A worthy quote from issue 1 of 4 part limited series comics Gangland from Vertigo Comics on cameras and photos..
I’ve been always fascinated by cameras. Little boxes and inside
each one, a tiny thief, ready to steal at touch of a button. To
pocket a moment of time.What they steal can never be returned; what they take they keep
forever…Stealing moments in time with my invisible eye…
As if I could replace what’s missing in my heart with a few spare
moments clipped from other people’s lives.
I had heard about Sophie’s World from quite a number of sources. Finally I got a worn out copy from Fort for 100 bucks. Finished it in the next couple of days. This was about two years back. It is one of the best bedside introductions to philosophy…
Embedded in mystery and weirdness.
The best part of the climax is a p”hilosophical party”, which I also wish to have…
Quotes:
Who are you?
“You are me.”
“I am you.”
You can’t experience being alive without realizing that you have to die, she thought.
Where does the world come from?
How could it be “the easiest way”?
… the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder…
Why was it so difficult to be absorbed in the most vital and, in a way, the most natural of all questions?
So it is easier to ask philosophical questions than to answer them.
Actually, we are the white rabbit being pulled out of the hat.
and anyway it would be pointless to chase after someone who was determined to get away.
It all has to do with habit.
Do you think it can do what it does?
A philosopher never gets quite used to the world.
She understood that people had always felt a need to explain the processes of nature. Perhaps they could not live without such explanations. And that they made up all those myths in the time before there was anything called science.
… nothing can come from nothing …
Once we have determined what a particular philosopher’s project is, it is easier to follow his line of thought, since no one philosopher concerns himself with the whole of philosophy.
How can I “see” a flower, for example?
You probably wouldn’t admire a friend who was good at everything if it cost her no effort.
She decided that philosophy was not something you can learn; but perhaps you can learn to think philosophically.
Why is Lego the most ingenious toy in the world?
Why did people quit playing when they grew up?
“I’m not playing!” Sophie retorted indignantly, “I’m doing a very complicated philosophical experiment!”
Do you believe in Fate?
Is sickness the punishment of the gods?
What forces govern the course of history?
Who had the right to call other people’s belief superstition?
One day we will meet, but I shall be the one to decide when and where.
Thus the “fortune-teller” is trying to foresee something that is really quite unforeseeable.
This is characteristic of all forms of foreseeing. And precisely because what they “see” is so vague, it is hard to repudiate fortune-tellers’ claims.
Over the entrance to the temple at Delphi was a famous inscription: KNOW THYSELF! It
reminded visitors that man must never believe himself to be more than mortal—and that no man can escape his destiny.
…wisest is she who knows she does not know…
Is there such a thing as natural modesty?
Wisest is she who knows she does not know…
True insight comes from within.
He who knows what is right will do right.
But today, most people think it is “natural,” even though
it is still strictly forbidden in lots of countries.
But the more she did, the more clearly she saw that knowing what you don’t know is also a kind of knowledge.
But didn’t all knowledge come into people’s heads from the outside?
The history of ideas is like a drama in many acts.
In order for democracy to work, people had to be educated enough to take part in the
democratic process.
“The question is complex and life is short.”
Modesty—or the lack of it—is first and foremost a matter of social convention.
“You can seek him in the present, you can seek him in the past, but you will never find
his equal.” on Socrates
So it is no easy matter to distinguish between the teachings of Socrates and the philosophy of Plato.
Socrates saw his task as helping people to “give birth” to the correct insight, since
real understanding must come from within. It cannot be imparted by someone else. And only
the understanding that comes from within can lead to true insight.
Something within him left him no choice.
A “philosopher” really means “one who loves wisdom.”
A philosopher knows that in reality he knows very little.
…it troubled him that he knew so little.
“One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.”
Any one question can be more explosive than a thousand answers.
All he knew was that he knew nothing—and it troubled him. So he became a
philosopher—someone who does not give up but tirelessly pursues his quest for truth.
Can you live a happy life if you continually do things you know deep down are wrong?
“We don’t learn anything there. The difference between schoolteachers and philosophers is that school-teachers think they know a lot of stuff that they try to force down our throats. Philosophers try to figure things out together with the pupils.”
“It’s not him who’s disturbed. But he likes to disturb others—to shake them out of their rut.”
… several tall buildings had risen from the ruins …
We still speak of Socratic or Platonic philosophy, but actually being Plato or Socrates is quite another matter.”
Plato’s four tasks.
First you must think over how a baker can bake fifty absolutely identical cookies.
Then you can ask yourself why all horses are the same.
Next you must decide whether you think that man has an immortal soul.
And finally you must say whether men and women are equally sensible.
… a longing to return to the realm of the soul…
Because even though some horses were as brown as bears and others
were as white as lambs, all horses had something in common.
