Blinding, Book Two: The Body by Mircea Cărtărescu.

The narrative and imagination of Mircea are just amazing. I am addicted to his trilogy called 'Orbitor' in Romanian; translated as 'Blinding' in English and 'Cegador' in Spanish. Quite good. It is a constant stream of dreams and hallucinations in 1960s Mircea's Bucharest. :flower: :sparkle:

Chapter I: Pages 3-6.

Of late, I have come to sense within myself an accumulation of all kinds of things that cannot find adequate expression via an objective artistic form such as the novel.

Sun and Steel was written in 1968. Two years before Mishima took his life. We can perceive from the first line of this essay that he was aware of some kind of 'evolution', but for some reason, he couldn't express it in the way he used to do. I guess the present work was that. The rest of the novels Mishima used characters to camouflage himself. This is a 'face-to-face' essay. Mishima is showing himself without taboos.

The “I” with which I shall occupy myself will not be the “I” that relates back strictly to myself, but something else, some residue, that remains after all the other words I have uttered have flowed back into me, something that neither relates back nor flows back.

This is interesting. Mishima is now at a point of no return. He is no longer a novelist but something else. A warrior? A samurai? A Japanese nationalist? He was perfectly aware of his transformation. When he stated that 'neither relates back nor flows back', he was probably thinking of suicide.

One day, it occurred to me to set about cultivating my orchard for all I was worth. For my purpose, I used sun and steel. Unceasing sunlight and implements fashioned of steel became the chief elements in my husbandry. Little by little, the orchard began to bear fruit, and thoughts of the body came to occupy a large part of my consciousness.

Important feature: Mishima was also interested in bodybuilding. I think he just used metaphors: orchards, husbandry, fruits, sun and steel. The pure work on the body. His physical body started to occupy the largest part of his awareness. Time for the katana and not the pen.

First comes the pillar of plain wood, then the white ants that feed on it. But for me, the white ants were there from the start, and the pillar of plain wood emerged tardily, already half eaten away.

Mishima had a poor image of himself when he was young. I can't know if this thought continued to the rest of his days. Everything started when he was rejected from joining the Japanese army because he appeared to be sick and not strong enough. This is something that influenced him in most of his novels, but writing didn't heal Mishima, and he felt like the pillar of plain wood was already half eaten away. Time for building a more robust body. He no longer will be rejected for being weak.

The natural corollary of such a tendency was that I should openly admit the existence of reality and the body only in fields where words had no part whatsoever.

Mishima started his journey to bodybuilding with accepting another reality. Surprisingly, he never left literature behind. He kept writing for two years straight. He even finished his trilogy with 'The Corruption of an Angel'. Yet Mishima felt the necessity to prepare himself for the 'point of no return' that I referred to before.

It is perhaps only natural that this type of panic and fear, though so obviously the product of a misconception, should postulate another more desirable physical existence, another more desirable reality. Never dreaming that the body existing in a form that rejected existence was universal in the
male, I set about constructing my ideal hypothetical physical existence by investing it with all the opposite characteristics. And since my own, abnormal bodily existence was doubtless a product of the intellectual corrosion of words, the ideal body—the ideal existence—must, I told myself, be absolutely free from any interference by words. Its characteristics could be summed up as taciturnity and beauty of form.

That summarises pretty well the first chapter. :smile:

Mishima is now in another reality; he is preparing his body to go to a point of no return, and words can be left behind. Now, we will see how he goes through it.

In this way my mind, without realizing what it was doing, straddled these two contradictory elements and, godlike, set about trying to manipulate them. It was thus that I started writing novels. And this increased still further my thirst for reality and the flesh.

:sparkle:

TO BE CONTINUED...

Is anyone interested in doing the second chapter? :smile: Feel free to comment!

I want Francis back too. What a big loss!

I thought the same: that the next Pope could be from Africa. But, as @tim wood noted, they are too conservative, and it is unlikely that the devoted cardinals of Francis want them.

Let's see what happens...

Sedes Vacans

Final version:



- We cropped the land of Antarctica and put it on the upper left of the corner. I think it is a good idea when the land is drawn in the flag. It could be simple, but considering that Antarctica is a special land, it is worth having it there.

- On the other hand: we have a red fish on the down right side. What is the meaning of a red fish? This was my idea, and it comes from Japanese heraldry. The red fish is called 'Koinobori.'
Koinobori symbolizes hope for the future, good health, strength, and courage.

:smile:

Hey, praxis! Thanks for your feedback. We are still working on it. Drawing a flag is more difficult than I ever thought. Nonetheless, Martín found the following flag on the Internet. We think we will use it as a pattern or something.



Best regards!

Edited.

El asesinato del perdedor (Translation in English is not available) by Camilo José Cela.

