Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Media is Message: not the message

Shadows from crows fly north,  cross over trees bright
green in the early afternoon sun, not the crows them
selves—high over Jensen—darkened shapes sailing
over the Staff Parking Lot across a Saab, Camry,
 Blazer, Subaru & Buick.

 IT’s got to be about something, some deal or other,
but that’s not what it’s really about: it’s really  about
the process of being able to be  about something: some
deal or other. Crows. Trees. Cars.  No big deal.

The media, in this  case, is message —not  the overt,
ostensible apparent message, which of course always
naturally dominates discourse: the appearances, right?
as distinct from …what? “higher” reality?  Or “deeper
grammar”? or  the deep ecologic of conversation?  

A per-son buys a camper and takes a road trip for fun,
for something to do—alone, perhaps, or  with wife and
maybe kids if they have some. Another sits on his ass
and  drifts away watching squirrels in trees, sun lighting
up the morning; birds chatter, also: distant thunder of
trains and automobiles. Crows caw, as usual. Charles
Darwin in a  letter says he won’t pay attention to any
one who hasn’t learned how to describe.
The air conditioner turns off.

Description is “better” than that which is described.
Composition itself: more significant than what’s
 composed. And the same with “seeing” & “saying”
—the participial version indicates a value “higher”
than what the nouns channel: “seen” and  “said,”  
mere tokens of the process itself. Carriers.  Conversation,
likewise, outweighs (so to speak) both conversants  and
the stuff talked about: subject  matter,  object matter,

topics-- whiners of our  discontent.  

49 comments:

  1. "This university has not in the past and will not in the future shy away from hosting speakers who some deem provocative," the school said.
    The disinvitation
    The student group is called The Californians. It's a committee of undergrads whose role is to come up with graduation speakers.
    In August, the Californians selected Maher. On Tuesday, it decided to unselect him.
    But the college says the Tuesday night meeting was held without administration participation.
    "The UC Berkeley administration cannot and will not accept this decision, which appears to have been based solely on Mr. Maher's opinions and beliefs, which he conveyed through constitutionally protected speech," the school said in a statement.
    It added that the school's decision shouldn't be taken as an endorsement of Maher's views. "Indeed, the administration's position on Mr. Maher's opinions and perspectives is irrelevant in this context."
    As so, it said, the invitation stands; Maher will speak at the December event.

    FROM CNN

    Do you think the university should say "whom" when it is the direct object?

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  2. "whom" is the correct form for a direct object. Not sure I understand your question.

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  3. See the first sentence. It jumped out at me. This is an official statement to the media, so you would think that they would say "whom". But I am just bugging you.

    The question really is: can a student group disinvite a speaker because he is not politically correct--content wise? Media smart and savvy he must be, obviously.

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  4. You're right. It would jump out for Ann too.

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  5. Students dis-invite the not PC as well as the PC. Administration probably decides lesser of evils and PR inconvenience. Right either way. Wrong either way.

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  6. It seems that our atheist horsemen and other irreverent intellectuals have been ordained to be brave and point out the obvious: some muslims kill others for speaking their minds or believing differently and base this on The Koran and/ or Hadith. And others, if they mention it, should also be silenced. It has nothing to do with the media and all to do with the message of intimidation.

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  7. True Believer concerns and motives. Defend the faith.

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  8. That is how port becomes forgiveness, gladdens the heart.

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  9. As Lewis says in Mere Christianity: you have to actually participate to learn it. Walk through that door into the room.

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  10. A foretaste of the feast to come, with nothing but sinners around you--forgiven sinners, media in their own right.

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  11. "port"? You have to participate to learn guitar, skiing, chess.. This is the feast.

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  12. Wine, with alcohol.

    True about skiing, etc.

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  13. The bunny hill is the foretaste of the Rocky Mountains.

    http://www.banfflakelouise.com/

    Being there is not the same as viewing website. My husband first took me up there, to Sunshine on the continental divide.

