Sunday, May 11, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Angels May Die
by Kristine Mayfield
We lit the night on fire
as the stars became dimmer
and the cigarettes shorter.
Shouting turned to whispers;
even the sea lowered its volume
so that all could hear the crackle
of the logs die in its own funeral pyre.
We lit the night on fire
as the stars became dimmer
and the cigarettes shorter.
Shouting turned to whispers;
even the sea lowered its volume
so that all could hear the crackle
of the logs die in its own funeral pyre.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Broken Rope
by Ira Maepeso
There's a deep melancholy
that comes in with the tide.
There's no one left in my brigade
and the General's body is slowly
drifting into the sea, to be swallowed
by the mouth of hell.
I am a soldier without directions;
a ship without a Captain.
Maybe now I can finally
go home and feel the warmth
of her kiss,
only if I knew
which way to go.
There's a deep melancholy
that comes in with the tide.
There's no one left in my brigade
and the General's body is slowly
drifting into the sea, to be swallowed
by the mouth of hell.
I am a soldier without directions;
a ship without a Captain.
Maybe now I can finally
go home and feel the warmth
of her kiss,
only if I knew
which way to go.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Alphabet Soup
by Allen Wokins
Images in motion. Words unlinked.
My alphabet soup tastes bland
even as I try to assemble a poem
with the limited letters I was given.
I see an Edward Munch painting
screaming on the surface of the
tomato sauce, all the while
bobbing its head, gasping for air,
but I couldn't decypher
his message.
I spend every Sunday morning
staring into my bowl hoping to
grasp some esoteric knowledge.
Isn't this how soothsayers used
to tell the future?
Images in motion. Words unlinked.
My alphabet soup tastes bland
even as I try to assemble a poem
with the limited letters I was given.
I see an Edward Munch painting
screaming on the surface of the
tomato sauce, all the while
bobbing its head, gasping for air,
but I couldn't decypher
his message.
I spend every Sunday morning
staring into my bowl hoping to
grasp some esoteric knowledge.
Isn't this how soothsayers used
to tell the future?
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Motionless
by Sandra Watts
Bodies lying on the ground--
motionless and stiff-- I wish
I could take their expressions
away.
It's too late though,
their mouths are wide open
screaming a steady
stream of air;
the frozen fingers
pointing to the sky,
towards horror, or
maybe towards God.
Bodies lying on the ground--
motionless and stiff-- I wish
I could take their expressions
away.
It's too late though,
their mouths are wide open
screaming a steady
stream of air;
the frozen fingers
pointing to the sky,
towards horror, or
maybe towards God.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Dialecticism in History and Philosophy
by Nathan Murthy
Cultural models dominate our conceptual understandings of the world in that all experience we perceive is subject to interpretation based on these cultural models. They most often appear in folk theoretical explanations of events, actions, and objects in the world. A wide range of these cultural models are what may be termed idealized cognitive models (ICMs). An ICM makes use of four structuring principles: propositional structure, image-schematic structure, metaphoric and metonymic structures (Lakoff 1987). In this paper we will examine the historical and philosophical notion of dialecticism – the notion that the world is made of oppositional forces that attempt to resolve, negate, or synthesize one another – in terms of the four structuring features of ICMs. In particular we will investigate the works of G.W.F. Hegel and Karl Marx for which it will be shown that the Hegelian and Marxist dialectic presuppose various epistemological assumptions borrowed from their respective cultural backgrounds. Lastly, we will venture into some of the consequences this has for historiography and philosophy.
Before we begin to dissect the components of dialecticism as a cultural model, we must first assess the role and value of such a model and of cultural models in general. To address the latter, we find cultural models in religion, science, popular culture, and history, to name just a few key domains. Since a particular cultural model has the power to influence the way we reason about or think of the world, it should be appropriate if not necessary to determine (1) whether such models specific to a culture maybe generalized across multiple cultures and their experiences and (2) from what do the elements of a cultural model derive. On the concept of dialecticism, we may trace its development as belonging to a predominantly European cultural experience. The word “dialectic” itself derives from the Greek διαλεκτική meaning “the art of debate.”1 In the traditional Ancient Greek and Medieval understanding of the term, a dialectic is a process of rational debate in which persons pose arguments (theses) and counter-arguments (antitheses) against one another in an effort to either conclude some fundamental truth that resolves in a synthesis of the opposing sides or demonstrate that one side refutes all others.2 Thus, dialecticism naturally inherits this traditional understanding and also the European cultural association with the term. Later we will see how this understanding interacts with the Hegelian and Marxist formulations of dialecticism. The Hegelian project must be situated in terms of the dominant philosophical circles of continental Europe during and immediately following the Enlightenment period. Thinkers of this era expended considerable effort discussing the nature of man. Many thinkers such as David Hume posited that in the same way one may ascertain the laws of physics, in the manner that Newton demonstrated, one ought to ascertain the laws of human nature. On the European continent and concurrent with the proliferation of the Scientific Revolution, some philosophers hypothesized that in the same way one can objectively describe the laws of natural motion, one can also objectively describe the laws of social or historical motion. In the background of this discourse was the dualist distinction between material and mental substance. Rooted in the Cartesian paradigm and accepted by most schools during this period, dualism pushed many thinkers into believing that Reason or Mind is the essence of man. And it is from this essence that an ontology of human beings may be constructed. Hegel adopts this ontology in his Phenomenology of Spirit in which he incorporates the notion of dialectics with his conception of history which we examine below. We see that the Marxist project in dialectics is, in part, a rejection of the notion that some abstract Spirit or Mind (German: Geist) moves history, but is also a positive assertion that the Passions or the Body determine human action. Since the inception of Hegel's and Marx's ideas, social theorists and historians of differing backgrounds include historiographical methodologies that conform to the models of dialecticism defined by Hegel and Marx. It must be noted that the Hegelian and Marxist methodologies are prevalent among many schools of social theory today. Many social theorists who employ these methods often describe varying historical and social phenomena as “dialectical processes.” A critique of these methods, understood in terms of cultural ICMs, may provide new insight into the role, value and use of such methods.
Hegel lays the groundwork for what Marx later elaborates and builds upon. In his Phenomenology of Spirit (or Mind), Hegel introduces his famous Master-Slave metaphor in which the master embodies a particular expression of self-consciousness that recognizes itself in relation to its slave, and the slave embodies a particular expression of self-consciousness that recognizes itself in relation to its master. We must first take note of Hegel's opening statement in the section on “Lordship and Bondage” in which he claims “[s]elf-consciousness exists in itself and for itself” (Baillie 1949, p. 229). The assumption, as particular to German idealist philosophy, is that consciousness is external and independent of any body. We will see how this premise contributes to Hegel's framework. Hegel anthropomorphizes the consciousness in terms of the Master-Slave distinction:
The relation of both self-consciousnesses is in this way so constituted that they prove themselves and each other through a life-and-death struggle, for they must bring certainty of themselves, the certainty of being for themselves, to the level of objective truth, and make this a fact both in the case of the other and in their own case as well (p. 232-3).
