L.I.S.A Notes & Appendix by Nicholas Nicola
(Reference material in relation to the main text L.I.S.A).
Nicholas Nicola © Copyright 2012.
Black Fez Press Smashwords Edition.
Cover design by the author including a photo of a rock formation at Gordons Bay. Sydney.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Editorial Note
The following basic information contains the Notes and Appendix that are to be referred to in relation to both the hard copy and ebook versions of L.I.S.A by Nicholas Nicola. This information will also be found on the website http://nicholasnicolaetchings.synthasite.com/ (or just type nicholas nicola etchings into SEARCH).
It should be noted that further information such as extending the Appendix and providing earlier drafts and so forth may occur. In any case, due to this ‘organic’ editorial approach the Notes and Appendix is provided non gratis. Thank You. NN.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
NOTES
Prologue
Night
Day
Eternity
APPENDIX
Cat
Michael
Gregor
Teresa
Lisa
Directors Cut
NOTES
Acknowledgements
1.In a mood of meditation one may wish to consider the following memorial comment in relation to her:‘ THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND/AND THE DEAD SHALL BE / RAISED IMPERISHABLE – /THANKS BE TO GOD/ WHO GIVES US THE VICTORY/ THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD.
Prologue
1.It should be mentioned that the chapter heading Somewhere on the North Coast of New South Wales intimates to the idea of being on territory akin to ‘behind enemy lines’.
Vicky. 1.Michael is referring to a passage in Virginia Woolfe’s To the Lighthouse.
NIGHT
Lisa & Melissa. 1.From William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence.
Karin. 1.K.D. Lang did once very generously autograph an A4 photo of a ‘rain class’ of special education students presented to her by the author.
Night. 1. The next Berries goalkicker was the great El Masri. 2. Marc Chagall.
John Singer. 1.John Singer is the central character in Carson McCuller’s novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Celestial Fire. 1.William Blake. 2.Alan Ginsberg.
Master. 1 Including 150 Australians who fought in northern Russia (one won a VC)..2.A leaflet Master obtained from the Community Resource Centre in Bardwell Park. 3. Another German police show that Master also likes is Derrick as mentioned. Inspector Rex is also referred to as Kommissar Rex as it is an Austrian production and it is quite obvious that Rex is far more intelligent than the other police & criminals which only his most faithful colleagues such as Moser and Brandtner seem to recognize. It is a show constantly repeated on SBS. 4. Master had once quipped after taste testing some home brew beer that such sheds could be used to alleviate the so called ‘refo plague.’ Instead of abandoning refugees onto other Pacific Islands like Nauru. The shed was also a ‘refuge’ for Frank the possum (named after Frank Arok – a former Socceroo coach; after Frank would scarper down a tree when no one was looking and steal a slice of bread at the barbecues in Master’s spacious, native tree backyard).
Wonderland. 1. Walkie talkie pictures refer to pictures doneby schoolchildren who adopt the so called ‘bird’s eye view’ of looking at landscape whereby they depict a map of where they live using symbols they have made up themselves after being shown how Aboriginal people depict their land and dreamtime stories using symbols so that it is understood that the picture is not abstract but truly represents a physical landscape and spiritual realities. The schoolchildren obtain some concept of the Aboriginal way of viewing land and spirit and after their pictures are done the students show the pictures to one another or even join them all up but in essence a student ‘walks’ his or her audience through a picture by talking about it. The picture may depict where the student now lives and is often like a map or in the case of refugee/migrant children often shows the home or place where they have come on. The author 9who has taught as a visual arts teacher) often finds these imagies hauntingly beautiful and poignant along with the statements that go with them explaining the picture.
The Dowie. 1. Jandamarra led a three year hit-and-run guerilla war against the white man from November 1894 to April 1897 when he was killed by an Aboriginal tracker Micki who it was said had equivalent magical powers to Jandamarra who was famed for his mythical ability to always escape from his awe-struck pursuers who on more than one occasion thought they had trapped him. Many Aboriginals considered loyal to Jandamarra had also been murdered by the police. Jandamarra was motivated to fight to both defend Bunaba land in the southern Kimberley which was being invaded by pastoralists and to counter the increasing cruelty and atrocities being committed on the Bunaba people. Jandamarra remains an inspiration to the Aboriginal people to this day much like Pemulwuy the great Aboriginal resistance fighter who fought against the colonial invaders as more tribal lands around Sydney were ruthlessly taken over by the English. It seems that such wholesale brutality against ‘savages’ had general public approval and it is intriguing that the new federation would in a few years ironically (and one could say hypocritically) go on to fight and tragically die for so called ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ on behalf of the Mother Country while at the same time denying all basic human rights to the Aboriginal race. 2. As a general note the old hand would be of the opinion that because of being continually oppressed the Aboriginal people found themselves on the bottom rung of European society with all the dysfunctional social/domestic problems often associated with underclass disadvantage; thus the need to dramatically reverse the social slide to fully restore Aboriginal society to its pre-European integrity.
Ilias. 1. Ilias by Jim Sakkas. Australian Vogel Winner. 1987. Allen & Unwin.
Charon.1.Reference to the boatman of the underworld who transports the recent dead over the waters of the River Styx to Hades.2.Cronus is the Titan God of Time during the Golden Age who usurped his father Uranus to control the whole cosmos. He ate his children so they would not overthrow him according to prophecy; however, Zeus wasn’t devoured (Rhea, Zeus’s mother switched him with a rock). Zeus commanded the Olympians who fought a ten year war with Cronus who was forced to bring up his swallowed offspring. Cronus & the other Titans lost & were put in the deepest pit of Hades known as Tartaros. Zeus was now the new divine master.
Cat. 1.A negro slave parody of the Lord’s Prayer. 2. From Jerusalem (Chapter 2) by William Blake.2.Jimmy Driftwood is famously known for his song The Battle of New Orleans. The author gratefully stayed with this very hospitable man & his extraordinary wife for a few days at Timbo, Arkansas in 1986.
Last Judgement.1.This strange event was witnessed by the author and eight others at Mt. Sinai ‘around Nov-Dec 1985’. 2.Look at T.S.Eliot’s Burnt Norton in The Four Quartets.
