Strange Maps

Ardorous Map of Ada's Adventful Life

2009-06-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

http://wordie.org/lists/ada-or-ardor-vladmir-nabokov

http://www.librarything.com/work/8400

Cognitive Maps

2009-05-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

Literal and Sonic Terrains

by Enrique Ramirez

Those who have a general understanding of maps and international borders may be confused when reading the opening chapters of Vladimir Nabokov's bloated masterpiece Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969). One may notice that locations in the book ("Canady", "Mayne") bear a phonological similarity to places we notice when looking at a map ("Canada", "Maine"). In fact, the book has a distinct Amerussian flavor to it. It is as if Nabokov took a mercator projection of the world and folded it longitudinally -- the desired effect would be that some cities and features in Russia would be grafted on to North America. The superimposition of these two maps creates a new type of cognitive map -- a personal geography that invokes Nabokov's family roots in Czarist Russia as well as his fascination with American culture. Thumb through Lolita (1954), and as you listen to Humbert Humbert's transcontinental jaunt, you are in fact listening to a topographical description of then-contemporary American culture.

Texts of all kinds enjoy a certain status as a type of map. They not only act as a historical document, but they give an all-too subjective read on a particular landscape. The idea that a text is a kind of map (and vice versa, that a map is a kind of text) was definitely on Michel de Certau's mind when writing The Practice of Everyday Life (1984). To say that the book is about the quotidian strays off the mark. The book is about raising the quotidian, elevating the particularities of everyday existence -- a process that ostensibly reveals several common currents. It is as if de Certau is cracking the code of an impossibly complicated Enigma machine.

This process invokes a seemingly disconnected set of analytical tools. At some points, the text reads like a literary-theoretical exegesis. At other instances, it dwells on semiology and anthropology, as well as geography. However, de Certau's irreverence is such that one can take the varied analytical touchstones and apply them to other types of cultural products. In effect, The Practice of Everyday Life enables us to deploy a theoretical toolkit that allows for reading any type of cultural production as a spatial phenomenon -- in other words, a map. As Nabokov's books are a form of cognitive mapping, so are relics of popular culture.....

http://www.aggregat456.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

Map of Roberto Bolaño's Works

2009-05-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

What a fascinating map this is!!! If you haven't read Roberto Bolaño, you should, 'The Savage Detectives', '2666', Nocturno en Chile...phenomenal!

http://quarterlyconversation.com/roberto-bolano-the-geometry-of-his-fictions
Check out this review, "Roberto Bolaño: A naive introductions to the geometry of his fictions" by Javier Moreno.

2009-01-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

Another great map; a big fan of the Marseilles deck!

http://fourhares.com/tarot/noblet_tree.html

From there to where?

2008-12-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

Lost in translation; perhaps one of the most underrated films in the last decade. Perhaps one of Billy Murray's best performances ever....More importantly; in line with the them of this blog; how divergent our paths are and the choices we make in terms of what paths we traverse or choose to cross...or is the map pre-ordained...perhaps there is no free will as regards the Map only our decision as to which corner we turn at each cross road...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s6g27hsuws&feature=related

Another Strange Map

2008-11-02T15:23:00.000-08:00

After having read several of Milorad Pavic's innovative novels this summer, I was truly delighted to find that someone else had mapped out the long strange history of the 'Dictionary of the Khazars'. One of the most fascinating treaties on the monotheistic power houses of the world as we know it, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, this is truly one of the most fascinating books I have ever read...or dictionary?!!!
Check out this fantastic map of the lexicon and its' characters...This would have been fantastic to have had at had while I was reading it...!!!
http://www.blueblanket.net/Steph/Record/khazars.htm

So Alive

2008-11-02T13:30:00.001-08:00

Reading several reviews of Ryan Adam's latest album 'Cardinology', and viewing some videos from YouTube of Adams and the Cardinals on Letterman I was reminded of a 'So Alive' 01/05/04 performance I watch late one night. Significant turning points of the soul, (yes they've happened while watching Letterman several times....enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70wOxS12Bdo

Netzah...what does it mean?

2008-06-26T06:19:00.001-07:00

Netzach

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The Sefirot in Jewish Kabbalah

	Category:Sephiroth	v • d • e

Netzach (Hebrew: נצח, "victory") is the seventh Sephirot in the Kabbalah, located beneath Chesed, at the base of the "Pillar of Mercy". Netzach is "Perpetualty", "Victory".

[edit] Jewish Kabbalah

Netzach is paired with Hod and comprises the third group of sephirot, the "tactical" sefirot, meaning that their purpose is not inherent in themselves, but rather as a means for something else.

Understanding the attributes of Netzach and Hod gives us a new perspective into understanding what is happening in the world. No longer do we merely look at an act at face value, and attempt to understand it as such, but we must look at it also in terms of "a means to an end."

