I was in great need of watching a black-and-white film. I think 1940s films were spectacular, so I decided to watch 'Brief Encounter.' -- What a sweet and funny performance! Celia Johnson, as one of the main characters, was amazing in her role.

I have read on the Internet that it is a classic British romantic drama film, and I guess most of you have already watched it—maybe more than one time! I address @T Clark just in case he wants to experience a bit of nostalgia; by the way, it is he and I who are sharing films here.

Bullet Park by John Cheever.

It is nice to read about the link between the neighbours of an American suburb. Cheever was a master of describing the mysterious and dubious normality of these people.

I guess it is important to say that Cheever himself was from Massachusetts; so is Clarky ( @T Clark ). Two great human souls who belong to the same place of the Western civilisation. :smile:

I can't see the link of not being kind with conservatism. I guess you might refer to the selfish way of acting that is common in the spectrum of this political ideology. Nonetheless, there are conservative groups out there that do kind acts. For example, Christian—and other religious groups—that are educating children in underdeveloped countries. Look at Catholic missionaries in Papua New Guinea, for instance. I am sure they are both kind and conservative.

I know they are not perfect, but I would not call nasty to a missionary, even if his ideas are conservative.

@Noble Dust

Congratulations on your Sparrow record Strongheart re-release. I received the notification by email. I am subscribed to your Bandcamp channel—or whatever it is called.

My favourite tracks are 'Morning' and 'Songbird Incantation.' :sparkle:

https://matthewanderson.bandcamp.com/album/strongheart

Righto, mate! :up:

It is interesting what you both suggest. But it is difficult for me to consider what a primary source is. Furthermore, the primary source needs also to be relevant. I guess there has to be a consensus on what a primary relevant source is, right?

Laughable Loves by Milan Kundera.

A collection of seven short stories. Cleverly written, as most of Kundera's works. An interesting fact that I did notice about their characters -- when he wrote in Czech, he used Czech names such as Ruzena, Havel, Klíma or Škréta. But, when he wrote in Frech, he used typical French names like Agnes or Paul.

Well, we can thank javi2541997 for that!
He, unwittingly, introduced him as 'Dali' in his profile pic — Amity

:smile:

We never know where the gems are hidden. You look for copper and 'pop!' An emerald appears. :up:

I know Dali painted some crucifixion or Christian symbolism. But all of them are like—let's say—'out of place.' They are not the average paintings of Murillo or the ones that hung in the Vatican. They lack Christian fanatic realism and intimidating characters.
My point was that Dali was not trying to paint a biblical scene but playing with Abrahamic symbolism. Making them dreamlike or surreal. I hardly believe that Dali was inspired by religious painters of European enlightenment.

For example -- the amazing crucifixion that you shared in your post. No blood, no image of Jesus Christ, the floor is mysterious, the cross looks like cement blocks, the crown of thorns is missing, and the famous nails are substituted for perfect cubes. An amazing painting by Dali, and very clever how he used Abrahamic symbolism.

@Barkon

When the leaf of a tree falls down in autumn -- is this a creative or logical move?

Hmm...

A tree is also a creative being, it isn't reduced to any or all of its parts, it exists on Earth stand-alone, and there was life force involved in it's generation where a whole lot of the logic involved in that was skipped. — Barkon

I think I am starting to understand you -- you consider a tree as a creative being because it produces oxygen and for simply standing on Earth.

Yet I still think that the process of a tree's existence is pretty logical to me. I mean, a tree doesn't stand in a forest without following a basic pattern, nor does it produce oxygen randomly. You claim 'a whole lot of the logic involved was skipped' -- are you sure? I fully believe that plants are very logical. More than some humans.

It's the opposite of logic, and most things have both a creative and logical side. Take a tree for example, there is it's being in the world and what created it, and then there is the fact it is green and produces oxygen. Most things need creativity to exist — Barkon

Do you mean that a tree exists because it is both logical and creative? What if we know about a tree's existence because we are the ones who are creative and logical?

Logic may have a pass; but I doubt whether creativity is an attribute of animals or things.

Across place and time, is creativity a reaction to a primal need? Objects of adornment have been found, through archeology, made by the Neanderthals. — Jerome

I think yes, it is.

But to what extent does your conception of creativity go? -- either creativity in a literary and artistic sense or in a technical way.

Did your interpretation come from the belief that it was Dali's? — Amity

Yes, because Dali's always loved to play with those metaphors and illusions. The same happens to watches melting in the branches or the trees hanging in the abyss. How he wanted to express the nature with dreams is what it made me interpret that the painting was his.

