Vitamin Q (1982)

Situational Awareness in Literature: when emotions and “peripheral” observations yield suspicion and insight (repost)

Initially, I found this theme in Hawthorne and Melville, and my reading in their books led to my discerning the theme in Milton. How (and when) do people translate impressions, feelings, emotions and “peripheral” observations into clear, true and therefore actionable facts about their environment and the actual character of the people they are dealing with? These feelings and emotions might, in a larger consideration, be “metaphysical” notions or impressions. Thus even outlandish (and, ahem, not so outlandish) “shamanic” activity might lead to solid psychological, ethical and political insights.

In The Scarlet Letter, important thematic junctures in the text are driven by Hester and then Dimmesdale identifying Chillingworth as THE ENEMY.  This is related, also, to their identifying that the society and ethos of the theocratic Calvinist Massachusetts Bay Colony is a gross distortion of revealed Christian theology. Interestingly, The Scarlet Letter represents an—if not the—American national epic, and so typifies a handful of novels that literary scholars casually call “the Great American Novel.” Other books falling into this category include Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, and Samuel Clemens’ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Interestingly, the theme of “suspicion, discovery, insight” figure as salient philosophic and plot-driving themes in these novels. Here I will reflect on Hawthorne, Melville and Milton. I will return to The Scarlet Letter at the end of this note.

In Moby-Dick, the problem is explored through Ishmael at last recognizing that Ahab is evil and that an affiliation with his leadership and his monomaniacal quest to slay the white whale will lead to destruction. In the novel there are a number of similar instances of emotions and impressions leading to important insights; for example, insights into the character of the mates: first mate Starbuck (conformist, i.e. clerk; Melville concludes this sketch seeing in Starbuck a “lack/loss of manhood”); second mate Stubb (coward, despite appearances--indeed, a moral coward); third mate Flask (reckless, self-effacing, superficial—an uninvolved ghost of a man). Melville examines his own narrator along such lines. Through much emotion, superstitious exploration, rationalization, philosophical speculation, theological re-examination, and so on, Ishmael discovers and rejects his own Platonic tendencies (transcendental reverie, aloofness, sophomoric cynicism unchecked by a proper and sensible (albeit closely-related) skepticism). Among Melville’s conclusions are that these weaknesses are: 1) hard to see, and 2) fatal.

In The Confidence-Man, Melville offers a series of scenes or vignettes in which people have odd impressions leading to insight (though, more often than not, people dismiss their impressions, and much to their peril.)

In the novella Benito Cereno, Melville offers a grotesque examination of the subject of indifference to one’s surroundings and the presence of an enemy. Delano, an American ship captain happens upon a slave ship taken over by the slaves; the slaves successfully deceive Captain Delano into believing they are “friends” with the captain of the slave ship, Benito Cereno, who has given the slaves the run of the ship. Melville describes the American captain overlooking all sorts of emotional and physical clues as to what has actually transpired aboard the ship.  The scenes are amazingly striking and incongruous, including Delano watching with beneficent (indeed almost pious) naiveté as a slave holds a straight razor to Cereno’s neck and shaves him. Suspension drives much of the plot as the reader waits for Captain Delano to figure out what is really going on. At last Captain Delano realizes the true state of affairs aboard Cereno's ship, and he proceeds to take action.  The "utilitarian" character and astonishing efficiency of Delano's movements in re-taking the ship are fascinating, and in this regard Delano's capability and quick intelligence under pressure are outstanding examples of a "heroic man of action." The question, of course, is why (and how) did it take him so long to arrive at a clear awareness of the situation?

In Paradise Lost, Milton offers scenes in which Adam is suspicious of what the angels (and God) have told him about his state, his nature, Paradise, the motions of the planets, and so on. Being very clever, Adam notes the contradictions in the angels’ statements, but he keeps his cards very close to his chest and doesn’t let on that he suspects. There are of course many such “clues” in the poem, including the notion that an orthodox reading of the poem is itself as misleading as Adam and Eve’s prelapsarian perceptions of Eden, each other, and the universe. We might consider, too, that the language of the poem—and, more largely, human language (and notwithstanding the sophistication of late-Renaissance/early-modern understanding)—is subject to error, misrepresentation, conceptual confusion, philosophical credulity, and thus requires much careful and attentive review.

