Back to the past....riffing on THE PRESERVED

[Joseph Tracy]

Kinda silly though. You can argue that unless air, water, food, goes  
in and urine , sweat, air, and shit  come out, then the organism  
dies. Death is dissolution, not communion. What about sounds, vision,  
love, bodily fluids? These must also break our discretion if life is  
to thrive and continue. I know this is a character speaking, but  
conceptually  I don't buy it as bearing much insight.
On Jan 27, 2010, at 9:50 AM, David Morris wrote:

> Thanks.  I'd never heard of this Nabokov before.
>
> On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 8:32 AM, Keith <keithsz at mac.com> wrote:
>> On Jan 27, 2010, at 6:02 AM, David Morris wrote:
>>
>> But that doesn't eliminate the possibility of
>> being born with some "memories" not personally gathered.
>> --------------------------------------------------------
>> "I do not know if it has ever been noted before that one
>> of the main characteristics of life is discreteness.
>> Unless a film of flesh envelops us, we die. Man exists
>> only insofar as he is separated from his surroundings.
>> The cranium is a space-traveler's helmet. Stay inside
>> or you perish. Death is divestment, death is communion.
>> It may be wonderful to mix with the landscape, but to do
>> so is the end of the tender ego."
>>
>>                                   --Prof. Timofey Pnin
>>
>>