from Goethe's Faust, Part 1

"My friend, for us the alluring times of old 
Are like a book that’s sealed-up sevenfold. 
And what you call the Spirit of the Ages 
Is but the spirit of your learned sages, 
Whose mirror is a pitiful affair, 
Shunned by mankind after a single stare, 
A mouldy dustbin, or a lumber attic, 
Or at the most a blood-and-thunder play 
Stuffed full of wit sententious and pragmatic, 
Fit for the sawdust puppetry to say...
To understand -- and how is that defined?
Who dares to give that child its proper name?
The few of understanding, vision rare,
Who veiled not from the herd their hearts, but tried,
Poor generous fools, to lay their feelings bare,
Them have men always burnt and crucified." 
- from Goethe's Faust, Part 1 


(Let's give translator, Phillip Wayne, the lion's share of credit 
for making this sound so good in English.)

The Faust Legend

"Faust sits restlessly at his desk in his narrow Gothic study, surrounded by parchments, instruments, and bones, striving to grasp with their lifeless aid what the archangels could not grasp. A creature of cogitation, remote from human experience, he is the prisoner of the only environment he knows, that of the University. The most learned scholar alive has found all the University faculties wanting; above all theology, the Queen of the sciences, has failed to provide, as it claimed to do, the truth about this world and the next. He is without religious scruples and preoccupations which might have impeded his intellectual progress. Yet he is frustrated. Academic learning, to which this titan for study has devoted himself, is not only vain, it has withdrawn him from life, aged him prematurely, denied him honour and glory and earthly gain, and has caused him to misinform his students. There is a material side to Faust, and he has a nascent sense of social responsibility; he is not purely and simply an intellectual. It is a satire upon human learning that he has to ally himself with the devil in order to escape the consequences of learning and to experience the life which it has denied him; and of course it is the evil aspect of life that is accordingly presented to him. He has to discover by protracted error the positive meaning in human life that his trusting but misdirected efforts have hitherto hindered him from grasping." -  From Goethe's Faust: An Interpretation by Alexander Gillies

"Knowing that knowledge tricks us beyond measure,
That man’s conversion is beyond my reach,
Knowing the emptiness of what I teach.
Meanwhile I live in penury,
No worldly honour falls to me.
No dog would linger on like this!...

And so I turn to the abyss
Of necromancy, try if art
Can voice or power of spirits start,
To do me service and reveal
The things of Nature’s secret seal,
And save me from the weary dance
Of holding forth in ignorance." 

- from Goethe's Faust, Part 1

Words...Words...Words

Interesting Fact - William Shakespeare added over 1700 newly-coined words to the English language.  Among the bon mots currently in circulation, the following are culled from Romeo and Juliet:
abate * abhor * absolve * addle * adversity * agile * amble * ambuscade * 
amorous * anon *  antics * apothecary * asunder * atomies * augment * 
baleful * bandy * bauble * bawdy * bedeck * beguile * behoove * beshrew *
bier * bode * braggart * brawls * budge *  cankered * carrion * chaste * 
chide * choler/ic *churl * clout * conduit * conjure *consort * contagion * 
cot-quean *cull * dank * demesnes * descry * dexterity *direful * dirge * 
distill * distraught * dissemblers * doff * doleful * dote * dowdy *dram *
drivel * drowsy * ducats * dun * effeminate * entreat * fain * felon * fester * 
fickle * fleck * forfeit * forswear * gadding * garish *giddy * gory * 
gossamer * grubs * headstrong * haughty* heretic * idolatry * importune * impute * inauspicious * inexorable * jaunt * jocund * lineaments * livery *
loins * loll * loathsome *mammet * mandrakes *martial * matron * maw 
meddle * minions * minstrels * mire * morsel * musty * naught * nimble * nuptials *obsequies * paramour *passado* partisans * penury * pernicious * peppered *  pestilence * portly * poultice * presage * prate * presage * privy * prolix/ity * purge * quench * restorative *revels * rote * runagate * sallow * saucy * scourge *scurvy * sententious * sepulcher *slander * sojourn * solace * 
stint * stratagem * stealth * sunder * supple * tarry * tedious * tithe * thither
trencher * troth * trudge * unruly * unseemly *  unwieldy * vestal * vial * 
visage * waddle * wantons * wench * whit * wretch * wreak * zounds * [157+]

Ecclesiastes

"And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered." Ecclesiastes 1: 13-15

