Happy New Year!

I certainly feel this will be a great year for me and I hope it is for you too. But before I go on I owe you all an apology.

I am sooooooooo sorry I have not posted any articles since late November. You may have heard of the old Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times” well last year I bore the full brunt of that curse.

We Were Hacked – Almost to Death

Apart from a very sad personal experience, which I will not bore you with, in October all our web sites were hacked and some malicious code was inserted on them. You may have seen a Google message on this site that said “visiting this web site could harm your computer”

Luckily we were able to clean up this web site and our other smaller web sites very quickly but our main web site eSTV was badly affected and it took us two months to get off the Google banned list.

It was a very harrowing time and I thought we would lose the site altogether. The consequence was we lost a lot of business, all our November and December promotions were cancelled and we could not sell into January or beyond either. Our income dried up and we had to refund deposits plus pay for a technical team to work on the web sites.

In addition we had no work for our staff and we had to let some go. It was a very sad time. I also had to spend a lot of time liaising with clients whose promotions we could not fulfill and of course, work on the affected web sites.

I Decided to Go “Bush”

Every road sign became an adventure. I chose a name and followed the arrow. I have never felt so free.

When it was all over, I was so exhausted I decided to go away for a holiday. It was the week before Christmas and everywhere I rang was already fully booked. But in any case what I really wanted was some where quiet not full of tourists so I decided to go “bush” that is, go to the Australian Outback where few people go for a holiday. I looked on Google maps and found a small town in the middle of Australia which became my destination. Then I Googled to see if there was a motel in the area and I found there were three. I rang them and they were all empty.

I found my desert island.

So I set off for West Wyalong – a place whose claim to fame (as I later discovered) is the length of its main road and the fact that it has a bend in the middle of it. Other than that, there is nothing there except three pubs, two Chinese restaurants, an RSL club, and some great people.

But I was in no hurry so on my way there, whenever I saw a name on a sign that took my fancy I went there. I didn’t even take a map (which was actually an accident, I left it on the kitchen table) I just knew the direction I was heading in.

I saw some wonderful little country towns here is a short list of some of the towns I visited while I was away:

Goulburn

Today Gundagai is a sleepy hollow but once upon a time it was obviously booming. I took this picture at 6am on a dream walk through town. Definately a place to visit.

Yass

Gundagai

Cootamundra

Junee

Temora

West Wyalong

Bundaburrah

Bumbaldry

Cowra

Blayney

Lithgow

Nothing to Brag About – But that doesn’t stop them

Wherever I went the people were amazingly friendly. I stopped at a few pubs along the way and as soon as I walked in the locals knew I was a stranger in town. After a while I got to checking my watch to see how long it would take for someone to strike up a conversation. I think Temora was the quickest, I was still looking at my watch when a group at the bar started talking to me and Goulburn was the longest (it was also the biggest country town I visited) where it took a couple of minutes.

The first question they always asked was had I moved into town – no one guessed I was on holiday, I think going to these towns for a holiday is unheard of. But let me assure you, that is our loss not theirs.

After getting over the shock that I was on holiday everyone asked where I was going and when I told them West Wyalong (which in all honesty was just a point I chose to give me a general direction to head in) they said I was crazy. Every one said “Stay here there is more to do here than in West Wyalong” and as more to do usually translated to drinking at the pub or going to the one club in town or eating at one of the two or three café’s in town, I really started to wonder what the people of West Wyalong did for entertainment.

The Most Unusual Café I Have Ever Visited

I can’t remember the town it just appeared as I turned the corner. One minute I was on a country road surrounded by trees when I came to a cross road. The road ahead was unsealed and the one to the left was sealed so I turned left. And two minutes later I arrived at a bustling country town.

I decided to stop for breakfast and looked for a café. I found a beautiful old world café that was pretty busy so I decided it must be “the place”. It had a courtyard out back which was full so I took a table inside.

The first thing that struck me was that everyone was talking to everyone else. I thought I had imposed myself in a private function but it was only 10am. People would be walking past the café, see someone seated at a table and pop in for a chin wag before setting off again.

Two ladies came in to buy take away coffees and an iced drink and immediately the assistant asked them how was their mother and they entered into a conversation that gave me a good snap shot of country life.

The waitress came to my table, asked me if I had recently moved into town, where I came from, who was I visiting, where was I staying and finally, what did I want to eat. Then she proceeded to tell everyone in the café I was on holiday on my own and visiting country towns. They all looked at me approvingly, nodded hello and proceeded to talk about the merits of various country towns and why this was the best one. Unfortunately no one mentioned the name and it will forever be anonymous to me.

Oh and I had a great breakfast of steak, eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, toast and something they called coffee.

The Purchase that Saved My Life

When I was in Temora I saw a shop that had a sale on 3G wifi sticks and I decided I had better buy one as I was having no luck accessing the Internet at the motels I stayed at. I didn’t know it then, but that purchase saved my life.

That day I finally made it to West Wyalong. I chose a motel on the highway leading into town mainly because it looked like an oasis on a desert island. It had palm trees that leaned over the driveway, a pool and bar-b-que facilities. When you cook like me a bar-b-que can cover a whole gamut of ills.

This picture doesn't do the room I had in West Wyalong justice, it was huge. I had the whole motel to myself including the pool, bar-b-que area and outdoor cabana.

The room was incredible. Large, comfortable, airy, light with a table where I could set up my computer and a huge bed, a sofa and arm chair.

Bush Australians Are the Friendliest People on Earth

I stayed there for a week and half, going for long walks and shorter ones into “town”. On my first excursion into town to buy meat and vegetables I could never walk into a shop without a friendly assistant with little or nothing to do asking me what I came to regard as the basic questions. After they felt they knew me they were happy to serve me and always had a handy tip or three.

One lady in the general store on discovering that I was going to be in town alone on Christmas day, invited me to her house. She said all her family were coming over for Christmas and one more would be no problem. That was the first of three invitations I got. All of which I politely refused as I really was looking forward to the solitude.

One of my biggest problems was that I love to go for long walks and especially at that time that is what I wanted more than anything else. But every time I left home within minutes a car would pull up and the driver would introduce himself, ask if I was the guy visiting town on holiday and then offer to drive me where ever I was going. One time I said I am not going anywhere and he said “okay, hop in I’ll drive you there”. I began to wonder how I was going to get a decent walk but I was blown away with the genuine generosity and friendliness of country people.

My Brush With Death

How easy it is to be seduced by this great country. It is big, masculine and the epitome of freedom. The hills roll on forever and in most parts there are no trees just countryside as far as the eye can see. One day I noticed that my cheeks were aching and I realised that I was walking with a smile a mile wide. I have never been so happy.

One morning I woke up and decided it was time to move on. I was sorry to leave West Wyalong but the longer I stayed the harder it would get.

