The rainbow

Racism comes in all colors and hues.

(I know from personal experience).

-Lily H..

To see something as art requires something the eye cannot descry. (Arthur Danto)

"...This led Mr. Danto to propose a new way of defining art. The term would be bestowed not according to any putatively intrinsic, aesthetic qualities shared by all artworks but by general agreement in the “artworld,” a community that included artists, art historians, critics, curators, dealers and collectors who shared an understanding about the history and theory of modern art."

[my underlining]

I'm not so sure of the utility of this defining art, as it could lead to not chaos but some self-evidently untenable propositions and positions, especially as in our time, political pressures--whether from the right or left--have entered into the equation.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/arts/design/arthur-c-danto-a-philosopher-of-art-is-dead-at-89.html?_r=0


“To see something as art requires something the eye cannot descry — an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld.”   -Arthur Danto, The Artworld, essay (1964)




I thought "the idea" was to return to populism and anyway from elitism.  Or is the contention that once the general public has a basic understanding of art history, it too will join the ranks of those who can say what is and what isn't art?

A riff on Hillary as related by Melissa B. Warnke (in the L.A. Times)

   



As women, we’re taught that it’s proper to absorb slights without returning them. For many of us, anger comes out after we’ve burnt through everything else.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-clinton-trump-third-debate-shade-20161020-snap-story.html


As Asian-Americans , we’re taught that it’s proper to absorb slights without returning them. For many of us, anger never comes out even after we’ve burnt through everything else.

Not PC

The main difference between the "Black Lives Matter" supporters and the Donald Trump supporters is that one is liberal, the other conservative.

C is for capitalism

Capitalism is what makes the world go around.

And around.

In circles.



-Lily H.

Said like a true American

"I don't care how annoying or loud I am.  It's important to be loud."

-Chelsea Handler




"Me loud?   You're kidding.  Y'know, if I speak loud enough, other people will know that I'm a happy person.   And that I'm pretty cool...self-confident...important...and popular.

The way I see those guys in People magazine.

Besides, I can't stand silence.

And as we say in the U.S., "Sell yourself.'"

-
-Anonymous




No doubts, no worries.

-Joe Smith

Pas besoin de courir dans le futur pour chercher les conditions de bonheur. (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Pas besoin de courir dans le futur pour chercher les conditions de bonheur.


-Thich Nhat Hanh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_nkax0EJrs

Cats

The thing I love about cats is that they don't care a hoot about what race you are, how much (or little) money you have, how good looking or intelligent you are (or or not), or how loud/egotistical you are, or much effort you put into getting their attention.

They respond, first, and foremost, to kindness and gentle care.


-Anonymous

"When a man takes an oath, Meg..." (Thomas More as realized by Robert Bolt)

Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Sir Thomas More

"When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then — he needn't hope to find himself again."  -Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons.

The name is Troll Advisor (Donald T.)

The name of the company is Troll Advisor, not Trip Advisor.

That was a mistake.   I know, I'm Donald T. 

Though Sunshine might not be too happy that I'm telling you this.

Don't exactly raise 'em but we gotta good bunch.

-Donald T.

Donald Trump all over again, all over the map (A review of Trip Advisor): Learn from my experience.

"I mentioned my race because middle-aged white women get mugged, too, as we are perceived as being weak and an easy target.

Please don't wear the colour of your skin as your God-given right to be afraid of everything that moves.

Your position of "those <insert group> will beat me up because I'm Chinese" is just as ethnophobic as "let's beat him up because he's Chinese".

There are hundreds of thousands of Asian (and white and black and brown and red and yellow and every color of the human rainbow) people in Paris every single day -- and nearly 100% of them get through their day without incident. Don't assume that you're so special that you'll be singled out."

-Sunshine 817

Tampa, Florida

(Level 6 Contributor on Trip Advisor)

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187147-i14-k9783303-Missing_a_plane_flight_from_or_to_Paris_CDG-Paris_Ile_de_France.html#77463156

Reply #60

* * Analysis * * *

It's personally painful to read posts like this one.  I don't think I've read a person scolding someone else in such a condescending, contemptuous manner.  (On the other hand, I don't engage in Internet chat-forums.  And I will not, either, if this is how people behave).