Alcmeon. 1.Uriah was the loyal warrior who King David-after sleeping with Uriah’s beautiful wife Bethsheeba and who he still wanted; being pregnant to him - conspired to have Uriah placed in a dangerous situation on the battlefield so he would die at the hands of the enemy. (It could be intimated–but in a different way - that Lisa is another ‘Uriah’). Michael would mischievously consider–following Isaac Asimov’s axiom – that violence is always the first act of the incompetent on the competent.2.From John Keats famed poem Ode to a Grecian Urn.
Macksville. 1. This milk bar on Parramatta Rd with a sullen, brooding mysterious proprieter; his stony silence reminding one of the god Hades sitting, looking out at the passing world beyond from his suburban Underworld; its confectionery advertising unchanged over 40 years.
Freedom of Choice. 1. President Eisenhower coined the phrase ‘the military-industrial complex’ as a warning that the combined power of the U.S. military and the corporations could become a threat to democracy; this has certainly been evidenced in many third world countries.
DAY
Return of the Progidal. 1. Adora’s Cafe.whose hot chocolate compares favourably to the hot chocolate at the popular Belgian place in Leichhardt.
Ancient Greece.1..A pause.“Did I ever tell you that Cat and I saw the Pope going down Oxford Street in his Popemobile? I think he was following the same course as the Mardi Gras.‘I shook your hand at Assisi!’yelled Cat.”Michael raises his hand.“Look at this hand Mickee-boy! It has also shaken Nelson Mandela’s hand at St. Mary’s Cathedral!” A grin.
“Cat the name dropper!” laughs Lisa. 2.Michael’s uncle would also always say: “You stupid silly thing!”” “Quick & lovely!” & “Down the guts!” For pinballs going straight pass the flippers as well as: ‘Everyday is Christmas in Australia.’ In reference to it comparatively still being the lucky country compared to so many other less fortunate places on this Earth. (However, he could be like Cronus ‘eating’ his children (as well as his wife) with his bad temper; On those occasions when it was demanded he stop shouting Michael’s uncle would state – as suggested in the main narrative - that he was not yelling but merely ‘giving advice’ which was something that would stick in Michael’s mind when he would watch on the news how it was reported that the United States was sending more military advisors to Vietnam or to some other third world country – not invaders or soldiers – but ‘advisors’). Michael also remembers his uncle as a man who would often break out in Greek song; echoing the ‘racial memory oral tradition’ of his ancient race. However, as a ‘suburban Empyrean’ one may regard Michael’s uncle as a veritable Zeus ruler of his ‘suburban Mt. Olympus. The heavenly abode of the Hellene gods. As for Michael’s experience with the Principal (it happened in primary school and not high school as inferred in the narrative he was asked questions like who invented the stream train- answered correctly).
American Future.1.To the author’s knowledge a statement made by Humphrey Bogart in the movie Casablanca.2.On the early June Queen’s Birthday long weekend 3.pinnies is a suburban colloquial abbreviation of pinball machine/s. Michael also remembers from his boyhood the occasion when he was accused by his primary school teachers of cheating in an exam. He had to see the Principal & answer such questions as who invented the steam engine locomotive. (George Stephenson). As a son of migrants Michael’s teachers had low expectations of his academic ability. The Principal was convinced this ‘stupid student’ was actually quite intellectually able & was promptly moved from 4D to 5B for the next academic year.
Achilles. 1. Thus Michael was impressed to see images screened onto the roof of this arch when Brian Eno lit up the Circular Quay foreshore including the Opera House and Museum of Contemporary Art with his ‘Luminious’ light show.
A New Sirius. 1. Henry Moore considers this work as a Hades like ‘death head’ whereby the individual faces the horror of not a natural death but a ‘technological death’ by way of the modern instruments of war e.g. nuclear warfare. Erch Neumann proposes this idea in The Archetypal World of Henry Moore where he also considers the archetypal mystery idea of humankind is the darkness of the ‘night sea journey’ of the sun and the rebirth of consciousness back into the light which psychologically is also Lisa’s archetypal journey. I’m reminded of how at the Stonehenge Rock Festival, 1982 how a frenzied crowd - all over and amidst this stone human construction - with raised arms worshiped the sun when it appeared from the clouds.2.Some other reference material about the installation as read by Michael talks of a man named Raftapolous who was nicknamed by his workmates with ‘Homeric wit’ Crafty Rafty who as Paul Carter states was like Odysseus who knew ‘all the lurks’: (Paul Carter, The Sound In Between, 1992, p. 179). 3 Michael is aware that on the way down they have passed the Print Room where by appointment Lisa and he could come back another time to ‘heavenly view’ original William Blake images.
Barnumbir. 1. Michael is referring to the University Art Gallery at Sydney University and the painting by Robert Campbell Jnr is titled ‘Roped off at the Picture Show’ (1986 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 92 X 121 cm) there is an equivalent artwork by the same artist worth mentioning titled ‘Barred from the baths’ (1986). Both works on exhibit at FREEDOM RIDERS. Art & Activism 1960s to Now. (July 3 to 25th September 2011).
Forgotten Hero.1. Michael was almost as pleased as when he won a work Melbourne Cup sweep; while a teachers aide. (“Shocking!” He said it would be one of the more unique, exciting, life memories he would cherish on his deathbed. Only nearly overtaken by winning the sweep again the next year when Americain won).
The ‘Disappeared’. 1. This extract based on a radio documentary heard on Radio National but have no record of its title or when it was played; it is at least assumed it was on Hindsight.
Mother Earth. 1: Canto XXIX of Dante’s Inferno which amongst other stark images speaks of sprawled crazed bodies in a ‘dark valley’ suffering from an itching that could find no relief no matter how much they dug their nails into each other’s flesh to do so. Dante speaks that not even those in Aegina who died of the plague would have endured as badly. (It is said that this race of people were born again from ants).
The Tropicana Cafe. Darlinghurst.1. Cat has read a poem attributed the Japanese master poet Nijo Yoshimoto. (1320-1388).
The Great Subconscious. 1. Panimaro ’93. Pet Shop Boys.
A Final Circle. 1. See: Naomi Ullmann’s website page http://naomiullmann.com/2007a.html Home Sweet Home Greetings from Bondi - is this your dream home? Move in as is, or add a second storey! (In loving memory of the humble semi).
