hells and confessions
dan said:
"Jolly Beggar, you might be interested in dans inferno's newly begun blog. It's dans search for hell...........dans inferno "
(www.dans-inferno-search.blogspot.com/ )
well, i went there, (dan's blog that is, not hell itself!) and the thing about newly begun blogs is that they are more interesting if you begin them with an initial post, buddy- anyway, i'm interested in where you go with it...
i bought copies of the three volumes of dante's divine comedy years ago, but i have yet to read them. they do look particularly impressive on my bookshelf, along with volumes of milton, kierkegaard, rand and others which i haven't read either, and a copy of 'portrait of the artist...' which i recently checked out of the library. i read bunyan's 'pilgrim's progress'- does that count? oh the masks we wear. someday i'll get around to them- until then i'll just ask questions of people who have.
does joyce actually quote dante in that bit that rhymes apologize with 'pull out his eyes' or is he just name-dropping in order to take us somewhere? marcy? dan? icarus?
well at any rate, an empty blog on hell seems about right. having, as i have already confessed, not read dante's piece (although being mildly curious as to why joyce makes reference to dante as if he were a contemporary of daedulus' uncle- spiritual, aesthetic, mentoring or otherwise) my understanding of hell is a bit more traditional. (well, it appears traditional until you consider that the bible was first translated into english in 1611 and dante was writing his divine comedy in italian around 1306-1321... but i think that these are just details. the authorship of the biblical texts on hell predates dante by a fair bit so whatever...)
do you ever have one of those days where everything you say is bogged down by subclauses and parentheses?
the biblical descriptions of hell are figurative. the stuff about fire and brimstone and all that is, in my opinion, meant to somehow describe what being eternally separated from God might be compared to in physical torment- dante's epic poem is probably a powerful exploration of what the ultimate spiritual void might 'feel' like as well. the fact that copies of inferno seem to greatly outsell copies of the other 2/3 of dante's trilogy suggests to me that humankind after the fall is still more interested in darkness than light- for some reason people are fickle and bored with the presence of God and turn earnestly in fancy to his absense.
i punched out something along these lines as the liner notes for an industrial cd that i recorded in 1998 called 'buffet taboo- if no one witnesses the crime'.
went something like this... (sorry for the caps- i just don't want to type it out again)
NOTES: HELLS AND CONFESSIONS
MANY CHOOSE A MORTAL PRELUDE TO HELL AND CALL IT LIFE- A LIFE OF ISOLATION, LONELINESS AND STUBBORN SELF-SUFFICIENCY WHICH REFUSES TO ACCEPT THE POSSIBILITY OF PERSONAL FAULT OR NEED. I IMAGINE THAT THERE ARE TWO MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THIS TEMPORARY HELL AND THE PERMANENT ONE.
FIRST, A TEMPORARY HELL IS GOVERNED BY TIME AND, BECAUSE OF THAT PROPERTY OF TIME THAT CAUSES IT TO BE USED UP, IS ALWAYS TOO SHORT. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH TIME LEFT TO THE DYING MAN TO ACTUALLY CHANGE THE COURSE OF HIS LIFE- JUST ENOUGH TO REGRET THE COURSE HIS LIFE HAS TAKEN. THERE IS NO TURNING BACK AND NOTHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO, BUT AT LEAST THEN IT IS OVER. THE SECOND HELL IS ALSO A SOLITARY ONE, BUT ONE WHICH EXISTS OUTSIDE OF TIME AND THEREFORE INFINITE- NO MORE OR LESS TORMENT, JUST AN ENDLESS SEPARATION FROM GOD WHICH WILL ALWAYS BE MORE THAN IS BEARABLE BECAUSE THE OPTION OF REPENTENCE IS NO LONGER OPEN.
THE SECOND MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO HELLS HAS TO DO WITH SIGHT. IN THE FIRST HELL, MAN TRIES TO CONTROL THE UNCONTROLLABLE, BEING BOTH TOO IGNORANT TO TRULY RECOGNIZE HIS FALLEN NATURE AND TOO STUBBORN TO ACCEPT HELP FROM EITHER GODS SON OR HIS PEOPLE. IN THE SECOND HELL, MAN IS ABLE TO SEE EXACTLY WHAT WAS NEEDED TO BE DONE, AND MUST EXIST FOREVERMORE WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT HE CHOSE THIS ETERNITY. LIVING FOREVER IN HINDSIGHT; HAVING NOTHING TO FOCUS ON BUT FAILURE AND CONSEQUENCE; NO LONGER BEING BLIND- SIMPLY POWERLESS; EXISTING IN PERPETUAL REGRET- THIS IS THE STUFF THAT THE SECOND HELL IS MADE OF. THERE ARE NO BUSRIDES OR WEEKEND PASSES, JUST AN ETERNITY OF KNOWING WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE...
