Life of Moravia

"It doesn't proceed via the head; it occurs through successive illuminations. The artist is always assisted by a demon, and it is this demon that illuminates him... What is illumination? I'll come to a perhaps more interesting point, which is entirely mine, because no one else would say it. Illumination is this: a rational operation of dizzying speed. If you have a fan at home, and you turn it on, at a certain point you won't see the blades anymore, you'll see something like a blur. Now, illumination in reality is a fantastic acceleration of rationality." ~ Alberto Moravia

http://housemirth.blogspot.com/2005/09/moravia-milosz-and-their-demons.html?m=1

Food for thought ~ FirstFT ~ 2014.11.18

Nobody cares about men’s fashion  Australian TV host Karl Stefanovic wore the same blue suit for a year and nobody noticed. He did this to highlight double standards in support of his female co-host after harsh criticism of her outfits. "I'm judged on my interviews, my appalling sense of humour – on how I do my job, basically. Whereas women are quite often judged on what they're wearing or how their hair is," he observed. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Plato on the Daimonion of Socrates

I have a divine sign [daimonion] from the god which… began when I was a child. It is a voice, and whenever it speaks it turns me away from something I am about to do, but it never turns me towards anything. This is what has prevented me from taking part in public affairs, and I think it was quite right to prevent me. Be sure, gentlemen of the jury, I should have died long ago otherwise. (Apology 31c)

What do I think is the reason for this? I will tell you. What has happened to me may well be a good thing, and those of us who believe death to be an evil are certainly mistaken. I have convincing proof of this, for it is impossible that my familiar sign did not oppose me if I was not about to do what was right. (Apology 40b-c)

I was sitting by myself in the undressing-room . . . and was already thinking of leaving. But when I got up, my customary divine sign put in an appearance. So I sat down again, and in a moment the two of them, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, came in. (Euthydemus 272e–273a)

My friend, just as I was about to cross the river, the familiar divine sign came to me which, whenever it occurs, holds me back from something I am about to do. I thought I heard a voice coming from this very spot, forbidding me to leave until I made atonement for some offense against the gods. (Phaedrus 242b–c)

Culture and Value ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

1930

Es ist eine große Versuchung den Geist explicit machen zu wollen.

It is a great temptation to try to make the spirit explicit.

-- Ludwig Wittgenstein

From Culture and Value (p.8/8e) (University of Chicago Press) / (Basil Blackwell, 1980)

The Days of the Rainbow (Other Press) ~ Antonio Skármeta

Bettini rubbed his eyes. Everything seemed so normal and real. However, he still had a slight hope that it was all just a bad dream. (31)

Ashbery: Collected Poems 1956-1987 ~ © 2008 by Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. ~ The Library of America -- 187

But, as panic results in calm, so accidents produce the blandness in which they may or may not decide to occur. Finally it is seen that they will have been in retreat a long time. On call, though absent. (365)

First Meditation ~ Descartes

"But the task looked an enormous one, and I began to wait until I should reach a mature enough age to ensure that no subsequent time of life would be more suitable for tackling such inquiries. This led me to put the project off for so long that I would now be to blame if by pondering over it any further I wasted the time still left for carrying it out ."

"...it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once."