Adonis Diaries

Posts Tagged ‘Victor Hugo

Mon cher Ado. Part 105

Saint Augustin, qui a vécu à cheval sur le quatrième et cinquième siècle de l’ère chrétienne, est considéré comme le fondateur du genre autobiographique .
Après une jeunesse dissipée , qu’il raconte dans les Confessions , il se convertit au Christianisme et devient évêques d’Hippone dans l’actuelle Algérie .

N’oublions pas qu’avant les conquêtes arabes au septième siècle , tout le pourtour méditerranéen faisait partie du grand Empire Romain , christianisé dès le quatrième siècle , suite à la conversion de l’Empereur Constantin .

Plus de mille ans plus tard, Jean-Jacques Rousseau rédige , lui aussi , ses Confessions , où il raconte à son tour l’histoire de sa vie dans ce qu’elle a parfois de plus intime, ouvrant la voie à tous ceux qui après lui vont rédiger leurs autobiographies.

Victor Hugo ,après Rousseau et Chateaubriand, tournant le dos à l’époque classique , qui considérait avec Pascal (le grand Mathématicien et Philosophe du XVII éme siècle) ,que le “moi ” est haïssable , il nous parle de ses émotions , de ce qu’il avait ressentit surtout après la mort de sa fille noyée dans la Seine .

Mais face à ses détracteurs , les classiques qui étaient encore influents au début du XIX éme siècle , il se justifie en disant dans l’une de ses préfaces :

” Ah! Quand je vous parle de moi,je vous parle de vous .
Comment ne le sentez-vous pas ? ”
En effet quand on parle de soi , on parle de tous .
Car qui n’a pas souffert au cours de sa vie ?
Qui n’a pas perdu un être cher qu’il a pleuré , et qu’il pleure encore ?
Qui n’a pas aimé et ressenti un bonheur intense au cours de son existence ?

Notes and tidbits posted on FB and Twitter. Part 132

Note 1: I take notes of books I read and comment on events and edit sentences that fit my style. The page is long and growing like crazy, and the sections I post contains months-old events that are worth refreshing your memory.

Victor Hugo wrote “war on rhetoric” in 1858. Three decades later, rhetoric was scraped from the curriculum in the public schools in France till mid 20th century. Plato had condemned the oratory techniques of the Sophist philosophers: they were the main teachers of the elite class destined to politics and city administration.

If late Abdullah Saleh of Yemen had agreed to rule in South Yemen (Aden) he would still be alive and the war would have ended with a unified Yemen.

Do you believe Trump will actually move US embassy to Jerusalem? What for? Tel Aviv is Not more convenient among all the other world embassies and far more secure?

As of 2013, Israel had been condemned in 45 resolutions by United Nations Human Rights Council since its creation in 2006—the Council had resolved on almost more resolutions condemning Israel than on the rest of the world combined. Not a single resolution in favor of the Palestinians has been applied.

Uri Avnery: The simple fact is that for 11 months before the preemptive war on Lebanon in 1982, not a single katyusha shot was fired across the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Erwin Chargaff: In the essential of progress we might still be as developed as the Neanderthal. We do not need to have more superior musicians or philosophers in order to claim progress. The history of the world is a catalog of violent acts and accidents, and beauty has no place in that history. Nobody can teach us in the domain of literature and human sciences and we are on our own to conquer these fields.

If you say governments are meant to think for your best interest, then your lazy mind has given up on thinking

Threatening with an empty pistol? An Israeli commentator on the reactions of the Palestinians and “Arab” people on the eventual proclamation of Trump on Jerusalem as Capital of Israel. As if the readiness of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the reconquest of Syria and Iraq in this world war to divide their territories were done with empty pistol.

Religious institutions mastered the fact that people need stories (myths) to be attached to abstract concepts for viability and credibility

Believe whatever you want in religious abstract concepts, just don’t step out your zeal to include civil responsibility and people dignity for survival and life.

Es-ce un avantage qu’avec l’age on prend la vie comme elle vient? Et lui dire merci aussi? C’est dommage que meme avec l’age on n’apprend pas grand chose qui vaille: on le subit.

Il y a des personnes qui revent qu’ils se composent leurs numeros de telephone pour entendre le dring dring pour se reveiller. Moi, je reve de toilettes sales, debordantes et nauseabondes.

Plusieurs d’autres vies existent en nous: n’allez pas chercher ailleurs.

Notes and comments on FB and Twitter. Part 54

Cette chose absurde chez les enfants: ces anxiétés  de “L’avant nous”

On ne peut qu’admirer les témérités des réfugiers qui éblouissent l’histoire, qui ont l’audace d’exister

La Gloire ne revient qu’á ceux qui prennent la defense des plus démunis.

La plus mauvaise éloge est d’attribuer a quelqu’un de ne pas changer d’opinion pendant 40 ans: Louer l’eau stagnante

Il battit des records de solitude. Volonté de rupture, sortir de l’humain, voulant être séparé avec la société et l’espéce humain.

La destiné est une: ma vie est la vôtre, et reciproquement. On vit les même frustrations et pose les même questions a chaque phase de notre vie.

