there's something magical about days like today, esp. if it's sunny: gloriously sunny and it's gloriously sunny in England, or - rather - just outside the realm of London and Westminster: somewhere in Essex - in a gloriously sunny England -
waking up at 8am sharp: saying good morning to someone who probably understands you - who gets annoyed when you drink too much from time to time: but nonetheless someone who cooks dinners, the house chores, makes lunches for her husband and if necessary: the decorating and heavy duty work in the garden: ground work: digging up stubborn roots planting new trees tending to trees in general: ensuring there are no strange parasites stalling the trees from producing fruit... the pneumatic drill: concrete: leftover shrapnel for the basis of drainage: then two tonnes of earth and some new lawn... etc.
waking up at 8am: going downstairs - drinking a bottle of cherry kefir - going back up: laying in bed for half an hour: then another half an hour laying on a cold wooden floor... listening to music and reading... first Spinoza's chapter 3: on the vocation of the Hebrews and whether the prophetic gift was peculiar to them from the theological-political treatise:
never failing to resonate with the clarity of the writing: even though it might have been written in 1670...
then getting up, shuffling around the house wondering: well, there isn't much to do - not for now... two people need to be involved in further curating the eucalyptus tree since one person needs to be doing the curating while the other has to be standing at the base of the ladder to ensure a firmer base...
(now insert a break of character, now insert the nitty-gritty details of absolute concentration on the words read)
what to do... ooh... the kefir starts working its magic on the digestive system: taking Plato's Theaetetus to the throne room... sitting on the throne of thrones and taking a most glorious dump doughnut conker... a first edition mind you: as translated by Robin Waterfield (1987) -
how Plato is not so much a bore like Nietzsche thought but just simply funny: for there to be any dialogue for there is never really a dialogue to begin with but more like Socrates talking to his demon (whether it was a hallucinated creature or otherwise that "6th sense" of the daimonion) or perhaps his demon talking back - whichever... that there's hardly any disagreement - an imploded dialectic - that Plato: stylistically is less boring but more funny that if you take out Socrates... you reach the conclusions of Alfred Jarry in that book exploits & opinions of dr. faustroll pataphysician
from the section in question: knowledge and belief... puzzles about false belief knowing and not knowing being and not being...
without Socrates - as Theaetetus alone the replies are as follows: - certainly - absolutely - no - of course not, Socrates - clearly - no, that would be entirely wrong - perceiving. what else could i call it? - i have to - that's right - no - evidently not Socrates. it is perfectly clear now that knowledge is different from perception - that's called thinking Socrates, i suppose
and it goes like that and it goes like that on repeat: but there are breaks... some sweet-bits where dialogue might even be established:
- well, i can't say that it's thinking as a whole, since the beliefs that are formed can be false; but perhaps true belief is knowledge: i'll try this answer. if, as the argument progresses, it turns out to be wrong and we find ourselves in the same position that we did just now, then we'll try another idea...
i've taken off a mask i put on at the beginning... now: if i were writing in my native tongue: there would be no pronoun issue... since: when a ****** speaks: he rarely utters his own pronoun... because he is aware of being the person speaking or the person thinking... pronouns are a non-starter argument: whether grammatically or ideologically...
and Plato isn't a bore like Nietzsche thought... he's not a bore but you do need to have an essay... within a book... you always require an essay by an academic when reading Plato: the schematic of reading Plato works like this: you first read the essay... then you read the "dialogue"... and then you jump backwards and forwards... that's how you read Plato: you don't read Plato per se... you read the accompanying essay related to a specific text of Plato's... no one reads Plato for Plato... one reads Plato for the interpretation of Plato... unlike Aristotle: one reads Aristotle for Aristotle... there's no point making your own mind up about Plato... since he's too inquisitive and doesn't really riddle you with anything firm: everything is still questionable in the mind of western man... everything is question worthy...
if you break a dialogue down to talk of letters?! seriously? S & O... and no further S... together they are the first syllables of my name... does anyone who knows the syllables know the two letters independent of each other? clarification: independent of the syllable itself?
you can't read Plato for Plato... he's a philosophical mutant... he's forever changing... that's what happens when you keep a text in such high esteem and for so long... now... you turn around from Plato and read some journalism... wow! like: ooh... that's ******* tragic: red is red... blue is blue... so much narrative-certainty...
that days such as this are very much counter to Lou Reed's perfect day... whereby two other songs compete for the sunshine the shins: new slang vs. sjöblom: brand new life... or at least prince's raspberry beret... because it's sunny you feel like falling in love with a girl...
because how would a song like: spent it with you: who?! me myself and i?
