<br />3. Well one of my favorite parts of "The Catcher in the Rye" deals with memory. It's the last line, "Don't tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." Is this what's at stake here? Is his life too painful to recall?<br />4. Yes, I can't help but feel that a lot of this is autobiographical--the fairly cliche story about the nerd who knows everything about everything except what's really important.<br />5. I think that it's a great analogy for being born into a world. The fog of our own ignorance in matters means that we can only make things out vaguely. Or perhaps we "see through a mirror dimly" instead of face-to-face.<br />6. I don't think (and granted, you've read it more than I have) that Eco is trying to make that broad a point, but I'm open to persuasion.<br />7. First, I think it's an obvious comparison that at least was in my head for sometime now before Eco mentioned it. How many other people have ever experienced the world for the first time after already being adults? Second, as a first-time reader of this book, the mention of Eden has me expecting a temptation at sometime, especially given what we know of his less than stellar record as a husband.<br />8. It's all about sequence. I can't remember whom we were reading in my Contemporary Political Thought class (may have been Sartre), but a major part of it was how dependent humans are on sequence and cause and effect, regardless of whether it exists in reality as much as we perceive it or not.<br />11. I don't know if he regrets it because he doesn't feel any real attachment to any of the characters emotionally. Again, he's dependent on his wife for his history, at least initially, but that's already starting to wear off now that he has a basic idea of what his history is. At some point she may become almost useless in that regard, and that will be the moment for him to decide his fate.<br /><br />Finally, it occurred to me while I'm reading this that in some ways, the characters' recollections of Yambo is actually more useful for themselves than for him. They get a chance to organize their memories and relive experiences. All he gets is a completely unreliable perspective of his life--unreliable because it's through other people's lenses and not his.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11708022607046379611noreply@blogger.com