By now I had acquired a map and I estimated the town I wanted to visit was about 60kms away. A short drive by country standards.

It was a hot day, over 40 degrees centigrade but I had air conditioning in the car so no problem. I had run out of water bottles so I determined to buy some at the next garage but on such a short trip it was not a necessity. I would be at the next town in time for breakfast.

Not long after I left the motel I noticed my car was overheating so when I saw a garage I pulled in to see the mechanic. But when he saw I was driving a Volvo he quickly told me that he had no tools for my car and didn‘t expect anyone else would either. “It’s a city car” he said in that tone country people reserve for city folk.

He sold me a 5 litre container of coolant and said I should get back to the city as soon as possible.

I left and in my distress I forgot to buy water.

Then I missed the turn off that would take me to the highway and ended up on a country back road. A quick check of the map showed me that if I followed it I would get to another town, not the one I was originally heading for but from there I could get back to the highway.

Along the way my engine overheated regularly so I had to stop frequently to top up the coolant and very soon I could see that would not have enough but then my radiator hose blew and I was stranded.

It was then I realised I had broken every rule in the book.

I didn’t have any water, it was over 40 degrees, I had not told anyone where I was going and I was not even going where I intended. I was on a back road with no traffic and I was at least 30 kms from the nearest town.

I tried making a phone call but my phone could not get a line in the bush. I had no means of communication to tell anyone I was in trouble.

As a regular walker, I had no doubt I could walk 30 kms, I have often done 20 in the city. But in that heat it would have been suicidal so I determined to walk at night. What I didn’t think of was how dark it gets at night. When night came I left the car and very soon I lost the track. I even had trouble finding the car again.

That was when I realised the situation was serious.

I started to think about my last skype conversation with my daughter and suddenly I remembered the wifi stick. I didn’t think it would work but I tried it and blow me down, it did.

I Googled for a tow truck company in the area, found their web site if they had one, and sent them an email. It was then that my luck turned and just as my email arrived one guy was checking his email and responded. After a little haggling over price, at which I was at a distinct disadvantage, he agreed to come and get me.

It was an exciting end to what I planned as a quiet holiday but I came back to work happy to be alive and raring to make the most of this year.

I’m Back. So let’s get on with the show. Welcome to the new Shadow in the Flame and to the new Ric.

I know I have lost a lot of readers after the great hack and the long period of silence. But I have one piece of good news already.

Shadow in the Flame Wins Award

One of the first emails I opened on my return to the office informed me that Shadow in the Flame had been selected as one of the top 50 Philosophy Blogs.

I will load the banner they gave me as soon as possible but it was like God saying, well you came close but this is a new year and I expect you to make the most of it.

You can see a list of the Top 50 Philosophy sites here : http://www.zencollegelife.com/50-best-philosophy-blogs/

For three and a bit glorious weeks I was “The Man” roaming the highways and by ways of this magnificent country. It changed my life or more appropriately it changed my attitude. It renewed my faith in man kind with “kind” being the operative word. But I also learned that living in the bush is a constant struggle, something that hasn’t changed since the first settlers left the cloister of Sydney, the first town, now a beautiful city which I am lucky to call home.

We have a lot of rebuilding to do this year but it is a challenge that palls into insignificance when compared to that which the stoic people of the outback face every day. I learned from experience that a stoic achieves happiness by submission to destiny, something I had read but never really understood. I dedicate Shadow in the Flame to the wonderful people wherever they are who live life to the best of their ability, who ask for little and share whatever they have, most of all their good will.

I think we will have a lot to discuss this year and I look forward to receiving your input via comments and articles. I look forward to writing again. And though I didn’t think I would say this two months ago, I look forward to 2011.

Thank you for your patience. Let’s make 2011 our best year ever.

by Dwayne Schulz

1. Things and Events

The River of Change

Heraclitus of Ephesus - You cannot step into the same river twice.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once famously remarked

‘It is not possible to step twice in to the same river for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you’.

What he meant was that all things are in constant flux; just as a river consists of a flow-through of different waters, so everything else in the cosmos is in a state of perpetual change, of birth, growth, decay and death. This was summed up by a famous expression:

“panta rhei” attributed to Heraclitus meaning “everything flows”.

Zeno: There is No Such Thing as Change

But other ancient Greeks like Zeno argued that change was impossible and thought up some of the most devious logical paradoxes to prove it.  In one paradox Zeno asks us to imagine an arrow in flight.  He considers the fact that the period during which the arrow is in flight consists of an infinite series of instants and argues that:

(1) At any given instant the arrow occupies a single space and no other, and

(2) During that instant the arrow is stationary.

‘How then’, Zeno asks, ‘if the arrow is stationary at every instant during its trajectory can it be said to have moved?’  Zeno concluded that motion and change were illusions masking a deeper unchanging reality below.

The paradoxical nature of change which so troubled Zeno can be illustrated with a other thought experiments.

Who Are You?

Consider the fact that every single molecule in the human body, every atom in every cell, is replaced by different ones every few years or so.  How can you be the same person if, like Heraclitus’s river, the stuff of which you are made is constantly turning over and changing?

Plutarch’s Ship of Theseus

Plutarch looked at the same issue when he created a paradox we now call Plutarch’s mythical Ship of Theseus. In it he poses the following conundrum:

“If the old planks of the ship are replaced with new ones over the years but these old planks are then gradually re-assembled (as they come off the old ship) to ultimately form the original ship. Which is the true ship – the old new one or the new old one?”

A Loopy Puzzle

Finally, consider a simple loop in a piece of string. Let’s call the loop ‘A’ and the section of string it is made out of ‘B’.  A and B constitute the same thing and are thus identical, or A=B.  But move the loop down the string to another location.

Loop A has changing String parts, first B then C

Loop A is now composed of a different section of string, let’s call that ‘C’, now A=C.  But pieces B and C are patently different, i.e. B≠C, and this results in a logical contradiction because A is equal to B and C which are unequal, or (A=B≠C=A) à (A≠A).

I hope to give you some convincing solutions to these paradoxes later in this article.

Being and Not Being

As bizarre as Zeno’s ideas were that change is unreal, the bias against change runs deep in the culture of Western civilization.  Zeno in fact developed his paradoxes in support of his mentor Parmenides, the ‘father of logic’,’ who said in his poem The Way of Truth, that because change implied logical contradiction, being and not being, it was impossible.

“How could “what is” perish? How could it have come to be? For if it came into being, it is not; nor is it if ever it is going to be. Thus coming into being is extinguished, and destruction unknown. (B 8.20-22) “

2. Essence

Parmenides and Zeno’s notion that change was impossible was taken up by Plato in his theory of Forms.  He argued that the idea of change without “a real thing” simply led to confusion.  In his book Cratylus, Plato argues in support of Parmenides and Zeno that below the world of apparent change is a world of timeless unchanging essences which are templates for ordinary objects on earth, for example, that for each actual horse there exists somewhere a perfect ‘Horse Form’ of which real horses are but imperfect imitations.

