Intermittens #5

[Cainad (dec.)]

Is Manta Obscura even around anymore? A Discordian Whoroscope would be nice.

Anything else anyone would like to contribute? I've added "Words In My Head. MY HEAD!" by Payne.

You fucks better give me some stuff to put in, or else I'm going to go forum spelunking again. Who knows what I might come up with, should I delve too greedily and too deep...

[AFK]

Is it still Law of 5s?  I've been here long enough I should have something suitable to contribute, though I think you already have stuff from me. 

BTW, the dreadful hours passes along his thanks for including his "poetry".   

[Cainad (dec.)]

Yeah, I'm kinda-sorta trying to keep the Lo5s theme. I put in one of your Shrapnel essays already, but I have precisely zero qualms about using any author twice.

I'm up to 14.5 pages; let's bump this little bastard to 20.

[Telarus]

I can hunt around for some stuff...

[Cainad (dec.)]

Here's the cover, such as it is:


I tried to stay within the margins throughout most of the issue.

[Cainad (dec.)]

16.5 PAGES

ALMOST THERE YOU SPAGS! LOOK UPON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND LULZ!


ETA: I've added "The Heresies: chapter 1" by TGRR and "Louis XIV Was An Alien!" by Regret and Fuzball

[the dreadful hours]

woo-hoo

should i hire an agent

[Cainad (dec.)]

Filled in that 0.5, so now we are blessed with 17 pages.

Two more pages' worth of content, people! I can fill in the last page with bullshit.

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

http://namcub.accela-labs.com/pics/I_2.doc maybe with a note at the bottom saying something like: "How much of the meaning was intended by the author?"

[Telarus]

Can I suggest including chapters 5 and 23 of the Dao De Ching?

5.   The Function of Emptiness ⁺

Heaven and earth proceed without motive, but casually in their order of
     nature, dealing with all things carelessly, like used talismans.  So also
     the sages deal with their people, not exercising benevolence, but
     allowing the nature of all to move without friction.

The Space between heaven and earth (I.e., the six trigrams between those named 'heaven' and 'earth') is their breathing apparatus:
    Exhalation is not exhaustion, but the complement of Inhalation, and this
    equally of that.  Speech (by interfering with this regular order of breathing)
    exhausteth; guard thyself, therefore, maintaining the perfect freedom of thy nature.


23. Emptiness and Not-Doing (Wu Wei) ⁺⁺

Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity of his nature.
     A fierce wind soon falleth; a storm-shower doth not last all day.
     Yet Heaven and Earth cause these; and if they fail to make such violence
     continue, how much less can man abide in spasm of passion!

Therefore he who pursues his affairs in the spirit of Dao will become Dao-like.
    He who pursues his affairs with de^*, will become de-like^*.
    He who pursues his affairs with loss, identifies himself with loss.

He who identifies himself with Dao, Dao rejoices to guide.
    He who identifies himself with de^*, de^* rejoices to reward.
    And he who identifies himself with loss, loss rejoices to ruin.
    But if he himself realize not the Tao with calm of confidence,
    then others seem also to lack in confidence in him.

+Title by DT Susuki, translation by A. Crowley.

++ Title by Dwight Goddard, verse translation includes James Legge, A. Crowley & Dwight Goddard.

*Chinese 'de' is an ancient and linguistically complex word.

Arthur Waley (1958):

It is usually translated 'virtue', and this often seems to work quite well; though where the word occurs in early, pre-moralistic texts such a translation is in reality quite false. But if we study the usage of the word carefully we find that te can be bad as well as good. What is a 'bad virtue'? Clearly 'virtue' is not a satisfactory equivalent. Indeed on examining the history of the word we find that it means something much more like the Indian karma, save that the fruits of te are generally manifested here and now; whereas karma is bound up with a theory of transmigration, and its effects are usually not seen in this life, but in a subsequent incarnation. Te is anything that happens to one or that one does of a kind indicating that, as a consequence, one is going to meet with good or bad luck. It means, so to speak, the stock of credit (or the deficit) that at any given moment a man has at the bank of fortune. Such a stock is of course built up partly by the correct carrying out of ritual; but primarily by securing favourable omens; for unless the omens are favourable, no rite can be carried out at all.

Peter A. Boodberg (1979):

The standard translation for it is "virtue," both in the sense of inherent quality and in that of moral excellence, but with the validity of the traditional rendering somewhat shaken by Arthur Waley's insistence on interpreting it as "power." Indeed, it is believed by many scholars that the term originated in the mytho-magical period of Chinese speculation when tê was conceived as a kind of mana-like potency inherent in substances, things, and human beings, a potency which, on the one hand, made them true to their essence, and on the other, made possible their influencing of other entities. It appears often as if it had been imagined as a kind of electric charge permeating the thing in question, waxing or waning in accordance with some mysterious law, and capable of being transmitted, in the case of living beings, from one generation to another. Contrary-minded students of ancient Chinese philosophy dispute this interpretation as rather narrow and possibly anachronistic, and point to the fact that tê had early acquired, at least in Confucian literature, ethical connotations close to our "virtue," that is, as moral, and only rarely amoral or immoral, efficacy. They find, therefore, no quarrel with rendering tê, almost invariably, as "virtue." Philologists are, however, troubled by the absence in the Chinese term of any connotations reminiscent of the Latin etymon vir, such as manliness and virility. They remind us that tê is free from any contamination with sexual associations and differs in that from its great counterpart, tao, the Way, which, in one or two expressions, such as jên tao 人道, "the way of men and women," is suggestive of sexual activity. Other recommended translation, such as "energy" and essential quality," seem also inadequate from the etymological point of view.

[Iason Ouabache]

Are those in the public domain, Telarus? I know that certain translations are copyrighted and we don't want any more legal problems.

[Triple Zero]

more?

did i miss anything?

[Iason Ouabache]

more?

did i miss anything?

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=19570.0 

[Telarus]

Good point Iason.

Crowley's translation comes from:
http://deoxy.org/taowley.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/index.htm

The other bits that I incorporated come from:
http://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/daodejing.php (which sources sacred-texts.com and Project Gutenburg).

These all seem to be public domain sources. As I am not quoting a majority of the work(s) and I am blending translations in order to achieve a better flow, I would consider this a transformative work and fair use, anyway.

The quotes about 'de' come from wikipedia.

[Cainad (dec.)]

It's done.


http://tinyurl.com/intermittens5 <---- CLICKY CLICKY