(Martín Orensanz) @Arcane Sandwich and I (Javier Miranda Jiménez) are creating a fictional Antarctica. It has its own constitution, government, people, nationality, laws, etc.

We are doing this for fun, and it is stimulating our imagination and creativity.

I am responsible for drawing the new flag for our fictional Antarctica. I have three different samples, and only one will be the official.

Feel free to comment on them. Either you think they are ugly or need something.

Example n⁰1:



Martin didn't like it because it has Japanese stuff, and the colours are out of place. I agreed with him because the point was to make up the simplest flag ever.

Two new versions:

Option A (plain and simple):



Option B (Igloos are traditional Artic houses)

I only read literature, but thanks for the input anyway. I believe there are some folks here who actually read it, but they are busy with other stuff, or they are just shy to share their thoughts. We never know what is going through the reader's mind! :wink:

From what aI have been able to work out, this is very different to the situation in Spain. — Banno

We could have different issues, but the problems are the same: speculation and exclusion of first-home buyers.

Investors also have tax income benefits if they invest in real estate. Capital gains on investment properties are taxed only at 25% if you are an enterprise and just only 10% if you are a fund. For this reason, most of the buildings in central Madrid and Barcelona are owned by funds, not persons.

Apart from being a cheap investment, our government no longer constructs public housing. I believe they are concerned that most Spaniards will be unable to afford the loans. So the soil is free to be mined and speculated on.

Notice that the income of the average Spaniard is €1,500 or even less. The price of leasing a normal house is around €1,200, and the loans are around €700 per month. As you can see, property prices cut into Spaniards' ability to save.

A different context, yes. But we end up in the same problems as you: Housing affordability.

Oh, and of course that come from the 1990s. We also had neoliberalism here.

Housing affordability is a worldwide problem, Banno. :wink:

Nobody anywhere knows how to stop it.

This is very helpful for those (like me) who are not Australian but are interested in the next elections. Well, the world is large, and it is interesting to learn from others.

State of the states: six politics experts explain the key seats across the country.

New South Wales: How the 2025 federal election will play out in NSW is difficult to predict for two reasons: 1) The first is the recent redistribution which, as ABC analyst Antony Green’s pendulum shows, has redefined many electoral boundaries.
2) The second is the number of crossbench MPs.

Queensland: For decades we said Queensland was a key “battleground” in federal elections where seats north of the Tweed so often held the keys to The Lodge. But, for the past 15 years, federal elections have seen little movement in Queensland except, of course, for 2022 when the Greens won three seats.

South Australia: South Australia is rarely a key battleground in federal elections, and only comprises ten electoral seats. -- Wow! Just only that seats?

Tasmania: There are two main seats to watch in Tasmania. The large, rural seat of Lyons is one of the most marginal in the country. On the surface, Franklin – Australia’s only non-contiguous electorate – looks like a safe Labor seat. Another point of interest is who will pick up the votes won by the Jaquie Lambie Network (JLN) in 2022. The JLN is not running candidates following a spectacular implosion at state level – and where those voters find a home could be crucial, particularly in Lyons.

Be careful with the Tasmanian devil, mates!



Victoria: Victoria is shaping up to be a crucial state for the major parties. Several seats are held by the Labor and coalition parties with a margin of less than 5%. -- Folks will sing 'VICTORIA' after winning the seat.

Western Australia: The five WA seats to watch are Curtin, Bullwinkel, Forrest, Pearce and Tangney. -- Beautiful beaches, sunsets and that pink smoothy called 'Lake Hillier'. It takes me more than 20 hours to get there. So bad. Why are you that far from the rest of the world?

The less that you hear about the politics in my country, the better. Our chaotic way of managing a state might make you feel dizzy. We still have a 'royal family', which causes a lot of problems. Catalonia has been an important territorial crisis, despite having abandoned their independence movement, etc.

At least we are kind; the weather is great and the food is lovely. :razz:

And also I think our Westminster-style parliamentary democracy (which we have in common with Britain) is preferable to the presidential republic model of the States. — Wayfarer

I also like that parliamentary style, where the debates and legislation are serious. Not a show in which the showman shouts bollocks while his political group members applaud or the opposition throws acid. This is the toxic foggy ambience in which some of us are.

@Banno and also

I just found on Google this interesting analysis (Australian voters may not be deeply polarised) that is relevant to what we discussed this week. The most 'meh' election you have witnessed.

The new research demonstrates: Australian voters are not deeply polarised or highly enthusiastic; instead, they are both uncertain and ambivalent. To put it bluntly, we are the anti-America. Where, in the US, people are toxically polarised and unable to see politics through any other prism than their own partisan lens, in Australia our passions are lower but so are our biases. — Patricia Karvelas - ABC AU.

