Umpired Umbathy, Pathic and Pathological, Part IX

The Wolf and the Lamb

The strong are always best at proving they’re right.

Withness the case we’re now going to cite.

A lamb was drinking, serene,

At a brook running clear all the way.

A ravenous Wolf happened by, on the lookout for prey,

Whose sharp hunger drew him to the scene.

“ What makes you so bold as to muck up my beverage?”

This creature snarled in rage.

“ You will pay for your temerity!”

“ Sire” replied the Lamb, “ let not Your Majesty

Now give in to unjust ire,

But rather do consider, Sire:

I’m drinking—just look—

In the brook

Twenty feet farther down, if not more,

And therefore in no way at all, I think,

Can I be muddying what you drink.”

“ You’re muddying it!” insisted the cruel carnivore.

“ And I know that, last year, you spoke ill of me.”

“ How could I do that? Why I’d not yet even come to be,”

Said the Lamb. “At my dam’s teat I still nurse.”

If not you, then your brother. All the worse.”

“I don’t have one.” “Then it’s someone else in your clan.

For to me you’re all of you a curse:

You, your dogs, your shepherds to a man.

So I’ve been told: I have to pay you all back.”

With that, deep into the wood

The wolf dragged and ate his midday snack.

So trial and judgment stood.

--La Fontaine

As quoted in Rogues: Two Essays on Reason, by Jacques Derrida, Stanford University Press, 2005.

No mention of Sarah Palin.

Umpired Umbathy, Pathic and Pathological, Part VIII

On First Hooking onto Inflatable Hannah

 

Much have I travell'd in the realms of porn,
    And many goodly tits and ass seen;
    Round many southerly deltas have I been
Which bloggers in fealty to frustrated lust hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
    That deep-brow'd John Mayer ruled as his demesne;
    Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Sex Doll speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
    When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout John Holmes when with eagle dick
    He star'd in the sex flicks--and all his co-stars
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--
    Spent, upon a Hollywood hill, a Wonderland boulevard.
 

--John-Charles Keats-Keating

Umpired Umbathy, Pathic and Pathological, Part VII

“ I am not really a man of science, an artist, a poet, not an observer, not an experimenter, and not a thinker. I am nothing but by temperment a colonizer—a plunderer, if you want to translate the word--with the greed, the boldness and audacity, and the rapacious ambition belonging to that type of being. Such people are apt to be treasured if the region they colonize yields much richness—especially gold, jewels, and other precious metals and objects-- if they have really colonized, exploited, and sacked great wealth : otherwise they remain lower level mediocre bourgeois bureaucrats. “ -- Cigarchimper Fraud in a letter to his friend Fleeced, quoted by Joons, and taken from June Malcontent In the Fraud Accumulation of B.S., 1983, page 1,00,110,111,001,101.

Umpired Umbathy, Pathic and Pathological, Part V

On first looking into Chapman's Homer

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
    And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
    Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
    That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
    Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
    When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
    He star'd at the Pacific--and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--
    Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

--John Keats

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What I am trying to get at-- the poet portrays himself as an explorer, his reading as an exploration, and gives Cortez, a real explorer, poetic sensibilities, emotions. Do I think Keats' imaginative discoveries are real discoveries? How could they be? And yet I am uncertain about this. Maybe they were. Did Cortez or his men experienced poetic awe and wonder? I seriously doubt it. Keats speaks of a realm of gold--  a realm of treasure, of spiritual treasure. And surely Keats's works can be said to have added to this realm of treasure. Keats explorations enrich a realm of riches.  Cortez's travels are indeed to a realm of gold--which he and his men mercilessly plundered. The poetic act is virtuous and beautiful, but not real. The real act was overwhelmingly vicious and vile.    

Umpired Umbathy, Pathic and Pathological, Part VI

" I am not really a man of science, not an observer, not an experimenter, and not a thinker. I am nothing but by temperment a conquistador-- an adventurer, if you want to translate the word--with the curiosity, the boldness, and the tenacity that belong to that type of being. Such people are apt to be treasured if they succeed, if they have really discovered something: otherwise they are thrown aside." -- Sigmund Freud in a letter to his friend Fliess, quoted by Jones, and taken from Janet Malcolm In the Freud Archives 1983, page 102.

Umpired Umbathy, Pathic and Pathological, Part IV

On first looking into Chapman's Homer

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
    And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
    Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
    That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
    Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
    When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
    He star'd at the Pacific--and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--
    Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

--John Keats


 Much have I thought to use my own reason, audaciously,
And many goodly totalizations and mystic myths seen
Down many empty caverns spelunked
Which nerds in fealty to Apollo, Dionysus, and the Crucified hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Kant tutored as his critique
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
It spoke as if boldness and loudness were allowed
Offering the infinitizations of the Enlightenment
A space and time a priori and impenetrable Caesura nonetheless
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle-greedy-phallic-unsheepish eyes
He star'd at Aztec riches--and all his men
Look'd at each other with a lusting surmise--
Not very silent at all, while sharpening their knives, and started killing.

--Y.A.

I will take the exhilaration, the boldness, the joy of discovery, of exploration,
the new vistas, the expansiveness, the triumph, the sheer richness of experience,
the liveliness, the vitality, the inspiration.... But how to leave the rest behind?
 How do you take the good parts without promulgating 
or prolonging radiant triumphant calamity ?

.... 

Umpired Umbathy, Pathic and Pathological, Part III

1. Join The army, visit exotic places, meet strange people, THEN KILL THEM. 
2. Go online, surf the globe,communicate with erudite and intelligent people, THEN QUARREL BITTERLY.

Umpired Umbathy, Pathic and Pathological, Part II

1. Proposition A: “Deleuze and Guattari are limiting”. 
2. Proposition B: “Postmodernity is limiting.” 
3. How would we discuss these propositions? 
4. Is it possible to discuss them without reference to other philosophers or historical periods? 
5. Is the other historical period by necessity the historical period we call the Enlightenment? 
6. Are we comfortable saying “ Kant is NOT limiting,” or “The Enlightenment, and now, the intellectual heritage of the Enlightenment, is NOT limiting”? 
7. As an example or case in point, (suggested through some of Christoffer’s posts): a. Captain Cook’s magnificent nautical explorations, discoveries, and adventures…Exploration, adventure, and discovery, Enlightenment-style. b. After a “disagreement”, Polynesians bash out Captain Cook’s brains. Questions: i. If Captain Cook had no notion of the otherness of the other, had Captain Cook explored anything, gone anywhere, discovered anything? ii. Is the postmodern emphasis on alterity and encounter vain? Or does it make exploration, adventure, and discovery possible for the first time?

Umpired Umbathy, Pathic and Pathological, Part I

I am here to serve others;

This is my love;

I serve those who are above me hierarchically;

This is my love;

To those below me I offer an opportunity of service;

This is my love;

I command them to serve me;

I command them to love me;

As I have loved:

I discipline and straighten their love;

This is how I am above them;

As I have been disciplined and straightened by those above me;

That is why they are above me and those below me.