bLOGOS/HA HA: TAR presents The Ascendant Reversed

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.

28 May 2023

TAR presents The Ascendant Reversed

This is the “mark” that set off this MARK OF THE YEAR sequence of posts. In Australian Rules Football, it is usually the reach-for-the-stars “screamer” or spectacular “specie” that wins this annual award, Mark of the Year ... even as the player often then “crashes back to earth”.

This, however, on Friday night (Carlton v Sydney) is Blues star Charlie Curnow reversing that Triumph of Ascendency. Appropriate to the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round, Charlie takes his mark (“makes his mark”) at full stretch downward, groundward, sealing it upon the ground, “on country”.