Lilli Pilli: 1. a reference to the Siev X whereupon over 350 refugees drowned. Michael had seen Billy Bragg at the Roxy Hotel. Glebe on the same night as this tragedy. There is a Siev X memorial in Canberra which has 353 poles – one for every person. The Ultimate Hallucination. 1. The Global Financial Crisis as inferred by ‘Occupy Wall Street’(named after a Dutch wall to keep out the English) there is the specter in Europe with countries like Greece on the brink of defaulting the EU will split up & return Europe to a 1930s scenario of countries insular & hostile to each other (although not going to war). Osiris.1a. Edgeovermen are men usually in their 50s who have gone over the edge in mainstream society and have ‘dropped out’. It is said the U.S. which is sen s a first world county has a growing interior third world in its own society. Have a look at Someplace like America: tales from the new Great Depression by Dale Mahandege & Michael Williamson with foreword by Bruce Springsteen & Journey to Nowhere. The Saga of the New Underclass by Dale Maharadege. SUTTREE by Cormac McCarthy is worth a read. b. See the Appendix under CAT for further reference to this barbeque in the chapter The Great Judas. 2. See the Appendix under Michael’s paragraphs for the same reference to the Phoenician Club in Phoenicia. 3. Larry Norman a 70s American evangelical rock’n’roller who sang Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music? Produced the album I’m Only Visiting This Planet. 4.Roger East was the ‘sixth journalist’ in East Timor killed (after the Balibo 5 had been summarily executed). It seems apparent at the time that the Whitlam government (and well may we say the Fraser administration that soon followed as well as other later Australian governments) turned a ‘moral blind eye’ to the murders of its nationals and to the massacres of East Timorese. 5. The light brown vinyl summer sleeping bag purchased off a Manchester hippie for £8 at the 1982 Stonehenge Rock Festival is another precious item from this early travel period. 6. Another thing to mention is this observation by Cat based on him noting that it is only the very rich reach who can literally leave this world: ‘Yes, a billionare can spend millions on a two hour space flight but we too are ‘space tourists’ capable of spending thousands of dollars luxuriously going to countries where people work for only a dollar a day, the third world is our luna theme park!’ “Go for a stellar joyride on a tut-tut just for fun!” 6. Tommy the Clown really came into his own after the Rodney King race riots in 1992. Chiron the Centaur.1.Lisa references the signature lyrics of Deep Purple’s Highway Star. The Myth of Er. The Myth of Er is in reference to the story that can be found at the end of Plato’s Republic about a warrior who returns from the world at the whim of the gods after death. In the novel the Myth of Er references a lengthy meditation in which Cat mainly considers – through the prism of Ancient Greek myth – what Gregor experienced on his journeys.1a.See NaomiUllmann’s website reviews pagehttp://naomiullmann.com/reviews.html
1.To look at Medusa - whether she was alive or dead - meant being mesmerised by her and turned into stone. a thousand snakes writhed from Medusa’s head, these former strands of hair were kept alive by her horrid psyche. This Gorgon was the only one out of the three vile creatures that was mortal; once a beautiful woman Medusa was turned into a monster by Athena who was indignant of her physical liaison with Poseidon in one of her temples. Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danae who was impregnated by the thunder god in a glittering golden shower while she was still imprisoned in a bronze subterranean chamber. Danae had been encased by her father Acricus of Argos when the Delphic Oracle had prophesied that her yet to be born son would kill him. Eventually, mother and son would be placed in a chest by Acricus and thrown into the sea. Danae and Perseus were washed ashore at Seriphos where the king was love struck by this single mother, while the young warrior son was seen as an obstacle. Feigning a wedding to another woman, the king asked for wedding gifts, and gave Perseus the impossible task of obtaining Medusa’s head as a trophy. King Polydectes would have thankfully believed he would never see this protective son of his true love again. Perseus went off to the three old witches known as the Graeae who were the sisters of the Gorgons. Their mother was Ceto who was both wife and sister to the sea-god Phorcys. (Phorcys had also fathered the nymph Thoosa who would mother Polyphemus by way of Poseidon. With Hecate the witch god he also sired Scylla who was a sea nymph who Glaucus fell in love with. Glaucus was once a man who was transformed by eating a magical sea grass on the shore into a minor sea god. Yet, Glaucus had no power to gain the affection of Scylla who was a sea nymph who Glaucus fell in love with. Glaucus went to the enchantress Circe for a love potion but she fell in love with Glaucus who resisted her advances. Circe thus went off to the channel between Italy and Sicily where at a rock pool - shaped like a crescent moon where Scylla swam - she threw poisonous herbs into the water. Scylla turned into a sea monster with six snakes with dog heads protruding from her upper body. Along with Charybidis the Whirlpool they would in these straits either suck ships to their doom or devour the crew as sailors tried to avoid one or the other horror. Six of Odysseus’s men would be killed by Scylla who especially despised the Ithacan due to his new-found friendship with Circe. (Ulysses knew of the tragic fate that awaited six of his men – although he did not know which six – so thought it best to keep the information of this horrific but unavoidable, brutal destiny from his crew). Medusa, Scylla – two of Phorcys’s beautiful offspring who were tragically fated to become horrible malevolent forces; Phorycs – the son of Pontus the Sea and Gaea the Earth – considered to be the sea as evil was also known as Phorcus the Intrepid.In contrast Nereus - another son of Pontus and Gaea and born early in the creation of the world as seen by his greybeard - was just and kind. In the Aegean this ‘Old Man of the Sea’ would often leave his sea cavern to help sailors and provide friendly advice. Nereus’s wife was Doris and one of their fifty daughters - who were known as the Nerieds - was Thetis the mother of Achilles. Another benign sea divinity was Proteus the son of Oceanus and Tethys who was also known as an Old