Vice Versa

Young girl dances with positive energy behind her bland parents going to market.

Meditative dance. Quick clean clear. Free.

Themes: social consciousness / political / generations / social environment / economic conditions / poverty/ art

Great novels are above all great fairy tales. - Nabokov

Mandalay, Burma

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Memory being present tense.

Literature does not tell the truth but makes it up.

Life is the least realistic of all fictions.

The passion of the scientist and the precision of the artist ... or vice versa.

Great writers invent their own world ... a totality of the experience (a novel, a painting)

Burma

Polyommatus Blue Butterflies

Greetings,

In a series of evolutionary waves over millions of years, Nabokov theorized they started in Asia, flew over the warm Bering Strait and down to Chile. It wasn't chilly in Chile. It was warm swarming with butterflies. 

His passion as a self-taught lepidopterist into their 10 million years flight has been vindicated by gene-sequencing scientists headed by Dr. Naomi Pierce, curator of lepidoptera at Harvard. She was captivated by his idea of butterflies coming from Asia. “It was an amazing, bold hypothesis,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, my God, we could test this.’ ”

NYT, read more...

Metta.

Poetry rocks russia

Greetings,

The passing of Mr. Voznesensky creates new opportunity and awareness for poets with courage and voice. Poets speak in the atmosphere of intimidation and menace. 

Here is a NYT piece on Russian poetry.

...Here is Pushkin’s poem “Good for the Poet Who ...,” a bitter satire of writers who would curry favor with rulers, in a translation by Yevgeny Bonver:

Good for the poet who applies
His art in royal chambers’ splendor.
Of tears and laughter crafty vendor
Adding some truth to many lies,
He tickles the sated taste of lords
For more greatness and awards.
And decorates all their feasts,
Receiving clever praise as fees ...
But, by the doors, so tall and stout —
On sides of stables and backyards —
The people, haunted by the guards,
Hark to this poet in a crowd.

Now there’s a declaration of independence.

Read more...

Metta.