The Edge of the Mystery, by Matt Bai–

“Weeks before the election of 1960, Norman Mailer, already an accomplished novelist, sat down to write his first major work of political journalism, an essay for Esquire in which he argued that only John F. Kennedy could save America… the only kind of leader who could rescue it, who could sweep in an era of what Mailer called ‘existential’ politics, was a ‘hipster’ hero– someone who welcomed risk and adventure, someone who sought out new experience, both for himself and for the country….

… Mailer essentially created a new genre for a generation of would-be literary philosophers covering politics….  By 1963, Mailer and other idealists were crushed to discover that Kennedy was in fact a fairly conventional and pragmatic politician, more Harvard Yard than Fortress of Solitude.”

Magic and Realism, by Roger Cohen–

“… what I want from the Obama administration is something more than Harvard-to-the-Beltway smarts. I want magical realism.”

“In the ‘Prologue in Heaven’ in Goethe’s Faust a powerful silence is produced by the powerful word after each verse. There is an active, audible silence after every verse. The things that were moved into position by the word stand motionless in the silence, as if they were waiting to be called back into the silence and to disappear therein. The word not only brings the things out of silence; it also produces the silence in which they can disappear again.”

DER HERR:
Kennst du den Faust?

MEPHISTOPHELES:
Den Doktor?

DER HERR:
Meinen Knecht!

knight
O.E. cniht “boy, youth, servant,” common W.Gmc. (cf. O.Fris. kniucht, Du. knecht, kneht “boy, youth, lad,” Ger. Knecht “servant, bondsman, vassal”), of unknown origin. Meaning “military follower of a king or other superior” is from c.1100. Began to be used in a specific military sense in Hundred Years War, and gradually rose in importance through M.E. period until it became a rank in the nobility 16c. The verb meaning “to make a knight of (someone)” is from c.1300. Knighthood is O.E. cnihthad M.H.G. “the period between childhood and manhood;” sense of “rank or dignity of a knight” is from c.1300. The chess piece so called from c.1440.

“… For although in a certain sense and for light-minded persons non-existent things can be more easily and irresponsibly represented in words than existing things, for the serious and conscientious historian it is just the reverse. Nothing is harder, yet nothing is more necessary, than to speak of certain things whose existence is neither demonstrable nor probable. The very fact that serious and conscientious men treat them as existing things brings them a step closer to existence and to the possibility of being born.”

Gate
 or, Everybody
Comes to Rick’s
(abstract version)

For Mary Gaitskill,
continued from
June 21, 2008:
 

This minimal art
is the basis of the
chess set image
from Tuesday:

 

Related images:

“The key is the
cocktail that begins
the proceedings.”

– Brian Harley,
Mate in Two Moves

A Fight for
Love and Glory

The 8-point star
of Venus:

This star is suggested by
the Spanish name “Lucero”
and by the following
passage from Heinlein’s
classic novel Glory Road:

”I have many names. What would you like to call me?”     “Is one of them ‘Helen’?”     She smiled like sunshine and I learned that she had dimples. She looked sixteen and in her first party dress. “You are very gracious. No, she’s not even a relative. That was many, many years ago.” Her face turned thoughtful. “Would you like to call me ‘Ettarre’?”     “Is that one of your names?”     “It is much like one of them, allowing for different spelling and accent. Or it could be ‘Esther’ just as closely. Or ‘Aster.’ Or even ‘Estrellita.’”     “‘Aster,’” I repeated. “Star. Lucky Star!”

 
Que descanse en paz.

Later the same evening…
an update in memory
of Patrick McGoohan:

“There is one story and one story only That will prove worth your telling….   …of the undying snake from chaos hatched, Whose coils contain the ocean, Into whose chops with naked sword he springs, Then in black water, tangled by the reeds, Battles three days and nights, To be spewed up beside her scalloped shore….”   – Robert Graves,    “To Juan at the Winter Solstice”

Eight is a Gate

From the most highly
rated negative review:

“I never did figure out
what ‘The Eight’ was.”

Various approaches
to this concept
(click images for details):

A chess set
by F. Lanier Graham
of modular design:

A NOTE BY THE DESIGNER “The traditional chess set, with its naturalistic images of medieval armies, suggests a game between combatants who enjoy the winning of battles. This chess set, with its articulated images of abstract force, suggests a game between contestants who enjoy the process of thinking.     The primary principle of this design… is that the operating reality or function of each piece– both its value and how it moves– is embodied in a simple self-expressive form…. Design Copyright F. Lanier Graham 1967 These pieces are designed to have the look and feel of little packages of power. The hardwoods (walnut and korina) are left unfinished, not only because of tactile values, but also to emphasize the simplicity of the design. The interlocking blocks are packaged to reflect the essential nature of the game– rational recreation, played with basic units whose fields of force continuously interact in subtle, complex patterns.” – F. Lanier Graham, 1967

The Mists of
Brooklyn

Carol Kino
in today’s New York Times:

Architectural Vesica Piscis

Arch at Glastonbury Tor

• an entry of Nov. 25, 2002, that contained the above two images

• and the two entries of last Sunday, with their references to Marion Zimmer Bradley and to the Brooklyn Bridge.

The ashes of Bradley,
who wrote about Camelot
in The Mists of Avalon,
 are said to have been
scattered at Glastonbury Tor.

For material on the afterlife
and Brooklyn, see
Only the Dead.

A Major Metaphor

See also
Today’s Sermon.

For those who prefer
stories to truth,
I recommend the
blue matrices of
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s
Darkover stories.
Bradley also wrote
The Mists of Avalon.

Happy birthday to
David Wolper,
who produced the
TV version of Mists.

Related material:
Diamonds Are Forever

A Russian Doll

Introduction

For details of the story,
click on the images.

Chapter I:

Chapter II:

Chapter III:

Natasha’s Dance

and the following quotation:

“There is no landing fee in Avalon,
 or anywhere else in Catalina.”

Stories
for Mary Karr

“In reality, my prose books
probably sit between
I Was a Teenage Sex Slave
and some other contemporary
memoir written in five minutes….”

– Mary Karr in the NY Times
of July 6, 2007



See also
Ballet Blanc
and the true story
0, 1, 2, 3, ….

“In a dream scenario, my memoirs…
would find another shelf.
They’d sit between St. Augustine
  and Nabokov’s Speak, Memory….”

– Mary Karr, loc. cit.

Recall the
mnemonic rhyme
“Nine is a Vine.”