November 2, 2005
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Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano:
“… Let me see, he was only praelector in my time….”
“He was still praelector in mine.”
(In my time?… But what, exactly, does that mean?….)
….
“He was beginning to get the wines and the first editions slightly mixed up in my day.”….
“Bring me a bottle of the very best John Donne, will you, Smithers?… You know, some of the genuine old 1611.”“God how funny… Or isn’t it?….”In memory of Malcolm Lowry, a quotation from Donne, 1611:
And, Oh, it can no more be questioned,
That beauties best, proportion, is dead,
Since euen griefe it selfe, which now alone
Is left vs, is without proportion.
Shee by whose lines proportion should bee
Examin’d measure of all Symmetree,
Whom had the Ancient seene, who thought soules made
Of Harmony, he would at next haue said
That Harmony was shee, and thence infer.
That soules were but Resultances from her,
Here is a link to a later Cambridge praelector, Robert Alexander Rankin. Rankin, a purveyor of pure mathematics, may help to counteract the pernicious influence on souls of Sir Michael Atiyah (see previous two entries and Plato, Pegasus, and the Evening Star).
