In Sweden, post-mortem cleaning is endIt’s a popular idea to get rid of unnecessary possessions so you don’t burden others and simplify your life as much as possible.
Nietzsche dedicated his life to a different kind of post-mortem process: clearing away the unnecessary beliefs that clutter our lives, a task left to us by our predecessors. He declared, “God is dead.” It was not to declare his atheism, but to declare our atheism, that of society as a whole. Nietzsche, who knew that speaking the truth could sound crazy, conveyed this declaration through a “madman” running around shouting the news, a reality reflected in his own life.Gay Science)
“The magician’s magician,” Derek DelGaudio, uses his crazy magic tricks to engage audiences in a different kind of death sweep. In his acclaimed Off-Broadway performance, “In and Of Itself,” he clears away misperceptions and shows how illusions matter. This is not pop Buddhism, but more like cold showers or what Nietzsche called “harsh self-love.” DelGaudio calls his magic tricks the tricks of truth, capable of turning questions into the best answers. He reverses the metaphors of identity and illusion, turning sentimentality into self-reflection and stunned looks into insight.
Whether you’ve seen the performance or not, the questions raised have independent value.The show produced two examples that did not appear in the script.
beginning Joni Mitchell, the epitome of artistic integrity, spoke the truth in one of her most popular songs. At age 80, she sang “Both Sides Now” at the Newport Folk Festival. The lyrics of this hit song conclude: “I’ve seen life from both sides, winning and losing, But somehow I remember the illusion of life, And I really don’t know it at all.”
Mitchell is celebrated as a profound lyricist known for his wisdom. Now that he’s older, he says, “Life is IllusionWhen I think back, really do In the old fable of the blind monk and the elephant, the existence of the elephant was not doubted. It was not an illusion. But the truth is Elusive It’s hard to grab hold of. It was hard to grab hold of.
All the monks mistook the part they touched for the whole, just as they thought the trunk was the truth. In the same way, we are deceived, for example, when we think we know better, and act as if being right means others are wrong, that conflict is something we cannot get away with, and that sincerity is something we cannot doubt. Or, more broadly, we are deceived when we think the best way to tell the truth is to be honest, and then we are deceived by our good intentions as if we cannot be honestly wrong. How much trouble, from hurt feelings to global conflict, would be alleviated if we remembered how easily we can be the biggest fools of all?
Secondly, We individually wear many masks. Parents, partners, friends, coworkers, believers, skeptics, liberals and conservatives, happy and sad. We are individually multiple entities, collectives at odds with ourselves. “You’d have to be a saint to have a hellish relationship.” [3] Who will chair the meeting? And if we all wear masks, how much of that is true for everyone, including ourselves? We often look for what is hidden within what is visible.
“Certainty is an illusion.” We must imagine even our own simplest senses. One poet describes trees by a pond: “The simple sensation of trees without water, like reflections, leaves, mud, dirty glass, expresses silence.” A world without illusion would otherwise remain hidden, overlooked, silent. Claude Monet was grateful for his blurred vision; he refused surgery. “Doctor, I wish you could see how heaven draws the earth into its arms.”
Rilke describes the feeling of being “deeply overcome by greater forces than we’ve ever known before.” The issue is not to get rid of illusions, but to make room for greater illusions and loosen the grip of the forces that have held us down. The cleaning of death is also symbolic of the cleaning of life, of recovering parts of ourselves that have been lost amongst all the other clutter.
This might simply mean pursuing a long-held passion or hobby. It might also mean reconnecting with estranged family members, trying a career that aligns with your values, or finding a place to live that’s more suitable. It might mean giving up on your to-do list and recognizing the difference between urgency and importance. It might even mean taking up reading. Ulysses Or maybe I’ll end up giving up on Thomas Pynchon or something like that.
Dostenning Or it could mean something else entirely: letting go of the fear of failure, learning the magic of wrong notes, as one jazz master put it: without wrong notes, there’s nothing to play.
[1] Growth: “To be profoundly defeated by ever-greater forces” – The final passage of Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Watcher (II). Notes: “Not “deeply defeated” of “Deeply Defeated”: Given an Identity. Rilke refers to Genesis 32:22-32, in which Jacob wrestles with the angel and awakens, limping but powerful, with a deeper sense of purpose and a new name (“Israel”).
“Monet refuses surgery” – Liselle Mueller, A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, her themes include language, nature, and history, including her escape from Nazi Germany.
Derek DelGaudio – “In and Of Itself” – Part-funded by Stephen Colbert and promoted by Bill Gates. Trailer YouTube/Hulu 2:13– Full performance Reddit 1:30:23 – Free. DelGaudio offered it to Reddit for free coverage because he was upset that Disney+ removed it from their international platform without consulting him.
Joni Mitchell – Boss Sides Now (Live at Newport Folk Festival 2022) [Official Video]
Notes and reading
[2] Swedish postmortem care – Margaretha Magnusson (2020). Magnusson is an artist whose work has been exhibited in galleries from Hong Kong to Singapore. She lives in Stockholm, has five children and a great sense of humour.
[3] “You have to be a saint to have anything to do with hell.”” – Carl Jung, quoted by Sue Martens Article from the Jungian Center for Psychology “The Duality of Human Nature” – “When Jung wrote that one aspect of human nature is duality, he was not referring to a form of mental illness.”
“The Magician Who Breaks the Spell: Derek DelGaudio Takes Illusionism to New Conceptual Heights.” – The New York Times Magazine.
Mark Twain – “You can’t rely on your eyes…” – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (2017) “Battle for the Sandbelt” – Chapter 43.
Wallace Stevens – “The Plain Meaning of Things” – a poem by Wallace Stevens, first published posthumously in 1954. Poetry collection.
“There’s no wrong sound.” It is widely considered to be the work of American jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, and is associated with Monk’s approach to improvisation and music theory.
Our conscious experience can be weakened by habitlimiting our sense of possibilities. “When the magician-artist’s quest makes the universe enchanting, it seems to me that they are guided by a new-found sense of freedom.” –René Magritte, prominent Surrealist artist who developed a unique style that emphasized the mysticism of everyday objects. Selections (2016), 175.
Approximately 2 + 2 = 5: https://williamgreen.substack.com/about – revision
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
