{The Infinite Genius [continued] – Defining Genius}[23rd November 1976]

[Redbook2:89][19761123:1820c]{The Infinite Genius [continued] – Defining Genius}[23rd November 1976]

19761123.1820

[continued]

It may be that this gives a reference-point or dividing line for some useful value-judgements: not between 'literature' and 'the rest', since 'literature' at present covers far more than this; but perhaps between high literary genius and the rest. So one says that the difference between great music and the rest is that one may grow tired of the latter; but the more one listens to the former, rich and indigestible though one may find it, the more one discovers.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger31072014]

{The Infinite Genius [continued] – Artist as Link}[23rd November 1976]

[Redbook2:88-89][19761123:1820b]{The Infinite Genius [continued] – Artist as Link}[23rd November 1976]

19761123.1820

[continued]

If Shakespeare can be discussed – by one who should know – in the terms used by McKellen, he must have overcome this logic in some way – whether by his perceptions of the pattern of the Universe, or by his perception of the patterns of our minds – or in some other way inconceivable to me – so as to link this Universe and the mind of his reader/audience exclusively through the frame of his own recreation (as seen in turn through the audience or reader's own mental frame), but as though directly – giving nevertheless the benefit of his own interpretation, obvious or not.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger30072014]

{The Infinite Genius [continued] – Finite Media}[23rd November 1976]

[Redbook2:88][19761123:1820a]{The Infinite Genius [continued] – Finite Media}[23rd November 1976]

19761123.1820

[continued]

I thought, when I read this* earlier this year, that, if that is true, it represents something quite extraordinary. For, logically and effectively speaking, the crucial difference between what Man perceives – part of this Universe – and what he creates – relates – is that the former is, to him, infinite, various without end, whereas the latter must, by the nature of the medium he uses, be limited in what another person, an audience or reader, may find within it (I did choose that form of words deliberately).

*[See last previous post]

[continues]

[PostedBlogger29072014]

{The Infinite Genius – Shakespeare}[23rd November 1976]

[Redbook2:88][19761123:1820]{The Infinite Genius – Shakespeare}[23rd November 1976]

19761123.1820

'Any performance is, therefore, a step along the never-ending journey towards definition, clarity, unambiguity of expression. Shakespeare's mind* is unfathomable. There is no centre to his maze.'

Ian McKellen

'A distant, fabled place'

The Times (Saturday Review),

9^th October 1976.

*[The manuscript has "mine", which is picturesque and not inappropriate, but McKellen's own website has it as 'mind' 
(echoing a remark attributed to Coleridge: "The body and substance of his works came out of the unfathomable depths of his own oceanic mind." (Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Vol. II (1835), p. 301.)): http://www.mckellen.com/writings/distant.htm . <20160108-09>]

[PostedBlogger28072014]

{Utopian Politics}[21st November 1976]

[Redbook2:87][19761121:1109a]{Utopian Politics}[21st November 1976]

19761121.1109

[continued]

In the absence of a strong ethos of duty, there may be vast differences between the politician who rises to power within an existing party political structure developed by others and one who plans a new structure for new hard times. The differences are of temperament, and motivation: the first may seek to make use of an existing power-base for his own ends; the second, if he is not a revolutionary exploiter of trouble, may seek to make use of his own powers for the sake of something other than himself.

*

I met CB again on Friday, for the first time for some months.

[PostedBlogger27072014]

{Isaiah}[21st November 1976]

[Redbook2:87][19761121:1109]{Isaiah}[21st November 1976]

19761121.1109

And judgment is turned away backward,

and justice standeth afar off:

for truth is fallen in the street,

and equity cannot enter.

--Isaiah, 59.14

(There was something else earlier in Isaiah, which particularly struck me when I read it; but I did not note it down at the time, and now cannot remember where or what it was.)

[PostedBlogger26072014]

{With Flowers}[w/e 20th November 1976]

[Redbook2:87A][19761120:000(w/e)]{With Flowers}[w/e 20^th November 1976]

(One day during week ending 1976.11.20)

Her aim was good, her aim was true,

She shot the blighter through and through.

And later on, for hours and hours

She danced upon his grave

– with flowers.

