particles and waves

Harold Bloom's thesis is that no literary creation is truly original. All writers revise what other writers have written. He posits a series of six revisionary 'ratios' whereby this revision process takes place. Each of the ratios is based on a different trope. Tropes are like figures of speech - ways of conveying meaning by expressing things that aren't literally true. The most well-known tropes are similes and metaphors.

Tropes are the fundamental building blocks of all communication. Even that sentence contains the trope of metaphor because tropes are not really building blocks at all. And 'that sentence contains' is another trope because a sentence can't literally contain anything.

Irony is another trope. The word 'literally' is one of the most ironic words, because when something is strictly and objectively true, we say it is 'literally' true. So, the literal and the literary are opposites.

Consider a story, any story. When a character in a story says that something about that story is true, it's ironic (whether or not the writer is deliberately being ironic) because, of course, it's not true because it's happening in a story. But it's still true in some sense because in the world of the story it's true.  Irony works because of the quantum nature of reality. Contradictory conditions can both exist. It happens more than you realize. We think, that can't possibly be right, only because our limited intelligence can't comprehend it.

recognizence

‘A few anecdotes, a few traits of character, manners, face, a few incidents, have an emphasis in your memory out of all proportion to their apparent significance, if you measure them by the ordinary standards. They relate to your gift. Let them have their weight, and do not reject them, and cast about for illustration and facts more usual in literature. What your heart thinks great is great. The soul's emphasis is always right.’

                   - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Spiritual Laws

Your soul knows what it's doing when it draws your attention to things. It recognizes itself. There is an exquisite tension between difference and sameness when you perceive something of yourself in another person or in a book or a place. 

agency

The beauty of writing for me is that I don't know where it will go - it's a creative process. But, at the same time, I'm in control of what I write. When so much in life feels like it is out of control, here is a space where we can have control.

interesting

I like things that I understand to some extent but I'm aware that there is so much more that I don't understand. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, 'That for which we find words is something already dead in our hearts. There is always a kind of contempt in the act of speaking.' Likewise, the things I fully understand hold little interest for me.

In the same way, questions are often more interesting than answers. Answers are the end of the matter. They put an end to enquiry. And problems aren't the bad things we often think they are. Problems are central to life. Problems and challenges make us who we are.

It's weakness that makes things interesting. Imagine the 'perfect' painter who could paint things that look like a photo. That would be impressive, but their work wouldn't be beautiful. But as soon as there is a struggle or faltering - some expression of frailty or strangeness, within the work, it becomes interesting; it strikes a chord.

choices

This post is adapted from a post I wrote on my old blog - caeusura -on May 31, 2014.

When I was studying English at uni and I had to write my first essay, there was a range of topics/ questions to choose from. I really agonised over the choice.....which one would be best? which would I do best at?, etc. When I went to see my tutor about it, she had the most simple and elegant solution. She said, do the one you most want to do. When I thought of it like that, it was really obvious to me which one I should do. 

It's funny how I never thought of approaching it like that. I'm not sure why I didn't think of that as an option. Maybe it's because I was used to school being a place where you don't have the option of doing what you want. In High School, when there is an option, you don't think which do I want to do? you think which one will get me the best result? 

everything's not lost

I thought my old blog - caeusura - was gone forever. I deleted it when I started this blog in January 2020. But I had a look at the wayback machine, and...it's all there! Every post is there. 

So, I'll probably go through it and maybe republish, or revise and republish, some posts. Or maybe I should recreate it - open a new blog called caeusura and put all the posts in it. 

Tim Tam and who?

Someone I work with brought in a packet of Tim Tams the other day and later in the day I took a couple and when I ate the first one I thought that they must be expired or something because it tasted distinctly salty. There was the normal chocolaty flavor of Tim Tams, but then there was also a saltiness. 

So I looked at the pack, and the Tim Tams were....not salted caramel, but.....Jatz flavored. Jatz flavored Tim Tams. Yes! A marriage of two iconic Australian staples. I ate the second one, but I really didn't like it, to be honest. As I said to my friends, this flavor combination just doesn't work. 

I did some more research. The reviews I watched were generally quite positive. I also read an article that said that the original idea was an April fool's day joke, and some people believed it and complained when they found out it wasn't a real product. 

I can't help wondering, if I had known what the flavor was before tasting that first one, whether that would have changed my view, because, interestingly, while I thought the saltiness was unbelievably strong because I was expecting the normal Tim Tam sweetness, a lot of the reviewers said that it was hardly salty at all and some even said they wish it was more salty. Overall though, the reviewers liked them.