Synchronous, at risk of being pretensious

[BSturdy]

I was working on my computer last week and the radio announced that 35 kids had been blown up at the party organised for the re-opening of a water plant in Baghdad. Something told me to look up a quote from Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley - luckily I had marked the page - (c. Asthough you could use violent and unjust means and achieve peace and justice! Means become ends and must be like the ends proposed.)

Then doing bedtime reading a bit later on from Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter, I suddenly read: "You can't desire the ends without desiring the means." "Ah, but one can, he thought, one can: one can desire the peace of victory without desiring the ravaged towns"

Is that me or is that not more than coincidence? Anyone ever have something happen in their life that is then echoed in a book or vice versa. Is this just fire in the mind?

By the way incase anyone thinks; oh no who is this guy, I think this forum is great - but I am sure I will calm down on the posting fairly soon

[BSturdy]

I'll put it down to coincidence then

[den]

Not pretentious at all ;) ... and while I won't venture into the political aspects of this ... I often enjoy little deja vu moments of life imitating art and love it.

Though I also am in lala land half the time, :idea: ... I'm reading Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses right now and it's filled with vignettes of questions about ghosts and things that can't always be explained.

No, don't stop posting yet, don't want it to get boring around here or anything. :p

[den]

I'm not acquainted much with Greene's work, but I'll say, and many know, Huxley was a true visionary, way ahead of his time.

His mother died when he was young, and he also dealt with vision impairment, certainly to be considered when you realise how well he did perceive things.

The means justify the end? The ends become the mean? It is truly sad when people aren't consistent in their little crusades.

Although Huxley did say "The truly most consistent people are the dead." (!)

[Scheherazade]

It is possible to put those times when one finds his/her thoughts/feelings are echoed in the texts (lets be honest sometimes in songs :P) but it is also possible that things get our attention depending on the mood and frame of mind we are in... Selective attention in a way. Things which might get little attention from us normally might speak volumes to us at times when we are more 'prone'.

[Farfalla]

Most recently I was reading some Jack Kerouac and he said

" What difference does it make after all? - anonymity in the world of men is bertter than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind."

My friend had said something almost exactly like that on the phone like 10 minutes earlier... that creeped me out.

[BSturdy]

Thanks for the kind words den - in retrospect that was a bit of an impulsive post. I did not mean to (fortunately didn't) start a political debate.

The chinese are very superstitious, I find that interesting. That Amy Tan book sounds right up my street, will make a note. Another chinese book I really enjoyed was Red Azalea by Anchee Min.

Graham Greene Rocks!....Yes, it is incredible that Aldous Huxley saved his own sight (with a technique set out in his book/essay The Art of Seeing). You may not know that he was very good friends with D.H. Lawrence. Some of the scientific ideas in Brave New World were know to him through his brother Julian Huxley (a proponent of eugenics). He did have some slightly cookie ideas (eating only green beans and bananas for some time apparently!). 'if only we could all be a little nicer to each other'. It is great to see such interest in Brave New World/1984 on the forum - two great books.

Scheherazade - I completely agree. I do have times when I get quite excitable or 'prone' as you suggest. The example above was quite unnerving. Hope similar things don't happen too often - or I might be too 'prone' (Crazy!).

[mono]

Well said, Scheherazade. Many quotes, I think, seem mostly admired for their ambiguity, and, depending on our mood, we always discover something new in such quotations with each read; that proves what makes them great - words that may apply to every situation.
Coincidence or not, BSturdy, what an interesting phenomenon. I send no offense to the imagination's manner in finding the ambiguity in some quotes, but make it as real as you like; it seems that something odd did happen.

[Scheherazade]

I do have times when I get quite excitable or 'prone' as you suggest. The example above was quite unnerving. Hope similar things don't happen too often - or I might be too 'prone' (Crazy!).

Although it does sound unnerving, I personally think that it is rewarding to be able to see/hear the hidden meanings in things. normally we are so occupied with our daily lives that we hardly stop and pay attention to things. Yet when we do, it is like being given a chance to see things clearly, understand and appreciate them better.

