Saturday, February 15, 2003

The Recruit From an obituary of Walt W. Rostow, advisor to presidents and Vietnam hardliner: "During World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor agency to the Central Intelligence Agency." Rostow died on Thursday, February 13, 2003, the anniversary of the 1945 firebombing of Dresden. Like von Neumann, Rostow exemplified the use of intellectuals by the state.  From a memoir by Rostow: "...in mid-1941.... American military intelligence... was grossly inadequate.... ...military leaders... learned that they needed intellectuals.... Thus the link was forged that yielded the CIA, RAND, the AEC, and all the other institutionalized links between intellectual life and national security that persist down to the present." — Walt W. Rostow, "Recollections of the Bombing,"     University of Texas web page "Look at that caveman go!" — Remark in my entry of February 13, 2003 "So it goes." — Remark of Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse-Five See also Tralfamadorian Structure in Slaughterhouse-Five, which includes the following passage: "...the nonlinear characterization of Billy Pilgrim emphasizes that he is not simply an established identity who undergoes a series of changes but all the different things he is at different times." For a more recent nonlinear characterization, see the poem "Fermata" by Andrew Zawacki in The New Yorker magazine, issue dated Feb. 17 and 24, 2003, pp. 160-161.  Zawacki is thirty years younger than I, but we share the same small home town. 10:48 pm

Friday, February 14, 2003

Movie Date For John and Klara von Neumann, because they gave good parties:   "We gotta hurry or it's gonna be dark 'fore we get home!"  Home Before Dark A song by Judy Collins: I won't be long Don't worry about me I'll be home before dark Plato's Cave Valentine's Day Schedule at UA Market Fair Movies,  3521 Route 1 Princeton, NJ 08540  Before-dark* showtime: The Pianist, 5:30 PM After-dark† showtime: The Recruit, 7:15 PM  * "Swiftly flow the years." † "Nothing is as it seems." 12:48 pm Comments on this post: a very... interesting site. can i presume you are catholic? Posted 2/14/2003 at 5:07 pm by tkd Do you live near Princeton?  Just curious... Posted 2/15/2003 at 2:03 pm by LaVieEstBelle Sincerest apologies- I meant no insult or compliment, was only seeking a point of information. I admit in retrospect it was "less than immaculate." Impressive knowledge of the X-men, I must say. I take it I should cease trying to converse with you? Posted 2/15/2003 at 5:58 pm by tkd The answers are no, no, and no. When tkd "takes it" he should cease trying to converse, he is again making a maculate assumption. (This is sarcasm from an old man with a Harvard background to a young man with a Yale background; its motives are age versus youth and Harvard versus Yale, and the sarcasm should not be taken too personally.) Posted 2/15/2003 at 6:44 pm by m759 Oh, I was just wondering because I live there.  Posted 2/15/2003 at 8:33 pm by LaVieEstBelle

Friday, February 14, 2003

Toy Soldiers From a website biography of John von Neumann: It is noteworthy that he was uninhibited by ethical considerations in weaponry. I was surprised, therefore, when he died a Roman Catholic. To be sure, his first wife had been Catholic. I presume that he was a nominal one in those early days of his marriage. In his last illness, he asked for a clergyman, but he surprised them by insisting upon a Roman Catholic priest. A Benedictine was succeeded by a Jesuit for instruction. The attending Air Force chaplain told me that Johnny could quote the Penitential Psalms in Latin.  — "Von Neumann, Jewish Catholic," by Raymond J. Seeger, in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 40 (December 1988): 234-236.    The sixth of the Seven Penitential Psalms is Psalm 129, "De Profundis." From the film "The Sixth Sense": CUT TO: INT. CHURCH - DAY Only a few people sit and pray in the sea of oak pews. Malcolm scans the majestic room and finds what he's looking for in the last row of the church. He moves down the center aisle towards the back. Malcolm finds Cole playing in his pew with a set of green and beige plastic soldiers. Cole makes the soldiers talk to each other. .... MALCOLM What was that you were saying before with your soldiers? Day pro fun. COLE ...De profundis clamo ad te domine. Malcolm stares surprised. COLE It's called Latin. It's a language. Malcolm nods at the information. MALCOLM All your soldiers speak Latin? COLE No, just one. 4:44 am

