What Passolini outlines - what all art outlines, suggests, infers,
celebrates and mourns - but never, ever explains (short of consigning itself
to mediocrity) is an essential situation of irony - "the unholy alliance"
(as Edwin Field has noted) "between Faust and the supreme ironist, Mephisto,
who sets the victim of irony on the path of tragedy that he is unable to
discern until too late. The revelation that it is indeed too late to avoid
tragedy resounds unspoken in the ancient myth of Atonement. It also resounds
unspoken in the logic (logos) of Parmenides' "esti gar einai" (for Being is)
: the foreshadower of [ (P v Q) & - (P & Q) ], which leads to the
Disjunctive Syllogism, with its two minor premises to decide between...
 
"The Situation of Irony, of which pre-historic man is the victim (and
Paideuma, the Corrector and Illuminator), is the Consequent Q of the
Mephistophelean minor premise -P. The first Negator of P is inescapable
without the Negation by man of the Consequent, i.e., the world in the
visible or stereoscopic foreground of Q. The possibility of one's own
imminent death, and the anguish involved in facing that tragedy too late, is
the Mephistophelean choice for every man who accepts Faust's unholy
alliance, Q.
 
"Man is essentially nothing but freedom: the power that comes of  "having a
good genius or presiding spirit" - called Eudaimonia by the Greeks - of
taking responsibility for the choice between a transcendental Reality or an
incompatible Addition to that Reality but not both. Taking responsibility
for that choice (without projecting blame either on man or God) constitutes
the essence of the human field on Earth. The central Truth about Reality as
either making the obvious choice (Being's poem) or aborting it for the sake
of an incompatible Addition is a touchstone statement of freedom as the
origin and essence of man. This central truth is Paideuma as it operates in
the human field of the Holocene. Paideuma is a transcendental view of the
primordial error of man and its correction by Earth's ascent, through man,
to the logic of double negation.
 
"To disclose the ontological status of Paideuma is to state, in a touchstone
sentence, in what sense it is true to say: it is the essence of instruction
whose origin is the freedom of man. This origin has the transcendental
formula [(P v Q) & - (P & Q)  & - Q] ...
 
 
"The Earth, considered in depth and not on the surface, is the Source of all
that is becoming essential to the KIND OF BEING belonging to man. Earth on
the surface is simply visibility in space and time. It exists only as
phenomena accrued by human experience "east of Eden". In its depth it is the
invisible Eden to which double-negation points the way. The ontological
structure of our KIND OF BEING is already, and always, wherever
double-negation points. We ARE, THOUGH NOT READ, a sign on the way that
reads 'double-negation of a pristine mistake, here, now.'
 
"The secret of why it's not read: The most ancient knowledge follows behind
what has already become in thought and then is forgotten; but when
forgotten, it is becoming not yet, in the blackest dawn of the Unknown.
 
"Thus, becoming an essence is becoming not yet a KIND OF BEING as yet on the
way to an essential man - unless aborted on the way. Human history,
especially of the Holocene, is the narrative of that abortion, of 'lust in
action', of the politics emanating from the walled city and its symbolic
order.
 
"ABORTED BEING is the foreground of EARTH's becoming invisible. We are
abortive only because we are individually responsible for projecting and
perceiving and experiencing the EARTH dysfunctionally, that is, by cortical
delay in time. Koestler calls it our schizo-physiology, meaning the
interference of the neocortex [or bark] with the hypothalamus and limbic
system (where homeostasis balances the emotions).
 
"Cortically delayed thinking is always applied AGAINST homeostasis
(hypothalamic conjunction or equilibrium, e.g.: emotional stability) and for
the SAKE OF the human Addition. It is UNSOUND in its foundations. The
foreground of EARTH's will to become invisible becomes merely intentional
consciousness. It reduces to a swarm of active birds plucking sweet berries.
They do not know that they are being watched from the deep background,
always at a macrocosmic distance from all action; which means all looking at
and for objective things to be brought within ken by a visible horizon. Such
bringing within ken counts, though UNSOUND, as evidence, based on the
ALREADY BECOME [das Gewordne]. A dysfunctional system of cortical delay of
the limbic node (in the functional circle of deep EARTH through the limbic
brain) ensures a dysfunctional interpretation of the foreground.
In aborting BEING-ON-THE-WAY to its essence, this cortical dysfunction led
directly to the first and primal mistake. This mistake is one always waiting
to be corrected - by negating the aborted foreground of EARTH. EARTH is, on
the visible picture-plane, as intentional as human consciousness is.
Intention signifies simply looking at, and looking for, some alternatives,
some objects, to be brought within ken. This primal (ancient) mistake was in
the use of a gift of creation: FREEDOM, the essence of man to be cleared of
all phenomena east of Eden. After all, the essence of man on EARTH has
always been a sign pointing the way back to Eden - a sign which, Hvelderlin
said, is not read by looking at it but seeing it, discerning it in the
invisible distance of our origin."
 
Would appreciate some (thoughtful) comments, discussion on the ideas raised
by my play about Pound, SIXTEEN WORDS FOR WATER. If you haven't read it yet,
and would like a copy, just email me and I will send one as an attachment...
Also, any comments on Field's ideas re: Paideuma, etc would be most
welcome... I shall pass them on to him.
 
Best regards
 
Billy Marshall Stoneking
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Brennan <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 1999 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: Pound and Pasolini
 
 
> In a message dated 8/12/99 5:09:39 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
> writes:
>
> << As to your point, that Pound's enthusiastic support of Fascism is a
>  significant reason behind Pasolini's inclusion of the canto reading
doesn't
>  that assume that the film is about or concerned with fascism. >>
>
>
> as I've said, I don't see how to draw any other conclusion -- for me the
film
> demonstrates the absolute evil of imposing social mores on a society that
do
> not arise heuristically over time.  but I think it's a mistake to suppose
> that pasolini was not using pound's reading from the cantos precisely
because
> of the disparity between the exalted language of the poetry and the
virulence
> of pound's fascist views as a way to condemn pound out of his own mouth.
but
> again I urge those who haven't seen Salo to do so, and to draw their own
> conclusions.
>
> joe....
>