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.

02 June 2017

Fear of Laughter [ No, seriously! ]

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone;

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,

But has trouble enough of its own.

- opening lines of 'Solitude' by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Today, in the Rose Garden of the White House ...

Gene Kelly stars as a struggling American artist in Vincente Minnelli's (1951) 'An American in Paris'.

... President Trump announced that he will be withdrawing the United States of America from their commitments on climate change reduction made last year as part of the Paris Climate Accord.
He spoke of his concerns about laughter :

"At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens, and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore. And they won’t be. They won’t be.

I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris..."

Everything is on the table : Gene Kelly behind the scenes on
the set of 'An American in Paris'.

Bringing the Global Community to the Table

Paris 2015 UN Climate Change Conference

Introduction : "Good evening and welcome everyone. I'm Drew Faust and I'm very grateful for all of you joining us here today. For many months we have used the word Paris as a shorthand for the International Climate Change gathering that we are here to discuss today."
( see video here )