Man of the Sea. He would shepherd Poseidon’s seals and could see into the future and always spoke the truth. However, he would always change into different animal shapes to avoid this task but would give up the deception if the seeker of truth and the future was courageously persistent.). The three grey haired sisters only had one eye and one razor-edge tooth between them and Perseus grabbed the eye as it was passed from one hag to the other. It would not be given back until the location of the lair of the Gorgons was spelt out to Perseus. Although their eye was returned this resourceful intruder still obtained from these elderly shrews a dark hat that rendered him invisible, a magic satchel, and winged sandals, which could make him fly. Following misty, dark paths that were littered with many statues that were Medusa’s previous victims, swift invisible Perseus reached his ghastly goal. Perseus stealthily carried out the execution with a sickle given to him by Hermes. From Medusa’s sliced neck emerged Pegasus the flying horse and Chrysaor a male warrior holding a golden sword, both had been fathered by Poseidon. With Medusa’s head in the bag Perseus was chased by the other two Gorgons but escaped from these mangy dragon-like beasts by riding Pegasus Coming across Atlas’s kingdom Perseus asked if he could rest but the giant Atlas who feared this son of Zeus may steal his golden apples refused him hospitality and in turn exposed by the sight of Medusa’s head was transformed into a mighty mountain - which on its back still rests the earth and heavens. In a desolate Ethiopia Perseus came across and saved Andromeda from a sea monster sent by Poseidon who was as equally outraged as the Nerieds by Andromeda’s mother’s remark who had stupidly said she was more beautiful than these sea goddesses. (Mention should be made of the seven Pleideas who were the daughters of Atlas and Pleione: Alycone the Queen who warded off evil storms was seduced by Poseidon and most likely gave birth to Orion’s father; Asterope akin to a twinkling star; Celseno who was swarthy; Electra akin to bright shining amber and it is thought that the Greek word electron is derived from her; when static electricity was discovered in 600 B.C. by Thales of Miletus the use of the term probably came from the name Electra. It should also be noted that Electra was the name of a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra who along with Orestos killed her mother and her lover to avenge the death of her father; Maia the Great One, the eldest and most beautiful of the Pleideas, seduced by Zeus to give birth to Hermes; Merope the eloquent and Taygete the long necked. Pleiades is in reference to the star cluster of that name and the word plein means to sail and it is said the star cluster’s conjunction with the sun in spring and to its opposite in autumn marked both ends of the sailing season in Ancient Greece. There is also mention of the word pleaos ‘full’ which means many in its plural form that can relate to a star cluster and also to Peleiades ‘flock of doves’ the seven sisters were metamorphised into this bird and flew to the stars). Intending to torment the land this behemoth would instead devour Andromeda as a worthy sacrifice; she was chained to a rock on the insistence of an oracle to the king. Perseus freed the princess - and once the tough-skinned marine creature was defeated - married Andromeda. Medusa’s head was placed on a nest of seaweed beside the sea while the wedding proceeded and this sea grass was transformed into coral. It had been the case that when Perseus flew over Libya each blood drop from this severed head landed in the desert to create new snakes. In Seriphos Polydectes was maltreating Danae who did not love him so Perseus on his return revealed the head of Medusa to turn this corrupt king into stone. The helmet and the satchel were given to Hermes, and Medusa’s head was placed on Athena’s shield. Danae and Perseus headed back to Argos where on the way Perseus competed in funerary games at Larissa where Acrisus having left Argos to avoid his grandson was unwittingly in attendance and was thus accidentally killed by a discus thrown by his unknowing inescapable nemesis. However, the fated grandson chose not to take over the throne of Argos and went to the kingdom of Tiryns where he founded Mycenae and from his family of the Perseids Hercules, also fathered by Zeus – disguised as the husband of Alcmene - would become it’s most famed son as portended when as a baby he killed the two poisonous snakes an envious Hera had sent to kill him. It was also on this outing to South Head that Cat told the others about Demeter the vegetation goddess who looked for her daughter Persephone with two torches after she was kidnapped and taken by Hades to his underworld. The earth went barren while Demeter continued her search. It wasn’t until Helios the sun god who could see everything from his great height spoke to Demeter that she found out what happened. Picking flowers while playing with the daughters of Oceanus - who is the circle waters that surround the world - Persephone saw the narcissus placed in the ground by Gaea the earth mother for Hades - the ‘God Who Receives so Many’. As Persephone unwittingly plucked these flowers a chasm opened up and the god of death emerged to seize Persephone whom he loved and who he would marry in the Underworld. Crops no longer grew, animals stopped breeding and death came to humanity. A wildly grieving Demeter went to Zeus and demanded that he make Hades return her beloved daughter. The lord of Olympus said this could only occur if Persephone had not eaten anything in the land of the dead. However, Persephone had eaten a fruit seed which Hades had slyly given her. Fortunately, a compromise was reached whereby Demeter would go back to Olympia to restore the earth’s agriculture while Persephone would return to the surface at spring and go back to hell at the time of the harvest just before winter. Persephone’s movements would reflect the hibernating and regenerative qualities of the earth’s four various seasons. Cat added that a source of this vegetation myth is Eleusis near Athens where there was a performance of a religious ritual which represented how a corn goddess would go beneath the world after the harvest at the start of the summer months personifying how collected corn was stored under the ground to escape the blistering heat of the sun which could leave the bare earth dried out. Keeping the corn away from these furnace conditions helped to retain its life properties.
