A Poem For Sunday

William_wordsworth

“Nuns fret not at their Convent’s narrow room” by William Wordsworth (1770-1850):

Nuns fret not at their Convent’s narrow room;
And Hermits are contented with their Cells;
And Students with their pensive Citadels:
Maids at the Wheel, the Weaver at his Loom,
Sit blithe and happy; Bees that soar for bloom,
High as the highest Peak of Furness Fells,
Will murmur by the hour in Foxglove bells:
In truth, the prison, unto which we doom
Ourselves, no prison is: and hence to me,
In sundry moods, ‘twas pastime to be bound
Within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground:
Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)
Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,
Should find short solace there, as I have found.

(Wordsworth, circa 1839, via Wikimedia Commons)

The View From Your Window

tower

Jerusalem, Israel, 11 am. The reader adds:

I took this picture on January 20 from the highest level on the minaret that spikes above the Tower of David at Jaffa Gate. This level is unstable and not usually accessible. Today, exceptionally, a few people were permitted access in the morning.

Literature That’s Left Faith Behind

Last Sunday, we pointed to an interview with the Catholic poet Dana Gioia, in which he mused that there “is a great essay waiting to be written on the differences between observant and cultural Catholic writers.” Dreher picks up the question:

From the outside, my guess is that culturally Catholic writers are more likely to be reacting against something. Their imaginations were formed by the culture and rituals of Catholicism, even if they’ve rejected the religion. I am skeptical, though, about whether there is anything identifiably or meaningfully Catholic about any culturally Catholic writer whose imagination was formed after the postconciliar dissolution of that strong and distinct American Catholic culture. I could be wrong about that; there is certainly something distinctly Jewish about culturally (but not religiously) Jewish writers. Then again, Jews are a minority in America, whereas Catholics are members of the largest church in the country — though an increasingly assimilated one.

Noah Millman offers an explanation for the distinctiveness of such Jewish writing:

Judaism is simply less theology-centric than Catholicism, and as a consequence you can be a religiously observant Jew who writes books about religiously observant Jews and your fiction may still be Jewish primarily in the sociological sense. Take, as an example, Kaaterskill Falls, by Allegra Goodman. This is a very good novel to read if you want to get a feel for the dynamics of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. It’s also a good novel qua novel. But it isn’t god-haunted in the way that, say, Graham Greene’s or Flannery O’Connor’s work is. Or, for that matter, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s – even though Singer was less observant than Goodman is. I’d say similar things about Nathan Englander: that he’s interested in Jews and Judaism, but if he’s haunted by anything, it isn’t by God. History, maybe.

An interesting phenomenon to end on is Jewish writers who, in search of a spiritual inspiration, wandering into foreign fields precisely because that’s the best way to find their way home. Tony Kushner’s play, Angels in America, for example, is fascinated by Mormonism precisely because of its link to archaic Judaism, which (though politically very problematic) appears more spiritually nourishing than the Judaism that actually exists in the contemporary world.

Previous Dish on faith and literature here, here, and here.

Drug-Free Tripping

Ethan Siegel presents a visualization that aims to induce temporary hallucination (warning: not for the photosensitive or epileptic):

Siegel explains:

Thanks to the combined power of technology and our understanding of neuroscience (and perception), you don’t need drugs or to provoke your brain into releasing DMT. Rather, a simple visual pattern can induce temporary (lasting under a minute) hallucinations, safely and temporarily.

Visit this site for a fuller hallucinatory experience, or watch the above video:

To get the most out of your experience, just full-screen it, move your face close to the screen and stare at the center, trying not to blink and trying not to look away. When the video ends (it’s only 40 seconds long), look anyplace else and enjoy your distorted, hallucinatory vision for under a minute!

Faces Of The Day

The uncanny valley gets really, really dark:

Sara Barnes cautions:

If you aren’t careful, the video Milkyeyes by Donato Sansone might give you nightmares. The piece describes itself as “A slow and surreal video slideshow of nightmarish, grotesque and apparently static characters.” The video clocks in at just over 2 minutes and features 26 different characters, and is accompanied by music you’d hear in an old, abandoned warehouse or horror film. Some characters have faces that have been mutilated and warped to the point where they are nearly unrecognizable. Milkeyes is a name that conjures an unpleasant visual. So, it’s not surprising that this video is a visceral journey into a world of unfortunate humans. We see steam coming from their heads, stuff bubbling from their lips, and eyes floating of their head. While they are affected, the environment behind them remains static and untouched. The juxtaposition between calm and a surreal chaos makes this video both puzzling and trippy. (ViaArtnau)

Barely Legal Highs

Mike Power investigates the world of designer drugs, or “controlled substance analogs,” described as “version[s] of a banned compound that [have] been created with the aim of making it legal”:

[H]ow easy is it to design and commission a new legal drug based on a banned one?

