Very nice. It's perhaps interesting to note that Marshall McLuhan noted that Narcissus wasn't looking in the mirror, but the pond.
Chapter 4 of Understand Media, (1964!!) Is titled:
The Gadget Lover: Narcissus as Narcosis.
Here's a quote:
The Greek myth of Narcissus is directly concerned with a fact of human experience, as the word Narcissus indicates. It is from the Greek word narcosis or numbness.
The youth Narcisuss mistook his own reflection in the water for another person...
The wisdom of the Narcissus myth does not convey any idea that Narcissus fell in love with anything he regarded as himself. Obviously he would have had very different feelings about the i.age had he known it was an extension of himself. It is, perhaps indicative of the bias of our intensely technological and, therefore, narcotic culture that we have long interpreted the Narcissus story to mean that he fell in love with himself, that he imagined the reflection to be Narcissus!
Quite right about Narcissus! We develop a lot of weird, cartoony understandings of myths—especially Greek ones, for some reason. But I'm with McLuhan here in that our interpretation probably reveals a lot about ourselves.
I've got to say, though, that I'm not that familiar with Understand Media and it's startling how on-point that is. I think I'm going to have to pick up a copy.
“Understanding Media.” Sorry, typed on a phone. Yes, I would highly recommend. For me, I heard “The Medium is the Message” LP and that made him click. Then I got into this book. But Understanding Media is the book that rocked the world I believe.
Thanks so much, Thomas. I must admit that it's an old poem, and the final version from 10 years ago that I thought was pretty solid read as horribly awkward to me today! It took me as long to fix it up as it did to write it originally.
I sometimes think that it's a good thing for us not to be able to see ourselves completely as others see us—both in a literal and metaphorical sense. Too much staring at our own reflection likely isn't good.
Thanks so much for that, Chris. I'm by no means a professional photographer, but I try not to cut corners with what I'm sharing, so I try to take my own photos as much as I can.
The Canadian fantasy author Charles de Lint suggested an alter ego made up of 'What’s been abandoned,' - all the bits of us we cast out as we grow up - the "shadow-self". But while he suggested that what we cast out are things like empathy and compassion and creativity, they could equally be negative things. In either case, facing the doppelganger has a lot to teach us.
Very true, I love Charles de Lint! It's been a few years but I went on a massive tear through his books awhile back; very likely his ideas seeped into here somewhere.
Truth be told, this poem's a very old one, but heavily edited from the original, which wasn't very good. What got me thinking about how to approach it today was something my old advisor warned me about. He said, "just you wait; you reach a certain age and reflections get funny on you. You recognize the face but you wonder if that kid you knew could truly still be in there somehow." I've definitely been experiencing that myself lately. That the image is both familiar and not, depending on the context of time.
Ideas always seep in. I know how much I owe two authors - Guy Gavriel Kay and Elizabeth A. Lynn - for how and what I write. And yes, that's so true about reflections. I don't think about it much, but when I'm still doing and studying and thinking about the same things I was at 17, and it's 50 years later, I tend to think the outside should match the inner person, and it most certainly doesn't.
Your words are clear and poetic, as usual. This is a subject that probably hits close to home for a lot of people (I know it does to me), and I thought you captured it well, including how we may go about it.
Thanks, Hasse. Are you a Ghost in the Shell fan at all? There's a line from the second movie that's a paraphrase of a much older adage—something like, "the mirror doesn't reflect evil, but creates it." I definitely think it has the ability to do so if we aren't careful.
I haven't watched Ghost in the Shell, no (although I am a huge fan of the Matrix series, which I know was quite inspired by it). That's an interesting point. One could definitely also make a "McGilchrist-ian" analysis of it: about the mirages of the left brain hemisphere and how they relate to evil.
Very nice. It's perhaps interesting to note that Marshall McLuhan noted that Narcissus wasn't looking in the mirror, but the pond.
Chapter 4 of Understand Media, (1964!!) Is titled:
The Gadget Lover: Narcissus as Narcosis.
Here's a quote:
The Greek myth of Narcissus is directly concerned with a fact of human experience, as the word Narcissus indicates. It is from the Greek word narcosis or numbness.
The youth Narcisuss mistook his own reflection in the water for another person...
The wisdom of the Narcissus myth does not convey any idea that Narcissus fell in love with anything he regarded as himself. Obviously he would have had very different feelings about the i.age had he known it was an extension of himself. It is, perhaps indicative of the bias of our intensely technological and, therefore, narcotic culture that we have long interpreted the Narcissus story to mean that he fell in love with himself, that he imagined the reflection to be Narcissus!
Quite right about Narcissus! We develop a lot of weird, cartoony understandings of myths—especially Greek ones, for some reason. But I'm with McLuhan here in that our interpretation probably reveals a lot about ourselves.
I've got to say, though, that I'm not that familiar with Understand Media and it's startling how on-point that is. I think I'm going to have to pick up a copy.
“Understanding Media.” Sorry, typed on a phone. Yes, I would highly recommend. For me, I heard “The Medium is the Message” LP and that made him click. Then I got into this book. But Understanding Media is the book that rocked the world I believe.
This form is a favourite of mine and you've used it to great effect. A well articulated warning against delving too deep into one's shadow self.
Thanks so much, Thomas. I must admit that it's an old poem, and the final version from 10 years ago that I thought was pretty solid read as horribly awkward to me today! It took me as long to fix it up as it did to write it originally.
I sometimes think that it's a good thing for us not to be able to see ourselves completely as others see us—both in a literal and metaphorical sense. Too much staring at our own reflection likely isn't good.
I often appreciate your photographs as much as your written images.
Thanks so much for that, Chris. I'm by no means a professional photographer, but I try not to cut corners with what I'm sharing, so I try to take my own photos as much as I can.
The Canadian fantasy author Charles de Lint suggested an alter ego made up of 'What’s been abandoned,' - all the bits of us we cast out as we grow up - the "shadow-self". But while he suggested that what we cast out are things like empathy and compassion and creativity, they could equally be negative things. In either case, facing the doppelganger has a lot to teach us.
Very true, I love Charles de Lint! It's been a few years but I went on a massive tear through his books awhile back; very likely his ideas seeped into here somewhere.
Truth be told, this poem's a very old one, but heavily edited from the original, which wasn't very good. What got me thinking about how to approach it today was something my old advisor warned me about. He said, "just you wait; you reach a certain age and reflections get funny on you. You recognize the face but you wonder if that kid you knew could truly still be in there somehow." I've definitely been experiencing that myself lately. That the image is both familiar and not, depending on the context of time.
Ideas always seep in. I know how much I owe two authors - Guy Gavriel Kay and Elizabeth A. Lynn - for how and what I write. And yes, that's so true about reflections. I don't think about it much, but when I'm still doing and studying and thinking about the same things I was at 17, and it's 50 years later, I tend to think the outside should match the inner person, and it most certainly doesn't.
That didn't go where I was expecting.
"Take care to glance but never gaze—
Beware the wickedness displayed
Behind this watermark."
Your words are clear and poetic, as usual. This is a subject that probably hits close to home for a lot of people (I know it does to me), and I thought you captured it well, including how we may go about it.
Thanks, Hasse. Are you a Ghost in the Shell fan at all? There's a line from the second movie that's a paraphrase of a much older adage—something like, "the mirror doesn't reflect evil, but creates it." I definitely think it has the ability to do so if we aren't careful.
I haven't watched Ghost in the Shell, no (although I am a huge fan of the Matrix series, which I know was quite inspired by it). That's an interesting point. One could definitely also make a "McGilchrist-ian" analysis of it: about the mirages of the left brain hemisphere and how they relate to evil.