Author: joseph

“Henceforward,” said the Master, “of this guilt
sloth beware; not lying upon down
Is fame to be attained, nor under quilt;
And he who goes without it to his grave
Leaves of himself such vestige upon earth
As smoke in air, or foam upon the wave.
Rise up then; and thy panting breath refresh
Even with the spirit that in battle wins,
Unless dragged under by the grosser flesh.
A longer ladder is there yet to climb” (XXIV, 46-55, pg 106)

— Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, trans. Jefferson Butler Fletcher (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1933).

“Now it behoves thee thus to free thyself from sloth,” said the Master: “for sitting on down, or under coverlet, men come not into fame;
without which whoso consumes his life, leaves such vestige of himself on earth, as smoke in air or foam in water;
and therefore, rise! conquer thy panting with thy soul, that conquers every battle, if with its heavy body it sinks not down.
A longer ladder must be climbed” (XXIV, lines unnumbered, pg. 132)

— Dante Alighieri, The Inferno, trans. John Aitken Carlyle, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri (New York: The Modern Library UP, 1932).

“Now you must cast aside your laziness,”
my master said, “for he who rests on down
or under covers cannot come to fame;
and he who spends his life without renown
leaves such a vestige of himself on earth
as smoke bequeaths to air or foam to water.
Therefore, get up; defeat your breathlessness
with spirit that can win all battles if
the body’s heaviness does not deter it.
A longer ladder still is to be climbed …” (XXIV, 46-55)

— Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, trans. Allen Mandelbaum (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).

Do You Prefer to Talk About Meaningful Issues? Radiohead’s Conceptual Aesthetic from Hail to the Thief to the Present

This essay explores the album artwork of Radiohead. In particular, I close read the band’s recent album art and its relation to the changing images populating their official web site. Created by Stanley Donwood—whom some call the band’s sixth member—and Tchock—a pseudonym for the band’s lead singer, Thom Yorke—these web images are developing in directions that complement and sometimes infiltrate the band’s album artwork. In short, the web imagery is not a supplement per se but what Derrida might call a dangerous supplement: artwork in its own right that perforates the boundaries of conventional album art, demoting the CD insert to one distribution method among many.
For example, eight painted maps comprised the CD insert art for the 2003 album Hail to the Thief. Using what he called “the colours of LA”—black, white, red, green, blue, orange, and yellow—Donwood painted aerial maps of cities including London, Grozny and Baghdad that mimicked capitalism’s deployment of language: seen from above, all space is strictly delimited by capitalized words and phrases like “RETIREMENT,” “LUBE,” and “BEEF.” Whether England, America or Iraq, each map juxtaposed words in vivid colors, regimenting and homogenizing each city via an oppressive sameness of style and color that parodies globalization’s reduction of difference. At the time of the album’s release, the band’s web site was updated with still images and Macromedia Flash movies that expanded on the paintings but also challenged them, converting them, for example, into flashing signs and unplayable games. Since this album, the band’s web site has become a virtual repository of visual ideas, many of which are direct critiques of America’s international military actions and England’s role in those actions.
In closing, the essay examines how the band’s visual influences—Jean Dubuffet’s critique of capitalism, Jenny Holzer’s axioms, Cy Twombly’s combination of gestural abstraction and text, and Takashi Murakami’s iconic figures—compete to form a consistent, conceptual aesthetic, one unique in the history of album art.

[ce dangereux supplément] ah, yes: but don’t forget this dangerous supplement as mentioned in Emile.

“Now needs thy best of man;” so spake my guide:
“For not on downy plumes, nor under shade
Of canopy reposing, fame is won;
Without which whosoe’er consumes his days,
Leaveth such vestige of himself on earth,
As smoke in air, or foam upon the wave.
Thou therefore rise: vanquish thy weariness
By the mind’s effort, in each struggle form’d
To vanquish, if she suffer not the weight
Of her corporeal frame to crush her down.
A longer ladder yet remains to scale.” (XXIV, lines unnumbered, pg. 177-78)

— Dante Alighieri,The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, trans. Henry F. Cary (New York: Crown Publishers, 1900).

“Come on, shake off the covers of this sloth,”
the master said, “for sitting softly cushioned,
or tucked in bed, is no way to win fame;

and without it man must waste his life away,
leaving such traces of what he was on earth
as smoke in wind and foam upon the water.

Stand up! Dominate this weariness of yours
with the strength of soul that winds in every battle
if it does not sink beneath the body’s weight.

Much steeper stairs than these we’ll have to climb” (XXIV, 46-55, pg. 198)

— Dante Alighieri, Dante’s Inferno, trans. Mark Musa (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1971).

“Omai convien che tu così ti spoltre,”
disse ‘l maestro; “ché, seggendo in piuma,
in fama non si vien, né sotto coltre;
sanza la qual chi sua vita consuma,
cotal vestigo in terra di sé lascia,
qual fummo in aere e in acqua la schiuma.
E però leva sù; vinci l’ambascia
con l’animo che vince ogne battaglia,
se col suo grave corpo non s’accasia.
Più lunga scala convien che si saglia; …” (XXIV, 46-55)

“Now it behooves you thus to case off sloth,” said my master, for sitting on down or under coverlet, no one comes to fame, without which whoso consumes his life leaves such vestige of himself on earth as smoke in air or foam in water. Rise, therefore; conquer your panting with the soul that wins every battle, if with its heavy body it sinks not down. A longer ladder must be climbed…” (249-250)

— Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Inferno, 1: Italian Text and Translation, trans. Charles S. Singleton (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1970).

Often “we hear about the ‘impotence’ and ‘dryness’ of the critic” (3). Yet, “The only way to forestall the work of criticism is through censorship, which has the same relation to criticism that lynching has to justice” (4).
— from Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957).

We don’t want the loonies (loonatic critics) taking over. Gagging order: A couple more for breakfast, a little more for tea. Just to take the edge off.

repeat parrot fashion:

“now must thou cast off all sloth…. for sitting on down or under blankets none comes to fame, and without it he that consumes his life leaves no trace of himself on earth, as smoke in air or foam on the water. rise, therefore, conquer thy distress with the soul, which conquers in every battle if it doesnot sink with its bodys weight. there is a longer stair which must be climbed.”

Dante, Commedia, Inferno XXIV, 46-55.

An excerpt:

in the distance there is a cloud but as im in an ok mood i can keep it away
……..friends of the earth have asked me whether i would meet Tony Blair at downing street to discuss what our government is not doing about climate change..i dont know if this will ever happen for certain…. it is rattling around in the back of my mind and concerns me a lot.
i have no intention of being used by spider spin doctors to make it look like we make progress when it is just words.
id love to know what you think but i cant ask.
youd say oh ther e he goes again interfering and meddling in politics why doesnt he get on with the music and shut up.
perhaps because i feel like a hypocrit if dont do anything, and equally feel like a hypocrit if i try getting involved.
nobody wants to know. none of u s do, me included id love to forget about it like your average Times reader. wed all like it to go away. turn to to the rising sea and say come back later im busy right now.
Blair has been uttering nonsense lately about kyoto and such, real la la stuff… looks like th eamerican right have finally eaten his mind… blah blah why on earth would i meet this man? o r perhaps that is exactly why i should. but i dont have powers of persuasion, i just have temper and an acid tongue.

trust me i find this as dull as you do… politics is poison..
what do yout think i should do?