These sephirot mark a turning point. Whereas the first two groups of sefirot deal with God's intrinsic will, and what it is that He desires to bestow upon man, these sephirot are focused on man: What is the most appropriate way for man to receive God's message? How can God's will be implemented most effectively?

Netzach refers to actions of God that are chesed, "kindness," in essence, but are presented through a prelude of harshness. Hod refers specifically to those events where the "wicked prosper." It is retribution —Gevurah, "strength/restraint," in essence, but presented by a prelude of pleasantness.

Netzach is "endurance," the fortitude, and patience to follow through on your passions. It is paired with Hod as the godly attributes related to group interactivity, with Netzach being leadership, the ability to rally others to a cause and motivate them to act; while Hod is community, the ability to do the footwork needed to follow through on ideas and make them happen. Netzach is identified with the right leg or foot when the Tree of Life is portrayed on the human form, while Hod is the left leg or foot.

Netzach is the sphere of Venus: the feminine aspect of God, which stands for receptivity and acceptance, also known as the Earth Mother in its fructifying aspect. Just as the mother goes through labor and pain to bring forth life, so does the earth mother endure and support every life-form. Netzach stands for Earthly love and acceptance (as opposed to the Heavenly love: judgemental and correcting —Chesed): the Great Mother's love.

[edit]

Butterflies of Maine

2008-06-25T06:52:00.001-07:00

Look what our habitat sustains...what's in your background??!!!!

http://www.thebutterflysite.com/maine-butterflies.shtml

Chochmah : Wisdom

2008-06-20T09:52:00.001-07:00

This is the last outpost of human consciousness; I've always found it interesting that Wisdom is found at the head of the masculine/active column on the tree of life.

Chochmah, "wisdom," is the "input" into the mind. It is the information we have been taught, or more so, the flash of inspiration -- when an idea pops into our head. The Tanya -- a Chassidic/Kabbalistic work describes chochmah as consisting of two Hebrew words: koach mah, meaning "potential." For chochmah is pure potential. It is an idea waiting to be developed.

Besides unlimited potential, chochmah has one other important characteristic -- it comes from "nowhere." Let us explain this.

The verse (in Job 28:12) states: V'chochmah me'ayin timatze?

This means that it is not possible to intellectually inquire above the level of chochmah. God's activities may be researched, inquired, thought about and analyzed up to a certain point. Past this point intellectual understanding is impossible because higher aspects of God's providence simply do not come through intellectual channels

The "wisdom" of chochmah also implies the ability to look deeply at some aspect of reality and abstract its conceptual essence till one succeeds in uncovering its underlying axiomatic truth. These seeds of truth can then be conveyed to the companion power of binah for the sake of intellectual analysis and development.

Chochmah is the primary ("beginning") force in the creative process, as it is said: "You have made them all with chochmah." The first word of the Torah, Breishit, "In the beginning (God created the heavens and the earth)," is translated as "With chochmah (God created...)."

Keter, 'The Crown'

2008-06-17T08:48:00.001-07:00

Keter, Ein Soph, eternity as it were, rather is, is that which is all encompassing, UNKNOWABLE in the sphere of human existence.

Keter ,the first of the ten sefirot, corresponds to the superconscious realm of experience--and thus accounting for the image of a "crown," which suggests an aura surrounding one's consciousness.

In the configuration of the sefirot, keter appears at the top of the middle axis.

The Zohar states: "the supernal crown [keter elyon] is the crown of kingdom [keter malchut]." The first, highest of the Divine emanations--keter--is thus linked to the last--malchut.

Kaf is also the root of the word kipah (etymologically, the root of the word "cap" in English), the yarmulke or skullcap. In reference to the creation of man it is said: "You have placed Your Palm [kaf] over me." Our Sages refer to Adam as, "the formation of the Palms [kaf] of the Holy One, Blessed be He." The awareness of the presence of the "Palms" of God over one's head, in His ongoing creation of him, becomes the cap (kipah) on his head. Even higher, the very power to actualize potential manifest in His Palms, as it were, derives ultimately from His crown (the power of will) above His head (i.e. "superrational" Will.)

Strange Maps

2008-06-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

I'd like to start a collection of the "Tree of Life", this is quite a spectacular British "underground" map of the 10 Sephirot; I do like the reference to Madonna, however the major arcana of the tarot are placed along the map fairly accurately so its not all in jest

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/224-the-tree-of-life-down-the-tube/

Tree has some very erotic over tones, I like the overlapping images and the inclusion of the tarot along the path.
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:QSTn0wYlTpLvQM:http://julean.net/tarot/Tree3a.jpg

This a beautiful image of the tree of life, replete with hebrew characters for each sephirot
In Kabbalah every idea grows from the foundation of God ^[10], and the entire study is based on that central belief. The statement by Maimonides, from the Mishneh Torah is accepted by all traditional Kabbalists:

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Sefirot/Sefirot.html