Reality Beyond Realism

[Keith Davis]

I will have to read NBrown now.

Www.keithdavismusic.com

> On Jun 28, 2020, at 11:43 PM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I got out Norman Brown, which has been sitting, unread, for several years. Read the preface. I keep returning to the insights of non-duality, which is what struck me like a beautiful hammer when Slothrop had his “moment” at what, for me at least, is the climax, and point, of GR. 
> 
> Www.keithdavismusic.com
> 
>> On Jun 28, 2020, at 11:23 PM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Ian, thank you for sharing that. Your grandfather's book sounds really
>> fascinating. I've been working on some ideas for a more novelistic
>> treatment of "mineral consciousness," an idea I believe I first encountered
>> in *GR. *Finding the right ways to tell that kind of story has a lot to do
>> with why I'm teaching the class.
>> 
>> 
>>> On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 9:20 PM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> My Grandfather, a geologist writing in the 1930s, produced a rough draft
>>> of a work tracing the evolution of consciousness from the earliest
>>> discovered life forms at the time of his research to the present time. His
>>> prose is very story-like in the telling of the geological study. I have
>>> been looking at his work after its having been buried away in boxes in
>>> family basements for more than 80 years and seeing there hints that Western
>>> thought was well along that inquiry leading to the dissolution of
>>> self-reflective "objectivity". Richard Grossinger delivers a heavy-handed
>>> wallop on noggin of positivist approaches to scientific inquiry in Dark
>>> Pool of Light that might be a direct outgrowth of ideas swirling around in
>>> the dark corners of depression-era phenomenological thought.
>>> 
>>>> On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 5:16 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I love both Campbell and Brown.  Brown's Life Against Death clearly was a
>>>> *major* inspiration for Gravity's Rainbow.  And Jung was Campbell's
>>>> mentor,
>>>> more important than Campbell himself. They are all western discoverers of
>>>> aspects of ancient eastern philosophies, even if unintentionally, which
>>>> makes them all that more valuable.  I'd add Stanislav Grof's transpersonal
>>>> psychology to that western mix.
>>>> 
>>>> What is usually called "mysticism" is an unavoidable aspect of a deeper
>>>> dive into eastern takes on illusion v reality.  Strict materialism will
>>>> have to be discarded when one personally encounters those deeper realms.
>>>> Even so, those deeper realms will largely remain inscrutable, yet
>>>> undeniable.  Ancient texts might help.  Gurus might too, but I avoid them.
>>>> Direct experience is my guru, maybe to my detriment.
>>>> 
>>>> Your inquiry is very cool.  Have fun with it.
>>>> 
>>>> David Morris
>>>> 
>>>>> On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 5:56 PM Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks David,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Certainly ambitious, and much more an inquiry than a top-down lesson on
>>>> my
>>>>> part. Growing up, I had much more schooling in (mostly Western) lit
>>>> than in
>>>>> non-Western spirituality. So literature was the first thing that
>>>> allowed me
>>>>> to feel like I was seeing through the first couple layers of illusion.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Campbell, Brown, and others have pointed to artists as modern-day
>>>> shamans,
>>>>> bringing people in contact with the real. I want to see how stories can
>>>> (or
>>>>> can’t) do that when I have also come to understand reality as starting
>>>>> where storytelling stops.
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Jun 28, 2020, at 4:52 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> My God, this seems an ambitious task!  In Buddhist or Hindu or other
>>>>> ancient eastern schools, ubiquitous reality is seen as an illusion, a
>>>> veil
>>>>> one hopes to see past.  Individuality (personal identity) is also seen
>>>> as a
>>>>> false reality, at least partly so.  Many lifetimes of observance by a
>>>>> select few are sometimes required to see beyond the illusion of common
>>>>> reality.  I wish you all the best.
>>>>> 
>>>>> David Morris
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 3:06 PM Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Fellow Plisters,