Friday, February 14, 2003

Matrix Theory "At the heart of The Matrix, buried under layers of cinema craft, is a meditation on the difference between essence and appearance. It's a trip into Plato's cave." — McKenzie Wark, author of A Hacker Manifesto 12:25 am

Thursday, February 13, 2003

From Plato's Cave (Von Neumann's Song, Part III) In this entry we return to the classic words of the Hollywood Argyles as they sing a paean of praise to St. John von Neumann: He's the king of the jungle jive. Look at that caveman go! This meditation is prompted by a description of caveman life by the functional analysis working group at the University of Tübingen: John von  Neumann "Soon Freud, soon mourning, Soon Fried, soon fight. Nevertheless who know this language?" (Language courtesy of Google's translation software) Picture of von Neumann courtesy of Princeton University Library  11:30 pm

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Diamond Life (Von Neumann's Song, Part II) A reader of yesterday's entry "St. John von Neumann's Song" suggested the relevance of little Dougie Hofstadter's book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.  While the title of this work does continue the "golden" theme of my last three entries, Dougie is not playing in von Neumann's league.  The nature of this league is suggested by yesterday's citation of Abstract Harmonic Analysis.  For work that is more in von Neumann's league than in Hofstadter's, see the following harmonic analysis abstract: VECTOR-VALUED EXTENSIONS OF SOME CLASSICAL THEOREMS IN HARMONIC ANALYSIS Maria Girardi and Lutz Weis Abstract: .... The approach used combines methods from Fourier analysis and the geometry of Banach spaces, such as R-boundedness. A related paper by the same authors: CRITERIA FOR R-BOUNDEDNESS OF OPERATOR FAMILIES Abstract: ...smooth operator-valued functions have a R-bounded range, where the degree of smoothness depends on the geometry of the Banach space. Those who would like to make a connection to music in the charmingly childlike manner of Hofstadter are invited to sing a few choruses of "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" Personally, I prefer the following lyrics: Diamond life, lover boy; We move in space with minimum waste and maximum joy. City lights and business nights When you require streetcar desire for higher heights. No place for beginners or sensitive hearts When sentiment is left to chance. No place to be ending but somewhere to start. No need to ask. He's a smooth operator.... Words and Music: Sade Adu and Ray St. John Some may wish to alter the last five syllables of these lyrics in accordance with yesterday's entry on another St. John. 3:00 am

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

St. John von Neumann's Song The mathematician John von Neumann, a heavy drinker and party animal, advocated a nuclear first strike on Moscow.*  Confined to a wheelchair before his death, he was, some say, the inspiration for Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.  He was a Jew converted to Catholicism.  His saint's day was February 8.  Here is an excerpt from a book titled Abstract Harmonic Analysis**, just one of the fields illuminated by von Neumann's brilliance: "...von Neumann showed that an intrinsic definition can be given for the mean M(f) of an almost periodic function.... Von Neumann proved the existence and properties of M(f) by completely elementary methods...." Should W. B. Yeats wander into the Catholic Anticommunists' section of Paradise, he might encounter, as in "Sailing to Byzantium," an unexpected set of "singing-masters" there: the Platonic archetypes of the Hollywood Argyles. The Argyles' attire is in keeping with Yeats's desire for gold in his "artifice of eternity"... In this case, gold lamé, but hey, it's Hollywood.  The Argyles' lyrics will no doubt be somewhat more explicit in heaven.  For instance, in "Alley Oop," the line "He's a mean motor scooter and a bad go-getter" will in its purer heavenly version be rendered "He's a mean M(f)er and..." in keeping with von Neumann's artifice of eternity described above. This theological meditation was suggested by previous entries on Yeats, music and Catholicism (see Feb. 8, von Neumann's saint's day) and by the following recent weblog entries of a Harvard senior majoring in mathematics: "I changed my profile picture to Oedipus last night because I felt cursed by fate...." "It's not rational for me to believe that I am cursed, that the gods are set against me.  Because I don't even believe in any gods!" The spiritual benefits of a Harvard education are summarized by this student's new profile picture: M(f) *Source: Von Neumann and the Development of Game Theory **by Harvard professor Lynn H. Loomis, Van Nostrand, 1953, p. 169.   5:10 pm Comments on this post: I'm trying to figure out which of the Argyles I like the least: The ones wearing gold lame, or the single square gray suit. At least Oedipus came back a few plays later and saved the day. Due to the miracles of photogrophy and printing, however, those outfits will always remain with us as a burden. Posted 2/11/2003 at 7:16 pm by HomerTheBrave I've always been fascinated by the connections between the various disciplines of human thought -- music and mathematics, literature and science.... They're all connected in some way, if interesting people care to dig around and put those connections into words. You may have read an interesting book by a guy named Doulas Hofstader, called Godel, Escher and Bach: And Eternal Golden Braid. It's an amazing book on a number of levels, in that it exposes connections between these supposedly separate realms of though, and articulates them in a way which is, in itself, an artistic triumph... Take care -J- Posted 2/12/2003 at 12:28 am by justinburnett

