Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 13:06:33 -0400
Subject: Re: Hopefully Seeking Sublime


Steve, Eric and All,

Eureka!!!

Eric's venture toward the religious imagination, inspired a couple of  "new"
(is that possible?) thoughts.  Perphaps we should use human imagination
project/difine, new visions of god and gods instead of depending on
patched-up versions of the old.

How to understand the universe or multiverses science describes?

Imagine the intelligence of an omniscient and omnipotent god who
contemplates, with human-like consciousness, and god-like perfect recall,
all the history of all that is.....  Big Bangs,
Being, Time,  dark matter and visible matter, fields and forces of infinite
extent and duration, hundreds of millions of species of life, that have
lived on Planet Earth, most of them extinct.  Contemplating also the reasons
homo-sapiens is special.

Why does this Supreme Being not immediately reveal  all secrets of the
mechanisms of intelligence, life-formation and decay, to those humans who
eagerly search for them?

Why is homo-sapiens favored over  millions of other Earthly species with
only a puny imitation of God-like omniscience and power?

etc. etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steve's reply - Comments at **

> Uhm - interesting developments a few sublime moments- whilst the
> personal is
> political it isn't usually that interesting, nor is it very meaningful
> on its own.  ** Interesting to whom, and for what reason?**
> For example the following list of sublime moments, indexed moments from a
life has absolutely no meaning outside of its context. **No context, no
meaning, but each utterance has a context for its sender and for its
receiver**.

Hugh's occasional anti-theoretical  stance, which could drift and may do so,
into anti-intellectualism, which in the anglo-saxon world is a problem,
scarcely seems justified. **Anti-intellectualism might mean down-putting of
ideas in which one has no personal interest **

However why is the  personal list of sublime moments more than, say a
discussion of Being and Time
**OK, but how to discuss without naming other persons or describing personal
experience??**

over espresso in Soho? or explaining to a student the necessity of
understanidng the different meanings of the split subject between Lancan and
Kristeva?
**This presupposes the student wants to know, or the teacher thinks the
student "should know", for some important benefit will accrue to the student
if  the doctrines of L. and K. are understood.**

> a few sublime moments from a personal history...
> - Reading Edmond Jabes for the first time - (The book of questions....
> sheer
> bliss)
> - Reading Marguerite Duras - The sailor from gibraltor -
> - The poll tax riot in London -
> - Waiting for the Genoa anti-globalisation demonstrations - (thinking of
beginning to attend...)
> - Godard's Passion
> - Rivette's Out One Spectre or Cleline and Julie Go Boating
> - Cecil Taylor's piano playing - 'garden'
> - the birth of my children -

> - larry the siamese cat walking down the garden talking to itself and
being  followed by a deer. (Never did realise it was there...) **My
daughter, one of the most anti-intellectual people I know, has an alley cat
named "Barstow" who retrieves
pipe cleaners tossed to high places.  She wonders if he "talks to himself".
We once had cat named Sacha, who used to disgustedly turn his back to me,
and refuse to go outside the door when it was raining, all the while voicing
those bitter remarks that make  Siamese cats famous**

Best,
Hugh