All she knew was that dead bodies were either
cremated or buried, so there was no future for them.
Why are horses the same, Sophie? You probably don’t think they are at all. But there is
something that all horses have in common, something that enables us to identify them as
horses. A particular horse “flows,” naturally. It might be old and lame, and in time it will die. But
the “form” of the horse is eternal and immutable.
Because clearly, the mold itself must be utter perfection—and in a sense, more beautiful—in comparison with these crude copies.
… the girl in the mirror winked with both eyes…
Was it the path she had taken earlier?
How could a person who had never seen a live chicken or a picture of a chicken ever have any “idea” of a chicken?
What came first—the chicken or the “idea” chicken ?
Are we born with innate “ideas”? What is the difference between a plant, an animal, and a human?
Why does it rain?
What does it take to live a good life?
…a meticulous organizer who wanted to clarify our concepts …
You’ll have to content yourself with the fact that you are not the only one who can’t exceed your own limits.
Everybody is more or less peculiar. I am a person, so I am more or less peculiar. You have only one girl, so I am the most peculiar.
Common sense and conscience can both be compared to a muscle. If you don’t use a muscle, it gets weaker and weaker.”
The world is me, she thought.
And as you know, when a thing gets bigger and bigger it’s more difficult to keep it to yourself.
It is the only way to become more than a naked
ape. It is the only way to avoid floating in a vacuum.
… going only part of the way is not the same as going the wrong way…
Sorry. My lips are sealed.”
But she had been nervous, and when you’re nervous its comforting to break all taboos.
“It’s easy to know better after the fact.”
We shall become better acquainted by and by
But philosophy is not a harmless party game.
One generation ages while another generation is brought forth.
Life is both sad and solemn. We are let into a wonderful world, we meet one another here, greet each other—and wander together for a brief moment. Then we lose each other and disappear as suddenly and unreasonably as we arrived.
“It’s not a silly question if you can’t answer it.
“Does all this really matter?” “Does it matter? You bet it matters!
“Smart. But not so smart really.”
“Is it really as simple as that?”
For the wages of sin is death.
That was a serious slip of the tongue.”
“But a slip of the tongue is never wholly accidental.”
…such stuff as dreams are made on…
She knew her mother knew that Sophie knew her mother wouldn’t believe it either.
“No, there’s a lot I don’t know.”
“Well, nearly everything that’s important comes either from Greece or from Italy.”
That was actually quite a lot in the space of one second.
carpe diem’—‘seize the day.’
‘memento mori,’ which means ‘Remember that you must die.’
But any display of magnificence presupposes a display of power. It has often been said that the political situation in the Baroque period was not unlike its art and architec
… he wanted to clear all the rubble off the site…
“You begin to work out your own philosophy.”
‘How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?’
Recently read the comics series Y The Last Man.
Tale of a single human male and his pet monkey, who survive an instant death to all the mammals that have the ‘Y’ chromosome; read males. All the mammal males, even the sperms die at the same time. This leads the world in chaos. Yorick the only male to survive this disaster is escorted by Agent 355 with Dr. Mann a scientist, who seems to be the only woman who is capable of doing anything about the catastrophe. So starts the adventure, with only one male remaining in the world
Quotes
#1
Who wants peace, when we have not yet begun to fight?
I am not afraid of the world…. I am afraid of the world without you.
# 5
When the game is over, the Queen and the Pawn go in the same box.
# 7
No price is too great for your opponents king.
# 8
There’s a line I never thought I’d have to hear again.
# 09
Your imprisonment was also your emancipation.
# 12
Euphemisms are only for those who feel guilt about what they are
describing.
With little power comes little responsibility.
# 13
None of us is innocent.
# 14
… but sometimes you must do terrible things for peace.
# 15
This is what happens to friends when a man comes between them.
# 18
Ain’t nothing worse than ladies in numbers.
Is this some kinda joke?
That’s what I keep asking myself.
The Day of The Locust
# 20
It was like, they had crossed the finish line already, you know? But I
still had a million laps to run.
Everyone else just thinks I’m dumb and impulsive and .. well not that
I am not…
Endings have to be earned.
# 21
Isn’t this the part where you do something stupid?
# 22
Good thing, our shit lawys goes according to plans…
Just because you can dance doesn’t mean that you are a dancer…
# 25
I came here for forgiveness… but now I’ve just got more shit to be
sorry for.
The things we do make us what we are.
You fuck better than you preach.
# 27
You, young man are wise beyond your years.
# 29
Karma is a fucking urban legend.
# 32
Waters won’t be always this calm.
# 35
And I’m no more guilty than you are qualified to sit on that bench.
