Ernest Hemingway on Paris – a New Book From Hesperus Press

Ernest Hemingway on Paris – a New Book From Hesperus Press.

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The Myth Of Sisyphus

The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.

If one believes Homer, Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals. According to another tradition, however, he was disposed to practice the profession of highwayman. I see no contradiction in this. Opinions differ as to the reasons why he became the futile laborer of the underworld. To begin with, he is accused of a certain levity in regard to the gods. He stole their secrets. Egina, the daughter of Esopus, was carried off by Jupiter. The father was shocked by that disappearance and complained to Sisyphus. He, who knew of the abduction, offered to tell about it on condition that Esopus would give water to the citadel of Corinth. To the celestial thunderbolts he preferred the benediction of water. He was punished for this in the underworld. Homer tells us also that Sisyphus had put Death in chains. Pluto could not endure the sight of his deserted, silent empire. He dispatched the god of war, who liberated Death from the hands of her conqueror.

It is said that Sisyphus, being near to death, rashly wanted to test his wife’s love. He ordered her to cast his unburied body into the middle of the public square. Sisyphus woke up in the underworld. And there, annoyed by an obedience so contrary to human love, he obtained from Pluto permission to return to earth in order to chastise his wife. But when he had seen again the face of this world, enjoyed water and sun, warm stones and the sea, he no longer wanted to go back to the infernal darkness. Recalls, signs of anger, warnings were of no avail. Many years more he lived facing the curve of the gulf, the sparkling sea, and the smiles of earth. A decree of the gods was necessary. Mercury came and seized the impudent man by the collar and, snatching him from his joys, lead him forcibly back to the underworld, where his rock was ready for him.

You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is, as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth. Nothing is told us about Sisyphus in the underworld. Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them. As for this myth, one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it, and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain.

It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.

If this myth is tragic, that is because its hero is conscious. Where would his torture be, indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him? The workman of today works everyday in his life at the same tasks, and his fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious. Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn.

If the descent is thus sometimes performed in sorrow, it can also take place in joy. This word is not too much. Again I fancy Sisyphus returning toward his rock, and the sorrow was in the beginning. When the images of earth cling too tightly to memory, when the call of happiness becomes too insistent, it happens that melancholy arises in man’s heart: this is the rock’s victory, this is the rock itself. The boundless grief is too heavy to bear. These are our nights of Gethsemane. But crushing truths perish from being acknowledged. Thus, Edipus at the outset obeys fate without knowing it. But from the moment he knows, his tragedy begins. Yet at the same moment, blind and desperate, he realizes that the only bond linking him to the world is the cool hand of a girl. Then a tremendous remark rings out: "Despite so many ordeals, my advanced age and the nobility of my soul make me conclude that all is well." Sophocles’ Edipus, like Dostoevsky’s Kirilov, thus gives the recipe for the absurd victory. Ancient wisdom confirms modern heroism.

One does not discover the absurd without being tempted to write a manual of happiness. "What!—by such narrow ways–?" There is but one world, however. Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable. It would be a mistake to say that happiness necessarily springs from the absurd. discovery. It happens as well that the felling of the absurd springs from happiness. "I conclude that all is well," says Edipus, and that remark is sacred. It echoes in the wild and limited universe of man. It teaches that all is not, has not been, exhausted. It drives out of this world a god who had come into it with dissatisfaction and a preference for futile suffering. It makes of fate a human matter, which must be settled among men.

All Sisyphus’ silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him. His rock is a thing Likewise, the absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, silences all the idols. In the universe suddenly restored to its silence, the myriad wondering little voices of the earth rise up. Unconscious, secret calls, invitations from all the faces, they are the necessary reverse and price of victory. There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night. The absurd man says yes and his efforts will henceforth be unceasing. If there is a personal fate, there is no higher destiny, or at least there is, but one which he concludes is inevitable and despicable. For the rest, he knows himself to be the master of his days. At that subtle moment when man glances backward over his life, Sisyphus returning toward his rock, in that slight pivoting he contemplates that series of unrelated actions which become his fate, created by him, combined under his memory’s eye and soon sealed by his death. Thus, convinced of the wholly human origin of all that is human, a blind man eager to see who knows that the night has no end, he is still on the go. The rock is still rolling.

