June 6, 2005
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Order and Disorder
From “Connoisseur of Chaos,”
by Wallace Stevens, in
Parts of a World, 1942:I
A. A violent order is a disorder; and
B. A great disorder is an order. These
Two things are one. (Pages of illustrations.)
IV
A. Well, an old order is a violent one.
This proves nothing. Just one more truth, one more
Element in the immense disorder of truths.
B. It is April as I write. The wind
Is blowing after days of constant rain.
All this, of course, will come to summer soon.
But suppose the disorder of truths should ever come
To an order, most Plantagenet, most fixed. . . .
A great disorder is an order. Now, A
And B are not like statuary, posed
For a vista in the Louvre. They are things chalked
On the sidewalk so that the pensive man may see.
V
The pensive man . . . He sees that eagle float
For which the intricate Alps are a single nest.Related material:
“Derrida on Plato on writing
says ‘In order for these contrary values (good/evil, true/false,
essence/appearance, inside/outside, etc.) to be in opposition, each of
the terms must be simply EXTERNAL to the other, which means that one of
these oppositions (the opposition between inside and outside) must
already be accredited as the matrix of all possible opposition.’ “
Skewed Mirrors,
Sept. 14, 2003“Evil did not have the last word.”
— Richard John Neuhaus, April 4, 2005Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone
a last a loved a long thePARIS,
1922-1939“There is never any ending to Paris.”
— Ernest Hemingway
