Pedelare! Pedelare!

 Posted by at 9:41 pm  Catastrophe Games, Hitting the Potholes, ON the STREET  Comments Off
Nov 062013
 
Kiosk 12

MelesmelesSenori Tasso - Mr Badger is scorching the west country on his bicycle. Beware, Beware – Pedelare! Pedalare!

The peleton strings out behind him, those fine young men and women athletes, the pride of our youth and members of those famous racing teams in their matching lycra grinding up the gears to reach the of the moors and then sprinting downhill. The hunt is on and it is flat out all the way, never touching the brakes. But none can keep up with his furious pace. Old Melesmeles is one in a million, we say. Nobody betters him. Nobody can, and nobody ever will. Those few of us who stand our ground in the presence of that growl, those bared teeth, spumy chops and red eyes…

… like the gashed and gored heros of the ancient boar hunt of Pelion, pump out our life blood, and, descending to the shades, become invisible men and women. Lost.

O Melemeles! O Stavros (as we also playfully call him: like the grizzled and revered village elder of a mythical Aegean island, when he is not racing he is as gentle and friendly as a much loved pussy cat!) – the old and ageless wild beast.

And so there is much blood, Remembrance Sunday, red poppies, the state of emergency, and all the rest – ‘But what is the path that takes us from the Augustinian conception that good is everything and evil is only the lack of goodness, to an opposite view, such as that as Schopenhauer, that good is the absence of evil?

‘Between Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, on the one hand, and Schopenhauer on the other, is the philosophy of the “thinking self”, which introduces into the modern world view an “acontextual”, solitary, self-sufficient being who is capable of acquiring knowledge of the world “outside himself” with his own forces alone. I am referring once again to Descartes, to Leibniz’s “monads without doors or windows”, and to Kant, for whom the subject of knowledge can never penetrate the “thing in itself”.

‘The identification of evil with life and the idea of “abstinent” goodness are based on the individualistic conception of man, on the same homo clausus (it), on the same “self in a shell” on which freedom is based as independence from relationships… as I have sought to demonstrate… (she continues)’. Storia Permette, Storia Proibito, Valeria Ugazio, (tr 2013): Between Good and Evil, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (Ch 4)- P. 178.

And then there is the barking of the dogs! Yes, the real fun begins when we hit the suburbs of atomised and sickening life in which the only story is “Whenever things get better, they get worse” … a story, as your reporter, Mr Fox, can confirm from his customary horizontal position, beneath, beyond and between (meaning that for the last few days I’ve been swinging my hammock among ‘Men in Sheds’, first the monastic community at Hartridge where the monks of the Buddhist Forest Sangha Tradition live in ‘kutis’ (=sheds), and today on the oriental express and London bound to attend the launch of the Mens Shed Association no less – or “Shedders” as they are perhaps unfortunately known).

The suburbs call Melesmeles and his peleton hunt by several different names – “The Grey Wolves”, “The Wild Bunch”, “The Evil One”, or even “Shiva and his Gang” (How wrong they are!), but usually it is simply “Terrorists”. Sensing their approach the domesticated pups raise the alarm, first an occasional bark, then all joining together in unison and general howling. The streets get cleared, and as the dark mass approaches woe betide any isolated car driver on his way to the betting shop, or housewife on her way to the supermarket. It is all about fear, fear among them permitting.

Mr Fox has seen it all for himself and will be telling all, or as much he is also permitted to, to the association of “Shedders” later today. Some may elect to join our pack, and become ‘our’ citizens, and or at least that is the absurd hope he also shares with Melesmeles.

Mr Kirby Raises His Profile

 Posted by at 8:47 am  Echo Effects, IN Conversation, OVER and BEYOND  Comments Off
Aug 072013
 
2012-11-02 14.20.36

An Episode beginning at Tate Modern on the Southbank and leading to Carlisle Lane, SE1, during which Mr Kirby Raises his Profile Aug2013 email (click to view).

Inert with a cup of coffee, the Barrowman opposite me begins raising his Profile, and I am reminded:

‘Thus one portion of being is the Prolific, the other the Devouring. To the Devourer, it seems as if the producer was in his chains; but it is not so, he only takes portions of existence and fancies that the whole.

‘But the Prolific would cease to be Prolific unless the Devourer, as a sea, received the excess of his delights.
(…)

‘These two classes of men are always upon earth, and they should be enemies: who ever tries to reconcile them seeks to destroy existence.’

William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

The quotation is to be found at the beginning of ‘The Theoretical Model’ section (P. 19) of the book by Valeria Ugazio, whose ugly title in English translation I remain so reluctant to name. In Italian she is Storia Permette, Storia Proibito… , and who has become my constant companion this summer both at work and play,  even falling into the bath with me once when I dozed off recently; as a sea, she rises over the high water boundaries and spills into the waking day.

The long conversation continues as follows:

“I am the Barrowman, if that is what you want me to be, or Charon the ferryman according to your other suggestion… the one who ferries you for a coin.”

“What you do is offer me reassurance,” I say, “It may or may not be well intentioned, I have no feeling about that. It felt as though I was being carried in a wheelbarrow from a church on a small knoll down through what seemed to be a valley.”

“During the transition period.”

“It is also called ‘a middle position’ according to Valeria U. It is a third position between polarities. She proposes a radical theory of language and community that diverges from the observations and the schismogenetic model as proposed by Bateson (Naven, 1936). She writes (P. 50), ‘It is constructed by conversational processes that are different from those that produce the two opposing polar positions’.”

