Aphs. 1-100

OCCASIONAL MAXIMS

Aphoristic Philosophy

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1. Whether one's fate is to be damned to Hell by the Devil in the punishment of time, or saved to Heaven by God in the grace of space ... will depend on one's identification either as a criminal or a sinner.

2. Wealth is the crime of knowledge, power the punishment of strength.

3. Fame is the sin of beauty, glory the grace of truth.

4. To be damned from the purgatory of wealth in the crime of knowledge to the hell of power in the punishment of strength.

5. To be saved from the world of fame in the sin of beauty to the heaven of glory in the grace of truth.

6. A human being should be neither useful nor useless, but beingfully at one with his self.

7. Art should be neither useful nor useless, but a paradigm of being.

8. To be useful is to be used, like an animal or a thing, for some purpose extraneous to one's self.

9. The users, directors, exploiters of mankind are effectively devils who naturalistically impose upon the real and/or material ... for their own selfish ends.

10. The useless is that which, whether real or material, is no longer useful but not, on that account, beingful.

11. Unlike the Devil, God has no desire to use anyone/anything, but an overwhelming desire, on the contrary, to deliver people from use ... that they may become more genuinely beingful, and hence divine.

12. Most so-called human beings are, in reality, creatures of use, whether directly, as workers/manufacturers, or indirectly, as managers, directors, etc.

13. Culture, and hence art, begins where philistinism, and hence craft, ends - in the rejection and transcendence of use.

14. Films reflect the use-oriented philistinism of the age, as actors and technicians combine together at the behest of the directorial users, whose manipulation of real and material means ensures the perpetuation of naturalistic ends.

15. Even so-called 'art films' are, in reality, a philistine denial of art through useful craft.

16. One might argue that films reflect an open-society pattern, basically pagan, of the upper-class exploitation of both middle- and working-class elements, viz. directors manipulating both technicians and actors.

17. Art is as much 'beyond the pale' of films ... as a classless society would be beyond class-ridden societies.

18. There can be no true culture, and hence religion, except in the context of a classless society. All class-ridden societies are fundamentally philistine.

19. Culture is not about doing or taking or giving ... but about being, which is the basis of true wisdom.

20. Although most people look like human beings, only that person is truly a human being who puts being above everything else in his conduct of life.

21. A man who is truly a human being is a wise man - in short, a philosopher.

22. One should be careful to distinguish between a book and its content. Often content is referred to as a 'book' when, in point of fact, books are, by definition, rectilinear entities having a cover, a spine, binding, and pages.

23. Thus whereas the content of a book may vary between any number of different genres, from novels and poems to essays and maxims, the book itself will remain forever definable in terms of a rectilinear phenomenon having pages and a cover.

24. It is my belief that books are relevant to the middle class as phenomenal entities having a lunar or purgatorial correlation germane to intellectual civilization.

25. Hence books are not, by definition, of the mundane World but, rather, of the purgatorial Overworld, like Parliamentary Democracy (as against Republicanism) and Nonconformism (as against Humanism).

26. By contrast to books, tapes, whether audio or video, are of the World, and thus have a mundane and republican correlation germane to the Catholic working class, the working class, par excellence, of the World.

27. There is only one medium beyond tapes, and that is the medium of compact floppies and/or discs, as germane to a classless Transcendentalism of otherworldly significance.

28. One could therefore speak, in relation to literature, of word books, word tapes, and word discs, with books being middle class, tapes working class, and discs classless.

29. A classless society would be one in which word discs were the prevailing norm, so that people read via compact floppy and/or CD-ROM rather than via books.

30. If books are middle class, then it seems to me that films are upper class and effectively fundamentalist, correlating, so to speak, with the diabolic Netherworld, in authoritarian fashion.

31. We could therefore add the concept of 'word films' (talkies) to the other principal media of literary dissemination, contrasting films with discs ... pretty much as we have already contrasted books with tapes.

32. Whereas books tend to be damned to film, as from phenomenal objectivity to noumenal objectivity, tapes are logically entitled, it seems to me, to be saved to disc, as from phenomenal subjectivity to noumenal subjectivity.

33. I would not wish to have any literary material published in book form, least of all at the risk of being damned to film ... in a sort of solar eclipse of the moon.

34. Although some of my work is on tape, the greater part of it is on disc, where I have every intention of keeping it ... pending the time when I shall arrange to have 'word discs' disseminated for literary appreciation in the transcendental Beyond.

35. From the alpha of the word film to the omega of the word disc via the alpha-in-the-omega of the word book and the omega-in-the-alpha of the word tape.