Complicating the matter—and I address this in the Afterword to the International Authors edition of The Scarlet Letter—is that we are bound by our language, and thus, for example, Hester and Dimmesdale are delimited and circumscribed by Calvinist language, and so when they transcend the mores of the community and the community’s theocratic catechism, they are very confused. Initially, Hester and Dimmesdale are forced to interpret their dissent in theological terms, believing they are very great sinners, and so on. Of course, Hester gets beyond this. Poor Dimmesdale, however, is rather like Starbuck in Moby-Dick, and he is destroyed by his desire for “community respectability,” even though the criteria of that “respectability” are false and destructive to his well-being; indeed, they lead to his death.

There is much more to be said on these matters. Suffice it to say we must be on guard and pay close attention to all of our impressions, and no matter how odd, absurd or weird they may be.

Click the cover image to view the Amazon page for the International Authors edition of The Scarlet Letter with my Afterword “‘A’ is for Antinomian:  Theology and Politics in The Scarlet Letter.” 

 

Originally posted to Highbrow April 15, 2025 (HERE)

Dream Vision; A Nightmare (1525) - Albrecht Dürer

The text reads: “In 1525, during the night between Wednesday and Thursday after Whitsuntide, I had this vision in my sleep, and saw how many great waters fell from heaven. The first struck the ground about four miles away from me with such a terrible force, enormous noise and splashing that it drowned the entire countryside. I was so greatly shocked at this that I awoke before the cloudburst. And the ensuing downpour was huge. Some of the waters fell some distance away and some close by. And they came from such a height that they seemed to fall at an equally slow pace. But the very first water that hit the ground so suddenly had fallen at such velocity, and was accompanied by wind and roaring so frightening, that when I awoke my whole body trembled and I could not recover for a long time. When I arose in the morning, I painted the above as I had seen it. May the Lord turn all things to the best.” 

Click HERE for more Highbrow remarks on Dürer.

Возвращение, советский научно-фантастический мультфильм, реж. Владимир Тарасов, "Союзмультфильм" 1980: Vozvraschenie (Return), soviet sci-fi animation, dir. Vladimir Tarasov, Soiuzmultfilm Studios 1980

Here the white whale exhibits some transparency. Mildly interesting, but why?

Mitja R. "Moby-Dick. Power." 2026. 60x50 cm. Canvas, oil, acryl.

Why should we represent human faces in suns, moons, stars...? Does--can--anthropology, psychology, or literary theory provide an answer? If so, how might we understand the significance of that answer, if indeed understanding or significance have any meaning in this context? And, alas, what is this context?

Unknown German Artist - Splendor Solis, c.1582 Tempera on vellum, highlighted with gold, 32 x 22 cm British Library, London. (Copies in Berlin, Paris, Madrid and Nuremberg).

Language Transits the Synesthetic Iris

Harry Turner - Sounds in the Dawn, 1955

 

"Let that be a lesson to you!"

Zeitgeist Haiku Two

artificial brain

supporting our transmission

comprehension zilch

Zeitgeist Haiku

 

mark modernity

approaching and hovering

scrapers stretch upward

Stimulating Performances: Luciano Berio: Momenti, per nastro magnetico (1960)

An Easter Affirmation from Tasso

But now rise, rise out of the depths 
—may our speech emerge from the waves!
Let us look upwards, up towards the sky,
we will see the shore wonderfully adorned: 
the salt, drawn by the waves, nearly hardens
into white marble, and like deep-red stone
the beautiful coral glows in the air,
which formerly was soft grass underwater;
and among the shells, the hard pearl
shines white; and on the sandy waste
flames the gold, and like most precious gems
some stones are painted in many colors.
 
           --Torquato Tasso, Creation of the World, Day Five, 652-663

 

 

Click the cover image to view the Amazon description:

 

Stimulating Performances: Константин Ковальский - терменвокc 1960 USSR

Emanations 12 Update

I have the first of two (or maybe three) proof copies of Emanations 12 on my desk.  Very striking. Highbrow? Well, it certainly looks the part. I've had to reposition some content and there are many little jots and tittles that need attention, but things are moving forward. 

