Owner: The Book of Innocence URL:http://philquotes.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:16:05 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: I am curious about life. This is my literary and philosophical journey. Site statistics:Click here
Escape Artist 2008-11-22 10:20:33 These last couple days I've found myself pondering the idea of "escape". I've been thinking of the various ways in which I use the term "escape" and how I apply it to my life. An escape is a break from the usual routine. Often the word is used with travel, vacation or adventure. It therefore connotes something outside the boundaries of daily existence. We escape from life's duties, life's rou Read more:Artist
, Escape
Book Chat 2008-11-21 21:18:22 This being my first video blog, I give a sort of introduction before venturing into the realm of fiction and literary theory. I tell a short story about how I found the book Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. Then I digress to discuss the literary theorist James Wood and his book, The Broken Estate. I return to Shantaram with renewed zest and give an informal critique of the first chapter.
Credits 2008-11-21 15:05:29 The Book of Innocence would not be complete without all of the beautiful images. I thank the contributors with all my heart.Cover Banner: Jaycek YerkaWelcome Page: "Swedish Suburbs in The Mid-Seventies" on FlickrPreface: "jiamgspokane" on FlickrApproaching the Cliff: "lowmagnet" on FlickrFlight: Part One: "fjalarinn" on Flickr) Flight: Part Two: "Troy Snow" on Flickr Flight: Part Three: Read more:Credits
On Reading and the Web 2008-11-13 12:19:43 I'm coming off a technology binge and trying to reconnect with what was once important to me.The Internet is a black hole. I lost myself to the Internet one year ago and now I'm recovering, trying to retrieve myself from the bits and pieces of cyberspace. As if during one of my trances, I was ground into two-dimensional data and now I'm floating around helplessly, looking everywhere but seeing n Read more:Reading
By Way of Introduction: Part Two 2008-11-08 09:36:55 In the second part of my introduction, I discuss what my "Book Chats" will be about. I discuss the Novel of Life and the Book of Innocence, and authors who have influenced and inspired me.
Read more:Introduction
, Part Two
Was Don Quixote serious? 2008-11-01 10:38:17 I've been prompted this morning to wake up early and have my breakfast at a local bakery (Panera Bread). It's already the end of the week and I'm seized by that terrible feeling I could have gotten more accomplished. So I launch my morning in a final attempt to squeeze the juice to the last drop. At 9:30 a.m.--when I'm usually sitting at my computer and checking email in my boxer shorts--I'm at Read more:serious
Autumn Unfolds 2008-10-23 11:19:27 Fall is my favorite time of the year. I live in Central Illinois where despite the cold winters, I enjoy the succession of the seasons. If I lived in a place where the seasons never changed, I imagine I would be stricken with a sort of grief.Change is inevitable, impossible to avoid, and Fall over all the seasons demonstrates this to us. Why? Because Fall is beautiful, more beautiful than the Read more:Autumn
Welcome to the Book of Innocence 2008-10-07 11:52:19 I am curious about life. The Book of Innocence
is a literary and philosophical journey. You may begin reading by clicking here.
Read more:Welcome
Victor Shklovsky on "Quoting" 2008-09-29 23:23:11 Quoting is necessary. I have said and will say again that we are walking holding on to the quotes, as we would hold onto a wall.And, also, there is nothing truer than a quote, and the harder the work is, the harder is the task of quoting; and Tolstoy, whose work, whose soul, is continuously alive and continuously grows, is one of the most difficult examples.. . . Besides, the idea of quoting, the Read more:Victor
Lin Yutang on the "Histrionic Instinct" 2008-09-29 23:22:52 Consciously or unconsciously, we are all actors in this life playing to the audience in a part and style approved by them.This histrionic talent, together with the related talent for imitation, which is a part of it, are the most outstanding traits of our simian inheritance. There are undoubted advantages to be derived from this showmanship, the most obvious being the plaudits of the audience. But
Descent: Part Three 2008-09-25 11:54:57 Life presents a paradoxical situation to each of us. Life asks us to both care and not care at the same time. My flight embraces one end of the spectrum: the extreme of caring. My descent embraces the other: supreme not-caring. How to engage both at the same time? Maintaining a balance seems contradictory and impossible.The closed circle of flight and descent forms the essence of what it mean Read more:Descent
, Three
Descent: Part Two 2008-09-19 07:57:18 Despair comes when I feel like my work has no purpose. Despair comes from feelings of naught, I am naught, my work is naught, the world is naught . . . But what is despair?Despair is the conviction of the futility of life.Despair is all efforts signifying nothing.Despair is the abortion of possibility.Despair is a yoke that reads “Carry Me or Die.”My despair feels like the abrupt end to a goo Read more:Descent
, Part Two
