"The Cradle Logic of Autumn" (link)
I heard of this gentleman by way of Harold Bloom's conversation with Charlie Rose. Bloom spoke very highly of Wright, placing him on a poetic platform with the likes of Whitman, bypassing the vast majority of our contemporary poetic and prose figures. From what I've read so far, I find Wright's work to be of very high quality.
I freely admit that, as a newcomer to anyone's work, it has the bittersweet aspects of the novel: fresh experiences often have a vitality that inflate their true value (but how sweet that vitality is! how often we seek to recreate the feeling of a first-time experience), but they also are more difficult to penetrate, moreso if the author of the experience is also new to us, as we are unfamiliar with their mores, their styles, and their particular diction. You can experience this when you meet new people and they make a joke that you don't understand, as the very same joke from a familiar companion would be so subtly, but precisely reinterpreted and renegotiated within our brains, sending the message that they intended, a courtesy that we would find quite difficult, often impossible, to extend to those foreign to us, even were we to wish to do so. By stating this, I mean to express that I cannot possibly be an expert, nor even an authority, on the work that I have posted. Despite this rather compromising failure for someone (such as myself) who is seeking to share creative works with others, I still share this as I found it to be drawing in an as yet inarticulable fashion.
Perhaps after I've had some time to consider what it is that I've read with more satisfaction, I can write on the subject. At present, that would be premature, so I invite you to read and enjoy as you would were I not here.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Conversations: Argyros and Lemnos, I
INTRODUCTIONS
Setting:
A market stall on the side of the Main Road. ARGYROS, a forty-something merchant of good stock and respectable wealth, is selling jewelry and rare crafts to passers-by. A young man, LEMNOS, looking harried but intense, enters the stage.
------
ARGYROS:
‘Lo there! Have you a moment to see what I’ve got, fellow?
LEMNOS: (Not stopping, irritated)
What you’ve got? I suspect cheap trinkets and other wastes of time. I have no time for this.
ARGYROS:
Don’t be so hasty, my young friend! I carry nothing but the finest of goods here. If you have no time for culture, then please do carry on.
LEMNOS: (Finally halting)
Hah! Culture… don’t play me a fool. I’m a man both of the earth and society; I happen to know the difference between culture and frivolities, and I know which you’re selling.
ARGYROS: (Patiently)
You’re quick to judge what I’m about, my friend. Come, if you’d do me the favor of explaining the difference as you see it, I could make it worth your time.
LEMNOS: (Moving closer to ARGYROS, the annoyance growing, but curiosity piqued)
The difference is clear enough. It is impossible to establish a meaningful understanding of a society by looking at how gold and gems are treated, and what they look like. The written word, the common tongue, and the actions of the citizen are all far more telling of what a society is.
ARGYROS:
I see what you’re getting at, but I think I disagree. Let me ask you a question: can you think of a society that has not placed value or emphasis on the “trinkets” that you seem to despise?
LEMNOS: (Skeptically)
Not at the moment, no.
ARGYROS: (Calmly, with warmth)
Then certainly, you can see that society as a rule will instill value into gems, gold, and metals of rare varieties. As they value them highly, and alter them to create certain images, those gems and metals become manifestations of what a culture views as beauty and valuable.
LEMNOS: (Annoyed at the point)
I grant you that art can be injected into such things, but what a society wishes to present to itself and others very often differs sharply from what the society rewards and fosters.
ARGYROS:
I wouldn’t have said otherwise! I’m beginning to suspect that you’re opposed to the acquisition of physical wealth, however.
LEMNOS:
Rightly so. Your very stockade here is an affront to what I perceive as the greater part of what our society could be. Instead of investments into our community for the betterment of the city as a whole, you entice the citizenry to purchase useless decoration and fatten your own purse in the deal.
ARGYROS:
You criticize me because I offer a service, but you absolve my customers from their part in it? If what I am doing were so bad, why am I not out of business? There is a hunger here, and I am sating it with the finest of cuisine.
LEMNOS: (Stepping away, restraining agitation)
Call it a hunger if you’d like, but it’s pretty clear to me that you’re far more interested in increasing your own wealth. If you were so keen on feeding the people’s hunger for gold, why are you charging them money?
ARGYROS:
Would you expect the farmer to give his wheat to the baker without cost? Should the baker then go uncompensated for his creation of bread? No, even though the service is needed, it is still paid for. Without this exchange, there is no reason to perform the action.
