tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post5991388549862216959..comments2023-12-07T20:31:28.197-05:00Comments on Islands of Joy: Alternatives to the Allegory of the CaveSørina Higginshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10907200327850346539noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-2216569368129933942010-10-18T16:21:59.406-05:002010-10-18T16:21:59.406-05:00Rosie, thanks! It is a wonderful post to comment o...Rosie, thanks! It is a wonderful post to comment on :)<br /><br />It would have been only around a year ago that I read it, when I found this blog through a conversation on Michael Ward (of Planet Narnia)'s Facebook page. I think this piece stayed with me because it cuts right to the heart of so many important things in our culture; really yet-to-explore, somewhat beyond (and for!) exploring. The poem in its own right is very beautiful.Annelise Holwerdanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-46190325260676051772010-10-16T13:05:57.177-05:002010-10-16T13:05:57.177-05:00Wow, Annelise, I've never seen anyone interact...Wow, Annelise, I've never seen anyone interact so thoroughly and brilliantly with a blog as you do with this one. You've outdone yourself with this post. I love the poem. Impressive that your mind was still churning on a blog post from two years ago, too.Rosie Pererahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09554035581795923555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-74925004574184115422010-10-16T10:12:10.519-05:002010-10-16T10:12:10.519-05:00So this is less of a poem than your exquisite one ...So this is less of a poem than your exquisite one here, but I realised tonight that it (which fell semi-consciously onto paper the other day) must be a response to this post (which I read quite some time ago) :) I love your notion of a Christian neo-Platonism with its ultimate reality in Heaven- which is so unlike the world of forms as to be truly foreign to it, though the shadow image lingers. So maybe the 'eternal moment' takes a different, deeper meaning than we had first thought.<br /><br /><b>I take thee, Brevities; I take Thee, Fullness of all things.</b><br /><br />Among all the sounds<br />when we jump into the icy pool,<br />the shouts<br />not of terror, not exhilaration<br />but the simple fullness of enjoyment-<br />all but a few of our senses are<br />completely stopped,<br />asleep or eyes braced closed<br />like the dark scene<br />that bears forth lightning.<br /><br />Sight and sound are<br />tied to the time.<br />We know the jump, and the cold,<br />the water and chlorine<br />and the bright, blessed day,<br />and all the sounds come back:<br />we swam. In memory,<br />swim.<br /><br />The touches of cold water<br />on skin are tiny<br />in the vanished past and unknown future,<br />and I want to go back soon.A.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02076078818767809436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-65884361365662774892008-03-24T14:56:00.000-05:002008-03-24T14:56:00.000-05:00Dear anonymous,I do not feel that it is a matter o...Dear anonymous,<BR/>I do not feel that it is a matter of 'fullness'. rather I feel that it is a matter that <I> is </I> a copy or a shadow. <BR/>And not so much that it is not <I> real </I> but that it is a <I> copy </I> of the real.<BR/>I think that it is like the difference between [excuse the shallow example] a designer bag...and a mock off. <BR/>I do not think that it was ever the problem of not enjoying life...or you fake designer bag. =]<BR/><BR/>Just a thought.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-89411805121233019122008-03-19T23:51:00.000-05:002008-03-19T23:51:00.000-05:00If I may be permitted to interject a thought. Plat...If I may be permitted to interject a thought. Plato's Allegory is a fine one from a theological stand point, trying to understand the relationship between this world and the next. I don't think there needs to be an alternative to it. <BR/> HOWEVER, I don't think that the Allegory is the full idea. There is fullness here on Earth as well. In The Last Battle, the final country was beautiful beyond belief, but that doesn't mean that the children weren't to enjoy Narnia. Just because Narnia was a shadow of the original does not mean that is it wrong. Chesterton's MANALIVE is probably one of the best books to read to illustrate a lived life.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-35238423474610952892008-03-17T18:56:00.000-05:002008-03-17T18:56:00.000-05:00I would recommend Borges' little fable Tlön, Uqb...I would recommend Borges' little fable <A HREF="http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/Borges_-_Tlon,_Uqbar,_Orbis_Tertius.html" REL="nofollow"><I> Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius </I></A>.<BR/><BR/>And the third volume of Dick's final trilogy, <I>The Transmigration Of Timothy Archer</I>.<BR/><BR/>I guess you could call me a Neo-Platonist. I think Western thought took a wrong turn after John Scotus Eriugena.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22560219.post-84883888242870928132008-03-16T17:41:00.000-05:002008-03-16T17:41:00.000-05:00Does imagining or thinking something make said som...Does imagining or thinking something make said something <I> real </I> ?<BR/><BR/>This allegory, as allegories & microcosms in general boggle me...For I [and any man] have no connection to anything through words...which is what we attempt to relate this to...relate us to...but it has absolutly nothing to do with said somthing.<BR/><BR/>Therefore does any of it really exist, to us, if we have no connection to it?<BR/><BR/>God, because he <B> spoke </B> us into existence, can literally relate to us with words and forms, because that was the manner in which they were made. We are merely sustituting abstract and concrete with words that mean nothing and making nothing of meaning...so distant from the perfect Idea in our minds...leaving us totally disconnected.<BR/><BR/>The thing is we cannot compare say...hugs...with H-U-G-S.<BR/>It doesnt make sense....<BR/><BR/>So being unconnected..is the man not set free from being connected to the one with 'connection's' [the Creator] <BR/>Caught up in the philosophy...I see it all as an acoustic shadow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com