The fact that the polarisation in your country is relatively lower than in many other countries, I believe that means something positive: that Aussie people didn't get sick from the poison of politics. I don't confuse apathy with ambivalence here. It is important because key challenges (such as climate change) would not be affected by polarisation. It will be worthwhile to follow the election season of this beautiful country, where people appear to be mature and cautious. We have much to learn from you here in Spain.

Interesting, Tom. It is true that it also makes sense if we see it in the other way.

I knew you were a Labour voter when I started sharing ideas and views with you in this thread. I believe you also already told me. So, it is clear that you will vote for a left-wing approach.

Although apathetic voters can help billionaires like Musk, I still believe that people lost confidence in politicians for a lot of reasons. I think politics should be a boring job again and not this kind of circus controlled by the current showman. It is time for discussing the important matter in the parliament for hours and not writing a "tweet" or saying a weird thing because media will cover it.

I'm not sure if I'm to blame for my own apathy, but I have only voted in European elections in recent years. I often vote in my local council's elections. However, I believe my vote is wasted. It's intriguing how you perceive it, Tom: it's better to vote than not. You believe in the system, which is significant.

Anyway, no one was watching. — Banno

Do you think Aussies lost political attitudes? Or did you simply become more neutral than ever?

I don't know... Given the current state of politics, I believe a lack of interest in politics is understandable. [edited to make more sense to my reply to Banno]

*Hits cameraman with a ball*

Oh haha got him; got him. What a shot.

*Cameraman starts bleeding*

Shooks hands with cameraman and offer him a pint of beer to make up for the incident.

Peter Dutton seemed like a decent guy there. I hope he didn't behave because the election season is underway.

Cheers for the cameraman anyway!

The video:

https://youtube.com/shorts/QAOe8s867ao?feature=shared

After five years of one of the worst pandemics we humans faced, I still meet people who suffer from 'long COVID' or 'long-haul' COVID.

Long COVID comes after the initial infection. The main consequence is that when the symptoms disappear, then they appear again. Most of the symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, and sleep disorder. Long COVID can last years, or possibly lifelong...

According to Long COVID science, research and policy, the cumulative global incidence of long COVID is around 400 million individuals.

Main issue and inconvenient: There are no standardised tests to determine if symptoms persisting after COVID-19 infection are due to long COVID. It seems difficult to determine the causes and how to approach it. We only have one area in a hospital in Barcelona that takes care of it. How does it work in your countries?

Work-related impacts: The impact of long COVID on people's ability to work is large. But it is not recognised as a paid sick day (at least here) yet...

COVID is still an issue, even though we are no longer talking about it...

People who are pessimistic about climate change blame climate change for every bad thing that happens. I can only debate one issue at a time. — Agree-to-Disagree

I understand your position, but I think you should also understand why people are pessimistic.

I think there are good examples of that. There were catastrophic natural disasters in Southeast Asian countries (like the Philippines or near the coasts of the Bay of Bengal); hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, floods, etc. in recent times.

Sadly, those nations are very poor and undeveloped. Each natural disaster forces the population to move; they suffer from scarcity, and the public budget is not enough to face those expenses, so the government asks for an international loan, making the currency undervalued. In conclusion, if the Philippines and Bangladesh are already poor, a natural disaster (like a flooding) makes them poorer.

We can say that those events only happen each time. But science is showing us that they are occurring more frequently. One of the main causes of having deadly floods is due to the impact of climate change in countries like Bangladesh or Pakistan. So, in my opinion, I understand why people are negative towards this topic. If you think deeply on it, there are more disadvantages than advantages in experiencing a change in the climate of the territory you are living in.

This is interesting: During the period 1901 to 1975, the highest annual rainfall as recorded was 327 percent of the normal in 1917. The lowest annual rainfall amounting to only 34 percent of the normal was recorded in 1920.

It is a 2011 research. But now, checking the same zone (Sirsa, India) they say: In March 2025, the rainfall in Sirsa was 0.300 mm, which was an increase from the previous month.
In April 2021, the rainfall in Sirsa reached an all-time high of 12.600 mm.

https://www.ceicdata.com/en/india/rainfall-by-district/rainfall-haryana-sirsa-normal

I think it is comprehensible why people are pessimistic about the effects of climate change.

So, you are not a denier of climate change. You actually believe it exists and attribute the consequences to human actions (i.e., the increase in CO2 level), but I guess you are not an alarmist.

You might think some people are just alarmist about climate change, whilst the latter also can have its advantages, but our worrying about the situation and the uncertainty of the future can't let us see it.

So there are two kinds of groups here: when temperatures increase with climate change and poles will defrost, some would see it as catastrophic, but @Agree-to-Disagree would say: "hey, arable lands will be suitable in Russia, and people will not die of extreme cold!"

Hold up!

