Sunday, September 15, 2002

Evariste Galois and  The Rock That Changed Things An article in the current New York Review of Books (dated Sept. 26) on Ursula K. Le Guin prompted me to search the Web this evening for information on a short story of hers I remembered liking.  I found the following in the journal of mathematician Peter Berman: A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, Ursula K. Le Guin, 1994: A book of short stories. Good, entertaining. I especially liked "The Rock That Changed Things.'' This story is set in a highly stratified society, one split between elite and enslaved populations. In this community, the most important art form is a type of mosaic made from rocks, whose patterns are read and interpreted by scholars from the elite group. The main character is a slave woman who discovers new patterns in the mosaics. The story is slightly over-the-top but elegant all the same. I agree that the story is elegant (from a mathematician, a high compliment), so searched Berman's pages further, finding this: A table of parallels between The French Mathematician (a novel about Galois) and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  My own version of the Philosopher's Stone (the phrase used instead of "Sorcerer's Stone" in the British editions of Harry Potter) appears in my profile picture at top left; see also the picture of Plato's diamond figure in my main math website.  The mathematics of finite (or "Galois") fields plays a role in the underlying theory of this figure's hidden symmetries.  Since the perception of color plays a large role in the Le Guin story and since my version of Plato's diamond is obtained by coloring Plato's version, this particular "rock that changes things" might, I hope, inspire Berman to extend his table to include Le Guin's tale as well. Even the mosaic theme is appropriate, this being the holiest of the Mosaic holy days. Dr. Berman, G'mar Chatimah Tova. 11:07 pm Comments on this post: thanks for the citation and the kind words! i'll muse on the possibility of juxtaposing "the rock that changed things" with messrs. galois and potter. and i'll take a look around your website too. peter berman Posted 9/17/2002 at 2:14 pm by pbmath

Saturday, September 14, 2002

God Is Her Co-Pilot On the soundtrack album of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,"  Clint Eastwood advised us to "eliminate the negative."  As a sequel to the extremely negative note below, written at midnight on the night of September 13-14, 2002, the following is my best attempt, on this very dark night of the soul, to eliminate the negative.   Some of us are old enough to recall that the beloved Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, died on September 14, 1982 -- exactly 20 years ago --  from injuries she suffered in a car accident the day before.  The following photo recalls happier days of driving the Riviera, in the 1955 film "To Catch a Thief." This note's title, combined with the photo, suggests that I have a mystical vision of Cary Grant as God.  I can think of worse people to play God.  The best I can do tonight to eliminate the negative is transcribe  the remarks I made in a (paper) journal entry in 1997.  (By the way, I realize that ordinary people are just as important as movie stars, but the latter are more suitable for public discussion.) In memoriam: Robert Mitchum and James Stewart  Eternal Triangles (July 3, 1997) Every civilization tells its own story about the relations between heaven and earth.  Some of the best stories -- those of Lao Tsu, the Greek poets, and Buddha -- are now almost 26 centuries old.  Some even older stories -- those told by the Jews -- have enabled our current civilization, led by Charlton Heston as God, to outlast Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.  However, recent claims of Absolute Truth for these stories (The Bible Code) are disturbing.  Perhaps it is time -- at least for Robert Mitchum and James Stewart -- to meet a kinder, gentler God. I propose Cary Grant -- specifically, as seen in "The Grass is Greener" (1960) with Mitchum and Deborah Kerr, and in "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) with Stewart and Katharine Hepburn.  If we imagine Grant as God, then these films reveal a very old, always entertaining, and sometimes enlightening version of the Trinity:  God and Man as rivals for the Holy Spirit -- as played by Deborah, by Kate, and (in heaven) by Grace.  Such a spirit, at work in the real world, may have influenced two of this century's better Bibles: The Oxford Book of English Prose (1925, reprinted throught 1958), and "LIFE -- The 60th Anniversary Issue" (October 1996) From (1), for Mitchum's memorial, Deborah might pick "The Basket of Roses" (pp. 1057-1060).  From (2), for Stewart's memorial, Kate might select the page of LIFE's covers for 1941 -- and all that page implies.   Finally, Grace, in the Highest society (beyond Bibles) might recall the following telegraphic catechism:   Q. -- How old Cary Grant? A. -- Old Cary Grant fine.  How you? 3:03 am

Saturday, September 14, 2002

September 14: Triumph of the Cross and Death of Princess Grace of Monaco September 13 was the feast day of St. John Chrysostom.  From the Catholic Encyclopedia: "St. John Chrysostom more than once in his writings makes allusion to the adoration of the cross; one citation will suffice: 'Kings removing their diadems take up the cross, the symbol of their Saviour's death; on the purple, the cross; in their prayers, the cross; on their armour, the cross; on the holy table, the cross; throughout the universe, the cross. The cross shines brighter than the sun.'" Today, September 14, is the feast day of the Triumph of The Cross: "The primitive form of the cross seems to have been that of the so-called 'gamma' cross (crux gammata), better known to Orientalists and students of prehistoric archæology by its Sanskrit name, swastika."  -- The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IV Copyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton Company Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York Later writers might choose to omit the above sentence, published in 1908, but, as Pilate said, "Quod scripsi, scripsi."  For modern times, this quotation is perhaps best translated into German, the language of modern Pilates: Was ich geschrieben habe, habe ich geschrieben.  It might well be accompanied by another translation from the same website, which renders the "Ora et labora" of St. Benedict as Bete und arbeite! and, indeed, by a classic quotation from twentieth-century German Christian thought: ARBEIT MACHT FREI.  Gate of Dachau 12:00 am