36. From the hell of the word film to the heaven of the word disc via the purgatory of the word book and the world of the word tape.

37. From film punishment to disc grace via book criminality and tape sin.

38. Both films and books are 'square', or rectilinear, as befitting their objective nature, whereas both tapes and discs are 'hip', or curvilinear, as befitting their subjective nature.

39. Since nature is essentially subjective, that which goes against nature is knowledgeable if moderately objective and strong if radically objective, both knowledge and strength having to do with a capacity, on the part of their partisans, to go against nature and thus become hard.

40. That which, as knowledge, is relatively against nature is civilized, whereas that which, as strength, is absolutely against nature is barbarous - the former appertaining to crime and the latter to punishment.

41. The 'strong person' is only strong because he has the ability to go against human nature to such a radical extent ... that he becomes effectively diabolical, like a sort of Devil to a (knowledgeable) person.

42. The 'strong person' lives with a proton bias, the bias of all that is super-antinatural, whereas the 'clever person' lives with a neutron bias, the bias of all that is antinatural.

43. By contrast, that which is of nature is beautiful if moderately subjective and truthful if radically subjective, both beauty and truth having to do with a capacity, on the part of their partisans, to flow with nature and thus become soft.

44. That which, as beauty, flows relatively with nature is natural, whereas that which, as truth, flows absolutely with nature is cultural - the former appertaining to sin and the latter to grace.

45. The 'true person' is only true because he has the ability to flow with human nature to such a radical extent ... that he becomes effectively divine, like a sort of God to a (beautiful) person.

46. The 'true person' lives with a photon bias, the bias of all that is supernatural, whereas the 'beautiful person' lives with an electron bias, the bias of all that is natural.

47. From the absolute folly (noumenal objectivity) of the 'strong person' to the absolute wisdom (noumenal subjectivity) of the 'true person' via the relative folly (phenomenal objectivity) of the 'clever person' and the relative wisdom (phenomenal subjectivity) of the 'beautiful person'.

48. Thus from the absolute folly of the Devil to the absolute wisdom of God via the relative folly of man and the relative wisdom of woman.

49. To distinguish the absolute folly of the 'will to power' through strength from the relative folly of the 'will to wealth' through knowledge.

50. To distinguish the relative wisdom of the 'will to fame' through beauty from the absolute wisdom of the 'will to glory' through truth.

51. The 'will to glory' contrasts absolutely with the 'will to power' as God with the Devil, or Heaven with Hell.

52. The 'will to fame' contrasts relatively with the 'will to wealth' as woman with man, or the World with Purgatory.

53. Strength is the Devil, whose 'will to power' is Hell, whereas truth is the God, whose 'will to glory' is Heaven.

54. Knowledge is the man, whose 'will to wealth' is Purgatory, whereas beauty is the woman, whose 'will to fame' is the World.

55. Hot is the heart whose punishment is time, while light is the lung whose grace is space.

56. Cold is the brain whose crime is volume, while heavy is the womb whose sin is mass.

57. To be damned from the crime of volume to the punishment of time, as from Purgatory to Hell.

58. To be saved from the sin of mass to the grace of space, as from the World to Heaven.

59. The only time the British get religious, after a fundamentalist fashion, is in relation to war.

60. The only time the Irish get martial, after a realistic fashion, is in relation to religion.

61. Woman usually functions in a shadow-like relationship to man - either negatively ... as his conscience, or positively ... as his id, depending on the context and the nature of the relationship.

62. Thus woman is either a brake or a spur to man, whom she stalks in shadow-like relationships, whether or not with male consent.

63. Woman does not need male consent to establish a relationship with a particular man; for her nature is such that she is naturally led to establish relationships with men as a matter of sexual/social necessity.

64. For woman, man is a means to a higher end - the end, namely, of the child, in connection with which we enter, if paradoxically, into the realm of moral necessity.

65. The child is, to woman, a sort of embodiment of the Holy Ghost, and hence a godlike being to be served and protected, if needs be, from the man (husband), whose standing, as father, falls in proportion as the worshipful service of the child rises in his mother's eyes.

66. Man subjugates woman superficially in sex, but woman-as-mother subjugates man-as-father profoundly in maternalism, as her love for the child grows at her husband's expense.

67. Whereas the child becomes Godlike in his mother's eyes, the father, by contrast, assumes diabolical proportions to his wife which may well result in his being shunned or ever spurned altogether ... as mother and child draw closer together.

