Sunday, August 16, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Caius Is Mortal
"Ivan Ilych saw that he was dying, and he was in continual despair. In the depth of his heart he knew he was dying, but not only was he unaccustomed to the thought, he simply did not and could not grasp it.
"The syllogism he had learnt from Kiesewetter's Logic: 'Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal,' had always seemed to him correct as applied to Caius, but it certainly didn't apply to himself. That Caius - man in the abstract - was mortal, was perfectly correct, but he was not Caius, not an abstract man, but a creature quite separate from all others. He had been little Vanya, with a mamma and a papa, with Mitya and Volodya, with toys, a coachman and a nanny, afterwards with Katenka and with all the joys, griefs, and delights of childhood, boyhood, and youth.
"What did Caius know of the smell of that striped leather ball Vanya had been so fond of? Had Caius kissed his mother's hand like that, and did the silk of her dress rustle for Caius? Had he noted like that at school when the pastry was bad? Had Caius been in love like that? Could Caius preside at session as he did?
"'Caius really was mortal, and it was right for him to die; but as for me, little Vanya, Ivan Ilych, with all my thoughts and emotions, it's altogether a different matter. It cannot be that I ought to die. That would be too terrible.'
"Such was his feeling."
Leo Tolstoy
"The syllogism he had learnt from Kiesewetter's Logic: 'Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal,' had always seemed to him correct as applied to Caius, but it certainly didn't apply to himself. That Caius - man in the abstract - was mortal, was perfectly correct, but he was not Caius, not an abstract man, but a creature quite separate from all others. He had been little Vanya, with a mamma and a papa, with Mitya and Volodya, with toys, a coachman and a nanny, afterwards with Katenka and with all the joys, griefs, and delights of childhood, boyhood, and youth.
"What did Caius know of the smell of that striped leather ball Vanya had been so fond of? Had Caius kissed his mother's hand like that, and did the silk of her dress rustle for Caius? Had he noted like that at school when the pastry was bad? Had Caius been in love like that? Could Caius preside at session as he did?
"'Caius really was mortal, and it was right for him to die; but as for me, little Vanya, Ivan Ilych, with all my thoughts and emotions, it's altogether a different matter. It cannot be that I ought to die. That would be too terrible.'
"Such was his feeling."
Leo Tolstoy
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The scariest thing I've ever seen
From Eadweard Muybridge's locomotion studies.
Francis Bacon's interpretation.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Hypnic jerk
A lot of times, when I'm falling asleep, I wake up with a start, as if I was falling. I googled it today and found out that, according to the unimpeachable Wikipedia, some researchers think that "as a subject falls asleep, their muscles begin to relax and cease working, causing the brain to believe that the body must be falling through air." So then you move around in the interest of self preservation.
Smooth
I don't smoke but if I did, I would want to know how to light my cigarette with a piece of glass.
This is really not good
Stupid pictures that were enclosed in Baldric cigarette packs in the 1930's. I never want to look at these again.
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