I just don't get it anymore

"To hell with order, ecclesiastical and civil. To hell with miracles. Miracles? But miracles subverted order, did they not? Nonsense, no: they confirmed it: they kept the people on their knees."

Anthony Burgess, M/F

I know, I quote him, but it is through secular writers that I find words that I now consider holy. I love England. That said, there are elements of English life that I could easily do without. One is the presence, even in the public educational system, of elements that have to be called confessional. We had one of those assemblies today, where the principal/head teacher talks about the school, some ethical or intellectual aims we have to follow, and all this is fine. But sometimes, like today, a vicar is entitled to speak about God. So the whole school got a little bit of preaching about the Resurrection, Christ's Passion, Judas, and so on and so forth. Fair enough, what the vicar said was not all wrong, some of it was moral enough, Hell I have heard much worse preaching, but it was still tainted with a religious bias, therefore uncritical. It reminded me of when I was growing up in the then still confessional and Catholic school system of Québec. Then, I understood it, I thought praying at school and worshipping Jesus when we should have get some education were the things to do. Yes it is going to be Easter soon and it is all right and only fair that one tells the students where the holiday comes from. But this should be from a cultural, non-religious, neutral perspective, not an ideological one. Watching these children bowing their heads in prayer, I had an awful feeling of twenty something years old déjà vu: I could see myself at their age, looking at my own feet. I grew out of it and I hope they will go the same way, but I am still angry that indoctrination is still in fashion in publi schools.

Portrait of the artist as a contingent man

"A sure sign of amateur art is too much detail to compensate for too little life."

-Anthony Burgess, M/F

Yes, I know, I quoted Burgess...again, and again, and again. I might as well, since I am reading one of his novels these days. This quote fits me and this blog like a glove, these days anyway. As I have too much time on my own, I try to blog, but I fail to get a post that will generate some interest, even from myself, and I get lost in various trivialities, putting emphasis on them as if they are life significant. They are, in a way, as it is all the meaning one can get from a life that is, in essence, meaningless (you can see I studied/taught existentialism). When I read this line yesterday, I almost took it as a sign (but I don't believe in signs). Is blogging an art anyway? It sure is as close as I can get to literature at the moment, and for some reason I need to renew with literature and literary analysis (I will tell you more about it if it gets confirmed, right now it is just some vague project, and sorry if what I say makes no sense). Which means I need to write, I need to get my thoughts into words, if I don't then they are not thoughts (as any linguist would tell you, thinking is impossible without language). Thinking is more difficult than quoting, and so is the harsh, slavish work that is creation. I am an amateur, but I will try to be a good one.

Yes, it is cryptic, it is a soliloquy turned into a post, but that's as much as I can put here today.

Pilgrimage

Tomorrow, we will be between Liverpool and Manchester in my friend's house, for her birthday party. Well, you know that already. In that blog entry, I compared it to an odyssey, but it might be more akin to a pilgrimage. I don't think I will visit this place, as my wife might want to do something else than seeing what we already saw the only time we went to Manchester. We will however go through Manchester, which might give me goosebumps, if I am not too tired. Last time (well, the only time I went there), I felt like a pilgrim going to a sanctuary. I was, in a way, although I was accompanied by an unbeliever. So this time, even though I might not see the sanctuary, being on Burgess's birthplace will be enough for me. I will also read M/F on the journey, as it is appropriate for such circumstances. I hadn't read Burgess's novels since 2007 and I thought it had been way too long. I started it yesterday and it is already a great read. Oh the lines, the great lines! I burst out laughing reading this:

"-But I understood you were to study Business Management.
-It didn't work. I was advised to transfer to something useless. I was appalled by the lack of oceanic mysteries in Business Management. But, when you come to think of it, Elizabethan drama can teach you a lot about business. Intrigues, stabs in the dark, fraternal treachery, poisoned banquets-"

Those few lines sum up my understanding of business and my intellectual attitude towards it. This is what I love about Anthony Burgess: he does not only write about real life, he writes real life. So between meeting again old friends, I will think of oceanic mysteries (I am trying to figure out what it means) and useless but fascinating things. Does that make sense?

On a more trivial note, I will probably drink gin and tonic at that party. It is my friend's specialty, and it was also Burgess's favourite drink.