Poem

       The Forbidden Libation

In this shallow and shining pool
Oblong, coffin-regular and warm,
Buoys the duck with constant smile,
In prospect sharing and co-eternal
With the piddling trickle of yonder
Faucet brightly glimmering, a star—

Old Time alone sings such stars,

Angel signs, arch appurtenances—
Coursing in a firmament to mortals unknown
And to poetasters untasted, that sea,
Innocent pool oe’r which Junior first elevates
Then plunges the plastic cup!
Crying an oath, echoed in a splash,
Down thrusts the handled vessel
Whose displacement tosses soapy
Yet potable delight towards wall,
Pale curtain and linoleum floor
(Did Archimedes begin thus?)
Then pulled aloft, brimming full
Of liquid mass proscribed by lore
Scarcely regarded in the impending
Spontaneity of the bather’s next act...
To the lips approaching, suddenly,
With a grimace, a snort, and a wince,
Forbidden resolution, flowing abandon, folly:
Thus sipped! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
And Mommy, thou shall never know!

Parabolic Pathways

The medium is the message, continued

Collected, analyzed and packaged, your ideas, opinions and concerns sent to you by a third-party provider...

Vitasta is reading Emanations

 
Please click HERE to learn more about Emanations: I Am Not a Number.
 
Please click HERE to learn more about Vitasta Raina's novella, Writer's Block.

Allegory of Political-Ontological Invasion and Spiritual Erosion

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is certainly one of Philip K. Dick's best novels. Here is a Palmer Eldritch digital painting by artist Sally Marsh.

Another image inspired by this frightening novel can be viewed HERE.

Man and Superman

None of the dogmas of modern science are immutable. Gigantic factories, office buildings rising to the sky, inhuman cities, industrial morals, faith in mass production, are not indispensable to civilization. Other modes of existence and of thought are possible. Culture without comfort, beauty without luxury, machines without enslaving factories, science without the worship of matter, would restore to man his intelligence, his moral sense, his virility, and lead him to the summit of his development.

                                       – Alexis Carrel

History of Japanese Woodblock Prints

By period and artist, please click HERE.

Katsukawa Shuncho, "No. 5, from the series
Twelve Months in Six Sheets 
(Jûni kô rokumai tsuzuki)", 1789-95

Formae Luminis

Soon as the force of that fallacious Fruit,
That with exhilerating vapour bland
About thir spirits had plaid, and inmost powers
Made erre, was now exhal'd, and grosser sleep
Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams
Encumberd, now had left them, up they rose
As from unrest, and each the other viewing,
Soon found thir Eyes how op'nd, and thir minds
How dark'nd; innocence, that as a veile
Had shadow'd them from knowing ill, was gon,
Just confidence, and native righteousness
And honour from about them, naked left
To guiltie shame hee cover'd, but his Robe
Uncover'd more, so rose the Danite strong
Herculean Samson from the Harlot-lap
Of Philistean Dalilah, and wak'd
Shorn of his strength…

         --John Milton, Paradise Lost, 9.1046-1062

Voyage

Geopolitical Levity

Cui bono?

The Whispering Moirai

"When silence is prolonged over a certain period of time, it takes on new meaning."                        
                                                               — Yukio Mishima

Jolly Roger Symbols

Please click HERE for an article on submarines flying the Jolly Roger.

Cassini, final images and archive

As we all know, yesterday the Cassini spacecraft plunged into the clouds of Saturn, ending its twenty year mission (launched 1997, inserted into orbit 2004).

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory has published the final images of Cassini's descent into Saturn's atmosphere, as well as an archive of Cassini images.  Please click HERE.

Cassini's final image.  JPL.

Virginia Woolf on the Meaning of Life

What is the meaning of life? That was all--a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.

                               ― Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

superfluous and not superfluous, ephemeral and not ephemeral, significant and not significant, relevant and not relevant, banal and not banal

Irma Live Tracking

Conversations with Philip K. Dick by Tessa B. Dick

I just received a copy of Ms. Dick's new book. An excerpt was published in Emanations: I Am Not a Number, and I have been looking forward to the appearance of this book since.  Please click HERE to view the Amazon description.

Emanations: I Am Not a Number reviewed

Emanations: I Am Not a Number has received a favorable review on Amazon-Canada.  Please click HERE.

The Postmodern Antaeus