{"id":19635,"date":"2017-09-29T08:43:08","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T12:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=19635"},"modified":"2017-09-29T08:43:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T12:43:08","slug":"practical-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/practical-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image:<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: “A Hedgehog (Erinaceus roumanicus),” by Hans Hoffmann (German, 16th century). Painting in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; for more about the painting, see the museum’s description of it.<\/a> As for its relevance here, well, read on.]<\/em><\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Perhaps everything lies in knowing what words to speak, what actions to perform, and in what order and rhythm; or else someone’s gaze, answer, gesture is enough; it is enough for someone to do something for the sheer pleasure of doing it, and for his pleasure to become the pleasure of others: at that moment, all spaces change, all heights, distances; the city is transfigured, becomes crystalline, transparent as a dragonfly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Italo Calvino [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Off A Side Road Near Staunton<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some nothing afternoon, no one anywhere,
\nan early autumn stillness in the air,
\nthe kind of empty day you fill by taking in
\nthe full size of the valley and its layers leading
\nslowly to the Blue Ridge, the quality of country,
\nif you stand here long enough, you could stay
\nfor, step into, the way a landscape, even on a wall,
\npulls you in, one field at a time, pasture and fall
\nmeadow, high above the harvest, perfect
\nto the tree line, then spirit clouds and intermittent
\nsunlit smoky rain riding the tops of the mountains,
\nthough you could walk until it’s dark and not reach those rains—
\nyou could walk the rest of the day into the picture
\nand not know why, at any given moment, you’re there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Stanley Plumly [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Fairy-Tale Logic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fairy tales are full of impossible tasks:
\nGather the chin hairs of a man-eating goat,
\nOr cross the sulphuric lake in a leaky boat,
\nSelect the prince from a row of identical masks,
\nTiptoe up to a dragon where it basks
\nAnd snatch its bone; count dust specks, mote by mote,
\nOr learn the phone directory by rote.
\nAlways it’s impossible when someone asks—<\/p>\n

You have to fight magic with magic. You have to believe
\nThat you have something impossible up your sleeve—
\nThe language of snakes, perhaps, an invisible cloak,
\nAn army of ants at your beck, or a lethal joke,
\nThe will to do whatever must be done:
\nMarry a monster. Hand over your firstborn son.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(A. E. Stallings [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

One job of the unconscious is to act as a workshop for rough-shaping ideas; crafting notions as new parts or tools become available; storing observations until something relevant appears in the landscape — generally soaking, simmering, and incubating ideas. Gradually, while combing through its inventory, it finds bits and pieces that create a pattern. When it slips knowledge of that pattern to the conscious mind, it’s a surprise, like a telegram slid under the door. Since we weren’t looking for it, and didn’t know<\/em> about it, where did it come from? Out of thin air.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Diane Ackerman [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

A human being weighing 70 kilograms contains among other things:
\n-45 litres of water
\n-Enough chalk to whiten a chicken pen
\n-Enough phosphorus for 2,200 matches
\n-Enough fat to make approximately 70 bars of soap
\n-Enough iron to make a two inch nail
\n-Enough carbon for 9,000 pencil points
\n-A spoonful of magnesium
\nI weigh more than 70 kilograms.<\/p>\n

And I remember a TV series called Cosmos<\/em>. Carl Sagan would walk around on a set that was meant to look like space, speaking in large numbers. On one of the shows he sat in front of a tank full of all the substances human beings are made of. He stirred the tank with a stick wondering if he would be able to create life.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t succeed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Erlend Loe [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Identity<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Hans Hofmann became a hedgehog
\nsomewhere in a Germany that has
\nvanished with its forests and hedgerows
\nShakespeare would have been a young actor
\nstarting out in a country that was
\nonly a word to Hans who had learned
\nfrom those who had painted animals
\nonly from hearing tales about them
\nwithout ever setting eyes on them
\nor from corpses with the lingering
\nlight mute and deathly still forever
\nheld fast in the fur or the feathers
\nhanging or lying on a table
\nand he had learned from others who had
\narranged the corpses of animals
\nas though they were still alive in full
\nflight or on their way but this hedgehog
\nwas there in the same life as his own
\nlooking around at him with his brush
\nof camel hair and his stretched parchment
\nof sheepskin as he turned to each sharp
\nparticular quill and every black
\nwhisker on the long live snout and those
\nflat clawed feet made only for trundling
\nand for feeling along the dark undersides
\nof stones and as Hans took them in he
\nturned into the Hans that we would see<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(W. S. Merwin [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “A Hedgehog (Erinaceus roumanicus),” by Hans Hoffmann (German, 16th century). Painting in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; for more about the painting, see the museum’s description of it. As for its relevance here, well, read on.] From whiskey river: Perhaps everything lies in knowing what words to speak, what actions to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Italo Calvino, Diane Ackerman, et al., on useful (and sometimes sadly impossible) transformations: 'Practical Magic'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,250,5,251,4159],"tags":[351,1214,1435,1438,3910,4051,4593,4594,4595,4596],"class_list":{"0":"post-19635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-art","10":"category-06_writing","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"category-essays","13":"tag-ws-merwin","14":"tag-magic","15":"tag-a-e-stallings","16":"tag-diane-ackerman","17":"tag-stanley-plumly","18":"tag-italo-calvino","19":"tag-erlend-loe","20":"tag-transformation","21":"tag-things-becoming-or-failing-to-become-other-things","22":"tag-hans-hoffmann","23":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/hedgehog_hanshoffman_thumb.jpg?fit=600%2C398&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-56H","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19635"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19639,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19635\/revisions\/19639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}