* * *

[PostedBlogger25072014]

{Utopian}[26th September 1976]

[Redbook2:86][19760926:1255]{Utopian}[26^th September 1976]

19760926.1255

The difference between most political leaders now – at least in the developed World – and my model is that they look at what we have, and decide on that basis what we need; whereas he decides what we need, and works out how we can achieve it (or approach it) on the basis of what we have.

[PostedBlogger24072014]

{Balls}[8th September 1976]

[Redbook2:86][19760908:1450]{Balls}[8^th September 1976]

19760908:1450

“Today they are wringing my hands;

soon, I shall be wringing

their balls.”

[PostedBlogger23072014]

{Beyond the Form}[23rd August 1976]

[Redbook2:85][19760823:1125]{Beyond the Form}[23rd August 1976]

19760823.1125

(L. 197606[?/8?]23)

Perceive the form, and pass beyond*.

*(– Originally 'it.')

[PostedBlogger22072014]

{Manifestations}[23rd August 1976]

[Redbook2:85G][19760823:0000]{Manifestations}[23rd August 1976]

19760823

Manifestations might often lead to the same chain of reactions:

(i) Uncritical acceptance; giving way in some to:

(ii) Critical reasoning, which always (?by arrangement, or in the nature of things?) finds a 'natural' logical explanation; but a few pass beyond this to

(iii) Reflections on

(a) the arbitrary line drawn between nature and super-nature, and

?(b) whether the manifestation is relevant to the message.

[PostedBlogger21072014]

{Irrational God?}[31st May 1976]

[Redbook2:85F][19760531:0000]{Irrational God?}[31st May 1976][Aged 25]

19760531

An omniscient God need have (and therefore presumably would have) no faculty of reason, or in other words no power of logical deduction. Deduction uses what is perceived (or accepted) to show the existence of what is not perceived (or was not accepted). There is nothing that an omniscient God does not perceive.

This does not mean that an omniscient God would be unreasonable, since when we say that a man is being reasonable we do not necessarily mean that he is applying the reasoning process in the sense of logical deduction.

[PostedBlogger20072014]

{Answers}[13th May 1976]

[Redbook2:85E][19760513:0000]{Answers}[13^th May 1976]

19760513

The person who answers your question before you asked it / answers the question you didn't ask. – ? Standard guide to friends to recognise the Net?

[PostedBlogger19072014]

{Cinderella}[11th May 1976]

[Redbook2:85][19760511:1405a]{Cinderella}[11^th May 1976]

19760511.1405

[continued]

I saw part of Chelsea Hospital for Women (?) burn today – the smoke comes out between the tiles in many streams like the teeth of a comb, before joining (like its body).

[PostedBlogger18072014]

{Law and the People}[11th May 1976]

[Redbook2:85][19760511:1405]{Law and the People}[11^th May 1976]

19760511.1405

Without the Law, there is no People;

Without the People, there is no Law.

[PostedBlogger17072014]

{Internal Courts}[9th April 1976]

[Redbook2:85A][19760409:0000]{Internal Courts}[9^th April 1976]

19760409

The [future, Utopian] land has a hierarchical system of Courts. (Many of the lower courts are staffed on a part-time basis). The apex of this system is a supreme court in which one of the Net [top level] four sits. Its reputation for knowing the truth of the matter, and finding the moral right, discourages a good many potential litigants. It therefore has less work than might be expected from a population of the size inhabiting the […] land.

[PostedBlogger16072014]

{Two-faced?}

[Redbook2:85][19760331:1200]{Two-faced?}[31st March 1976]

19760331.1200

One side of my face is light, the other dark.

[PostedBlogger15072014]

{Libertarianism? [continued]}[31st March 1976]

[Redbook2:84][19760331:1130b]{Libertarianism? [continued]}[31st March 1976]

19760331.1130c

[continued]

Quite apart from the fact that this approach to the method of achieving necessary social aims is self-defeating in that it negates the purpose of Man – saves his body while defeating his spirit – it is also very clearly and obviously resulting in the widespread destruction of people's belief in, and sense of responsibility towards, their Nation and their democracy.