Descent: Part One 2008-09-19 07:56:15 Flights of grandeur. Flights of poetic inspiration. I’ve depended on flights for so long. The truth is I’ve never wanted to be where I was physically located. As a teenager, I recall spending vast lengths of time by myself. My parents were not around. My mother was busy painting or cleaning the house; my father worked in a hospital and didn’t get home until late.The house I grew up in wa Read more:Descent
Flight: Part Three 2008-09-19 07:55:48 Our daily lives have crystallized into routines, patterns, and rituals. I want to hold onto these patterns because they reinforce the sense of a singular life—my life, which has to do with my goals, and my supreme sense of individuality.But when I scan the content of my dreams, I see that these routines, patterns, and rituals are like man-made barriers built to stop the flow of contradictory de Read more:Flight
, Three
Flight: Part Two 2008-09-19 07:55:24 I have had this dream ever since I was a child. The dream has become a sort of refrain in my life, endlessly repeating and replenishing my interest in it.I am trying to pry into my subconscious; I am trying to decipher one of the many mysteries I hold inside me.Waking from my flying dream is one of the most pleasant sensations I know. Upon waking I am reminded of my secret powers, and I go about Read more:Flight
, Part Two
Flight: Part One 2008-09-19 07:54:46 When I dive from the cliff, nobody catches me . . .I can barely conceal the smile on my face as I glide-- The joy of being able to launch myself at once into a separate sphere, gives me a supreme satisfaction, an indescribable feeling. Levitation is a consummate thrill. Floating is even wilder and more insane to imagine. And flight is beyond comprehension. While I’m flying over giant cluste Read more:Flight
Preface 2008-09-19 07:52:13 I enjoy the reflective essay. But there are many voices and mine is only one of them.When I began blogging I wanted to create a site where I could publish lengthy quotations from the books I read. Without being in graduate school, I live the life of the interdisciplinary scholar, always sifting through a different book and taking notes. Although these books have little to do with each other, I
The Imaginary Audience 2008-09-18 16:05:16 Let me describe what I see in front of me:the Sunday edition of the NYTimes, Tricycle (a Buddhist magazine), a book of poetry by Emily Dickinson, The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang, The Energy of Delusion by Viktor Shklovsky;and underneath the coffee table, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, and Tom Jones by Henry Fielding.I am reading all of these books at the same (or sections of them)--in additi Read more:Audience
, Imaginary
The Bridge 2008-09-18 16:01:01 Martin Heidegger, German existentialist, writes:"to be sure people think of the bridge as primarily and really merely a bridge; after that, and occasionally, it might possibly express much else besides; and as such an expression it would then become a symbol of those things mentioned before." (Poetry Language Thought)So just what is Heidegger getting at when he says, "much else besides"?Clearly he
More Thoughts on Building 2008-06-25 00:13:09 Since my last essay I've done some thinking about the questions I've raised.A friend also helped me to understand what I was trying to articulate.She suggested that my point was:To create something, a building, a work of art, we need sufficient space; without space, nothing can be built upon. Another way of putting this: openness yields creativity.With a strong desire to create, and to reflect on Read more:Building
NY Times Week in Review: The Ethos of the Net 2008-06-12 12:46:19 From an excellent article in the New York Times
, "The Wiki-Way to the Nomination," Sunday Edition (June 8, 2008), by Noam Cohen, here are some insightful observations about the ethos of the Net, and how it's shaping the way we see the world.Philosophical quotations:"But at the same time, Mr. Obama's notion of persistent improvement, both of himself and his country, reflects something newer--the co
NY Times Book Review: "What to Watch" 2008-06-06 12:11:48 Some interesting philosophical quotes that relate to the conversation of the "histrionic instinct" (see previous posts; here and here).With scholarly assurance and meticulous care, he builds the case that "theatre is the art by which human beings make human actions worth watching." (Incidentally, this is precisely what that word "theatre" means: a place to behold.) From the time we are small, acco Read more:Times
The Magic Pill, or Self-Destruction 2008-12-30 17:30:03 Everything runs away, beginning with who you are, and at some indefinable point you come to half understand that the ruthless antagonist is yourself.Philip Roth, qtd. James WoodA couple weeks ago, I watched a documentary called "Bigger, Stronger, Faster." This movie struck a nerve inside of me like no other movie has for the last six months. I identified with the director's quest for answers abo Read more:Destruction
, Magic
The Paradox of Dreams 2008-12-27 22:37:54 There is a puzzling quotation that opens Herman Hesse's early novel, Demian:I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings of my true self.Why was that so very difficult?This weekend I met with my mentor, Alane Rollings, in Chicago. Alane is a Southern woman with kindness in her eyes. She has a baby doll face framed by dark curly hair and she carries herself with extreme fragility; but insi Read more:Dreams
, Paradox
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