43 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2024
    1. Benito Cereno, borne on the bier, did, indeed, follow his leader.

      I don't know whether or not Melville intended for the "leader" to be ambiguous, it could be Babo or Aranda. It's also worth noting that Babo's head is positioned to be looking toward Aranda's bones and Cereno's monastery. During my first reading, I thought this gesture served as another cruel reminder to Babo and other slaves of where they stand in the world, always looking for the white man. But as I read this again, I view it more as Babo taunting both men he had successfully destroyed, physically and mentally, even if his revolt failed, he remains tied to Cereno, a fact that haunts the Spaniard to his grave.

    2. the key to fit into the lock

      It is far more easy to open a lock with a designated key, than untie a complicated knot. I think this signals that the testimony will only cover the easier to digest and more socially acceptable narrative, rather than focusing on the voices of the slaves and their narrative.

    3. a shadow

      Shadows are dark in color, either grey or completely black. Cereno may be saved, but he will always remember Babo as his attached shadow on the San Dominick.

    4. Follow your leader.”

      Who is the "leader" and does it shift throughout the story? Is it dependent upon the reader's interpretation?

  2. Feb 2024
    1. Only the largepelican, squatting in the trees, can break the connection, a symbol ofbad audience, staring insolently, resolutely offstage. But she is beinggradually struck out, her colours fading as the original red and giltborders reassert themselves reprimandingly from beneath, themanuscript exacting a slow punishment for the sin of inattention.

      Dennis Duncan completely misreads this image of Grosseteste and the Pelican which appears in the Lambeth Palace Library's MS 522 of The Castle of love. (for image see: https://hypothes.is/a/RzHLjsz8Ee6dZLOTV5h65Q)

      Duncan identifies Grosseteste's pose with his hand raised and his index finger extended as "the classic gesture of the storyteller." In fact, the bishop is pointing directly up at the pelican which sits just on top of the frame of the illuminated scene. This pelican is elevated above and just beyond the scene of the image because it represents, as was common in the time period, the suffering of Christ.

      Bestiaries of the age commonly depicted the "pelican in her piety" which was noted by Isidore of Seville in his Etymologies (Book 12, 7:26) from the 7th century, a text which heavily influenced many of these bestiaries. It was also thought at the time that the insatiable and rapacious pelican ate lizards and crocodiles (or lived off of them); as these were associated with snakes and by way of the story of the Garden of Eden the devil, they were also further associated with Christ and driving sin out of the world.

      Thus the image is more appropriately read in its original context as Grosseteste giving a sermon about the suffering of Christ who is represented by a pelican floating above the scene being depicted.

      see: https://hypothes.is/a/QAc8us24Ee6d1kPcrhQPyw

  3. Sep 2023
    1. 17:00 authenticity runs against barriers, story not telling everything

      • see on how stories/language can be limited

      18:00 story as providing a lot (see symbolism as achieving this, telling something broader)

  4. Jun 2023
    1. The Holy Grail" is symbolic of the Round Table being broken apart, a key reason for the doom of Camelot.

      The holy grail caused the members of the round table to leave in search for it. The theme to of giving into your passions (see Excalibur) seems to recur.

  5. Dec 2022
    1. I came to this page after reading the "About the Author (The Second Right Answer)" page of Roger von Oech's "A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative" which was mentioned by Kevin Bowers in his discussion with John Vervaeke titled "Principles & Methods for Achieving a Flow State | Voices w/ Vervaeke | John Vervaeke & Kevin Bowers".

      von Oech stated that

      I wrote my doctoral dissertation on the twentieth century German philosopher Ernst Cassirer, the last man to know everything. From him, I learned that it's good to be a generalist, and that looking at the Big Picture helps to keep you flexible.

      This was a surprising reference since Bowers stated that the book was written for helping entrepreneurs become more creative; the book seems more widely applicable based on the examples and exercises given in the first 20 pages.