I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

—Albert Camus

BEFORE THE LAW by FRANZ KAFKA

 

Before the Law

Before the law sits a gatekeeper.  To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law.  But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment.  The man thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in later on.  “It is possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.”  At the moment the gate to the law stands open, as always, and the gatekeeper walks to the side, so the man bends over in order to see through the gate into the inside.  When the gatekeeper notices that, he laughs and says: “If it tempts you so much, try it in spite of my prohibition.  But take note: I am powerful. And I am only the most lowly gatekeeper.  But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the other.  I can’t endure even one glimpse of the third.”  The man from the country has not expected such difficulties: the law should always be accessible for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar’s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until he gets permission to go inside.  The gatekeeper gives him a stool and allows him to sit down at the side in front of the gate.  There he sits for days and years.  He makes many attempts to be let in, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests.  The gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about his homeland and many other things, but they are indifferent questions, the kind great men put, and at the end he always tells him once more that he cannot let him inside yet.  The man, who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper.  The latter takes it all but, as he does so, says, “I am taking this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything.”  During the many years the man observes the gatekeeper almost continuously.  He forgets the other gatekeepers, and this one seems to him the only obstacle for entry into the law.  He curses the unlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud, later, as he grows old, he still mumbles to himself.  He becomes childish and, since in the long years studying the gatekeeper he has come to know the fleas in his fur collar, he even asks the fleas to help him persuade the gatekeeper.  Finally his eyesight grows weak, and he does not know whether things are really darker around him or whether his eyes are merely deceiving him.  But he recognizes now in the darkness an illumination which breaks inextinguishably out of the gateway to the law.  Now he no longer has much time to live.  Before his death he gathers in his head all his experiences of the entire time up into one question which he has not yet put to the gatekeeper.  He waves to him, since he can no longer lift up his stiffening body.  The gatekeeper has to bend way down to him, for the great difference has changed things to the disadvantage of the man. “What do you still want to know, then?” asks the gatekeeper. “You are insatiable.”  “Everyone strives after the law,” says the man, “so how is that in these many years no one except me has requested entry?”  The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, “Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you.  I’m going now to close it.”

Bloodflowers lyrics/the cure

"this dream never ends" you said
"this feeling never goes
the time will never come to slip away"
"this wave never breaks" you said
"this sun never sets again
these flowers will never fade"
"this world never stops" you said
"this wonder never leaves
the time will never come to say goodbye"
"this tide never turns" you said
"this night never falls again
these flowers will never die"

never die
never die
these flowers will never die

"this dream always ends" i said
"this feeling always goes
the time always comes to slip away"
"this wave always breaks" i said
"this sun always sets again
and these flowers will always fade"
"this world always stops" i said
"this wonder always leaves
the time always comes to say goodbye"
"this tide always turns" i said
"this night always falls again
and these flowers will always die"

always die
always die
these flowers will always die

between you and me
it’s hard to ever really know
who to trust
how to think
what to believe
between me and you
it’s hard to ever really know
who to choose
how to feel
what to do

never fade
never die
you give me flowers of love

always fade
always die
i let fall flowers of blood 

 

United Kingdom Information and History

Separated from the European continent by the North Sea and English Channel, the United Kingdom (informally referred to as Britain) includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. England and Wales were united in 1536. The addition of Scotland in 1707 created Great Britain, renamed the United Kingdom in 1801 when Ireland was added. The Republic of Ireland fought itself free of British rule in 1922, leaving volatile Northern Ireland as a province of the United Kingdom. About 55 percent of Northern Ireland’s 1.6 million people trace their ancestry to Scotland or England, are Protestants, and favor continued union with Britain; however, many of the Roman Catholic population (44 percent) want to join the Republic of Ireland.

