December 29, 2004
Regarding our own pain
Watching the news coverage of the tsunami catastrophe I recalled some passages of Susan Sontag's book "Regarding the pain of others". And now I find she passed away tonight...
I haven't seen any pictures of tourist's corpses. I have seen a lot of dead asian people, a lot of dead babies carried in despair by their mothers. I have seen full coverages of the damages that luxury hotels suffered. I have seen images of tourists in clean and modern hospitals, getting free food at the aiports.
There was a british couple being interviewed that said the most amazing sentence, between sobs: "The water filled our bangalow...we lost everything we had".
I have a feeling - and hopefuly I'm terribly wrong - that the news have more impact when westerners are affected. Is it that we actually are more compassionate when we think "that ACTUALLY could have been me"? It's easier to identify ourselves with the people killed in the 9/11 attack. It's easier to identify ourselves with the tourists in exotic resorts.
I'm sure that the story of the german kid who was reunited with his mother is much more appealing than the thousands of similar stories that I hope happened to the inhabitants of the affected countries.
I'm wondering what happened to the asian tourists. Maybe I have seen their corpses after all. I suppose a blonde head is easier to spot in the middle of the chaos...
"Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reason given for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the dead taken at the site of the World Trade Center(...).The more remote or exotic the place, the more likely we are to have full frontal views of the dead and dying.(...) The exhibition in photographs of cruelties inflicted on those with darker complexions in exotic countries continues this offering, oblivious to the considerations that deter such displays of our own vitims of violence; for the other, even when not an enemy, is regarded as only someone to be seen, not someone (like us) who also sees." Susan Sontag, Regarding the pain of others.
I'm going to shake off the cynicism now.
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December 22, 2004
Going on holidays! (Again!)
Terreiro do Paço, Lisboa - The city's Christmas decorations are quite modern this year :-)
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December 21, 2004
The high brow quiz :-)
| Which British Literary Period are you? Restoration 1660-1785--Pope, Swift, Johnson. Times they are a changing. You're very cynical and you like looking out for the little guys. You have a sense of humor a lot of people just don't get.
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| Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests. |
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December 20, 2004
The missing apostle
This may sound really strange but I get an unexplainable pleasure out of finding last supper scenes with the wrong number of apostles. Which means I can't go pass a painting or scuplture depicting that scene without counting the number of people at the table.
Here are two of my findings:
Museu de Évora, Portugal
And what exactly is that apostle doing on Christ's lap????!?!?
Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
These two are probably paintings that have been cut up leaving the missing apostle out, but I don't care :-)
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December 17, 2004
Christmas for the Cynical
The Christmas spirit hasn't kicked in. The only Christmas related things I have done this year were decorating the tree (a bit unwillingly...) and sending cards to friends and family I won't be spending the season with.
I don't have enough free time to shop for the perfect gifts for those I love and I don't have the patience to go around crowded streets or shopping malls. I'm doing something different this year but can't post it here or it won't be a surprise :-)
Some inspiring quotations for the season ;-)
Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven. - W.C. Fields
I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.- Shirley Temple
Christmas is forced upon a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press; on its own merits it would wither and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred.- George Bernard Shaw
Christmas is the one time of year when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.- Bart Simpson
The parent who gets down on the floor to play with a child on Christmas Day is usually doing a most remarkable thing -- something seldom repeated during the rest of the year. These are, after all, busy parents committed to their work or their success in the larger society, and they do not have much left-over time in which to play with their children. -Brian Sutton Smith
Dear Lord, I've been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us... a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird... a social being... capable of actual affection... nuzzling its young with almost human- like compassion. Anyway, it's dead and we're gonna eat it. Please give our respects to its family... - Berke Breathed
Christmas is a holiday that persecutes the lonely, the frayed, and the rejected. - Jimmy Cannon
The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin. - Jay Leno
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December 16, 2004
The Deconstruction Joke
What do you get when you cross a deconstructionist and a mafioso? He'll make you an offer you can't understand.
Stolen from here.
