Tropic of Cancer

••• today's entry continues here below •••

» Predictability Allows for Precise Timing

I find it strangely comforting that such large objects can wiz around out in space at such dazzling velocities .. as it travels along an enormous, yet entirely predictable path.

Predictable to within small fractions of seconds.

I am talking about movements of objects that can be predicted with pinpoint accuracy .. with such precise precision. (Timing is important, you know. Eddie Glenn knows what I am talking about.)

» Write the Vision .. Write What You See .. Make It Plain

I have already inquired into the subject of prediction .. the factors behind the art-n-science of seeing-into-the-future.

I was just talking to Margaret Atwood about this. I wondered what she thought about Nietzsche's reputation as prophetic.

My journey down this path of inquiry began when I read where Albert Camus called Dostoevsky "the great prophet of the twentieth century."

I put the book down and wondered "How can he be the great prophet of the twentieth century .. when he died in 1881?"

That's when the gears started turning for me. One thing led to another. And another.

First thing I learned was that prophets tend to encounter a number of troubling occupational hazards. It is not the cush job that it seems on the surface.

Paul knows what I am talking about. Hanani knows what I am talking about.

» Let There Be No Misunderstanding

This is what I am going to do today. I am going to write the vision. I am going to write what I see. What I see from my perspective.

I should do so in an honest and straightforward sort of way. I should be plain and to the point.

"I see but one rule," said Stendhal, ".. to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing."

He makes a good point. I would hate to be misunderstood.

» Plainly Stating the Obvious Historical Context

As a priority for today's zeitgeisty theme, I feel the need to make sure that I include the obvious.

It can help clarify things beautifully when the obvious is stated plainly and clearly. Again, the potential for misunderstanding plummets whenever you plainly state the obvious.

In particular, any documents with zeitgeisty aspirations will want to include the added contextual supporting structure .. so that the document can better withstand the relentless ravages of time.

» This Might be a Good Time to Read Le Rouge et Le Noir

Speaking of Stendhal, I was thinking recently how this might be a good time to read » The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century (1830).

There are some historical parallels between then and now which might illuminate things today by viewing them in light of events from long ago.

You will find The Red and the Black listed as one of the 100 Best Books ever written, in any language. Ever.

» Evoking a Cosmic Perspective of Comforting Predictability

Things such as solstices and being able to identify the longest eclipse of the entire century (.. including a large chunk of time of the period that comes long after all of us will likely be dead-n-gone) ..

.. these things tend to evoke a grander, more cosmic perspective .. than the comparatively narrow slice of life (slice of time) that you and I get to live here, to spend here.

(Ariana knows what I'm talking about.)

» Last Time I was Here

Last time I was here, waiting for the sun to do something according to its cosmic schedule, was back on March 19, for the spring equinox.

That's when I ran into Elena Fraules .. the hottie Russian dancer from Siberia. She is always flirting with me, and provoking me.

I wondered if I might run into her again today .. but nothing yet. We still have twenty mins.

» Do You Know Maria Konnikova?

I want to ask her if she knows Maria Konnikova. She is one fascinating woman .. and the things that she has ventured into .. wow.

I can feel a part of me being totally intrigued by her. (I am not trying to feel this way.)

She experiments on herself, and with herself. I do that myself sometimes. (It helps if you have a bit of daredevil in you.)

I want to ask the writer with a doctorate in Psychology .. I want to ask her what she thinks about something Nietzsche wrote in Ecco Homo.

I am curious about her thoughts here. If nothing else, Nietzsche has some big balls .. cojones grande.

A description from the Amazon page for her new book:

How a NY Times bestselling author and New Yorker contributor parlayed a strong grasp of the science of human decision-making and a woeful ignorance of cards into a life-changing run as a professional poker player, under the wing of a legend of the game.

I just find this such a bizarre story .. that it makes me wonder, "What kind of person crafts a life like this?"

Or is it just me?

» Another Dancer Helping to Make My Point for Me

Anyway, I noticed where my girl, Elena, performed her ooh-la-la choreo to Watchacha by Sage the Gemini at Summer Dance Academy.

