MDDM23: Flakes

[Dave Monroe]

"... their torches aparking intensely yellow at the
edges as they illuminate the falling Snow-Flakes."
(M&D, Ch. 36, p. 362)

   "'Do tha mean those white flake-like objects
blowing out of the north-east...?'" (M&D, Ch. 36, p.
363)

Main Entry: snow·flake 
Pronunciation: -"flAk
Function: noun
Date: 1734
1 : a flake or crystal of snow ...

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

Not only ...

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/physics/physics.htm

But also ...

http://www.scidiv.bcc.ctc.edu/Math/Snowflake.html

http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/frac/koch.html

http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/koch/


And note as well ...

"... the croissant in her posed hand shedding flakes,
as a late flower its petals." (M&D, Ch. 36, p. 369)

Main Entry: snow·flake 

[...]

2 : any of a genus (Leucojum) of bulbous plants of the
amaryllis family; especially : one (L. vernum)
resembling the snowdrop

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

http://www.bartleby.com/65/am/amarylli.html

http://www.floridata.com/ref/l/leuc_aes.cfm

Main Entry: me·men·to mo·ri 
Pronunciation: m&-'men-tO-'mOr-E, -'mor-E
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural memento mori
Etymology: Latin, remember that you must die
Date: 1596
: a reminder of mortality; especially : DEATH's-head 

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

"Vanitas - Latin for vanity, refers to a type of still
life consisting of a collection of objects that
symbolize the brevity of human life and the transience
of earthly pleasures and achievements (e.g., a human
skull, a mirror, and broken pottery).

"Such paintings were particularly popular in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially in the
Netherlands."

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/uv/vanitas.html

Amaryllis = pride, pastoral poetry ...

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/flowerlanguage.html

And see as well Vergil, Eclogues 1.4-5, 3.3 ...

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Aphi%2C0690%2C001&query=1%3A4

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Aphi%2C0690%2C001&query=3%3A3

And John Milton, "Lycidas" (!) ...

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/lycidas/

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/lycidas/notes.html

"The beauty of flowers often represents the beauty of
human life. The fallen, if not particularly wilted
flowers drew attention to the transience of that
life."

http://www.io.com/~duhons/artshow/mori.htm.

"The appearance of vanitas and Dutch floral painting
in the 17th century expanded interpretation into a
moralizing canon on the ephemeral nature of life."

http://www.mcleanart.org/exhibs/sentobj/senttext.html

>From Paul Taylor, Dutch Flower Painting 1600-1720 (New
Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1995), Ch. 2, "The Bible of Nature
and Floral Symbolism," pp. 28-76 ...

"One of the most common similitudes of the seventeenth
century was the comparison of the brief life of
flowers with the brief life of man.  Several passages
from the Bible could be cited in support of this
notion: the most famous being Isaiah 40: 6-8: 'All
flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as
the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the
flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth
upon it, surely the people is grass.  The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God
shall stand for ever.'  In sermons, poems, emblems,
prints and paintings the image was used over and
over." (p. 43)

But ...

   "Even transience imagery could be viewed in various
ways.  One did not have to contemplate one's last end
when reminded of time's fleeting nature.  One of the
most frequently written and adapted topoi of the
Renaissance was the theme of 'Gather ye rosebuds while
ye may' ...." (p. 48)

E.g. ...

http://poesie.webnet.fr/poemes/France/ronsard/6.html

   "Another way in which transience imagery could be,
so to speak, turned on its head, was in allusions to
the power of art to conquer time." (p. 49)

And here cf. ...

Bryson, Norman.  Looking at the Overlooked:
   Four Essays on Still Life.  Cambridge, MA:
   Harvard UP, 1990.

Ch. 3, "Abundance," pp. 96-135.  Repub. by Reaktion in
2001.  Okay ...

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games
http://sports.yahoo.com