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December 15, 2004
Le renard et le buste
Azulejos, Igreja S.Vicente de Fora - Lisboa
Les Grands, pour la plupart, sont masques de théâtre ;
Leur apparence impose au vulgaire idolâtre.
L'Ane n'en sait juger que par ce qu'il en voit.
Le Renard au contraire à fond les examine,
Les tourne de tout sens ; et quand il s'aperçoit
Que leur fait n'est que bonne mine,
Il leur applique un mot qu'un Buste de Héros
Lui fit dire fort à propos.
C'était un Buste creux, et plus grand que nature.
Le Renard, en louant l'effort de la sculpture :
Belle tête, dit-il ; mais de cervelle point.
Combien de grands Seigneurs sont Bustes en ce point ?
The great are like the maskers of the stage;
Their show deceives the simple of the age.
For all that they appear to be they pass,
With only those whose type's the ass.
The fox, more wary, looks beneath the skin,
And looks on every side, and, when he sees
That all their glory is a semblance thin,
He turns, and saves the hinges of his knees,
With such a speech as once, it's said,
He uttered to a hero's head.
A bust, somewhat colossal in its size,
Attracted crowds of wondering eyes.
The fox admired the sculptor's pains:
"Fine head," said he, "but void of brains!"
The same remark to many a lord applies.
La Fontaine, Fables (IV,14)
or
Aesop's Fables (Phaedrus 1.7):
Personam tragicam forte vulpes viderat;
quam postquam huc illuc semel atque iterum verterat,
'O quanta species' inquit 'cerebrum non habet!'
Hoc illis dictum est quibus honorem et gloriam
Fortuna tribuit, sensum communem abstulit.
A Fox beheld a Mask- "0 rare
The headpiece, if but brains were there !"
This holds-whene'er the Fates dispense
Pomp, pow'r, and everything but sense.
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December 14, 2004
Earthquake!
A 5.1 earthquake was felt yesterday in Lisboa, fortunately not by me.
The inhabitants of Lisbon are constantly haunted by the memory of the great earthquake of 1755 and we are always expecting some sort of catastrophe. Oddly enough, we don't move away. It's the portuguese way of life: you have to accept your fate :-)
"Although not the strongest or most deadly earthquake in human history, the 1755 Lisbon earthquake's impact, not only on Portugal but on all of Europe, was profound and lasting. Depictions of the earthquake in art and literature can be found in several European countries, and these were produced and reproduced for centuries following the event, which came to be known as 'The Great Lisbon Earthquake'. The earthquake began at 9:30 on November 1st, 1755, and was centered in the Atlantic Ocean, about 200 km WSW of Cape St. Vincent. The total duration of shaking lasted ten minutes and was comprised of three distinct jolts. Effects from the earthquake were far reaching. The worst damage occurred in the south-west of Portugal. Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, was the largest and the most important of the cities damaged. Moderate damage was done in Algiers and in southwest Spain. Shaking was also felt in France, Switzerland, and Northern Italy. A devastating fire following the earthquake destroyed a large part of Lisbon, and a very strong tsunami caused heavy destruction along the coasts of Portugal, southwest Spain, and western Morocco." taken from here.
Never understood how come the tsunami didn't put out the fire, though. :-)
This great catstrophe triggered Kant to write "On the Causes of the Terrestrial Convulsions" and Voltaire to write "Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne" - a critique of religion and the philosophical optimism of people like Leibniz. Voltaire actually included a chapter in "Candide" describing the earthquake.
Images from the Collection of Historical Images of Earthquakes.
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December 13, 2004
Meta-joke
A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar.
Bartender says, "What is this, a joke?"
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December 10, 2004
The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus
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December 09, 2004
Dark, very dark
A little story Paul Bowles remembers Dali telling him:
"Then he told a story about a small girl lost in a blizzard in the Alps. When she was more dead than alive, a fine St.Bernard arrived with a keg of brandy around his neck. The dog then attacked and ate her."
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Atheism
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
from nedmartin.
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December 07, 2004
Symbols of the Virgin Mary
The painting shows Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus and Mary's parents: Saint Joachim and Saint Ann. The woman kneeling is probably the one who donated the painting to a convent in Lisbon.