[PostedBlogger14072014]

[SEE ALSO NEW INSERTION ON 14072014 AT 07052014 POST ]

{Libertarianism? [continued]}[31st March 1976]

[Redbook2:84][19760331:1130a]{Libertarianism? [continued]}[31st March 1976]

19760331.1130c

[continued]

The present form of socialist centralised Welfare State has already taken over the functions and responsibility of the Individual in relation to Local Community – whether the local district, or the Individual's geographical Neighbours – and has also gone some way towards removing the Individual's responsibility for his own Family (for example compulsory education, the National Health Service, and care of old people are all directed by authorities responsible for large areas of population). It has now embarked on what could become a programme of removing the Indiviual's responsibility for himself (viz. compulsory crash helmets and seat belts).

[continues]

[PostedBlogger13072014]

{Libertarianism?}[31st March 1976]

[Redbook2:84][19760331:1130]{Libertarianism?}[31st March 1976]

19760331.1130c

Any form of government depends ultimately on the consent of the people governed, however obtained. In a democracy this consent must, by and large, be obtained by persuasion or less forceful methods. This cannot happen without a popular feeling of responsibility towards the democratically governed unit – the nation. But awareness of nationality is a tenuous, a precarious – even a fickle thing. It is a sense of community like any other. Being less obviously appropriate, this sense has to be learned. It is best learned by perceiving example. The only other significant communities for the Individual are the Family and the Local Community.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger12072014]

{Civil Talk?}[10th March 1976]

[Redbook2:83][19760310:2050]{Civil Talk?}[10th March 1976]

19760310.2050c

Officialdum.

[PostedBlogger11072014]

{Top Class}[8th March 1976]

[Redbook2:83][19760308:0945]{Top Class}[8th March 1976]

19760308.0945c

'That conscious unconsciousness of class which only good breeding can bring....'

(Where have I heard this before?)

[PostedBlogger10072014]

{Son of Trackula}[8th March 1976]

[Redbook2:82][19760308:0945]{Son of Trackula}[8th March 1976]

19760308.0945c

– or is Trackula British Rail, doing the same thing?*

*[See 2:82,19760215:1325]

[PostedBlogger09072014]

{Railways into Busways [continued]}[3rd March 1976]

[Redbook2:83B][19760303:0000e]{Railways into Busways [continued]}[3rd March 1976]

1976.03.03

[continued]

Any replacement track system designed to use the physical trackbed structures and routes of the railway system must offer these advantages — as the Reading Study's proposals do not. It must also, if possible, allow, for vehicles travelling on it, a far greater physical and economic compatibility with the road system — which the Reading Study, in theory if not in practice, does. Such a possibility has only within the last few years moved out of the realms of Science Fiction and into the area of distinct, though long-term, possibility. If the railway system, as a system of routes rather than as a system of operation, is to survive independently of the winds of politics, this possibility must be closely studied.

[PostedBlogger08072014]

{Railways into Busways [continued]}[3rd March 1976]

[Redbook2:83A-B][19760303:0000d]{Railways into Busways [continued]}[3rd March 1976]

1976.03.03

[continued]

But it is arguable that, for the 'long-term' future, even automation does not go far enough: that, to return again to the implied basis of the Reading study, the crucial asset of the B[ritish] R[ail] system is not the train, nor even the steel wheel on the steel rail, but the physical trackbed structures and routes along which it operated. (Oddly enough, this is the aspect of the system which has significantly suffered – a two-thirds reduction – during this century). It should be added that this (perhaps inadvertent) assumption of the Reading study is negated by an apparent failure to allow for the potential advantages of the steel wheel on steel rail system: such as its strength and speed; its physical guidance; its suitability for remote power supply and control, and for automation; and of course its capacity for running potentially economic trainloads.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger07072014]

{Railways into Busways [continued]}[3rd March 1976]

[Redbook2:83A-B][19760303:0000c]{Railways into Busways [continued]}[3rd March 1976]

1976.03.03

[continued]