Friday, September 13, 2002

Meditation for Friday the 13th The 1946 British film below (released as "Stairway to Heaven" in the U.S.) is one of my favorites.  I saw it as a child. Since costar Kim Hunter died this week (on 9/11), and since today is Friday the 13th, the following material seems relevant. Kim Hunter in 1946 R.A.F pilot and psychiatrist  Alan McGlashan Alan McGlashan has practiced as a psychiatrist in London for more than forty years.  He also served as a pilot for the R.A.F. (with MC and Croix de Guerre decorations).  The doctor in "A Matter of Life and Death" addresses a heavenly court on behalf of his patient, R.A.F pilot David Niven: In the film, David Niven is saved by mistake from a fated death and his doctor must argue to a heavenly court that he be allowed to live.  In a similar situation, I would want Dr. Alan McGlashan, a real-life psychiatrist, on my side.  For an excerpt from one of my favorite books, McGlashan's The Savage and Beautiful Country, click here. As Walker Percy has observed (see my Sept. 7 note, "The Boys from Uruguay"), a characteristic activity of human beings is what Percy called "symbol-mongering."  In honor of today's anniversary of the births of two R.A.F. fighter pilots, Sir Peter Guy Wykeham-Barnes (b. 1915) and author Roald Dahl (b. 1916), here is one of the better symbols of the past century: The circle is of course a universal symbol, and can be made to mean just about whatever one wants it to mean.  In keeping with Clint Eastwood's advice, in the soundtrack album for "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," to "accentuate the positive," here are some positive observations on a circle from the poet (and perhaps saint) Dante, who died on the night of September 13-14: In the sun, Dante and Beatrice find themselves surrounded by a circle of souls famous for their wisdom on earth. They appear as splendid lights and precious jewels who dance and sing as they lovingly welcome two more into their company. Their love for God is kindled even more and grows as they find more individuals to love. Among the blessed souls are St. Thomas Aquinas and one of his intellectual “enemies”, Siger of Brabant, a brilliant philosopher at the University of Paris, some of whose teachings were condemned as heretical. Conflicts and divisions on earth are now forgotten and absorbed into a communal love song and dance “whose sweetness and harmony are unknown on earth and whose joy becomes one with eternity.” Dante compares their dance and song to God’s bride on earth, the Church, when she answers the morning bells to rise from bed and “woo with matins song her Bridegroom’s love.” Some critics consider this passage the most “spiritually erotic” of all the one hundred cantos of the Comedy. It is the ending of Canto 10, verses 139-148. -- Fr. James J. Collins, "The Spiritual Journey with Dante V," Priestly People October 1997 The above material on Dante is from the Servants of the Paraclete website. For more on the Paraclete, see The Left Hand of God. See also the illustration in the note below. 2:24 pm

Thursday, September 12, 2002

ART WARS   September 12, 2002 Artist  Ben Shahn was born on this date in 1898. John Frankenheimer's film "The Train" -- Und was fur ein Bild des Christentums  ist dabei herausgekommen? 6:41 pm

