constant escape
winter withered, warm
I guess it also depends on if we read the good/bad as a master/pupil relation, and if that spills over into master/slave.
Stray thoughts under partial quarantine
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padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
not that I have much experience with the Tao Te Ching, but what little I have seen seems to generally be cryptic and ambiguous by design
which has advantages and disadvantages compared to an I guess more epistemically straightforward text
less prone to dogma but harder to draw definite conclusions from
of course that may just be my limited knowledge of the Tao Te Ching and Chinese philosophy in general
which has advantages and disadvantages compared to an I guess more epistemically straightforward text
less prone to dogma but harder to draw definite conclusions from
of course that may just be my limited knowledge of the Tao Te Ching and Chinese philosophy in general
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
I mean, it says teacher, which implies a superior-subordinate relationship of some kind
constant escape
winter withered, warm
I think all the articulated interpretation should be floating above the understanding of this stuff, which isn't to say that you either get it or you don't. Just seems like the only way to understand it is to process it in a way that is more raw than words, but that isn't to say words cannot help. Most of the time they hardly do though. We could even argue that the word function to spiral things off into discovery, turning some kind of combinatoric compost bin.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
the good man is possessed of some knowledge the bad man is not
why is the good man "good" and the bad man "bad" to begin with?
what preexisting power relations determined who's good and who's bad?
why is the good man "good" and the bad man "bad" to begin with?
what preexisting power relations determined who's good and who's bad?
constant escape
winter withered, warm
Right but something about bad doesn;t so cleaning map onto pupil. Unless good/bad says less about morals and more about spiritual development.
constant escape
winter withered, warm
If its about spiritual development then I think it really starts making sense. But that doesn't necessarily clean up the colonial implications.
luka
Well-known member
i was wandering aimlessly through the city today in a mopey way and really noticing how eye level in the city is designed to be completely colonised by signs. but above that band of semiotic pollution things get more interesting again. its easier now with fewer people to lift the eyes up out of the sewage layer
How do things become more interesting? First thing I thought of was faded, painted Edwardian ads and shop signs you sometimes see up there. What else?
luka
Well-known member
well it's relative of course... but as you say, that visual band of sign and symbol at eye level conspires to create the illusion of a uniform present, but above it you can see what it is pasted on top of. The actual material substrate of the city.
Hmmmm. Higher level, lower brain. I like it. This idea will feature in my forthcoming but as yet unwritten major novel.
luka
Well-known member
corpseys back@!!! The boy-wonder!