You haven’t written for a while. I hope all is ok with you and that you have a blessed Christmas. I miss your writing so hope you’ll be back in the New Year
Still around, but have been a bit busy and now I need to re-establish the writing habit! Thanks for checking in. I hope you had a good Christmas, and have a good New Year too.
Oct 23, 2022·edited Oct 23, 2022Liked by FFatalism
I am also still kicking, at least as of the writing of this comment. But my computer is slowly grinding down. It seems to be in the air. But hopefully this isn't a harbinger of something or other.
I have a shelf full of them and my favourite depends on my mood (I quite like Penny's and Roberts's of relatively recent ones), but the quote is from an unfinished one of my own from a few years ago. It's a bit painstaking because my classical Chinese is a long way from up to scratch, but I was learning a lot in the process and got to know the secondary literature better too.
Thank you. I have a few I like, as well, but generally go with the Red Pine version.
I have wanted to learn Classical Chinese myself, but it seems unlikely that will happen. I recently reread Chinese Poetry by Wai-Lim Yip. It better explains my attraction to Chinese Poetry, even when rendered inadequately into English--which is the only way I can get at it. The open syntactical structure of the language allows it to express something that is much more difficult in English. Yet, one can get, perhaps, a glimpse. Or so I hope.
Whether or not that can be imported more fully into English is another question. Since Ezra Pound, at least, there has been the attempt. -Jack
Oct 24, 2022·edited Oct 24, 2022Liked by FFatalism
I do have the Van Norden book. I started it, but realized that I didn't have the time to focus on it properly. I think there is a much larger project than I have the ability or time to grapple with. That of offering a different way to engage the world through language. The little I can tell Classical Chinese offers, at least in part, a different way of being in the world. The task, as I see it, we have before us is to find ways and practices to dismantle the will to power. As we swim in language this would be an important aspect of this. It is well beyond me to take that on, as much as it interests me. As it stands, I am stuck with English in a form after that developed after a few centuries of it being the language of the Imperium and commercialism. There are probably some advantages to that, I suppose, but it probably blinds us to a lot as well.
Still around and have got around to properly setting up the new computer now. Been busy, though that should settle soon, and disinclined to rewrite the piece that got eaten by the crash. I'll probably write something else first and see where we go from there at some point in the next few weeks. I'll be happy to see your piece though :D
Glad to hear you are still out there. Looking forward to your next piece.
I am well into David Cayley's Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey. I have begun the chapter on Corruptio Optimi Pessima. The whole book is excellent. I find myself already in agreement with much, if not most, of what he says
I was a regular subscriber to the Utne Reader throughout most of the nineties. This was my first exposure to people like Wendell Berry, Christopher Lasch, Gary Snyder, Theodore Roszak, etc. But Illich was often interviewed and profiled. As I recall I was somewhat mystified by him. This was the In the Vineyard of the Text era. But Tools for Conviviality was mentioned a lot. I don't no where else I would have picked up his ideas. Maybe they sunk in despite myself.
Anyway, thank you for the prompt to dig in to his thought a bit more. It has been clarifying. -Jack
Ah, good. I'm not dead yet either. Nice to have something in common with someone.
The only downside about your survival is that we might have otherwise formed a conspiracy theory around your death. Well, maybe next time!
Of course, I could be an imposter claiming to be the same person...
You haven’t written for a while. I hope all is ok with you and that you have a blessed Christmas. I miss your writing so hope you’ll be back in the New Year
Still around, but have been a bit busy and now I need to re-establish the writing habit! Thanks for checking in. I hope you had a good Christmas, and have a good New Year too.
I am also still kicking, at least as of the writing of this comment. But my computer is slowly grinding down. It seems to be in the air. But hopefully this isn't a harbinger of something or other.
Btw, what translation of the Tao Te Ching aka the Daodejing, do you use?
I often find Lau nails some of the subtelties well too, and Henricks translation of the Ma-Wang-Tui finds is good quite apart from the novel aspects
I have a shelf full of them and my favourite depends on my mood (I quite like Penny's and Roberts's of relatively recent ones), but the quote is from an unfinished one of my own from a few years ago. It's a bit painstaking because my classical Chinese is a long way from up to scratch, but I was learning a lot in the process and got to know the secondary literature better too.
Thank you. I have a few I like, as well, but generally go with the Red Pine version.
I have wanted to learn Classical Chinese myself, but it seems unlikely that will happen. I recently reread Chinese Poetry by Wai-Lim Yip. It better explains my attraction to Chinese Poetry, even when rendered inadequately into English--which is the only way I can get at it. The open syntactical structure of the language allows it to express something that is much more difficult in English. Yet, one can get, perhaps, a glimpse. Or so I hope.
Whether or not that can be imported more fully into English is another question. Since Ezra Pound, at least, there has been the attempt. -Jack
It turned up too late to be a great help for me, but Van Norden's 'Classical Chinese for Everyone' is a great little book
I do have the Van Norden book. I started it, but realized that I didn't have the time to focus on it properly. I think there is a much larger project than I have the ability or time to grapple with. That of offering a different way to engage the world through language. The little I can tell Classical Chinese offers, at least in part, a different way of being in the world. The task, as I see it, we have before us is to find ways and practices to dismantle the will to power. As we swim in language this would be an important aspect of this. It is well beyond me to take that on, as much as it interests me. As it stands, I am stuck with English in a form after that developed after a few centuries of it being the language of the Imperium and commercialism. There are probably some advantages to that, I suppose, but it probably blinds us to a lot as well.
Br. F- I haven't heard from you in a while. How goes the computer situation?
I have started writing about anarchism and would love to hear your thoughts yea or nay.
I hope you are well. -Jack
Still around and have got around to properly setting up the new computer now. Been busy, though that should settle soon, and disinclined to rewrite the piece that got eaten by the crash. I'll probably write something else first and see where we go from there at some point in the next few weeks. I'll be happy to see your piece though :D
Glad to hear you are still out there. Looking forward to your next piece.
I am well into David Cayley's Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey. I have begun the chapter on Corruptio Optimi Pessima. The whole book is excellent. I find myself already in agreement with much, if not most, of what he says
I was a regular subscriber to the Utne Reader throughout most of the nineties. This was my first exposure to people like Wendell Berry, Christopher Lasch, Gary Snyder, Theodore Roszak, etc. But Illich was often interviewed and profiled. As I recall I was somewhat mystified by him. This was the In the Vineyard of the Text era. But Tools for Conviviality was mentioned a lot. I don't no where else I would have picked up his ideas. Maybe they sunk in despite myself.
Anyway, thank you for the prompt to dig in to his thought a bit more. It has been clarifying. -Jack
Glad you're enjoying it. I thought Cayley's book was excellent