David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


11 October 2008

The Economy as projection-$pace : regarding certain views and 'the value of value'

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"Firestorm sweeps world stockmarkets" : the headline on the front page of today's (Melbourne) Age.

Samuel Pepys diary entry, September 2 1666
"Having staid, and in an hour's time seen the fire: rage every way, and nobody, to my sight, endeavouring to quench it, but to remove their goods, and leave all to the fire, and having seen it get as far as the Steele-yard, and the wind mighty high and driving it into the City; and every thing, after so long a drought, proving combustible, even the very stones of churches, and among other things the poor steeple by which pretty Mrs.--------lives, and whereof my old school-fellow Elborough is parson, taken fire in the very top, an there burned till it fell down: I to White Hall (with a gentleman with me who desired to go off from the Tower, to see the fire, in my boat) ; to White Hall, and there up to the Kings closett in the Chappell, where people come about me, and did give them an account dismayed them all, and word was carried in to the King.

So I was called for, and did tell the King and Duke of Yorke what I saw, and that unless his Majesty did command houses to be pulled down nothing could stop the fire . . . "

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'Rudd's View on the Economy'
On ABC.Radio National's current affairs program P.M. a few nights back Mark Colvin introduced the item 'Rudd's view on the economy' with this progression of definitions :
"A crash happens when markets realise that assets are seriously overvalued, and brings them back down to earth.
A panic is a step on from that when markets no longer have any benchmark for what assets are worth, so they stop lending against them.
They no longer know the value of value and that means a period of chaos when no-one knows where the bottom of the slope is."

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"Get Me My Mighty Bucket, someone!"