    The bunny hill and the pictures are also good.

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  14. We got five inches of snow yesterday. Son Jonathan manages the front end of Goldminer's Daughter in Alta Utah (above Salt Lake City) and they are already piling up.

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  15. We are quite content, for the moment, to be snowless. Some of the people around here Live for skiing and snowmobiling, and hockey, of course. My main problem with winter, here, is that it is too long. And dark. And dangerous. And cold. And the sidewalks are slippery. And people break hips and wrists, if not worse...

    Here, I go, if you leave me to myself, I always drift towards pity and negativity. What is that. No foretaste at all. Without word and message and meaning, nothing is any good.

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  16. Ann doesn't like winter either. She's positive though -- doesn't drift toward pity and negativity. Gets angry when I criticize anything, any one Says I don't have a leg to stand on.

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  17. You must be quite a pair. This is God's sense of humor, puts you together and makes you figure it out. we are all like that, he's?


    Yesterday, after reading the "I agree", you wrote, on my first Internet grazing of the day, I went back to sleep and dreamt of you (does not usually happen). You were in NC and you were just like an old Englishman I knew, eccentric, funny, tall and lanky, always on the reparte. His wife was similar. All the English people in town were extremely funny with their constant reparte. Could not speak a sensible word with them for rolling in the aisle with laughter (we were in community choir together.)

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  18. More than better half--way better half and more than that. If God had a sense of humor and justice, he would never have put he together with me. That's why its good not to anthropomorphize God. As my old man would say a lot his last year :it's beyond me, Sam: it's beyond me.h

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  19. We are going down to see Bror in a bit. That's what precipitated the dream. The Bible anthropomorphizes all the time. It is a good part of the whole. Chesterton decided God's mirth was hidden. It is an interesting thought.

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  20. Made in God's image. Augustine teaches us about love. We can't grasp the trinity, but we know that love takes more than one. In marital love there are soon more than two, and plenty of suffering each other in love. It is a good analogy, and will still teach it.

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  21. anthropomorphizing is what we do. Knowing that we do it isw one thing (iconographs). Not knowing that we do is idolatry. Mostly we are idolaters. A description, not a judgement. In fact we take ouir representations as if they were what they represent. Or images and characterization. as if they were what they imaged and characterized. God-- as grey bead, loving father, sense of humor etc.

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  22. Does God's love worry about all the distinctions of dogma and catechism and rite and ritual and forms of worship and works of repentance and contrition that we claim are not sufficient for salvation yet make a terrific deal of them anyway so as to separate ourselves from other denominations and religions, believers and True Believers, etc. Maybe Bror can help you with this . Last back and forth we had was prompted by the Feast of the Foreskin.

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  23. How does the commemoration of Christ's circumcision offend you? It is highlighted to celebrate that God became one of us, for us, that is how great his love is and how he is willing to walk with us, suffer with us for us. It is entirely a beautiful thing, though many are offended. This is where spirits part: does God love like that or not? We assert and believe he does and it is the source of greatest wonder and joy, as is the incarnation and all of Christmas.

    If you are jealous that I am visiting Bror, you might invite me, and Martin and I might come that way--in the flesh--some year. :) xo

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  24. Amuses. Not that beautiful --and if, as you say, many are offended, well--must be their lack of understanding and appreciation how it is Jesus's penis & foreskin might provide basis of the miracle of God's incarnation. I never found Bror (since the earlry accusation of abomination regarding Presbyterianism) attractive. Jealous wouldn't describe my Actually his attitude has been helpful in uncovering for what it is about denominational competition that seems pharisee-like. He's okay, I educed a "fuck" out of him at one point, pissed at my response to one of his posts. Foreskin celebration. Never practiced it in my good old man's various celebrations. Funny. Pardon my immaturity.

