What Now? > What Now?
Letters of Interest
Nation of One:
This will take too long ...
I would hate to pull stuff out of context. It's quite a letter! Very lucid.
Artaud was tired of Kafka ... reminiscent of the Schopenhauer Against Hegel rants [comments from the peanut gallery -- ah, but what a peanut gallery it is! Let's hear more from the peanut gallery, and more from the insane asylums and prisons as well, while we're at it.] ;)
Seek out the weirdest literature if you seek any literature at all.
While the letter begins on page 113, I want to jump to page 117, where he lambasts 5 specific BOOKS. And yet, I feel the full impact can only be felt when you consider this is in a very long Post Scriptum; that is, what he writes after he signs the letter is longer than the initial letter. Hmmmmm ....
How shall I proceed when my haywire brain is pulling me in several directions at once? Which wolves do I feed? Do I wish to study Concepts in C++ and practice generic programming to explore algebraic structures and fields/rings, or do I wish to consider the things society (and Science and Mathematics) keeps hidden?
Can't I do both?
We shall see ... as Holden writes (and Alfred Korzybski [author of SCIENCE & SANITY] once wrote). I wonder how Korzybski and Artaud would perceive one another. They seem to be extreme opposites, no? Korzybski was part of the very "scientific elite community" which would rule the world if they could. I guess they thought they had it all figured out, the epitome of man'splainin' ... Artaud was opposed to that very elite intellectual class which presumes to know best ...
... not too dissimilar from those who "dictate" the technical details of software language constructs? I suppose I am guilty of paying enormous respect to such "eggheads." I am intrigued with how I might be able to use their "invisible yet alphanumeric-based tools" to deepen my understanding of algebraic structures and learn how to use concepts to enforce requirements on numeric types, such as my Fraction class, complex numbers, and the like.
In the meantime, I would like to share this letter with the readers of this board, but I can't bring myself to get into the task ... I may not be able to deliver on the promise. It was just an idea, another idea floating around on the never ending queue of things I might like to do were I to get enough gumption to do so.
Sorry, today, I am having inner conflicts. Now I know what Holden means when he says "Mathematics is a jealous mistress." Since my study of programming is so passionately motivated by my desire to apply it to studying algebraic structures, this would represent a crucial breakthrough in my "own little world, the one I live in."
At least I have communicated my intentions, and if you have hard copies, I will not bother to type it.
___________________________________________________________
Letter Against the Kabbala [sic]
nothing for this at https://books.google.com/books/about/Artaud_Anthology.html?id=5RdQ-2uiTFIC
typed transcriptions from Letter Against the Kabbala:
(random excerpts)
Silenus:
If you don't mind, I'll post a link here for a new book that can be downloaded for free for kindle users over the next couple of days:
Morsels for the Depressed, Depraved, Pessimistic, and otherwise declining
by Saul van der Walt
"Aphorisms, Fragments, and Flash fiction, also some poetry, for all who are lost and not particularly looking to be found."
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZKXSHLM/ref=pe_385040_117923520_TE_M1DP
Now it's time to give it a look while here "on the clock" at work. Hope everyone is well enough.
Nation of One:
Just what the doctor ordered! Thanks Silenus. I may need that book today. I'm just trying not to become overwhelmed. I have reached a mental block and must do some serious learning. Beneath the surface, there is panic and anxiety. Maybe it is best to just get used to "being lost" ... or maybe it is helpful to resist becoming too enthusiastic about anything.
There seems to be no getting around the fact that "being a living organism" is no party.
Life is certainly no Van Halen concert, that's for sure.
May we each find a place to hide, to gather our thoughts, to reflect.
This Saul van der Walt may be a kindred spirit, a like-minded individual:
--- Quote ---One is not obliged to do anything, and whoever says otherwise is a slave (though, we're all slaves to something or other).
--- End quote ---
Silenus:
Based off of what I've read so far, I think he is open to understanding biological complexity as being slavery. And of course call it Will, Brahma etc as you see fit, just so long as you recognize the tumbling chaotic DRIVE towards... where exactly? "Eating" more energy?
Am I remembering correctly that you once changed the forum name to "fireside chats?" I kind of enjoyed picturing voices echoing a pact of refusal, each alone knowing very well that it (physical existence in it's entirety) may never end.
Nation of One:
Some of my sentiments have been confirmed by this author, sentiments which are rarely discussed, such as the idea that it is more sensible and graceful to wait until your parents and others have either passed away or given up on you altogether before doing yourself in.
Perhaps many do themselves in on a subconscious level, but some of us may have a natural grace and polite gentleness about us, so we would wish to spare our kin (small tiny monkey-sphere) and locals the drama and anguish, grief, heartache, etc.
He also gives some stern criticisms which may bruise the ego, such as something to the effect to "stop whining" about those who do such and such (professional programmers [I may insensitively refer to them as "code-monkeys"] or industrial/military/government scientists, doctors etc. [whom I am not altogether sure I respect or trust]), and just go about your own business of learning what you wish to learn on your own terms. I may have misread it as I tend to read such material when I am in that zone between dropping dead with tiredness or I wish to detach quickly from the abstract state-of-mind I call "codemode" (a trance-like state where "the Holy-but-Beyond-Good&Evil Ghost" [in the Machine] possesses the Subject (me :P) with a yearning to understand, even at one chunk at a time). Much seriousness is said in jest I suppose. ;)
As an analogy, I will chew these concepts as a man with few teeth chews meat. I must tuck most of it up into the pocket of the cheek like sister squirrel does. I cannot expect rapid retention nor mystical or magical Voices of "God" or "Gods".
I like my understanding to grow through its own confusions and struggle to stay focused so as to honestly follow or digest/grasp.
I prefer to grasp at least the fundamentals and foundational concepts honestly than to delude myself into an ego-gratifying and deluded self-perception as "someone aspiring to be a master/expert".
There is less pressure in this world of professionals and of charlatans posturing for "credentials" to simply be a tinkering buffoon, Dostoyevski's Prince Myshkin, the Idiot who does not hold grudges against those who have wronged or abused him.
To simply learn as someone who does not expect to be taken seriously by either professionals nor academics.
I may have picked something up from this Saul van character/writer, that is, some of the sentence fragments above might be called "technical aphorisms."
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