Living in a "blue state," I didn't think people could say such things in public.

I canceled my account to Trip Advisor after finding out that they allowed this post to remain, while repeatedly removing attempts to respond to it*--in essence, punishing the victim (of verbal abuse) and rewarding the perpetrator.

TA is, I'm guessing, a multi-billion dollar enterprise.

Strange world...

Not so strange:

Maybe now I understand a bit better how many people in "red states" feel about certain matters.

 *  Tell an African-American traveling to South Carolina months after a nearby church has been bombed this.

Why do you think you have a God-given right to judge and criticize:  (1) to be self-righteous, contemptuous (..."afraid of everything that moves") and mocking ("Don't assume you're so special...") and (2)--without knowledge of the facts in question--state that a person who fears for his/her own personal safety is as extremist, or racist, as those who would beat someone up based on his/her race?

Is it because you are white and have money?

107 reported attacks on Chinese workers in Aubervilliers, a district in North Paris, since mid-November 2015, including one man beaten to death in early August.

(How many unreported incidents is anyone's guess).

A Chinese student beaten and kicked on the Metro (no one helped) and subjected to racist taunts two weeks ago.

27 Chinese tourists robbed before boarding a board for Charles deGaulle Airport (tear-gassed) in early August.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/21/chinese-immigrants-demand-protection-from-paris-muggers/

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1998400/chinese-tourists-robbed-near-paris-airport?utm_source&utm_medium&utm_campaign=SCMPSocialNewsfeed

http://shanghaiist.com/2016/04/14/chinese_student_assaulted_paris_metro.php

Sunshine 817 and Trip Advisor believe that anyone of Asian ancestry traveling to Paris has absolutely no right to be concerned for his/her safety there.

A later thread on "Safety of Chinese in Paris" (with 35 or so replies) was entirely removed, at whose request I am uncertain.  It might have been very helpful to Asians and others.  There was no profanity or heated discussion.

History

History is not just about digging through archives, it is also for what others have chosen to remember, and not "forget," buried alive in memory.

History cannot be changed but it can be rewritten.

But history is not just about digging through archives, it is also for what others have chosen to remember, and not "forget," buried alive in memory.

Sifting through archives and memories to tell the truth, not hide or distort it...

It is not just about social movements, it also includes individual memory.

What is needed, now

It was not perfection that was needed.

It was kindness, towards oneself and toward the world beyond the ego-self.

Acts of kindness in the moment, not blame, not self-mortification.


The journey is to discover and cultivate the kindness within ourselves, as it is not self-evident for most of us.

-Lily H. via Carolyn McManus, physical therapist at Swedish Hospital, author, and teacher.

C’est aussi intéressant & aussi difficile de bien dire une chôse que de peindre une chôse.

« Il y a tant de gens surtout dans les copains qui s’imaginent que les paroles ne sont rien. 

Au contraire n’est ce pas, c’est aussi intéressant
& aussi difficile de bien dire une chôse que de peindre une chôse. »

Vincent van Gogh à Émile Bernard, le 19 avril 1888





Up until 1886 Van Gogh wrote almost all his letters in Dutch, and thereafter almost always in French. The ratio of Dutch to French is roughly 2:1.33 His French was very good, thanks to his contacts with Francophones and his reading. He regularly came into contact with it from the age of 16, not just from what he read but also in the daily business of the art trade. French was the language of the upper classes in Holland, and in addition The Hague was the political, diplomatic and cultural capital of the Netherlands. It stands to reason that he took French lessons for his work, or was obliged to take them.34 Moreover, he spent a total of a year in Paris while working for Goupil & Cie, and was almost three years in Francophone surroundings in the Borinage and Brussels. After spending a further two years living and working in Paris (1886-1888), he consequently told his sisterWil, to whom he had previously written in Dutch: ‘If you’ll let me write to you in French, that will really make my letter easier for me’ (670). He and Theo also corresponded in French, and the letters that he later wrote to his mother show that he had lost his facility with Dutch. They are wooden and less fluent.

http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letter_writer_3.html

Pierre Corneille

Mon amour est trop fort pour cette 

politique.






http://crdp.ac-paris.fr/piece-demontee/pdf/surena_annexes.pdf

La medaille et son revers

Quand je dis la verite, je me sens dans ma peau et je m'approche du Dieu.

