| |  | Most Recent Conversations | From h2g2
Mondas
(Posted: Aug 31, 2000)
(Last reply: Oct 2, 2007)
From h2g2
Where's the Slaughter?
(Posted: Sep 4, 2000)
(Last reply: Jul 19, 2006)
From h2g2
Balls
(Posted: Feb 24, 2000)
(Last reply: Sep 4, 2005)
From h2g2
Nosferatu
(Posted: Oct 5, 2000)
(Last reply: Jul 15, 2004)
From h2g2
Does the Act of Settlement contravene the Declaration of Human Rights?
(Posted: Jun 3, 2002)
(Last reply: Mar 19, 2003)
From h2g2
TNOs
(Posted: Aug 31, 2000)
(Last reply: Feb 28, 2003)
From h2g2
Hey! Where's El Chupacabra?
(Posted: Oct 5, 2000)
(Last reply: Apr 17, 2002)
From h2g2
First entry ...
(Posted: Jul 6, 2001)
(No replies)
From h2g2
A268562 Vampires, Legends of - Earth
(Posted: Aug 18, 2000)
(Last reply: Dec 11, 2000)
From h2g2
Rolf Harris
(Posted: Oct 27, 2000)
(Last reply: Oct 27, 2000)
Click here to see more Conversations | | | Most Recent Guide Entries
| From h2g2
A1117324 Three Popes - or the Great Schism (UG)
(Jul 21, 2003)
From h2g2
A460469 The Other Pope JOHN XXIII
(Oct 27, 2000)
From h2g2
A384473 Incorruptibility of Saints’ Flesh
(Jul 3, 2000)
From h2g2
A275492 Gibraltar
(Mar 6, 2000)
From h2g2
A273061 Three Popes - or the Great Schism
(Mar 1, 2000)
From h2g2
A268562 Vampires, Legends of - Earth
(Feb 22, 2000)
From h2g2
A267310 Heresy - Cathars and Heresy of the Free Spirit
(Feb 19, 2000)
From h2g2
A267301 The Squiggle Principle
(Feb 19, 2000)
Click here to see more Guide Entries
| | | | Most Recent Edited Entries | From h2g2
A592805 Looking Sober when Drunk
(Aug 7, 2001)
From h2g2
A301889 Manicheism, Catharism and the Heresy of the Free Spirit
(May 19, 2000)
From h2g2
A273566 Vampires
(Mar 13, 2000)
Click here to see more Edited Entries
|
| | The Last Man and the End of Middle History | |
Why Alighieri?
Well I'm glad you asked!
Dante Alighieri has been described as "the last man in history who was able to comprehend all the knowledge of his age." His age was of course in the Middle.
Once we got past the Middle, the idea of specialisation emerged and no one person could claim to know it all (seriously). Instead of seeing that as an indictment on how little they knew in the Middle Age - I like to view Dante's achievement as an apex in the personal pursuit of knowledge.
The rationality of the Renaissance and our modern times insists that all things are visible - if we just break them down to smaller compartments or shove them in boxes with cats. Meanwhile our post-modern artists chronicle the decay and chaos underlying everything we see and do. The Middle Age had no such dialectic - beneath everything there was an order, everything that was visible pointed towards the invisible. There was an Ultimate Harmony among Life, the Universe and Everything.
Dante's Divine Comedy marks the beginning of the end of the Middle Ages. Along with the Papacy moving to Avignon, the Church hunting down the Templar Knights, Black Death, the first use of firearms and the increased awareness of Islamic technology - the first few decades of the 14th century saw Europe's thousand year interregnum fall apart.
Most of our modern institutions (banks, armies, governments) first developed in the Middle Ages - so we owe them a lot. The issues Dante grappled with are just as relevant today as they were in 1311 when he sat on the banks of the Po pining for his dead Beatrice. That: the pursuit of political power by spiritual leaders leads to corruption (and sitting upside down in firey mud on the 8th circle of Hell apparently); the exercise by people of their free will justly merits reward or punishment, and; male sexual desire should aim to respect rather than conquer.
For more info on Dante check out Zarquon's article.
Everything is Upside Down Miss Jane!
For more twisted perspective and unconnected interconnectiveness,
visit my homepage - At Home with RoD
 | | People have been talking about this Guide Entry. Here are the most recent Conversations: |
 |
Journal Entries
|
| Welcome to this Researcher's Journal. If you'd like to comment on anything they have written here, just click the relevant 'Discuss this Entry' button. Rules of Bollywood Films
Oct 23, 2000
Just caught a Bollywood film - 'Straight From the Heart.' Got to thinking... there are several
Rules of Bollywood Films
1. The girl must always get severely injured, bloody and be carried to hospital.
2. The leading lady must never wear the same sari in two scenes.
3. Arranged marriages always work out the best.
4. Anything European is cool - even if its totally daggy.
5. Special Effects must look like a teenager has done them.
6. NO KISSING
| |
(No replies)
|
Ring (Ringu) and Blair Witch II
Aug 24, 2000
A virtual tantrum.
OK - so a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to see the best Japanese horror film ever RING at the local film festival. Its great - see it if you can. Tense all the way, a mystery with time as the great enemy and some freak-out scary bits.
So imagine my surprise when I read the sneak preview for Blair Witch 2 and find its a carbon copy of the best elements of Ring (Ringu)?!?!
Apparently in BW2 video tapes are found beneath the cabin which have a strange looking girl on them along with supernatural images flashing around. Ummm... plagarism!! Lack of creativity. Get your hand off it!!! That is Ring.
Ring is so far superior to whatever Blair Witch 2 will be that you must if you read this go forth - find Ring at a cinema or video store - and watch it. Then tell anyone who mentions BW2 to go see the real thing done properly.
Ahhhh - vented now.
| |
(No replies)
|
The Squiggle Principle
Feb 18, 2000
The Squiggle Principle has its root in the Australian children's television show 'Mr Squiggle' which ran from the 1950s to the 1990s. Mr Squiggle was a marionette with a huge pencil for a nose. Children would send in squiggles - meaningless lines, circles and doodles - and Mr Squiggle would make pictures out of them by drawing on the boards with his pencil-nose. Invariably the pictures drawn would be upside down - due to the fact that Norm Etherington - the guy manning Mr Squiggle - was hanging over the top of the set looking down on the doodles.
This led to the character Mr Squiggle often proclaiming loudly to the female host of the show, "Its upside down Miss Jane" (and later Miss Rebecca) whereupon the host would invert the picture to reveal an elephant on a unicycle with a yo-yo or some such. "They've all been upside down today, Mr Squiggle" the host would often observe. To which Squiggle, displaying a wisdom beyond the ages, would reply:
"Everything's upside down, Miss Jane"
The ubiqitousness of this phrase is at first astounding - but belies the inherit interconnectedness of Life, the Universe and Everything.
'Offence is the best form of defence.' 'Lateral thinking.' 'You dont know what you've got til its gone.' 'It was in the last place I looked.' 'You can't get there from here.' Those crying for representative government shouting 'Power to the People.' And the general two-faced, hypocritical, double standards which generally pervades our daily interaction as a species.
This is all the Squiggle Principle.
Squiggle offers a recourse. "I'm going for a Space-Walk."
| |
(No replies)
|
|
|
Friends
|
| Alighieri hasn't added any friends to their list.
| |
|
|
|
|
Last posted: Jun 3, 2002