OR MAYBE, SEEING ALL AND HAVING TO CHOOSE BETWEEN SELF-LOVE AND SURRENDER, NOTHING WOULD BE DIFFERENT. PERHAPS IT IS AS C.S. LEWIS SUGGESTED- ETERNITY BEGINS TODAY AND TODAY WE DWELL IN HELL OR IN PARADISE, DEPENDING ON WHO SITS ON THE THRONE OF OUR HEART. ONE CANNOT BOTH CLING TO THE EARTH AND REACH FOR THE SKY.
ONE THING IS SURE-
AFTER EVERY SIN,
NEW OR REMEMBERED,
ETERNITY IN PARADISE
BEGINS AGAIN
UPON MY CONFESSION.
"Jolly Beggar, you might be interested in dans inferno's newly begun blog. It's dans search for hell...........dans inferno "
(www.dans-inferno-search.blogspot.com/ )
well, i went there, (dan's blog that is, not hell itself!) and the thing about newly begun blogs is that they are more interesting if you begin them with an initial post, buddy- anyway, i'm interested in where you go with it...
i bought copies of the three volumes of dante's divine comedy years ago, but i have yet to read them. they do look particularly impressive on my bookshelf, along with volumes of milton, kierkegaard, rand and others which i haven't read either, and a copy of 'portrait of the artist...' which i recently checked out of the library. i read bunyan's 'pilgrim's progress'- does that count? oh the masks we wear. someday i'll get around to them- until then i'll just ask questions of people who have.
does joyce actually quote dante in that bit that rhymes apologize with 'pull out his eyes' or is he just name-dropping in order to take us somewhere? marcy? dan? icarus?
well at any rate, an empty blog on hell seems about right. having, as i have already confessed, not read dante's piece (although being mildly curious as to why joyce makes reference to dante as if he were a contemporary of daedulus' uncle- spiritual, aesthetic, mentoring or otherwise) my understanding of hell is a bit more traditional. (well, it appears traditional until you consider that the bible was first translated into english in 1611 and dante was writing his divine comedy in italian around 1306-1321... but i think that these are just details. the authorship of the biblical texts on hell predates dante by a fair bit so whatever...)
do you ever have one of those days where everything you say is bogged down by subclauses and parentheses?
the biblical descriptions of hell are figurative. the stuff about fire and brimstone and all that is, in my opinion, meant to somehow describe what being eternally separated from God might be compared to in physical torment- dante's epic poem is probably a powerful exploration of what the ultimate spiritual void might 'feel' like as well. the fact that copies of inferno seem to greatly outsell copies of the other 2/3 of dante's trilogy suggests to me that humankind after the fall is still more interested in darkness than light- for some reason people are fickle and bored with the presence of God and turn earnestly in fancy to his absense.
i punched out something along these lines as the liner notes for an industrial cd that i recorded in 1998 called 'buffet taboo- if no one witnesses the crime'.
went something like this... (sorry for the caps- i just don't want to type it out again)
NOTES: HELLS AND CONFESSIONS
MANY CHOOSE A MORTAL PRELUDE TO HELL AND CALL IT LIFE- A LIFE OF ISOLATION, LONELINESS AND STUBBORN SELF-SUFFICIENCY WHICH REFUSES TO ACCEPT THE POSSIBILITY OF PERSONAL FAULT OR NEED. I IMAGINE THAT THERE ARE TWO MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THIS TEMPORARY HELL AND THE PERMANENT ONE.
FIRST, A TEMPORARY HELL IS GOVERNED BY TIME AND, BECAUSE OF THAT PROPERTY OF TIME THAT CAUSES IT TO BE USED UP, IS ALWAYS TOO SHORT. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH TIME LEFT TO THE DYING MAN TO ACTUALLY CHANGE THE COURSE OF HIS LIFE- JUST ENOUGH TO REGRET THE COURSE HIS LIFE HAS TAKEN. THERE IS NO TURNING BACK AND NOTHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO, BUT AT LEAST THEN IT IS OVER. THE SECOND HELL IS ALSO A SOLITARY ONE, BUT ONE WHICH EXISTS OUTSIDE OF TIME AND THEREFORE INFINITE- NO MORE OR LESS TORMENT, JUST AN ENDLESS SEPARATION FROM GOD WHICH WILL ALWAYS BE MORE THAN IS BEARABLE BECAUSE THE OPTION OF REPENTENCE IS NO LONGER OPEN.
