Self-portrait with Stylite Sphinx. |
Dingo the Dissident
Sunday, 31 December 2017
Saturday, 30 December 2017
Can I put in a word ?
I am a Dog
- whatever that might mean.
I haven't a clue
what's going on most of the time
- except Food, Outings
and the boredom in between.
- whatever that might mean.
I haven't a clue
what's going on most of the time
- except Food, Outings
and the boredom in between.
Friday, 29 December 2017
My definition of a 'Good Novel' :
one that illuminates yet another
grim corner of the polymorphous
human psyche
while entrancing you.
Not much biography does this -
nor history, either.
grim corner of the polymorphous
human psyche
while entrancing you.
Not much biography does this -
nor history, either.
Thursday, 28 December 2017
I don't understand
why people want to get drunk.
I don't understand jealousy.
I don't understand rape:
sex without complicity is bad enough,
but without consent
seems to me quite horrible.
(But then, despite being male and bent,
- an old term, not used now -
I was never interested in sex for its own sake.)
Masturbation is All about Consent.
I don't understand jealousy.
I don't understand rape:
sex without complicity is bad enough,
but without consent
seems to me quite horrible.
(But then, despite being male and bent,
- an old term, not used now -
I was never interested in sex for its own sake.)
Masturbation is All about Consent.
Wednesday, 27 December 2017
Tuesday, 26 December 2017
Christianity and Capitalism become one
through the near-congruence of the "stable to throne of Heaven" myth
and the several "rags to riches" stories,
though in the case of Capitalism
martyrdom just before ascending to the sky
has largely been discarded, and Heaven itself
is real-estate in Manhattan, London or Dubai.
and the several "rags to riches" stories,
though in the case of Capitalism
martyrdom just before ascending to the sky
has largely been discarded, and Heaven itself
is real-estate in Manhattan, London or Dubai.
Monday, 25 December 2017
The Dissident Blogger's Christmas Office Party
was a great success. Unfortunately, however...
...it turned into a Rave, and Wing-Commander Gabriel
of Paradise Precinct had to come and close it down -
with a tombstone !
Police tactics have always been dangerously extreme.
Especially around Saturnalia-time.
Sunday, 24 December 2017
Dundonald, county Down.
Where a jerry-built hospital sags now
my mother would take me to visit
a one-woman farm : hens in the kitchen,
a pot on the fire, pale yellow cream in a churn.
Outside the half-door was a pile of muck.
I played with her Border Collie and her son
who was illegitimate like me.
We gave the calves our willies to suck.
my mother would take me to visit
a one-woman farm : hens in the kitchen,
a pot on the fire, pale yellow cream in a churn.
Outside the half-door was a pile of muck.
I played with her Border Collie and her son
who was illegitimate like me.
We gave the calves our willies to suck.
Saturday, 23 December 2017
Accident
is almost infinite.
After all,
everything about us
and our brains
and how we fall
are accident.
After all,
everything about us
and our brains
and how we fall
are accident.
Friday, 22 December 2017
On hearing a nightingale last summer
while walking my dog
past a leafy, riverine cruising-spot
where sad men lurk.
There is no heaven, no hell,
no gods, no demons,
only Landscape and its inner
etherereals
which desire, money, religion,
fear and property destroy.
Alas, the stupid dead,
the even stupider survivors
they have bred!
past a leafy, riverine cruising-spot
where sad men lurk.
There is no heaven, no hell,
no gods, no demons,
only Landscape and its inner
etherereals
which desire, money, religion,
fear and property destroy.
Alas, the stupid dead,
the even stupider survivors
they have bred!
Thursday, 21 December 2017
Wednesday, 20 December 2017
Odysseus said
Most Greeks would rather die
than have to eat Hummous pie.
I say: if I had been an alpha-male
I'd have killed myself.
than have to eat Hummous pie.
I say: if I had been an alpha-male
I'd have killed myself.
Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Keep up Appearances.
Play the Game
according to the Rules
(come from On High).
Don't let the side down.
Pull together...
Team Spirit...
Them and Us, Black and White,
Saints and Sinners...
All that crap which turned me not just anti-British
(tore up the passport)
but anti-bourgeois.
But I played such eminently bourgeois games
as Monopoly, Bézique, Canasta,
and Mah Jongg for the fun of company and conversation.
I remember Whist- and Beetle-Drives,
and the frequent exhilaration of the only Sport
I ever played : Cruising,
a form of gambling
in which there are few winners.
according to the Rules
(come from On High).
Don't let the side down.
Pull together...
Team Spirit...
Them and Us, Black and White,
Saints and Sinners...
All that crap which turned me not just anti-British
(tore up the passport)
but anti-bourgeois.
But I played such eminently bourgeois games
as Monopoly, Bézique, Canasta,
and Mah Jongg for the fun of company and conversation.
I remember Whist- and Beetle-Drives,
and the frequent exhilaration of the only Sport
I ever played : Cruising,
a form of gambling
in which there are few winners.
