"irascible million private pains of life"
was reading Maupassant's 'Suicides'. Funny how story tellers so often chose to extract the marrow of life through depiction of death. Its as if a secret code is agreed upon before becoming a published writer. (Well the postmodern writers do scratch at the 'irascible million private pains of life' (oh.. I think i could be one :D what utter bullshit I came up with 'irascible million private pains of life'. :P) through depiction of mundane life. But then again, its as if through that mundaneness they are celebrating the futile journey towards death. So its either you celebrate life through death, or death through life. Never one by oneself.)
I want to challenge this polar duality in the popular thought culture. There's either reason or spirituality/faith. There's either us or them.
Let me illustrate. Me and a few friends a while back were discussing education, doing PhD etc where the subject veered elsewhere.. where I was trying to say how the linear logic falters and how a new logic needs to be born. The printed text is the father of the linear deductive logic that governs the world affairs in this age of reason. With advent of new interactive technologies, there has to be commensurate advancement in the way we think and acceptance of the same. Like Marshall McLuhan points out that we are New media will take us back to tribal connectedness. The earlier holistic mode of comprehension and argument has to be refined with current advancements in mind and the linear logic as legacy.
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Ok. I started to write this post with another intent actually. I meant to reflect on 'suicides' and how for me the same things mean life. well, will write that later. i hope.
I want to challenge this polar duality in the popular thought culture. There's either reason or spirituality/faith. There's either us or them.
Let me illustrate. Me and a few friends a while back were discussing education, doing PhD etc where the subject veered elsewhere.. where I was trying to say how the linear logic falters and how a new logic needs to be born. The printed text is the father of the linear deductive logic that governs the world affairs in this age of reason. With advent of new interactive technologies, there has to be commensurate advancement in the way we think and acceptance of the same. Like Marshall McLuhan points out that we are New media will take us back to tribal connectedness. The earlier holistic mode of comprehension and argument has to be refined with current advancements in mind and the linear logic as legacy.
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Ok. I started to write this post with another intent actually. I meant to reflect on 'suicides' and how for me the same things mean life. well, will write that later. i hope.
Comments
I dont know....
There aint nothin wrong with usin two negatives.
so why not adjectives?
:P
or may be you are right.
besides I am a not very experienced amateur immature over zealous writer.
oooops!
more than 1 adjective.
Damn......
the duality....
nice point u have picked up
I have felt that too and have found myself in duels defending whatever side I was at that moment! In fact I have a nack of getting in to such fights...:P
reason Vs. spirituality
i cant help quote douglas adams again!
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." "But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that You exist, and so therefore, by Your own arguments, You don't. QED" "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. "Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
funny huh!?
we have been doing this forever...
and I dont know why....
I mean, i used to cling to my side before. i was with "the reason" and still sport the brand. but am more tolerant about "the other side".
and this small personal transition came out of failure. failure of reason to "perform", which i witnessed. I am sure there are converts like this from the other side too.
so being at the place I am, I can say the duality is as natural as reaction to every action. sociocultural circumstances have glorified,underwritten and even exploited these differences throughout history. giving all the future generations to "nucleate" their thinking around these "poles". you can only realise when you truely seek to solve the riddle with complete devotion to a path and be dissillusioned.
others, the laymen/laywomen, the whole facade of reason vs faith, is nothing more than some gossip or source of pride due to a local victory......
one of these days, i am gonna claim it on technoratti and no one would object!
well, i have come to accept and expect dualities everywhere. the yin-yang. it manifests everywhere, at every occasion. It’s the form that guides the acts in the world. We have tread on this duality balancing well to lead our lives.
But then again, through the post I essentially question this duality and permanence of it. To accept anything fully, you must question it thoroughly, won’t u agree? In the post I am exploring the possibility of a third or even a fourth. And by this I don’t mean the middle paths. Does the duality of reason and faith complete the universe of considerations towards life? Could there be something else that is fundamentally just as polar and exclusive?
Also, I question in the first paragraph, the internecine and at the same time interdependent nature of this duality. Could there be a break there or is it the final structure?
i am gonna write a sci-fi novel with that title!
now,
to be honest, you'll have to write a lot more to discuss these things. personally, i am barely bending my mind around the "acceptance" of the "duality".
asking/thinking of third and fourth to me is like asking a cyclops of depth perception!
and i dont think i am alone in this orrrrr am i?
to do some guess work...
look at the universe. as we understand, the whole thing is a big tug-o-war of forces. things which dont want to be are being forced to emulate themselves and things striving to exist fade into the cold expanding entropy!
so there is going to be some kind of "balance" between opposite foreces in this matter as well (i guess)..
now it can very well be two or more!
how about reason/faith/unreason/unfaith?
not all things are explained by reason or faith.
some of them might be totally out of no reason. complete absolute random uncontrollable chance! the gods dice! the unreasons!
and what about this faith dude?
may be things are the way they are because there is nothing higher to existance than the superficial. may be we should all forget about spirituality and go out to shop gucci underware!
i dont know....
But then u actually made an interesting point here. that of negatives, forming the other duality. reason/unreason/faith/unfaith. I guess, u got that from matter-antimatter construct. Well, in dualities the polarities are defined by being and the non being. so inverse of white is the 'non-white', and not black. So, inclusions of negatives do not complete the set, they overlap. Hence it is redundant. though it was interesting to view from that angle.
I guess, its just my immense hubris, which in search of a great creation, is trying to find structures where none exist. possibly, yin-yang holds good through and through. but then, possibly not. ..
one of these days, i am gonna claim it on technoratti and no one would object!