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Cracks and Bridges (symbols)


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cracks:

 

The glacier knocks in the cupboard

The desert sighs in the bed,

And the crack in the tea-cup opens

A lane to the land of the dead.

W.H. Auden, "As I Walked Out One Evening"

 

A crack can be an opening into the world of imagination, like in Auden's poem, while the crack in the ordinary teacup makes it a leaky container, no longer safe. The original meaning of the word comes from the sound it makes, as if something is breaking.

 

... Cracks evoke dryness, like the barren earth ... , the dry lips of fever or a house no longer cared for.

 

... Leonard Cohen describes it in song: "There is a crack in everything / that is how the light gets in."

 

... like Auden's teacup, the crack in the door, neither inside nor outside, may open up to the liminal place where poetry is born.

 

Between what I see and what I say,

between what I say and what I keep silent,

between what I keep silent and what I dream,

between what I dream and what I forget:

poetry.

Octavio Paz

 

[all of the above is from The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images]

 

***********************************************************

 

bridges:

 

Bridge is a structure and pathway, a linking of opposing sides of a landscape often separated by a void. The latter may take many forms: the depths of river, lake or waterfall; a chasm in the earth, the gap between two people, given differences in language, personality or goals; the mythologized breach between heaven and earth, conscious and unconscious, time and eternity. —
The Book of Symbols; Reflections on Archetypal Images

 

Two points stand out: the symbolism of passage, and the dangerous nature of this transition, which is that of any 'journey' of initiation.

 

... legends show the anxiety aroused by passage over a difficult and dangerous place and corroborate the general symbolism of bridges and their meaning in dreams. They are a danger to be overcome, but also a decision to be taken. Bridges set men and women on a narrow path in which they meet the unavoidable obligation to choose — and that choice is salvation or damnation. —
The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

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.bridge_both.jpg.023959a08786e616394819082b0ced19.jpg

 

This is the bridge on my driveway. It's engineered to take anything that will fit on it. There are eight of those steel beams narrowly spaced under oak decking.

 

But tell that to the skinny little FedEx driver in his minivan who refuses to cross it, leaving my packages in the middle of the road in the rain — just short of the bridge (which I can't see from my house). I guess he knows damnation when he's looking at it. (In fairness, more than one driver has refused to cross it.)

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But tell that to the skinny little FedEx driver in his minivan who refuses to cross it, leaving my packages in the middle of the road in the rain — just short of the bridge (which I can't see from my house). I guess he knows damnation when he's looking at it. (In fairness, more than one driver has refused to cross it.)

is he frightened of you and if so, why? or is this about you and people like you who have their interactions with the world delivered by mail? people who can't buy things in shops, who can't interact with others, can't photo people but love photos of twigs?

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Cracks to me are dents in something that is in equilibrium. They are also like networks connecting other domains. Disruption of stability (static state) can facilitate connection/exploration of other domains. A large crack is a fissure, but fissures and cracks IMO have different feelings. Fissures are like boundaries between domains. For a long time, I thought the cracks in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam are parts of the original picture. I think, those cracks that have appeared over time form an essential element of my appreciation of that work.

 

Bridges can both connect and assure. I think, your (Julie's) bridge picture gives assurance, but the Fedex driver thought otherwise.

 

Untitled-49.thumb.jpg.b294485e623e39e1297b528bf2a84904.jpg

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By the way, I want to have a driveway like Julie's and would happily recover my mail in the rain for it (maybe the romanticism of that dwindles after doing it for the 100th time, but still...).

 

Provided your mail is rain proof :-)

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Actually the fact that Julie posted these "the obvious made dense" quotes from poets I've never heard of over what appears as venting over a FedEx driver's concern for self preservation from crossing a bridge that might not be up to code prevents me from being outraged by the pretentiousness of the meaningless quotes.

 

How did that happen?! Amazing, I'm not pissed off! I'm actually laughing as I write this.

 

These quotes are how Julie expresses derision. It all makes sense now!

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As for the tired pose of anti-intellectualism, it doesn't make you look as cool as you probably think it does.

 

Where do you see intelligence in Julie's quotes, Phil? Where do you see anti-intellectualism in this thread? And why do you think you can speak for everyone about what is intelligent discourse?

 

Those poems are just conscious inner voice riffing only the author can know its meaning and others can only read into as Julie demonstrated in her OP. Just because one sees them self as an intellectual doesn't guarantee they're able to communicate emotions or thoughts effectively. Same goes for those that read into something no one else gets. I guess if I was in an hallucinogenic state from a fevered mind and those quoted poems opened up a mind blowing whole other world for me, I still wouldn't consider this the mark of intelligence. It doesn't make the world a better place except for the self absorbed.

Edited by Tim_Lookingbill
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i love the pro/anti intellectual debate. for all their research, Phil & Julie are remarkably ordinary at describing photos. a couple of examples, first from Phil

 

A seemingly small thing that meant and still means the world to me when I look at it because of all the ( small ) things that had to happen for me to be there at that moment at that exact spot to take a picture of...fate, a found memory, a lost dream...? Some kind of sensation that I can't put into words.

 

 

"fate, a found memory, a lost dream" are straight out of purple prose 101 and are embarrassing. as for not being able to put it into words, why didn't Phil just list the small things that had to happen before he took the photo? why summarize it with BS?

 

this is one of my all time favourites from Julie, it's absurdity defined

 

There's beauty that belongs to the scene, and there's beauty that's off to one side; the last picture is happening somewhere else

 

 

and don't get me started on Julie's pretentious picture/photograph distinction (of which Julie herself can't even elucidate )

 

does the fact that Phil & Julie love well written, intellectual stuff make them intellectual when their own writings are mediocre? and should we even care?

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In places like Zion Canyon, cracks in the rock wall have multiple layers of expression and meaning:

1) A crack is a fault or vein of weakness in the surrounding stone. It is the part of the stone that fails first under stress.

2) A crack makes the inner heart of the mountain accessible, to the elements, to flora and fauna, to people (well, I guess we're fauna),and to the imagination.

3) A crack becomes the collector of, the conduit for, and the fountain from which springs, water, that most precious of desert resources.

4) A crack is a canyon in embryo...

Thus:

512188396_ZionWaterfall-4993b-sml.thumb.jpg.4d51156bed297eb9c5e38b42f77acc96.jpg

And:

102677746_ZNPWaterfall-5154c-bw-sml.thumb.jpg.6fcc033a4cfd792346134537f9ea0138.jpg

Ultimately...

1027065386_ZionWaterfall-5020a-bw-sml.thumb.jpg.8d75221e650d8311f321752d0cf47014.jpg

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I will say this: Julie and I see creativity and its application to photography in very different ways, mostly. Yet, her questions regarding symbolism and meaning in photography are as apropos to what we do here as those same themes would be to painting, sculpture, poetry, dance, or any other of the representational arts. That's why they are so well conceived to the Philosophy forum. Cheap shots intended to demean her efforts are unworthy of this forum, and most certainly undeserved. If the shoe fits, wear it... In the inimitable words of Charlie Brown: "Good grief!"
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Norman, why didn't you tell me that you thought it was all BS earlier and in the Small Things thread. It would have spared both of us the time from interacting with each other in a thread that is about the world of ideas and feelings as much as it is about the world of things

because i wasn't interested in what you wrote, i was interested in the ideas u were writing about.

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