'The hero and the idol' from 'Permanent Red' by John Berger

Graffiti Hero, a photo by incurable_hippie on Flickr.

'The function of the hero in art is to inspire the reader or spectator to continue in the same spirit from where he, the hero, leaves off. He must release the spectator's potentiality, for potentiality is the historical force behind nobility. And to do this the hero must be typical of the characters and class who at that time only need to be made aware of their heroic potentiality in order to be able to make their society juster and nobler...

The function of the idol (stars, TV personalities, etc) is the exact opposite of the hero. The idol is self-sufficient: the hero never is. The idol is so superficially desirable, spectacular, witty, happy, that he or she merely supplies a context for fantasy and therefore, instead of inspiring, lulls. The idol is based on the appearance of perfection, but never on the striving towards it. In fact the idol does more than lull, because the spectator, identifying himself with the idol, and feeling that he shares or possesses its qualities, becomes complacent and self-satisfied.'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/apr/23/john-berger-life-in-writing

Craig Powell, 'Poetry on the Brain', Meanjin, December 2004

'Early in that period of analysis it came to me that the worlds of psychoanalysis and poetry are one and the same. 

I was having a session with my analyst, free associating, so the conversation took all kinds of knight's-move and dog-leg turns. 

And my analyst made a few quiet responses that helped me see there was an unexpected unity to all of this, a thread of meaning connecting all the images and going to the depths of the relationship between us.

I realised with quiet delight that a good session is a poem. It felt the same as when disparate images finally cohere with unexpected depth and a poem is made. Not all my poems achieve that, of course, just as not all therapy sessions achieve a state of profound connection. But some do, and that's always an occasion for gratitude.'

http://meanjin.com.au/ 

 

'The Noonday Demon' Andrew Solomon 2001

'It was also in depression that I learned my own acreage, the full extent of my soul.'
 
'I have discovered what I would have to call a soul, a part of myself I could never have imagined until one day, seven years ago, when hell came to pay me a surprise visit. It's a precious discovery.'

 http://andrewsolomon.com/books/the-noonday-demon/

http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/06/24/reviews/010624.24oatest.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/may/06/booksonhealth.medicalscience

'The Consolations of Philosophy' by Alain De Botton

Climbing the Arête des Cosmiques, a photo by NomadicEntrepreneur on Flickr.

'Though the terrain of frustration may be vast ... at the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.

The collisions begin in earliest infancy, with the discovery that the sources of our satisfaction lie beyond our control and that the world does not reliably conform to our desires.

And yet, for Seneca, in so far as we can ever attain wisdom, it is by learning not to aggravate the world's obstinacy through our own responses, through spasms of rage, self-pity, anxiety, bitterness, self-righteousness and paranoia.


A single idea recurs throughout his work: that we best endure those frustrations which we have prepared ourselves for and are hurt most by those we least expected and cannot fathom. 

Philosophy must reconcile us to the true dimensions of reality, and so spare us, if not frustration itself, then at least its panoply of pernicious accompanying emotions.

Her task is to prepare for our wishes the softest landing possible on the adamantine wall of reality.'

http://www.alaindebotton.com/philosophy.asp 

'Are you somebody? The Life and Times of Nuala O'Faolain'

Singing, a photo by pam's pics- on Flickr.

Those who wish to sing always find a song
- Swedish proverb-

'... I said to Arnold ... "why is ensemble singing so beautiful? What makes it move us so much?" And he said; "People would be like that all the time, if they could." '


https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/may/12/culture.obituaries

from 'A Conversation With A Chance Acquaintance' by Robert Rozhdestvensky

14MAY11: mist on Country Club Pond, a photo by tarboxje on Flickr.


'Look, 
             how the night is breathing
A star
             tired of glimmerng
                                                    has fallen
                                          and has burned your shoulder ...' 

'What?'

'Look,
             how ingratiatingly the mist
                                                    is clinging
                                           to young water ...'

'Where?' 

 

https://sites.bu.edu/russian-poetry/biography-robert-rozhdestvensky/
                           

honesty, forgiveness

honesty, forgiveness, a photo by davidg on Flickr.

from James Buchan, author of Frozen Desire

'... it is told of Nelson Mandela ... after much persecution, and when he was finally freed from prison ... he said to himself that he had to forgive all those who had wronged him by the time he reached the prison gates or he would never be free of them.'

from Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea

'The past buries the past and must end in silence, but it can be a conscious silence that rests open-eyed. Perhaps this is the final forgiveness ...'