C’est le mouvement perpétuel: Cette roue tourne á vide. Ne pouvant créer, il décréte. Il fait rage, il touche á tout.(Victor Hugo dans Napoléon III, le Petit)

Moi, je la contemplais, celle qui sans le savoir mettait le feu dans plus d’une âme. Fait attention: le baril de poudre a peur de l’étincelle.

Aimer, c’est plus que vivre. L’amour seul reste.

Tu souffre de la plaie de la femme: tu n’a pas le courage de la cautériser

Aux livres colosses, il faut des lecteurs athletes. C’est la même chose de regarder les âmes d’Eschyle, du Juvénal, de Dantes, de Michel-Ange, de Shakespeare… ou de regarder l’ocean (Victor Hugo)

“Sous nos yeux, on incendie, on pille, on extermine, on égorge, on vend les petites filles et petit garcons… Et les gouvernement civilisés les laissent commettre ces épouvantables forfaits”.

Les mêmes avertissements et indignations qui se répétent sans relache chaque decennie.  

To be in the right place at the right time with the right skills or investments: Predicting and inventing the future go hand in hand

La marche du retour de la librairie me donne des idées: Talama moush mestanzer sha2leh, b2ate3 al wa2t

Les grandes perils ont cela de beau: ils mettent en lumiére la fraternité des inconnus

I earnestly suggest to print money that say: “If you want, I want”. It will render transactions more efficient for all ages

“Tant que l’homme peut, tant que la femme veut”. Ces vouloir secrets et non exprimés me castre

Tu sais mon amour que je vous aime en gros et en grand. Quand tu veux l’amour en detail, rejoignez moi á telle addresse

Dieu vivant? Bon, clément, indulgent et doux et vivant? Being gentle, kind and human goes a long way. But how can little phrases in short letters convey those feeling?

Croire est difficile. Ne pas croire est impossible? Mais les rêves ne sont pas dans le domaine de l’impossible

“C’est de vous, femmes, que viendra la victoire”. Toutes les victoires qui vaillent ont étées meunées et nourris par les femmes

Le poéte est dans les nuages. Soit. Le tonnerre aussi

“Tant que le possible n’est pas fai, le devoir n’est pas remplit: On doit détruire la misére du corps social. Il est possible qu’il n’y ait plus de miserable” Victor Hugo

The few hours I spend in the library, almost everyday, are the happiest in my life. Go figure.

I am a public figure; (Jan. 22, 2010)

Consider this situation: I died.  Years later, hundreds of readers are still patronizing my Adonis49 blog every day; as if I am alive and going strong.  How that for a whiff of eternity?

Lebanese author Charles Corm in 1949: “Once your writing goes into print then your moral liberty is restricted: it entered the domain of others’ moral values and you have to take responsibility of what you published”.

Thus, there is a difference between writing for your own pleasure and publishing.  Publishing your work carries a public function that you are doomed to shoulder.

There is no such thing as publishing for “Art sake”: if you have to publish, at least have a political position that has germinated since every thought, idea, or action disseminated to the public connote a political undertone.

There is always an implicit mission that permeates the published work.

An abbot wrote in 1771 “We have got to steadfastly refrain from writing.  If we have to write then it better be worthier than silence”.

The need to commune with the reader presumes a good level of honesty and a will to care. The ultimate mission is to communicate personal struggles;.

For example, how you overcame shortcomings, the attempts and challenges that obstructed your journey to personal discoveries, and the many ways to succumb to our frailties and limitations: there is an implicit purpose to express and describe the journey since we don’t need to reach the goal as long as we are on the journey’s track.

Are there messages from the past that we have short-cut subconsciously in our frenzied strife to advance in the future?

Many say that we write for “ a moment of eternity”.  If that is true then what you wrote was the honest final confession.

How come your final confession keeps succeeding for years to come?  Are you an immortal sinner?

Communicate heart and courage in what you publish.

Convey the urge to proceed in discovering your nature; otherwise, why the bother?

If you are not an “expert” in the subject matter then try not to extend resolutions: leave it to the reader to reflect on the “problematic”.

First, if your solution is meant to flatter the reader then you are necessarily a demagogue and your credibility will be tarnished.

Second, if you mean to provoke the reader into reflecting on the problem then you better be cognizant on the varied leverages and facts; communicate the facts and several alternative resolutions and let the reader decide on his own.

Do you want effect? Then, let your title expresses the intended affects; then, structure your article and learn to write well.

Victor Hugo said: “Light is in the book”.  Let reading lights your path.

Do you publish on WordPress? Then, you are a public figure; (Jan. 22, 2010)

            “Once your writing goes into print then your moral liberty is restricted: it entered the domain of others’ moral values and you have to take responsibility of what you published” wrote the Lebanese author Charles Corm in 1949.  Thus, there is a difference between writing for your own pleasure and publishing.  Publishing your work carries a public function that you are doomed to shoulder. There is no such thing as publishing for “Art sake”: if you have to publish then, at least, have a political position that has germinated since every thought, idea, or action disseminated to the public connote a political undertone. There is always an implicit mission that permeates the published work.

