Thomas Mann in his "Joseph and His Brothers" visualizes this scene almost as well as Brughel. I've always loved this painting, and Mann's words somehow give it a new perspective.
"For it is, always is, though the common phrase may be : It was. That is how myth speaks, for it is merely the garment of the mystery. But mystery's festal garment is the feast itself, the ever-recurring feast that spans all of time's tenses, making both past and future present in the mind of the people. Is it any wonder that on those feast days human beings were all in a ferment and custom accepted degenerate, lewd behavior, for it is then that death and life know one another? Feast of Storytelling, you are the festal garment of life's evoking the myth to be played out in the very present. Feast of Death, descent into hell---you are truly a feast, the reveling of the flesh's soul, which not for nothing clings to the past, to the grave and the 'It was' of piety. But may the spirit be with you as well, and enter into you, so that you may be blessed with blessings of heaven above and blessings of the deep that lies below."
Aside from the painting, Mann's writing in Joseph, the Descent into Hell, causes me to question a concept I've always felt I understood: Soul, Flesh, Spirit. In particular, what is the difference between Soul and Spirit? Clearly, Flesh is set apart. But what of Soul and Spirit? Two names for the same idea? or is Soul only the innermost being and Spirit the anima...the life-giving force that gives breath and unity to the whole?
4 comments:
Jaynes' discussion of the appropriate greek words as regards breath, body, spirit throughout the Iliad, is very good. I have not been able to find any satisfying explanation as to the origins of immortal soul--that doesn't mean there isn't one out there. The question only makes sense as one in the history of ideas--mainly those generated to re enforce some element of dogma and usually involving the notion of substance.
Carnivàle haiku
“fumaji nao/shi no kage uzumu/matsu no yuki—I shall not tread on it/still my master’s shadow buries/the now in the pines”—Yasuhara Masaakira (1609-1603)
lodz kicks the bucket—
in “the day that was the day”
eyes glazing over…
hawkins strangles him—
is that any way to act
psychic-to-psychic?
up until then lodz—
and ben hawkins together
two peas in a pod
plus there’s management—
behind plush velvet curtains
there in the trailer
mysterious voice—
enantiodromiaesque
another psychic
what does one expect—
from a carnival of freaks
but paranormals?
all of them gifted—
led by samson the midget
thru the great dust bowl
dancing Siamese twins—
bearded ladies card readers
plus the reptile man
the penguin boy speaks—
above the roustabout din
and ferris wheel spin
it’s depression time—
stock market crash once again
kind of like now hmmm?
dazed young ben hawkins
stumbling out lodz’s trailer
after his long trance
skimpy kimono—
puce fuchsias pale white skin
against black silk
he’s the one they say—
the kid who can bring things back
from the land of dis
into the moment—
magic realism thrives*
during Carnivàle
—from "Carnivàle" (2003) Episode 12
*As the New Depression and Dust Bowl descends on us—online psychics and carnival geeks warn us about this and that. Global warming, hurricanes, flooding, droughts, pole shifts, Planet X, wars, disease, famines—along with the usual greed, anger and stupidity besetting human kind. Teitoku believed that Japanese poetry, first created by the gods, had changed itself with the times from waka to renga to haiku—the last he felt most suited to his own age. Teitoku expressed his conviction that unless the times are propitious, a work of literature cannot be appreciated. Haiku’s main purpose—magic realism embedded in carnival.
“The art of haiku places falsehood (kyo) ahead of truth (jitsu)”—Soin (David Keene, World Within Walls: A History of Japanese Literature, New York: Columbia Press, 1999, page 48)
Okay Puget, I'll give it a try.
Our boy Ben in his
carnivalesque kimono...
why not Shocking Pink?
Orientalism
Jung understood the
enantiodromiaesque,
so very extreme....
A moment of Zen
when yin becomes yang...China
morphs into Japan.
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