Reality Beyond Realism

[Keith Davis]

Ian, 
I agree with Smoke, that your grandfather’s book sounds very interesting.


Www.keithdavismusic.com

> On Jun 28, 2020, at 11:44 PM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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