Plato has Socrates say:

How can that be a real thing which is never in the same state?

…knowledge too cannot continue to be knowledge unless continuing always to abide and to exist, and if the transition is always going on there will always be no knowledge and according to this view there will be no one to know and nothing to be known.[1]

The Prima Mobile

Everyday thought and language seem to support Plato’s notion that somehow an unchanging essence must underpin or ground apparent change.  We tend to speak about ordinary objects being subjected to accidental variations or changes of form.  Objects have properties and events happen to them. For example, in declarative sentences like “John is sick” or “My car was in a smash” or “Venus is in orbit”, we tend to think of the predicates ‘being sick, ‘being in a smash’ and ‘being in orbit’ as incidental properties or states that the objects (John, My car and Venus) are subjected to.  This manner of thinking lends itself to a model of change in which the subject is static and change is inessential, occurring as an external force.

This object-property model was formalised by Aristotle who argued that all things were a combination of matter and form, a theory called hylomorphism.  In Aristotle’s theory matter was a passive substance or ‘patient’ which changed when acted upon by an external force or ‘agent’ which gave it form.  Ultimately all effects in Aristotle’s schema could be traced back to some original First Cause or God which he called the Prima Mobile or Prime Mover.

The idea of substance or matter deriving its form from some external agent of change was adopted by medieval theologians like Aquinas who used it in support of the Church doctrine that the body’s soul derived from God.  The substance-form distinction also informed modern mechanical theories espoused by people like Descartes and Newton who disagreed with Aristotle’s physics but retained the idea that “modes [properties] cannot be clearly conceived apart from the really distinct substances of which they are the modes”.[2] For Descartes, all the properties of nature could be reduced to the quantitative (mathematical and measurable) movements of matter whose fundamental property was extension in space or res extensa.  Scientists like Newton and Boyle agreed with Descartes’ principle interpreting it in atomistic terms (contra Descartes who subscribed to something like an ether theory), arguing that nature was nothing but arrangements of impenetrable ‘corpuscles’ within the void of space.

Is the Future Predictable?

The mechanistic idea left little or no place for real chance or novelty in the world.  Effects were totally determined by their causes and if you only had enough information and processing power, you could predict with total precision all future change in what they saw as a clockwork universe.  Newton’s contemporary the French mathematician and astronomer Laplace summed up the mechanistic attitude when he said,

[For] an intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, … nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.[3]

Newton and Laplace believed in a clockwork universe

Hegel’s World Spirit

Hegel: For him change as it manifested itself in nature and history revealed the story of an inner essence he called the ‘World Spirit’

The first philosopher of modern times to revive Heraclitus’s idea of panta rhei and to mount a systematic critique of the mechanists was the early 19^th Century German philosopher Hegel.  Hegel too argued that Becoming or change was fundamental.  However, for him change as it manifested itself in nature and history revealed the story of an inner essence he called the ‘World Spirit’ or the Absolute gradually unfolding itself through a process he called ‘the dialectic’ (i.e. the clash of binary opposites. in war, politics and science) culminating in a state of perfect freedom and unity with God.

In my opinion Hegel’s Absolute plays the same role as Substance in the philosophy of the mechanists, and his dialectic is just as deterministic, proceeding as it does along a singular narrow path towards a pre-determined end.

Hegel’s dialectic constricts the scope of change choking the multiple and diverse alternatives that history can take.  I will return to this idea soon but the same criticism can be applied to all theories of history and change which tell a story of uni-linear progress.

For example 19^th Century anthropologist Henry Morgan asserted that humankind progressed through a series of stages from “savagery” through “barbarism” to reach its apogee in “civilization”.   Marx also adopted this view arguing that history progressed from the primitive tribalism via class society and ultimately to communism.

Modern right-wing commentators like Francis Fukuyama also adopt this view when they say that free-market liberalism represents the “end of history”.   Such views pretend to be a philosophy of change but at the end of the day preach different versions of mechanism in which change proceeds towards some pre-figured image in an isomorphic ^*1 movement from same to same, where there really is nothing new under the sun.

(Isomorphic = having similar appearance but genetically different)

However, the idea that there is more to change than the expression of unchanging essences, principles or substances, the idea that that the cosmos is animated by a kind of change which is more unpredictable, diverse and creative has persisted through the ages.  To my mind the first modern thinker who really put this kind of change at the centre of their philosophy was the French intellectual Henri Bergson.

ooOOoo – End of Part 1- ooOOoo

In Part 2 Dwayne Schulz will look at the philosophies of change promoted by Henri Bergson,  A N Whitehead and Gilles Deleuze.

[2] Descartes, Principles of Philosophy LXI.

[3] Laplace, “A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities”.

Sorry we have been down with server problems but we are BACK NOW!

Hello everyone. I really apologise for the problems we have been experiencing since last Friday. We upgraded our server to PHP 5 and for some reason everything went crazy. For a few days many of you probably only saw a black screen when you visited Shadow in the Flame and thought we had gone into a deep depression . Not so but we were going crazy trying to get it fixed. However, once we got over the black screen problem the images wouldn’t show up and to make matters worse I couldn’t access the admin backend to post a message either.

Anyway we have it under control now (until the next time). I will post the first part of the Philosophy of Change this afternoon. In the mean time, Have a Beer on Us:

We Love a Beer or Two in Australia, one to drown our sorrows when things go wrong and one to celebrate when they go right. I wish we could have a big party with all our readers and contributors but if you are ever in Sydney Australia, be sure to look us up. In the mean time we will have a drink to you when we are at the pub tonight.

A Man said to the universe:

“Sir, I exist!”

“However,” replied the universe,

“The fact has not created in me

A sense of obligation”.

Stephen Crane 1871 – 1900

Who Caused My Bad Luck?

No one can deny that Nietzsche had his fair share of ‘bad luck’ during his life time. But when things went pear shaped (bad), for example, with his relationships or his health or when he had money problems, he never complained about his bad luck or blamed his circumstances on someone else.

Nietzsche’s view, which he later developed into a philosophy of life that is the basis of his book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, was that we are responsible for our own life and for making the decisions that will affect it.

Frustration with religion prompted Nietzsche to declare "God is Dead"

Most of you will know that Nietzsche was rabidly anti religion and he had many reasons for that but one was that he felt strongly that man uses religion like a crutch to abrogate (to do away with, to avoid) taking responsibility for his life.

Nietzsche felt we are happy to take credit for our successes (whether we were responsible for them or not) but quick to ascribe (credit, allocate) our bad decisions or our failures to “God’s will” rather than accepting that it is our responsibility to make decisions and to act on them and consequently we have to accept responsibility for the consequences they reap. This concept became very important to Nietzsche and it is echoed so succinctly (with concise and precise brevity) in the above poem by Stephen Crane.