The King Must Die by Mary Renault

Cruise Ships

I have nothing against cruise ships really - except for the fact that I never want to go near one. Other people seem drawn to these massive boats for reasons that I can't quite understand. The idea is that you can have an actual vacation on one of these traveling resort hotels in exchange for making yourself a voluntary prisoner to the buffet table, the slot machine and the shuffleboard tournament, with the occasional "shopping binge" on the mainland if that "floats your boat." Theoretically it all makes sense, I guess, except that a few of us suffer from a condition known as CLAUSTROPHOBIA so that spending time on a boat that is actively not trying to reach a final destination is sort of akin to being on a crowded elevator with the same lack of ambition. But fortunately for us (fellow claustrophobics), at this particular stage of human history,  in the year 2012, cruise ships have become, oddly emblematic of the places where lightning is most likely to strike. Just say the words "cruise ship" and you are virtually inviting unforeseen mishaps, disasters, epidemics, and negligent, cowardly handlers of bad situations to come your way. Not sure what any of this means, but there you have it. I'm filing away cruise ships as my weird symbol of the year .... #314.... following closely by etch-a-sketch toys and sweater vests.

Breach of Decorum (I wanted to say something, but...)

If you're one of "those people" (and I hope you are) that others have branded as "uptight" just because you happen to have standards of basic decorum that rise above sea level, you've had one of those moments when you wanted to say something, anything, about someone else's bad behavior in public, even though, technically there's no law against the activity you were witness to (against your will), and you just couldn't find the right words on the spur of the moment to get your point across. And, as you've heard a million times before, the minute you try to point out that breaches in decorum do have negative side effects on the average variable civility quotient, here in North America someone always stands up and hollers: "It's a free country, bub, don't tread on me!" and "Who are you to impose your morality on the rest of us?" But this time, you were pushed over the edge, for whatever reason. Oh, maybe it was something as simple as a few folks (probably young, restless and festive junebugs) talking throughout a seriously intense movie that you were trying to enjoy - i.e. pay close attention to - with them checking their lighted cell-phones in the dark; or perhaps someone was belting out one of your least favorite songs - a cacophonous screech-fest of a tune - while cutting in front of you in line somewhere, and you didn't really appreciate that maneuver, so you sighed loudly and groaned audibly but to no avail. Hey (what the other person did) - it's not a felony - am I right? Or perhaps it was that menacing group of "youths" (a.k.a derelicts, a.k.a hoodlums) who were moving rapidly in your direction, knocking over merchandise as they grazed past your torso with their hard-to-miss stone-cold stares and drug-infested bravado. (I'd be surprised if they didn't remind you that YOU were staring at THEM...what's your problem, bub?) Or maybe it was that crazed-looking fellow having a mysterious hygiene malfunction (involving hands, nose, mouth, lungs, arm pits, pant legs, who knows?) that you thought might lead, somewhere down the line, to you contracting malaria or even worse (although the mere thought of that gave you intense feelings of guilt for even harboring such anxiety, despite the high empirical likelihood of that being the case), or perhaps it was that fractious, vituperative haggard-looking woman, off-duty from being a real parent, you know, the one with the perpetually bad attitude, who was continuously (operative word) - scolding and berating the uncomprehending toddler with the far-away look in her eyes; or the young hyper-active couple on crystal meth, making their way through the fabric store, looking for God-knows-what type of yarn, dropping F-bombs as they went and calling every clerk in the store by their first name (arrgh!), or that guy waltzing with the mop on aisle #6 at Walmart, and making weird noises. (Well - maybe weird to you, but who are you to judge?) And let's not forget people who don't watch what they're doing or where they're going and are trying (it seems) to run you over or bump into you in narrow shopping mall corridors or in crowded restaurants or at the Gap. They almost seem to overshadow the assorted loiterers among us, who, always, busy doing nothing in particular, can be seen, at regular intervals, milling about on side streets, whooping it up, having spontaneous parties and make-out sessions as they go, shouting and cavorting and losing most of their bodily inhibitions in parking lots or other open venues not designed for such exhibitionism.  For me, it was being surrounded by a horde, nay a dangerous "flock," of hungry-looking shoppers, affectionately known otherwise as "pod-people," all reaching for, clutching at, those hideous yellow and green marshmallow candies, I mean those foamy, inedible, processed, padded-insulation-like candies (!) that I just can't ever seem to digest (!) - and their hands reaching out in unison, grabbing blindly at me, mistaking me (!) for one of those squishy packages (!) - having to absorb numerous "gropings" without making a peep - for a good cause at least (?) - this all happening at a certain time of year (a time that is typically referred to as "Easter," although out of respect for the Almighty, I'd prefer to instead to call it the "first-glimpse-of-spring equinox shopping corridor") and me looking for the green and yellow "plastic grass stuffing" to fill baskets with so as to hold the Cadbury chocolate along with something that I could digest, and feeling really down about the whole ordeal and wanting to scream (What are we all doing here in this forlorn, god-forsaken warehouse pretending like we're celebrating some profound, sacred holiday???) Come to think of it, this also happened at a Walmart store. Could it be?  Do you see a common thread developing here? But some would say that I'm just a highly sensitive person, and that episodes like these come and go, so there's nothing to be done about it....