E.M. Forster
Pharos and Pharillon
1923
for Daniel, for writing
Thursday, August 12, 2010
"But the strife still continues in the heart of men . . .
. . . ever prone to substitute the human for the divine."
E.M. Forster
Pharos and Pharillon
1923
This space has been favoured with manifold encouragements, but not another so chastising as the gift of this image, on the condition of writing about it. As I hope everyone can discern, the pediment of the device is an unexpended ballistic cartridge. The base is hammered from a shell casing, whence presumably the floral sconce is carved, probably by regulation issue, possibly in a trench. This is a relic of the Great War, whose legacy persists in the calamitous misprision adduced by Forster. Who knows whose munition was adapted to this ironic purpose? But when do we light a candle?
for Daniel, for writing
E.M. Forster
Pharos and Pharillon
1923
for Daniel, for writing
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How unbelievably beautiful! With the music and reading the post, I'm almost in tears.
ReplyDeleteSide note: Did you know Forster didn't know how the birds met the bees until he was in his thirties? I can't get this fact out of my head.
this puts me in mind of something a friend shared with me by Jean-Luc Godard -that the matter is not where we take things from, but where we bring them. what better accompaniment than Schubert-whether our soldier knew it or not He had the feeling of it. beauty in within any object in the hands of it lone creator. pgt
ReplyDeleteEven more remarkable, DH, may have been the stoicism with which he bore the tardiness of that discovery.
ReplyDeleteBeauty inchoate in the youth, too, LA; his waste a kind of infinite feedback loop of atrocity.
Laurent, Mission accomplie !
ReplyDeleteGaye, you have a sixth sense ...