Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Reading

The more I read the less I comprehend. The comprehension barrier is a product of two recent developments. First, I simply can no longer understand what I am reading. Each page with its forty to fifty sentences has become a pit of snakes – squirming, black snakes whose heads are indistinguishable from their tails. Staring at the tangle, I get the feeling that there is some horrible, elusive meaning, which I will never quite grasp within each page.
Second, I am being suffocated by words. After about twenty pages of reading, my throat constricts and a rush of nausea overwhelms me. Why? It could be a psychosomatic process linked by some secret conditioning to eye squinting. However, this seems highly unlikely. My most recent hypothesis is that these psychosomatic reactions are a product of a growing unconscious understanding of the essence of text. Given that this unconscious knowledge is producing these strange effects, it may be better that my growing knowledge of text remain unconscious. Thus, ultimately, the psychosomatic prevetion of any conscious knowledge of text is not such a bad thing.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Reflection

Heard a song at Church today that I found meaningful. I read its words in light of my many failures and disappointments of the past 4 years, the grief and regret caused by their memory, the fear I feel towards the coming year and an imminent graduation.

Be Still, My Soul

Be still, my soul:
the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently
the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God
to order and provide;
In every change,
He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul:
thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways
leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul:
thy God doth undertake
To guide the future,
as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence
let nothing shake;
All now mysterious
shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul:
the waves and winds
still know His voice
Who ruled them
while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul:
when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened
in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know
His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe
thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul:
thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness
all He takes away.

Be still, my soul:
the hour is hastening on
When we shall be
forever with the Lord.
When disappointment,
grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot,
love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul:
when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed
we shall meet at last.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

angry

Max Weber's Ancient Judaism is the worst piece of writing I have read this entire year. Yet, in order to write a short, three page paper, I am not only forced to read it, but to squeeze the text for meaning. His rationalization of the bizarre stories found in the Jewish Bible are elaborate rereadings based out of psychology, sociology, and economics. Such rereadings might be interesting if his rereadings weren't so hard to stomach, challenging the mythic-bizarreness of the original texts with a new plain, naturalistic-bizarreness. His 'scientific' writing is about as believable as Sigmund Freud's.

I am convinced Max suffered from intellectual insecurity when he wrote this text; that, or he was a pompous asshole. Ancient Judaism is an extremely reader-unfriendly text. Perhaps it is the translation. I hope it is the translation. But, most likely, it is not. For one, Max feels the need to accompany every point he makes about Jewish society with three clarifying points taken from other societies, namely those of India and other Asiatic countries, which might be ok if his examples weren't incredibly obscure such that only a scholar would get them (!!!) WTF. I might understand if he was Indian or Chinese, BUT he was a freaking German.
THE END
back to my papers....
so many...
so behind...
help.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Welcome Sabbath, Yelodim, and Jack and Jill

The following were taken from Mother Goose's Rhymes for Jewish Children (1945, 61 pgs)

Welcome Sabbath

I will dress up in my best,
For Sabbath comes just like a guest;
I will see the candels shine,
And will say the prayer for wine.
Welcome, Sabbath, welcome guest!
Welcome, Sabbath, day of rest!

--
Yelodim

This little Yeled said,
"I went to school."
This little Yeled said,
"I went to Shool."
This little Yeled said,
"I saw a Menorah."
This little Yeled said,
"I saw a Torah."
And this little Yeled said,
"Sholom, my dear Morah."

--
Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill
Went up the hill
To borrow some Charoses.
Jack fell down
And broke his crown,
So Jill drank his four Kosos.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Time

When the future and the present become indistinct, the past offers no refuge except that of a mirage (a rainbow).

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Dilema

Todays leading philosophers recently posed a question likely to haunt generations for years to come, "Is Nintendo's Smash Brothers a complete and absolute waste of time and energy?" I for one believe there is no straightforward answer to such an inquiry . If all prejudices are put aside and only facts are considered, substantive conclusions are reduced to blind guesses. Our best hope for an answer lies in future research and analysis. Until then we can only wait expectantly.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Reminder

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me..." - A dangerous condition that I too often relapse into.