These two opposing forms of consciousness must resolve one another such that the one or the other “must set itself to sublate the other independent being, in order thereby to become certain of itself as true being, secondly, it thereupon proceeds to sublate its own self, for this other is itself” (p. 229).
This “sublation” or synthesis of Self and Other, of Master and Slave, parallels the language used in Hegel's Science of Logic in which he makes explicit reference to dialecticism. In this two-volume opus, Hegel begins with the essence of all things: Being. He distinguishes between Being and Nothing such that the latter is the negation of the former and vice versa. However, Being and Nothing are indistinguishable at the moment of their sublation: Becoming. Thus,“[b]ecoming is the unseparatedness of being and nothing [...] it this determinate unity in which there is both being and nothing (Hegel's italics)” (Miller 1969, p. 105). He describes this manner of reasoning as “the higher movement of reason in which such seemingly utterly separate terms pass over into each other spontaneously, through that which they are [...] It is the dialectical immanent nature of being and nothing themselves to manifest their unity, that is, becoming, as their truth” (p. 105).
With this brief sampling of some of Hegel's philosophical language, we may now delve into the conceptual metaphors which dominate his texts and which are implied by the language he employs. Since Hegel conceives of mind as the essence of man and mind as thinking substance is conceived in terms of language, he constructs a metaphor based on the Argument Is Struggle and Thought Is Language metaphors. The net result of these metaphors is what I will term the Dialectic Process As Struggle Between Master And Slave which is structured according to the following roles and relations:
Struggle Between Master and Slave --> Dialectic Process
Master --> Thesis
Slave --> Antithesis
Conflict between master and slave --> Contradiction between thesis and antithesis
Resolution of conflict --> Synthesis or sublation of thesis and antithesis
The target domain of the Dialectic Process also corresponds with some of the dimensions of the Argument Is Struggle metaphor which includes participants, parts, stages, linear sequence, causation, and purpose. There appears to be interaction between Reason As A Force and Thought As Movement Along A Path that correlate with these same dimensions. The Hegelian dialectic makes subtle reference to what end the dialectical process serves. Hegel speaks of bringing certainty “to the level of objective truth” and of arriving at “Absolute Knowledge.” Thus, the initial conditions are such that there is an antagonism between master (thesis) and slave (antithesis). As conflict ensues between master and slave, progress is made towards either the victory of one over the other or towards their resolution. This progress may be conceptualized in terms of stages in a linear sequence of events that are driven by the force of reason. And since reason, as a component of objective and external consciousness, dictates that contradictions cannot exist in any logical framework, we arrive at truth or absolute knowledge the moment such contradictions are resolved or when one thesis refutes the other.
In lectures and in works following the publication of his Phenomenology and his Logic Hegel extrapolates this metaphor of dialectics to a philosophy of history in which historical motion, directed by the force of reason and by the movement of self-conscious entities, tends toward some purpose. Thus, history is both teleological and linear. In his Elements of the Philosophy of Right, for example, Hegel makes the claim that history is tending towards the expansion of freedom and rights. We may uncover these same thematic elements in the work of Marx who, having become thoroughly familiar with Hegel's philosophy, incorporates the Hegelian metaphors for dialectics but amalgamates them with his own criticisms.
The fundamental distinction between Marx and Hegel is that, whereas Hegel subscribed to idealism, Marx was an ardent believer in materialism. Thus, many of Marx's criticisms of Hegel are directed to what Marx calls “mystification” and “abstraction” in Hegel's philosophy. Although their views differ on this point of contention, Marx borrows the Hegelian dialectic to construct a metaphor that has materialist overtones. The Marxist position may be summarized as follows: at any given moment there exists a society that adopts a particular mode of economic production. Within that society there are a class of individuals who own the means of production and a class that does not. History, then, is a struggle between such classes for access and ownership to such means of production. Marx develops a Historical Motion As Dialectic Process metaphor:
Dialectic Process --> Historical Motion
Thesis --> Master/dominant class
Antithesis --> Slave/subjugated class
Contradiction between thesis --> Class struggle
and antithesis
Refutation of thesis --> Class victory
Since Marx abandons the notion that consciousness is prior to corporeal life, we do not find the same entailments found in Hegel's work. Also, the target domain is partially structured via the Time As Movement Over A Landscape metaphor in which States Are Locations. This partial structuring of roles and relations gives rise to the linear notion of time that Marx expresses in his work. In The German Ideology and in the Gundrisse, Marx continually alludes to different stages or conditions of material production, namely the progression of civilizations from hunter-gatherer, to slave, to feudal, to capitalist, to socialist, and concluding with a communist state. Thus, Marx writes
The various stages of development in the division of labour are just so many different forms of ownership, i.e., the existing stage in the division of labour determines also the relations of individuals to one another with reference to the material, instrument, and product of labor (Tucker 1978, p. 151).
Ultimately, however, certain social and economic forces will inevitably move history in a deterministic fashion and hence each stage of historical development is a necessary stage. And so Marx speaks of the “movement of history” wherein “the forces of production, the state of society, and consciousness can and must come into contradiction with one another” (p. 159); in other words, class struggle arises by necessity and causes such movement. We also see Marx's colleague Friedrich Engels using this conceptual metaphor when he writes that “all past history [...] was the history of class struggles” (p. 699).
The Historical Motion As Dialectic Process metaphor may be best conceptualized as a blend that fuses the experiential gestalts of linear motion over time and the metaphor for Argument As Struggle. The roles found in the target domain derive from the participants involved in the Argument As Struggle metaphor. Marx affords the social theorist a rich cultural model with powerful and effective explanatory coherence. Class struggles are not a series of brutish and spontaneous events, they are in fact the rational articulation of a subjected class of peoples that have identified a contradiction within the social order of civilizations.
To reiterate, cultural models have the power to shape how one conceptualizes the world around oneself and one's relation with the world. As we have seen, the Hegelian and Marxist notions of dialecticism are heavily influenced by the Ancient Greek and Medieval concept of dialectics, by European cultural assumptions such as those inherited by the dualist philosophy of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, and by the primary metaphors found in nearly all cultures on the globe. Of course there are areas of concern wherever such cultural models are accepted as truth. The consequences of formally adhering to a cultural model vary across a wide range of individual, social, and institutional purposes. During the Soviet era in Russia, the institutional adoption of Marx's dialectical materialism legitimated totalitarian governmental policies such as the suppression of freedoms and rights, state enforced terrorism, and even state-sanctioned murder under the Stalinist regime. This was done under the claim that all means must be exhausted in order to bring the USSR to communism. Such social and historical implications are only exceptional cases but should nevertheless be downplayed. The philosophical value of unraveling such cultural models forces us to rethink what it means to arrive at absolute knowledge or absolute truth. Of course we should shy away from descending into extreme relativist doctrines that reject all frames of experiential reference, but should instead embrace the diverse selection of cultural models as they compel us to challenge particular cultural assumptions and to conceptualize how we interact with the world in novel ways.
