Thursday, May 29, 2014

Thinking Two Things at the Same Time

The ability to do this is one of the impossible things that the Work attempts to convey. In fact, let me point out that I have other explanations than the following, which is good also. But something just occurred to me when reading this discussion of Ecclesiastes in Wikipedia:

Some passages of Ecclesiastes seem to contradict other portions of the Old Testament, and even itself. One suggestion for resolving the contradictions is to read the book as the record of Koheleth's quest for knowledge: opposing judgements (e.g. the dead are better off than the living (4:2) vs. a living dog is better off than a dead lion (9:4)) are therefore provisional....

What occurred to me is that the ability to think two things at once, is only contradictory at the level of binary thought, AND-- you could think of the ability to think two things at the same time,  as an alphabet block with different letters on each side. Thinking two thoughts at the same time is then just like looking at such a block from a certain angle: an angle which includes multiple sides of the block. To paraphrase somebody else, if six impossible things before breakfast is too hard, try thinking twelve, before lunch.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Yesterday? Or Tomorrow?

Here is a typeface from 1650. The link gives more details, but not a possible significance of this style. What I like is that this style does not let you ignore the fact you are at the level of words. None of this modern pretension that words can accurately reflect reality. This typeface says, "Yeah, I'm part of a word, what are you gonna do about it!". All this while suggesting, in the floral marine swirling patterns, that everything is part of everything else. Everything is connected, at a basic physical level. A fact that is incontrovertible and largely ignored today. I want what this artist was having.