- and as you look into the distance at a very limited horizon of the tops of trees of Bower Wood you look at the sky: i should have become a painter... simply because: well if Edward Hopper wanted to paint light and shadows in rooms of lonely people you start getting an itch saying: all i ever wanted was to paint clouds on clouds
a cumulus on a canvas of altostratus and some cirrostratus or perhaps those behemoths that are the cumulonimbus... hell... i think i would spend a second life (if i had one) just painting clouds... or cauliflowers... men and painting: because life could be simpler like that... last time i heard: hands are very difficult to draw... i can't suppose clouds are any different...
- because i'm most certainly going to do what i planned... or didn't... whichever... on a whim... that Walter Sickert exhibition at the Tate Britain) which is just a few peddle peddle motions past the house of Parliament is calling me... from Romford, by bicycle? 2 hours... it would take me just as long if i used public transport... because then i'd have to walk from Westminster toward the gallery...
but then i'd miss all that build up from Essex (the green belt separating the extension of London toward Chadwell Heath from Romford)... and with weather like this... hell... what was the last exhibition i was at? oh... right... from Russia... also at Tate Britain... that's when i was wandering the streets of London smoking marijuana and figuring out: kind of pointless getting a second degree in history... at UCL... the prices went up from circa £1000 to circa £3000... and for what? 6 hours of lessons in the week? so i dropped out after a year and progressed toward: madness and then creativity...
i don't understand how people with interesting lives... boxers... rock climbers... explorers... politicians... finally muster enough idleness to sit down and write an autobiography: a retrospective autobiography... it's like the second erosion of memory: the first erosion of memory being instigated by pedagogy... 1 + 1 = 2... selective history dates... knowing where Mongolia is on the map: but never visiting Mongolia...
like the argument against big government: local knowledge... like i know that the best Turkish lavash bread you can get is en route to Mile End: after leaving Ilford: between Ilford and Manor Park... on Romford Road... on the 86 bus route... the best lavash bread... for that recipe that's better than any kebab or fish and chips... refika's kitchen:
i would have never guessed that rosemary works so well with beef... what does she call it? bashed beef? hammered beef... so few ingredients: as the saying goes: less is more... off the top of my head... rosemary... garlic... black (whole) peppercorns... sea salt... chillies...white wine vinegar (to cure the meat, which is only marinated for 15 minutes) olive oil... cheese... cheddar is more poignant than any mozzarella types (amore! amore!)
or rather... you could hide that exclamation mark... how? ha ha... amoré (but it's itchy: simultaneously... because you want to drop the upside-down "iota") you want to scream like Lucifer falling head first... you're going to regret my ejection from your autocracy of heaven! wait for our demonic democracy down below, just you wait!
- and no... i was never a big Blake fan... i'm not a fan of rhymes either... lyricism: stuff you can sing? Aud Lang Syne is a tier above anything by Shakespeare... but rhyming: that's constipated poetry... ask Horace... ancients Romans didn't rhyme... they also didn't treat language as squares:
-ed -ed-
the dead who ate what was said with a missing head
-ed Eddie...
the Iron Maiden mascot... ha ha! i'm in love already: and i think i'm thinking about Khedra... i must be... i'm going to cycle to see an exhibition of a man accused or insinuated as being Jack the Ripper by some female novelist: fetishist... on the throne of thrones i needed to relax the "remnants": so? photographs of Kendra Lust... because i'm all the way into that older woman types... but it was just a prompt... a tight dress... some revelation of the flesh concerning the: problem... with mermaids... invert the mermaids... i'm stressing... replace the lower part of a woman with fish-details... or replace the top part of a woman: likewise: with fish-details... hmm... that's tough... those legs... that ***...
but i found myself looking at the tiles in the bathroom: conjuring from memory a picture she sent me... full-blossom lips... wearing glasses... and the *** we had... ******* nymphomaniac... i wouldn't slap myself with a banana across my face... i'd sooner punch myself... then again: the idea of straightening bananas sounds a bit like: remoulding apples into pears...
ah man... when money is left on the table: straight up... i couldn't: i possibly couldn't go through the ordeal of date-bluffing... i'm not a donkey and a ****** is not a carrot... i love making myself laugh... that's the best laughter... because it originates in thought... and not in the imagination of the other... it's spontaneous combustion: metaphorically... and almost literally...
and now: to enjoy this day: prior to it taking form, as i've written about it.