The Fall

His heart is a suspended lute;
Whenever one touches it, it resounds.

It was during a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens that I delved into the recesses of the House of Usher. I hasten to admit though, that I left somewhat disappointed. While Poe did manage to create an atmosphere that transcended the pages of the book and saturated the room in which I sat reading, I still felt an emptiness that was not satisfied by the story.
I agree with Mr C that the utter helplessness and frustration experienced by the narrator was described to great effect, and the atmosphere of despair was created masterfully, but I feel it lacked something and the worst part is that I cannot describe what. To me, at least, Poe produced a silence that seemed to permeate through every room, and every character and even every word, if that makes sense, and while that added greatly to the atmosphere of the piece it still left me wanting.
In regards to the incest issue, I originally did not understand how Mr C came to his conclusions but the more I think about it now the more it makes sense. The paragraph he posted on the comments and the way I understand the silence that seems to dominate the piece combine to say more than I had first thought. I am going to go back and read the whole thing again because of this, but I wanted to get these thoughts up first before I returned to the ‘insufferable gloom’.

Рабочие Мира Объединяются!

http://img.ruslania.com/pictures/big/501045-Lenin.jpg


"Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live"
Happy 7th

Samhain? How was it.....

I eagerly await word of the celebration that befell Maryland's eastern shore. I also would like a bit of help with the pronunciation of the word. I have much trouble with the Gaelic.

The Fall of the House of Usher---

What a wonderful horror story. It gripped me from start to finish. My skin crawled as the thought of the incest between the Usher twins manafested itself in my mind and how that incident represents so much of what we are becoming in this country. The whole edifice is corrupted and collasping from with in.

The Fall of the House of Usher disturbed me a great deal as I read it. Poe managed to create a scene of disolation and dispair by a powerful use of language that almost corrupted you as you read it. It might stand as an analogy for the corruption that engulfs a society inbreeding with itself in order to remain pure and eventually destroying all sembalance of what it is trying to preserve. Poe may have aimed his story at the American South but that is pure speculation.

Poe managed to create a real impression of a drug induced hallucination. I could almost smell the opium pipes buring with every paragraph. I indentified with the speaker and the feelings of helplessness that are beginning to assault me about affecting the world around me. Maybe Paddy is right and we should just flee it all, as the speaker did at the end. Who knows maybe we will have a story entitled "The Fall of the House of Hogwarts". It and every place like it may be truly corrupt and venial.

All of these things passed through my mind. "Usher" was a decent into hell.

Enjoy

http://hearingvoices.com/special/2007/halloween/

Samhain

Souls pass by, passy by on a whim

thoughtless of deed, benign of a time

that flickers in the fate dimmed

words of repose; the words of this rhyme.

The Veil Is Getting Thin

As I went out walking this fall afternoon,
I heard a wisper wispering.
I heard a wisper wispering,
Upon this fine fall day...

As I went out walking this fall afternoon,
I heard a laugh a'laughing.
I heard a laugh a'laughing,
Upon this fine fall day...

I heard this wisper and I wondered,
I heard this laugh and then I knew.
The time is getting near my friends,
The time that I hold dear my friends,
The veil is getting thin my friends,
And strange things will pass through.

An Invitation to our Contributors in Belfast

My Unconventional Warfare class has just begun a unit on Irish Independence. We welcome comments on any of the postings; I just ask that you make clear in your comment that you're writing from Ireland and not a class member. www.stauncon.blogspot.com

Up the Ra!

The Wolves of Learning

This post appeared in another blog and rather than just link to it, I republished the whole thing.
It is from EdTechJournal at http://preilly.wordpress.com/.

The Wolves of Learning

At birth we are blessed with a natural curiosity. There is a great wildness in it. A shaft of sunlight illuminates a world of dust and delicate objects floating in air, as if by magic. A child who catches a glimpse of this will stop whatever it’s doing and begin to explore what it sees. We are called to learn.

Our natural curiosity is like a wild animal; it hunts where it needs to in order to satisfy its deep hunger. As children, we awaken each day with an insatiable appetite to learn. It is in our early years that we are “wolves of learning”. There is a deep, DNA-based, natural connection between learning and survival; call it the burning relevance of the empty stomach.
Over the centuries, as we have institutionalized learning, we have taken something precious from our children, our young “wolves of learning”; and from ourselves. The wildness of our natural curiosity has been tamed, domesticated, and subdued.

We have done this by giving our children virtually no control over their education, little responsibility for their learning and whatever natural curiosity they have has been replaced with a structured curriculum. We reward them for following directions and doing what they are told and reprimand them if they wander too far from our agenda. Since it is our agenda and not theirs, they put minimum effort, if any effort at all, into what we ask them to do. They are in compliance mode. Compliance produces the lowest level of effort. Fear of retribution becomes the prime motivator rather than the excitement of learning.