Thursday, September 12, 2002

In memory of Kim Hunter , who died on 9/11, 2002: A transcription of a journal note from 1996... National Dance Week Thursday, May 2, 1996 National Day of Prayer will be observed at noon today, Thursday, May 2, at City Hall. "Bush once joked that he picked Sununu because his surname rhymed with "deep doo-doo." -- Dan Goodgame, Time magazine, May 21, 1990 For a time, Sununu wrote stories and poems for children. Concord lawyer Ned Helms recalls that when his wife fell ill, Sununu gave her a book of poems that he said he enjoyed, by Sylvia Plath. Do do that voodoo that you do so well. One summer when I played in a small stock company, after the last curtain had come down we would clear the stage and then put on records of Viennese waltzes. We'd dance wildly, joyfully... -- Madeleine L'Engle, Victoria Magazine, November 1995 We're arranging to have the children baptized on Sunday afternoon, March 25, by the way. Although I honestly dislike, or rather, scorn the rector. I told you about his ghastly H-bomb sermon, didn't I, where he said this was the happy prospect of the Second Coming and how lucky we Christians were compared to the stupid pacifists and humanists and "educated pagans" who feared being incinerated, etc., etc. I have not been to church since. I felt it was a sin to support such insanity even by my presence. -- Sylvia Plath, March 12, 1962. Amen. [The bathroom door opens and Stella comes out. Blanche continues talking to Mitch.] Oh! Have you finished? Wait -- I'll turn on the radio. [She turns the knobs on the radio and it begins to play "Wien, Wien, nur du allein." Blanche waltzes to the music with romantic gestures. Mitch is delighted and moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear. Stanley stalks fiercely through the portieres into the bedroom. He crosses to the small white radio and snatches it off the table. With a shouted oath, he tosses the instrument out the window.] Colby's nickname among some of his subordinates at CIA is said to be "The Bookkeeper." Alabama plans female chain gangs Friday, April 26, 1996, story: MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- The Montgomery prison system is preparing to snap shackles around the ankles of women prisoners, creating female chain gangs in the state that revived male leg-iron crews last year. I will try to finish my novel and a second book of poems by Christmas. I think I'll be a pretty good novelist, very funny -- my stuff makes me laugh and laugh, and if I can laugh now it must be hellishly funny stuff. -- Sylvia Plath, October 12, 1962 An engine, an engine Chuffing me off like a Jew, A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen. There's a stake in your fat black heart And the villagers never liked you. They are dancing and stamping on you. 1962 --- Everybody's doin' a brand new dance now; I know you're gonna like it if you give it a chance now... So come on, c'mon, and do the locomotion with me! 2:56 pm

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

Double Cross From the New York Times obituaries of 9/11, 2002: "Henri Rol-Tanguy, one of France's most decorated Resistance heroes, who organized the popular uprising against the German occupation of Paris... died Sunday [Sept. 8, 2002]. He was 94." Sunday was V-day in Malta.  See my log24.net notes below: The Maltese Cross, The Maltese V, A Birthday Song, and The Boys from Uruguay. For another sort of victory, see my log24.net note of August 24, Cruciatus in Crucem. The Cruciatus note describes what might be called the "Red" cross, or Croix de Guerre.  The Maltese Cross note describes a cross more properly associated with intelligence than with courage.  (Both qualities are, of course, needed... courage and a brain, as well as a heart.)  More from the Rol-Tanguy obituary: "From 1964 to 1987, he was a member of the central committee of the French Communist Party... Mr. Rol-Tanguy received most of France's medals of valor, including the Croix de Guerre and the Grand-Croix de la Légion de l'Honneur." The following quotations are not without relevance. Ernest Hemingway: There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy. Rick Blaine: We'll always have Paris.   Here's looking at you, kid. 2:56 pm

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

Doonesbury, morning of 9/11, 2001: 3:16 am

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

The Sound of Hanging Rock On this date, director Robert Wise was born in Winchester, Indiana.   Credits include "Born to Kill," "I Want to Live," and "The Sound of Music."  "Director Robert Wise suggests that we all share a collective dark side." -- Robert Weston According to various Web sources,  On this date in 1964, Rod Stewart records his first song, "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl." Good morning little schoolgirl Good morning little schoolgirl Can I come home with Can I come home with you Tell your mama and your papa I once was a schoolboy too On this date in 1965, The Byrds begin recording "Turn! Turn! Turn!"  A time of war, a time of peace A time of love, a time of hate A time you may embrace A time to refrain from embracing On this date in 1966, Neal Diamond sings his first chart song, "Cherry Cherry." Tell your mamma, girl, I can't stay long We got things we gotta catch up on Mmmm, you know You know what I'm sayin' With the exception of The Byrds, the above music seems to reflect the spirit of Pan, a god discussed in my September 9 notes below. For a perhaps more accurate rendition of the spirit of Pan, see the classic Australian film Picnic at Hanging Rock. "From the opening shot of Hanging Rock, lovingly framed by cinematographer Russell Boyd, accompanied by the strains of the pan flute played by Gheorghe Zamfir, the film sets its elegant, restrained tone...."  12:01 pm Comments on this post: odd..   was just listening to "turn turn turn" when i opened your page.... Posted 9/10/2002 at 1:08 pm by harusame

Monday, September 09, 2002

Politics of Hell Born today: Michael Keaton, star of "The Dream Team" Regarding my claim in the note below that Michael Dukakis lied about an ancient Greek pledge, thereby incurring the wrath of the Gods... A Google search for "Athenian pledge" yields four sites, only two of which are relevant.  One is a site in which U. S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY, Harvard '71) parrots Dukakis, and one is from the final home of William S. Burroughs  -- Lawrence, Kansas: Lawrence the Beautiful "I ran across this printed paragraph in a supplement to the Journal-World dated, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 1965. The cover, "City of Lawrence, Kansas -- Progress Report", at the top of the inside page has this:      "City of Heritage. We will never bring disgrace to this city, by any act of dishonesty or cowardice, nor ever desert our comrades; we will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the city, both alone and with many; we will revere and obey the city laws, and do our best to incite a like respect and reverence to others; we will strive unceasingly to quicken the public's sense of civic duty; that thus in all these ways, we may transmit this city, greater, better, and more beautiful that it was transmitted to us." "The Athenian Pledge"  The link above on Burroughs (Harvard '36) is to a site subtitled "Secret Agent in Hell."  Perhaps he now haunts his old alma mater...  The excellent 1933 Harvard novel Great Circle, by Conrad Aiken, has in its opening paragraph the following: By all means accept the invitation to hell, should it come.  It will not take you far -- from Cambridge to hell is only a step; or at most a hop, skip, and jump. But now you are evading -- you are dodging the issue.... after all, Cambridge is hell enough.  Postscript of 12:55 a.m. September 10: For a current (9/9/02) Harvard student's view of Hell, see the description of Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle at http://www.xanga.com/home.asp?user=rcudney. 11:57 pm