Selected Bibliography
Ayer, A. J., & O'Grady, J. A dictionary of philosophical quotations. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers (1992)
Hegel, G.W.F. Phenomenology of Mind (1807). English translation: J.B. Baillie. Gilding and Sons
Ltd. Great Britain (1949).
Hegel, G.W.F. Science of Logic (1816). English translation: A.V. Miller. Humanities Press. New
York, NY (1976).
Lakoff, George. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. University of Chicago Press (1987).
The New Oxford American Dictionary. New York, NY. Oxford University Press (2005).
Tucker, Robert C. The Marx-Engels Reader. W.W. Norton & Company Inc. New York, NY (1978).
1 The New Oxford American Dictionary. New York, NY. Oxford University Press (2005).
2 Ayer, A. J., & O'Grady, J. A dictionary of philosophical quotations. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers (1992)
p. 484
Cultural models dominate our conceptual understandings of the world in that all experience we perceive is subject to interpretation based on these cultural models. They most often appear in folk theoretical explanations of events, actions, and objects in the world. A wide range of these cultural models are what may be termed idealized cognitive models (ICMs). An ICM makes use of four structuring principles: propositional structure, image-schematic structure, metaphoric and metonymic structures (Lakoff 1987). In this paper we will examine the historical and philosophical notion of dialecticism – the notion that the world is made of oppositional forces that attempt to resolve, negate, or synthesize one another – in terms of the four structuring features of ICMs. In particular we will investigate the works of G.W.F. Hegel and Karl Marx for which it will be shown that the Hegelian and Marxist dialectic presuppose various epistemological assumptions borrowed from their respective cultural backgrounds. Lastly, we will venture into some of the consequences this has for historiography and philosophy.
Before we begin to dissect the components of dialecticism as a cultural model, we must first assess the role and value of such a model and of cultural models in general. To address the latter, we find cultural models in religion, science, popular culture, and history, to name just a few key domains. Since a particular cultural model has the power to influence the way we reason about or think of the world, it should be appropriate if not necessary to determine (1) whether such models specific to a culture maybe generalized across multiple cultures and their experiences and (2) from what do the elements of a cultural model derive. On the concept of dialecticism, we may trace its development as belonging to a predominantly European cultural experience. The word “dialectic” itself derives from the Greek διαλεκτική meaning “the art of debate.”1 In the traditional Ancient Greek and Medieval understanding of the term, a dialectic is a process of rational debate in which persons pose arguments (theses) and counter-arguments (antitheses) against one another in an effort to either conclude some fundamental truth that resolves in a synthesis of the opposing sides or demonstrate that one side refutes all others.2 Thus, dialecticism naturally inherits this traditional understanding and also the European cultural association with the term. Later we will see how this understanding interacts with the Hegelian and Marxist formulations of dialecticism. The Hegelian project must be situated in terms of the dominant philosophical circles of continental Europe during and immediately following the Enlightenment period. Thinkers of this era expended considerable effort discussing the nature of man. Many thinkers such as David Hume posited that in the same way one may ascertain the laws of physics, in the manner that Newton demonstrated, one ought to ascertain the laws of human nature. On the European continent and concurrent with the proliferation of the Scientific Revolution, some philosophers hypothesized that in the same way one can objectively describe the laws of natural motion, one can also objectively describe the laws of social or historical motion. In the background of this discourse was the dualist distinction between material and mental substance. Rooted in the Cartesian paradigm and accepted by most schools during this period, dualism pushed many thinkers into believing that Reason or Mind is the essence of man. And it is from this essence that an ontology of human beings may be constructed. Hegel adopts this ontology in his Phenomenology of Spirit in which he incorporates the notion of dialectics with his conception of history which we examine below. We see that the Marxist project in dialectics is, in part, a rejection of the notion that some abstract Spirit or Mind (German: Geist) moves history, but is also a positive assertion that the Passions or the Body determine human action. Since the inception of Hegel's and Marx's ideas, social theorists and historians of differing backgrounds include historiographical methodologies that conform to the models of dialecticism defined by Hegel and Marx. It must be noted that the Hegelian and Marxist methodologies are prevalent among many schools of social theory today. Many social theorists who employ these methods often describe varying historical and social phenomena as “dialectical processes.” A critique of these methods, understood in terms of cultural ICMs, may provide new insight into the role, value and use of such methods.
Hegel lays the groundwork for what Marx later elaborates and builds upon. In his Phenomenology of Spirit (or Mind), Hegel introduces his famous Master-Slave metaphor in which the master embodies a particular expression of self-consciousness that recognizes itself in relation to its slave, and the slave embodies a particular expression of self-consciousness that recognizes itself in relation to its master. We must first take note of Hegel's opening statement in the section on “Lordship and Bondage” in which he claims “[s]elf-consciousness exists in itself and for itself” (Baillie 1949, p. 229). The assumption, as particular to German idealist philosophy, is that consciousness is external and independent of any body. We will see how this premise contributes to Hegel's framework. Hegel anthropomorphizes the consciousness in terms of the Master-Slave distinction:
The relation of both self-consciousnesses is in this way so constituted that they prove themselves and each other through a life-and-death struggle, for they must bring certainty of themselves, the certainty of being for themselves, to the level of objective truth, and make this a fact both in the case of the other and in their own case as well (p. 232-3).
These two opposing forms of consciousness must resolve one another such that the one or the other “must set itself to sublate the other independent being, in order thereby to become certain of itself as true being, secondly, it thereupon proceeds to sublate its own self, for this other is itself” (p. 229).
This “sublation” or synthesis of Self and Other, of Master and Slave, parallels the language used in Hegel's Science of Logic in which he makes explicit reference to dialecticism. In this two-volume opus, Hegel begins with the essence of all things: Being. He distinguishes between Being and Nothing such that the latter is the negation of the former and vice versa. However, Being and Nothing are indistinguishable at the moment of their sublation: Becoming. Thus,“[b]ecoming is the unseparatedness of being and nothing [...] it this determinate unity in which there is both being and nothing (Hegel's italics)” (Miller 1969, p. 105). He describes this manner of reasoning as “the higher movement of reason in which such seemingly utterly separate terms pass over into each other spontaneously, through that which they are [...] It is the dialectical immanent nature of being and nothing themselves to manifest their unity, that is, becoming, as their truth” (p. 105).