2. Revelations 2:6 which talks of the Son of God (there is the revelation image of Jesus Christ with a sword coming from His mouth) saying that it is in the favour of the church of Ephesus that it hates the Nicolatians and their customs which God also does not tolerate. 3. In what seems rather ironic to him in the present context Gregor finds himself viewing MARK 9:33-50 in which Jesus asks his disciples that to be considered great and as ‘first’ one must put themselves last and serve others; and to welcome a child is equal to welcoming the Saviour. Gregor also learns that if someone casts out demons in Christ’s name this person is not to be stopped for if ‘one is not against us he is for us’. To give someone who is thirsty a cup of water in Christ’s name is to not lose one’s reward in heaven. For those who cause a little one to sin it would be better if they threw themselves into a lake each with a rock tied around them rather than be cast down into hell. Cut off the hand that makes you sin for it is better to live life crippled than be eternally damned where one will be ‘salted with fire’. Once reading this passage consider also Isaiah 66: 22-24. 4. “Semele was also the mother of the more well-known Dionysus who was also fathered by Zeus. She was the daughter of Cadmus. A Phoenician who was the founder of Thebes, which would one day have Oedipus as its king. He was the brother of Europa who had been taken away by Zeus to Crete when he disguised himself as a bull and approached Europa who was swimming along a seashore. Europa somersaulted on the laidback bull’s back. Zeus took Europa by sea to Crete where as a man he fathered Minos and Rhadamanthus to her; their mother taught them how to leap Zeus as she had done and it became a revered skill amongst Cretans. Although the brothers squabbled as to who would rule Crete Minos was to become king.a Minos was a just ruler. Along with his brother, Rhadamanthus, Minos would become judge over the dead in the Underworld; they would choose both the punishments and where the dead would go according to their deeds and misdeeds achieved on this earth. Aeacus was the third adjudicator of this lordly triumvirate that would direct the eternal destinies of mortals; he was a pious man who would sire Telamon, the father of Ajax the Greater and Peleus, the father of Achilles. Zeus was also Aecus’s father and his mother was the nymph Aegina which was the name of the island he ruled.* On Aegina Aecus’s people were wiped out by a plague but Zeus repopulated Aegina by making new people out of ants. It seems a Greek word for ants is ‘myrmekes’ which explains why this new race was called Myrmidons who according to Homer were ruled by Peleus and Achilles. Aecus, who convinced the gods to end a drought on mainland Greece, is worthy to share with his half-brothers their prodigious judicial duties in Hades. Yet, this is all a digression from considering Semeles and Dionysus. As I said Semeles’s father was Cadmus who was encouraged from giving up his search for his sister Eurydice by the Delphic Oracle. This esteemed seer had Cadmus follow a cow for where it lay down he would found Thebes. Hera was said to be ‘cow eyed’ so these animals were held in high regard.” Cat lifts back his cowboy hat. “Cows may allude to female, maternal universal forces while bulls correspond to this creation’s male aspects. Zeus is meant to be ‘broad-faced’. I imagine like Taurus. Yet, as I have mentioned earlier Semele - the daughter of Cadmus - was the mother of Dionysus. At last, we come to the main subject in this broad overview of ancient legend.” Cat grins. “I often wonder if the gods had me as Ovid - who wrote Metamorphosis - in a previous life. Zeus slept with Semele and Hera, insufferably jealous, disguised as a human, convinced Semele to ask Zeus to visit her in his full godly splendour. This king of all the deities reluctantly visited this mere mortal – who at most could only hope to become a minor earth goddess - as a massive bolt of lightning. Semele was vaporised. However, the unborn child was saved from the ashes was still fiercely jealous made Ino and her family become insane. Ino’s husband was killed by Zeus. The melancholy thunder god placed Dionysus in his thigh. After his birth, Dionysus was handed into the care of Ino, who was a sister of Semele. Yet, Hera who his son and Ino drowned herself in the sea with another son.” Cat glimpses a pensive Lisa - who is staring down at Melissa - from the corner of his eye. “Yet, there is some hope in this tragedy as these two were both transformed into sea divinities. Thus Dionysus was given over to the nymphs of Mount Nysa where it is said he was named and where he first cultivated magnificent vineyards. With a band of followers, Dionysus travelled throughout Europe, Asia and to India - where I am certain his wild spirit is still instilled in the Bollywood musical – those who accepted him were blessed with wine and those who despised him were driven hysterically mad. Those who doubted his divinity bullied Dionysus, but he overcame all his foes. In Thrace, Lycurgus chained the bacchantes and satyrs as he had rejected Dionysus. Dionysus from the clutches of Hades. Disconsolate with life, Orpheus was absent from this world in both mind and spirit as he walked with a Thracian band of Dionysian women known as maenads. So the story goes this distraught figure would preach about the Dionysian mysteries and what he saw in Hades. Indifferent to all other women, these wild maenads finally turned on our sad musician when his apathy led him to ignore some orgiastic rite they were performing.” Cat’s knuckles go white as he tightens his grip onto the white wooden rail. “Perhaps Orpheus knew what he was doing for these Dionysian ‘whores’ were angered and tore him to shreds; these jealous, murderous creatures would be turned into oak trees but not till after they had thrown the head of Orpheus into the water where it was heard yelling out ‘Eurydice!’”
4a. It is said Zeus influenced his ascendency to the throne by sending Minos a white bull from the sea but it is also speculated that Minos asked Poseidon to send him a sacrificial victim to assure his right to rule. It was the sea god who sent the bull. However, it was such a fine animal that Minos did not have the heart to kill him. For a while, Minos was unable to have sons due to Zeus’s displeasure in not carrying out the sacrifice. Every woman who slept with Minos died due to a poison in his body placed there by Zeus. Not until Procris came to Crete - after her fallout with her husband Cephalus caused by the goddess Dawn who loved Cephalus - and formed a woman’s shape for Minos to sleep with and draw the poison out. Minos would give Procris a magical spear and hound with which she gave to Cephalus and they were reconciled. However, a jealous Dawn would trick Cephalus to kill Procris who the hunter had mistook as wild game hiding in a bush. Nevertheless, the original situation of ‘lethal sex’ with Minos possibly enabled Poseidon to have Minos’s wife Pasiphae fall in love with the bull by which the Minotaur was produced from their union; a monstrous creature who had the head of a bull and the body of a man. Daedelus, an inventor from Athens who had been exiled to Crete for throwing his nephew pupil Talos off the Acropolis, thankfully Athena saved him and turned him into a partridge - Daedelus feared that Talos, who had invented the potter’s wheel and the saw, would grow in stature over him – was commissioned by Minos to build a labyrinth that would imprison the Minotaur. I should also note that Daedelus was famed for his many mechanical devices and moving sculptures which had to be chained down; they may have been the first robots as it was said these figures could also make themselves. It was Daedelus that made the fake cow which fooled Minos’s bull to impregnate Pasiphae. Minos deeply mistrusted Daedelus so he too was imprisoned in hi s labyrinth. As it was Daedelus gave advise to Adriane who would give Theseus the thread that would help him to make his way through the labyrinth to kill the Minotaur who had demanded human sacrifice to him every seven years. As we know Daedelus would famously escape from the labyrinth with his waxed wings in which he lost his son Icarus. Minos with a great fleet tracked Daedelus to Sicily where he had gone to live after not having the heart to go back to Athens without his son. In the Palace of King Cocalus Daedelus would be boiled to death in a torture bath he invented. Although another legend has it that Daedelus, who was loved by King Cocalus’s daughters because of the beautiful toys he made, helped to plot Minos’s death and it was he who was boiled. I prefer the first version as Daedelus, who was revered as a craftsman by the Greeks, with a divine touch like Michelangelo, is to me a horrendous creator. Cadmus had to kill a dragon which had killed his companions who were fetching water - for a ritual in the sacrifice of the cow to Athena - from a spring the beast was guarding. Athena had him sow half the dragon’s teeth into a field while the other half she kept for Areetes the king of Coletes, who would give them to Jason the Argonaut. Cadmus watched a harvest of warriors rise up from the ground. Dadmus threw a stone into the middle of this phalanx and in the fighting that ensued only five sown men survived and these Spartoi would build the citadel Cadmea and become the ancestors to the noble class of Thebes. Zeus gave Cadmus, Harmonia - the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite - to marry; every divinity was at hand to attend this wedding and at the end of their rule Zeus transformed this regal couple into snakes to take them to Elysium which is the Isle of the Blest. Cadmus is to be noted for introducing the Phoenician writing script to the Theban Boeotians as these letters would form the foundation of the Greek alphabet. 5.The following extracts were originally included in the Myth of Er chapter.
a. “The gun emplacement is from World War II.” remarks Cat.