Monday, September 09, 2002

On this, his birthday, actor Hugh Grant is hereby named an Honorary Waco Wacko. By the authority vested in me by the possession of Knowledge of Vivienne Browning's My Browning Family Album, a work dedicated to Dr. Joseph Armstrong, "founder of the Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University, Waco, Texas," Knowledge that today is the date of the Battle of Marathon, and of the claim that "The spread of Pan's worship beyond his home pastures of Arcadia was said to have arisen around the 5th Century BCE. Pan asked why the Athenians neglected him, and promised them victory over the Persians if they would worship him. At Marathon, the Persians were routed and fled in Panic; so, the Athenians built a temple for him on the Acropolis, and his worship soon extended to all Greece." 2a. (including subsidiary knowledge of the ridiculous falseness of all political statements, including the following contemptible lie by Michael Dukakis in his 1988 Democratic National Convention acceptance speech: "And as I accept your nomination tonight, I can't help recalling that the first marathon was run in ancient Greece, and that on important occasions like this one, the citizens of Athens would complete their ceremonies by taking a pledge. That pledge, that covenant, is as eloquent and timely today as it was 2000 years ago.   'We will never bring disgrace to this, our country, by any act of dishonesty or cowardice. We will fight for the ideals of this, our country. We will revere and obey the laws. We will strive to quicken our sense of civic duty. Thus, in all these ways, we will transmit this country greater, better, stronger, prouder and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.' ") (None of the Harvard intellects associated with Dukakis saw fit to point out that there never was any such pledge. As a consequence, both Harvard University and the Democratic Party remain cursed to this day.), Knowledge (both intellectual and carnal) of the female form of the god Pan, as seen in the classic and great movie "Sirens" (starring, among others, Hugh Grant) and on the cover of the 1977 Olivia Newton-John album "Making a Good Thing Better," Knowledge that even the best critics can be wrong, as exemplified by Roger Ebert's remarks in his review of "Sirens"... "Although they are often charged with being emotionally distant, the British have produced more than their share of sexual outlaws, from Oscar Wilde to Aleister Crowley to D.H. Lawrence to Francis Bacon, to balance the ledger. The central figure in 'Sirens' is perhaps vaguely inspired by another legendary British bohemian, Augustus John, an artist whose models and mistresses were interchangeable, and who delighted in scandal. Named Norman Lindsay, the film's hero is played by Sam Neill as a notorious painter who lives on an estate in Australia where his art coexists side-by-side with an experiment in living." (Actually, the central figure is not "vaguely inspired" by anyone. He is precisely inspired by an artist named exactly Norman Lindsay, as Roger will learn if he searches the Web. Roger also gets Pan wrong in this film; he says, "the bearded Lindsay is a Pan of sorts." No. The "Pan of sorts" is in fact the girl who romps joyfully with the local boys and who later, with great amusement, uses her divine x-ray vision to view Tara Fitzgerald naked in church.), and, finally, Knowledge that, as the Greeks well knew,  there is a dark side to all this Pan business (Vivienne Browning's book reveals that her father was a friend, not only of the bohemian artist Norman Lindsay, but also of the black mage Aleister Crowley. Let us pray that Hugh Grant's performance as a clergyman in "Sirens" and as a defender of the faith in "The Lair of the White Worm" have prepared him to cope with the dark (or, sometimes, "Brown") side of the divine.), I hereby declare Hugh Grant an honorary Waco (home of the Dr. Pepper Museum, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame, and the Armstrong Browning Library) Wacko. 3:33 pm