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

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Monday, February 10, 2003

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Monday, February 10, 2003

Singing-Masters Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, And be the singing-masters of my soul. — William Butler Yeats Durante Shari Lewis One wonders whether Yeats will spend at least some small part of eternity in the pleasant company of Jimmy Durante and Shari Lewis, whom I would want to have among my singing-masters.  One also hopes that tonight they are celebrating Durante's birthday in that very pleasant part of heaven called Shariland.  Hence tonight's site music, "The Song That Never Ends."  This could, of course, easily become more hellish than heavenly if Durante were not himself present to yell, at an appropriate time, "Stop the music!" 11:11 pm

Monday, February 10, 2003

Rainbow's End For Ernst Kitzinger, professor of Byzantine art at Harvard, who died at 90 on January 22, 2003.  In "Sailing to Byzantium," the poet W. B. Yeats wrote of Ireland, That is no country for old men.... .... Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unageing intellect. .... O sages standing in God's holy fire As in the gold mosaic of a wall, Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, And be the singing-masters of my soul. Consume my heart away; sick with desire And fastened to a dying animal It knows not what it is; and gather me Into the artifice of eternity. Don't ever tell me the gods have no sense of humor.  After writing the phrase "rainbow's-end gold" in yesterday's entry, "Messe," I came across an obituary of Professor Kitzinger, which naturally prompted me to look for a good web page on "Sailing to Byzantium." The poem concludes with images of "gold mosaic," "Grecian goldsmiths," "hammered gold," "gold enamelling," and "a golden bough."  I had forgotten that Yeats's poem begins to sound rather like the curse of King Midas.  And then the touch of divinity: the perfect deflation of Yeatsian and Byzantine pretentiousness, on the following web page: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atlantis/3260/sailing.html, at "The Lonesome Surf-In Poetry Cafe."  With lovely faux-gold borders, this page has as background music a gloriously cheesy rendition of "Moon River."  (Rainbow's end... Waitin' 'round the bend....) So much for the Tiffany's approach to poetry. I still admire Yeats' respect For monuments of intellect But even though I'm getting old Can't share his appetite for gold. For a rather different "artifice of eternity," see my entry of February 1, 2003, Time and Eternity. 2:03 am

Sunday, February 09, 2003

Messe Yesterday's entry, "Requiem for a Queen," suggested a certain resemblance between the Jedburgh death mask of Mary Queen of Scots and the face of actress Vivien Leigh.  The following links are related to this resemblance. The first great stage success of Miss Leigh was in a play called "The Mask of Virtue," which opened on May 15, 1935. Leigh was educated for eight years at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Roehampton. A requiem mass for Miss Leigh was held at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary's, Cadogan Street, London, on 12th July 1967, at 10 o'clock. On the coffin were her favorite white roses, picked from her garden at Tickerage Mill in Sussex. Yesterday's site music, "The Water is Wide," was suggested by T. S. Eliot's language in Four Quartets.  Whether Eliot's use of the motto of the Catholic queen Mary Stuart, "In my end is my beginning," was meant as a tribute to that monarch is debatable.  As one web forum entry points out, the motto "Ma fin est ma [sic] commencement" is the title of a rondeau by Guillaume de Machaut written some two centuries earlier, and Eliot may have taken his motto from Machaut rather than Mary.  Some evidence for this is provided by the lyrics for Machaut's rondeau, which include Eliot's phrase "in my beginning is my end" as well as the reversed version.  At any rate, Machaut and Eliot share an interest in four-part compositions — as do I and as did, apparently, the compilers of the Gospels. A search on the phrase Machaut Eliot "four part"  yields an essay that to me seems like rainbow's-end gold: ON TIME, ORIGINALITY, AND THE ART OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION by Joseph Dillon Ford In honor of Ford, Eliot, Machaut, Leigh, and Stuart, today's site music is the "Kyrie" from Machaut's "Messe de Notre Dame." 7:26 pm