“Do you think it was ever used?” asks Lisa.
“The Japanese actually had midget submarines attack Sydney Harbour.” states Gregor. “An elderly woman I know in Glebe told me as a girl she heard shells from the mother submarine whiz over her auntie’s place and land in the golf course.”
“Would have just been down the road here in Dover Heights.” remarks Cat.
“She is a very interesting woman who lets us have our Guatemala human rights meetings at her place.” continues Gregor. “About eight people – including Caterina – turn up every second Wednesday; there is always a very good selection of tea and biscuits to have after the formal proceedings. Most of us had travelled on a ‘road to Damascus’ in Central America to become involved. The President of our little committee is a Guatemalan lawyer who escaped with his family from the death squads. ‘Victor Hugo’ works now as a cleaner. Our host is involved with the theatre, she helped to set up New Theatre in Newtown; was a documentary film maker for a waterside union and used to live a bohemian life in Kings Cross. Still is a bohemian. A ‘grand woman’ who really inspires us to see that if we reach our eighties we could, even then, still live full, engaging lives. You ought to meet her Cat.”
b. Everyone has a go including Melissa. Yet, no one can offer an explanation to this phenomenon regarding the echo.
“Lifeline has its phone number here.” Michael is examining the white railing that runs along the cliff top.
“Telstra are thinking of getting rid of the free call service to them.” comments Gregor.
c. “A surfie mate of mine was off Shelley beach at Cronulla when he saw a dolphin nearby make a whirlpool with his tail.” nonchalantly remarks Michael. “These fish got caught up in it and the dolphin grabbed a few with his teeth to eat.”
d. Lisa tilts back her head. “Dan told me according to his mother he has some gypsy blood in him.” The others were then told of Dan’s family folklore which involved a Spanish sailor marrying an Irish woman in Elizabethan times. The Spaniard had survived a shipwreck while thousands of his compatriots had died when many vessels of the Spanish Armada while heading home had smashed onto the rugged Irish coastline. Despite their best navigational efforts these particular boats had still drifted uncontrollably in the strong North Atlantic current. Cat interrupts by repeating his Japanese haiku about drifting boats. Lisa continues. “One descendent from this Spanish-Irish mix was a great grandfather who fell in love with a village woman when he too was shipwrecked but on an island in the Mediterranean Sea.” A laugh. Lisa looks out to sea. “When he was being picked up he had her dressed up as a sailor to get her onto the boat. Dan’s great granddaddy even had her use a flask and tube to urinate over the side to convince everyone she was a man! It’s mainly because of her that Dan has that swarthy look. If nothing else, his whole family background may explain his hot temper.” Lisa looks whimsical. “Maybe she’s out there now…”
“My dead husband could be!” muses Margaret. “His nickname was Flipper!”
“40,000 years on my mind…that mural outside Redfern railway station has that big Rainbow Serpent running along the barrier wall…yet what few people know is that the dolphin is apparently the actual tribal totem for this area…” Cat is looking absentminded. “The followers of Dionysus were exhilarated to lose their identity in divine ecstasy.” Hands still on the rail. ‘To the gods our whole bodies are masks. We must clothe our transforming soul with ever new disguises. To reflect continuing change.’
“Get the best suit that fits!” Cat winds up his yo-yo. “Don’t hire one for $89. Buy one for the same price! Try out our new factory shop in Erskineville!”
e. “Was the Aegean Sea named after Aegina?” inquires a very curious Michael.
Cat shakes his head. “After Theseus’s father whose name is Aegeus. Although the Greek word for storm is supposed to be agis. Can you enlighten us…”
“Na…my Greek vocabulary is no good…”
“You are so useless -” laughs Lisa. “ - MICHAEL!” Comes the shout so as to hear the echo in the gun emplacement.
6. a. With his Caves of Dreams outburst Cat is thinking of the Werner Herzog 3D film of the Chauvet Caves with its 35,000 year old rock art. b. Man, Nature & Art by Reuben Wheeler.1968.Pergamon Press is worth a read.7.Korean video references Kim Beom’s untitled video in the TELL ME TELL ME:AUSTRALIAN & KOREAN ART 1976-2011 MCA exhibit at the National Art School. 8. a. It was Marshall McLuhan who stated that: ‘Art at its most significant is a Distant Early Warning System that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.’ It should be noted that the likes of Michelangelo & Rembrandt (consider his Prodigal Son) are noted for ‘dematerializing reality’ to help us penetrate to new vision. Max Beckmann as an artist interested in finding ‘the self’ who commented that to get to the invisible one must penetrate as far as possible into to the visible. b. It should also be noted there is a Strawberry Fields memorial to John Lennon in Central Park. NY. c. With Jasper Johns consider also his textured, abstracted b&w lithographs of the American flag. d. The Heat of the Night references the film with Sidney Poitier & Rod Steiger.
Immaculate Transmutation.1 ‘Looking Glass’ at
first glance the reader may think of Alice in Wonderland but Cat is
referring to Marcel Duchamp’s seminal work The Bride Stripped
Bare by Her Bachelors,Even,(1915-23) & is commonly referred
to as The Large Glass. To describe it crudely there are brown
coloured flat sculptural/machine pieces/drawings (including that of a
chocolate grinder) in symbolic relationship to each other between two
thin door size rectangle glass panes (with the glass accidently
broken in transportation to the Art Museum of Philadelphia) &
which essentially obtains meaning through the title that Duchamp has
given to this enigmactic ‘non-painting’. In the Appendix are
chapter headings such as The Mind is a Minatour which reference
Marcel Duchamp.2.Cat also says:“Bob Geldorf you ‘wicked’ Irish
son!” 3. Sharyn Rohifsen Udall in Carr, O’Keefe, Kahlo. Places
of their Own.`Yale University. 2000 mentions how it has been
conceived that there was an ‘original unity’ such as with the
image of the cosmogonic egg. It is remarked how Plato in The
Symposium split a dual being in two to do away with a threat and that
male and female human forms in coming together represents a desire to
return to an original united form; such reunification desiring a
‘whole being.’ Many cultures have such symbolism of
reunification of one through male,/female; or cosmologically through
sun/moon. 4. It should also be mentioned that Kandinsky made his
remarks in Blau Reiter which he worked on with Framz Marc.5.
