Thursday, July 23, 2015

Scientia potentia est...

...In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographer's Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.

- Suarez Miranda, Viajes de varones prudentes, Libro IV, Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658
- Jorge Luis Borges, "On Exactitude in Science" (translated by Andrew Hurley)

28 comments:

  1. "The Path to Abstraction" -- good video.

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  2. Science and mathematics were "abstracting" pretty rapidly at the time (1910)... cars, planes... so why not art?

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  3. I don't like all abstract art. But I'm open to some of it.

    I really adore Surrealism and Impressionism.

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  4. Me 2. I've learned to appreciate a few other types as well, Vorticism, Supremicism, some cubism.

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  5. Did you know... From the late 1920s the Russian avant-garde experienced direct and harsh criticism from the authorities and in 1934 the doctrine of Socialist Realism became official policy, and prohibited abstraction and divergence of artistic expression.

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  6. Kandinsky was so important.

    Klee and Miro are often just Kandinsky with a sense of humor.

    Stalin cracking down on the Supremacists was a tragedy.
    Kandinsky influenced them also.

    Do you know that Soviet Realism was the on;y painting style endorsed
    by uber materialist Ayn Rand?

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  7. Did you know that the Suprematists and Constructivists were patronized by Trotsky?

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  8. Suprematists and Constructivists were patronized by Trotsky?

    One reason Stalin cracked down on them?

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  9. Disumbrationism. All other schools of art are garbage.

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  10. Pretty much. The pimples on the naked emperor's ass.

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Sort of like asking Donald Trump why he's running as a Republican when he's never been a Republican, ever, and hearing him say it because he wants to protect the sanctity of his fourth marriage.

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  13. You are right about one thing. There are no "white knights" who are going to ride in and save the Republican Party from the fag hags currently controlling it.

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  14. Romney supporters are just going to have to set their principles aside and run Chris Christie through a tree mulcher.

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  15. They'd better remove the stomache staple first. It's GOTTA be bigger than a horshoe, and would wreck that mulcher!

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  16. LOL!

    2012 taught me that the Republican Party will break its own delegate allocation rules to push a chosen establishment candidate. Votes don't matter, rules don't matter. Whatever loyalty the GOP could count on from me was erased. I won't go so far as to become a Democrat, but I am highly motivated to destroy the Republican Party. GOP delenda est.

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  17. I'm tired of left-wing softies like Ronald Reagan squandering opportunities to nuke commies off the face of the earth.

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  18. lol!

    He almost did it, once...

    It was the "high water mark" of the GOP. It's been downhill ever since.

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  19. Betrayal is worse than opposition. The Republican Party must be destroyed.

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  20. I doubt that any GOP candidates at the debate this week will propose throwing Romnwy supporters into tree mulchers.

    Which means the GOP simply isn't even trying to get my vote.

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  21. What, now they want me to pick up the principles I set aside?

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  22. Nah... Love her or hate her, at least Nancy Pelosi made an attempt to curb Obama's spending. Boehner, not so much.

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  23. It's not the quantity they argue over so much as "who" gets it.

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