literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org

Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

arlene1471: im into comparative literature
literarydiscussions: how nice to meet you
literarydiscussions: I am an amature, not a professional, but I have

created a message board of forums at

http://www.literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org
arlene1471: wow
literarydiscussions: anyone can have a free message board there, and

it is quite easy
literarydiscussions: I have been trying to write my first book at

http://www.toosmallforsupernova.org
literarydiscussions: if you have a chance and some interest to take a

look
arlene1471: good for you
literarydiscussions: just curious, what country, city, state are you

in/from
arlene1471 : manila, philippines
arlene1471 : you?
literarydiscussions: magandang gabi. komo sta ka na? mabuti?
literarydiscussions: actually that is all the tagalog i know
literarydiscussions: i am in USA, florida
literarydiscussions: if you have an interest in joining my message

board, I can create a forum for you, for whatever your special interest

is, and make you moderator...
arlene1471 : great
arlene1471 : oh no. too busy to be moderator
arlene1471 : thanks for the offer. i appreciate it
arlene1471 : where did you learn the tagalog words you just typed?
literarydiscussions: most people fail to understand that the status of

moderator simply means you have additional powers, to delete or edit

anyone elses post... to control what is in your forum..... it entails

absolutely no extra work...
literarydiscussions: my wife is from manila, nova leches,...
arlene1471 : novaliches
arlene1471 : lol
literarydiscussions: i have never seen it written, just heard it

pronounced
arlene1471 : nova leches means new milk....lol
literarydiscussions: for all i ever knew, that was the towns name
literarydiscussions: i never inquired
literarydiscussions: and, she is always looking for a fish called

bungous
arlene1471 : bangus
literarydiscussions: bangus
arlene1471 : its milkfish in english
literarydiscussions: aha....
arlene1471 : very strange coincidence.....
literarydiscussions: well, it stands to reason that milkfish are popular

in New Milk
literarydiscussions: like New York
literarydiscussions: and Yorkshire is a form of pudding
arlene1471 : very logical huh
literarydiscussions: do you have some favorite pilipino author, or

literature, or poetry, in tagalog
literarydiscussions: do you speak any other dialects, pangasina,

ilocano?
arlene1471 : favorite filipino author....nvm gonzales
arlene1471 : dialects...cebuano, waray
literarydiscussions: i read that there are over 70 dialects,... and

tagalog was chosen as official only around 1970
arlene1471 : yes, true
literarydiscussions: does gonzales write in tagalog
arlene1471 : but vocab from other dialects have also been absorbed

into this national language
arlene1471 : he wanted to
arlene1471 : it was his great wish before he died
arlene1471 : he expressed this desire in his last interview
literarydiscussions: is there a thriving tagalog literature...
arlene1471 : he died before it materialized
literarydiscussions: so, i take it gonzales wrote in english
arlene1471 : he was my teacher in college
arlene1471 : twice
literarydiscussions: oh my
arlene1471 : very sweet sweet man
arlene1471 : yes he wrote in english
arlene1471 : may i say that he gave me an A
literarydiscussions: for some reason, i am thinking now of Vladimir

Nabokov, as a professor,... kindly, interesting, leading an orderly life
arlene1471 : oh yes.....
arlene1471 : looks a bit like him too,
literarydiscussions: was gonzales similar to nabokov
arlene1471 : if my memory serves me right
literarydiscussions: yes... in my mind, was the photo of nabokov,...
arlene1471 : i know almost next to nothing of nabokov
literarydiscussions: or, a photo, i should say
literarydiscussions: nabokov was born to a very wealthy family, shortly

before the first russian revolution.... and had english speaking nannys,

so he grew up speaking english and russian
literarydiscussions: with the revolution, they fled to berlin, losing most

of the wealth... and once again, in the 1930s, they had to flee the

Nazis, along with many other intellectuals and artists
arlene1471 : gonzales came from an agricultural place
arlene1471 : thats what he wrote about mostly
literarydiscussions: there are many top 100 lists of 20th century

literature on the internet, and nabokov's Lolita is usually in the top

10, along with "To Kill a Mockingbird"
arlene1471 : he studied in the states
arlene1471 : lolita...yes ive read that
literarydiscussions: yesterday, I found a bootleg copy of the complete

text of Hemingways Old Man and the Sea at some chinese or korean

site, and saved it to my disk,
arlene1471 : fsacinating book
literarydiscussions: Asar Nafisi, professor of english lit in Iran, wrote