      Cassirer appears to bridge between the continental and analytic traditions in philosophy. Cassirer's touching on mathematics, aesthetics, and ethics reminds me of - John Vervaeke's work - ie, the process of relevance realization and his neo platonic, transformational reading of ancient texts - Forrest Landry work - ie, his magnum opus "An Immanent Metaphysics" which he purports to be pointing to a foundation between ontology, epistemology, and ethics. Recently, IDM (Immanent Domain Metaphysics) made more sense to me when I attempted to translat the 3 axioms and 3 modalities into language from category theory

      The following seem important and related somehow: 1. the symbolic process 2. the process of abstraction 3. the process of representation

      Maybe these are related to the means by which one can can transcend their current self? ie, is it through particular symbolic practices that one can more easily shed one identity and acquire another?

      Also, are 1., 2., and 3. different aspects of the same thing/event?

  6. Oct 2022
    1. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon.

      The "pink ribbon" represents the pureness. Pink symbolizes innocence; Fath is depicted as pure through the ribbon.

    2. the pink ribbons of her cap

      It is important to acknowledge the pink ribbon is hers because "faith" lies within her and her innocence is indirectly referenced innumerable times.

  7. Aug 2022
  8. Mar 2022
    1. “symbolic gestures”—movementsthat capture the overall meaning of the speaker’s message—along with what arecalled “beat gestures”: hand motions that serve to punctuate a particular point.

      There are two broad types of gestures: - symbolic gestures: movements that help to capture the semantic meaning of one's message; - beat gestures which serve to punctuate one's points.

      Are there other gesture types or classifications? Is there research on the perceived ability of actors who perform these techniques? What about small facial movements like eyebrows which may serve these functions as well.

      Relate to micro facial movement research as means of communicating emotion.

  9. Jan 2022
  10. Dec 2021
    1. a ring, as token That I am happy now!

      The wedding ring symbolizes the expectation that wedded couples are content together. The bride clings to this material object in spite of her broken heart, hoping that the symbolism associated with the ring will become a reality.

  11. Mar 2021
    1. It’s grand larceny and, as usual, what is being stolen is power.

      This is a striking last sentence; his representation of the recent voter suppression tactics as theft is a powerful symbolism. His connection to the past, "another of history's racist robberies", also appeals to the audience emotionally since the topic of past racism is touchy and logic; no one denies that these events happened in the past.

  12. Feb 2021
    1. Progress is inhibited by the exceedingly crude way in which mathematicians express their relationships.

      Just ask Steven Wolfram about this

  13. Oct 2020
    1. hat

      "The hat" seems to symbolize authority since it's worn in the head like a crown—a status symbol that an individual proudly wears. In this scene, however, it functions as a symbol of shame. I think it's worth noting how Mansfield utilizes the duality of the symbolism of "the hat."

  14. Aug 2020
  15. icla2020.jonreeve.com icla2020.jonreeve.com
    1. Even as he raised his large trembling hand to his nose little clouds of smoke dribbled through his fingers over the front of his coat. It may have been these constant showers of snuff which gave his ancient priestly garments their green faded look for the red handkerchief, blackened, as it always was, with the snuff-stains of a week, with which he tried to brush away the fallen grains, was quite inefficacious.

      Also from wikipedia: Snuff is a smokeless tobacco made from ground or pulverised tobacco leaves. It is inhaled or "snuffed" into the nasal cavity, delivering a swift hit of nicotine and a lasting flavoured scent (especially if flavouring has been blended with the tobacco).

      The scene of the room and the priest is unnerving, and it's contradictory in regard to what I think of a priest. But the garments are perhaps symbolic of that. Also he seems to be living poorly since he is so cold. Seems like the narrator is the only one taking care of him?

  16. Jul 2020
    1. You dabbled in nasty mud, and made pies, when you were a child; and you dabble in nasty science, and dissect spiders, and spoil flowers, when you grow up. In the one case and in the other, the secret of it is, that you have got nothing to think of in your poor empty head, and nothing to do with your poor idle hands. And so it ends in your spoiling canvas with paints, and making a smell in the house; or in keeping tadpoles in a glass box full of dirty water, and turning everybody’s stomach in the house; or in chipping off bits of stone here, there, and everywhere, and dropping grit into all the victuals in the house; or in staining your fingers in the pursuit of photography, and doing justice without mercy on everybody’s face in the house.

