“Not to weep, not to laugh, but to understand.” Spinoza.
Ecotone: the boundary between two ecosystems.
“A society does not stamp personalities from a die, but no one can go beyond its possibilites for freedom and growth.” Sidney Finkelstein, How Music Expresses Ideas.
“Society has no fringe … no one is ever outside it even in the depths of dungeons.” Victor Serge, Memoirs of a Revolutionary.
David Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995)
David Marr’s
Marr is intent on avoiding what he terms the “teleological trap,” examining history in the light of later events and then ferreting out the causes to these events and thereby inadvertently robbing history of the sense of the possible. This, he claims, is but a short step from “crude deterministic expostulation.” (xxv) To this end, Marr has written a dense and remarkably well-documented account of the various forces and events that created the stage upon which it was possible for the August Revolution to occur.
I was put off, however, by the claim on which Marr grounds his anti-teleological agendum: “the only truth in history is that there are no historical truths, only an infinite number of experiences.” This felt strangely disingenuous one page after Marr spoke of the need to ‘routinely exclude’ the ‘deliberate mystification of the past’ that occurred under the ‘Communist Party imprimatur’ (xxiv). Here then was an account of the past that was ‘inaccurate’ because it failed to reflect ‘historical truth.’ Further, while I share Marr’s concern with a reductionist teleology historically retrojected as causal narrative, not all narratives of possibility are equally worthy of recounting. Granted there is not an historical telos to be expostulated; there are, however, actor-intentioned historical tele, whose viability are mediated by concrete historical circumstances. Not all possibilities are created equal and the historian’s concern should be to move from historically determined causes - determined in the etymological sense of ‘limited’ or ‘bounded’ - to their necessary effects.
The capacity to concentrate has become a rarity in the life of cybernetic man On the contrary, it seems as if he does everything to avoid concentration. He likes to do several things at the same time, such as listen to music, read, eat, talk with friends…
Indeed, television is a good teacher of non-concentration, the audience becomes conditioned not to concentrate. When people are by themselves they also avoid concentrating on anything.
Concentration is such a rare phenomenon because one’s will is not directed to one thing; nothing is worth the effort to concentrate on it, because no goal is pursued passionately.
People are afraid to concentrate because they are afraid of losing themselves if they are too absorbed in another person, in an idea, in an event.
Finally, to concentrate requires inner activity, not busy-ness, and this activity is rare today when busy-ness is the key to success.
[People] think that concentrating is too strenuous an activity and that they would get tired quickly. In fact the opposite is true… Lack of concentration makes one, tired, while concentration wakes one up.
A paraphrased rendering taken from my notes on Erich Fromm, The Art of Being (New York: Continuum, 1999), 44-49.
Notes from Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah, 2nd ed. (New York: Anchor Bible Reference Library, 1993).
There are alternate textual authorities - Codex Koridethi, Old Syriac (Sinaiticus) - which read that Joseph was Jesus’ biological father. The Old Syriac rendering of this passage is echoed in the 5th century Dialogue of Timothy and Aqila. It would be difficult to read these as the Matthean original, Brown argues, in light of 1:18-25.
The genealogies of Matthew and Luke are to be read theologically and functionally, rather than historically.
Thus, for Matthew, the genealogy of Jesus serves to identify him as son of Abraham - a gentilic connection - and Son of David - a messianic one.
For Luke, the genealogy is textually situated to support the statement made by the voice at the baptism that Jesus is God’s son.
There are numerous elisions and substitutions in both accounts. Matthew’s genealogy is based on the number fourteen; yet two of its three segments contain only thirteen generations. Fourteen may have been a reference by gematria to David (MT: DWD).
Both Luke and Matthew have different genealogies which culminate in Shealtiel and Zerubabbel. Neither are historical lists.
Notes from Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah, 2nd ed. (New York: Anchor Bible Reference Library, 1993).
Advent is upon us and I found this aperçu among my notes. I felt inclined to epexegetical expansion upon the didactic nature of fulfillment formulae in Matthew. For they are no longer read didactically but are naively depicted as apologetic. I am still pinched for time, however, and must refrain.
The composition of the basic Matthean narrative (1:18-2:23)
The key to the investigation of the composition of the basic Matthean narrative in 1:18-2:23 is the four or five explicit citations of scripture with introductory fulfillment formulae. Fulfillment formulae are almost entirely a Matthean peculiarity. Their purpose was didactic rather than proselytical or apologetic.
There are two logical explanations for this material. Either Matthew invented the narratives to fit the citations or he added the citations to pre-existing narratives. Brown points to the incongruent match between the citations and the narratives to argue against the idea that Matthew invented the narratives. I find this argument persuasive.
Matthew thus brought together and edited - redacted - pre-existing material, incorporating the fulfillment citations.
Brown provides us with three basic guides in detecting pre-Matthean material:
the “amount of Matthean vocabulary, style, and organizational pattern in verses or sections of the infancy narrative.” (105)
the “presence of internal tensions or conflicts .. indicating that two bodies of material may have been joined.” (106)
The presence of “parallels to other material.” (106)
Perusing my notes, I find
Lateen: a triangular sail set on a long, sloping yard, used especially in the Mediterranean sea.
Sunda shelf: Sundaland, a geologically stable and now partly drowned extension of the Asian landmass - comprises Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Bali and Palawan. During glacial periods of low sea level Sundaland was dry.
Logomachy: contention about words.
Plantigrade: walking on soles; digitigrade: walking on toes; unguligrade: walking on hooves.
Afán: (Sp.) deseo vehemente; trabajo duro y fatigoso.
Sympatric speciation: in contrast to allopatric speciation, the species undergoing sympatric speciation are not geographically isolated from each other. The speciating populations generally share the same territory.
Epic of Evolution: Seven Ages of the Cosmos by Eric J. Chaisson
A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey
My System: 21st Century Edition by Aron Nimzowitsch
Their Morals and Ours by Leon Trotsky