With this brief sampling of some of Hegel's philosophical language, we may now delve into the conceptual metaphors which dominate his texts and which are implied by the language he employs. Since Hegel conceives of mind as the essence of man and mind as thinking substance is conceived in terms of language, he constructs a metaphor based on the Argument Is Struggle and Thought Is Language metaphors. The net result of these metaphors is what I will term the Dialectic Process As Struggle Between Master And Slave which is structured according to the following roles and relations:
Struggle Between Master and Slave --> Dialectic Process
Master --> Thesis
Slave --> Antithesis
Conflict between master and slave --> Contradiction between thesis and antithesis
Resolution of conflict --> Synthesis or sublation of thesis and antithesis
The target domain of the Dialectic Process also corresponds with some of the dimensions of the Argument Is Struggle metaphor which includes participants, parts, stages, linear sequence, causation, and purpose. There appears to be interaction between Reason As A Force and Thought As Movement Along A Path that correlate with these same dimensions. The Hegelian dialectic makes subtle reference to what end the dialectical process serves. Hegel speaks of bringing certainty “to the level of objective truth” and of arriving at “Absolute Knowledge.” Thus, the initial conditions are such that there is an antagonism between master (thesis) and slave (antithesis). As conflict ensues between master and slave, progress is made towards either the victory of one over the other or towards their resolution. This progress may be conceptualized in terms of stages in a linear sequence of events that are driven by the force of reason. And since reason, as a component of objective and external consciousness, dictates that contradictions cannot exist in any logical framework, we arrive at truth or absolute knowledge the moment such contradictions are resolved or when one thesis refutes the other.
In lectures and in works following the publication of his Phenomenology and his Logic Hegel extrapolates this metaphor of dialectics to a philosophy of history in which historical motion, directed by the force of reason and by the movement of self-conscious entities, tends toward some purpose. Thus, history is both teleological and linear. In his Elements of the Philosophy of Right, for example, Hegel makes the claim that history is tending towards the expansion of freedom and rights. We may uncover these same thematic elements in the work of Marx who, having become thoroughly familiar with Hegel's philosophy, incorporates the Hegelian metaphors for dialectics but amalgamates them with his own criticisms.
The fundamental distinction between Marx and Hegel is that, whereas Hegel subscribed to idealism, Marx was an ardent believer in materialism. Thus, many of Marx's criticisms of Hegel are directed to what Marx calls “mystification” and “abstraction” in Hegel's philosophy. Although their views differ on this point of contention, Marx borrows the Hegelian dialectic to construct a metaphor that has materialist overtones. The Marxist position may be summarized as follows: at any given moment there exists a society that adopts a particular mode of economic production. Within that society there are a class of individuals who own the means of production and a class that does not. History, then, is a struggle between such classes for access and ownership to such means of production. Marx develops a Historical Motion As Dialectic Process metaphor:
Dialectic Process --> Historical Motion
Thesis --> Master/dominant class
Antithesis --> Slave/subjugated class
Contradiction between thesis --> Class struggle
and antithesis
Refutation of thesis --> Class victory
Since Marx abandons the notion that consciousness is prior to corporeal life, we do not find the same entailments found in Hegel's work. Also, the target domain is partially structured via the Time As Movement Over A Landscape metaphor in which States Are Locations. This partial structuring of roles and relations gives rise to the linear notion of time that Marx expresses in his work. In The German Ideology and in the Gundrisse, Marx continually alludes to different stages or conditions of material production, namely the progression of civilizations from hunter-gatherer, to slave, to feudal, to capitalist, to socialist, and concluding with a communist state. Thus, Marx writes
The various stages of development in the division of labour are just so many different forms of ownership, i.e., the existing stage in the division of labour determines also the relations of individuals to one another with reference to the material, instrument, and product of labor (Tucker 1978, p. 151).
Ultimately, however, certain social and economic forces will inevitably move history in a deterministic fashion and hence each stage of historical development is a necessary stage. And so Marx speaks of the “movement of history” wherein “the forces of production, the state of society, and consciousness can and must come into contradiction with one another” (p. 159); in other words, class struggle arises by necessity and causes such movement. We also see Marx's colleague Friedrich Engels using this conceptual metaphor when he writes that “all past history [...] was the history of class struggles” (p. 699).
The Historical Motion As Dialectic Process metaphor may be best conceptualized as a blend that fuses the experiential gestalts of linear motion over time and the metaphor for Argument As Struggle. The roles found in the target domain derive from the participants involved in the Argument As Struggle metaphor. Marx affords the social theorist a rich cultural model with powerful and effective explanatory coherence. Class struggles are not a series of brutish and spontaneous events, they are in fact the rational articulation of a subjected class of peoples that have identified a contradiction within the social order of civilizations.
To reiterate, cultural models have the power to shape how one conceptualizes the world around oneself and one's relation with the world. As we have seen, the Hegelian and Marxist notions of dialecticism are heavily influenced by the Ancient Greek and Medieval concept of dialectics, by European cultural assumptions such as those inherited by the dualist philosophy of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, and by the primary metaphors found in nearly all cultures on the globe. Of course there are areas of concern wherever such cultural models are accepted as truth. The consequences of formally adhering to a cultural model vary across a wide range of individual, social, and institutional purposes. During the Soviet era in Russia, the institutional adoption of Marx's dialectical materialism legitimated totalitarian governmental policies such as the suppression of freedoms and rights, state enforced terrorism, and even state-sanctioned murder under the Stalinist regime. This was done under the claim that all means must be exhausted in order to bring the USSR to communism. Such social and historical implications are only exceptional cases but should nevertheless be downplayed. The philosophical value of unraveling such cultural models forces us to rethink what it means to arrive at absolute knowledge or absolute truth. Of course we should shy away from descending into extreme relativist doctrines that reject all frames of experiential reference, but should instead embrace the diverse selection of cultural models as they compel us to challenge particular cultural assumptions and to conceptualize how we interact with the world in novel ways.
Selected Bibliography
Ayer, A. J., & O'Grady, J. A dictionary of philosophical quotations. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers (1992)
Hegel, G.W.F. Phenomenology of Mind (1807). English translation: J.B. Baillie. Gilding and Sons
Ltd. Great Britain (1949).
Hegel, G.W.F. Science of Logic (1816). English translation: A.V. Miller. Humanities Press. New
York, NY (1976).
Lakoff, George. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. University of Chicago Press (1987).
The New Oxford American Dictionary. New York, NY. Oxford University Press (2005).
Tucker, Robert C. The Marx-Engels Reader. W.W. Norton & Company Inc. New York, NY (1978).
1 The New Oxford American Dictionary. New York, NY. Oxford University Press (2005).
2 Ayer, A. J., & O'Grady, J. A dictionary of philosophical quotations. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers (1992)
p. 484
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Vapor of Life
by Cynthia Frazier
Life, is in itself a vapor that
escapes with each breath
one must obtain all it can within
reach, before that vapor is extinguish or snuff out
I wonder sometimes, if life could
magnified its self to expand outwardly
through that vapor
one must believe that each vapor of ones existence has and is
recognize through the eyes that can
recall ones life through family and friends
when their vapors have been extinguish
who will recall their passion for life or will it
be extinguish
through the vapor, we call life.