# 37
The future never shapes up like you figure it will…
# 38
Come on, we have a rumour to kill…
# 42
Love isn’t an emotion it’s an abstract construct mammals assign to a
biological imperative they don’t fully understand.
# 43
Everybody needs somebody.
Sure, this will probably end up being another in a long line of
emotionally crippling misadventures.
No, real relationships can only be forged by hate.
The gangster of love knows how to simulate all passages great and
small.
Yes, you are very beautiful when you cry.
# 44
Everybody has got something to hide.
Everybody’s got something, right?
# 47
How is it wrong if no one ever knows about it?
We may be changing countries, but we will net let that country change
us.
# 49
Mixed messages in my bane existence.
# 50
Faith and science can be friends, but they make for a disastrous
marriage.
Answers to the unknown are all around us.
# 51
Our bodies tell us that we love so many, but there’s room in our
hearts for so few.
# 52
Our sexes maybe equal, but they are not the same.
Because you confused your protective instincts with romantic
feelings.
# 53
Still, you can take the girl out of htthe amazon, but you can’t always
take the amazons out of the girl, right?
# 55
A good relationship isn’t where one the other person makes you feel
better, but where they make you better.
# 57
So you would have said no to the man, but yes to the last man.
I have so many different ways to respond to that, I don’t know even
where to begin.
# 60
We spend nine months trying to get out of a women and rest of our
lives trying to get back in.
This is taken from The Method of Coordinates by I. M. Gel’fand
E.G. Glagoleva A.A. Kirillov
Of course, it was not our intention that aIl these
students who studied from these books or even
completed the School should choose mathematics as
their future career. Nevertheless, no matter what they
would later choose, the results of this training re
mained with them. For many, this had been their first
experience in being able to do something on their own
— completely independently.
1 would like to make one comment here. Sorne of my
American colleagues have explained to me that
American students are not really accustomed to think
ing and working hard, and for this reason we must
make the material as attractive as possible. Permit me
to not completely agree with this opinion. From my
long experience with young students aU over the
world 1 know that they are curious and inquisitive and
1 beIieve that if they have sorne clear mate rial pre
sented in a simple form, they will prefer this to aIl
artificial means of attracting their attention — much as
one ,buys books for their content and not for their
dazzling jacket designs that engage only for the
moment.
The most important thing a student can get from the
study of mathematics is the attainment of a higher
intellectualleveL In this light 1would like to point out
as an example the famous American physicist and
teacher Richard Feynman who succeeded in writing
both his popular books and scientific works in a
simple and attractive manner.
I. M. Gel’fand
They chatter with one man,
Look at another with amorous gestures;
And in their minds think of yet another,
Who then is loved by a woman?
From: Bhartrihari [7th Century]
When you read these lines, the immediate thing that you want to do is to find a woman in your memory lanes that fits the above bill. One will perhaps find not one, but many. But, perhaps this also applies to men, in fact I think they are more likely to do so, if you accept the explanations from evolutionary psychology and comparative psychology.
In evolutionary psychology they say that the males want to produce as many offspring as possible. So they try to mate with as many females as possible, many times the quality does not matter, only quantity does. This is so because the males do not have to invest [sic] a lot in mating. The analogy that is often given to the sperm production in males is to spam mails that hit your mailbox daily. Even if one in 10 million makes it, your job is done. But for the females the bodily investment is much larger. So females they say prefer quality over quantity. After the copulation it is the female who has to bear the child, and the responsibility of male becomes minimal. Imagine if a human male copulated daily with a fertile female, which I guess one can, how many children can he produce in a life time? Perhaps in thousands. Similarly if we think of human females producing children when they can, that is taking into consideration their biology; perhaps one child in a year, considering all other factors, the total number will be max at 2 dozen or so. So it is the males who would are more likely to be mating more than women to produce children and that too with many different ones, if they have the capabilities.
This particular observation is not general, and of course does not apply to all species. There are species of sea-horse in which the males rear the young ones, in almost all birds the rearing of offspring is the joint responsibility of the couple. In animals who have social structures, as in case of humans and monkeys, the young ones are raised socially.
But we being humans, do not copulate just for procreation, we do also copulate for recreation [of ourselves that is]. They say that dolphins and chimps are the only other creatures which do so, no wonder they are called intelligent. All other animals copulate when their natural cycle tells them to. So in this light of recreational copulation the above verses acquire a different meaning. There are women and men who copulate and want to copulate for recreation, it is perhaps their nature to do so, but perhaps they are bound too strongly by the social sanctions that surround them.
The next question to ask is that is it right for them to do so?
Well, the answer depends on what one thinks of such social norms. Are they to be followed in to to, or they have an interpretation dependent logic.
The answer is something that I do not know…
PS: Perhaps the essay might sound silly, it is; I have to expand on certain sections.