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  25. Circumcision also reminds us that the Messiah was to be born to a certain line, a line which had been expecting Him for centuries, keeping track of all the begats... This is a fulfillment of prophecies and shows us that revelations are something more than someone's sudden insights or musings. As Son of Hamas pointed out the other day: the "prophet" Mohammed did not actually prophecy anything, and the only witness to his flight to Jerusalem is the donkey he supposedly did it on. whom can we trust? Different messengers, different message, different means.

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  26. "Educed", well done. One for the trophy case.

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  27. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/joeljmiller/2010/12/the-circumcision-of-christ/

    If we can't handle a circumcision on the eighth day, how are we going to handle a crucifixion? Why do you mock Bror? He is an intelligent man given to humble work and he is one who has not blocked you on FB letting all that is unattractive in what you say stand without rubbing your face in the fact that unattractive things have come out of you.

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  28. You and Bror can handle the foreskin on whatever day suits, and conjure the fulfillment of prophecies. I mock, ridicule, scorn--and have been blocked by many, including you--and consider it a calling. With all the attractive going on in these areas, I don't mind being the antithesis and antagonist. "Abomination". any who use that word will probably get some mock from me. Feast of the Foreskin.

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  29. Why is the circumcision such a big deal to you? Why fight with Bror about it several years in a row?

    This appears to be the Anglican prayer highlighting the need to mortify and tame our lusts.

    Almighty God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man: Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts, and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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  30. God is good and God is great and we thank him for this food. Amen (Thy will be done.) Mortify and tame.

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  31. Does the baby laid in a manger wrapped in swaddling cloths and pooping his diaper bother you the some way?

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  32. If some sect or denomination made a feast and special day and preached commemorative sermons out of Jesus Poop--to manifest who human God also is--lI'd probably mock and scorn somewhat--wretch like me. Emerson critiques the whole emphais on Jesus-the-man in his Divinity School address--but he was a drop-out Unitarian, so his point of view won't impace a good Lutheran or an Orthodox Presbyterian or a Rapture-Anticipating fundamentalist. We all defend the faith as we know it.

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  33. Whether or not God bore your sins in our human flesh is the most profound thing to contemplate and respond to. That God lived and breathed, and pooped and had his foreskin cut and bled and died on the cross and rose, and thus became your brother and redeemer is not something you can parochialize, try as you may. It is offensive, that I admit, but only on one hand. Emerson can say what he wants. Like Plato, he sad some good things and some stupid things. All in play, but often wrong.

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  34. Our redemption is on his condescension, not in our swinging ourselves up. This is good news.

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  35. Some stupid things--those are what catch my wretched mocking and scorn. You too, I'm sure--the shoddy and the shabby. If foreskin and poop help your worship and goe-man sin-bearing sense of forgiveness--turn it way up. Make a feast, festival, celebration. It might not resonate with other--both stupid and wise.

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  36. The Word Brings Salvation
    …5For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. 6But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: "DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, 'WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?' (that is, to bring Christ down), 7or 'WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)."…

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  37. Salvation - salved, safe; Damnation: damaged. (Your parentheticals don't make sense to me.)i

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  38. I am packing to go to Arizona and New Mexico. I knitted Bror's wife a purple scarf out of luxury yarn, half silk, half Merino sheep, in a light, fancy lace pattern. Purple is her favorite color. This sort of thing is the only kind of thing I know how to knit--art or profane? Or sisterhood.

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  39. Quote is from the letter to the Romans, including what is in parenthesis.

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  40. Profane--literally temple-talk talked out side the temple. Much profanity. Art- ertia - as opposed to inertia. Not so much art. Second wife for Bror regardless of , as you say, Jesus says not to. All of us original sinner sinning originally and also typically. But we love the sinner--hate the sin (I confess, often I prefer the sin to the sinner.)

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  41. Sinners one and all. What a relief.

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  42. If more and more would acknowledge it --wretch like me--rather than deny and cover (fig leaf a goodie): that would be some relief.

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