Patti Smith reading her own poetry

Hear Patti Smith Read 12 Poems From Seventh Heaven, Her First Collection (1972)

http://www.openculture.com/2014/04/hear-patti-smith-read-12-poems-from-seventh-heaven.html

Peter at the Gate!?!?!?!

So, is it really that obvious: PETER at the Gate to paradise, listening to people's stories in order to let them in or not? We are judged by our story. It doesn't matter if it is really our story, just that it is a good story.

"Question: It's nothing terrible. Everyone tells his story the best he can.
Answer: I didn't make anything up. That's how it all was. Do you believe me?
Question: It makes no difference whether I do or don't." p. 47

I love this. We all tell our story the best we can, and in by the end we just hope it comes out well. The story we are telling is our life. We incorporate others stories because those stories have become a part of our lives, thus they have become our story as well. "In short, everything everywhere is this story." p. 49 And eventually the story the answer is telling is being told as well by the question in a collaborative storytelling.

Even within the first 100 pages the strands of narrative are unravelling as they are being woven and then rewoven again.

the "truth" comes out in the liminal zone of culture: (just to bring us back to bhabha).

 Lovely Lovely fun.

Within Without You

Done: The Song (Anathem) is Over.

An incredibly long-winded sic-fi (I refuse to use speculative fiction). At least 40-60% of the exposition could have been deleted outright if not compressed severely. He owes a lot to Zelazny, Dick, Asimov, Gibson, and Clarke. The alternate world/reality with a mythic/science spin was entertaining to some degree, but too much time was spent explaining pretty much everything. The long description of the alien spacecrafts wiring system for example.  If I wanted a Socratic dialogue on Plato's Ideals then I would have read Plato. The narrative was engaging but not enough to keep me from yawning during the explanations of alternate co-current narratives.

I am Thankful for Books

Several years ago I made a list of 15 books, which have shaped the way I see myself and the world (as if those are two separate entities).  I think I would add Ann Carson’s “Eros the Bittersweet”, and “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” by Paulo Freire to the list today. Here is the list I made then, no specific order or rank:

The I Ching

Canterbury Tales: Chaucer

The Name of the Rose: Umberto Eco

Howl: Allen Ginsburg

The Book of Nightmares: Galway Kinnell

Tao de Ching: Lao Tzu

Persona: Pound

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: Annie Dillard

The Non-Conformist Memorial: Susan Howe

Trilogy: H.D.

Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

Poems for the Millenium, Vol 1&2, ed. by J. Rothenberg

After Ikkyu: Jim Harrison

Philisophical Investigations: L. Wittgenstein

Stand on Zanzibar:  John Brunner

Best Commentary on Anathem: Within Without You: The Beatles

We were talking-about the space between us all
And the people-who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth-then it's far too late-when they pass away.
We were talking-about the love we all could share-when we find it
To try our best to hold it there-with our love
With our love-we could save the world-if they only knew.
Try to realize it's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small,
And life flows ON within you and without you.
We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul-
They don't know-they can't see-are you one of them?
When you've seen beyond yourself-then you may find, peace of mind,
Is waiting there-
And the time will come when you see
we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you.