68. The atomic family is increasingly falling victim to free-electron units comprised of mother and child.

69. This inevitably means that the children of such free-electron relationships will grow up with a feminine bias (irrespective of their sex) which, conventional education notwithstanding, should make them more susceptible to post-atomic values.

70. Doubtless my own predilection for 'word discs' is an example of post-atomic radicalism in regard to literature, which, traditionally, has been dominated (and in some sense continues to be dominated) by the liberal medium of books.

71. There is in me not the slightest ambition, thank goodness, to be published in book format! Rather, I look upon books (considered phenomenally) as outmoded products relative to an intellectual - and therefore civilized - hegemony over the World which, steeped in liberal values, will never do justice to truth.

72. For that ... a more radical medium, such as parallels a spiritual 'bovaryization' of the intellect, is called for, and such a medium can only be in the form of computer discs, or compact floppies and/or CD-ROMs.

73. From the rectilinearity (relative to cover and paper) of books to the super-rectilinearity (in screen absolutism) of films, as from Purgatory to Hell.

74. From the curvilinearity (relative to twin spools) of tapes to the super-curvilinearity (in disc absolutism) of discs, as from the World to Heaven.

75. From the phenomenal objectivity of book relativity to the noumenal objectivity of film absolutism, as from man to the Devil.

76. From the phenomenal subjectivity of tape relativity to the noumenal subjectivity of disc absolutism, as from woman to God.

77. The type of writer most germane to book relativity would have to be the novelist, or fiction writer, while the type of writer most germane to film absolutism is the dramatist.

78. The type of writer most germane to tape relativity would have to be the poet, while the type of writer most germane to disc absolutism is the philosopher.

79. From the 'will-to-wealth' knowledge of the novelist to the 'will-to-power' strength of the dramatist, as from Purgatory to Hell.

80. From the 'will-to-fame' beauty of the poet to the 'will-to-glory' truth of the philosopher, as from the World to Heaven.

81. From the phenomenal objectivity of the novelist to the noumenal objectivity of the dramatist, as from man to the Devil.

82. From the phenomenal subjectivity of the poet to the noumenal subjectivity of the philosopher, as from woman to God.

83. The novelist is damned by film, as the brightness of the sun eclipses the dimness of the moon.

84. The poet is saved by disc, as the heaviness of the earth is transcended by the lightness of the Beyond.

85. As knowledge leads to strength (and ignorance to weakness), so beauty leads to truth (and ugliness to illusion) - the relativity of novelist and poet eclipsed and transcended, respectively, by the absolutism of dramatist and philosopher.

86. Whereas the philosopher is the wisest of writers because noumenally subjective, the dramatist is the most foolish of writers because noumenally objective.

87. By contrast, the poet is relatively wise because phenomenally subjective, while the novelist is relatively foolish because phenomenally objective.

88. One could speak of the relative evil (knowledge) of the novelist and the absolute evil (strength) of the dramatist on the masculine and diabolic sides, respectively, of the moral divide, but, conversely, of the relative good (beauty) of the poet and the absolute good (truth) of the philosopher on the feminine and divine sides, respectively, of the moral divide.

89. Hence whereas novelists and dramatists are manifestations of objective evil, poets and philosophers are manifestations of subjective good - the former in each pair relatively and the latter ... absolutely.

90. To be resurrected, via the Second Coming, from the beauty of poetry to the truth of philosophy, as from the World to Heaven.

91. A world ripe for salvation would be none too partial towards novelists and dramatists, viz. books and films, but would be entrenched in the poetry of tapes.

92. From the crime of fiction to the punishment of drama, as from volume to time.

93. From the sin of poetry to the grace of philosophy, as from mass to space.

94. From the crime of writing (fiction) to the punishment of speaking (drama), as from knowledge to strength.

95. From the sin of reading (poetry) to the grace of thinking (philosophy), as from beauty to truth.

96. From the hell of dramatic speech to the heaven of philosophic thought via the purgatory of novelistic writing and the world of poetic reading.

97. The crime novelist is the writer per se, the one who is most attuned to the criminality of fiction, writing, etc.

98. To be damned from the phenomenal objectivity of the written word (fiction) to the noumenal objectivity of the spoken word (drama).

99. To be saved from the phenomenal subjectivity of the read word (poetry) to the noumenal subjectivity of the thought word (philosophy).

100. When the read word (of poetry) is taped, it is listened to by those of the World who have an interest in poetry. This is not the same, however, as to hear, say, dramatic speech. Listening is objective, and follows from the phenomenal subjectivity of the read word. Hearing, by contrast, is subjective, and follows from the noumenal objectivity of the spoken word. I hear what is spoken to me. I listen to what is read.