oxymoron

Oxymoron:

 An oxymoron (plural oxymora or oxymorons) (from Greek ὀξύμωρον, "sharp dull") is a figure of speech that juxtaposes apparently contradictory elements, it is not however a contradiction in terms. Oxymora appear in a variety of contexts, including inadvertent errors such as ground pilot and literary oxymorons crafted to reveal a paradox.




Kung Fu Class Last Week

It`s an oxymoron. Kung fu means both, "an unfinished project" and "well done" which is a contradiction in terms for Western culture. It's philosophically quite juicy though. The temerity to imagine that something is completed is dangerous because everything is always in a state of flux. It´s an integral component of the machinery of the universe. Well done!, because your moving with the underlying current that flows through the arteries of the ether.

I digress.



Everything is binary. Male-female, sky-earth, giving-receiving, aggressive-passive. Or may be not. But the human brain is not too good at relativizing accurately. So it will have to do.

Look for the interesting juxtapositions. The unlikely collocations. This is the advice I give to myself. And, brush your teeth three times a day. Before they fall out. Again.

Team Work In the Environs of My Newly Fenestrated House

Life is clearly made of these. Paradoxes and contradictions. An ecstasy of terror (Charles Dickens), random precision (Pink Floyd-Wish you were here). My whole existence is one; an explosion of hampered repose. Essentially this is good. I am still alive and sensitive to anything that might curdle the blood.





Torture, the Lunacy of Totalitarianism and commitment

 

According to Nabokov, Everything One Needs to Know about Humankind is in this Book

Books. They always affect what's happening in my life in subtle and subterranean ways. They undermine what I think and make coherent but bizarre connections.

I finished departure and arrival, a sharp, intelligent story about a man who escapes from eastern Europe after his country was invaded by the Germans in the second world war. He stows away on a ship, jumps overboard and swims the short distance to Portugal,  a neutral country.
There, he has a nervous breakdown,  principally because he had been tortured by his own collaborationist government and saw  one of the concentration camps first hand. After recovering he makes the decision to join the allies and is parachuted back into his own country as part of the resistance movement.

The Karamazov Brothers is Dostoevsky's masterpiece. I have only just started and it's enormous. So far, unlike crime and punishment, it's insightful and has a thousand layers of brilliance. And when I've finished I will be able to use it as a door-stop.

The Art of Sleep (Part 7). Two sentences of the Karamazov Brothers has the Desired Effect

I  am on tenterhooks at the moment. why? Because I'm waiting to find out whether or not there will be more work from the school. This will be of the utmost importance if I am to survive.
Looks doubtful.  I have just spoken to the director of studies and he was pretty negative. Still, I should know for sure in a week. Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What is more, I have received the legal demands from Loreto's lawyer which would allow me to see Jacob only 6 days a month and mean that I would have to pay 600 euros a month.

There was a good piece of news though; the court where the hearing is to be held is officiated by a fairly liberal judge who is generally sympathetic to the needs of the father. So I have been told.



Whosedatden?

The car has just broken down. Oh joy!

I am a fire fighter. I can't  get anything done since I'm always trying to resolve crises. Perhaps the answer is beer. The crises don't get any better but you no longer care.

The Boy who Ate Twice his Own Weight at One Sitting

Like a Miner/Minor Clementine

Nice Views from the House



School from the Café

Light in the Kitchen



Today's poem:

My dearest dust, could not thy hasty day
Afford thy drowsy patience leave to stay
One hour longer: so that we might either
Sit up, or gone to bed together?
But since thy finished labour hath possessed
Thy weary limbs with early rest,
Enjoy it sweetly; and thy widow bride
Shall soon repose her by thy slumbering side;
Whose business, now, is only to prepare
My nightly dress, and call to prayer:
Mine eyes wax heavy and the day grows old,
The dew falls thick, my blood grows cold.
Draw, draw the closed curtains: and make room:
My dear, my dearest dust; I come, I come.