"I'm not the only one," I thought, "who likes it when she does this song."

The whole class started cheering soon as the music started playing .. and they kept cheering through most of the song.

She is fun to watch. Good energy. And sexy, too.

She is obviously feeling this song. She is feeling the beat. You can see her feeling it. Looks like it must feel good .. very good.

She is obviously enjoying herself. Good for her.

She is another reason why I feel that dancers must make the best lovers. Surely you see my point.

» Some Things are More Challenging to Put into Words than Other Things

I have been thinking recently about this thing .. and about how I might go about putting-into-words these things ..

.. these things that I have been pondering along these lines .. these lines of what kinds of things would constitute a lover who could take you to the next level .. and to places beyond .. to places that you didnt even know existed.

A part of me feels confident you could not handle it. But there is really only one way to find out.

» Appreciating Women Who Challenge Me and Inspire Me to Up My Game

There are a number of dancers who do it for me. They know who they are. I can hear them talking to me. I like what I hear.

Sometimes they challenge my ability to put things into words. I like girls who challenge me to take things to the next level. I like them a lot.

I am also attracted to girls (women) who inspire me to up my game. Much of what I have learned about playing the game at a higher level .. came from hotties.

» Closer You Look, the More Impressed You Become

All these dancers are so bold and so confident and so comfortable with their sexuality .. with their bodies .. and are so able to express the inexpressible .. the non-verbal aspects of life.

It is like they are talking to you .. with their bodies. Through their movements. And with their eye contact, too.

As someone who tries to cultivate the skills necessary in order to put things into words .. I am always looking for things that would both challenge me and broaden my skill-set.

And the things these dancers are saying .. oh, my. Let us not dare venture down that rabbit hole. That bottomless rabbit hole. Not right now, anyway.

But sometimes, I will be checking out one of these dancers .. and I will be so impressed by the choreography, by how they make impossible moves look easy .. focused on the smallest of gestures ..

.. that I will think, "Oh, this girl has my full and undivided attention."

» I Need a Title that Can Take Me Wherever I Might Need to Go Today

I much prefer to come up with a title after I write the text. And my continuing storyline lends itself well to my preferred method for generating a cool title.

Such as the case with the page titled » Stab of Regret (21 Dec 2019) .. this is text that was lifted and transferred from a page previously written.

But sometimes (like today) I need to come up with a title before I write .. before I complete the page. I am not sure what I will be writing here. (But I certainly have many ideas .. many interesting ideas.)

When the idea for today's title, Tropic of Cancer, popped into my head, I thought, "What topics wont fit under that title?" What subjects would be excluded?

None. Zero. Zee-Row. (Mia knows what I'm talking about.) No limitations.

Plus it plays nicely off my entry on 21 Dec 2019, which features the Tropic of Capricorn.

» Eat Your Heart Out, Henry Miller

Plus I could use this title to flirt with super-hotties and singers, and dancers, and models who stare deep into your soul.

I mean, what's not to like?

Did you know that the 1934 novel by Henry Miller was banned in the U.S. and Great Britain? And that it has been described as

"notorious for its candid sexuality" and as responsible for the "free speech that we now take for granted in literature." ?

Notice the text there at the bottom of the cover » NOT TO BE IMPORTED INTO GREAT BRITAIN OR USA.

Banned in only two countries? I would have been disappointed. I wonder how many countries Lolita was banned in.

This page at Cornell, titled » Publishing Lolita says »

The book's appearance sparked a flurry of publicity in France, where it was banned as a "dangerous book" until 1958. Lolita would eventually be banned in England, Australia, Burma, Belgium, and Austria and, at the local level, in some American communities. The controversy over the book only fueled sales. On September 17, 1958, the Cincinnati Public Library banned Lolita. The following week it reached number one on the bestseller list.

That's funny .. soon as the book was banned, everybody wanted to read it. It says pretty much the same thing here.