Sunday, September 08, 2002

ART WARS of September 8, 2002: Sunday in the Park with Forge From The New York Times obituary section of Saturday, September 7, 2002: Andrew Forge, 78, Painter and a Former Dean at Yale, Dies By ROBERTA SMITH ndrew Forge, a painter, critic, teacher and former dean of painting at the Yale School of Art, died on Wednesday [Sept. 4] in New Milford, Conn. He was 78... [As a painter] he reduced his formal vocabulary to two small, basic units: tiny dots and short, thin dashes of paint that he called sticks. He applied those elements meticulously, by the thousands and with continual adjustments of shape, color, orientation and density until they coalesced into luminous, optically unstable fields. These fields occasionally gave hints of landscapes or figures, but were primarily concerned with their own internal mechanics, which unfolded to the patient viewer with a quiet, riveting lushness. In a New York Times review of Mr. Forge's retrospective at the Yale Center for British Art in 1996, John Russell wrote that "the whole surface of the canvas is mysteriously alive, composing and recomposing itself as we come to terms with it." Above: Untitled image from Andrew Forge: Recent Paintings, April 2001, Bannister Gallery, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI See also An Essay on the work of Andrew Forge by Karen Wilkin in The New Criterion, September 1996 From that essay: "At a recent dinner, the conversation—fueled, I admit, by liberal amounts of very good red wine—became a kind of Socratic dialogue about the practice of art criticism.... There was... general agreement that it’s easier to find the rapier phrase to puncture inadequate or pretentious work than to come up with a verbal equivalent for the wordless experience of being deeply moved by something you believe to be first rate." See also my journal note of March 22, 2001, The Matthias Defense, which begins with the epigraph Bit by bit, putting it together. Piece by piece, working out the vision night and day. All it takes is time and perseverance With a little luck along the way. -- Stephen Sondheim 4:24 pm

Sunday, September 08, 2002

The Maltese Cross In my journal note for Rosh Hashanah (The Boys from Uruguay, Sept. 7) below, I noted that the cross as a symbol of intelligence may be offensive to some readers. Such readers may contemplate the Maltese cross shown on page 150 of The New Yorker magazine of March 21, 1994, in an article by Nichoison Baker, "The Projector." On page 152 is an explanation of how the cross functions within a motion picture projector, and a statement that "Without this little thing, there'd be no film industry!" Development of the Web since 1994 allows us to view the Maltese cross in action at the excellent site Cabaret Mechanical Theatre The following diagram is from that site: © Cabaret Mechanical Theatre 1996-01 6:21 am

Sunday, September 08, 2002

The Maltese V Today, September 8, is  The Feast of Our Lady of Victories in Malta. "The 8th of September festivity is close to Maltese hearts." Victory Day: 8th September "The 8th September is a special public holiday because it commemorates in fact three events.  It is the religious feast celebrating the birth of the Holy Virgin, Maria Bambina; it is the day on which the Great Siege of 1565 ended; and it also the day on which the Italian navy capitulated to the British at the beginning of the end of the Second World War.  But is it best known as victory day, il-Vitorja, in commemoration of the events of 1565 when the Knights of St John and the Maltese Islanders defeated the Ottoman Turks and helped rid Christendom of the Saracen threat.  The feast is celebrated in the villages and towns of Senglea, Naxxar, Mellieha and Xaghra on Gozo." From Malta's Importance in History: "Malta managed to keep the enemy at bay, and was awarded the George Cross for it in 1942. Churchill, Roosevelt, Eisenhower and other leaders visited Malta during this time. Malta was called 'the under-belly of Europe,' and her insidious disruption of the Kesserling-Rommel axis who tried hard, and very nearly successfully, to starve the native population and render all military operations impossible through the lack of food and fuel. The lifting of the siege coincided with the Feast of our Lady of Victory: 'il-Vitorja', the 'national' feast." IL-VITORJA   "From about three days before September 8, ground fireworks, Maltese 'giggifogu' (derived from Italian 'guochi di fuoco'), start to light up the Mellieha Parish Square, with amazing effects. The principal show of ground fireworks is held on September 7, a show which ends at about 12.00am. Fireworks over Mellieha The D-Day finally arrives. Early in the morning of September 8, many people attend the sermon in honor of Our Lady of Victories." Today's feast is known to Roman Catholics as The Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady.  See also the novel by Thomas Pynchon, V.  4:44 am

Sunday, September 08, 2002

In honor of the September 8 birthdays of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (The Killer Angels), Peter Sellers ("Doctor Strangelove"), and Patsy Cline ("Crazy"): From a website on Donna Tartt's novel The Secret History...  "It is like a storyteller looking up suddenly into the eyes of his audience across the embers of a once blazing fire... ...the reader feels privy to the secrets of human experience by their passage down through the ages; the telling and re-telling. A phrase from the ghost in Hamlet comes to mind: ‘I could a tale unfold whose lightest word / Would harrow up thy soul…..’ " This work of literature seems especially relevant at the start of a new school year, and in light of my remarks below about ancient Greek religion. One should, when praising Apollo, never forget that Dionysus is also a powerful god. For those who prefer film to the written word, I recommend "Barton Fink" as especially appropriate viewing for the High Holy Days. Judy Davis (my favorite actress) plays a Faulkner-figure's "secretary" who actually writes most of his scripts. Tartt is herself from Faulkner country.  For her next book, see this page from Square Books, 160 Courthouse Square, Oxford, Misssissippi. Let us pray that Tartt fares better in real life than Davis did in the movie. As music for the High Holy Days, I recommend Don Henley's "The Garden of Allah." For some background on the actual Garden of Allah Hotel at 8080 Sunset Boulevard (where "Barton Fink" might have taken place), see NAZIMOVA AND THE GARDEN OF ALLA. 2:00 am