Man of Flowers an Australian film directed by Paul Cox.
1983.Lord of The Flies. 1. Strider is a reference to the Lord of the
Rings character the lone wanderr who will be revealed as Aragorn who
will be the King of Gondor to help overthrow the dark lord Sauron.
2.Cat is thinking of Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. Cat again: ‘The
day will come when the Age of Humanity will cower and be defeated but
it will not be this day! It will not be at the Black Gate of Morder!
Live by Gandalf’s wisdom! For we do not always know what will hold
good! Or true! Or which path to truly tread!’ 3. Cat also
considers: ‘After four years of atrocity comes the ‘noble
scientist’ with his revolutionary theory to give Europeans an
opportunity to restore to themselves a blind faith in their own
supposed ‘nobility’. THEM!. 1. See The Mind of God’s
Cowboy on the Edge is Nigh in the APPENDIX for an elaboration of the
ideas expressed here by Cat. Valhalla. 1. See in the Appendix the
chapter entitled: Cassandra. Performance Space. 1.
Joseph Bueys lived during the Nazi Germany period and served in the
Lufwaffe during WWII. National Socialism was certainly a ‘derailment’
of human progress; a ‘national wound’ which Joseph Bueys took
into account. He stands out with Marcel Duchamp & Andy Warhol in
any dialogue that looks at re-evaluating the role of art; one could
say-as a consequence-also took on a serious re-examination of the
‘social/political/environmental/moral dynamics’ of western
society & culture. Joseph Bueys is noted for his multiples of his
art objects making them more accessible to be collected by a wider
audience.Human Readymade.1. See remarks and observations about
Walt Whitman in Carr, O’Keefe, Kahlo. Places of their Own.
By Sharyn Rohifsen Udall.Yale University. 2000. 2. Consider
Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed
Ape into Man
by the evolutionary biologist Mark Changizi and
interviewed on Late Night Live.
The Burial of the Dead. 1. “MOLOCH!” ‘Far gone schoolyard days when I was always ‘cat-called’ by the bullies grated by my so called ‘eccentric wit.’ Having to try to cope like the other students and teachers who were verbally assaulted for being ‘different’ or ‘soft.’ The hard-hearted only understand a hard god. Harsh. Unforgiving. Barking out his divine vitriol on the undeserving. Only valuing the moral cowardice of the pack. The ‘strong’ must crush the single, powerless ‘weak’. Loneliness. To grieve inside oneself. A mental erosion. Breathless. Weak-kneed. A persistent throbbing headache as that last scene of humiliation is replayed over and over again in the mind. Wondering how it could have been avoided. Or doing something about it. Yet to only be left dealing with a hurtful, uncaring sarcasm. Piercing. Like a knife stabbing into the heart. Ripping through our shallow civil defences to strike deep into the core of our self-beliefs. Suffering as if one’s life is fraudulent. The honour and truth of a person crushed under an avalanche of lies. Cat perceived that his only chance of psychological survival was to hold onto who he was especially when the ignorant directly persecuted him. These followers of a foul god who demanded his sacrificial victims for the upkeep of his vicious intolerances. Yes, not to die inside one’s self. Taking on the nickname Cat. Let the light shine. Human compassion. Human understanding. Human dignity. To stand up to being a human being. No longer to be objectified. Maligned. To also deal with a social darkness by looking into the shadows with ‘cat eyes’ to spot thin slivers of the proverbial hopeful glow. To no longer be afraid; to yearn for emotional maturity; in search of a resolution that allows life to keep its meaningfulness. To have moral fibre. To overcome a lack of self-confidence and emotional paralysis that could lead to a life made impotent. To be imploding. Crippled. Prejudice. Hate. Everywhere. Germinating in a world filled with a social fascism in all its well-known vile mutations. Satan is real. A grotesque monster. Callous. Emotionally brutal. Insensitive. Vandalizing not only the body but the mind. Instilling only unhappiness. Harming those who wish no harm. Horrors on the innocent. It is so unfair…there is bitterness….tears…what is desired by every psychological ‘human sacrifice’ to Baal is to be respected. To be left alone. Yet there is the tearing. Of mental flesh. The heart cut out. Stripping away. A human being. To be all bone. For the flies. Vomiting. On a human soul. To be nothing. What you have lived. As nothing. The rich experience of a life made valueless. That you only have value if you cower. Or conform. The gutless prey on ‘easy meat’. Ripping apart. Invalidating. The persecuted not to be known. Only accused. Misunderstood. Stereotyped. Depersonalized.’ Cat knows what it is like to be laughed at; while inwardly in tears. ‘Cruel men. Mocking over the corpse of a soul. Human pain. To cry. Yes. To save yourself.’ “They said the Saviour could not help himself...”‘A crown of mental thorns to overcome. Yes. The mocking of Jesus. Laughing. Grotesque. Sneers. Falsely accused. To persecute a human life to feel if every achievement is invalid. A whole life to feel as nought. Without any worth. Integrity. Value. Denied. Yet not to be forced back. Or crushed. Or shell-shocked or broken-hearted. As others had. Cat would always stay on his feet. Flamenco steps. On the footpaths of his life. Justice for himself then for the accomplishment of a social justice.“ To have others care. For where is the human empathy for each other and ourselves?” A very small leather bound copy of Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol is always in the back pocket of Cat’s jeans. He taps it. “Defeat the demons!” A tap of the forehead. A swig. “Have courage.” A fist slams the chest. “Stand up for who you are!” Another swig. “Keep your self-respect.” Human Malice. Cat listens to a news report that states how looters in a flooded city have been sniping at rescuers“. The incomprehensible irrationality of human nature…We make Atlantis fall! 2. While looking up at the sky Cat thinks of the first line in Alan Grossman’s (American poet) poem The Woman on the Bridge over the Chicago River which says how stars can be tears that are falling with light inside them – it makes Cat to also consider Lisa. 3. ‘Even now I can easily imagine his music…it was mystically reassuring at the time for I had just had a ‘near miss’ in Poland: three thugs eyeing me at a tram stop, fortunately two young men appeared out of nowhere. I stood beside them, explained the situation, they were happy to be my guardian angels. My would-be-attackers walked off, one of them shouting out profanities I caught the train to Berlin that very night; however, I had to huddle in a corridor, an elderly man took pity on my prodigal circumstance and had the other passengers in his cabin make room for me.’ 4. In A Perfect Day. Plato. 