What is B[ritish] R[ail]'s answer to this? What are the Government's thoughts, if any? At one time it seemed that B.R. might be taking the problem seriously, at least for the 'medium-term' future, with research into automated wagon systems. Clearly this is a potentially significant means of increasing the flexibility of the railway system as a carrier, at least between rail-connected customers, compared with road-based carriers. But nothing seems to have been heard of this line of development for some time. One hopes that it has not been dropped in favour of the more glamorous but potentially less significant high speed rail passenger trains.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger06072014]

{Railways into Busways [continued]}[3rd March 1976]

[Redbook2:83A-B][19760303:0000b]{Railways into Busways [continued]}[3rd March 1976]

1976.03.03

[continued]

The greatest (and perhaps the only) virtue of the Reading Study is that it pinpointed for public notice what is (despite the traditional railway management view of it as an advantage) possibly the greatest single present disadvantage of railways as a system of transport: their incompatibility with roads. Despite containers, piggy-back and rail-road vehicles, there is as yet no economically feasible way in which the road vehicle user can obtain for himself and his vehicle the full potential of the rail system. This, a commonplace though it may seem to us (only because we have grown up with it), is one of the major reasons why, in developed societies, the railways as economic enterprises are dying.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger05072014]

{Railways into Busways [continued]}[3rd March 1976]

[Redbook2:83A-B][19760303:0000a]{Railways into Busways [continued]}[3rd March 1976]

1976.03.03

[continued]

The Railway Management have stated publicly over the last few years that there is now no commercial 'break-even' point for the railways: that continued attempts to whittle the system down to a financially self-supporting network will have no logical end until there are no railways left. If this is correct, continued discussion in terms of 'commercially viable services' (such as Inter City) must be virtually meaningless; and the public is entitled to question the whole basis of assumptions on which the railway system is founded. Since it appears equally as impossible in practice to achieve anything by organisational reform as by surgery, only the question of the technology of the Railways remains. But it is scarcely a satisfactory answer, to the problem of overall commercial unviability of trains, to continue with highly expensive efforts to build more convenient trains.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger04072014]

{Railways into Busways}[3rd March 1976]

[Redbook2:83A-B][19760303:0000]{Railways into Busways}[3rd March 1976]

1976.03.03

The Reading University railways-into-busways study, although clearly futile as a practical exercise (see, for example, Modern Railways, Vol XXXIII No330: March 1976), should be taken seriously by B[ritish] R[ail] and the Government in one respect — even if only in one respect. For it does what both B.R. and the D[epartment] o[f the] Environment] appear at the moment to be either unable or unwilling to do: it looks at the future of transport in this country (if only by implication) in order to ask: is the present technological and operational structure of the Railways the most appropriate until the turn of the century, and after?

[continues]

[PostedBlogger03072014]

{A Dream of Alien Impersonation}[28th February 1976]

[Redbook2:82C][19760228:0000]{A Dream of Alien Impersonation}[28th February 1976]

19760228

(Dr.) Trying to keep a changeable alien invader out of a group – gradually it becomes clear that the alien is taking the appearance of whichever of the group happens not to be with the rest at the time.

(1) This happens to others – they appear dazed?, and later claim to have been somewhere else.

(2) This happens to the 1^st/3rd person central figure – he is away, and returns to find people talking about what he did when he 'was' (appeared to be) with them (but wasn't).

(3) The 1^st/3rd p.c.f. takes someone else outside and shows him, thro' window, the 1^st/3rd p.c.f.'s 'imitation' – so the other attackes the 1^st/3rd p.c.f.' assuming he is the invader.

?Result: The 1^st/3rd p.c.f. is treated as the alien – while his alien 'imitator' looks on. Then what?

[PostedBlogger02072014]

{A Dream? -- of Water and Death}[21st February 1976]

[Redbook2:82B][19760221:0000]{A Dream? -- of Water and Death}[21st February 1976]

19760221?

(Dr?) An (Englishman) in Los Angeles/San Francisco invited by a neighbouring 'commune' or group of youngsters to use their pool one day – question of why, in America now, it has at the same time become possible for people to swim naked in their own gardens in view of the street (and to share that with strangers), and for people to eat each other?

?Some sign shows the (Englishman) that all of these are of one group, or 'family'. He flees.

[PostedBlogger01072014]