"...Last night there was the noise of storm and ra...

2008-06-30T01:11:00.000-07:00

"...Last night there was the noise of storm and rain;
I wonder how many blossoms have blown away."
---Meng Hao-jan

"Heaven and Earth are ruthless;
and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs..."
---Lao Tzu

"The wild geese fly across the long sky above.
Their image is reflected upon the chilly water below.
The geese do not mean to cast their image on the water;
Nor does the water mean to hold the image of the geese."
---Anonymous

Terry Pratchett's Discworld can be very endearing....

2008-06-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

Terry Pratchett's Discworld can be very endearing. I don't think he expected the series would develop into the kind of phenomenon it has grown into (or even into a series). It's like his universe has taken a life of its own. A lot of fictional works do!

I like Quoth, a Raven, who lived at a wizard's in Quirm. That's Quoth as in 'Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore"' But don't ask him to say "Nevermore" even in jest, unlike Edgar Allan Poe's Raven, Quoth adamently refuses to utter "the N-word."

I was recently reminded (courtesy of David Smith's preoccupations) of Seamus Heaney's comment ("Joy or Night"), in The Redress of Poetry (1995):
"We go to poetry, we go to literature in general, to be forwarded within ourselves. The best it can do is to give us an experience that is like foreknowledge of certain things which we already seem to be remembering. What is at work … is the mind's capacity to conceive a new plane of regard for itself, a new scope for its own activity."

North mythology has it that Odin keeps himself informed about the affairs of the nine worlds with two faithful ravens, Thought and Memory. He sends them out at dawn to gather information and return in the evening. They perch on Odin's shoulders and whisper every scrap of news which they saw or heard tell of into His ears.

Terry Pratchett was diagnosed, last year, with a very rare form of Alzheimer's disease called posterior cortical atrophy, in which areas at the back of the brain begin to shrink and shrivel:

Pratchett appealed to people to "keep things cheerful", and proclaimed that "we are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism." Leading the way, Pratchett stated that he feels he has time for "at least a few more books yet", and added that while he understands the impulse to ask 'is there anything I can do?', in this particular case he will only entertain such offers from "very high-end experts in brain chemistry." Discussing his diagnosis at the Bath Literature Festival, Pratchett revealed that he now found it too difficult to write dedications when signing books.

In March 2008, Pratchett announced he was donating one million US dollars to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, claiming he had spoken to at least 3 brain tumour (cancer) survivors whilst he had spoken to no survivors of Alzheimer's disease, and that he was shocked "to find out that funding for Alzheimer's research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures." Of his donation Mr. Pratchett said: "I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the Cure comes along.” Pratchett's donation inspired an internet campaign where fans hope to 'Match it for Pratchett', by raising another $1 million.

On 8 June 2008, news reports indicated that Pratchett had a strange experience, which he described thusly: "It is just possible that once you have got past all the gods that we have created with big beards and many human traits, just beyond all that, on the other side of physics, there just may be the ordered structure from which everything flows" and "I don’t actually believe in anyone who could have put that in my head".

And so, Hugin and Munin are loosed and fly over Midgard; bearing news and information they have collected to Odin. Hugin is "thought" and Munin is "memory". They are sent out at dawn to gather information and return in the evening. They perch on Odin's shoulders and whisper the news into his ears.

The whole world wide, every day,
fly Hugin and Munin;
I worry lest Hugin should fall in flight,
yet more I fear for Munin.
---Grimnismal

Whatever its source or its reasons, the appeal of the mysterious (the Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans) runs deep. People need the presence of the numinous in their life. A sense that something bigger is happening out there than what they can see (God/Gods/a higher power, the supernatural/magic, the sacred/holy, the transcendent, the nagual, signs/omens, synchronicity...). It provides a sense of hope, the need for which becomes indeed increasingly prevalent in times when reasons for despair are many.

"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge -- myth is more potent than history -- dreams are more powerful than facts -- hope always triumphs over experience -- laughter is the cure for grief -- love is stronger than death."
---Robert Fulghum

Comments on Up the Withywindle: Till Death Do Us Part

"...Last night there was the noise of storm and ra...

Terry Pratchett's Discworld can be very endearing....