2 in 1

"He was going on with some wild reminiscences about his tomahawk-pipe which, it seemed, had in its two uses both brained his foes and soothed his soul." (Herman Melville, in Moby Dick)

Divides, borders and the weirdness of the world

A student who met Salman Rushdie reported that she was particularly struck by his comments that "the purpose of art was to go to the edge and push out the boundaries of experience, and that power would always push back" and that "he had many ideas about what novelists in the current era should be looking at: fragmented people who aren't of one ethnicity or race and have to deal with the divides inside of them, the borders and the weirdness of the world."

Taoïsme

In A Fistful of Dollars, a hero without a cause is trapped between two forces that are bigger than him, this allows him to play an interesting solution.

This is a summary of the plot by an IMDB user: "An anonymous, but deadly man rides into a town torn by war between two factions, the Baxter's and the Rojo's. Instead of fleeing or dying, as most other would do, the man schemes to play the two sides off each other, getting rich in the bargain."

All along the film, the hero keeps repeating this wonderful sentence, which is a bit like the chorus of the film: "The Rojo's on the right, the Baxter's on the left... and me, right in the middle."

The film is a remake of Kurozawa's Yojimbo. (Plot outline: A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.)

Exile

There are people who actually meditated on why Yoda exiled himself to Dagobah... and on how the most powerful Master Jedi got stranded on a jungle planet for the rest of his life...

Dark times & propaganda

In dark times, all the sounds turn into propaganda, the language we hear gets poorer and narrower, and so does the Arts: main streams produce crap and independents become more cryptic.

A Chinese proverb says something like when the world is stable, the wise shall go and speak in the open, but when the world is in trouble, the wise must protect his ass (and his mind).

Friends?

"There are two kinds of friends: one that reproves you and the other that praises you. Love him who reproves you and hate him who praises you; for the former leads you to the future life, while the later leads you out of the world." Rabbi Simon B. Eleazar (Introduction to the Talmud, Dudley Wright, 1932)

Still testing this blog

He who hates correction will die. (Bible, Proverbs 15:10)

French?

At any time, you can click on the translation button in the menu on the right to get a computer generated translation of the page you're looking at.

A tout moment, vous pouvez cliquer sur le bouton de traduction dans le menu à droite pour obtenir une traduction générée par ordinateur de la page que vous regardez.

Testing

Soft countries breed soft men; it is not the property of any soil to produce fine fruits and good soldiers too. (Cyrus, 6th BC)

Il est bien trop tard pour que je me civilise

"Les deux seules choses qui font que j'appartiens à la nation française sont la langue et la nourriture."

"Il est bien trop tard pour que je me civilise."

Jean Genet

Je ne veux pas me civiliser

"Ne pouvant pas me défendre dans la presse contre les critiques qui ont hypocritement insinué que je m'apparentais soit à Apollinaire ou à Marinetti, je viens les avertir que, s'ils recommencent, je leur tordrai les parties sexuelles. L'un deux disait à ma femme : «Que voulez-vous, Monsieur Cravan ne vient pas assez parmi nous.» Qu'on le sache une fois pour toutes : je ne veux pas me civiliser."

Arthur Cravan

Love me or hate me

I like it hot.

Enjoy the ride

My
Dearest
Scatterheart
There is comfort
Right in the eye
Of the hurricane

Björk