THE SECOND MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO HELLS HAS TO DO WITH SIGHT. IN THE FIRST HELL, MAN TRIES TO CONTROL THE UNCONTROLLABLE, BEING BOTH TOO IGNORANT TO TRULY RECOGNIZE HIS FALLEN NATURE AND TOO STUBBORN TO ACCEPT HELP FROM EITHER GODS SON OR HIS PEOPLE. IN THE SECOND HELL, MAN IS ABLE TO SEE EXACTLY WHAT WAS NEEDED TO BE DONE, AND MUST EXIST FOREVERMORE WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT HE CHOSE THIS ETERNITY. LIVING FOREVER IN HINDSIGHT; HAVING NOTHING TO FOCUS ON BUT FAILURE AND CONSEQUENCE; NO LONGER BEING BLIND- SIMPLY POWERLESS; EXISTING IN PERPETUAL REGRET- THIS IS THE STUFF THAT THE SECOND HELL IS MADE OF. THERE ARE NO BUSRIDES OR WEEKEND PASSES, JUST AN ETERNITY OF KNOWING WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE...
OR MAYBE, SEEING ALL AND HAVING TO CHOOSE BETWEEN SELF-LOVE AND SURRENDER, NOTHING WOULD BE DIFFERENT. PERHAPS IT IS AS C.S. LEWIS SUGGESTED- ETERNITY BEGINS TODAY AND TODAY WE DWELL IN HELL OR IN PARADISE, DEPENDING ON WHO SITS ON THE THRONE OF OUR HEART. ONE CANNOT BOTH CLING TO THE EARTH AND REACH FOR THE SKY.
ONE THING IS SURE-
AFTER EVERY SIN,
NEW OR REMEMBERED,
ETERNITY IN PARADISE
BEGINS AGAIN
UPON MY CONFESSION.
posted by jollybeggar at
4:13 PM
4 Comments:
uh-oh!
Monday, March 14, 2005
Where to Find Dan's Search for Hell
http://dans-inferno-search.blogspot.com/
Dan comes into my massage parlor and he wants marcy (me) to help him find hell.
"Okay," I said to Dan. "Whatever you want to pay for. You want to pay for a Happy Ending, you get a Happy Ending. You want to pay for hell, you get hell."
If any of you are looking for Dan's search for hell, go here:
http://dans-inferno-search.blogspot.com/
marcythewhore getting paid for advertising for dans search for hell.........
http://dans-inferno-search.blogspot.com/
posted by marcythewhore at 10:32 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
A Christian Debates the Massage Parlor Whore about Literature and Mythology…and loses….
Jolly Beggar wrote: “well, the odd syntax is not masonic or in any other way esoteric in nature. it's the opening couple of pages from james joyce "portrait of the artist as a young man" (for anyone that might have been wondering- 'stephen dedalus is his real name... ) nice work, marcy, in amalgamating icarus' little red hen story and my blog on the names we choose to live by.”
Marcythewhore advises Jolly Beggar to do a little more Joyce-ian studies: My, my, Jolly Person You, but you do try to confuse the issue, don’t you? That’s called ‘Obfuscation.’ Joyce patterned his Stephen little character after the story of Daedalus and Icarus in his ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.’ A simple little maxim about flying too close to the sun sun sun sun. Little Red Hen story? Masons? Pyramids with eyes and all that. My, my…..marcythewhore
“One significant use of symbolism in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. Like Icarus and Daedalus , Stephen is wandering and seeking his identity. Because he is on a path to self-discovery, Joyce has Stephen walk the path of many roads. For instance, Stephen is wandering the streets when he happens upon his first sexual encounter. We are told that he "wandered into a maze of narrow and dirty streets" (100). Stephen also wanders "swiftly throughout he dark streets" (139) when he is struggling with his sin. He "walked on and on through illicit streets, fearing to stand still for a moment lest it might seem that he held back from what awaited him" (140). After his confession, we are told the "muddy streets were grey" as a purified Stephen made his way home. Stephen must balance his desire to leave his country with his own abilities. To avoid making a bad decision such as Icarus did, Stephen decides to spend more time at the university and develops his craft of writing.”
“Daedalus , in Greek mythology, craftsman and inventor. After killing his apprentice Talos in envy, he fled from Greece to Crete. There, he arranged the liaison between Pasiphaë and the Cretan Bull that resulted in the Minotaur. At the order of King Minos, he built the Minotaur's labyrinth. When Minos refused to let him leave Crete, Daedalus built wings of wax and feathers for himself and his son Icarus. Together they flew away, but Icarus flew too close to the sun and fell to his death when the wax melted. Daedalus escaped to Sicily.”
posted by marcythewhore at 8:39 AM 0 comments
marcy says: I'm not saying that I'm a Roman Emporer...and did you know that Julius Caesar got himself killed yesterday because he screwed up and looked at the wrong calendar and thought that the Ides of March was today..........but if I was a Roman Emporer I'd give you a thumb's up to let you live to fight another day.
Slow reader? Wait til somebody starts a conversation about Melville's Moby Dick.
Oh, books on tape while you are driving is a good way to get through the day more quickly.
But I can tell when someone is enjoying themselves in one of my massage parlors
..............marcythewhore
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