Monday, 18 December 2017
Ego
is a construction of civilisation
and can exist only when accompanied
by its strange cardboard cut-out supporters
(as in an armorial achievement) Id, Libido
and Super-ego - all fed by artifacts, property,
patriotism, manufactured moralities and 'family values'.
Our egos sit on us like
conquerors' buttocks on our faces.
and can exist only when accompanied
by its strange cardboard cut-out supporters
(as in an armorial achievement) Id, Libido
and Super-ego - all fed by artifacts, property,
patriotism, manufactured moralities and 'family values'.
Our egos sit on us like
conquerors' buttocks on our faces.
Sunday, 17 December 2017
Misogyny
(when not a mirror of self-contempt)
is mostly - probably - a form of misanthropy.
The greatest misogynists are 'womanisers'.
is mostly - probably - a form of misanthropy.
The greatest misogynists are 'womanisers'.
Saturday, 16 December 2017
Friday, 15 December 2017
I have just read
in a thriller
that mouse-droppings soon sink
in a bowl or jar of the ubiquitous,
white, crystalline poison called sugar.
But dog-hairs stay on top.
that mouse-droppings soon sink
in a bowl or jar of the ubiquitous,
white, crystalline poison called sugar.
But dog-hairs stay on top.
Thursday, 14 December 2017
Time is mostly blood and shit -
don't stab it -
strangle it gently and well.
Rinse your hands in piss.
Escape from the miasma
of being and being human.
Close your eyes while doing so:
we do too much looking
and not enough considering
we do too much hearing
and not enough listening
too much feeling
and not enough fellow-feeling
especially not for 'animals'
not for the downtrodden spirits.
strangle it gently and well.
Rinse your hands in piss.
Escape from the miasma
of being and being human.
Close your eyes while doing so:
we do too much looking
and not enough considering
we do too much hearing
and not enough listening
too much feeling
and not enough fellow-feeling
especially not for 'animals'
not for the downtrodden spirits.
Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Writing as a dog,
I don't believe
that there is such a thing as Time.
There is only The Moment.
TIME IS A PLASTIC (SQUEAKY) FISH.
that there is such a thing as Time.
There is only The Moment.
TIME IS A PLASTIC (SQUEAKY) FISH.
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
The (liberal) Left,
loving to define people as winners, highly undeserving winners,
losers and victims -
then by minority status, ethnicity, colour, religion, and sexuality -
fails to see that they continually create division
by obsessive definition, addition and subtraction.
losers and victims -
then by minority status, ethnicity, colour, religion, and sexuality -
fails to see that they continually create division
by obsessive definition, addition and subtraction.
Monday, 11 December 2017
One of my most-persistent Earworms.
Until recently, I was slightly embarrassed
by frequently humming the catchy melody of
the Horst Wessel Lied, notorious anthem of the Nazis.
But I have discovered that the tune pre-dated Hitler,
accommodating World War I lyrics such as
Vorbei, vorbei, sind all die schönen Stunden (Gone are all the Lovely Moments)
and the Königsberg-Lied,
(Königsberg is now in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad
between Poland and Lithuania)
and, later adopted for a Communist marching-song,
was probably of Viennese origin.
So now I hum the tune - wondering what Johannes Brahms
would have done with it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD6oDnm43HA
by frequently humming the catchy melody of
the Horst Wessel Lied, notorious anthem of the Nazis.
But I have discovered that the tune pre-dated Hitler,
accommodating World War I lyrics such as
Vorbei, vorbei, sind all die schönen Stunden (Gone are all the Lovely Moments)
and the Königsberg-Lied,
(Königsberg is now in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad
between Poland and Lithuania)
and, later adopted for a Communist marching-song,
was probably of Viennese origin.
So now I hum the tune - wondering what Johannes Brahms
would have done with it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD6oDnm43HA
Sunday, 10 December 2017
Saturday, 9 December 2017
Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski's
horrible journey up the Congo River
took seven weeks in the boat named Roi des Belges -
(the appalling Leopold, King of the Belgians, who took the Congo
for its unlimited slave labour, rubber and ivory
as his lucrative private fiefdom).
Years later, Joseph Conrad (as he is now known)
took just seven weeks to write
Heart of Darkness.
In the 1920s The French Republic disposed of roughly 10,000 Africans
(mostly from Oubangi-Chari, now the Central African Republic)
to build the railway from Brazzaville (on the other side of the river
from Léopoldville, now Kinshasa) to the coast.
Ironically, Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà was a believer
in the equality of people and peoples, which is why the capital
of the People's Republic of the Congo is still called Brazzaville.
took seven weeks in the boat named Roi des Belges -
(the appalling Leopold, King of the Belgians, who took the Congo
for its unlimited slave labour, rubber and ivory
as his lucrative private fiefdom).
Years later, Joseph Conrad (as he is now known)
took just seven weeks to write
Heart of Darkness.
In the 1920s The French Republic disposed of roughly 10,000 Africans
(mostly from Oubangi-Chari, now the Central African Republic)
to build the railway from Brazzaville (on the other side of the river
from Léopoldville, now Kinshasa) to the coast.