Life, is in itself a vapor that
escapes with each breath
one must obtain all it can within
reach, before that vapor is extinguish or snuff out
I wonder sometimes, if life could
magnified its self to expand outwardly
through that vapor
one must believe that each vapor of ones existence has and is
recognize through the eyes that can
recall ones life through family and friends
when their vapors have been extinguish
who will recall their passion for life or will it
be extinguish
through the vapor, we call life.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Out Loud Readers
by Nathan Murthy
He lay there on the ground. He couldn't feel the heat from the sun-scorched pavement pressed against his swollen face. The sun rays were scraping the interior of his eyes as they remained opened like the shutters of camera allowing the film to overexpose. His ears felt stuffed with cotton. There was an ant crawling on his index finger. Only after peering into each other's eyes for an instant, they both had understood. Expiration. Exhale. Lament.
Justin Vu was a modest college student. He had a grade-point average of 3.24. He lived on the eleventh floor of a twelve-story dormitory complex. He slept on the bottom of a three-bed room that measured13 by 15 by 10-feet. A sheet of paper was stuck to his cheek when he lifted his face to find out what time it was. The digital clock was shouting at him. The alarm pierced his ears and began to fill all the unawakened pockets of void inside him. There was never a moment of his life during which all of those empty pockets had been filled. He clothed himself, brushed his teeth, took the elevator to the ground floor and sauntered from the dorm entrance across the street towards the campus.
There were 286 students enrolled in his economics class. Not one of them spoke to him, although one time before a midterm someone asked him for a sheet of paper. He didn't have any to offer the classmate. However, his professor incessantly spoke to him, at him, and toward him.
By the time he found a chair and found a writing utensil in his backpack, Justin already began to return to that world from which his alarm clock forced him to leave. He sat in his desk staring at the graphite protruding from the tip of his mechanical pencil. The graphite began to dissolve in the liquid air.
He was drowning. His heart began to stop, but he was choosing to let it stop. He didn't choose to drown though. Justin had a poor sense of rhythm anyways, much less a sense of corporeality. Before he could bring this seemingly vital organ to a halt, he was interrupted by the clamor of zippers, and a central voice that grew louder. The voice was hurrying to a stop among a background of emerging, particulate discussions.
Six students had already left the lecture hall before he could focus his eyes on the chalk-laced blackboards. He stood up, collected his things and left.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he pieced together whatever fragments of knowledge that slipped from the lips of his professor. “The mean score from last week's quiz was 73.1”; “Bernard de Manville expresses the sentiment that..”; “...it is thus that collective benefits or reaped.” The remaining fragments dissolved earlier with the graphite during class.
It was 11:28 am. Fuck. Forgot my meds. It's too hot outside today. Today's Tuesday, right? Good, don't have any assignments due tomorrow. Oh wait! I have that damn interview tonight… It was 11:51 am by the time he stepped inside his room. There was a note on his desk. There's a package downstairs for me. Ehh, it can wait. He flung his shoes off his feet and threw his t-shirt onto his bed. He left his room momentarily to fill a glass with some water. I need to renew my prescription.
He sank into his chair, plugged his headphones into the computer, and placed them over his ears. Blink. Bblliink. Bbbllliiiinnnk. Bbbblllliiiiinnn… His head was wrapped in duct tape. His limbs and abdomen seemed not to be intact. Perhaps he was quartered. His face was numb. His left eye was completely concealed and the right eye sluggishly opened as it yearned for sunlight. It never came. Everything appeared jagged. All things in sight were metallic and razor-shapped. There were only edges and vertices. The daggers scattered about him began to breathe. There was a murmur, then a soft voice graduating along a crescendo culminating into a sharp burst.
***
Justin was the type of person who only provided one-word responses for any questions or interrogative requests. Efficiency permeated his lifestyle. On term papers however, he dreaded having to elaborate what he meant, or what something suggested, or why something was such. If asked face-to-face for something, he would resort to minimalist body language or would flaunt ignorance. He knew what he wanted to say in response to such inquiries, however. He just wasn't permitted to do so. Such constraints could not be violated in this world of his. Among some of these constraints were when he could smile, when he could laugh, when he could be angry, how he could react to violent threats, the number of times he was allowed to stutter over the course of some period of discussion, which muscles he could flex or relax when making facial expressions.
He was powerless. His universe flatly rejected any such exercise of his will. He could spend hours and expend all the energy in his body to move a grain of salt, and it would never budge. He could yell into a quiet crowd until his vocal chords collapse, and no one would be able to hear him. His existence was absence personified.
Wet. Liquid. Sizzle and burn. The sun had just reached its apex and began to descend. Justin had left the blinds open. He could feel sweat dripping down his sideburns and along his neck. He reached for the t-shirt on his bed so that he could wipe the perspiration that dried on his face. His body demanded attention. I need to take a shower. He grabbed a towel, slipped on a pair of thong sandals and marched, confusedly and in delirium, down the hallway into the shower room.
The twenty nine seconds in real time he spent trying to adjust the water temperature dilated to eight minutes in perceived time. No luck. Only cold water. It's hot outside anyways. I need to cool down. He scrubbed his skin with bar soap as the liquid icicles spurting from the shower head smothered his body. Justin had very sensitive skin. He felt as though he was scrubbing his body with granules of sand, tearing away at his skin. He wasn't going to be surprised if he started to bleed. The hair follicles on his skin, these black, tadpole-like leeches fastened to his epidermis, flagellated with the water currents and soap suds running down this vessel of a body. The water droplets on the shower stall walls began to merge with the shivering tile. The drain was clogged. He turned off the shower. His soul began to softly tremble as the tile melted into the torpid waters which drowned his feet. He stepped outside the shower stall and was finished. The haze had intensified.
The towel could not absorb all of the water. He was still wet. Coldness crept. The air gradually began to liquify once again. The pitter- patter of his foot steps emulated the ponderous lub-dub of his heart. There were people on the balcony outside. Between him and them was a glass sliding door which spanned the length of the balcony. In those intermittent moments when the blood in one's arteries and veins is neither pumped out of nor into the heart, the people would appear inanimate. Before his eyes were mannequins. They were parodying themselves and were mocking Justin's ill-fated condition.
His feet were already lifeless and he could feel the coldness from his feet running up his ankles, over his shins. He could feel the freezing wetness near his hips. Not even a morsel of sunshine on the balcony had been reserved for Justin. The rising heat lured him upward. Justin straggled up the steps to the rooftop; he was brought to the terminal of the staircase. Living warmth awaited him on the other side.
The pulsating, yellow sun was there to greet him, to christen him. Justin embraced the sky with his sopping arms. As he closed his eyes, he inhaled a fluid amalgam of azure and gold and ran his fingers over his face as though a blind man trying to discern the features of his own grandchild. The Earth below him announced that she had a gift to share with Justin. Justin, without reluctance and without falling for her seductive prowess, accepted this kind-hearted gift. The gift was both short-lived and eternal. Such could not be the case in his universe. Subsequently, this gift tore apart the universe into two diametrically opposed parts. Each resultant partial universe experienced an identical series of binary fissures. This recurred ad infinitum until the coldness, inherent to the universe, diffused along its branchings.