Saturday, September 07, 2002

For Elia Kazan: A Birthday Song: Las Mañanitas (Song, lyrics, and animated story)  Today is the anniversary of the opening of the New York Post Office Building in 1914. Today is National Postal Workers Day. From the website Elia Kazan: Postage Paid... "Many years later Kazan said 'Viva Zapata!,' which he was filming during the time of his committee testimony, 'was structured to expose the ineffectiveness of idealistic revolutionaries, I believe that democracy progresses through internecine war, through constant tension - we grow only through conflict. And that’s what democracy is. In that sense, people have to be vigilant, and that vigilance is effective. I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.' This was a profound statement about his values and beliefs. Kazan never backed away from his statements." Note: In honor of Kazan and of Brando, who really is a contender, the background music of this website has been hushed, so that those who click "A Birthday Song" above can hear it clearly. 11:11 pm

Saturday, September 07, 2002

The Boys from Uruguay If one were to write a "secret history" of the twentieth century, one possible organizing theme might be the religious struggle between worshippers of the Semitic deity (variously known as Yahweh, God, and Allah) and worshippers of the Aryan deities... notably, the Aryan god of music, light, and reason, Apollo. (See my jounal notes of Monday, Sept. 2, 2002, below.) In perhaps the best academic website I have ever seen, Karey L. Perkins quotes Walker Percy: "The truth is that man's capacity for symbol-mongering in general and language in particular is…intimately part and parcel of his being human, of his perceiving and knowing, of his very consciousness..." The greatest symbol-monger of the twentieth century was, of course, Adolf Hitler. His use of the Aryan sun-wheel symbol rose to the level of genius. Of course, it ultimately failed to win the approval of the sun god himself, Apollo, who is also the god of reason. Since symbol-mongering cannot be avoided, let us hope that it can be done in a somewhat more reasonable way than that of the National Socialist movement. Two examples suggest themselves. From Peggy Noonan's column of Friday, Sept. 6: The cross, the heart, and the flag. From Karey Perkins's website: A brain, a heart, and courage.  On this Rosh Hashanah, the cross as a symbol of intelligence may be offensive to some worshippers of Yahweh. Let them read The Archivist, a novel by Martha Cooley, and then my journal note The Matthias Defense. They might also contemplate the biblical quotation in the musical "Contact" broadcast from Lincoln Center on September 1, 2002: "Let there be light!" Three Jews named Paul have been associated with light... Saul of Tarsus, who later assumed an alias. Paul Newman, whose performance in "The Verdict" continues, indirectly, to trouble Cardinal Law of Boston. Paul R. Halmos, a personal hero of mine ever since I saw his Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces and Measure Theory as an ignorant young undergraduate browsing the bookstores of Harvard Square. In accordance with the "secret history" theme mentioned above, the struggle between Aryan and Semitic religions may also be viewed in the light of the struggle between Christianity and Communism. Hitler exploited this viewpoint very successfully, pretending to be the champion of the Christians against the godless Reds. Peggy Noonan also successfully uses this strategy. Both Hitler and Noonan manage to ignore the fact that Christianity is itself one of the Semitic religions, and that at least two of its three deities are Jewish. As for me, I rather identify with the young Hitler clone at the end of the film "The Boys from Brazil." Forced to decide between Gregory Peck and Sir Laurence Olivier, he sides with Olivier. His reason? Peck lied. In a similar situation, forced to decide between Peggy Noonan and the Jew Halmos, I would probably side with Halmos. Halmos, who should, if not a saint, be at least dubbed a knight, does not, unlike the great majority of the damned human race, lie. See Halmos's memoir, I Want to Be a Mathematician. In particular, see the single index entry "communist by allegation" and the 29 entries under "Uruguay." Happy birthday to Elia Kazan and Peggy Noonan, and a happy and prosperous New Year to should-be-Sir Paul R. Halmos.  4:44 pm

Friday, September 06, 2002

Santa's Wit Edmund Gwenn, actor, died on September 6, 1959. When asked if he thought dying was tough, Gwenn reportedly said, "Yes, it's tough, but not as tough as doing comedy." This may or may not be true; if it is, Gwenn may be the true source of a quotation variously attributed to Edmund Kean, Edwin Booth, David Garrick, Donald Wolfit, William Holden, and Groucho Marx, Marcel Marceau, Noel Coward, and Oscar Wilde:   "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." A very dubious version of the Gwenn story attributes the "comedy is hard" part to Jack Lemmon: The lesson is best illustrated in a story involving Jack Lemmon, whose best work was in comedy. He visited the British actor Edmund Gwenn, suffering in a hospital. Gwenn is said to have lifted the flap on the oxygen tent and said, ''It's really tough to die.'' And Lemmon responded, ''It's not as tough as doing comedy.'' -- Elvis Mitchell in The New York Times Week in Review, Sunday, August 25, 2002 David Bruce, an English instructor at Ohio University, supplies another version of the Gwenn story, from Movie Anecdotes, by Peter Hay. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990: Edmund Gwenn won an Oscar playing Santa Claus in the movie Miracle on 34 Street. As he lay dying, Jack Lemmon visited him and asked if dying was dead. [sic]  Gwenn replied, "Oh, it's hard, very hard indeed. But not as hard as doing comedy." Santa might appreciate the above misprint, as would Vladimir Nabokov... "Life Everlasting--based on a misprint!" -- Pale Fire  and John Donne... "And death shall be no more, Death, thou shalt die." -- Holy Sonnets 5:11 am