For the most part you cannot simply tweak cocaine, add a molecule and dodge the law—most countries are wise to this, and their rules are tightly-written, expert affairs focused on well-known narcotics. But outside of headline drugs … it is simple enough to scan medical literature and look for new compounds that could intoxicate. The resulting drug will, most likely, be legal—though whether the result will be pleasant or not will only be discovered by a process of human trial and error.

I passed my drug along to [clinical toxicologist] John Ramsey at St. George’s [Hospital in London] to be logged into TICTAC, a database that is used by law enforcement and healthcare professionals. We do not know precisely what my legal drug will do: It may be incredibly unpleasant—but it will be active and, with the right marketing, could potentially sell by the truckload.

And here lies the problem. We can ban drugs. But we can’t ban chemistry, and we can’t ban medical research. There are an almost infinite number of different drugs and substitutions that are possible, and a combination of circumstances have radically increased the public’s ability to access and alter them. The openness of the Web, China’s prominence as both a manufacturer and exporter, the ability of laypeople to study organic chemistry, the availability of research, improved technology and falling prices—these have all come together to create an unusual, explosive, effect.

STIs Without Stigma

A.V. Flox calls Andrea Brough’s series Perilous Transmission “a painstaking work of humanity that transcends the easy message of most sexual health awareness campaigns”:

The series shows a couple as they work out their emotions following infection, as well as dish_periloustransmission a cast of other characters going about their daily lives, showing the viewer that there is life after a positive test result. To visually illustrate what is so often invisible, Brough used her models’ skins as a canvas. She thought a long time about how she was going to show positive status, conscious of the possible stigma that easy solutions — such as the biohazard symbol — would convey.

“I was trying to think of some kind of symbol that would help people see what was going on but also question what was going on,” she told me. “The markings ultimately were made with a rubber stamp that I found at a craft store. The stamp is actually supposed to be an image of a water ring – you know how you put your glass of water down on a coffee table and it leaves a mark? That’s what it is.”

The water ring gives the impression of a cell – but it’s a neutral image. While some of the shots inspire very emotional reactions in viewers, the imagery used to portray the models’ status retains its neutrality, making all the images depicting life with STIs all the more poignant. Without the stigma, a viewer is capable of seeing beyond disease to the people themselves – the young woman putting on makeup, the couple cuddling, the woman playing pool.

(Photo by Andrea Brough. See more of her work here and here. Her images are available for purchase here.)

Is Marriage Enough To Protect Same-Sex Parents?

No, many fear:

A Brooklyn judge, citing some complications that have arisen from the legalization of gay marriage in New York State, halted the adoption of a child by the wife of the mother. Brooklyn Surrogate Judge Margarita Lopez Torres ruled that the adoption “is neither necessary nor available” because New York State marriage law already grants custody to both spouses.

Still, the anonymous couple wished to cement the adoption in case of a change in law, or if they separate, or if they have a medical emergency in another state. While the judge was sympathetic to their request, she ultimately ruled that “no such action is warranted or permitted by this court to affirm an existing, recognized and protected parent-child relationship.” Essentially, the judge ruled, you can’t offer guardianship to someone who already has it.

Diana Adams weighs in:

“States have the right to define their own family policy, in spite of Windsor,” Adams, an attorney specializing in non-traditional family law, explained. “Adoption however, is something that is a nationwide standardized system, and you do not need to get into the issue as to whether the marriage is valid” … If, for example, Adams explained, a married same-sex couple gets into a car accident in a state that does not recognize gay marriage, the non-biological parent may be denied the ability to assist in making medical decisions for her child or even be prevented from visiting the child in the hospital.  “There is a strong risk against the non-biological parent,” counseled Adams.

For more Adams, she recently appeared on the Savage Lovecast to discuss non-traditional family law with Dan.

A Poem For Saturday

butterflywordsworth

“To a Butterfly” by William Wordsworth (1770-1850):

I’ve watched you now a full half hour,
Self-poised upon that yellow flower;
And, little Butterfly!  indeed
I know not if you sleep, or feed.
How motionless!  not frozen seas
More motionless!  and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!

This plot of Orchard-ground is ours;
My trees they are, my Sister’s flowers;
Stop here whenever you are weary,
And rest as in a sanctuary!
Come often to us, fear no wrong;
Sit near us on the bough!
We’ll talk of sunshine and of song;
And summer days, when we were young,
Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now!

(Photo by Dwight Sipler)