We have trained them to expect to be fed without going on the hunt. Like domesticated pets, we offer them bland processed learning laid out in prescribed amounts at certain times of the day. We decide what they are fed, how much, and when. They rarely experience learning by their own wits, their natural curiosity, or even serendipity. They will not gorge on learning and fight over the scraps until their bellies are full.

We have so successfully domesticated our students that they are likely to rebel when they are asked to use the natural gifts for learning with which they were born. It’s as if we were trying to release a pet house dog into the wilderness, the odds of survival would be small. Within hours the dog would be back in front of the door, begging to have its master serve its dinner to it in a dish.

Let us find ways to give our children back their birthright, their natural curiosity and facility to learn. There have to be ways that we can organize our learning institutions to accommodate individual curiosity and the standardized curriculum. I believe that thoughtful educators can create environments that are less restrictive and provide much more natural habitat for learning. Let us find ways to foster the wildness and thrill of learning again. Let us answer the “Call of the Wild”.

pete

The Earth Begins to Cool

let the night fall
for i am not afraid of the dark
or of imaginary evils
or of myself
and my own power
let the night fall
let it come with its dreams
its mysteries
its wonders
let the night fall
let the goddess drape her scarves of black
around me
and clear the cauldron's surface
so that i might remember

Written by Lady Lissar

The Fall of the House of Usher

Here is a link to the Fall of the House of Usher by Poe

The Fall of the House of Usher

C

New life, Old ways.

Samhain is upon us again, and to get in the mood I am hoping to revive the PaddyWop book club. I am not sure what people may have read before so below is a list of possibilities. Comment on what one you would prefer and hopefully by the end of the week there will be a decision. Then hopefully by the time Hollantide comes around we will be able to disucss.

1. Uncle Silas: A tale of Bartram-Haugh, Sheridan Le Fanu

2. The turn of the screw, Henry James

3. The Withered arm and other stories, Thomas Hardy

4. The Fall of the house of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe

5. Ghost stories of an Antiquary, M. R. James

We're So Doomed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Well i have so much that I'd like to say. I went out tonight with only the purchase of nasty cigarettes on my mind; I ended up spending the night in our favorite pool hall watching classic US war movies. IT WAS amazing.

Blog Link

Here's the link to my Unconventional Warfare class if anyone wishes to have a look at our discussions http://stauncon.blogspot.com/
Feel free to add your comments.

In interiore homine habitat veritas

Not to worry, I wont always bother you with my school readings, but I thought this one, which I am required to read before orientation, is especially relevant to this audience. Let me share a few excerpts from "On Democracy and Education" composed for the UChicago class of 2011:

"One week later, again in the fall of 2005, I keep a phone appointment to talk with the head of the committee that is searching for a new Dean for the School of Education in one of our nation's most prestigious universities. Hereafter I'll just refer to the university as X. They want my advice, or think that they want it. Since, as a result of the first two incidents and many others of a similar nature, I'm already alarmed about the future of the humanities and the arts in primary and secondary education, I lay out for this woman my views about education for democratic citizenship, stressing the crucial importance of critical thinking, knowledge about the many cultures and groups that make up one's nation and one's world, and the ability to imagine the situation of another person, abilities that I see as crucial for the very survival of democratic self-government in the modern world. To me it seemed that I was saying the same thing I talk about all the time, pretty familiar stuff. But to this woman it was utterly new. “How surprising,” says she, “no one else I've talked to has mentioned any of these things at all. We have been talking only about how X University can contribute to scientific and technical progress around the world, and that's the thing that our President is really interested in. But what you say is very interesting, and I really want to think about it.”

"Today, however, these insights of Tagore and Dewey are ignored, in favor of an education for economic success. Whether a nation is aspiring to a greater share of the market, like India, or struggling to protect jobs, like the U. S., the imagination and the critical faculties look like useless paraphernalia, and people even have increasing contempt for them.
Indeed, most outrageously and thoughtlessly, the U. S. is currently egging on other nations to emulate our worst, not best, traits. The two major universities I have mentioned are both very strongly concerned with educational initiatives abroad. Needless to say, given my examples, these initiatives do not focus on the creation of sympathy and the cultivation of critical thinking.
What will we have, if these trends continue? Nations of technically trained people who don't know how to criticize authority, useful profit-makers with obtuse imaginations. I believe that outrage is called for, on the part of every person who cares about the future of democracy in the world, and I think intellectuals should be leading the expression of outrage.