            An abbot wrote in 1771 “We have got to steadfastly refrain from writing.  If we have to write then it better be worthier than silence”.  The need to commune with the reader presumes a good level of honesty and a will to care. The ultimate mission is to communicate personal struggles; how you overcame shortcomings, the attempts and challenges that obstructed your journey to personal discoveries, and the many ways to succumb to our frailties and limitations: there is an implicit purpose to express and describe the journey since we don’t need to reach the goal as long as we are on the journey’s track.

            Are there messages from the past that we shortcutted subconsciously in our frenzied strife to advance in the future?  Many say that we write for “a moment of eternity”.  If that is true then what you wrote was the honest final confession.  How come your final confession keeps succeeding for years to come?  Are you an immortal sinner?  If you cannot communicate heart and courage in what you publish and how you proceed to discover your nature then why the bother?

If you are not an “expert” in the subject matter then try not to extend resolutions: leave it to the reader to reflect on the “problematic”.  First, if your solution is meant to flatter the reader then you are necessarily a demagogue and your credibility will be tarnished.  Second, if you mean to provoke the reader into reflecting on the problem then you better be cognizant on the varied leverages and facts; communicate the facts and several alterative resolutions and let the reader decide on his own. Do you want effect? The, let your title expresses the intended effect; then, structure your article and learn to write well.

            Victor Hugo said: “Light is in the book”.  Let reading lights your path.

“War on Rhetoric”; (Nov. 28, 2009)

The romantic period in literature of the 19th century imposed conventional styles and modes of grammars that restricted clear discourse. Victor Hugo wrote “war on rhetoric” in 1858. Three decades later, rhetoric was scraped from the curriculum in the public schools in France till mid 20th century.  Victor Hugo was following in the footsteps of Plato who condemned the oratory techniques of the Sophist philosophers: they were the main teachers of the elite class destined to politics and city administration.

Basically, the Sophist philosophers used techniques of argumentation, controversial dialogue, and emphatic discourse to win over the audience to their programs. Plato contended that the Sophists’ pedagogy manipulated the truth, the good, and the beautiful; that they didn’t account for reason, dialectic method, and the art of dialogue, and that they encouraged speeches to be wrapped up in myths.

Aristotle categorized the art of rhetoric and distinguished among the political deliberate discourses with the objective of saying “what is good”, the demonstrative judiciary discourse targeted to rendering justice or “what is just”, and the epidictic discourse to enhancing the values of individuals. The Roman Quintillion marked the western rhetoric tradition in academia via his book “The Oratory Institutions”.

Rhetoric is currently hotly applied to various fields of interests and businesses; it has been diversified to specialties such as amorous “how to seduce”, pedagogic “how to convince students; or how to win students over in class”, gastronomy so that the text of menus in restaurants read like poems with plenty of metaphoric expressions, exotic inventions, analogy with high fashion, and figure of speeches evoking thinness and lightness. The military, religious sects, advertising, and artistic fields are heavily reliant of rhetoric or “communication” specialists.

There are two major rhetorical sets of values: the collective and the individual values. The discourse links three entities: Ethos (Identity), Logos (the world), and Pathos (the others). In the collective values we recognize examples of the Ethos such as (respect of the dead), (health, age, and body), and (hope and intellectual satisfaction). These collective values of Ethos are recursively linked respectively to the Logos values of (primal religion), (economic acquisition, and (extreme end results). The Logos values are recursively linked respectively to the Pathos values of (family), (political gains or respect for norms), and (social purpose or general interest).

In the individual sets of values we have: in the Ethos (status), (rights such as freedom), (desires), (virtues), and (opinion).  The ethos values correspond respectively to the Logos values of (revenue), (power), (needs), (capacities), and (facts).  The Logos values correspond respectively to the Pathos values of (Power), (responsibilities), (demands), (passions), and (questions).

Consequently, we can generate a cyclical adjustment in rhetoric from the projective ethos or “what the audience imagines” to the effective ethos (the speaker), to the projective pathos or “how the speaker imagines his audience”, to the effective pathos (the individuals in the audience asking questions).

The late Fernand Hallyn published “The rhetoric structures of science” in 2004; he demonstrated that classical physics is fundamentally metaphorical and analogical figures of speeches. Thus, most instances of discoveries or “Eureka” of great minds were generated by analogical pictures that were registered in personal experiences.

Rhetoric was the primary tool or excuse for the elite classes to acquiring whatever knowledge that was available at the time such as literatures, poetry, and geometry. You may talk to an audience on empty stomach (that would be recommended to shorten a speech and get to the point quickly but you cannot talk with an empty mind! You have got to have, at least, a few subjective notions of what you are conveying.

My contention is that our frontal brain developed a specialty of sorting out and categorizing mind’s associations and images in what was called “scientific methods” in the 18th century.  For example, the processes of identifying qualities and attributes among objects, living species, or phenomena and then establishing coherent taxonomies of relationship in each field of sciences.

I may go even further and claim that the techniques of induction, deduction, and various logical systems were not created but they are a long process of describing the rhetorical mind that generated metaphors, metonym, and analogies by the processes of associations among our various memories.


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March 2023
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