{"id":7919,"date":"2010-10-15T06:42:39","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T10:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=7919"},"modified":"2010-10-15T06:42:39","modified_gmt":"2010-10-15T10:42:39","slug":"just-who-do-you-think-you-are-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/just-who-do-you-think-you-are-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Who Do You Think You Are, Anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/object><\/p>\n

[For information about the video, see the note<\/a> at the bottom of this post.]<\/em><\/p>\n

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

There is never anything more truthful
\nThan what you yourself make of it
\nExcept the possibility that is always there
\nBehind you, at the back of the mirror,
\nBehind the brain, in back of the universe —
\nAnd that also as you will make it.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Peyton Houston, from The Changes<\/em> [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

When you find yourself asking, irritably and rhetorically, “Why the hell does he keep doing that?!” — I strongly recommend you answer the rhetorical question. The causal story revealed in the answer, which always has roots outside the person, might reduce counter-productive blaming and contempt, and it will give you vital information about how the behavior might be changed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Thomas Clark, from Encountering Naturalism<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

…and<\/a> (italicized portion):<\/p>\n

We suffer from a hallucination, from a false and distorted sensation of our own existence as living organisms. Most of us have the sensation that “I myself” is a separate center of feeling and action, living inside and bounded by the physical body — a center which “confronts” an “external” world of people and things, making contact through the senses with a universe both alien and strange. Everyday figures of speech reflect this illusion. “I came into this world.” “You must face reality.” “The conquest of nature.”<\/p>\n

This feeling of being lonely and very temporary visitors in the universe is in flat contradiction to everything known about man (and all other living organisms) in the sciences. We do not come into this world; we come <\/em>out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean “waves,” the universe “peoples.” Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated egos inside bags of skin.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Alan Watts, from The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are<\/em>)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

What guarantee is there that the five senses, taken together, do cover the whole of possible experience? They cover simply our actual experience, our human knowledge of facts or events. There are gaps between the fingers; there are gaps between the senses. In these gaps is the darkness which hides the connection between things…. This darkness is the source of our vague fears and anxieties, but also the home of the gods. They alone see the connections, the total relevance of everything that happens; that which now comes to us in bits and pieces, the “accidents” which exist only in our heads, in our limited perceptions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Idris Parry, “Kafka, Rilke, and Rumpelstiltskin” in The Listener<\/em>, quoted by Watts in The Book<\/em>)<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Litany<\/strong><\/p>\n

You are the bread and the knife,
\nThe crystal goblet and the wine…
\n<\/em>Jacques Crickillon<\/span><\/p>\n

You are the bread and the knife,
\nthe crystal goblet and the wine.
\nYou are the dew on the morning grass
\nand the burning wheel of the sun.
\nYou are the white apron of the baker
\nand the marsh birds suddenly in flight.<\/p>\n

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
\nthe plums on the counter,
\nor the house of cards.
\nAnd you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
\nThere is just no way you are the pine-scented air.<\/p>\n

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
\nmaybe even the pigeon on the general’s head,
\nbut you are not even close
\nto being the field of cornflowers at dusk.<\/p>\n

And a quick look in the mirror will show
\nthat you are neither the boots in the corner
\nnor the boat asleep in its boathouse.<\/p>\n

It might interest you to know,
\nspeaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
\nthat I am the sound of rain on the roof.<\/p>\n

I also happen to be the shooting star,
\nthe evening paper blowing down an alley,
\nand the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.<\/p>\n

I am also the moon in the trees
\nand the blind woman’s tea cup.
\nBut don’t worry, I am not the bread and the knife.
\nYou are still the bread and the knife.
\nYou will always be the bread and the knife,
\nnot to mention the crystal goblet and — somehow — the wine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Billy Collins [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"About the video:<\/strong> This is a mashup of two separate media, clips from Terry Gilliam’s 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen<\/em><\/a> and a song, “Hopp\u00edpolla,” by Icelandic band Sigur R\u00f3s. Wikipedia describes them<\/a> as “a post-rock band with melodic, classical, and minimalist elements. The band is known for its ethereal sound and lead singer J\u00f3nsi Birgisson’s falsetto.”<\/p>\n

As for Gilliam’s film… Baron M\u00fcnchhausen was a real historical figure, an 18th-century nobleman and soldier noted for the outrageous lies he supposedly told about his adventures abroad in the world. (The caricature shown here was created by Gustave Dor\u00e9 for an 1862 edition of the book of the Baron’s exploits. The Latin motto on the shield reads Mendace Veritas<\/em>, that is, In falsehood, truth<\/em>. As his Wikipedia article<\/a> notes, most of the stories about his exaggerations were themselves exaggerations by others — even based on folk stories that had been popular for centuries.) Such a florid character, real or not, was almost bound to catch the eye of Terry Gilliam: all those surreal little between-the-skits animations he created as a member of the Monty Python troupe were practically mini-M\u00fcnchhausen tales in their own right. I’d never seen his film until this year, and still haven’t finished it — DVRed it a few months ago, and grab little bits of it every now and then. It’s a big old beast of an experience, and I’m sure once I’ve seen it all I’ll remember it: even the incomprehensible bits practically jump out of the screen.<\/p>\n

The creator of the Sigur R\u00f3s\/Terry Gilliam video says at its YouTube page that he has no idea what the song’s lyrics mean; he just likes the way its tone — its sound<\/em> — seems to go with the clips’ visuals. It turns out that the lyrics (here<\/a> among many other places) indeed have pretty much nothing to do with the film as a whole or with these clips in specific, but I think he’s right about the tone.<\/p>\n

[back to top<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[For information about the video, see the note at the bottom of this post.] From whiskey river: There is never anything more truthful Than what you yourself make of it Except the possibility that is always there Behind you, at the back of the mirror, Behind the brain, in back of the universe — And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,53,74,36,251],"tags":[1141,1211,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019],"class_list":{"0":"post-7919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-movies-media","9":"category-music","10":"category-reading","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"tag-billy-collins","13":"tag-alan-watts","14":"tag-terry-gilliam","15":"tag-baron-munchausen","16":"tag-sigur-ros","17":"tag-peyton-houston","18":"tag-thomas-clark","19":"tag-idris-parry","20":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-23J","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7919","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=7919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}