It was a nightmare about him by then. Wailing sirens and strobing lights smeared the nascent but beautiful reality that respectfully blanketed him. He noticed an ant crawling beside his thumb. Expiration. Exhale. Lament.
He lay there on the ground. He couldn't feel the heat from the sun-scorched pavement pressed against his swollen face. The sun rays were scraping the interior of his eyes as they remained opened like the shutters of camera allowing the film to overexpose. His ears felt stuffed with cotton. There was an ant crawling on his index finger. Only after peering into each other's eyes for an instant, they both had understood. Expiration. Exhale. Lament.
Justin Vu was a modest college student. He had a grade-point average of 3.24. He lived on the eleventh floor of a twelve-story dormitory complex. He slept on the bottom of a three-bed room that measured13 by 15 by 10-feet. A sheet of paper was stuck to his cheek when he lifted his face to find out what time it was. The digital clock was shouting at him. The alarm pierced his ears and began to fill all the unawakened pockets of void inside him. There was never a moment of his life during which all of those empty pockets had been filled. He clothed himself, brushed his teeth, took the elevator to the ground floor and sauntered from the dorm entrance across the street towards the campus.
There were 286 students enrolled in his economics class. Not one of them spoke to him, although one time before a midterm someone asked him for a sheet of paper. He didn't have any to offer the classmate. However, his professor incessantly spoke to him, at him, and toward him.
By the time he found a chair and found a writing utensil in his backpack, Justin already began to return to that world from which his alarm clock forced him to leave. He sat in his desk staring at the graphite protruding from the tip of his mechanical pencil. The graphite began to dissolve in the liquid air.
He was drowning. His heart began to stop, but he was choosing to let it stop. He didn't choose to drown though. Justin had a poor sense of rhythm anyways, much less a sense of corporeality. Before he could bring this seemingly vital organ to a halt, he was interrupted by the clamor of zippers, and a central voice that grew louder. The voice was hurrying to a stop among a background of emerging, particulate discussions.
Six students had already left the lecture hall before he could focus his eyes on the chalk-laced blackboards. He stood up, collected his things and left.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he pieced together whatever fragments of knowledge that slipped from the lips of his professor. “The mean score from last week's quiz was 73.1”; “Bernard de Manville expresses the sentiment that..”; “...it is thus that collective benefits or reaped.” The remaining fragments dissolved earlier with the graphite during class.
It was 11:28 am. Fuck. Forgot my meds. It's too hot outside today. Today's Tuesday, right? Good, don't have any assignments due tomorrow. Oh wait! I have that damn interview tonight… It was 11:51 am by the time he stepped inside his room. There was a note on his desk. There's a package downstairs for me. Ehh, it can wait. He flung his shoes off his feet and threw his t-shirt onto his bed. He left his room momentarily to fill a glass with some water. I need to renew my prescription.
He sank into his chair, plugged his headphones into the computer, and placed them over his ears. Blink. Bblliink. Bbbllliiiinnnk. Bbbblllliiiiinnn… His head was wrapped in duct tape. His limbs and abdomen seemed not to be intact. Perhaps he was quartered. His face was numb. His left eye was completely concealed and the right eye sluggishly opened as it yearned for sunlight. It never came. Everything appeared jagged. All things in sight were metallic and razor-shapped. There were only edges and vertices. The daggers scattered about him began to breathe. There was a murmur, then a soft voice graduating along a crescendo culminating into a sharp burst.
***
Justin was the type of person who only provided one-word responses for any questions or interrogative requests. Efficiency permeated his lifestyle. On term papers however, he dreaded having to elaborate what he meant, or what something suggested, or why something was such. If asked face-to-face for something, he would resort to minimalist body language or would flaunt ignorance. He knew what he wanted to say in response to such inquiries, however. He just wasn't permitted to do so. Such constraints could not be violated in this world of his. Among some of these constraints were when he could smile, when he could laugh, when he could be angry, how he could react to violent threats, the number of times he was allowed to stutter over the course of some period of discussion, which muscles he could flex or relax when making facial expressions.
He was powerless. His universe flatly rejected any such exercise of his will. He could spend hours and expend all the energy in his body to move a grain of salt, and it would never budge. He could yell into a quiet crowd until his vocal chords collapse, and no one would be able to hear him. His existence was absence personified.
Wet. Liquid. Sizzle and burn. The sun had just reached its apex and began to descend. Justin had left the blinds open. He could feel sweat dripping down his sideburns and along his neck. He reached for the t-shirt on his bed so that he could wipe the perspiration that dried on his face. His body demanded attention. I need to take a shower. He grabbed a towel, slipped on a pair of thong sandals and marched, confusedly and in delirium, down the hallway into the shower room.
The twenty nine seconds in real time he spent trying to adjust the water temperature dilated to eight minutes in perceived time. No luck. Only cold water. It's hot outside anyways. I need to cool down. He scrubbed his skin with bar soap as the liquid icicles spurting from the shower head smothered his body. Justin had very sensitive skin. He felt as though he was scrubbing his body with granules of sand, tearing away at his skin. He wasn't going to be surprised if he started to bleed. The hair follicles on his skin, these black, tadpole-like leeches fastened to his epidermis, flagellated with the water currents and soap suds running down this vessel of a body. The water droplets on the shower stall walls began to merge with the shivering tile. The drain was clogged. He turned off the shower. His soul began to softly tremble as the tile melted into the torpid waters which drowned his feet. He stepped outside the shower stall and was finished. The haze had intensified.
The towel could not absorb all of the water. He was still wet. Coldness crept. The air gradually began to liquify once again. The pitter- patter of his foot steps emulated the ponderous lub-dub of his heart. There were people on the balcony outside. Between him and them was a glass sliding door which spanned the length of the balcony. In those intermittent moments when the blood in one's arteries and veins is neither pumped out of nor into the heart, the people would appear inanimate. Before his eyes were mannequins. They were parodying themselves and were mocking Justin's ill-fated condition.
His feet were already lifeless and he could feel the coldness from his feet running up his ankles, over his shins. He could feel the freezing wetness near his hips. Not even a morsel of sunshine on the balcony had been reserved for Justin. The rising heat lured him upward. Justin straggled up the steps to the rooftop; he was brought to the terminal of the staircase. Living warmth awaited him on the other side.
The pulsating, yellow sun was there to greet him, to christen him. Justin embraced the sky with his sopping arms. As he closed his eyes, he inhaled a fluid amalgam of azure and gold and ran his fingers over his face as though a blind man trying to discern the features of his own grandchild. The Earth below him announced that she had a gift to share with Justin. Justin, without reluctance and without falling for her seductive prowess, accepted this kind-hearted gift. The gift was both short-lived and eternal. Such could not be the case in his universe. Subsequently, this gift tore apart the universe into two diametrically opposed parts. Each resultant partial universe experienced an identical series of binary fissures. This recurred ad infinitum until the coldness, inherent to the universe, diffused along its branchings.