See it as a privilege rather than a curse! :)

You will begin to love it...

[Icarus]

BSturdy, I've found that one of the best ways to seem 'pretentiou's is to actually use the word. People who are pretentious usually know what it means and people that aren't usually think the person using it is pretentious, because not many people other than English teachers and pretentious folk use it. Just my opinion. Oh, and if you're actually going for pretension, I would use 'ostentatious' instead, you'll really knock the sox off any pretensions buddies you may have. I prefer 'arrogant'. It’s more fun and less pretensious.

[BSturdy]

Hey Icarus, I hope that my post wasn't too affected - 'synchronous' did sound very ESP so I was trying to be a bit self-deprecating to make up for it.

Ostentatious would usually be appropriate in the context of overt material display - e.g. if I had claimed to be quoting from a first edition book in a diamond encrusted jacket. You judged me pretty quickly and you suggest I may have pretensious friends too! Infact arrogant means aggressive or overbearing - I do not see the relevance unless this is another swipe at me.

Ok, ok, I should have put it in the quotes section with the title "I am an execrable unicorn believer''

[Taliesin]

Well said, Scheherazade. Many quotes, I think, seem mostly admired for their ambiguity, and, depending on our mood, we always discover something new in such quotations with each read; that proves what makes them great - words that may apply to every situation.
Coincidence or not, BSturdy, what an interesting phenomenon. I send no offense to the imagination's manner in finding the ambiguity in some quotes, but make it as real as you like; it seems that something odd did happen.

Heh, you make me remember a test which was made in a univerity. They took, I think students birth dates or hand prints and sent everybody a description of their personality (which were made by some astrologer or smth.) and asked if they agreed with them. And almost everyone agreed that yes, it was them.
Now, actually everybody got sent the same description. :smash:

[Scheherazade]

Now, actually everybody got sent the same description. :smash:
:D :D:D:D:D

[BSturdy]

Hey (the very endearing Swedish term for hello/hi) Taliesin - With respect that is a bizarre parallel - unless you literally think I am an astrologer, which I am not.

I was just pointing out that I looked up a quote from Huxley and then it was echoed in the Graham Greene novel that I was reading within a short period of time - I did not point out the character or context in the Graham Greene novel.

What is a 'smash' smiley supposed to imply?

[Taliesin]

Hey (the very endearing Swedish term for hello/hi) Taliesin - With respect that is a bizarre parallel - unless you literally think I am an astrologer, which I am not.

I was just pointing out that I looked up a quote from Huxley and then it was echoed in the Graham Greene novel that I was reading within a short period of time - I did not point out the character or context in the Graham Greene novel.

What is a 'smash' smiley supposed to imply?

Hei, BSturdy - it is a bit difficult to explain.
First, the smash smiley means :smash: that I like the smash smiley. :smash:

I am not sure about the reason why my sick mind brought up this fact, but I think that at first I didn't understand the thing you said very well, and I thought that you were speaking about a quote and a situation what seemed related so..... Ah, long story, I myself do not understand what I have been thinking sometimes .

But now, when you point the thing out, I think that I understand better and have an explanation.

Well, I think that the reason why you remembered it was because it seemed extraordinary. You don't remember all the ordinary facts. How many times has happened such thing that you look up a quotation and at the evening, reading a book, the quote wasn't there? More than once? Do you remember them?

This is a common example to this kind of thing:
I.e Imagine that when you have been thinking about a friend of yours, she calls you. You remember these kinds of facts. But you do not remember the times when she called to you but you weren't thinking about her or vice versa.

I think that it is something like selective memory.

[BSturdy]

Hey Taliesin - I do actually very much understand the relevance of the experiment. You are right and I did know that:- Our minds look for patterns relating to our experience.

I was being a bit defensive because I thought you were referring to something else in the post above - basically I thought I was being given a hard time. (Text in forums can easily lead to misunderstanding: So, I have a persecution complex, great!)

Thanks for explaining (trying to find an embarassed smiley)

[Scheherazade]

So are you two gonna kiss and make up? :D