1.On the 4th of July, 1918 at Hamel a joint Australian-American offensive was mounted. The infantry were well supported by tanks, artillery, planes and fast communications etcetera to achieve a spectacular success. General Sir John Monash’s battle tactics where all of the machinery of war worked together as one offensive unit was a formidable precursor to what became more infamously known as blitzkrieg by the Wehrmacht at the start of WWII. Monash who was a meticulous battle-planner earned the well-deserved reputation of being the most accomplished general on the Western Front. One of his inventive tactics was to bombard the German trenches with both gas and smoke for several days before a major attack. Yet on the actual day of the offensive only smoke bombs would fall on the German lines. Conditioned by now to also expect gas the German troops would still put on their cumbersome gas masks which slowed them down while the smoke still provided the appropriate cover for Monash’s attacking troops. This particular conditioning tactic to link a connection between two events where there really wasn’t one fascinates Cat. (It should be noted that it is estimated that up to 102,000 Australian service people had died overseas over the 20h century). Brown Eyed Girl.1.From William Blake’s Jerusalem. Broad and Alien is the World. 1.Rose notes: “BIG ISSUE. Meanjin. Venceremos. RACLA. The Bulletin. Granta. New Internationalist. QUARTERLY ESSAY. The New Yorker. London Review of Books...” Rosie peruses two big bookcases. “Mmmm…here’s a big photo book: One day In The Life of Australia…both collections of a thousand & one movies - books to see and read before we die…” (Michael thinks of uni student papers like Honi Soit at Syd Uni & Tharunka at UNSW; along with listening to albums with headphones in Fischer Library at Sydne Uni like Beethoven’s Ode to Joy).
Havana.1.In the Sculpture-by-the-Sea.2009 was a magnificent, lean ‘Trojan Horse’ made of rust brown machine parts (entitled Subterfuge) on cliff rocks looking over Tamarama.
ETERNITY
Paris.1The River Seine. 2. Mat also remarked:‘Go John Saffron!”&“The whole world found out that you’d spotted the great SBS wogball commentator Les Murray at La Vina...”
The Idea of the Ancient Greek Hero. 1. Note also the Illiad is a story that centres on Achilles, after all, his destiny is intertwined with the destiny of a whole race. Through Homer’s masterpiece Achilles achieves immortal fame and such a splendid grandeur which would last from generation to generation and it is what the Ancient Greeks referred to as kleos.The author wishes to state that many of the notions of the Ancient Greek Hero have been gleaned from: http:// athome. harvard. edu/ programs/ nagy /threads/ concept_of_hero.html Much information for the MSS is typically gained from such webpages. The author also wishes to acknowledge comments made in a talk called “Who are the Heroes in Myths? by ‘New Acropolis’ ( on 30/06/2011). (New Acropolis Centre in Pitt St. Sydney). See www.acropolis.org.au for further information on this subject. King Priam also in his action to see Achilles to retrieve his mutilated son Hector makes this brutal Greek hero see the ‘morality of mortality’ (to civilize him I presume) as noted by D. Latinier in the Cambridge Companion to Homer. Edited by Robert Fowler.
FF to Frida Kahlo. 1. Roots. 1943. Consider also My Nurse & I.1937 where Frida as a babe is embraced by an Aztec ‘mother earth’ woman. 2.Memory. 1937. & Without Hope.1945. Consider also The Love Embrace of the Universe. 1949.
Nirvana.1.This proposal was intimated by ArthurC.Clarke - writer of 2001:A Space Odyssey.
The Big Sleep. 1 Bellerophon was a Greek mythological hero who killed the monster Chimera. Highly regarded as a slayer of monsters like Perseus and Cadmus. 2. Michael also stated:“I love it when Perry Keyes sings that Johnny Sattler song and he does that take off of Frank Hyde: It’s high! It’s long enough! It’s straight between the posts!” Michael loudly claps his hands. “It was good to see the old bastard speaking at Town Hall - like some Roman Senator - at that huge rally for South Sydney!” Another clap.
Last Exit.1 Who told Michael that ‘hysteria’ comes from the Ancient Greek to do with the terror of a terrible disturbance of a woman’s uterus. 2. See Ibsen’s play An Enemy of The People. Remark originally sourced from opening pages of the novel The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge.
Russian Roulette. 1. Doestovsky faced the firing squad in freezing conditons for hours in a ‘mock execution’ with other members of the Petrashevsky Circle who were liberal intellectuals. Tsar Nicholas 1 had them imprisoned in April 1849 along with anyone else he considered a threat to his autocratic rule after the 1848 uprisings in Europe. After years of harsh exile in Siberia Doestovsky was finally released in 1854. In a leter to his brother this great Russian writer compared these wasted years akin to being shut in a coffin. 2. Cat is paraphrasing Marcus Aurelius which he also does with these other passages but in this first case it is: Marcus Aurelius Meditations BOOK 12. Chapter 30. 3. BOOK 8: 52. 4. BOOK 4:49. 5. Ibid. 6. BOOK 2:17.7. BOOK 4:3 8.* BOOK 5:9. 9. BOOK 6:15. 10. BOOK 6:15.11.Ibid.12. BOOK8: 60.13.BOOK 10:27.14. BOOK 5:27. 15. BOOK 8: 26.16. BOOK 7:49. (In next chapter). *In reference to Notation 6 for Marcus Aurelius quotes by Cat: ‘The translator of the Penguin edition of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations – Maxwell Staniforth – makes the excellent point that the idea the world is always changing and that it is up to us to evaluate the way to view it is also conveyed by William Shakespeare in Hamlet (Act II, scene 2): “There’s nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.’ Yet is more succinctly expressed by Marcus Aurelius who uses only two Greek words and which in a literal sense means: ‘life opinion.’ (See the footnote to BOOK FOUR Chapter 3. Penguin edition. 1964). Cat’s interest in philosophy (especially Stoicism) is very strong – he listens to All in the Mind & The Philosopher Zone on Radio National every Saturday afternoon (1pm to 2 pm & online).
Download this book for your ebook reader.
(Pages 1-18 show above.)