Thursday, September 05, 2002

Arrow in the Blue A description by Arthur Koestler (born Sept. 5, 1905) of a close encounter with the divine: "...a wordless essence, a fragrance of eternity, a quiver of the arrow in the blue." Koestler also mentions the "blue Andalusian sky."  Some thoughts suggested by the above and by the Sept. 5, 2002, New York Times story on the first anniversary of the murder of the Mexican lawyer María de los Angeles Tames.... 1. The blue of the Andalusian sky is essentially the same as the blue of the sky above Baja California.  See photographs of the last Jesuit mission in Mexico, Santa María de los Angeles.  2.  A Google search for "blue Andalusian sky" yielded two results: the Koestler page quoted above, and a page on the Gypsy film "Vengo."  For a reasonable likeness of St. Sara, patron saint of the Gypsies, also known as The Dark Lady, also known as Kali, see the poster of dancer Sara Baras at Flamenco-world.com.  "MONCHO ELCHE, ALICANTE, ESPAÑA ARTE, DUENDE, MAJESTAD Y GRANDEZA Es imposible resumir el Flamenco en cuatro palabras, pero al mirar el poster Sara Baras por Paco Sanchez, son esas las palabras que me vienen a la mente.  Gracias, Paco Sanchez." For the music Sara dances to, composed and played by Jesús de Rosario, listen to audio clips at Juana la Loca: Vivir por Amor. 3. For an American version of The Dark Lady, see an homage from Catalonia to Emmy Lou Harris.  For a Harris song that seems appropriate to the blue-sky theme above, see Thanks to You. 11:59 pm

Thursday, September 05, 2002

Trifecta Born today: Arthur Koestler, former Communist and writer on parapsychology From To Ride Pegasus, by Anne McCaffrey, 1973:  "Mary-Molly luv, it's going to be accomplished in steps, this establishment of the Talented in the scheme of things. Not society, mind you, for we're the original nonconformists.... and Society will never permit us to integrate.  That's okay!"  He consigned Society to insignificance with a flick of his fingers.  "The Talented form their own society and that's as it should be: birds of a feather.  No, not birds.  Winged horses!  Ha!  Yes, indeed. Pegasus... the poetic winged horse of flights of fancy.  A bloody good symbol for us.  You'd see a lot from the back of a winged horse..." "Yes, an airplane has blind spots.  Where would you put a saddle?"  Molly had her practical side. He laughed and hugged her.  Henry's frequent demonstrations of affection were a source of great delight to Molly, whose own strength was in tactile contacts.  "Don't know.  Lord, how would you bridle a winged horse?" "With the heart?" "Indubitably!"  The notion pleased him.  "Yes, with the heart and the head because Pegasus is too strong a steed to control or subdue by any ordinary method."  Born today:  Darryl F. Zanuck, producer of "Viva Zapata!" Director Eliza Kazan consults with scriptwriter John Steinbeck about the production of "Viva Zapata!" in Cuernavaca, Mexico: When John woke, I asked him, "Isn't the Syndicate of Film Technicians and Workers here Communist-dominated?" Elia Kazan on Darryl Zanuck's insistence that Zapata's white horse be emphasized: Darryl made only one suggestion that he was insistent on. He'd stolen it, no doubt, from an old Warner western, but he offered it as if it were pristine stuff. "Zapata must have a white horse," he said, "and after they shoot him, we should show the horse running free in the mountains -- get the idea? A great fade-out." We got the idea, all right. Darryl was innocent about the symbol in his suggestion, but so enthusiastic about the emotion of it that he practically foamed at the mouth. John's face was without expression. Actually, while I thought it was corny, the idea worked out well in the end.  Born today: comedian Bob Newhart   If Kazan hadn't directed "Viva Zapata!"... Zanuck would have ended up shouting, "I said a WHITE horse!" 3:06 pm