Stephen Crane

I first read the poem “A Man said to the universe” many years ago and it made a huge impact on me that has never waned (decreased). I think of it when I am not happy with the way things are and I often quote it to clients, especially these days when they complain about business but do nothing to change the way they market.

Crane was only 28 and already a great writer, poet and journalist when he died of tuberculosis in a Black Forest sanitarium.

The poem reminds us that Life, the universe, God owe us nothing. It gave us the miracle of life which as far as we know, has occurred no where else in the universe, what more do we expect? Nietzsche’s continues this theme by arguing that what we do with our life after birth, is up to us.

This is how I understand what they are saying;

Our life is our responsibility. How we live it is our responsibility. Our ethical and moral code, whether we choose to follow the Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu religion or any faith or no faith, they too are our responsibility as long as we don’t use that as an excuse for not taking responsibility for making our own decisions.

Good, bad or indifferent, we and we alone make the decisions that ultimately determine our quality of life. That applies equally if you make a decision not to make a decision or to follow someone else’s decision.

The Meaning of Life

Of course, it does not mean that you are responsible for everything that happens, for example, if you get laid off (fired) from work during a recession. But it is up to you to decide how you respond to that. You can either become bitter and hate the world for doing this to you (i.e. see yourself as a victim) or you can use the opportunity to learn a new trade, spend more time with your kids, start a business or any of a thousand other choices that are within your capacity to make. And if you don’t like the result you get, change it by making another one and so on until you get a result you are happy with.

Zarathustra is Nietzsche’s invention to enable him to answer the question “What is Truth?” Which could be restated as “What is the meaning of life?” Basically Nietzsche’s answer is; isn’t it the realization that there is no truth except the truth which you yourself are? That there is no truth, no meaning to life in the world that is relevant to you, except the truth, (the meaning) that you yourself give your life.

Nietzsche says

There is no truth, no meaning to life in the world that is relevant to you, except the truth that you yourself give your life.

“… To give life a meaning: that has been the grand endeavor of all that have preached ‘truth’; for unless life is given a meaning it has none. At this level, truth is not something that can be proved or disproved: it is something which you determine upon, which, in the language of the old psychology, you will. It is not something waiting to be discovered, (it is not) something to which you submit or at which you halt: it is something you create, it is the expression of a particular kind of life and being which has, in you, ventured to assert itself. …….. Because each particular life and being needs a fortress within which to preserve and protect itself and from which to reach out ….. and truth (your meaning to life) is this fortress.”

In the philosophical novel, The Man we have met two people so far who take responsibility for their life, the chemist and Annie and two who are victims of life, the aboriginal woman and The Man.

What we learn is that when you feel you have no control over your life it is easy to lose hope and without hope there is little point to life and no reason to look forward to the future. It is “Like standing between two mirrors, you see the future but it is just a repetition of today, through to infinity.”

The interesting thing is it can happen to anyone, whether you come from a disadvantaged position as per the Aboriginal woman or you are a hot shot like The Man you can lose the Way. However, Nietzsche says it is within the power of even the most disadvantaged person to wrest control of their life back, for example, little Annie who has only known poverty and illness.

Obviously losing control of your life would be a catastrophic situation if there was no chance of “redemption’ as Nietzsche calls it. And it was in developing this philosophy that Nietzsche invented the much misunderstood concept of the Übermensch or “Superman”.

The Übermensch or ‘Superman’

The 'Superman’ is the man who is master of himself. Friedrich Nietzsche

For Nietzsche, ‘the Superman’ is the man who is master of himself.

But Nietzsche tells us that to master oneself is the hardest task of all. It requires the greatest amount of ‘power’ (another misunderstood concept of Nietzsche’s).

Nietzsche believed that man was dominated by two primitive drives; the desire for power and the emotion of fear. However, Nietzsche came to understand fear as the feeling of the absence of power, so he was left with a single motivating principle for all human actions: the will to power. (Where power is the fortitude, the strength of character needed to master oneself).

Thus he who masters himself experiences the greatest increase in power and if happiness is the feeling that power increases, i.e. that a resistance (inside us) is overcome, then the Superman will be the happiest man and experiences the greatest sense of the meaning of existence.

By which Nietzsche means that, by transforming the chaos of life through the continual self-overcoming of the challenges life throws at us, we experience greater joy. This is the real meaning of life, for joy is to Nietzsche the one thing that requires no justification. It is in short, its own justification.

Which Comes First Happiness or Pain?

Nietzsche goes one step further, he says “He who had attained that joy would affirm life and love it however much pain it contained, because he would know that all things are chained and entwined together and everything is therefore part of a whole which man must accept as a whole”.

Wow! So now we know how Nietzsche was able to cope in the face of so many disappointments and perceived failures (I say perceived because that is how he saw himself although we now know that he was not a failed writer, thinker and philosopher, far from it). He saw all the pain, the trials and tribulations he experienced as stepping stones to the joy he experienced such as when he was in love or writing.

Annie seems to naturally know this; “She knew the melody for she was the composer” and as such she is able to be defiant in the face of her mortal illness rather than be a victim of it. She is in Nietzsche’s words a “Superman” and an excellent role model although I must admit, I had no idea she would turn out that way when I planned the story.

So, The Man A philosophical Novel, asks the question “What is reality?” is it what is happening to you or what you make it?

Annie created her own reality because “She revelled in the knowledge that her truth was indeed the truth. No matter what anyone said, it was her life and it was up to her to give it meaning for surely, if life is not given meaning, it has none”

I think this is the secret that Nietzsche discovered that enabled him to live a happy and fruitful life. Mind you, ‘happy’ is a subjective term, if you want love and you don’t get it, can you be truly happy? But that is a topic for another day.

This is the end of the analysis of The Man chapter 3, and also concludes my sub theme on Nietzsche (for now ).

The next two or three  posts will be a short series submitted by a reader on the Philosophy of Change. It is really great so I know you will like it and while that is happening here I hope to use the time to post some articles on the Chinese Philosophy section of this blog which I have neglected this year. I also intend to start work on Chapter 4 of The Man.

The Man, A Philosophical Novel –  The Chapters So Far:

The Man Chapter 1

The Man Chapter 2

The Man Chapter 3

Read an Analysis of Each Chapter – The Philosophy and Ideas behind the Story

Analysis of The Man Chapter 1

Analysis of The Man Chapter 2

A Readers Analysis of The Man Chapter 2

Pre Analysis Background Information for The Man Chapter 3

I Don’t Want to be Lonely – Author’s Analysis of the Man Chapter 3 – Part 1

“The Man”

Chapter 3

In Chapter 3 The Man is in emotional crisis when he comes face to face with immortality and the hopelessness of his life. We don’t know what triggered his predicament but I feel he has reached the same depths of despair that Nietzsche confronted in 1881/82. So to help set the scene for the emotional crisis The Man is experiencing I would like to describe to you what happened to Nietzsche in real life.