Ironically, Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà was a believer
in the equality of people and peoples, which is why the capital
of the People's Republic of the Congo is still called Brazzaville.
Friday, 8 December 2017
My Good Deed for the Day
was to send a staggering €15 to Jimmy Wales
to help keep Wikimedia afloat.
In my accompanying PayPal message I expressed amazement
that Google with its billions cannot subsidise one of its most popular
AND NON-PROFIT-MAKING SITES.
to help keep Wikimedia afloat.
In my accompanying PayPal message I expressed amazement
that Google with its billions cannot subsidise one of its most popular
AND NON-PROFIT-MAKING SITES.
Apart from being one of the most atrocious butchers of all time,
all we need to know about the strutting megalomaniac Napoleon I
is his comment :
The greatest woman alive or dead
is the one who produces the most offspring.
The Code Napoléon oppressed and handicapped France
for 150 years.
Women didn't get the vote until 1945.
is his comment :
The greatest woman alive or dead
is the one who produces the most offspring.
The Code Napoléon oppressed and handicapped France
for 150 years.
Women didn't get the vote until 1945.
Thursday, 7 December 2017
The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave : Alligator Bait
"A brief video on the use of black babies
as live alligator bait in Florida in the early 1900s brought me here" :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnlTHvJBeP0
as live alligator bait in Florida in the early 1900s brought me here" :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnlTHvJBeP0
Wednesday, 6 December 2017
The great François Couperin said:
"J'aime mieux ce qui me touche que ce qui me surprend."
I'd rather be moved than be amazed.
Worth pondering, in our age of great amazement and false emotions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxMCpiHhmP0
I'd rather be moved than be amazed.
Worth pondering, in our age of great amazement and false emotions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxMCpiHhmP0
Tuesday, 5 December 2017
To be planted out.
Chrysanthemums
are flowers for the dead in France,
for they are in bloom on All Souls' - All Hallows - Day.
My mother loved chrysanthemums.
I too loved their russet colours and the mysterious
erotic smell that they don't have in France.
Every autumn there was a big cut
bunch of them in our narrow hallway, bought
from a seedsman, nurseryman who lived just 50 yards
from where she was born, and later taught
(and later still was buried),
and whom she'd taught when first he went to school.
Her birthday was on the third of November, 1907.
This past third of November I stole
one of hundreds of to-be-neglected
and wind-scattered pots
of gold-and-russet remembrance-chrysanthemums
from the pleasant little cemetery
where my periwinkle-covered grave awaits,
and placed it on my balcony.
are flowers for the dead in France,
for they are in bloom on All Souls' - All Hallows - Day.
My mother loved chrysanthemums.
I too loved their russet colours and the mysterious
erotic smell that they don't have in France.
Every autumn there was a big cut
bunch of them in our narrow hallway, bought
from a seedsman, nurseryman who lived just 50 yards
from where she was born, and later taught
(and later still was buried),
and whom she'd taught when first he went to school.
Her birthday was on the third of November, 1907.
This past third of November I stole
one of hundreds of to-be-neglected
and wind-scattered pots
of gold-and-russet remembrance-chrysanthemums
from the pleasant little cemetery
where my periwinkle-covered grave awaits,
and placed it on my balcony.
Monday, 4 December 2017
« L'érotisme,
c'est donner au corps les prestiges de l'esprit. »
Georges Perros
English: "Eroticism accords the body all the prestige of the mind."
Comment: Eroticism is not love, nor is it sex, but arousing sensuality.
Sunday, 3 December 2017
“When we are headed the wrong way,
the last thing we need is progress.”
Nick Bostrom, Swedish philosopher, in “Perfection Is Not A Useful Concept”, The European Magazine, 13.06.2011
Saturday, 2 December 2017
"Stinking rich"
most likely refers to the smell
of the rotting teeth in their mouths,
from eating sugar, white bread and cake.
The silver spoons put into their mouths
as babies did not protect them.
The poor were reduced to selling
their teeth which were healthy
from eating rough bread and ....ation
(though their gums were destroyed by starvation).
The rich also stank in courtrooms.
They feverishly chewed garlic, caraway, cardamoms
to prevent infection from the breath of the poor
whom they sent off to New England
then to New South Wales
for petty larceny - for the jails
were even more crowded than they are today
in England and the U.S.A.
of the rotting teeth in their mouths,
from eating sugar, white bread and cake.
The silver spoons put into their mouths
as babies did not protect them.
The poor were reduced to selling
their teeth which were healthy
from eating rough bread and ....ation
(though their gums were destroyed by starvation).
The rich also stank in courtrooms.
They feverishly chewed garlic, caraway, cardamoms
to prevent infection from the breath of the poor
whom they sent off to New England
then to New South Wales
for petty larceny - for the jails
were even more crowded than they are today
in England and the U.S.A.
Friday, 1 December 2017
"Without fiction, we poison ourselves...
...on the lies of the first person."
Richard Flanagan, author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North
and First Person.
===========
(PS Today I wrote the blog that will appear on the first of February)
Richard Flanagan, author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North
and First Person.
===========
(PS Today I wrote the blog that will appear on the first of February)
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