Posts Tagged ‘ nietzsche ’
the broken past
There are three ways we seem to look at our past. First, as antiquarians, we see the past as something to be venerated and sanctified. If you ever find yourself nostalgic for a time since gone, for home, wherever and whatever that might be, you might be an antiquarian. We also have a tendency to monumentalize the past. We look at the giant ideas and people that came before us and strive for the greatness they once knew. I will, every now and again, find myself at a sporting event or a political rally and someone will sing the anthem or America the Beautiful, or something of that ilk and tears will come to my eyes as I think of all that has been accomplished in American history and all the good that we are capable of with all the power we possess. These moments are always tempered by the bad that has been done in American history, but the good is still there and that hope is what pushes me forward. In these moments I am a monumentalist. Finally, we can be critical of our history. We can understand our past as so much rubble to be sifted through.
extra lucem nulla salus
A Metaphysical Field Guide for Photographers. “Eternity is in love with the productions of time” - so wrote William Blake in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," perhaps the best-known literary witness in the West to the reality of nonduality, that rarefied realm where subject and object forever incestuously join. Given a moment’s meditation, one can see in this allegation a fairly accurate description of the art of photography, taking as its substance that utterly indestructible (hence, eternal) medium: light.
art-destruction as holiday gift \/\/ warhol stocking stuffer
Books make great holiday gifts. They’re not usually very big or expensive, though they can be both. And they can signal a regard for the receiver’s interests, intelligence, and aesthetic sense. This sort of multi-level communication is very much in vogue these days. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol from A to B and Back Again (1975) is maybe the easiest book to give, at least in my library. Everyone loves it. So many people that it almost cuts down on the specialness of the book as a gift. Except for that it is an incredibly intimate piece of writing. Not exactly in the sense offered by the latest Kitty Kelley biography, which imagines the uncovering of salacious gossip as some kind of final or conclusive knowledge about its protagonist. And Warhol loved every porny detail, don’t get me wrong. The thing is this is a “philosophy”: a warm, funny, charismatic, and full view of the world, its workings and its workers. The chapters alternate between a transcript of a telephone dialogue between “A” and “B,” and loose collections of anecdotes and aphorisms. Both genres are longtime staples of philosophical writing: Plato and Rousseau wrote dialogues, Pascal and Nietzsche wrote aphorisms. In
cut the fruit from the vine, and the whole world falls away
I used to have a definite deathwish. During my twenties, I decided that I would kill myself when I turned 33. I wasn't depressed, I simply didn't want to grow old. “Decrepitude” has such a nasty ring to it—did then, still does—and an even nastier smell. And now, almost four years past that expiration date, I can report that I was being stupid. But then I go and write stuff like the following...
