October 13, 2005
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A Poem for Pinter
The Guardian on Harold Pinter, winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature:
“Earlier this year, he announced his decision to retire from playwriting in favour of poetry,”
Michael Muskal in today’s Los Angeles Times:
“Pinter,
75, is known for his sparse and thin style as well as his etched
characters whose crystal patter cuts through the mood like diamond
drill bits.”Robert Stone, A Flag for Sunrise (See Jan. 25):
“‘That
old Jew gave me this here.’ Egan looked at the diamond….
‘It’s worth a whole lot of money– you can tell that just by looking–
but it means something, I think. It’s got a meaning, like.’‘Let’s see,’ Egan said, ‘what would it
mean?’ He took hold of Pablo’s hand cupping the stone and held
his own hand under it. ‘”The jewel is in the lotus,” perhaps
that’s what it means. The eternal in the temporal….’”“Modal logic was originally developed to investigate logic under the modes of necessary and possible truth. The words ‘necessary’ and ‘possible’ are called modal connectives, or modalities.
A modality is a word that when applied to a statement indicates
when, where, how, or under what circumstances the statement may be
true. In terms of notation, it is common to use a box [] for the modality ‘necessary’ and a diamond <> for the modality ‘possible.’”A Poem for Pinter
Commentary:
“Waka” also means Japanese poem or Maori canoe. (For instance, this Japanese poem and this Maori canoe.)For a meditation on “bang splat,” see Sept. 25-29.
For the meaning of “tick tick,” see Emily Dickinson on “degreeless noon.”
“Hash,” of course, signifies “checkmate.” (See previous three entries.)