Why can't Johnny learn to argue? "Solipsedelic Giddy Up a Ding Dong: Brexit, continued", continued...

My Friday July 1, 2016 Highbrow post touched upon an interesting problem in contemporary discussion patterns: People don't know how to argue productively. Here (and HERE) is that post:

Solipsedelic Giddy Up a Ding Dong: Brexit, continued

In this matter of Brexit, I've observed that many people don't argue or debate, they fight. Rather than an informative conversation, people are locked in stubborn bickering. I have observed this in other discussions touching on topical subjects, and words like "insipid" and "solipsism" come to mind as I seek to understand why people are so angry. The intolerance is such that you might as well give up on a political discussion. People have their minds made up and that's it. People don't seem to want to compare their feelings as feelings. Feelings are treated like positions, and if they are not my positions, they are ridiculed and dismissed in a flurry of ad hominum invective. People don't want to analyze their own or others' levels of understanding. They don't want to learn why other people have the positions they do. People don't want to understand why others have differing views, they just want to label and condemn. Rather than seeing shades of grey, or cultivating a good sensitivity to irony, things are simply either "correct" or "incorrect."  Very tiresome. 

Remember the Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." 

The phenomenon of strident, indignant and intolerant discourse continues, and it is of course evident across a broad spectrum of political and cultural subjects. Instead of discussing difficult subjects, people are quick to jam, yell, deploy anger and outrage, filibuster and censure. We read descriptions of universities cancelling controversial speakers; militant "protests" that shut down people holding "incorrect" views; activists in the academic community co-opting (necessary) traditional standards of collegiality and reforming those standards for political  purposes.  Alas, race and gender have become institutional control spaces and management tools. Education, journalism, film, television and music have become fields of social engineering, where political standards have been set by "corporate" experts. It is as if we are under the shepherd's crook of some dystopian "Nu-Academy" (compare, for example, That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis). Have the authoritarian cultural- and social-engineering theories of Hegel been instituted, moreover without any sort of constitutional, democratic or proper academic process and review?  It has just emerged--or perhaps we have been maneuvered into this state, by technocrats.

My novels (listed on the right of this page) address these issues in a variety of ways.  Please read them.

Tilting at windmills? One wonders.

Meanwhile, in the original post, my International Authors colleague Prof. Horace Jeffery Hodges posted a characteristically amusing comment (again, click HERE).  Humor is an effective palliative.  Also meanwhile, Emanations 12 is close to publication.  Watch this space.

Milton for Moderns by Terrance Lindall

Terrance Lindall has produced a new booklet outlining his extensive catalog of work inspired by and involving John Milton. As Terrance says below, the book can be printed and signed (contact him HERE). Click the cover image to view the on-line version of the booklet:

Terrance writes:

Here is a summary of what I have done so far. Of course many great scholars produce events such as Milton readings and upload papers to Academia and Wordpress, and cumulatively we carry forward Milton's legacy. This book can be printed and signed if anyone would like. Meanwhile, thank you my friends for your support! 

   Best, 

       Terrance Lindall

Theatrical Sanctum: a play in one image, now, variously, irregularly, advancing, crisis, suspension, false resolution, concluded.

The confluence of an odd bookshop, strange books and the confused epistemologies of packaged psychedelia (the tiresome laughtrack leads to a consideration of the writing, which isn't very clever)

A stimulating lineup of contributors--full of promise. And intriguing cover art--but would such a painting be appropriate hanging in one's home?

Vivian Darkbloom

Vivian Darkbloom (Marianne Stone) holding the shoulder of Clair Quilty (Peter Sellers). Dolores "Lolita" Haze (Sue Lyon) is on the right. Vivian Darkbloom is Clair Quilty’s partner in writing--and crime. After Quilty’s death, Vivian writes Quilty’s biography. “Vivian Darkbloom” is an anagram for “Vladimir Nabokov” (is it?).

 

A character named Vivian Darkbloom makes an appearance in my short story contribution to Wave IX : "The Nanopoetic Quest in Theory and Practice".   Please click HERE for further remarks.