» Penniless Writer Pitches a Personalized Expression of His Subterranean Talents as an Innovative Way to Entice Dazzling Singer into His Bedroom at Night

I once tried to lure Ariana into reading to me a chapter from Lolita every night by my bedside as I fell asleep.

I told her I would reciprocate by writing her a nice little story.

I said, "I have no idea how it will go. But I'm sure it will be banned in many countries."

The starving writer needs to be creative .. if he wants to lie with the lovely ladies.

1934, if I recall correctly, was not a particularly good year.

(Unless you were a Nazi .. then, everything was going great.)

This might be a good place to recognize Henry Miller and offer some words of appreciation for the free speech that we do indeed take for granted in literature today.

» Writing Candidly and Honestly on the Topic of (Human) Sexuality

I admit that when I read where Miller's Tropic of Cancer was » "notorious for its candid sexuality" .. that I felt a sense of kinship and genuine gratitude ..

.. because I have been known, from time to time, to write candidly on the topic of sexuality.

I have been to the Henry Miller museum there on PCH up in Big Sur. I dont know if it is still there, but I was not too terribly impressed by it.

It was a place to buy a book by Mr. Miller and not much more. When you are in Big Sur, the inside of a bookstore is not high on your list of priorities.

» Giving This Some Thought

I have been thinking for a week now .. of what kinds of things I would be writing here today.

I mean, there are so many topics we could cover. A smorgasbord of epic proportions. The writer in me has been pole-vaulting out of bed every morning.

I was going to start with the elephant in the room .. before I noticed that there are more than one. More than two. Watch where you step.

» Write What Only You Could Write

Whenever I deliberate with any seriousness over the object of my writing-topic .. to find the best use and application of my experience and my skill-set .. and where I can challenge myself and broaden my skill-set .. and sharpen the ones I already have ..

.. this is where I usually spend time pondering the answer(s) to the question » "What could I write that I and only I can write?"

I was just talking to Dove about this.

And I am always on the lookout for ways to explore ever more of the landscape of moral experience .. you know, the one that spans the entire range of moral experience .. all the way from the satanic to the divine.

If you have spanned this range .. then you know how vast it is. This is why it always helps, I have found, to have along a powerful woman with you .. while you are exploring this vast landscape.

These powerful women are able to get access for you .. into places that you normally would have little hope of ever accessing, ever experiencing.

But you need to be nice to them. You need to learn how to treat them right .. with the respect they deserve.

» A Curious Thing

In the movie, The Counselor, Brad Pitt's character makes a point of being uber-prepared to walk away from the game .. at the first hint that things are heading south .. are going bad .. are starting to fall apart.

I was coming out of the bathroom earlier today, not long ago, when it suddenly struck me that Brad's character was the one who died the nastiest death.

I mean, it kind of fucked me up .. so gruesome the sight. The storytellers here meant to strike you consciousness. (It worked.)

He was the one who made a point of it to be prepared to 'walk away' at a moment's notice .. at the first whiff of trouble.

The author's message seems to be that you can't play in the nasty swamps of life .. and then walk away things start to head south.

» It Strikes Me as a Curious Thing

Why did I suddenly see into this particular aspect of this movie that I have not seen now for some years?

I thought this a curious thing .. because the last time I had a sudden insight into something from the movie, The Counselor ..

.. was when I was writing to Hillary, challenging her to give Wall Street its money back (16 July 2016 .. four years ago).

I feel like this must mean something. But what could it possibly mean?

Particularly in light of what I was thinking about .. when this insight suddenly occurred to me.

But I am not going to tell you what I was thinking about at the time. Not yet anyway. That topic is a separate rabbit hole all by itself.

» If You Happen to See Ms. Grande Out-n-About

I kind of want to ask Ariana what she thinks about another curiosity .. because she is familiar with such things.

But she has herself a new squeeze .. rumor has it. She has gone outside the industry to recruit new talent. Broadening her horizons, I'm sure.

So I feel like the respectful thing would be to give the lovebirds some space.

But if you happen to run into her .. in the course of your travels .. ask her what she thinks about, and if she finds it a curious thing that ..