“Heaven or Hell.”

“She says you can especially find this third position from observations made on the stories of the Balinese, in the way they tell their stories that is. This is what she writes about them (P. 55), ‘The person who begins the story will stop after a while, expecting questions and comments, and the whole story will wander about and become strongly conversational’.”

After a while, when I have paid for our drinks, we leave the Union Street Café and walk on through the Cut, then cross a busy road and go into Carlisle Lane. I point out the rusty street sign on the wall, and then we enter the long brick-lined tunnel, passing a small, white ceramic sign whose writing tells us about a series of mosaics that are to be found here - inspired by William Blakes’s work undertook during the 10 years from 1793 when he was living close by in Hercules Road.

The light closes in under the terracotta brick tunnel, and I am aware that under the arch of the tunnel is also feeling closer, and that I am also becoming increasingly cold. As a sea, I begin to feel the cold rising up my legs and starting to chill my chest.

“I am frightened.”

“How long does this go on?” You ask.

“I guess as long as it takes a barrowman to push his load along the track that gently slopes down one side of a valley, crosses over a small stream, and then up the other side.”

“To the next part of the story.”

“With your reassurance.”

“You have come out into the light of the summer’s day. The valley is a green expanse, and it is filled with a large, riotous and brightly coloured crowd of dancing and singing women who surround and welcome you on all sides.”

“And I am no longer afraid.”

“After the Tunnel episode under the pressing dome of clay – Valeria U describes it as ‘the disaster area of perfect harmony’ – No, you are no longer afraid. You have come through the edge of disaster (the ‘disaster area’ zone that is also to be found in the middle position as well as at the polarities).”

“At the crossing point.”

“For which a small charge is made in the tradition.”

“The reassurance to keep it real. Because at the edge of disaster which in this case is undifferentiated in the middle position, and the story is saying, ‘You do not exist’. Here (P.55) Valeria U refers in particular to the insights to be found in the writing of RD Laing (1961/65/69): ‘The disconfirmation, disqualification, tangential communicative manouevres at this point’.”

“The point of transition.”

“Intruding too far into waking life.”

The Issue is Happiness (Part 204)

 Posted by at 6:51 pm  Exodus, IN Conversation, OVER and BEYOND  Comments Off
Jul 102013
 
Guest Kiosk

Like Scozia, Africa is also far away. But sometimes there is no alternative and we have to go there in order to meet somebody we have to face-to-face because, you are absolutely right, email, social media, text, mobile, or Skype won’t do.

Think back to Scipio Africanus and the glories of Rome: first stop Carthage, then on to Libya, Egypt and Abyssinia. I remember when I was also face to face with the relics of Mussolini’s more recent Italian imperial dreams. It was not so long ago – a meeting with the fanciful archaeological reconstructions of the imperial baths in the great imperial city of Leptus Magna, the ruins being exposed from under the centuries of sand on the Libyan coast. In other words on this occasion it was a fascist deal.

Or think of dealing with Dr Bobomka!

The deal? It is never just about the money, although of course the price also matters. Of course it does, but  truly said the money is mostly about good manners. Whether in the souk in one of the cities of Mahgreb or on the west coast of Scotland, it is the business of showing mutual respect. Haggle over the deal because, buyer or seller, you and I are coming from strangely different positions. That is what the conversation is for – a long conversation by the way.

A Long Conversation… reading Adrienne Rich Later Poems, I’ve reached the years 1997-98, that being the dateline for a long poem (P53-69 in Midnight Salvage) with that name at its title, including these lines:
“…pierced, jammed, scratched out.
bans, preventive detention, broken mouths,
and on the scoured bench sequestered
a human creature with bloody wings
its private parts
reamed
still trying to speak…” (P. 58)

If you still don’t believe me, just ask yourself what is the money for. The money is for more than for buying a few overpriced ice creams at a top table restaurant, or a week at a seven star palace in an exclusive resort. Don’t be lazy about money! Be bold, because you too are here to do the deal with someone (maybe this time it is with Dr Bobomka himself)! If you can’t understand that, like the proverbial jackpot Lottery Prize winner you’ll be rags to riches, and, just deserts, quickly back to rags in a trice.

Take heed of the warning, if there isn’t a real story behind the deal, the money soon runs out. Valeria Ugazio talks about the “semantic possibilities” – but it is more graspable if we call them  ‘Permitted Stories, Banned Stories’, as her book (2012) is titled in Italian. For the deal to work there is always a formation of mind involved Valeria explains. For instance, at Leptis Magna where the fascist Italian archaeologist worked in the 1930,s – or for Scipio Africanus millenia before – the preferred story is one of power.

For others the deal is about Freedom. This is my preferred construction as it happens, and where many of my real stories are to be found. You’ll have noticed I expect and that I’ve been exploring the polar opposites of freedom: courage/boldness, cowardice/timidity. “Contraries [… ] are yet the life of one another” (says Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudoxia (1646)) . Valeria Ugazio quotes Sir Thomas in her work which explores four different co-positions of person to person, face-to-face meetings, the strangeness of our conversations with somebody who is neither totally honest nor a liar, and the both terrifying and beautiful struggle to overcome our differences.

And remember in the deal: Since you are still trying to speak…

… the issue still is Happiness