Nietzsche’s 18 Month Crisis

Up until the summer of 1881 Nietzsche had lived an ascetic (an austere, abstinent, frugal) and lonely life punctuated by bouts of illness, depression and euphoria as well as short periods of happiness, such as when he was invited to stay with a wealthy benefactor.

In the 18^th and 19^th century many wealthy people would often collect talent such as writers, poets and composers and invite them as house guests for entertainment during their summer vacation. While the accommodation, food and company on these occasions were in stark contrast to Nietzsche’s normal fare it must have made going back to his lonely rooms even more miserable when the patron dusted them off the end of the holiday.

Nietzsche knew he was an outstanding thinker and writer but he was distressed that most people did not recognize his genius and he was devastated that practically no one bought the books he wrote. Nietzsche self published his books in small runs of one or two hundred paying the printer out of his meager disability pension from Basle University.

Nietzsche’s Nomadic Life

Nietzsche had no fixed home but followed the sun, constantly moving from one

Nietzsche was no stranger to lonely train stations as he traveled Europe chasing the best climate for his health

city to another and one cheap room to another wherever he felt the climate was better for his health. Leading this nomadic lifestyle he accumulated few personal effects and even fewer close friends. He felt isolated and unloved.

Most of all, the loneliness got him down. The feeling that there was no one to share his life with, no one who cared if he was sad or happy, no one to discuss his ideas with on a personal and intimate level, no one to kiss, no one to cuddle and hold tight to him. He missed the quiver that sexual desire for the one you love triggers in your groin as well as the happiness you feel when they walk into the room. He was lonely and he hated it.

But he never surrendered to despair but rather worked through his feelings in his books where he set out to discover the formula for happiness.

“I am still living, I am still thinking: I have to go on living because I have to go on thinking. Sum, ergo cogito: cogito, ergo sum.”

Nietzsche wrote this on New Year’s Day 1882 and as we saw in my previous post “Sex and The Philosopher who specialized in feeling Wretched” this was at the beginning of a terrible period in his life which encompassed the eighteen months from the summer of 1881 to the beginning of 1883 when the woman he believed was his soul mate, the first one he could discuss his ideas with on an equal footing, the one he loved and hoped to marry, dumped him.

To help you imagine how he felt, I am sure most of you can look back and find a really low period in your life when your worries or your depressed state physically and emotionally drained you possibly to the point where you were physically sick. Some people actually end up in hospital when they reach this point and Nietzsche was close but instead he withdrew to an isolated village in the mountains where he took a spartan room and spent many hours everyday walking the slopes and valleys.

It is a time when you continually go over and over in your mind, “if I had done this or said that, things would have been different”. You desperately need to put an end to the issue, come to an understanding with it before you can move on but it can be a long and painful experience.

“I am still living, I am still thinking: I have to go on living because I have to go on thinking” sums up that feeling as succinctly as I have ever heard it put and it also sums up where The Man is at the moment.

I Don’t Want to be Lonely Anymore!

Lou Salome - A Free Spirited Woman - Loved by Nietzsche

In April 1882, Nietzsche wrote a love letter to Lou Salome which he ended with the words

“I don’t want to be lonely any more; I want to learn to be a human again. Alas, in this field I have almost everything still to learn!”

You can imagine the ecstatic heights he rose to when she agreed to visit him for a holiday. He planned to propose to her, he was, in true Nietzsche style, deliriously happy. Imagine then the abyss into which he plunged a few weeks later when she abandoned him to run off with Ree, his best friend.

This is what the main character in our novel “The Man” is going through although we do not yet know the reason why. He has entered a similar period of despair and self evaluation. In fact I am not sure if The Man has yet reached the depths of depression that Nietzsche experienced, but he is obviously struggling.

The beginning of the chapter contains a lot of symbolism about life. The cars in the yard that are either being stripped or repaired, “the owner long ago forgot which” represent the things we start in life but never complete. The New Year Resolutions we make but never keep. The promises we whisper in the ear of a lover that never get fulfilled.

The girls playing hopscotch with no lines to mark out the squares represents the way we embark on relationships without seeing each others boundaries or even knowing where they are. We dance with love never knowing when it will trip us up but we don’t care, we are in love.

End of Part 1 – I don’t Want to Be Lonely Anymore – an analysis of The Man Chapter 3

Ric Vatner

The Chapters So Far:

The Man Chapter 1

The Man Chapter 2

The Man Chapter 3

Read an Analysis of Each Chapter – The Philosophy and Ideas behind the Story

Analysis of The Man Chapter 1

Analysis of The Man Chapter 2

A Readers Analysis of The Man Chapter 2

Pre Analysis Background Information for The Man Chapter 3

I want to apologise for not moderating the comments for the last two days, I have been extremely busy and just too tired when I get home to log on. Today when I looked I saw that we had over 2,700 comments waiting to be moderated and I have to say I was blown away.

Of course that number will be reduced by half when I delete the spam but it is an enormous job and I wanted to let you know that I will get on to it and clear up the back log as soon as possible.

Our Comment Policy

I would like to take this opportunity, while I am talking about comments to discuss our comment policy.

First it should be obvious to most readers that we regard the comments as an important part of this blog. We believe it is crucial that we moderate them because if we didn’t people would give up reading them due to the large number of posts that just waste time listing porn web sites or others that are of dubious interest or worse.

I really appreciate that a number of you have noticed that we have no spam in our comments section and that is part of our commitment to you. We believe this policy improves the whole experience for all our readers.  However it is a big job and sometimes, like now, we do get behind and I really apologise if you are waiting to see your comment appear. It will be there soon, I promise.

We Want to Hear Your Opinion

Secondly, when I looked at the comments waiting to be approved I saw a couple that said they didn’t agree with such and such point of view but they didn’t say why.  This blog is a philosophy blog and disagreements or alternative views are the basis of good philosophy and good conversation. I really urge you to tell us what you do think. I hope that by highlighting some of the comments we have received by posting them as a guest article,  even if they  criticise one of our articles, you can see we are serious about encouraging real discussion.

We never delete a comment because it doesn’t agree with or compliment our post. In fact we rejoice when someone feels comfortable enough to write to us and outline their point of view. For or against. So please feel free to join in and post a longer comment.

Why We Delete Some Comments

Finally I would like to touch on some of the things we take into consideration when we approve or delete a comment.

First and foremost, we check to see if it is relevant. If a comment has nothing to do with the article or the general range of topics we discuss on here we ask ourselves “would our readers be interested in this?” Generally the answer is no. There are millions of blogs about just about any topic so a review of the Zune or iPod for example would be better to post to a relevant blog than here.  Generally, we do not approve posts that link to porn or similar web sites.  Viagra et al  are so widely available on the net that we think a drug free zone is also a refreshing change

However, sometimes a reader will post a comment about a new search engine or other web site that we do think is of interest and therefore we do approve them. But we try to keep these random posts to a minimum.