England is the most populous part of the U.K., with 49 million inhabitants. Almost one third of England’s people live in the prosperous southeastern part of the country centered on London—one of the largest cities in Europe. Scotland, with one third of Britain’s area, is a mountainous land with 5 million people, most of them (75 percent) concentrated in the lowland area where Glasgow and Edinburgh (Scotland’s capital) are located. The Scottish nation can be traced to the Scoti, a Gaelic-speaking Celtic tribe. Wales, with 2.9 million people, is also mountainous with a Celtic culture—the country is called Cymru (pronounced CUM-ree) in the Welsh language—and its capital, Cardiff, features castles and museums highlighting Welsh culture. Since 1997 the government has been pursuing a policy of devolution, leading in 1999 to an elected Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly. In 2000 Londoners elected their first mayor and assembly.

The industrial revolution was born in Britain in the 18th century, making it the world’s first industrialized nation. The British Empire, a worldwide system of dependencies, fed raw materials to British industry and spread British culture. Most dependencies gained independence in the 20th century. Part of the legacy of empire is that Britain is home to a growing multicultural population. The 2001 census counted more than 2.5 million Asians (mostly Indians and Pakistanis) and 1.1 million Blacks (from Africa and the Caribbean). Most of the remaining dependencies consist of small islands in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

ECONOMY

Industry: machine tools, electric power equipment, automation equipment, railroad equipment, shipbuilding.
Agriculture: cereals, oilseed, potatoes, vegetables; cattle; fish.
Exports: manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals; food, beverages, tobacco.

Text source: National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition, 2004

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 Fast Facts

Population 60,068,000 Capital London; 7,615,000 Area 242,910 square kilometers (93,788 square miles) Language English, Welsh, Scottish form of Gaelic Religion Anglican, Roman Catholic, other Protestant, Muslim   I admit that this info is not my personal writing and idea. THE INFORMATION USED HERE IS TAKEN FROM: http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_unitedkingdom.html

Currency British pound Life Expectancy 78 GDP per Capita U.S. $25,500 Literacy Percent 99

 

Palace of Westminster on the river Thames in London

 

History of the Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster was the principal residence of the kings of England from the middle of the 11th century until 1512. In medieval times kings summoned their courts wherever they happened to be. But by the end of the 14th century the court in all its aspects – administrative, judicial and parliamentary – had its headquarters at Westminster.

Although the Lords were accommodated in the Palace, the Commons originally had no permanent meeting place of their own, meeting either in the chapter house or the refectory of Westminster Abbey. After the Chantries Act 1547 abolished all private chapels, the Royal Chapel of St Stephen within the Palace of Westminster was handed over to the Commons.

The Commons assembled in St Stephen’s until 1834 when the Palace was burned down. This fire destroyed almost all of the Palace except Westminster Hall, the crypt of St Stephen’s Chapel, the adjacent cloisters and the Jewel Tower.

The present Houses of Parliament were built over the next 30 years. They were the work of the architect Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) and his assistant Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-52). The design incorporated Westminster Hall and the remains of St Stephen’s Chapel.

The House of Commons Chamber was destroyed in a German air attack in 1941. It was rebuilt after the Second World War, taking care to preserve the essential features of Barry’s building – the architect was Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. The new Chamber was completed in 1950.

Westminster Hall

The Mediaeval Hall

William I, having established his first stronghold at the Tower, later moved to Westminster; and it is from the reign of his son, William Rufus, that the first extant buildings on the site date, including Westminster Hall, the Great Hall, which was built at the northern end of the Palace and still stands today after celebrating nine hundred years of continuous use in 1999.

The hall was designed originally as a place for feasting and entertaining, but its very size made it more than that. Among other uses, the Royal Council of bishops, nobles and ministers assembled there. The special later form of this Council, which came to be known as Parliament, was the forerunner of the present House of Lords. It was also the site of the first true English parliament to include elected representatives, summoned by Simon de Montfort in 1265. While Parliament has never met in the Hall on a regular basis, it was the existence of the Hall, which at that time was the largest in Europe, that helped to make Westminster the judicial and administrative centre of the kingdom.

