K n o t s

R.D.  Laing (1927 - 1989) was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote much on mental illness - often controversially -  specialising in psychosis.  
His collection of Knots appeared in 1969. 
In the Introduction he writes :

The patterns delineated here have not yet been classified by a Linnaeus of human bondage.

They are all, perhaps, strangely, familiar.   I have confined myself to laying out only some of those I actually have seen. Words that come to mind to name them are: knots, tangles, fankles, impasses, disjunctions, whirligogs, binds. I could have remained closer to the ‘raw’ data in which these patterns appear. I could have distilled them further towards an abstract logico-mathematical calculus. I hope they are not so schematized that one may not refer back to the very specific experiences from which they derive; yet that they are sufficiently independent of ‘content’, for one to divine the final formal elegance in these webs of maya.

April 1969

R.D.L.

Knot 1
They are playing a game. 
They are playing at not playing a game. 
If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me.
I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.

Knot  2
There must be something the matter with him
because he would not be acting as he does
unless there was;
therefore he is acting as he is
because there is something the matter with him
He does not think there is anything the matter with him
because one of the things that is
the matter with him
is that he does not think that there is anything
the matter with him
therefore,
we have to help him realize that,
the fact that he does not think there is anything
the matter with him
is one of the things that is
the matter with him
there is something the matter with him
because he thinks
there must be something the matter with us
for trying to help him to see
that there must be something the matter with him
to think that there is something the matter with us
for trying to help him to see that
we are helping him
to see that
we are not persecuting him
by helping him
to see we are not persecuting him
by helping him
to see that
he is refusing to see
that there is something the matter with
him
for not seing there is something the matter
with him
for not being grateful to us
for at least trying to help him
to see that there is something the matter with him
for not seeing that must be something the
matter with him
for not seeing that there must be something the
matter with him
for not seeing that there is something the matter with him
for not seeing that there is something the
matter with him
for not being grateful
that we never tried to make him  
feel grateful 


                                         


Sources
Quotation - www.oikos.org/knotsen1.htm
Image -  en.wikipedia.org  

The Absurdity of the Cold War

                                                                                         

WHICH WAY LIES SANITY ?

                                                                                         

                        Translation:  Attention  You are now leaving West / East Berlin

Absurdistan

Absurdistan is a term sometimes used to satirically describe a country in which absurdity is the norm, especially in its public authorities and government. The expression was originally used by Eastern bloc dissidents to refer to parts (or all) of the Soviet Union and its satellite states. Today, the term is most often reserved for Russia and states formerly in the Soviet sphere of influence which have retained Soviet-style authoritarian governments, such as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, or Belarus.

The first printed use of the word, in any language, can be found in the German monthly edition Politische Studien: Monatshefte der Hochschule für politische Wissenschaften, München, veröffentlicht vom Isar-Verlag. (1971) : "... erkennen wir, dass wir uns hier in Absurdistan bewegen." (Political Studies: Monthly of the University for political Studies, Munich, published by Isar-Verlag (1971) (free translation): ... we recognize, that we are here venturing on Absurdistan territory.) Later, in Czech (Absurdistán), the term was often used by the dissident and later president Václav Havel. This seems to indicate that use of the term began during perestroika. The first recorded printed use of the term in English was in Spectator in an article on August 26, 1989, about Czechoslovakia (Czechoslovakians have taken to calling their country "Absurdistan" because everyday life there has long resembled the "Theatre of the Absurd".) 

On September 18, 1989, there was an article in The Nation (New York) called Prague Summer of '89: Journey to Absurdistan. On August 30, 1990, The New York Times used it in an article about the Soviet Union.[1], and January 18, 1990, The Village Voice article by Bonnie Sue Stein and Vit Horejs called THE NEW KING OF ABSURDISTAN, an interview with Vaclav Havel.

                                                                                  

Sources
Text - Wikipedia
Image - sojo.net

Strange gals and a man

These images are from an exhibition of photography in Cannes.  The sculpture is from an artist in St-Paul-de-Vence in Provence.  I shore these fragments against my hum-drum.

Sources
Photos of photos by will.
Individual names not available.

The Absurd on a pole: what does it mean?