      I interpreted this passage as a consequence of privilege, obviously not for those who have it but for those who have to clean up the mess. Furthermore, the tendencies illustrated in childhood get carried over and even advanced in later years, especially when this type of behavior is normalized and unchallenged.

  17. Jun 2020
  18. Apr 2020
    1. Now that he had no work to hold, he laid the knuckles of the right hand in the hollow of the left, and then the knuckles of the left hand in the hollow of the right, and then passed a hand across his bearded chin, and so on in regular changes, without a moment's intermission. The task of recalling him from the vagrancy into which he always sank when he had spoken, was like recalling some very weak person from a swoon, or endeavouring, in the hope of some disclosure, to stay the spirit of a fast-dying man. “Did you ask me for my name?” “Assuredly I did.” “One Hundred and Five, North Tower.” “Is that all?” “One Hundred and Five, North Tower.”

      Maybe the shoemaker had forgotten his name from prison?

    2. when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there.

      I think someone could make a few romanticism topics for this line.

    3. he women who had left on a door-step the little pot of hot ashes

      does this symbolize something?

  19. Nov 2019
  20. ebooks.adelaide.edu.au ebooks.adelaide.edu.au
    1. And the living fruit of his loins dropped in the fire below

      this line has a lot of meaning because the fruit of your loins is a child and he wraps his child in his loincloth so his son is now the literal fruit of his loins.

  21. Jun 2019
    1. In 1953 I realized that the straight line leads to the downfall of mankind. But the straight line has become an absolute tyranny. The straight line is something cowardly drawn with a rule, without thought or feeling; it is the line which does not exist in nature. And that line is the rotten foundation of our doomed civilization. Even if there are places where it is recognized that this line is rapidly leading to perdition, its course continues to be plotted. ..Any design undertaken with the straight line will be stillborn. Today we are witnessing the triumph of rationalist know-how and yet, at the same time, we find ourselves confronted with emptiness. An aesthetic void, dessert of uniformity, criminal sterility, loss of creative power. Even creativity is prefabricated. We are no longer able to create. That is our real illiteracy.   Friedensreich Hundertwasser
  22. Apr 2019
    1. this little button ruined the internet.

      The author uses this to show symbolism. The author's symbolism here is the little button as it is the thing that people are trying to get other to hit. The little red button is a symbol for the "heart" or "like" button. The author is also saying how this "like" button ruined the internet as people obsess, worry, and get subconscious about it.

  23. Jan 2019
    1. Performativity, properly construed, is not an invitation to turneverything (including material bodies) into words; on the contrary, per-formativity is precisely a contestation of the excessive power granted tolanguage to determine what is real.

      Mulling this over: words can, in a sense, be material--we can record them on paper or other tangible things. Letters are symbols but they have narrowly defined meanings. Letters combined can become words that represent material things.

      Performativity is, by its very nature, ephemeral, even if it is in some sense material (bodily, as discussed above). The premise, then, seems to be that if discursive practices are performative, they naturally challenge power because power can only be obtained upon something longer-lasting. Or, alternatively, that performativity challenges power because the understood meaning(s) cannot be represented by words.

      Doesn't the assumption that words have power act to give words more power?

  24. Jul 2018
    1. “The black above represents citizens,” he said, “and the black below represents criminals.” That those on the wrong side of the line are typically citizens themselves doesn’t bother Jacob, who has built a thriving business, Thin Blue Line USA
  25. Feb 2018
    1. a.ioiuing or- corntrinatiorr unrl. conrt"-qlrenth', s()Dlethir)lr oD<'c so.ioined or c<xDbinerlt hirt st:rrxls tirl o| repr est"rrts

      "A joining or combination and, consequently, something once so joined or combined that stands for or represents...the entire complex." This annotation stood out to me for the simple fact of its relation to Epithalamion a poem written by Edmund Spencer. As shown in Spencer's piece, you could dissect the poem of its contents and compare the similarities of symbolism.

