Hi Edward, and thanks for the direct reply! I think I need to check my trusty Norton for more Stevens and shop the local used book shop. I always liked him but he had fallen off my proverbial radar.
Feedback of the quizzical sort from several folks regarding my use of the word "network" lately is giving me impetus to look for different phrasing, perhaps like fabric of connections, connectivity, and the like. Interwoven, intermeshed, implicated perhaps? I see a woven fabric in "a man and a woman and a bird are one," for example, and even more so in how "it marked the edge of one of many circles" relates to your "very large circle" in Very Large Works. I've also taken the idea of "supreme fiction" since college to indicate something more like a robust fabric than a titanic or victorious individual work -- a web of creative and restorative processes rather than a "perfect" image or object. But, I see what I look for I suppose, and this kind of tracery is the bulk of what I look for lately. All best, Max ________________________________ From: NetBehaviour <netbehaviour-boun...@lists.netbehaviour.org> on behalf of Edward Picot via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2019 4:45 PM To: Max Herman via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> Cc: Edward Picot <julian.les...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Ecosia Max, I thought the same thing about Haddam, until, like you, I discovered it was a place in Connecticut. 'The Emperor of Ice Cream' is one of Michael Szpakowski's favourite poems - mine too, for that matter. Do I think 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' is about networks? Not really, if I'm honest. You can find lots of things in it, of course... Incidentally I told my son Ray about Ecosia, and his response was 'I know! I use it all the time! I told you about it a year ago! You never listen to what I say!' Edward On 05/12/2019 21:20, Max Herman via NetBehaviour wrote: Hi Edward, It's always encouraging to hear of products that incorporate an element of philanthropy, social responsibility, or environmental sustainability in their raison d'etre. It seems that a hybrid of individual economic choices combined with the best legislation possible would be the most hopeful path forward. Perhaps because of reading something else recently about Wallace Stevens, I was reminded of hearing about your "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" project and re-read the poem (which I had read but not studied closely in the past). Bird poems have a very rich and ancient history so it was good to read it again. I thought Haddam would mean some ancient city when he asked why its "thin men" "imagine golden birds," somewhat like "Sailing to Byzantium," but it's actually a town in Connecticut. The poem is truly marvelous, which makes me wish I'd read it better sooner. Oh well! I'm also reminded of seeing some red-winged blackbirds at Lands End national park last October. The drought had dried everything to a brown tinder, fires were raging very close to the city, and there were three birds with piercing eyes in the shrubs next to the parking spot we were in. I think one even hopped onto the hood of our car, or almost landed on our windshield -- it was one of those startling moments one sometimes has with nature. After watching them a bit I saw the red wings of one when it jumped to a new shrub, and got very excited: "they're red-winged blackbirds!" At a conference in late 2018 I spoke briefly to neurologist and author Dr. James Austin about his latest book, written in his early 90's. He noted that the term for mindfulness in zen is actually more like re-mindfulness, as in the title of his book, not quite the same as remembering but similar. I asked him if he thought mindfulness related to literature, and he said his new book (which I bought but haven't read) includes a lot about haiku, which he likes to write. He said that the book included a lot about birds, and that early zen considered bird songs as a reminder of our true consciousness, "a reminder to look upward." Which brings me circuitously to my question -- do you consider Stevens' poem to contain any treatment of networks or a "network perspective" in it? I most definitely do, but I see networks everywhere I look these days -- in apples, crackers, glasses of water, paper, carvings of bison, you name it. I see elements of network reality in each stanza of the poem, copied below, in very grand variety; the more grand in that they are not networks about wires, chips, monitors, computers, TVs, radios, etc. etc. ad infinitum. Incidentally, the Stevens poem I know best and have had memorized since the early nineties is "The Emperor of Ice Cream." I think I shall try to add one more. Best regards, Max +++++ I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird. II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds. III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime. IV A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one. V I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after. VI Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause. VII O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you? VIII I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know. IX When the blackbird flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of one of many circles. X At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply. XI He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds. XII The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying. XIII It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs. ________________________________ From: NetBehaviour <netbehaviour-boun...@lists.netbehaviour.org><mailto:netbehaviour-boun...@lists.netbehaviour.org> on behalf of Edward Picot via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org><mailto:netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2019 2:00 PM To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org><mailto:netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> Cc: Edward Picot <julian.les...@gmail.com><mailto:julian.les...@gmail.com> Subject: [NetBehaviour] Ecosia Dear all, Via an RCGP (Royal College of General Physicians) toolkit on how to make medicine more environmentally friendly, I just came across a search engine called Ecosia. The RCGP recommends that we (meaning everyone in primary care, ie. all doctors' surgeries in the UK) should set Ecosia instead of Google as the default search engine on whatever browser we happen to use, because the money Ecosia makes from advertising is all put towards reforestation schemes. I've spent part of the day changing the browsers in our surgery so they've now all got Ecosia as the default search engine. You've probably all heard about this initiative already, but I'd never come across it before. I've been browsing their website and they do seem to be doing genuine good work. So, I thought I'd pass on the information. Edward PS - very interesting debate about AI in music, sparked by Simon Mclennan! _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
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