[MD] Food for Thought

[david buchanan]

gav said to dmb:
fucking brilliant stuff on the perennial philosophy dave.

dmb says:
Thanks, gave. Very fucking kind of you to say so.

Gav said:
clear enough for high schoolers i reckon....you would make an awesome 
teacher mate...at any level.

dmb says:
Ha! Thanks again. My evil plan was to make incomprehension impossible for 
any reader. That's right, I called you a "reader".

Gav said:
i am giving you an ethereal high five right now.

dmb says:
Yep, I heard a clapping sound reverberate through the cosmos and my palm 
hurts just a little.

Gav says:
an aside: just beginning to realise (as i read everything henry miller has 
ever written) how valuable the last 10 years of this forum have been in 
terms of the quality of the writing. what i am getting at is the directness 
and 'write-like-you-talk' flavour of the best writers on the list. it has 
been and still is a quality writing apprenticeship.

dmb says:
I think most teachers would agree that the best thing to do if you want to 
be a writer is to write. Write your brains out and don't worry if its good 
enough or whatever. Just do it. A lot. That's the only way to get good at 
anything, I suppose. Also, I'm thinking that its not so much a 
conversational style of writing so much as finding one's own voice so that 
it sounds real and natural.

Gav said:
to marry the rational with the existential...to wield the analytic scalpel 
under the guidance of the poetry of lived experience....that is the craft of 
the master and it is a craft mastered by very few. indeed it is arguably the 
terra incognita of artistic expression...so few are they who have ventured 
here....  so few those who have tapped into this power, this awesome power.

dmb says:
Yea, I think the great ones have a unique voice, an original vision, one 
that doesn't look over its sholder to make sure the other guy thinks its 
okay. They don't imitate. They're bold and courageous. They exhibit 
excellence in thought and speech. This is what Pirsig takes to be rhetoric, 
I think. Language in the hands of an artist is maybe the most powerful thing 
in the world.

Gav said:
and why is it so powerful? because it is a mode of expression that 
recognises and relies upon and reveals the mystical source, centre, 
intelligence at the heart of existence itself. it is a *living* affirmation 
of the perennial philosophy.

dmb says:
Yep. I won't add anything to that.

_________________________________________________________________
The MSN Entertainment Guide to Golden Globes is here.  Get all the scoop. 
http://tv.msn.com/tv/globes2007/?icid=nctagline2