the rest found at: https://classof2011.uchicago.edu/orientation-reading.pdf

Burn Baby Burn

"Everything American will disappear one day, more completely
than that which was Greek, or Roman, or Egyptian. This is one
of the ideas which pushed me outside the warm, comfortable
bloodstream where, buffaloes all, we once grazed in peace. An
idea that has caused me infinite sorrow, for not to belong to
something enduring is the last agony."
Henry Miller, page 57, Tropic of Capricorn

Is Rome already burning (in an American context)? This passage was written in the 60's, about a guy in the 20's, and just like in Miller's day there seems no shortage of people today who feel like we Americans are nearing (or on) the brink of extinction (which in a nuclear era isn't too fantastical a worry...). Some think the sky is falling 'never mind losing world dominance---America will be a totally destroyed in 30 years time!!!!' But I wonder, and furthermore put to the readership as a question: Are we just a bunch of worry warts? Are we really about to lose it all (which in my opinion wouldn't be so bad) and go under like Rome did, or are we really just going through a lull? And if we actually are going under, why?
What worries me the most is the frenzy that is created by false media. Too much crap these days is being turned into an "end of days" type symbol for us to gawk at: Lindsey Lohan goes to rehab again, Michael Vick kills a bunch of dogs; and the reactions this stuff yields is so major (and glamorous) so as to make it seem absolutely cataclysmic, egging on the Rome is Burning sensation.
Maybe, if instead we unglued our heads from the TV screen, turned around and looked at all of the truly terrible shit going on, then we would stop fucking up so much. Maybe if people stopped thinking that America is going down the shitter because Lindsey likes to blow coke, and started to think that America is going down the shitter because of our GOD DAMN CORRUPT PRESIDENT then we wouldn't be in such a slump and we'd realize the sky isn't actually falling for the reason we think it is. Congress has spent DAYS addressing Michael Vick's dog fighting, meanwhile, oh you know: mass genocide is occuring, nuclear bombs are being built by men with the temperament of a 2 year old, America sinks further into debt! and the lifeblood of our country can't even get medical treatment never mind a roof to sleep under! you want to know whats barbaric, you fucking worthless shit, Byrd, its barbaric that you spend your time (or rather West Virginia's time) on such detritus as Michael Vick.
What I would give to just unplug CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and every single talking head who's pockets are getting lined by big business as we speak and to let people figure out what is really a problem, to stop the absolute deception that is going on right now, distracting us from the important and getting us all frenzied over some dumb girl's drug problems and guy who never learned that "dogs are people too"...
Maybe I'm over categorizing as to who is so sucked into the spell the media has cast, but it sure as shit doesn't seem like anyone's turning the crap off, and inaction in this case feels to me like treason in another guise. Support legitimate media sources, turn off the crap, and thereby do all of us a favor by diverting energy towards action that will keep us from going under.

Bout Frickin' Time - Wonder if he too wants to 'spend more time with his family'

Farewell: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gave his resignation on Monday and leaves his position Sept. 17.
``This is a great, great development. ...The next attorney general has to understand that his primary loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law and that sometimes he has to tell the president no.'' -Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico, one of the fired U.S. prosecutors.
``There comes a time when if you don't have the respect of the Congress and the American public and your own people in the department then it's time to step down.'' - Fired Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden.
``He demonstrated that his loyalties lie with the president and his political agenda, not the American people or the evenhanded and impartial enforcement of our laws. ... My hope is that the president will select a new attorney general who will respect the rule of law and abandon partisanship, who will serve the American people and not the president's political ideology, and who will answer to the Constitution and not political operatives.'' - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
``The president must nominate an attorney general who is a lawyer for the American people, not a political arm of the White House.'' - New Mexico governor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson.
``Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove. This resignation is not the end of the story. Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House.'' - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Buying a car.........

I was at a used car clearance sale yesterday and I heard the most incredible excuse ever for a salesman to get a social security number before a person even wanted to buy a car. Our salesperson tried to pressure us into giving up our social numbers to the data base which my wife resisted heroically.

When the people at the next table balked the saleperson stated "I am sorry but homeland security and the Patriot's Act require that we check all social security numbers of people wishing to buy cars to be sure they are not terrorists making car bombs." I almost spit out my teeth!

It may be time to rethink how we govern ourselves.

Moscow Sretensky Monastery Choir

This group sounds incredible, if you could show me how to get some audio up here C i would be able to grace our site with some, but I'm a little inept on that front. They sound incredible on their site and I'm pretty sure that I'll go. They're singing at the Library of Congress on September 12. If any of you are interested, let me know.

Heres a link to some of their audio:
Moscow Sretensky Monastery Choir

Anyways,
May we all feel the presence of Samhain in our lives