We Add Our Comment To Your Comment

We also add comments to many of your comments either answering your questions or adding further elucidation on some point  so I do recommend that you check out the comments as they can be quite interesting.

Last but not least, we try to reduce the number of comments by ensuring that multiple posts to the same article from the same source are weeded out and we approve one or at most two if they include additional relevant material.

A Note to Spammers

Well I hope that helps and I would point out to spammers that we do read and check out every web site before we approve a comment.

Thank You

I would like to thank every reader who has taken the time to post a comment. You are an important part of this blog and we look forward to receiving your comments with interest (and trepidation). I certainly hope more of you will  feel free to add longer commentaries or submit articles and I can assure you that ALL relevant comments, good, bad, for and against or of a contrary or similar opinion will be approved.

You can submit an article either through the comments section or by going to the contact us page and posting it there. If you request us to contact you, please ensure that you provide a correct email address.

Best Wishes,

Ric Vatner

I feel that I always have my “serious hat” on when I write for Shadow in the Flame and some of you may think that I an a dour character that never has a laugh. Well I do, especially when I read some of the comments you leave But I do admit that I tend to be more serious here and absolutely the opposite when I write for my other blog.

It’s Time for a Laugh

So after the death of Anna and a peek under the blankets at Nietzsche’s sex life I thought we  could both do with a laugh. And at the same time you will get to know a little more about me.

Did I ever tell you I managed the Woolworths store at Liverpool?

I was only a senior section manager at the time but I had trained under the legendary RK at Kings Cross for whom catching shop lifters was not only a specialty it was a calling.

Welcome to the Home of Thieves, Pimps and Pros

The Famous Coca Cola Sign at the Entrance to the Infamous Kings Cross

I will never forget my first day at Kings Cross as a juniour section manager (for those who don’t know Sydney, KX, as it is generally written, is the heart of the Red Light district). When the Americans made Sydney an R & R (Rest and recreation) centre for their troops in Vietnam, Kings Cross went into melt down. Woolworths was where you came to recover.

Call Girl One Day – Sales Girl the Next

I mean it, many of the girls who worked the streets of KX got jobs at our shop when they were worn out and needed a rest. The fact that they seemed to recuperate so well there meant that we always needed new staff but we never had a shortage of applicants. In fact it was regarded as the best R & R  / job for girls on the job. You could keep in touch with your mates (and clients), take it easy and still make enough to pay the rent.

An hour after I started there, I was engrossed (absorbed, gripped, engaged and much more) while listening to a conversation between one such girl who was behind the counter and a male customer. He seemed to be in urgent need of something he called a “quickie” but she kept telling him she was on holiday and to go elsewhere. I thought she was working for us but as I didn’t understand anything they were saying I decided it must be code for something that they didn’t want me to know. Whatever it was, I wanted to tell them they were in no danger of me cottoning on to it but I didn’t like to interrupt them.

Unfortunately, for me, while I was watching them, a customer standing not 3 feet away from me was literally hoovering up the counter and sticking the stuff into a gigantic pocket in his coat. (Hoovering = Vacuum cleaning or at the Cross it meant stealing with gusto)

Read More

A young Friedrich Nietzsche and his famous handle bar mustache

Chapter 3 of The Man draws strongly on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, certainly one of the greatest philosophical writers of the nineteenth century and one of my personal favourites. So before I embark on the analysis of chapter 3 I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you to Nietzsche.

This is not a biography; It is more a snap shot about one aspect of his life that I think has not been covered in detail and yet the more I read him, the more convinced I am, that it was a major driving force in Nietzsche’s writing.

You could say it drove him “mad” but of course his eventual collapse had more to do with the syphilis he contracted on his first and possibly, his only sexual encounter. However, I believe that the sexual tension Nietzsche experienced all his life is central to understanding his philosophy and I want to look at that aspect in more detail than is usual.

Nietzsche’s Problem with Sex

In 1865 Nietzsche visited a Cologne brothel with some fellow students from Bonn University. This was not unusual at the time as it was quite common for German University students in the 1860s and 1870s to learn about sex this way and it would have been unusual if he had not visited a brothel at least once.

However, Nietzsche told his friend Paul Deussen, that he was taken there against his will and left immediately. But as Nietzsche subsequently contracted and eventually died from syphilis this is probably a white lie.

Nietzsche was first treated for a syphilitic infection in 1867 in Leipzig and suffered his first incapacitation in 1871. The course of his illness from 1871 up until his total collapse in 1889 is quite typical of the disease. The only unusual aspect was how long it took for him to die after his collapse. It took eleven (11) years and for practically all of this period he was in a catatonic state having suffered a complete mental breakdown.

Nietzsche suffered from debilitating headaches and bouts of depression and euphoria all his life. The final mental breakdown happened when he was in Italy in 1889. While walking through the piazza Carlo Alberto in Turin, he saw a carthorse being whipped by the driver and immediately jumped to its aid wrapping his arms around its neck, crying and pleading with it for forgiveness.

While Nietzsche never admitted to having syphilis H. W. Brann in his book on Nietzsche’s sex life, Nietzsche und die Frauen, interprets the long poem in the chapter “Among the Daughters of the Desert” in part four of Zarathustra as a barely disguised recollection of a visit to a brothel. He noticed similarities between its phraseology and that of the version given to Deussen. (I have added the poem separately if you would like to read it for yourself)

Nietzsche and Women

Many passages in Nietzsche’s writing and especially the uninhibited “Ecco Homo” his “un-autobiography” show that Nietzsche was highly sexed and very attracted to women. Yet there is no record or even a hint that he ever went to bed with a woman of his own class. Taking into account his possible concern for privacy there is still so much other material written about him by his contemporaries that we can safely conclude that her never had sex with a woman from his own class.

Why Did Nietzsche Have a Problem with Sex?

Nietzsche had many women friends but never married or had a mistress. Despite his attraction to women all his relationships suffered from his inhibitions and failure to reach the “next level” i.e. to form a long term relationship, marriage and a healthy sex life.

Most biographers have generally assumed Nietzsche suffered from some paralyzing mental or physical inhibition

Do you think these handlebars scared women off?

(some speculate it was his huge mustache) that inhibited his relations with women but if there was such an inhibition I think it could well have been his knowledge that he suffered from a disease that would be transmitted to his sexual partner. This theory is supported by our knowledge that Nietzsche was a man of honour which probably led to him leading a celibate life at least in relation to women of his own class. (I know I have mentioned class a few times and while this may seem strange today, it was a very real consideration in the nineteenth century and still is among some people who have delusions of grandeur).