And so, you viewed the 'insect' as a worm, instead of a chrysalis? — Amity

Are you referring to the insect on the down right? I honestly thought it was a worm, but now I understand why it is more technical to say chrysalis because Kush might have been thought on a pupa.

What we expect from a name or brand...see 'Apple', what do you think. The use of a symbol to 'sell'. — Amity

I don't like the use of symbolism with the purpose of selling, or even worse, to recruit people. I think symbology should be at our collective thought and behaviour. I don't know how to explain this, but Jung was quite right about the archetypes. It comes to our mind an iPhone device when we see an apple, sadly. It should come to our minds something related to life, health care, fruits, etc.

Wow! It is true that it might be Kush's signature. I didn't pay attention to that. You are probably right, because I tried to find the painting in the official Salvador Dali museum, and I couldn't find the apple.

Yet I found websites that refer to the green apple as Dali's.

http://my-photogalore.blogspot.com/2008/12/salvador-dali-paintings_9853.html?m=1

I think it is Dali-ish, but the real author is Kush. I am deeply sorry, because I misunderstood the original work of an artist with other's.

Well, I will keep the apple in the thumbnail, either it is painted by Kush and inspired by Dali. :smile:

Proof that is Kush's --

https://www.jacobgallery.com/vladimir-kush-green-apple

But you know, you can't always judge a book by its cover... — Amity

Wholeheartedly. :cool:

Not sure about the 'bird' thing... but does it matter? — Amity

It doesn't matter; I agree. But it is very curious because it makes me wonder whether those members coincide in the bird thumbnail randomly or not.
Look! A thread was even started towards this 'thing' :lol: --

Why do so many people on here have bird thumbnails?

The spooky curiosity remains after three years. :smile:

For 6yrs I didn't see any reason to change it.
What did it matter? — Amity

Yes, I know it is not a big deal, but the profile picture is something curious. Some have a lot of birds on it (Jamal, T Clark, hypericin, etc.) And others have the same picture since I joined the first time (Benkei, creativesoul, Janus, etc.); and then, those who even show their real identity (Jack Cummins or Mikie). I wonder if we are recognised on TPF due to our profile pic or just our username. Hmm... :chin:

It's not just an apple, though, is it? A butterfly is emerging from it, or through it. From a chrysalis. — Amity

Exactly. Dali painted life and death in that apple. It is a very clever drawing. The worm and the apple; the first enters the second, and the progress of life goes on. The painting left me reflecting on some deep thoughts the first time I saw it.

Is this about Eve's plucking the forbidden fruit leading to knowledge? The Creation story in the Bible. — Amity

No, no. The Dali's apple is not Biblical, and I think he never painted something religious. The point was to be surrealist or even dreamy.

I wonder why some people stick and others move on... — Amity

I wonder exactly the same!

And can't even remember what you had before! — Amity

I had the cover of a Japanese film—called The Eel.

I had no idea when I uploaded my profile pic (yesterday) of its symbolism. Yet, it's so 'right' for me! — Amity

I thought that when I saw you changed your profile image. The blue flower belongs to your personality—hope and the pursuit of art. I honestly think it is better now than when you had that soulless 'A' in your profile.

I changed my profile picture a lot of times. Now I have an apple painted by Dali. I will keep this painting for a long time, no doubt about that. I love apples and surrealism.

Salvador Dalí Art Gallery

Deleted.

The Seducer's Diary. by Kierkegaard.

Firstly, I think it is notoriously to say that Kierkegaard's works are difficult to translate into our languages. I spent more than half an hour finding out on the Internet the proper translation of Forførerens Dagbog in English. My edition is in Spanish, which was translated from Danish in 2008. So, I think it is an accurate edition.

On the other hand, is there a Danish mate here in TPF? If so, please explain why the Danish language used by Kierkegaard is that complex to translate.

Edit: Thirdly, the book is a collection of fragments from a personal diary, where Kierkegaard shows his anxious love towards Regina Olsen. :heart:

she gives all the thoughts at a moment and you feel like you are living in that characters brain. — Burcu

Yes, it is fascinating. It reminds me of Melancholia by Fosse. The main character is Lars Hertervig. A Norwegian painter who suffered from a mental illness. Fosse gives all the thoughts and the anxiety of Lars at the same time that he relates to the outside world. A complex writing style that only a few are able to do. Well, Fosse is a Nobel laureate -- as well as Pamuk. I just checked your profile info, and you are Turkish! :smile:

Hope it didnt tuned our to be commercial i really get thrilled as i mentioned — Burcu

It is fine! We are often very emotional with some authors and novels. I remember being very obsessed with Mishima and Japanese literature a few years ago. We want to share this feeling with others, and this is gorgeous. :up:

Hello, welcome to TPF.

