Archive for January 5th, 2021
Is writing/literature the best path for reaching wisdom? Any criteria for selecting geniuses in literature?
Posted on: January 5, 2021
Are there any Geniuses of Language and Literature? Part 2
Posted on April 16, 2013
In a previous post I asked this question:
Is it possible to meaningfully categorize and classify masterpieces in literature?
It is possible to collect data on the many ways people retrieve, read, or extract sections of masterpieces, and run a statistical package to “cluster” groups of masterpieces under fictitious categories.
Like considering geographic origin, time period, and field of each “genius,” correlated with visits to the respective Wikipedia page and connection to related historical figures…
The question will remain: “How meaningful this process is, and does it make any sense for the avid readers?”
It is our nature to classify, even organize human species. We are all basically pseudo-scientists: Scientists main hobby and work is to classify everything.
Classifying masterpieces in literature is a futile exercise, though “academics” cannot help it: It is their livelihood, particularity teachers of literature.
In the next post, I’ll demonstrate the futility of classifying masterpieces in literature.
For the time being, here is an alternative for classifying literature in values., though Not including modern literature that actually represent world transformation and changes in human rights perspective.
For the time being, here is a striking example of an alternative way to a taxonomy in literature:
Maria Popova published “History’s 100 Geniuses of Language and Literature, Visualized“
“Genius, in its writings, is our best path for reaching wisdom … the true use of literature for life.”
“Genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly,” Victorian novelist Amelia E. Barr reflected in her 9 rules for success.
What is genius?
In their latest project, Italian visualization wizard Giorgia Lupi and her team at Accurat — who have previously given us a timeline of the future based on famous fiction, a visual history of the Nobel Prize, and a visualization of global brain drain inspired by Mondrian — explore the anatomy of genius, based on Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (public library) by literary Harold Bloom.
Bloom use of the Sefirot image — the 10 emanations of the Kabbalah or (quality/appreciation) — to organize the taxonomy of the 100 geniuses of language.
Bloom identifies, from Shakespeare to Stendhal to Lewis Carroll to Ralph Ellison, the visualization that depicts the geographic origin, time period, and field of each “genius,” correlated with visits to the respective Wikipedia page and connection to related historical figures.
Bloom writes:
All genius, in my judgment, is idiosyncratic and grandly arbitrary, and ultimately stands alone … My placement of the hundred geniuses is hardly one that fixes them in place, since all the Sefirot are images constantly in motion, and any creative spirit must move through all of them, in many labyrinths and transformations. …
Since the 10 Sefirot form a system in constant motion, all of my hundred persons could be illuminated almost equally well by the other nine Sefirot, beyond the one where I group them, and I intend this book to be a kind of mosaic-in-perpetual-movement.
Appearing here is an exclusive English-language version of a forthcoming spread in Italian literary supplement La Lettura.
{Click image to enlarge)
At the heart of Bloom’s ambitious taxonomy is a concern with the very nature of genius:
What is the relationship of fresh genius to a founding authority?
At this time, starting the twenty-first century, I would say:
‘Why, none, none at all.’ Our confusions about canonical standards for genius are now institutionalized confusions, so that all judgments as to the distinction between talent and genius are at the mercy of the media, and obey cultural politics and its vagaries.
Echoing Virginia Woolf’s counsel on the art of reading, Bloom argues for cultivating an individual sensibility of genius-appreciation:
Literary genius, difficult to define, depends upon deep reading for its verification. The reader learns to identify with what she or he feels is a greatness that can be joined to the self, without violating the self’s integrity….
Genius, in its writings, is our best path for reaching wisdom, which I believe to be the true use of literature for life.
Note: Part 1 on https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/masterpieces-in-literature-since-when-part-1/
Adonis Diaries 
Tidbits #86
Posted by: adonis49 on: January 5, 2021
Tidbits #86
Soon, the “pseudo-citizens” Lebanese will be considered as ripe by the UN to apply as “refugees” in their own country. We will be eligible/entitled to apply to many Nations for “residency status” and be invited for countless interviews. A year later, we will be assigned and shipped to one of the Nations that respect human rights and value dignity for every person.
It would be fairer for the UN to transfer the malignant sectarian/feudal/civil war mafia “leaders” and let us have a second more equitable try to establish a secular State, to all.
Frankly, I feel we are too rotten, to the bones, to manage such a feat of instituting a secular State: if we have failed during a century, then we are Not fit to be extended one of those “second chances” or hundred of times.
In the meantime (entretemps), the Lebanese, who want full citizenship, have to continue doing their due diligence to kick out the nefarious for life “leaders’, in order to earn a “spot under the sun”
Israel: Land of God El, the all incompassic Canaan God. Shekel: the currency that Babylon Empire used. Shalom: Aramaic salutation that means “Peace be upon you”. Hebrews: Al 3obraniyeen (those who crossed): the bedouin tribes which crossed the desert to settle in the desertic region in south Palestine Al Nakab… The language Hebrew is a slang of the Aramaic language. Jehova (Yahwa) was the warrior God of the tribes. The Canaanites in Jerusalem allowed them to build a tiny temple whenever they needed these tribes to be paid as mercenaries. In peaceful time, this temple was neglected and the tribes patronized Canaan temples. We can go on and on…
Life swims in a river of bacterias, more of the good ones than bad bacterias. Death floats on this stagnant river, as good bacterias stop feeding it.
Youth generates good bacteria. Older ages requires constant Infusion of good bacterias. Take care that your vital organs are functional and healthy.
Evil emotions never dies or sleeps: it is a cause in everyday occurrences. Goodness is a rare event and craves long periods of hibernations: it needs strong catalysts to wake up. When Goodness resurrects from its lethargy, it lights up the nights, like those flies that live for a day, just for a night, and retreats to its cave.
The total bankruptcy of the state of Lebanon, and at all levels, goes deeper than its totally rotten political and economic system. A century ago, the Lebanese were hard working, a value-added population, like the current Syrians and Palestinians. It is No longer the case.
The colonial occupation of Syria and Palestine was for the keep because of the value-added hard working people, like the Indians during the British colonialism of India. Lebanon is currently a sink tank, Not worth a dime for investment, if the Syrian refugees return to Syria.
London lost almost all its European share business. On the first day of trading after Brexit was finally completed, $7.4 billion moved out of the City and into Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Paris.
With a worthless bolivar, president Nicolás Maduro says paper money will eventually disappear. Venezuela is actively envisioning an all-digital economy. China can help with its digital technology. State of Lebanon, totally bankrupt, should be ripe for this alternative
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