" No sooner have you grabbed ahold of it than myth opens out into a fan of a thousand segments." -Calasso page 147
"I think that's some kind of clue. The place of mystery in life. Not taking anything for granted. A world where nothing is certain. That's what he's trying to create here." Magus page 339
I've used this quote from Calasso once before in one of my blog entries but after finishing my readings with the Magus I felt that it needed to be said again. How can one not relate to this when reading the Magus. Just like the quote is portraying, in this novel you never know what to expect. I don't know how many different times my conclusions and predictions were rubbed into the dirt. From start to finish, no sooner do you think you have it all figured out then something completely unexpected happens to spoil it all. Even Nicholaus is completely baffeled. He wants so much to hate Conchis and trust Lily yet he is presented with so many doubts.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Magus
A few moments later I set off back to my dull, daily penal colony on the far side of the dream; as Adam left the Garden of Eden, perhaps...except that I knew there were no gods, and nothing was going to bar my return. -Page 356
I was scanning over the Magus once again looking at all the marked pages and underlinings and this passage seemed to jump out at me. I found it interesting because it's kind of at the beginning of the novel before Nicholaus has taken on much of the mystery. It's kind of his thoughts before entering the labrynth. He knows that something mystical is about to take place. He feels that his ordianry life is dull and boring and he is ready for an adventure. He refers to his colony life as the far side of the dream. This passage is also hinting to us that he feels substantial for the playwrite to carry on; he is needed for this mystery to take place. Conchis shortly reverses his thinking, as he does so many times, and cuts him off from Bourani. He makes him feel unimportant and not needed. This turns Nicholaus' reality upside down and engulfs him in a world of myth. He never knows what to expect and who to trust from start to finish.
I was scanning over the Magus once again looking at all the marked pages and underlinings and this passage seemed to jump out at me. I found it interesting because it's kind of at the beginning of the novel before Nicholaus has taken on much of the mystery. It's kind of his thoughts before entering the labrynth. He knows that something mystical is about to take place. He feels that his ordianry life is dull and boring and he is ready for an adventure. He refers to his colony life as the far side of the dream. This passage is also hinting to us that he feels substantial for the playwrite to carry on; he is needed for this mystery to take place. Conchis shortly reverses his thinking, as he does so many times, and cuts him off from Bourani. He makes him feel unimportant and not needed. This turns Nicholaus' reality upside down and engulfs him in a world of myth. He never knows what to expect and who to trust from start to finish.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
October 27th
"The veil, or something that encloses, that wraps around, or belts on, a ribbon, a sash, a band, is the last object we meet in Greece. Beyond the veil, there is no other thing. The veil is the other. It tells us that the existing world, alone, cannot hold, that at the very least it needs to be continually covered and discovered, to appear and to dissapear. That which is accomplished, be it initiation, or marriage, or sacrifice, requires a veil, precisely because that which is accomplished is perfect, and the perfect stands for everything, and everything includes the veil, that surplus which is the fragrance of things."
- Page 368
I found this quote to be very fitting for my final blog about Calasso and The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. It is simply suggesting that which we have learned and talked about in class. It's the apocolypse. It's not the end of the world physically, but the end of the world in which you view it. In other words you will see things differently. At the end, you come across a veil, and that veil has to be lifted and you have to see the world and all its aspects in a different sense. The end is to arrive at the beginning and to know the place for the first time. What's also interesting about this quote is the part in which it talks about how the veil being taken off has to be continually covered and discovered. It's suggesting that the truth cannot be handled. It is too overwhelming to leave the veil off and exposed forever. It ruins it. One must continally strive and understand and accomplish to fully discover, then it must be covered again.
- Page 368
I found this quote to be very fitting for my final blog about Calasso and The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. It is simply suggesting that which we have learned and talked about in class. It's the apocolypse. It's not the end of the world physically, but the end of the world in which you view it. In other words you will see things differently. At the end, you come across a veil, and that veil has to be lifted and you have to see the world and all its aspects in a different sense. The end is to arrive at the beginning and to know the place for the first time. What's also interesting about this quote is the part in which it talks about how the veil being taken off has to be continually covered and discovered. It's suggesting that the truth cannot be handled. It is too overwhelming to leave the veil off and exposed forever. It ruins it. One must continally strive and understand and accomplish to fully discover, then it must be covered again.
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