WHEN you see something on a pole, it begs a question.  It's like staring at an art work and realising after 

some time you're not going to understand it.  And enjoying that!

Sources  

Top photo - Place Masséna, Nice, by will

Black and white photo:  André Villiers

Last photo:  a park in Juan le Pins, Côte d'Azur, by will 

Spike Milligan - dark, sad, funny

A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree.


And God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light, but the Electricity Board said he would have to wait until Thursday to be connected.



Are you going to come quietly, or do I have to wear ear plugs?


Chopsticks are one of the reasons the Chinese never invented custard.
Spike Milligan

Contraceptives should be used on every conceivable occasion.


His vibrato sounded like he was driving a tractor over a ploughed field with weights tied to his scrotum.


How long was I in the army? Five foot eleven.


I can speak Esperanto like a native.


I cannot stand being awake, the pain is too much.


I have the body of an eighteen year old. I keep it in the fridge.



                                                         

                                                                                 


Spike Milligan - Indian born Irish comedian and writer. Born 1918. Died 2002.  


Source:  
Brainyquotes.com  
Image - jooce.org.uk 

Edward Lear { 1812 - 1888 }

Edward Lear, with his coeval Lewis Carroll, was a pioneer of a certain kind of Absurdism.  The limericks are an outward face; the poem How Pleasant to know Mr. Lear is an inward turning.  The part that stings the most for me is that second last stanza.


L I M  E R I C K S

 ·

There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, 'It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!'

---

There was a Young Lady of Ryde, Whose shoe-strings were seldom untied. She purchased some clogs, And some small spotted dogs, And frequently walked about Ryde.

---

There was an Old Man with a nose, Who said, 'If you choose to suppose, That my nose is too long, You are certainly wrong!' That remarkable Man with a nose.

---

There was an Old Man on a hill, Who seldom, if ever, stood still; He ran up and down, In his Grandmother's gown, Which adorned that Old Man on a hill.

---

There was a Young Lady whose bonnet, Came untied when the birds sate upon it; But she said: 'I don't care! All the birds in the air Are welcome to sit on my bonnet!'

---

There was a Young Person of Smyrna, Whose Grandmother threatened to burn her; But she seized on the cat, And said, 'Granny, burn that! You incongruous Old Woman of Smyrna!'

---

There was an Old Person of Chili, Whose conduct was painful and silly, He sate on the stairs, Eating apples and pears, That imprudent Old Person of Chili.

---

There was an Old Man with a gong, Who bumped at it all day long; But they called out, 'O law! You're a horrid old bore!' So they smashed that Old Man with a gong.

---

There was an Old Lady of Chertsey, Who made a remarkable curtsey; She twirled round and round, Till she sunk underground, Which distressed all the people of Chertsey.

---

There was an Old Man in a tree, Who was horribly bored by a Bee; When they said, 'Does it buzz?' He replied, 'Yes, it does!' 'It's a regular brute of a Bee!'

          

Source
www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/BoN/bon010.htm 

How Pleasant to know Mr. Lear

How pleasant to know Mr. Lear,
Who has written such volumes of stuff.
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few find him pleasant enough.

His mind is concrete and fastidious,
His nose is remarkably big;
His visage is more or less hideous,
His beard it resembles a wig.

He has ears, and two eyes, and ten fingers,
(Leastways if you reckon two thumbs);
He used to be one of the singers,
But now he is one of the dumbs.

He sits in a beautiful parlour,
With hundreds of books on the wall;
He drinks a great deal of marsala,
But never gets tipsy at all.

He has many friends, laymen and clerical,
Old Foss is the name of his cat;
His body is perfectly spherical,
He weareth a runcible hat.

When he walks in waterproof white,
The children run after him so!
Calling out, "He's gone out in his night-
Gown, that crazy old Englishman, oh!"

He weeps by the side of the ocean,
He weeps on the top of the hill;
He purchases pancakes and lotion,
And chocolate shrimps from the mill.

He reads, but he does not speak, Spanish,
He cannot abide ginger beer;
Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish,
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear! 

Edward Lear

Submitted: Friday, January 03, 2003

·          

Sources
Image - Wikipedia
Poem - www.poetry-online.org