“Mill’s scientific-minded answer is that we recognize the aphorism, with its immediacy, its turn toward tangible experience, as the preferable alternative to dogma.” The Art of Aphorism https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/22/the-art-of-aphorism
Always loved this piece by Adam Gopnik
“Aphorisms come at us in so many forms and from so many periods that one might think an academic study of aphorisms would aim to give them a family tree—tracing the emergence of the humanistic aphorism from its solemn white-bearded grandfather, the proverb; the descent of the clever, provocative epigram from its sly guerrilla progenitor, the parable (the form that allowed Jesus to spread subversion while seeming merely obscurely elegant). And then we might learn how those later forms have spawned such contemporary commercial descendants as the one-liner and the meme.”
The Art of Aphorism https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/22/the-art-of-aphorism
“We are told that, in reading, context is everything, but the aphorism reminds us that there is joy, too, in the freedom from context. We don’t ask which of La Rochefoucauld’s friends made him jealous—the thought lands independent of its circumstance.” ~Adam Gopnik
Always loved this piece by Adam Gopnik
“Aphorisms come at us in so many forms and from so many periods that one might think an academic study of aphorisms would aim to give them a family tree—tracing the emergence of the humanistic aphorism from its solemn white-bearded grandfather, the proverb; the descent of the clever, provocative epigram from its sly guerrilla progenitor, the parable (the form that allowed Jesus to spread subversion while seeming merely obscurely elegant). And then we might learn how those later forms have spawned such contemporary commercial descendants as the one-liner and the meme.”
The Art of Aphorism https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/22/the-art-of-aphorism
Here is poem Rita Dove wrote about her:
Canary
BY RITA DOVE
for Michael S. Harper
Billie Holiday’s burned voice
had as many shadows as lights,
a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano,
the gardenia her signature under that ruined face.
(Now you’re cooking, drummer to bass,
magic spoon, magic needle.
Take all day if you have to
with your mirror and your bracelet of song.)
Fact is, the invention of women under siege
has been to sharpen love in the service of myth.
If you can’t be free, be a mystery.
Billie Holiday https://youtu.be/uYUqbnk7tCY
More about her music: “Unapologetically, she unveiled the traditional “Noches”—the story of three young sisters walking in the night and singing to each other that “nights are made for love”—in the flamenco style known as solea, almost crying the words and punctuating them with soft rhythmic clapping.
Ladino is listed by UNESCO as an endangered language, spoken only by 150,000 (mostly older) people worldwide. Even Levy does not speak it—she only sings it. “If you don’t live a language, the language will not live,” she said. “The only thing that will survive are the songs.” Though anyone can sing the songs, “it is not just the words on the page,” she explained. “It’s the food you eat, it’s the furniture in your family home, it’s your mother shouting at you.”
https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2010/06/18/profile-yasmin-levy/
I find it fascinating she said one must live a language to keep it alive.
And this from the same article:
“Though many of the songs transmit the trauma of expulsion, Levy adds her own personal darkness to them: Her father died when she was just a year old. “I always sing sad and dramatic songs. I can’t change,” she admits. “I’m the happiest of people with a big sadness in my heart.” ~Yasmin Levy
More about her music: “Unapologetically, she unveiled the traditional “Noches”—the story of three young sisters walking in the night and singing to each other that “nights are made for love”—in the flamenco style known as solea, almost crying the words and punctuating them with soft rhythmic clapping.
Ladino is listed by UNESCO as an endangered language, spoken only by 150,000 (mostly older) people worldwide. Even Levy does not speak it—she only sings it. “If you don’t live a language, the language will not live,” she said. “The only thing that will survive are the songs.” Though anyone can sing the songs, “it is not just the words on the page,” she explained. “It’s the food you eat, it’s the furniture in your family home, it’s your mother shouting at you.”
https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2010/06/18/profile-yasmin-levy/
I’ll look them up— I’ve been listening to Yasmin Levy for a long time. So passionate— an authentic sound. Love ❤️
🎼nostr:npub1tsgw6pncspg4d5u778hk63s3pls70evs4czfsmx0fzap9xwt203qtkhtk4 tell me about Yasmin Levy— her music fills me up in all the necessary ways.
ahh ❤️— good luck going forward to you both! I’ve certainly experienced a “mix” of personalities in my career.
It’s ok— I was interested in your literary mindset.
If a need for an encrypted book club using encrypted notes on Nostr ever arises— I’m grateful I learned some things about that during another conversation with you today.
It’s good to know things just incase.
“But when you’ve tried the blessed water long
Enough to want to start backward
That’s when the fun starts
Unless you’re a poet or an otter or something supernatural
You’ll drown, dear. You’ll drown
Any Greek can get you into a labyrinth
But it takes a hero to get out of one
What’s true of labyrinths is true of course
Of love and memory. When you start remembering.”
~Jack Spicer #poem
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/51258/any-fool-can-get-into-an-ocean-
#[2] tell me what you know about Jack
Spicer
#Evening #poetry #JackSpicer
Took this pic April 2017
“FOR STEVE JONAS WHO IS IN JAIL FOR DEFRAUDING A BOOK CLUB
And you alone in Federal prison saying That the whole State is based on larceny
Christ who didn't know that, Steve?
The word steals from the word, the sound from the sound. Even
The very year of your life steals from the last one. So
Do you have to get put in jail for it?
Finding Yourself a martyr for a cause that you and your jury and your heartbeat all support.
All This crap about being a human.
To tell the
truth about our State.
So_
You would say-
It is better than going to Europe.” 