Spring Broke

I haven't been giving Spinoza enough attention over Break. I am a bad philosopher. I will try to make it up to him eventually.

Yesterday I went to the opening of an exhibit at a warehouse in Williamsburg. Tara and I drank free beer, took a few laps around the exhibit, then met some awesome artists. Then we went to Alligaytor Lounge, scavenged some pizza tickets, had a beer then bailed. Tres weak.

On my way to sit in a cafe, binge on coffee, and read Dante, I was stopped by a pair of individuals. One was South Korean woman and the other was a darkhaired guy who didn't say a word. They wanted to know if I had heard of "the female image of God" in the Bible. Being a religious studies student (I hate the redundancy of saying that), I was skeptical, but I was having trouble figuring out what this woman was trying to say thanks to her accent. I was genuinely interested in what they were saying until she started to say that it was the "end times", and alluding to apocalyptic prophecy in the Bible. Now, I have read the bible, even Revelations. But I read it in an academic setting, as literature not Truth. As soon as they brought in the end of days, Heaven, the one True God, I couldn't take them seriously. If I'd been in less of a hurry, perhaps I would have asked them to show me just where in the Bible WWII is explicitly prophesied. I remarked that prophecy is written so generally that it is easily misinterpreted. People have "seen the signs of the end times as prophesied in the Bible" since the Bible was written! So, I mentioned my studies, and that was when her partner finally jumped in, asking "May I ask what religion you practice?" There was something in the way he intoned his question that made me defensive, so I replied, "I don't practice a religion. I'm a religious studies student." Then he asked me if I'd ever been Catholic in the past. I don't think he meant past lives, but if he had I probably would have answered yes. But I told him no. It was at this point I started backing away. They were desperate to keep me on the hook but I had better things to do than debate with people who seemed to have less understanding of Christian theology than I do. And that is saying something, not being Christian and everything. To get them to finally back off I told them I would need direct revelation to believe in whatever it was they were trying to tell me about. The guy said, "But it says that you have to come to it for salvation, it won't come to you." I said, "It's already coming to me. Don't worry about my salvation," and walked away. About twenty feet later another pair of people approached me, and said, "Excuse me, may we talk to you for a moment?" I answered him with another question. "Are you with those people over there?" and pointed in the direction I'd just come from. "I don't know. Have you heard about the female image of God? We're with the something or other Elohim blah blah blah." "Yep, that's what they said, too." "So you're not interested?" "Nope, thanks!" Then I waved and walked away.

For the rest of the afternoon I ascended the mountain of Purgation, passed through the cleansing fire of realization, entered the Garden of Earthly delights and was baptised in the rivers of oblivion and good memory. Afterward, I went grocery shopping. Trader Joe's is a godsend. I told them not to worry about my salvation. I can find it on my own, thanks.

Briefly, fly by fire

Senior work proposal is consuming my life. Was floundering for a while to find a working research question narrow enough to build my proposal on. Finally, this afternoon busted out something kind of manageable, at least for round one--pre-revision. I'm sure not a single one of you has any idea what I'm talking about, but here it is... Dante Theologus: What is the relationship of Dante's representation of Heaven, specifically in the Circle of the Sun in Paradiso X-XIV, to the conflict between Scholastic philosophy and radical eschatology in late medieval Italy, especially as pertaining to the competition between the Franciscan and Dominican order and to the heretical eschatology of Joachim of Flora.

Yes, it is convoluted. That is why I will spend the rest of my weekend reading and writing and clarifying (hopefully) and writing and bibliographing.

Oh, did I mention that as soon as I finish my proposal, I have to start a 10-page paper on the chapter of my choice from Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, explaining it in its own context and then to the work as a whole by Thursday? And another midterm for the same day.

At least I submitted my application to Dharamsala today so I no longer have that burden weighing on me.

Damn it, I need to learn to read Latin, French, German and Italian. And Greek. And Spanish.

ennumeration

Here I am, returning yet again to spit my thoughts into this little box for your consideration. I have been busying myself lately. I work full time at a counter job that bores me to death, buying and selling used books, dining as a party of 1, and otherwise going places and seeing faces.

I have settled on a firm concept for my next tattoo piece, one which I am one week later still excited about. This has not been the case for any tattoo idea I've had since I finished my first piece almost 4 years ago. For years I have been enthralled by the Commedia Divina of Dante Alighieri. Infierno in particular holds a certain fascination for me. As a religious studies concentrator with a specialization in religion and literature, it is no surprise that I would write my senior thesis on this piece of literature. In commemoration of the feat of writing my senior work, which I won't begin for another 6 months, I will be getting select illustrations of scenes from Infierno on my right leg from knee to ankle. I bought an illustrated copy of The Divine Comedy translated by Lawrence G White, illustrated by Gustav Dore. His is by far the best series of illustrations I have seen. Here is a sample of what I'm considering.

Canto V: Paolo & Francesca

Harpies in the Forest of Suicides

Lucifer, King of Hell




Still, there are a few obstacles I must overcome before I can succeed in realizing this desire. For starters, I need to find a tattoo artist who is affordable and still competent enough to execute my idea in exactly the way I want. It is only on this point that I can say I wish I were in Indianapolis. Trevor at Metamorphosis is the only person who has ever tattooed me, so it is hard to imagine anyone else sticking it to me. So the second obstacle is the time it will take to find the right artist for this project. I spoke to one guy at Addicted NYC but his portfolio failed to excite, so I absolutely want to see what else is out there. But it will be so totally worth it. I can almost feel it already.