Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)

Subject: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: Peter T.
Date: 28 Oct 99 - 08:28 AM

An old artistic trick cited by Edmund Burke in his Essay on the Sublime (1756) is to get the audience used to a standard of size or beauty, and then shatter it with something so much greater that only comparison with the infinite will work. People who saw "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind" will remember the scene where the flying saucers land, and everyone says, oh we can handle this, and then the mother ship appears (not so much a saucer as an entire dinner service). After 30 years of reading "Romeo and Juliet" I suddenly discovered the same trick as used by the master. When the play opens, Romeo is sick with love for Rosalind, who is extolled as the greatest beauty, etc. The moment he sees Juliet, we hear no more of Rosalind. From then on Shakespeare uses the "mother ship" trick to describe Juliet.
When Romeo first sees her at the ball, he says:
"Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright.
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night,
like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear."
This sets up the light imagery: fire, bright jewels.

And then more famously, Romeo finds himself in the blackness of her back yard, and a light goes on in a window:
"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick, and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she....[Enter Juliet]
Two of the fairest stars in all the heavens
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head? --
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp; he eye in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
Would that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek.

The trick pulled, over and over. The return of the cheek is nice too. Fine to watch a master at work.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: Allan C.
Date: 28 Oct 99 - 08:56 AM

Mother Nature does just that sort of thing on a regular basis.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 28 Oct 99 - 09:41 AM

People also have a standard to which they measure the size of themselves. Through life, as we grow, old perceptions of ourselves are gradually discarded revealing an infinite depth of beauty in our character.

Little Neo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Oct 99 - 10:03 AM

Well I understand what you mean about size 'Phyte, but that "infinite depth" thing kinda' intimidates most of us guys, ya' know?

But your thoughts and observations are true Peter......I no longer think of you as simply a great intellect, beautiful writer, courageous environmentalist, aspiring picker, and fascinating 'Catter and "humane" being. Now I think of you as a man with a heron he dresses up like Waylon Jennings.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Oct 99 - 10:04 AM

Wonderful, Peter. And 'Phyte, what depths there are to your *neoness*! Like peeling the layers of an onion away, you just keep showing us more and more of the wisdom in that heart and head of yours. Lovely, just lovely.

Allan, you're right about our ole earth Mother, but it takes a PeterT or a Shakespeare, or yourself on the threadcreep thread, to translate it that beautifuuly into words.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: Mían
Date: 28 Oct 99 - 11:48 AM

hidden standards are sometimes like reefs upon which unsuspecting ships founder.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Oct 99 - 12:05 PM

Having worked on the river, I know herons----and they are no Waylon Jennings! ;-)

Art

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Oct 99 - 12:11 PM

Somewhere (in a thread I think) I posted the song I sang for years called "The Shanty Boy On The Big Eau Claire"---which is a Wisconsin lumberjack version of Romeo and Juliet. It was written by W.N. Allen of Wausau, Wisconsin about 1872 folks figure. Mr. Allen wrote under the name of "Shan T. Boy". Quite often one could perceive his tongue embedded firmly in his cheek.

Art

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Oct 99 - 09:36 PM

Folk clubs sometimes try that kind of stuff with floor singers picked to make the guest look great. Of course it only works if the floor singers are good, and the guest really is great.

Thev opposite artistic trick to Edmuund Burke's can work also. Following something big and spectacular by something very small and simple. Sometimes performers do this with a final encore, and a big finale - just walk back on and sing an unaccompanied song. It can be shattering.

Kevin

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 28 Oct 99 - 11:19 PM

Yeh, Joan Baez did this once with "Amazing Grace." and it was. shattering.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Oct 28 really)
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 12:14 AM

Art, as you so kindly gifted me with a copy of you singing that song, just want you to know it is one of my favourites of the ones you've done! I am in love with your voice, well....and luvyou TOO, kat8-)