It was a nightmare about him by then. Wailing sirens and strobing lights smeared the nascent but beautiful reality that respectfully blanketed him. He noticed an ant crawling beside his thumb. Expiration. Exhale. Lament.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Let my children hear music
by Daniel Turner
It is not an understatement to say that, even with the recognition he has garnered, Charles Mingus may be the most unheralded musician in the lexicon of jazz. Other than Duke Ellington, no one covers the breadth and scope of Mingus. His shear volume of work, over 300 compositions and 100 albums, fall into a variety of categories. He composed for orchestra, band, combo and solo. Although renowned for his bass playing, he recorded an album of piano solos which was praised by Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum.
Born in 1922 on a military base in Nogales, AZ, Mingus was raised in the Watts section of Los Angeles. His first exposure to music was through church; a source he called upon in several of his compositions. However, it was the music of Duke Ellington that fired his imagination and gave birth to his creativity. First hearing Duke on the radio at age 8 the, later seeing him in concert as a young boy when, in Mingus’ own words. “I almost jumped over the balcony of the theatre. His music set me on fire.”
Mingus turned his enthusiasm toward learning the double bass and composed his first piece, “Half Mast Inhibition” at age 17. While any of us who toil away on an instrument may have tried our hand at writing in our younger years, Mingus performed this piece 22 years later without doing a revision. “Half Mast Inhibition” told two things about its youthful composer. Not only that he was talented but, from the title, that he possessed a unique comedic and controversial side. Both sides would surface throughout his career; sometimes with negative results.
Soon after, Mingus began studying musical technique with Harold Rheinshagen, principal bassist with the New York Philharmonic and composition with Lloyd Reese while continuing to absorb all he could of jazz. As he continued to improve, he started working with some of the top names in jazz. Included were Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton.
Remaining largely itinerant during the 1940’s, by the 1950’s, he settled in New York. There he began to play with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Art Tatum and, eventually, the master, Duke Ellington. Among his many distinctions, Mingus was the first bass player to front a combo. He later expanded that to orchestra and big band.
Along with his composing and playing, Mingus also formed a publishing house and a record company; to protect his work, and a Jazz Workshop to further develop talent in the genre. In time, he was fronting the Mingus Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band and the Mingus Dynasty which numbered among its members Charlie Parker and Danny Richmond. With his various musical outfits, Mingus toured the world.
While abroad, he began to discover the differing attitudes toward race held by other countries and often turned his scorn toward the segregationist society in America. “Fables of Faubus”, a Mingus piece named after Governor Faubus of Arkansas; who gained national recognition for blocking the doorway of a school that was scheduled to be integrated was considered too controversial by record executives. By this time, Mingus’ cash resources had run too low to continue recording his own work so; he was dependent on record labels. The version of “Faubus” with lyrics was not released in the US until after Mingus’ death. However, many musicians and critics feel that the instrumental version, with its loping beat, best sums up the limping gait and buffoonery that was Faubus and see it as a superior piece. Already we can see the controversial nature mentioned earlier. However, Mingus’ humor continued to shine with pieces entitled “Don’t be Scared, the Clown’s Afraid, too”, “The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife are Some Jive Ass Slippers” and “Imagine All You Could Be if Sigmund Freud’s Wife Was Your Mother”.
When Mingus returned to the US and New York, he was faced with divorce proceedings. Once the litigation ended, Mingus went to Tijuana to escape his depression and frustration. After several bouts with tequila, Mingus regained his emotional equilibrium and composed Tijuana Moods; one of his finest albums. Again, being able to portray physicality in purely instrumental terms, “Ysabel’s Table Dance”, is a composition of a night spent watching a young woman dance naked in a cantina. Whether inspired by the dance or the anonymity offered in Mexico, Mingus made a second home for himself in Tijuana. Throughout his life, he continued to retreat south of the border for rest and relaxation.
After returning to New York, Mingus became confrontational toward race relations in a manner that often led to physical action. After a fist fight in a bar, he was referred to Bellvue Hospital. Upon entering the facility he was committed, a practice that was not uncommon as in the 1950’s. Charlie Parker had been institutionalized in Los Angeles. After securing his freedom, Mingus composed “Lock ‘em Up (Hell view of Bellvue”), a moving piece that portrayed his feelings of his incarceration.
Stability returned to Mingus’ life by the late ‘60’s when he met the woman who became his second wife. Sue Mingus became a lover, friend, and confidant and, in his death, has continued to carry forth his brilliant music. Happy with life, Mingus continued his creative streak into the 1970’s. In 1971 he recorded what he considered his best album, “Let My Children Hear Music”. While on the surface, the title referred to African Americans, it also was intended to include all of his fans. In the notes Mingus wrote, “Let my children hear music. For too long all they have heard is noise.” Again, on the surface he was commenting on the music of the day but, on a deeper level he was referring to the prevailing opinions of a nation divided by war, race, economics and personal convictions.
Working with Gunther Schuller, Mingus continued to work on orchestral pieces often involving up to 32 musicians. In 1972 his autobiography “Beneath the Underdog” was published. Focusing on his Jazz Workshop, he arranged weekly concerts at the Iridium Club in New York City. With musicians like Parker and Eric Dolphy having passed away, Mingus continued to mine new talent like Seamus Blake, Craig Handy and Donald Edwards. Still touring extensively, he seemed unstoppable until in 1977 he was diagnosed with Amyotropic Lateral Scierosis. The degenerative nerve disease eventually reduced Mingus to a wheel chair. Unable to compose either on the piano or on paper, he continued to sing, or sound, his compositions onto tape until his death in 1979. Charles Mingus died in Tijuana on February 5, 1979. His ashes were scattered on the Ganges River in India.
Prior to Mingus’ death, “Let My Children Hear Music” had been commissioned as a ballet piece by Alvin Ailey. But, a final tribute occurred posthumously when a composition over 4000 measures long entitled “Epitaph” was uncovered by Sue Mingus. Contained with the piece were notes by Charles Mingus which suggested he never expected the piece to be performed, in fact implying it could be placed on his headstone. His former collaborator Gunther Schuller commissioned the piece and it was performed at Alice Tully Hall on June 3, 1989. New Yorker magazine cited “Epitaph” as the most important compositional piece of jazz music since Ellington’s “Black, Brown and Beige”.
The final tributes came when Sue Mingus donated manuscripts, recording and photos to the Library of Congress. Previously, the New York City Libraries had exhibited their Mingus archive under the title “Let My Children Hear Music”. A fitting salute to, arguably, America’s greatest musician.
It is not an understatement to say that, even with the recognition he has garnered, Charles Mingus may be the most unheralded musician in the lexicon of jazz. Other than Duke Ellington, no one covers the breadth and scope of Mingus. His shear volume of work, over 300 compositions and 100 albums, fall into a variety of categories. He composed for orchestra, band, combo and solo. Although renowned for his bass playing, he recorded an album of piano solos which was praised by Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum.