  26. Sep 2017
    1. said Faith,

      It is confirmed here that Faith is her name. the significance of the name is that it is the main character's wife's name. The name Faith is also a word which means a belief or trust of something in particular. Some symbolism is that the Goodman guy is leaving his wife whose name is faith and is in a way separating himself from his faith in terms of the word.

  27. Aug 2017
    1. I think the significance of the wifes name, Faith, is a symbol for assurance of things hoped for , conviction of things not seen. In the story she is what holds back Mr.brown from making a life changing decision. Just the thought of her makes his decision clear.

  28. Apr 2017
    1. From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,From your memories, sad brother—from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,

      Various forms of symbolism are shared here between Poe's "The Raven", and Whitman. While the bird in this poem more directly symbolizes a lament for a lost former lover of Whitman's than the raven in "The Raven" represents the evil gloom of Poe's despair, "risings and fallings" of the Whitman's "sea of despair" relate to Poe's use of the eventual cresting of his despair when the raven arrives in his chamber, "Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore,— Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" According to "The Limits of Whitman's Symbolism" by V. K. Chari, the sea in Whitman's poem, "acquires a subtle symbolic power by the suggested equivalence between its savage undertones and moanings, its * fitful risings and fallings ' and the inarticulate sobbings of the poet's heart."<br> Chari, V. K. “The Limits of Whitman's Symbolism.” Journal of American Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 1971, pp. 173–184., www.jstor.org/stable/27670641.

  29. Mar 2017
    1. turning my pale plaster-of-paris bust of Cicero out of doors.

      I'm guessing that the character of Cicero might have some reflection to play in these parts. I'd have to research further to draw up a conclusion.

  30. Oct 2016
    1. With a wicked pack of cards.

      The clairvoyante’s cards seem to be Tarot cards in this stanza.

      Most obviously, “The Hanged Man” is the name of one of the major arcana/trumps, representing a traitorous person, or a crossroads. “The Wheel [of Fortune]” is also a trump, and represents change and movement, and the cycle of life.

      The other cards all appear to be minor arcana. “The drowned Phoenician Sailor” seems to refer to the Ten of Swords, representing anguish and defeat, but with a chance of hope. (It is considered one of the most negative cards.) “Belladonna / Lady of the Rocks / Lady of Situations” is the Queen of Cups, representing a difficult road with a large reward at the end. “The man with three staves” is the Three of Wands, representing a journey, or hope for renewal. (Interestingly, this card often depicts a man looking out on a wasteland.) Finally, “the one-eyed merchant” would likely be the Six of Pentacles/Coins, representing equality and generosity.

      This could be read into much more deeply than the general meanings of each card, but overall, the message appears to be “bleak, but with hope of salvation or reparation.”

    2. He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying

      Things that were ruined are regaining life, while the things that were alive are now being ruined by those things regaining life. Nature was ruined by man and revives, and now man is ruined by nature, because he no longer knows how to live within it.

  31. Mar 2016
    1. THE HILLS ACROSS THE VALLEY OF THE Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees

      If the Hills symbolise the kid, the pregnant tummy or the elephant in the room, then the shadeless landscape infront of them could be a symbolic illustration of a conflictless way of life, avoid of hindrance.

    2. white elephants,

      White symbolizes innocence and pureness, which is often connected with children. The white elephants could therefore symbolize the baby.

    3. On this side there was no shade and no trees

      Could be a symbolic illustration of the girl becoming "barren" post abortion, just like the land is barren.

  32. Sep 2015
    1. A system of relationships among the physical attributes is often shown to imitate or represent-by their configuration, content, and associations-conscious and unconscious aspects of social life.

      What are some of these "physical attributes" and what "aspects of social life" are they representing?