LEMNOS:
Perhaps not for you, but it’s clear to me that actions for the good of the whole should be their own reward, and each should contribute to the wellbeing of the community. If a man is starving, would you rather see him die than see him fed without payment?
ARGYROS:
I can’t say that the question is fair; what do we know of this man? Has he been stricken with illness, or been wronged by another man? At its core, is his privation the work of himself or not? Such things matter.
LEMNOS:
Ah-hah! You clearly understand that there are times in which the exchange of money is secondary to the conditions of a man. I should challenge you to consider where you draw your lines, as if a society can benefit from an action as a whole, and that includes the man acting, then surely it should be done.
ARGYROS:
You seem to have an overestimation of the intelligence behind a society, and the knowledge of its people. Perhaps if we were an ideal, you may have some room to speak. As it stands, however, I cannot be responsible for my neighbor’s life when I’m full with my own. I may give a starving man a loaf of bread if he’s hit hard times not of his own actions, but it would be to the detriment of our society as a whole for all men to be able to receive free bread. If you do not have to pay for your bread, or your clothes, why would you work? If the farmer would get no money for his wheat, why would he grow it?
LEMNOS: (becoming more agitated)
It is obvious that if no one works, there will be no wheat, no bread, and no clothing. Since everyone has need of these things, the work must be done, and the work will be done. Capable men will farm rather than starve, and those who do not have to farm will tailor clothes rather than go naked into the cold of winter. With these actions being performed out of necessity, the excess can be used to feed and clothe those others who perform other tasks for the good of society.
ARGYROS:
Young man, I’m afraid what you’re saying seems to be playing out only in your head. You expect people to work beyond their own sufficiency on the hope that other people will do the same, without any guarantee behind it nor any enforcement for each to do their part. I suspect you may have a valid point locked somewhere in there, but I highly doubt that it’s anywhere near the degree to which you think it extends. I suggest that you continue along your way and consider your position, and I will consider mine as well. If you should like to continue this discussion, I will be here tomorrow, and the day after. I suspect that I may yet learn something from you, and that you can draw the same from me, but you seem too worked up to respond with full reason.
LEMNOS:
Loathe as I am to admit it, but I feel you may be right about my presentation. I know that I am right, and I will take the time to consider how best to phrase it for you. I’m unsure of how much I can draw from your view, but rest assured that before we are finished, you will be much more in line with how I perceive things. I shall return tomorrow, and we can continue then. You may call me Lemnos, merchant.
ARGYROS:
Very well, Lemnos. I am called Argyros, and I look forward to continuing this discourse.
LEMNOS:
So it shall be. I hope you don't sell much in the meantime.
Setting:
A market stall on the side of the Main Road. ARGYROS, a forty-something merchant of good stock and respectable wealth, is selling jewelry and rare crafts to passers-by. A young man, LEMNOS, looking harried but intense, enters the stage.
------
ARGYROS:
‘Lo there! Have you a moment to see what I’ve got, fellow?
LEMNOS: (Not stopping, irritated)
What you’ve got? I suspect cheap trinkets and other wastes of time. I have no time for this.
ARGYROS:
Don’t be so hasty, my young friend! I carry nothing but the finest of goods here. If you have no time for culture, then please do carry on.
LEMNOS: (Finally halting)
Hah! Culture… don’t play me a fool. I’m a man both of the earth and society; I happen to know the difference between culture and frivolities, and I know which you’re selling.
ARGYROS: (Patiently)
You’re quick to judge what I’m about, my friend. Come, if you’d do me the favor of explaining the difference as you see it, I could make it worth your time.
LEMNOS: (Moving closer to ARGYROS, the annoyance growing, but curiosity piqued)
The difference is clear enough. It is impossible to establish a meaningful understanding of a society by looking at how gold and gems are treated, and what they look like. The written word, the common tongue, and the actions of the citizen are all far more telling of what a society is.
ARGYROS:
I see what you’re getting at, but I think I disagree. Let me ask you a question: can you think of a society that has not placed value or emphasis on the “trinkets” that you seem to despise?
LEMNOS: (Skeptically)
Not at the moment, no.