I think this was a huge burden for a man who would have loved nothing more than to meet and marry the right woman and have children. I think it led to a skewing of his views about women but more importantly, it caused him to lead a very solitary and lonely life. Nietzsche was not fortunate enough to find a soul mate with whom he could lead an intellectually stimulating life, which I believe, he would have wanted even if he could have performed sexual intercourse.

Nietzsche’s Two Great Loves

Despite Nietzsche’s “problem” there were two women that we know of for whom Nietzsche really had the hots.

Cosima Wagner

Nietzsche was a close friend of the Wagner’s who he met when he was appointed to the Chair of Classical Philology at Basle University in 1869, aged 24. He shared a common love with them for the pessimistic Schopenhauer who Nietzsche had discovered four years earlier while a student at Leipzig University. Schopenhauer’s philosophy can be summed up as “The prudent man strives for freedom from pain, not pleasure” which is a quote from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. It was a philosophy that Nietzsche would later eschew (shun).

Cosima Wagner, Nietzsche's first great unrequited love.

Schopenhauer was not the only one that Nietzsche loved, he fell madly in love with Richard Wagner’s wife Cosima. He never told Cosima of his deep feelings for her until he finally lost his mind in 1889 when he sent her a postcard from Turin in which he wrote ”Ariadne, I love you” and signed it Dionysus.

However, can you imagine the effect that this life long love for Cosima had on Nietzsche which he kept bottled up inside him? Certainly it fueled Nietzsche’s frustration and sense of loneliness and contributed to him making somewhat acerbic comments about women such as “They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent”

Lou Salome

The second true love of his life was Lou Salome (although he did propose to Mathilde Trampedach a few days after meeting her in 1876 but he was rejected). Nietzsche was introduced to Salome by Paul Ree a friend of his who was also in love with her.

Lou Salome was 21, she was the intellectual equal of Friedrich Nietzsche and the least straight laced (Socially uninhibited new style of liberated feminist dedicated to independence) and the most entertaining woman Nietzsche had ever met. She was also frigid and in her Nietzsche thought he had finally found his soul mate.

Lou Salome - She was beautiful, Intelligent and Frigid.

Amazingly, Nietzsche asked Paul Ree to propose to Salome on his behalf which possibly says something about his emotional IQ.

Salome refused to marry either Nietzsche or Ree and counter proposes a platonic Menage-a-trios (a threesome) with Ree and Nietzsche.

They spend much time together and are photographed in a mock up of a cart with Nietzsche and Ree between the shafts and Salome driving them flourishing a whip. I think this is one of those images when art speaks louder than words.

In May 1882 while the three of them are on a holiday in Lucerne, Nietzsche proposes to Salome again, this time in person. He is rejected and the trio leave for Leipzig where after three weeks Salome and Ree leave Nietzsche without arranging to meet him again.

Nietzsche waits for a month hoping to hear from them before he realises he has been abandoned. By now he is emotionally and physically exhausted and beset with disappointment and self contempt.

The rejection by Salome and not least the manner of it was the bitterest pill Nietzsche ever endured and led to his most severe bout of depression yet. However, part of his strategy to recover his equilibrium was to embark on a new book; Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Salome in the driver's seat with whip - Nietzsche and Ree the compliant donkeys.

Nietzsche’s Crisis Leads to New Philosophy of Hope

One of the things that characterizes Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the excessive and grandiose manner in which it is written. One can feel the depths of Nietzsche’s depression and the inevitable euphoria that usually follows it. I have posted an excerpt from part two, The Night Song, for you to read for yourself.

But Thus Spoke Zarathustra is also the resolution of Nietzsche’s intellectual crisis and he emerges from it with a new philosophy of hope. Hope for a world for which Nietzsche was previously pessimistic.

Nietzsche’s Concept of Fulfillment

It is at this point Nietzsche shakes off the influence of Schopenhauer with his view that:

“……the happiest lot is that of the man who has got through life without any very great pain, bodily or mental.”

and he replaces it with a new philosophy that declares fulfillment in life can only be reached not by avoiding pain but by embracing its role as a natural, inevitable step on the way to achieving anything good.

Nietzsche Emerges from the dark

Thus as Nietzsche emerges from his darkest days he experiences a revelation that all the demolition that goes on in life may be only the essential preliminary and prerequisite condition for a new construction of it. He puts it far more eloquently himself at the end of his book, Dawn:

We aeronauts of the spirit! All those brave birds which fly out into the distance, into the farthest distance – it is certain! somewhere or other they will be unable to go on and will perch down on a mast or a bare cliff-face – and they will be thankful for this miserable accommodation! But who could venture to infer from that, that there was not an immense open space before them, that they had flown as far as one could fly! All our great teachers and predecessors have at last come to a stop…; it will be the same with you and me! But what does that matter to you and me! Other birds will fly farther!

Authors Note:

I sincerely apologise that I have left so much out and yet the article is still too long. I thank you for flying this far with me. Excelsior!

P.S. I have posted separately the two extracts from Thus Spoke Zarathustra mentioned above.

Ric Vatner

The Chapters So Far:

The Man Chapter 1

The Man Chapter 2

The Man Chapter 3

Read an Analysis of Each Chapter – The Philosophy and Ideas behind the Story

Analysis of The Man Chapter 1

Analysis of The Man Chapter 2

A Readers Analysis of The Man Chapter 2

Pre Analysis Background Information for The Man Chapter 3

By Friedrich Nietzsche

This is the second excerpt from Thus Spoke Zarathustra mentioned in the post headed “Sex and the Philosopher who Specialised in Feeling Wretched”

The Night-Song

‘TIS night: now do all gushing fountains speak louder. And my soul also is a gushing fountain.

‘Tis night: only now do all songs of the loving ones awake. And my soul also is the song of a loving one.

Something unappeased, unappeasable, is within me; it wants to find expression. A craving for love is within me, which speaks itself the language of love.

Light am I: ah, that I were night! But it is my lonesomeness to be begirt*[1] with light!

Ah, that I were dark and nightly! How would I suck at the breasts of light!

And I would bless you, ye twinkling stars and glow-worms above!- and would rejoice in the gifts of your light.

But I live in my own light, I drink back into myself the flames that break forth from me.

I know not the happiness of the receiver; and oft have I dreamt that stealing must be more blessed than receiving.

It is my poverty that my hand never rests from giving; it is mine envy that I see expectant eyes and the brightened nights of desire.

Oh, the misery of all givers! Oh, the eclipse of my sun! Oh, the craving for desire! Oh, the violent hunger in satiety!

They take from me: but do I yet touch their soul? There is a gap between giving and receiving; and the smallest gap hath finally to be bridged over.

A hunger arises out of my beauty: I should like to rob those to whom I illumine; I should like to rob those to whom I give – thus do I hunger for wickedness.