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Starting July 1 I'll be leading a class you and/or people you know may
>>>>>>> find interesting. The class is called Reality Beyond Realism:
>>>>>>> Storytelling for/versus Enlightenment.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> It comes out of a tension I’ve been feeling in my own work in recent
>>>>>>> years. The tension is basically this. On the one hand, the telling of
>>>>>>> stories is maybe the original human activity. On the other hand,
>>>>>>> stories also seem to represent our most formidable limitation as
>>>>>>> individuals and as a species. Buddhism (and related traditions) seems
>>>>>>> to agree with contemporary science (neuroscience, quantum physics,
>>>>>>> etc) in the claim that our notion of individual “self” is ultimately a
>>>>>>> kind of delusion. A fiction we compulsively tell ourselves, which may
>>>>>>> have once been adaptive, but may no longer be so. There are stories at
>>>>>>> the bottom of all our sufferings and all our social strife. This is
>>>>>>> easy to see in personal psychological dysfunctions (depression,
>>>>>>> anxiety, etc.), political cynicism (which relies on limited and
>>>>>>> outmoded stories), as well as deliberate misinformation (i.e. "false"
>>>>>>> stories).
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> So the tension leads to the question: can stories actually take us
>>>>>>> closer to individual and collective enlightenment? And the related
>>>>>>> question: Is what separates us from a more enlightened world the
>>>>>>> telling of bad stories, or the telling of stories altogether? As
>>>>>>> people who are uniquely attuned to the telling of stories—who may even
>>>>>>> look at (literary) storytelling as a kind of calling or chosen life’s
>>>>>>> work—is it possible for us to really use them for “good”? Can stories
>>>>>>> get us free, or do they only imprison us? Can they bring us closer to
>>>>>>> “absolute reality” or can they only distort our apprehension of
>>>>>>> things?
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> So this “class” is a four-part inquiry where we will look at some of
>>>>>>> the conventions of Western realism as well as some texts that
>>>>>>> deliberately subvert those conventions (this will include some Pynchon
>>>>>>> excerpts, of course). We’ll try to see what other kinds of stories are
>>>>>>> possible or desirable, whether stories can be used to dismantle
>>>>>>> stories, or whether they inevitably entrap us in the constant karmic
>>>>>>> ping-pong of the world of forms.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Some of those conventions of storytelling will include: the
>>>>>>> individuality of subjectivity, the linear and strictly forward
>>>>>>> movement of time, the mechanics of cause and effect, certain
>>>>>>> epistemological regimes and attendant values (including capitalism,
>>>>>>> scientism, post-Judeo-Christianity, etc.), as well as the more
>>>>>>> literary-specific conventions of stories built out of language (i.e.
>>>>>>> subject-verb containing sentences) and the form of the prose story
>>>>>>> (with its beginnings/middles/ends, conflicts and rising action and
>>>>>>> climaxes, etc.).
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> The course will be four sessions, on consecutive Wednesdays, starting
>>>>>>> July 1, 6-8pm Eastern Standard Time. It’s run through this very cool
>>>>>>> organization called Incite Seminars, which is trying to bring
>>>>>>> ambitious learning out of neoliberal higher education institutions and
>>>>>>> rebuild it together with the people. They’re Philly-based, but now
>>>>>>> operating on Zoom. The classes run on an “enable-as-you-can” (i.e.
>>>>>>> donate-what-you-choose) structure. A few people have signed up already
>>>>>>> but I’d really love for there to be a diversity of
>>>>>>> perspectives/experiences involved. If you think you might know someone
>>>>>>> who would be interested, I’m including a link to the class page, where
>>>>>>> you can read the full description and fill out a registration form:
>>>>>>> https://inciteseminars.com/reality-not-realism/
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Also, if you have some favorite relevant excerpts, other reading
>>>>>>> suggestions, or ideas for the direction of the class, I'd be happy to
>>>>>>> hear and incorporate them.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Love,
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Smoke
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>>> 
>>> 
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l