If you want to discuss the advantages or disadvantages of climate change, this could mean that you are accepting that climate change is an issue that actually exists. I am addressing you with this because in the few conversations we had (when we discussed Valencia's flood), it seemed to me that you were in denial of climate change.

I share it anyway:

@T Clark If you are using a mobile or similar device, switch the screen to "desktop" or whatever it is called in English.

I was editing my screenshot to show you how, but was faster than me.

Update:

0.85

5.2K mentions.

I am stuck!

Isn't it a great quality to have? — Tzeentch

Absolutely.

I have never thought that dyslexia and ADHD were disorders until they were labelled as such by assessment educational tests. Dyslexia never limited me from doing something with words and vocabulary. Folks say dyslexic kids are less able to learn second languages. Yet here I am talking with you in English.

I wonder whether ADHD is a disorder at all — Tzeentch

It is a learning disorder. I am dyslexic, and one of the risk factors is having ADHD. I have been diagnosed with either ADHD because of my dyslexia or just dyslexia. It was always confusing to me. Am I just dyslexic, or does this learning disability also make me have ADHD?

How the mind works is very complex. :chin:

I loved reading Borges too. Apart from his inclination to infinite worlds and labyrinths, I burst into tears after reading the description of the Aleph. It was very beautiful and marvellous. I wish we could experience something like that, contemplating our world through the sparkles of a sphere.

Possible inspiration for the next literary activity? Hmm... :wink:

Blinding, Book One: The Left Wing by Mircea Cartarescu.

Los tres gauchos orientales by Antonio D. Lussich.

Not fine but willing to take the responsibility. — Benkei

Neat! I can't do anything else than appreciate your efforts in this matter.

The only option to resolve this is to close the thread forever. At least we weren't compelled to read it unless you searched for the thread because the mods chose to post it on the lounge. I understand your point of "refreshing" the topic and starting again from zero, with the hope of getting things better. But the topic is about a figure that only makes polarisation. A will say X and B will say Y, and they will discuss endlessly. If you are fine with spending a looooot of time deleting posts and warning users, cool.

I like your new feistiness,but many of the questions were reasonable. — T Clark

First of all, it is obvious that banning social media links is a wise and nice decision.

Whenever I read the replies to this thread, I can't avoid laughing about some folks. I think it can't be clearer: Going forward, any post that includes a link or embed from social media outside these areas will be deleted in full. No partial edits. No warnings. If you’re not sure whether something counts as “social media,” err on the side of caution.

But what counts as social media?
But what about straight news?
But what about long videos?
But what about YouTube?
But what about YouTube Kids?

:lol:

Only those who allow AI to think for them ask such foolish questions. Jesus, it will be worse than I expected.

El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges.

97% of climate scientists agree that they don't want to be defunded. The science is settled !!! — Agree-to-Disagree

Come on, mate. Even this site is funded (by subscribers like you) with donations to keep it free from ads. What in this world can work without funds?

This thread is one of the best on this website so far.

Whenever a user is banned, we all discuss whether the decision was legitimate or not, the reasons for the banning, and how the banned user could have acted to avoid his/her banning.

But what I like the most is that here you can see some folks (myself included) wishing for the banning of others. If you ban him for this, you should also ban the other for that, hehe.

Two weeks ago it was @Arcane Sandwich; now it is @Gregory.

This works like throwing a token in the roulette. Who will be the next of us to be tagged as 'banned'?

Perhaps we need an Inquisition into the matter? — BitconnectCarlos

Yeah, perhaps mate. But I would ask the Rota Inquisition court to act in a less malicious manner than Jews do in Palestine.

Bedtime, Carlitos. It is important to sleep early so you will not miss the catechesis exam tomorrow. :wink:

I’m not used to seeing anger from you. — T Clark

Because I am shy.

That's right.

My point was not backing Gregory but protesting that there are folks who are also toxic like a rotten swamp.

Even though it is complex to moderate a website where different people with mixed opinions can post, I think it is not the right thing to draw a scale where the tones represent the topics or opinions that are more or less tolerated.

Since he wished the death of women, that's obviously a 'red flag' for someone who wants to interact with others. But I also received replies such as "your country should have never existed" because of the colonisation of America. Topics where our emotions are out of control. I guess the intelligent way to act is to ignore those kinds of comments, but I understand that some can't just let it go.

:up:

But what about when some of you justify the nuclear attack on Japan? Would I be ok with just ignoring it too?

A 'double standard' for free speech, huh.

This is a philosophy forum. There should be a reasonable tolerance for off-beat or even strange views. — Tzeentch

Reasonable tolerance... here? Uff...

I'm still waiting for individuals who rejoice in the genocide in Gaza to be banned. But I suppose making weird and incel posts about women is worse than endorsing the eradication of an ethnicity.

You know the famous guidelines...