.. while I was writing the recent 19 March entry, I happened to include a list of all the 19 March entries that I've written since 2017.

This is where I noticed one of my (3) entries for last year, for 2019, was titled » Please Dont Make Me Say I Told You So, which is itself a 4-page entry.

Now it takes me some time to craft a 4-page entry .. particularly ones replete with a nice complement of representative images and links to supporting references .. but it has always been dated 19 March .. since day-1.

» Recorded Intuition

Without getting caught up in the details .. I simply want to call attention to one particular section (there on Page Two - Part B) titled » My Intuition Tells Me that Impending Things are Hastening Upon America. 

Exactly one year later (to the day, no less) .. the whole world stops. The whole world shuts down.

Well, this is the day that California shut down, which was the first such state to do so. But other states quickly followed suit.

I remember writing that thing .. about my intuition .. because it was a genuine concern. Or at least it felt that way.

» Far from Alone

But I was hardly alone in my sense of alarm. Many informed souls sounded the alarm .. in many different ways.

Prof Wolff knows what I am talking about.

I mean, if you abuse anything long and hard enough .. it is just a matter of time .. before that abuse begins to take its toll.

No? (Seems only too obvious to me.)

Nevertheless, I remembered checking myself there .. after I had written that section .. which came out so easily and so effortlessly.

I remember checking myself to see if it were really okay to write something like that.

But I found nothing to suggest that this section should not be left written as is.

Fallen? Is Babylon really fallen? Two riders were approaching .. what did they say when they arrived?

I am fully alert. I am paying attention and listening closely .. to whatever it is that these riders might happen to say to me.

And just listen to that wind, will ya? (Where's Dylan when you need him?)

» Curious Timing of Events

Does she find it at all curious that exactly one year after I wrote that thing about my intuition .. it seems like the end of the world has arrived. ?

Because I do.

Sometimes I look back over both shoulders .. to see if somebody isnt back there .. whispering in my ear.

There is no telling where this thing might go .. where we might wind up.

This is why I like this clever title of mine .. because it does not limit me in any way.

» The Comforting Sense of Calm that Balance Can Bring

I would be lyin' if I said that this title does not bring me a comforting sense of balance .. a yin-yang sort-of-balance .. a healthy male-female relationship sort-of-balance.

An all-encompassing sense-of-balance .. in a cosmic sort-of-way.

I am not sure that I have ever before felt this sort of balance. Things become calm and tranquil when you have this type of balance.

» Balance is More Important than Most People Realize

I actually know quite a bit about balance .. from a physics perspective .. and from practical applications such as high-speed turbine operation and destructive resonance frequencies.

When anything spins very fast (such as a turbine blade rotor spinning at 3600 RPM) .. it needs to be balanced to within th tiniest of tolerances.

The bigger they are, and the faster they spin, the more balance becomes important.

If things are not balanced, and you try to operate them anyway .. they will make a lot of noise and come apart .. probably injuring people in the process.

I have even used the concept of balance in my writing .. as an added elegance, if you will .. striving admirably for the artistically unattainable.

» An Inner Calm Amid the Raging Storm

I could go on for pages about the subject of balance .. but I won't, except to say that ..

.. sometimes you find something that brings to you this sense of balanced calm .. to both you and your life .. probably from a totally unexpected source or similar happensource.

(The geek in me takes it as a challenge and tries to figure out this stuff. The existential detective at work.)

And it is here in this wonderfully calm and balanced place that you think, "This feels like the thing I've been searching for my whole life." (Ari knows what I am talking about.)

» Zen-like Calm Under Pressure

I have always been cool under pressure. Zen-like, some have said. I dont try to be like this .. I just am. It is part of who I am.

Dealing with chaos at home while growing up probably helped hone my skills in this area. (I can't help but lose respect for people who cannot keep their shit together and who cannot maintain possession of their soul.)

Some people go to pieces when shit in their life starts falling apart. (I have a number of good stories along these lines.)

» An Unintentionally Clever Title Segue

Speaking of coming up with clever titles .. remind me to tell you about my unintentionally clever title segue.

To be continued. ■

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