Today, because it is the 15th Monday of your 5th grade year,
you have to do this sum irrespective of who you are or what
you really want to do; do what you are told and do it the
way you are told to do it.
From: The Children’s Machine by Seymour Papert
मेरी दुआ है तेरी आरजु बदल जाए
तेरी दुआ से कजा तो बदल नही सकती
मगर है ईससे ये मुमकीन की तु बदल जाए
तेरी खुदी मे अगर इनकलाब हो पैदा
अजब नही के ये चार सो बदल जाए
वही शराब वही हया अो हु रहे बाकी
तरीक-ए-सबिक अो रसमे कदो बदल जाए
तेरी दुआ है की हो तेरी आरजु पुरी
मेरी दुआ है तेरी आरजु बदल जाए
अलामा ईकबाल
Well, Blossoms in Bangalore? I was in Bangalore during the spring and start of summer 2010, and have seen quite a lot of them. Here is a sample!
But it is not this blossom that I am talking about. But there is a special Blossoms in Bangalore. It is round the year blossom of books! With the bibliophile that I am, the book is like a three storied candy shop.
But anyways, I came to know about this “candy shop” from Tanu. She told me that you MUST VISIT this place.
http://www.blossombookhouse.com
Okay, then me and GN directly landed from the airport to the Blossoms Book House in Church Street. The store has a unique feature to store your bags, they have small lockers and you lock your bag and keep the key!
That apart the book store is one of the best that I have ever visited, no questions about that.
The lower floor has books on philosophy, nature, films, music, architecture, media. General reading etc.
The second floor is full of literature. This is a floor I have had not found time to visit in my two trips there.
The best is the third floor. It has books on science, mathematics, computers, psychology, history and biographies among others.
And the popular science section is amazing!
They have all the titles arranged according to author names: like in a library and they maintain a computer catalog of these books. I got some really good titles here. Many of Mir books, Dover editions which were out of print. And that too at a reasonable if not cheap price always. The most commonly found book is Contact by Carl Sagan. I must have seen at least ~ 20 copies of this book in different editions in this store.
The best part is that along with new books they also have old and second hand books. Which really sets the day for you. Out of print and rare books to be found here!!
Apart from that I met long forgotten volumes, it was like meeting old friends unexpectedly in a strange place. (Perhaps they were happy to meet me also 😉
We could not just finish in time, it was already their closing time. And I did not feel how the three hours went by. Me and GN were just collecting, filling basket after basket by books. Finally the time came to leave, and books amounted to two cartons! How were we supposed to carry? They suggested that they will send it by parcel to Mumbai! So were are done!
No matter what kind of books you read, you are sure to get them here!
The next time story was no different. And we were in till there closing time again!
I wanted to spend an entire day there, but could not. May
be will try next time.
But if you are in Bangalore its a MUST VISIT.
A paradise and candy shop for bibliophiles!!
Saurav is planning a visit to Bangalore just for Blossoms!!
[Blossoms photos by Tanu, please get some shots from the inside!!]
Other Candy shops:
http://me-damitr.blogspot.com/2009/05/candy-shops-for-bibliophiles-3.html
http://me-damitr.blogspot.com/2009/05/candy-shops-for-bibliophiles-2.html
http://me-damitr.blogspot.com/2009/05/candy-lanes-for-bibliophiles-1.html
For actual blossoms
http://me-damitr.blogspot.com/2008/05/summer-and-spring-special.html
I have coined a new term: cigol.
The term may have some meaning, google gives it as a surname for many.
But for me it is something, which I am suffering due to.
To guess the meaning read the term backwards.
And you will get it!
Now there is a term illogical which is already existent, but when I mean cigol, it is
not exactly illogical. There is a differnece. The difference is that
illogical would mean devoid of logic. But in case of cigol, the logic is
very much there, but is reversed. They are very much applicable to babus.
For example if something is supposed to help you, they make it in such a way
that it becomes unhelpful, deliberately.
I would love to cite a lot of examples, but alas I cannot for reasons known to all.
I love the artist or scholar whose activity is like the bee
pursuing the delicious nectar of the flowers. The bee has no
mind to become a renowned authority on which flowers
contain the best nectar; the bee simply loves nectar. In all
probability, the bee, through his actual experience will soon
have a fantastic knowledge of the flower geography of his
neighborhood-as good perhaps as any human scholar who
“studies” botany. And I say the bee really knows the flower
much better than the botanist. The botanist merely knows
about the flower; the bee knows the flower directly. The more
analytically minded reader might well ask, at this point, just
what I mean by “knowing about something” versus “knowing it
directly.” I wish I could answer him! The distinction is so
difficult to explain rationally, and yet it is of such vital
importance.