Thursday, September 05, 2002

Birthdate of film producer Darryl F. Zanuck Among Zanuck's films were "All about Eve" and "Viva Zapata!" Bright Star I do not have a photograph of Lucero Hernandez, the subject of my journal notes Shining Forth and Plato, Pegasus, and the Evening Star. In keeping with Zanuck's commandment that "The kid stays in the picture!" -- The photo at left, of a very young actress, captures some of Lucero's beauty. Center for Global Education, Augsburg College  Semester-abroad Program in Mexico "The program is based in Cuernavaca, a city known for its perennial springtime (70-80 degrees). Cuernavaca, the capital of the state of Morelos, is about 50 miles south of Mexico City. Both the city and the state are important in Mexican history: the palace of the conqueror Hernan Cortez borders the central plaza in Cuernavaca and Morelos is known as “the cradle of the Mexican revolution” of 1910 led by Emiliano Zapata, who was born in a small town near Cuernavaca. A city of more than one million, Cuernavaca is also known for its innovative grass-roots education programs, economic cooperatives, and base Christian communities inspired by liberation theology."  12:36 am

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Birthday of AI guru John McCarthy If you enter the question "Is there such a thing as artificial intelligence?" as a Google search phrase, you will be referred to ALICE, a chat robot. ALICE's possible answers include "Yes," "No," and "Maybe." Another search strategy leads to the following Google Directory page: Computers > Artificial Intelligence > Neural Networks > Companies. This page, unlike ALICE, suggests that the appropriate answer to our question is the punch line to an old computer joke:  "There is now." 3:21 am

Tuesday, September 03, 2002

Today's birthday: James Joseph Sylvester "Mathematics is the music of reason." -- J. J. Sylvester Sylvester, a nineteenth-century mathematician, coined the phrase "synthematic totals" to describe some structures based on 6-element sets that R. T. Curtis has called "rather unwieldy objects." See Curtis's abstract, Symmetric Generation of Finite Groups, John Baez's essay, Some Thoughts on the Number 6, and my website, Diamond Theory. See also the abstract of a December 7, 2000, talk, Mathematics and the Art of M. C. Escher, in which Curtis notes that graphic designs can "often convey a mathematical idea more eloquently than pages of symbolism." 6:00 pm

Monday, September 02, 2002

Today's birthday: Laurindo Almeida Almeida was a Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger. He was one of the pioneers of the bossa nova style. Although he did not write the song " Manha de Carnaval" ("A day in the life of a fool"), I added this song as background music for this site today partly to honor Brazilian music... and partly because the song is from the classic Brazilian film "Black Orpheus." (See the two notes below, from today and yesterday, on Orpheus and on vibraphonist Lionel Hampton.) 6:56 pm

Monday, September 02, 2002

Elevation of the Host Some religious fanatics may be offended by my account, in the note below, of a theatrical bartender-priest at Lincoln Center who last night held a CD aloft in what may seem a parody or satire of the elevation of the host in the Mass. They should consider the following account of how a medieval nun viewed the host: ...she saw a great brightness between the priest's hands, so vivid and so bright and of such wonderful beauty that in her opinion it could not be compared to anything the human spirit could imagine. And it seemed to her that this brightness had a circular shape.... For another appearance of a priest associated, if only by synchronicity, with Lincoln Center, see the photographs below, both from the New York Times obituaries section of Friday, August 30, 2002. Richard Lippold, a sculptor known for radiant, expansive abstractions in metal, died on Aug. 22.... Richard Lippold’s ‘‘Orpheus and Apollo’’ at Avery Fisher Hall in 1996. Jack Manning/The New York Times Bill Wassmuth, a former Roman Catholic priest who opposed the Aryan Nations group in northern Idaho, died on Tuesday, Aug. 27.  In this little drama of August 30, played out in the obituary section of the New York Times, it is not clear from the Lippold sculpture who is to play the role of Orpheus and who the role of Apollo. One might interpret the note below, written two days later, as implying that Orpheus is to be played by Lionel Hampton and Apollo by Christ himself.  Such a drama is neither parody nor satire.  It is, on the contrary, deadly serious.  "A great brightness," as seen by the medieval nun described above, is traditionally associated with the Aryan sun god Apollo.  For more on this theme in Roman Catholic art, see Sun-Worship and Catholicism, The Monstrance and the Wafer God, and A Catholic rebuttal. For a less dogmatic approach to these matters, see my journal note of June 13, 2002,  A Mass for Lucero. 5:25 am

Sunday, September 01, 2002

Backbeat in Heaven The great musician Lionel Hampton died at about 6:15 a.m. EDT Saturday, August 31, 2002, in New York City's Mount Sinai Medical Center. Quincy Jones said, "Heaven will definitely be feeling some backbeat now." (AP story) Hampton himself said, "I learned all that in the sanctified church." (N.Y. Times story) Can we hear an AMEN? Yes, we heard an amen... Live from Lincoln Center on PBS from about 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. EDT tonight (Sunday, September 1, 2002), in a live broadcast of the final performance of the musical "Contact." Theology was made visible by Colleen Dunn, who appeared as Grace (the girl in the yellow dress). Christ himself was present in the form of a CD of "Do You Wanna Dance?" held aloft by a priest (the after-hours club bartender). The evening ended with the redemption by Grace of a sinner (a maker of TV commercials) and with (as Quincy Jones noted) a strong new backbeat in heaven. 11:59 pm