What I like about this painting is that displays a profusion of symbols of the Virgin Mary. The traditional symbols of the Virgin Mary are a common sight in most religious works of this period but this one has the particularity of having perhaps a more pedagogical approach similar to some engravings I have seen from several Books of Hours. On each symbol is painted a ribbon or a caption in latin, thus easying the interpretation of the observer.
Some of the symbols are references to the litanies of the Virgin, namely the Litanies of Loreto. A litany is a devotional prayer for two or more people gathered together. The principal phrase is said or chanted by one person, and the responses by the others in unison.
These symbols are sometime referred to as the "names of the virgin" for which the book Song of Songs from the Old Testament was the main foundation or source. There are a number of references to deuterocanonical books too.
The ribbon beneath God and amidst the angels has the following inscription: "TOTA PULCHRA EST AMICA MEA ET MACULA NON EST IN TE".
This is Song of Songs 4:7, meaning "This is Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee."
The sun's and the moon's captions are "elect ut sol" and "pulchra ve luna", from Song of Songs 6:9
"Quae est ista, quae progreditur quasi aurora consurgens,
pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol,
terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata?"
"Who is this that looks forth like the dawn,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
terrible as an army with banners?"
The star's caption is "stella maris" from the hymn "Ave maris stella" found in the Hours of the Virgin.
ç
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"Speculum sin macula", a mirror. Book of Wisdom 7:26 "Candor est enim lucis aeternae et speculum sine macula Dei maiestatis et imago bonitatis illius" "For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness." | |
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"Fons Ortorum", a fountain. Song of Songs 4:15 "Fons hortorum : puteus aquarum viventium, quae fluunt impetu de Libano." "A garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon." | |
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"Cipressus in monte sion", a Cypress. Sirach 24,13 "Quasi cedrus exaltata sum in Libano et quasi cypressus in monte Sion" "I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree upon the mountains of Sion." | |
 | "Liliu inter spinas", a lily. Song of songs 2:2 "Sicut lilium inter spinas, sic amica mea inter filias." "As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens." | |
 | "Civitas dei", the city of God (Jerusalem). Psalm 86:3 "gloriosa dicta sunt de te civitas Dei diapsalma" "On the holy mount stands the city he founded;" | |
 | "Virga iesse floruit", branch in blossom. Isaiah 11:1 "et egredietur virga de radice Iesse et flos de radice eius ascendet" "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." | |
 | "Plantatio rose", a rose. Sirach 24:18 "et quasi palma exaltata sum in Cades et quasi plantatio rosae in Hiericho" "I was exalted like a palm tree in En-gaddi, and as a rose plant in Jericho" | "|
 | "Puteus Aquarum Viventium", a well. Song of Songs 4:15 "Fons hortorum : puteus aquarum viventium, quae fluunt impetu de Libano." "A garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon." | |
 | "Cedrus Exaltata", a cedar tree. Sirach 24,13 "Quasi cedrus exaltata sum in Libano et quasi cypressus in monte Sion" | |
 | "Turris david cum propugnaculis", Tower of David. Song of Songs 4:4 "Sicut turris David collum tuum, quae aedificata est cum propugnaculis : mille clypei pendent ex ea, omnis armatura fortium." "Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an arsenal, whereon hang a thousand bucklers, all of them shields of warriors." | |
 | "sperius"??? still googling for this one... | |
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December 06, 2004
Yet another philosophy joke
Layman: So what do you think of determinism?
Libertarian: Whatever I want to.
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December 03, 2004
Igreja de Jesus
Lisboa, just before getting an annoying woman screaming in my ears "You are not allowed to take pictures in here! Orders of the priest". Not only did I take it, I'm also publishing it. There!
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December 02, 2004
Gérard Castello Lopes
My favourite photographer.
Carcavelos, 1956"(...) The act of photographing is the personal expression of a reality, which makes us define photography not as a testimony but as a fiction."
in Reflections on Photography
Lisboa, 1957Posted by claudia Permalink