Is it insomnia that dissolves the border between reality and fantasy? Or is just being enough to make the mind unable to understand the world awake? Is it enough to be able to understand someone else? To love someone? No, and no, says Gondry; has so many tics and quirks, I love the way he sees the world. Our communication skills are shabby, particularly for the quantity and quality of emotion. How deep. So what does it take to break through that wall? The doubt. The memoryscapes. The colors and playfulness, and the painful self-awareness that traps. His poor men, so sensitive and insecure. And his Stephanie, in love with the Alpha-dog; nice but the wrong girl. So far, the men I know all say, “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.”

So, shrug.
Moving on.

The crocuses came up - on Thursday it was all golden yellows, on Friday the purples and whites joined in too.
Spring is here. In February! They inspire: “If they are brave, I can be too.” Life is worth doing right the first time.

OK, - me again just talking talking boring noise - whatever. Time for this one to sleep. Pleasant dreams, sleeping tight and no bed bugs.

Edited after waking: Was just thinking about the way the main character slips back and forth between three languages. His French is poor so even if you understand what he is saying there is the probability of misunderstanding. He is by definition miscommunicaton. Miscommunicating. Speaking most clearly through symbols, artwork and dreams.

I’m going back to the States for a few days in April.

Robert Anton Wilson, previous thinker and provocateur extraordinaire passed on to the next hazy sphere on January 11. In honor, I borrow & repost.

From Robert Anton Wilson / Previous Thoughts

Bloomsday 2001 e.v.
16 Juno 80 p.s.U.

Schrödinger’s Jew

97 years ago today Leopold Bloom, a fictitious man, wandered the streets of Dublin, a real city; and Joyce scholars still argue about his odd odyssey. I would like to add to the confusion with a note about Bloom’s “Jewishness.”

“Is” Leopold Bloom a Jew?

Not according to Orthodox Rabbinical law, which defines a Jew as the child of a Jewish mother. Bloom as the child of a Protestant mother “is not” a Jew.

According to Nazi law, however, a Jew “is” a person with a known Jewish ancestor. Bloom as the son of Rudolph Bloom [born Rudolph Virag], “is” a Jew.

See how easily a person can “be” and “not be” a Jew at the same time?

On the third hand, most humanists define a Jew as one who believes in and practices the Judaic religion. By this definition, Bloom who neither believes in nor practices any religion “is not” a Jew. But Marilyn Monroe, who practiced and probably tried to believe in Judaism while married to Arthur Miller, “was” a Jew by that definition– for those few years, if not before or after.

Extensionally or phenomenologically, a Jew “is” somebody considered Jewish by all or most of the people he meets. By this standard the multi-ordinal Bloom “is” a Jew again.

Once more: in terms of pure existentialism a Jew “is” somebody who chooses to consider themselves Jewish. Bloom obviously doesn’t consider himself Jewish but Irish, most of the time. Only when under verbal assault by the anti-semitic Citizen in Barney Kiernan’s pub does Bloom define himself as Jewish ["And Jesus was a Jew too. Your god. He was a Jew like me."] Here he obviously has in mind the “known Jewish ancestor” rule, because he adds “And so was his father,” to which the Citizen replies, as a correct Catholic, “He had no father,” and Bloom, unfamiliar with that theology — logic played with deuces, eights and one-eyed jacks wild — can only pragmatically reply, “Well, his uncle then.”

But recalling the incident later, Bloom says “And he called me a Jew, which as a matter of fact I’m not.” Here he returns to his customary “believer in Judaic religion” definition.

I suppose Joyce made Bloom such a tangled genetic and cultural mixture to expose the absurdities of anti-semitism; but I also suspect that he wanted to undermine that neurolinguistic habit which postmodernists call “essentialism” and which Korzybski claimed invades our brains and causes hallucinations or delusions every time we use the word “is.”

//Although I couldn’t find the original link for more on Korzybski’s criticisms of “isness,” the Institute Of General Semantics site does have an excellent discussion of “How to Size Your ‘Thinking Box’” by Steve Stockdale which you can reach if you click here.

Prepping for bed after a long LONG couple of days of revision and before two more long LONG days of MORE revision. Revision, aka CRAM STUDYING before exams.

I’m on a “what does today mean” kick because of my horoscope from last week - said that today was a revelation day. The waking-dream seems like a key but I couldn’t exactly translate it and other than that it was all about revision. Oh, and yoga midmorning per the usual Sunday routine. Tried to make my standard Sunday pancakes using homemade applesauce instead of eggs/milk (a vegan recipe I semi-learned from V) so I microwaved an apple and threw it into the flour HOT only to realize that it needed cooling. The flour immediately gelled, so I opted for “scones” and threw the mush into bowls, into the microwave - our only oven - and “baked” my bread. Came out eh, so I threw it back in for a few more minutes only to BURN TO A CRISP these now rock hard lumps of would-be-breakfast. So I opted for Irish Coffee on the go instead. C’est la vie.

As the deadline of doom approaches I’m actually feeling rather game, which is nice. This evening I started practice exams using old exams from years prior with my friend Dianne and had my ass handed to me with a couple of the questions but was well pleased with my ability to answer some of the questions which was very nice. Nice, nice and nice. All things that exams should be. We’ve got a spot exam on Wednesday morning, oral exam Wednesday afternoon, and the big sit-down multiple choice, short answer & long essay exam on Friday after which I plan to eat, drink, be merry and then ditch town for a week. Whoop!

You don’t say!?

We had a class in this earlier in the week. Attendance was poor (typical for “Personal and Professional Development” classes) but the description was EVERYONE in our class. If we’re this stressed out midway (nearly through actually) the first semester, what will we be like at the end of the fifth year?? Jeepers! Personally, I’ve been having parasite nightmares and other wake me up in the middle of the night for no reason but to make sure I only get 3 1/2 hours of sleep a night type dreams. It’s not like I have a hard enough time falling asleep to begin with (my room is too cold for me and the central heating gets shut down at 12p; WAY too early in my opinion!) but as I say, I’m so by far not the only one of us in this boat.

Had a most amazing lecture presentation this morning (”Examination Of…”) wrapping up the lessons in The Alimentary System. One of those classes that puts you back on track for why you are studying this information. Ah, yes. Some of you have been asking, what exactly has been covered to date? So here’s the quick list of systems we’ve learned since Sept.

“Core Topics”
(Histology)
Anatomy
Integument
Haemolymphatic
Intro to Nervous system
Endocrine
Immunology
Urinary
Cardio / Respiratory
Alimentary

also,
Parasitology
Epidemiology
Statistics

Oh, and Metabolism (which could be part of Alimentary but is biochem and kicking my ass.) So - not that I know it all but that is what I’ve looked at.

ETC. But that gives you a basic idea.

Off to study. Tah!