Saturday, February 08, 2003

Requiem for a Queen On February 8, 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was executed. Jedburgh Death Mask "En ma Fin gît mon Commencement..." "In my End is my Beginning..." "This is the saying which Mary embroidered on her cloth of estate whilst in prison in England and is the theme running through her life. It symbolises the eternity of life after death...." — The Marie Stuart Society Love is most nearly itself When here and now cease to matter. Old men ought to be explorers Here or there does not matter We must be still and still moving Into another intensity For a further union, a deeper communion Through the dark cold and the empty desolation, The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning. — T. S. Eliot, conclusion of "East Coker" in Four Quartets In keeping with Eliot's words, tonight's site music is "The Water is Wide." 2:00 am

Friday, February 07, 2003

Saint's Day Today is the birthday of Thomas More, an alleged Catholic saint, and the date of death of Dale Evans, Protestant saint. As yesterday's note implies, we should not look to saints, or indeed to religion generally, for truth.  Those who mistake the stories of the Church or the Bible for truth have done, and continue to do, a great deal of harm in this world.  But those who seek, not truth, but values, in stories may sometimes be among the blessed — as Dale Evans certainly was, and as Thomas More, after centuries of atoning for his sins in Purgatory, may, by this time, be. Let us pray that young Catholics (like the girl pictured at St. Thomas More Catholic School in Chapel Hill, N. C.) learn the proper uses of stories, as well as of more respectable intellectual disciplines. 5:00 am

Thursday, February 06, 2003

Happy Waitangi Day Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand; 2:00 AM EST Feb. 6 in the USA is 8:00 PM Feb. 6 in New Zealand. Today is also the birthday of Gigi Perreau, star of "Journey to the Center of Time," which at least one reviewer thought was the worst movie ever made.  These properties of Feb. 6 make it a suitable holiday to be observed at the newly opened Cullinane College in New Zealand. For starters, students can review the five log24.net entries that end with a brief tribute to Gigi on January 22, 2003.  Also a tribute to Gigi, tonight's site music is "Song of Time," from "The Legend of Zelda." These cultural activities seem appropriate for those who, in the Roman Catholic tradition, prefer stories to truth. 2:00 am

Wednesday, February 05, 2003

Release Date From Dr. Mac's Cultural Calendar — Novelist William S. Burroughs [of the Burroughs adding machine family], author of Naked Lunch, was born on this day in 1914. The Charlie Chaplin film "Modern Times" was released on this day in 1936. The adding machine employing depressible keys was patented on this day in 1850. "It all adds up." — Saul Bellow, book title "I see my light come shining  From the west unto the east.  Any day now, any day now,  I shall be released."      — Bob Dylan "The theme of the film is heavily influenced by its release date...." — Jonathan L. Bowen, review of "Modern Times" At left: Judy Davis in Naked Lunch   See also my journal entry "Time and Eternity" of 5:10 AM EST Saturday, February 1, 2003.   5:10 AM Feb. 1 Judy Davis as Kali, or Time 9:00 AM Feb. 1 TIME From Robert Morris's page on Hopkins (see note of Sunday, February 2 (Candlemas)): "Inscape" was Gerard Manley Hopkins's term for a special connection between the world of natural events and processes and one's internal landscape--a frame of mind conveyed in his radical and singular poetry.... This is false, but suggestive. Checked, corrected, and annotated 5:25 pm Comments on this post: Funny you should mention Chaplin. I've been watching "Chaplin" (Robert Downey Jr. film) on and off for a bit now. Posted 2/5/2003 at 6:12 pm by william_f_house