Withdrawing my hand when another hand already reaches out to it; hesitating like the waterfall, which hesitates even in its plunge – thus do I hunger for wickedness!

Such vengeance does my abundance think of; such spite wells out of my lonesomeness.

My joy in giving died in giving; my virtue grew weary of itself through its abundance!

He who is ever giving is in danger of losing his shame; the hand and heart of him who distributes grow callous through sheer distributing.

My eye no longer overflows with the shame of suppliants[2]; my hand has become too hard for the trembling of hands that have been filled.

Where have the tears of my eye and the bloom of my heart gone? Oh, the lonesomeness of all givers! Oh, the silence of all shining ones[3]!

Many suns circle in empty space: to all that is dark they speak with their light – but to me they are silent.

Oh, this is the hostility of light to the shining one: unpitying it pursues its course.

Unfair to the shining one in its innermost heart, cold towards suns – thus travels every sun.

Like a storm do the suns pursue their courses: that is their travelling. Their inexorable[4] will do they follow: that is their coldness.

Oh, it is only you, obscure, dark ones, who extract warmth from the light-givers! Oh, only you drink milk and comfort from the udders of light!

Ah, there is ice around me; my hand burns with the iciness! Ah, there is thirst in me, which yearns after your thirst!

‘Tis night: alas, that I have to be light! And thirst for the things of night! And lonesomeness!

‘Tis night: now my longing breaks from me as a fountain,- I long for speech. ‘Tis night: now do all gushing fountains speak louder. And my soul also is a gushing fountain.

‘Tis night: only now do all songs of lovers awaken. And my soul too is the song of a lover.

Thus sang Zarathustra.

[1] begirt: Surrounded, to surround as with a band

[2] suppliants: Asking humbly and earnestly

[3] shining ones: light givers

[4] inexorable: grim determination

Go To Post: Sex and the Philosopher who Specialised in Feeling Wretched

By Friedrich Nietzsche

This is the Poem referred to by H. W. Brann in his book on Nietzsche’s sex life, Nietzsche und die Frauen mentioned in the post headed “Sex and the Philosopher who Specialised in Feeling Wretched” In his book Brann interprets this poem as a barely disguised recollection of a visit to a brothel. He noticed similarities between its phraseology and that of the version given to Deussen.

Among the Daughters of the Desert

The deserts grow: woe him who doth them hide!

-Ha!

Solemnly!

In effect solemnly!

A worthy beginning!

African manner, solemnly!

Of a lion worthy,

Or perhaps of a virtuous howl-monkey-

-But it’s naught to you,

Ye friendly damsels dearly loved,

At whose own feet to me,

The first occasion,

To a European under palm-trees,

At seat is now granted. Selah.

Wonderful, truly!

Here do I sit now,

The desert nigh, and yet I am

So far still from the desert,

Even in naught yet deserted:

That is, I’m swallowed down

By this the smallest oasis-:

-It opened up just yawning,

Its loveliest mouth agape,

Most sweet-odoured of all mouthlets:

Then fell I right in,

Right down, right through- in ‘mong you,

Ye friendly damsels dearly loved! Selah.

Hail! hail! to that whale, fishlike,

If it thus for its guest’s convenience

Made things nice!- (ye well know,

Surely, my learned allusion?)

Hail to its belly,

If it had e’er

A such loveliest oasis-belly

As this is: though however I doubt about it,

-With this come I out of Old-Europe,

That doubt’th more eagerly than doth any

Elderly married woman.

May the Lord improve it!

Amen!

Here do I sit now,

In this the smallest oasis,

Like a date indeed,

Brown, quite sweet, gold-suppurating,

For rounded mouth of maiden longing,

But yet still more for youthful, maidlike,

Ice-cold and snow-white and incisory

Front teeth: and for such assuredly,

Pine the hearts all  of ardent date-fruits. Selah.

To the there-named south-fruits now,

Similar, all-too-similar,

Do I lie here; by little

Flying insects

Round-sniffled and round-played,

And also by yet littler,

Foolisher, and peccabler

Wishes and phantasies,-

Environed by you,

Ye silent, Maiden-kittens,

Full of Misgivings,

Dudu and Suleika,

-Round sphinxed, that into one word

I may crowd much feeling:

(Forgive me, O God,

All such speech-sinning!)

-Sit I here the best of air sniffling,

Paradisal air, truly,

Bright and buoyant air, golden-mottled,

As goodly air as ever

From lunar orb downfell-

Be it by hazard,

Or supervened it by arrogancy?

As the ancient poets relate it.

But doubter, I’m now calling it

In question: with this do I come indeed

Out of Europe,

That doubt’th more eagerly than doth any

Elderly married woman.

May the Lord improve it!

Amen.

This the finest air drinking,

With nostrils out-swelled like goblets,

Lacking future, lacking remembrances,

Thus do I sit here, ye

Friendly damsels dearly loved,

And look at the palm-tree there,

How it, to a dance-girl, like,

Doth bow and bend and on its haunches bob,

-One doth it too, when one view’th it long!-

To a dance-girl like, who as it seem’th to me,

Too long, and dangerously persistent,

Always, always, just on single leg hath stood?

-Then forgot she thereby, as it seem’th to me,

The other leg?

For vainly I, at least,

Did search for the amissing

Fellow-jewel

-Namely, the other leg-

In the sanctified precincts,

Nigh her very dearest, very tenderest,

Flapping and fluttering and flickering skirting.

Yea, if ye should, ye beauteous friendly ones,

Quite take my word:

She hath, alas! lost it!

Hu! Hu! Hu! Hu! Hu!

It is away!

For ever away!

The other leg!

Oh, pity for that loveliest other leg!

Where may it now tarry, all-forsaken weeping?

The lonesomest leg?

In fear perhaps before a

Furious, yellow, blond and curled

Leonine monster? Or perhaps even

Gnawed away, nibbled badly-

Most wretched, woeful! woeful! nibbled badly! Selah.

Oh, weep ye not,

Gentle spirits!

Weep ye not, ye

Date-fruit spirits! Milk-bosoms!

Ye sweetwood-heart

Purselets!

Weep ye no more,

Pallid Dudu!

Be a man, Suleika! Bold! Bold!

-Or else should there perhaps

Something strengthening, heart-strengthening,

Here most proper be?

Some inspiring text?

Some solemn exhortation?-

Ha! Up now! honour!

Moral honour! European honour!

Blow again, continue,

Bellows-box of virtue!

Ha!

Once more thy roaring,

Thy moral roaring!

As a virtuous lion

Nigh the daughters of deserts roaring!

-For virtue’s out-howl,

Ye very dearest maidens,

Is more than every

European fervour, European hot-hunger!

And now do I stand here,

As European,

I can’t be different, God’s help to me!

Amen!

The deserts grow: woe him who doth them hide!

Go to Post: Sex and the Philosopher who Specialised in Feeling Wretched