ARGYROS: (Calmly, with warmth)
Then certainly, you can see that society as a rule will instill value into gems, gold, and metals of rare varieties. As they value them highly, and alter them to create certain images, those gems and metals become manifestations of what a culture views as beauty and valuable.
LEMNOS: (Annoyed at the point)
I grant you that art can be injected into such things, but what a society wishes to present to itself and others very often differs sharply from what the society rewards and fosters.
ARGYROS:
I wouldn’t have said otherwise! I’m beginning to suspect that you’re opposed to the acquisition of physical wealth, however.
LEMNOS:
Rightly so. Your very stockade here is an affront to what I perceive as the greater part of what our society could be. Instead of investments into our community for the betterment of the city as a whole, you entice the citizenry to purchase useless decoration and fatten your own purse in the deal.
ARGYROS:
You criticize me because I offer a service, but you absolve my customers from their part in it? If what I am doing were so bad, why am I not out of business? There is a hunger here, and I am sating it with the finest of cuisine.
LEMNOS: (Stepping away, restraining agitation)
Call it a hunger if you’d like, but it’s pretty clear to me that you’re far more interested in increasing your own wealth. If you were so keen on feeding the people’s hunger for gold, why are you charging them money?
ARGYROS:
Would you expect the farmer to give his wheat to the baker without cost? Should the baker then go uncompensated for his creation of bread? No, even though the service is needed, it is still paid for. Without this exchange, there is no reason to perform the action.
LEMNOS:
Perhaps not for you, but it’s clear to me that actions for the good of the whole should be their own reward, and each should contribute to the wellbeing of the community. If a man is starving, would you rather see him die than see him fed without payment?
ARGYROS:
I can’t say that the question is fair; what do we know of this man? Has he been stricken with illness, or been wronged by another man? At its core, is his privation the work of himself or not? Such things matter.
LEMNOS:
Ah-hah! You clearly understand that there are times in which the exchange of money is secondary to the conditions of a man. I should challenge you to consider where you draw your lines, as if a society can benefit from an action as a whole, and that includes the man acting, then surely it should be done.
ARGYROS:
You seem to have an overestimation of the intelligence behind a society, and the knowledge of its people. Perhaps if we were an ideal, you may have some room to speak. As it stands, however, I cannot be responsible for my neighbor’s life when I’m full with my own. I may give a starving man a loaf of bread if he’s hit hard times not of his own actions, but it would be to the detriment of our society as a whole for all men to be able to receive free bread. If you do not have to pay for your bread, or your clothes, why would you work? If the farmer would get no money for his wheat, why would he grow it?
LEMNOS: (becoming more agitated)
It is obvious that if no one works, there will be no wheat, no bread, and no clothing. Since everyone has need of these things, the work must be done, and the work will be done. Capable men will farm rather than starve, and those who do not have to farm will tailor clothes rather than go naked into the cold of winter. With these actions being performed out of necessity, the excess can be used to feed and clothe those others who perform other tasks for the good of society.
ARGYROS:
Young man, I’m afraid what you’re saying seems to be playing out only in your head. You expect people to work beyond their own sufficiency on the hope that other people will do the same, without any guarantee behind it nor any enforcement for each to do their part. I suspect you may have a valid point locked somewhere in there, but I highly doubt that it’s anywhere near the degree to which you think it extends. I suggest that you continue along your way and consider your position, and I will consider mine as well. If you should like to continue this discussion, I will be here tomorrow, and the day after. I suspect that I may yet learn something from you, and that you can draw the same from me, but you seem too worked up to respond with full reason.
LEMNOS:
Loathe as I am to admit it, but I feel you may be right about my presentation. I know that I am right, and I will take the time to consider how best to phrase it for you. I’m unsure of how much I can draw from your view, but rest assured that before we are finished, you will be much more in line with how I perceive things. I shall return tomorrow, and we can continue then. You may call me Lemnos, merchant.
ARGYROS:
Very well, Lemnos. I am called Argyros, and I look forward to continuing this discourse.
LEMNOS:
So it shall be. I hope you don't sell much in the meantime.
The Rebel Intellectual's Complete and Total Guide to Happiness
1. Expect less of everything.
2. Do more of anything.
2. Do more of anything.
Initial Post
Mostly serving as a placeholder. I'll be figuring out more what I want to do with this as I go along, and I'll probably be putting it up elsewhere. In the meantime, though, this will suffice!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