And most importantly the thing i love about her writing is she is writing with all the parts that live in our mind — Burcu

She writes without quotation marks, without dividing conversations but you can still follow and realize who is the one talking to who — Burcu

If anyone is out there who has same taste with me i will be glad to know — Burcu

Well, according to that writing style, I also like some authors whose novels are similar to the one you are currently reading. But only in regard to the style, not the topic.

For example -- Jon Fosse and José Saramago always wrote in that way. Without dividing conversations and the format is written all in a row. Fosse doesn't even use chapters. I think Saramago either.

Yep, what I don't get is why we don't let them join the Eurozone. They deserve to have the euro as the primary currency. What can you do with Polish złoty? Nothing. As well as the Czech Republic, they still have their own currency (korunas).

So, the EU should give these countries the opportunity of joining the Euro-zone finally.

On the other hand, I only hope that France and Germany will be more fond and considerate of Mediterranean countries. That would be neat.

@fdrake

I finished the book (My Struggle 1).

It is complicated to do a review in such a deep book. I think it has a lot of crucial parts, but Knausgård focuses on one point: loneliness. I have been jotting down the parts where he felt that way -- 15 years old; 30 years old; and when he is currently writing the book, around 40 years old or so.

There are different stages where Knausgård feels lonely. The relationship with his father, rather than being bad, I would say it is incomprehensible. It hit me when he says in the book: I was reciting a performance at school. I was nervous, so the storyline didn't go well. When we were in the car, my father said that he has never felt that embarrassed, and he will not show up to another performance. He kept the promise.

The attitude of Knausgård's father was exactly that. He never was there, and I think it caused an emotional trauma to this writer. He admitted in some paragraphs of the book that it took him ten years to write a book of his father, because there are some questions that remain unanswered. I believe this book was a self-guide to answer those questions. Precisely, I think the death of alcoholism was not the issue here, but the fact that his father will no longer be physically around anymore. Maybe he had the faith to build a paternal relationship, and this is very sad.
On the other hand -- it is interesting to see how he embraces loneliness when he became an adult. There is another page that says -- I disliked living in my childhood residential neighbourhood of Norway. I gaze at this Swedish suburb with a lot of buildings with unknown people, and I feel fine.

Well, I never read something like this. I think the way he approaches solitude is unique and original. There are five more numbers. I don't know if I would read them all, but the first volume gave me the impression that he also wants to focus on his brother, Yngve. The last pages of the book show a similar sense of loneliness in his brotherly relationship when they attended Bergen University, but he was not as deep as with the father.

I am again in that period of time where one feels blue oneself -- a bit depressed.

Brother, already on to a different girl man; the teacher is old news. This other one does in fact like the beach she said, so it might work out super chill. Who knows though. — Zolenskify

Glad to know! Stop faffing around, and have a coffee with that girl! :up:

But I digress, right now I have to pick between going out with this one girl or a chance to catch a nice swell; so, I have my work cut out for me. — Zolenskify

If I were you, I would go surfing and catch a nice swell. Look mate, I am from Madrid and my city has no access to the sea, but I understand how it feels to have the sea near you when I go to Barcelona or A Coruña often. I know it is a special feeling. It seems that you feel chilled when you are in the waves; then, you have to ask yourself if you would feel the same way getting your teacher to drink a coffee with you. It might be everything in your head; you have to be strong, man. I know it is difficult, but I think you are knocking on the wrong door. Why don't you try going out with a girl who also loves surfing like you?

I didn't see it because I hadn't signed in. Not everybody does. So, they will not know about the Literary Activity. — Amity

Well, they couldn't have known about The Shoutbox either because it is also not visible unless you sign in. I think it is a correct and understandable idea. There are weird people flowing around the Internet, and it is better to hide the relevant categories from search engines, as Jamal explained. :up:

"Where is my apple?". She said, "I ate it". We were happily married for 33 years. — jgill

I thought -- 'Mate, I don't recall reading that passage of Adam and Eve in the Bible'. :razz:

We have to never disregard the power of an apple. That's why I had one painted by Dali as a profile pic.

Is what it sounds like, nothing to nsfw, but maybe just some coffee? — Zolenskify

You and I know what will happen after that coffee. :smirk:

By the way, why do you want to get with your teacher? It seems that you feel attracted to her a priori.
 

Interesting. Thanks for sharing the note. :up:

First of all, it is quite complex to approach paradoxes. When I tried to comment something on this topic, some users rejected my view because they considered that it wasn't a paradox at all. So, the concept of paradox is blurry to me.

On the other hand, if I am not mistaken, the paradox of your notes is that whereas the figure collapses uniformly, the surface areas of the 3D figures are limitless.
I might haven't understood something because my knowledge of math is very limited—not like the 3D surface areas :grin: —but it is always comforting to try to read papers like yours.

