Friday 6 August 2010

Pottery

Potter = shaper of clay;
Abrahamic Mythology: God as shaper of man from clay.

Tom Riddle (cryptic crossword clue) = mot (French) = word;
Abrahamic Mythology: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Tom Riddle — an anagram of 'mi toddler' — represents Harry Potter’s accompanying childish self, the self to be transcended through the maturation rituals symbolised in each of the seven volumes.

One Academic Technique

Find a proposition, invert it, then look around for proofs.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'

This is the technique used, for example, by the philosopher David Chalmers, who inverts what neuroscientists see as the "easy" and "hard" problems of consciousness. It has gained him a lot of attention, not least because he offers hope to those who need to believe in 'life after death' (which is itself an inversion).

Herbivore Anagram


History

History is an angel
being blown
backwards
into the future.
— Laurie Anderson 'The Dream Before'

History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
— James Joyce 'Ulysses'

History nowadays is not a matter of conviction, it's a performance, it's entertainment …
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'

… arguing for effect; not believing what you say; that is not history, it's journalism.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'

History is a commentary on the varying and continuing incapabilities of men.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'

History is women following behind with the bucket.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'

History is one fucking thing after another.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'

The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless.
— Sir Humphrey Appleby

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals — the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.
— Martin Gardner