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12-17-2017, 07:43 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: a foothill of the Catskills
Posts: 968
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Poetry, Insanity and Infinity
I have been prodded by discussion on this board (hat tip to Aaron N and Gregory D) to investigate Chesterton. There is plenty so far to agree with, and to disagree with, but he is certainly entertaining and engaging, not to mention prolific. I thought this snippet was so provocative that I wanted to share it:
Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea … and so to make it finite. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.
– GKC, Orthodoxy
What do you think, fellow Sphereans? Is this a fair depiction? Are there good examples pro and contra? Do you feel in writing poetry that you mean to poke your head into the heavens? Have you?
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12-17-2017, 07:47 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: New York
Posts: 16,501
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I think his point is rather muddied by his imprecise and judgmental use of the word "sane," even were I to accept the distinction he is drawing between poetry and logic/science (which I don't, though I'm not ready to elaborate as yet).
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12-17-2017, 09:14 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: NYC
Posts: 2,340
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I don't understand the quote fully, but infinity has been squared away through reason via Dedekind, Cantor, and Russell. Only one of them went mad but he was mad already and the notion of the mathematician reaching new heights of nous at the expense of his sanity is one the poets invented.
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12-17-2017, 09:56 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Iowa City, IA, USA
Posts: 10,099
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False dichotomies make memorable epigrams, but seldom correspond to the complexities of reality. I don't know any good poets who are irrational. It is hard to write poetry well without the help of reason, and though many poets have had periods of mental illness, they have not usually produced good poetry in those periods.
Susan
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12-17-2017, 11:54 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Susan, your first clause is a memorable epigram (true or not)!
__________________
Ralph
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12-17-2017, 02:33 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia
Posts: 2,999
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I am with Ralph Susan that is so incredibly quotable.
I think GKC was painting with a very large brush.
It is worthy of note he enjoyed the title of "The Prince of Paradox"
Jan
Last edited by Jan Iwaszkiewicz; 12-17-2017 at 02:36 PM.
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