Born in 1922 on a military base in Nogales, AZ, Mingus was raised in the Watts section of Los Angeles. His first exposure to music was through church; a source he called upon in several of his compositions. However, it was the music of Duke Ellington that fired his imagination and gave birth to his creativity. First hearing Duke on the radio at age 8 the, later seeing him in concert as a young boy when, in Mingus’ own words. “I almost jumped over the balcony of the theatre. His music set me on fire.”
Mingus turned his enthusiasm toward learning the double bass and composed his first piece, “Half Mast Inhibition” at age 17. While any of us who toil away on an instrument may have tried our hand at writing in our younger years, Mingus performed this piece 22 years later without doing a revision. “Half Mast Inhibition” told two things about its youthful composer. Not only that he was talented but, from the title, that he possessed a unique comedic and controversial side. Both sides would surface throughout his career; sometimes with negative results.
Soon after, Mingus began studying musical technique with Harold Rheinshagen, principal bassist with the New York Philharmonic and composition with Lloyd Reese while continuing to absorb all he could of jazz. As he continued to improve, he started working with some of the top names in jazz. Included were Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton.
Remaining largely itinerant during the 1940’s, by the 1950’s, he settled in New York. There he began to play with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Art Tatum and, eventually, the master, Duke Ellington. Among his many distinctions, Mingus was the first bass player to front a combo. He later expanded that to orchestra and big band.
Along with his composing and playing, Mingus also formed a publishing house and a record company; to protect his work, and a Jazz Workshop to further develop talent in the genre. In time, he was fronting the Mingus Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band and the Mingus Dynasty which numbered among its members Charlie Parker and Danny Richmond. With his various musical outfits, Mingus toured the world.
While abroad, he began to discover the differing attitudes toward race held by other countries and often turned his scorn toward the segregationist society in America. “Fables of Faubus”, a Mingus piece named after Governor Faubus of Arkansas; who gained national recognition for blocking the doorway of a school that was scheduled to be integrated was considered too controversial by record executives. By this time, Mingus’ cash resources had run too low to continue recording his own work so; he was dependent on record labels. The version of “Faubus” with lyrics was not released in the US until after Mingus’ death. However, many musicians and critics feel that the instrumental version, with its loping beat, best sums up the limping gait and buffoonery that was Faubus and see it as a superior piece. Already we can see the controversial nature mentioned earlier. However, Mingus’ humor continued to shine with pieces entitled “Don’t be Scared, the Clown’s Afraid, too”, “The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife are Some Jive Ass Slippers” and “Imagine All You Could Be if Sigmund Freud’s Wife Was Your Mother”.
When Mingus returned to the US and New York, he was faced with divorce proceedings. Once the litigation ended, Mingus went to Tijuana to escape his depression and frustration. After several bouts with tequila, Mingus regained his emotional equilibrium and composed Tijuana Moods; one of his finest albums. Again, being able to portray physicality in purely instrumental terms, “Ysabel’s Table Dance”, is a composition of a night spent watching a young woman dance naked in a cantina. Whether inspired by the dance or the anonymity offered in Mexico, Mingus made a second home for himself in Tijuana. Throughout his life, he continued to retreat south of the border for rest and relaxation.
After returning to New York, Mingus became confrontational toward race relations in a manner that often led to physical action. After a fist fight in a bar, he was referred to Bellvue Hospital. Upon entering the facility he was committed, a practice that was not uncommon as in the 1950’s. Charlie Parker had been institutionalized in Los Angeles. After securing his freedom, Mingus composed “Lock ‘em Up (Hell view of Bellvue”), a moving piece that portrayed his feelings of his incarceration.
Stability returned to Mingus’ life by the late ‘60’s when he met the woman who became his second wife. Sue Mingus became a lover, friend, and confidant and, in his death, has continued to carry forth his brilliant music. Happy with life, Mingus continued his creative streak into the 1970’s. In 1971 he recorded what he considered his best album, “Let My Children Hear Music”. While on the surface, the title referred to African Americans, it also was intended to include all of his fans. In the notes Mingus wrote, “Let my children hear music. For too long all they have heard is noise.” Again, on the surface he was commenting on the music of the day but, on a deeper level he was referring to the prevailing opinions of a nation divided by war, race, economics and personal convictions.
Working with Gunther Schuller, Mingus continued to work on orchestral pieces often involving up to 32 musicians. In 1972 his autobiography “Beneath the Underdog” was published. Focusing on his Jazz Workshop, he arranged weekly concerts at the Iridium Club in New York City. With musicians like Parker and Eric Dolphy having passed away, Mingus continued to mine new talent like Seamus Blake, Craig Handy and Donald Edwards. Still touring extensively, he seemed unstoppable until in 1977 he was diagnosed with Amyotropic Lateral Scierosis. The degenerative nerve disease eventually reduced Mingus to a wheel chair. Unable to compose either on the piano or on paper, he continued to sing, or sound, his compositions onto tape until his death in 1979. Charles Mingus died in Tijuana on February 5, 1979. His ashes were scattered on the Ganges River in India.
Prior to Mingus’ death, “Let My Children Hear Music” had been commissioned as a ballet piece by Alvin Ailey. But, a final tribute occurred posthumously when a composition over 4000 measures long entitled “Epitaph” was uncovered by Sue Mingus. Contained with the piece were notes by Charles Mingus which suggested he never expected the piece to be performed, in fact implying it could be placed on his headstone. His former collaborator Gunther Schuller commissioned the piece and it was performed at Alice Tully Hall on June 3, 1989. New Yorker magazine cited “Epitaph” as the most important compositional piece of jazz music since Ellington’s “Black, Brown and Beige”.
The final tributes came when Sue Mingus donated manuscripts, recording and photos to the Library of Congress. Previously, the New York City Libraries had exhibited their Mingus archive under the title “Let My Children Hear Music”. A fitting salute to, arguably, America’s greatest musician.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Patio Furniture
by Chris Woodman
WHERE THE DECK WILL STAND
SITS ON THE DIRT AT AN ANGLE
SO I SAT AS WELL
WHEN A HALF MOON
HALF WAY ACROSS
A SKY FULL OF STARS
EMPTIED MY MIND FOR A MOMENT
NO WIND, NO WAVES, NO WORRRIES
FOR A SPELL,
NOTHING OF THE SORT COULD SURVIVE
EVEN HELL MUST DIE
FOR A SPELL
CAST IN SERENITY
WHERE THE DECK WILL STAND
SITS ON THE DIRT AT AN ANGLE
SO I SAT AS WELL
WHEN A HALF MOON
HALF WAY ACROSS
A SKY FULL OF STARS
EMPTIED MY MIND FOR A MOMENT
NO WIND, NO WAVES, NO WORRRIES
FOR A SPELL,
NOTHING OF THE SORT COULD SURVIVE
EVEN HELL MUST DIE
FOR A SPELL
CAST IN SERENITY
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