The Palace was one of the monarch’s principal homes throughout the later Middle Ages, and for this reason the institutions of Government came to be clustered in the Westminster area. To the east and south of the Hall lay the domestic apartments of the mediaeval Palace, and later, the royal chapel of St Stephen. Kings worshipped in the upper Chapel and their courtiers in the lower level or "crypt" chapel below.

The Hall, of which the walls were built in 1097-99, as part of an intended reconstruction of the whole palace, is the oldest extant building on the Palace of Westminster site. Its floor area is about 1850 sq yds, and it is one of the largest mediaeval halls in Europe with an unsupported roof. The roof was originally supported by two rows of pillars, but the present magnificent hammerbeam roof was designed in the reign of Richard II. The mason/architect of the 14th century rebuilding was Henry Yevele, and the carpenter/designer of the roof, Hugh Herland. Westminster Hall was the traditional venue for Coronation banquets.

The Hall and the Law

During later centuries, the Hall housed the courts of law, and was the place of many notable state trials, for instance, those of Thomas More, Charles I, Warren Hastings, and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. With its many shops and stalls, selling wigs, pens, books and other legal paraphernalia, it became one of the chief centres of London life.

Ceremonies

The Hall, which survived the fire of 1834 and the bombing of 1941, is now used for major public ceremonies. Among recent events there have been the presentation of Addresses to the Queen on the Silver Jubilee in 1977, to mark 50 years since the end of World War II in 1995, and the opening of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in 1986. A similar event took place in 1988, to mark the tercentenary of the Glorious Revolution, and in 1989 the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Centenary Conference was held there. In 1995 the Government organised a ceremony to mark 50 years of the United Nations. On these occasions, the Hall is brightly lit and decked with flowers and coloured hangings, and presents an altogether different public face from its normal rather sombre appearance. Distinguished heads of state sometimes address both Houses of Parliament there, as did President Mandela in 1996.

Lyings-in-state

The Hall is also the place where lyings in state, of monarchs, consorts, and, rarely, very distinguished statesmen, take place. The first such occasion was Gladstone in 1898, followed by, in the last century, King George VI [1952], Queen Mary [1953] and Sir Winston Churchill [1965]. In April 2002 several hundred thousand people queued to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother, as she lay in state in the Hall.

This excerpt is taken from http://www.parliament.uk/parliament/guide/palace.htm#pahistor  for further information please click this link

Ignorance is bliss

Ignorance is bliss because if you don’t know something, it can’t hurt you. As children, people are themselves and get along much better. The more we age, the farther we lose who we are and begin to restrain ourselves for fear of others. As we grow older, we become increasingly aware of pain and suffering, and the more we know about everything wrong in the world, the more we lose our innocence and become less ‘blissful’. I read once that when we lose the innocence of childhood, we become compassionate. That’s the start of adulthood. We lose our ignorance and bliss with innocence, but we gain knowledge, compassion, and understanding.

The Cure (British Post-Punk Band)

The Cure are a successful English rock band formed in Crawley, Sussex in 1976, widely seen as one of the leading pioneers of the British alternative rock scene of the 1980s. The band has gone through several lineup changes over its history, with frontman, guitarist, and main songwriter Robert Smith—known for his iconic wild hair, pale complexion, smudged lipstick, and frequently gloomy and introspective lyrics—as the only constant member.

Barely out of their teens when they first started releasing music in the late 1970s, The Cure’s first album Three Imaginary Boys and early singles placed them as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s the band’s increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre. After the release of 1982’s Pornography, the band’s future was uncertain and frontman Robert Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had cultivated. With the 1982 single "Let’s Go to Bed" Smith began inject more of a pop sensibility into the band’s music. The Cure’s popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States, where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I’m in Love" entered the Billboard Top 40 charts. By the start of 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative bands in the world, with an estimated 27 million albums sold as of 2004.^[1] As of 2007 The Cure have released twelve studio albums and over thirty singles, with a thirteenth album in the works.

(Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cure)