Wednesday, February 05, 2003

Feast of Saint Marianne On this date in 1972, poet and Presbyterian saint Marianne Moore died in New York City. For why she was a saint, see the excellent article by Samuel Terrien,  "Marianne Moore: Poet of Secular Holiness," from Theology Today, Vol. 47, No. 4, January 1991, published by Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J. Terrien quotes the following Moore poem: THE MIND IS AN ENCHANTING THING is an enchanted thing.... Like Gieseking playing Scarlatti.... Gieseking Tonight's site music, though not played by Gieseking himself, is, in honor of Moore, the following work by Scarlatti from the Classical Music Archives: Scarlatti's Sonata in E major, andante comodo  (Longo 23 = Kirkpatrick 380 = Pestelli 483)  To purchase a recording of Gieseking playing this work, click here. 12:00 am

Tuesday, February 04, 2003

Mark Hopkins Award From Dr. Mac's Cultural Calendar: "Mark Hopkins, U.S. educator, was born on this day in 1802.  He taught at Williams College....  President Garfield, one of his students, said that all that was needed for a college was Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other." I have never encountered a mentor figure capable of holding down his end of a log in the manner of Mark Hopkins.  The closest I have come to such an encounter is with a book, The Practical Cogitator, by Charles P. Curtis and Ferris Greenslet. This year's Mark Hopkins award for the closest approach to the log-sitting ideal goes to David Lavery, whose online commonplace book appears in the column at left.  Lavery, too, appreciates the work of Curtis and Greenslet, as his site indicates. See also a quote from Lavery in today's New York Times. 1:15 pm

Monday, February 03, 2003

Good News and Bad News If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable. — T. S. Eliot, beginning of     Four Quartets Groundhog Day is over. Today is American Pie Day. And there we were all in one place  A generation lost in space — American Pie, by Don McLean "It's not a space shuttle launch... it's sex." Addendum of 8:08 PM February 5, 2003: Appropriate music for this entry, other than McLean himself, might be "Orpheus and the Gig from Hell" on RealAudio at The Walker1812 Files.  1:33 pm

Sunday, February 02, 2003

Steering a Space-Plane Head White House speechwriter Michael Gerson: "In the last two weeks, I've been returning to Hopkins.  Even in the 'world's wildfire,' he asserts that 'this Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,/Is immortal diamond.' A comfort." — Vanity Fair, May 2002, page 162 Yesterday's note, "Time and Eternity," supplies the "immortal diamond" part of this meditation.  For the "matchwood" part, see the cover of The New York Times Book Review of February 2 (Candlemas), 2003: Cover illustration by Stephen Savage N.Y. Times Feb. 2, 2003 'A Box of Matches': A Miniaturist's Novel of Details In Nicholson Baker's novel, things not worth noticing eventually become all there is to notice. See also the Times's excerpt from Baker's first chapter, about "steering a space-plane." For the relationship of Hopkins to Eastern religions, see "Out of Inscape," by Robert Morris. 7:00 pm

Saturday, February 01, 2003

Time and Eternity   Kali figure Shiva figure   Windmill Victory Yesterday's meditation on St. Bridget suggests the above graphic summary of two rather important philosophical concepts. Representing Kali, or Time, is Judy Davis in "The New Age." Representing Shiva, or Eternity, is sword-saint Michioka Yoshinori-sensei.  The relationship between these two concepts is summarized very neatly by Heinrich Zimmer in his section on the Kalika Purana in The King and the Corpse. The relationship is also represented graphically by the "whirl" of Time and the "diamond" of Eternity. On this day in 1944, Mondrian died.  Echoes of the graphic whirl and diamond may be found (as shown above) in his "Red Mill" and "Victory Boogie-Woogie." 5:10 am Comments on this post: You have interesting stuff to say. I have read a lot of your blog today.  Site looks a lot better.  But I turned off sound first!  I keep getting messages to update this thing and that, quicktime, but it messes up my machine, conflict somewhere.... cool writing Posted 2/2/2003 at 9:59 am by sheerbliss The New Age is a powerful, relentless film whose emotional and moral vacuum leaves us shaken, unwilling to believe that what we see is as real and common as we know it is. Interesting.  And I've just turned the corner on all the New Age hoopla myself.  There is nothing new about the New Age, and it appears to be a moral vacuum.  What you see is what you get.  Period. There is no big secret.  Plenty of confusion and speculation. No secret.  Posted 3/8/2003 at 7:04 am by oOMisfitOo