But trying to teach both subjects simultaneously was counter productive. — jgill

I understand, yet I was referring to a special group of students. I meant the ones who are around 17 or 18 years old, and they are nearly finishing high school to enrol in university. Some of the are good—or even brilliant—on maths, literature, philosophy, physics, etc. According to their skills, they would choose one degree or another. But, no matter the degree, I think spelling is very important. At least, writing with proper grammar is a proof of non-illiteracy, in my honest opinion.

And I am not sure the ability to write lengthy pieces with delightful descriptive flourishes is an admirable trait where succinct, to the point passages would suffice - in fact, be more readable. — jgill

Yeah, brief texts could be better and more comprehensible than long ones. Nonetheless, if we want to teach young people critical reading, large texts are also important. Furthermore, I think it is essential to teach them to not read only the surface of every topic. For example, I am not an expert on mathematics, but some paradoxes are interesting, and I want to expand my knowledge of that. Wikipedia would help me; that's true, but I bet there are clear papers around the Internet that could be more complete.

Really!? I didn't know that.

I wish I was aware about the Tulips origin back in my college life. I guess I could have had more chances with the Turkish girls in my class. I gave candies as a Christmas gift to one of them.—and she liked the detail, actually—
Imagine if the present would have been a nice box of tulips!

Cute. :heart: :flower: @Benkei @Tzeentch @Tobias

How is it in Spanish? — Jafar

I think it is pretty good, actually. The books I have are edited and translated directly from Greek. There are some notes by the responsible of the edition. They are nice to study. At least, these were that my teacher of philosophy recommended me in school, and I never found a better edition in Spanish.

I read the Republic in German — Jafar

Wow, if you are able to read complex books in German, then you sure could read original texts of Nietzsche or Kant!

I wish! I have to make do with English — Jafar

I wish it too! I read Greek authors in Spanish. My school taught Greek, but I decided to study geography instead. One of my biggest mistakes in my teenage era.

Lemme know what you think when you're done please! — fdrake

Righto, mate! :smile:

It's very fun to read it aloud. — Jafar

You mean reciting it loudly in Greek? :smile:

I believe there are also plenty more nations who are witnessing the same thing, and more to follow. — Christoffer

Yes, here too.

There are no long sentences and paragraphs in the same way as previous generations used in writing. — Christoffer

True. When I read your argument, I thought about encyclopedias. Although it is true that Wikipedia—and the Internet altogether—is a great invention to have access to information, I think they limited the people to go deeper into every topic. For example, I want to know some details about Sweden. If I searched on Wikipedia, I would discover basic info such as the capital city, GDP, extension, etc. But if I decide to take a book of Scandinavian studies, my knowledge about Sweden will be deeper, better, and higher in quality. Sadly, it seems that people only want to focus on the surface.

They don't write letters, they don't write posts like this, no actual arguments or stories; they write in short forms that themselves consist of even shorter elements, previously emojis, but now also acronyms and made-up words conveying specific meanings spread as word-based memes (not just visual ones). — Christoffer

Believe it or not, I still write letters often. It helps me to keep up with grammar and creative writing in my own language. I don't have anyone to send those. I remember that I wanted to send a letter to Alkis Piskas—a TPF member. It was fun. But I see a lot of difficulties in actually getting my letter to be sent to Greece. It is not impossible, though. On the other hand, I think emojis are a good internet tool. I like to use them—you can perceive that I use them a lot on TPF.

What exactly is going on here? — Christoffer

It comes a lot of things to mind, but I personally believe that reducing the effort in education drove us to the current scenario. Some believe that studying a lot of hours is bad for children. Others think otherwise. I think that grammar and complex readings are crucial for a child when he is learning. Instead of continuing watching anime or cartoons all the time, they should read texts and do poetry. But for real. Not just to pass exams. If I were a professor, I would evaluate more the grammar than the content itself. Maybe a student is great in math, but if his grammar is terrible, I think he should not be able to promote. Simple.

Furthermore, let's be honest. People always valued science over language. It is a terrible mistake, in my opinion.

What in culture and education fails to form these abilities? — Christoffer

We—the millennial generation—are guilty, not just education and culture. I would like to know if you were thinking about a private or public educational system, or if this is not relevant at all.

It is true that Knausgård wants to get into the deepest point of sadness and loneliness, but it is something I am looking for right now. Authors who are older than me, and they express with a great narrative the sense of loss and melancholy.
It is a 500-page book, and I guess I will be able to finish it -- on the other hand, it reminds me of Fosse and the Norwegian type of narrative. I think it took him 10 years to finish this first novel. Wow...