Quand je mens, voire a moi-meme, je ne suis pas plus fort, quoiqu'il me semble au moment que j'echappe provisoirement a des ennuis.


-Lily H.

"France isn’t a U.S. subsidiary." (Gérard Araud, former French ambassador to the United Nations )

France and Britain were pushing hard for a Security Council vote on a resolution supporting a no-fly zone in Libya to prevent Colonel Qaddafi from slaughtering his opponents. Ms. Rice was calling to push back, in characteristically salty language.

“She says, and I quote, ‘You are not going to drag us into your shitty war,’” said Mr. Araud, now France’s ambassador in Washington. “She said, ‘We’ll be obliged to follow and support you, and we don’t want to.’ The conversation got tense. I answered, ‘France isn’t a U.S. subsidiary.’ It was the Obama policy at the time that they didn’t want a new Arab war.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/us/politics/hillary-clinton-libya.html

A seller's market for LWG and a lonely voice. The New York Times is an avid buyer.

1.


"African-Americans cannot be racist.  They can be only prejudiced."

In the marketplace of ideas, The New York Times sells liberal white guilt (LWG) to customers who seem to be unable to buy enough of it.

It's a seller's market.

But I won't buy it.

-Lily H.





2.


眼 不见  心 不  烦

I think I understand the meaning of this Chinese proverb.

But I saw.   Did you?  Have you?

But I heard.  Did you?

But I felt.

And I don't pretend I hadn't.   

I will not buy someone's hatred with my guilt.

And this has made all the difference in the world.

If only so many Asian-Americans were such avid, slavish followers.  I didn't say "copy-cats."*



* http://www.nwasianweekly.com/2016/02/seattleites-rallying-for-liang-clash-with-counter-protesters/

"During one of the Seattle Chinese Alliances for Equality speaker’s remarks, a group of about 10 Gurley supporters pushed their way through the crowd and onto the stage.
A struggle to gain control of the microphone quickly ensued. Each group used loud voices and tried to drown out the other side. Eventually there was a compromise and the counter-ralliers spoke for five minutes."
 


 


 

What is "to know"?

You cannot suppress "the will to history."    The task of the historian, as with any human being actually, is to delve into the unwritten history, the history that no one wanted (or wants) to talk about.  The connection with the visual arts...well, I don't know...but I do want to feel, to see. and perhaps to know when I am brave enough to confront my, and maybe our, history.

The dharma is not broken nor lost nor forgotten. 
 

ὁ ... ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ

ὁ ... ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_unexamined_life_is_not_worth_living

The hetero homo (as in heter-o-dox, homo-sapiens)
myself

And then I understood:
Young people do not even have the word "non-conformist" in their lexicon.   They have not thought deeply about enough about to care.  "Cool" is conformity.

Non-conformists were born in the 1950's and had their heydey in the 1960's and gradually died out in the 1970's.
Nowadays there are very few non-conformists.  Everyone wants to have 20,000 friends on Facebook.

Even the French, with their sophisticated sense of individuality, have gone America, and now they admire and ape Americans, thinking that if Lady Gaga is good enough for Americans, or if Michael Jackson had, with "Thriller," the best-selling album of all time, then, ergo, they must be artistic geniuses and that the French must pay obeisance to them as well.

If you think something so, that is fine [for you].

And I want to know what you think [and why you think so].

But I do not and will not [have to] always agree with you.

The ready rejoinder

When fellow Americans ask me "Why do you speak so softly?" or exclaim, "You're so quiet!"
I now have a ready reply, even if not exactly (literally) the truth,

"I spent part of my childhood in the U.K. where it's considered uncouth to shout in public, especially to get attention."

Americans are so disingenuous on this point.

-Lily H.

溯 (源); 逆 (流)

溯

溯源 [sù yuán] 向上寻找水的发源处。喻指探求本源。汤用彤《汉魏两晋南北朝佛教史》：“阴阳、五行、天文、医经、房中均溯源于黄帝。”


http://www.baike.com/wiki/%E6%BA%AF%E6%

逆

逆流 nìliú

against the stream / adverse current / a counter-current / fig. reactionary tendency / to go against the trend

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=niliu