"Reading Lolita in Tehran"....
arlene1471 : wow
literarydiscussions: she quotes nabokov, from "Pale Fire" : "Curiosity

is the highest form of insubordination"
arlene1471 : i, for one, cant erad a book on the pc.
arlene1471 : i have to have the book, as in hol dit in my hands
arlene1471 : lol
literarydiscussions: aha... BUT.. one can do string searches.... to find

all occurences of any word...
literarydiscussions: which can be very powerful
literarydiscussions: like.... all the sentences which mention FAITH
literarydiscussions: for example...
arlene1471 : true
literarydiscussions: in the old testament bible, the very first mention

of the word LOVE , curiously enough, is when it says that Esau's father

LOVED the taste of wild game meat...
literarydiscussions: now, one would think, if God is love, and love of

neighbor is so essential, that the first mention of love might be

something quite different
arlene1471 : the jews were too puerile to understand the

complexities of love
arlene1471 : god had to prepare them so they would be ready to

accept it when he at last showed it
literarydiscussions: i offer this as a powerful example of what a

search engine can reveal, or a string search on a text file
arlene1471 : i see....
arlene1471 : i offer this as an example of exegesis
arlene1471 : lol
literarydiscussions: it is said that the jews wandered in the desert for

40 years, because 40 years is the period of one generation, and it was

necessary for all the old generation to die off, who had memories and

hankerings for the old life in Egypt, in bondage
arlene1471 : wow
literarydiscussions: the word and notion of FAITH occurs only twice, or

perhaps 3 times in the entire old testament.... and it is faith in the

sense of FAITHFULNESS to a contractual agreement, and NOT faith in

st. paul's sense of PISTIS, hope of things promised, confidence in

things unseen
arlene1471 : i didnt know that
literarydiscussions: so, there is a strong argument that Martin Luther

totally misinterpreted the verse in Habbakuk, ch. 3, "For the just man

shall live by his faith"
arlene1471 : hmmmm
arlene1471 : i love biblical discussions
arlene1471 : poor martin luther
arlene1471 : he made a huge huge mistake
literarydiscussions: my message board is loaded with such

discussions, which i compiled over an 8 year period
arlene1471 : i had a chance to study church history
literarydiscussions: well, the Septuagin Greek version of Habbakuk

says "For the just man shall live (survive) through MY (God's)

FAITH-fullness to my covenant promise... BUT, if he turns back, then

my (God's) heart shall take no delight in him
literarydiscussions: Septuagint
arlene1471 : i taught the bible last semester as part of the classical

tradition
arlene1471 : not erally, taught...its was a graduate class so i was just

sort of moderator
literarydiscussions: and, the only other mention of FAITH in the Old

Testament, is in the negative, in Deuteronomy, Ch. 32, "Because of

mankind's FAITH-LESSNESS, my (God's) anger as been roused, and

like a fire, my anger shall burn from the highest mountops to the base

of the mountains, and down to the lowest HELL (Sheol), and shall

wither the fruitfulness of the land
literarydiscussions: so, in Deut. Ch. 32 we see the very first mention of

FAITH, but in the negative, and also the very first mention of HELL

(sheol), and an image of FIRE, but there is no connection between the

fire and hell...
arlene1471 : whoaaa
literarydiscussions: that, i believe, is one of my original contributions

to scholarship... though perhaps it has been observed elsewhere, by

someone else
arlene1471 : perhaps....
arlene1471 : but bibliography will help you fins out for sure
arlene1471 : find out
literarydiscussions: if one follows my various observations and

arguments, they lead to a refutation of Luther and Augustine, and

lend support to Pelagius. And it is interesting to observe that

Steinbeck's novel, "East of Eden" is quite Pelagian (i.e. that man has

within all that is necessary for righteousness and all that is necessary

is the freewill choice to be righteous, and much hard work and

discipline.... which is diametrically opposed to Sola FIdes, salvation

through faith and grace alone)
arlene1471 : i dont believe in sola fides
arlene1471 : pelagius was not orthodox, from the catholic pointof

view
literarydiscussions: the logical outcome of Luther's thinking may be

seen in Charles Stanley's doctrine of "The Eternal Security of

Salvation" which holds, in a most Protestant fashion, that once you

accept Jesus as your personal savior, then nothing can spoil your

salvation, even though you apostasize and become a serial killer
arlene1471 : thats untenable
literarydiscussions: well, here is the beauty...... one mentally ill young

man went to his pastor and asked if he would go to hell after

comitting suicide...
arlene1471 : and...
literarydiscussions: the pastor answered , "No. By the doctrine of

eternal security of salvation
literarydiscussions: there is nothing you can do that will lose your

salvation
literarydiscussions: .... so the young man committed suicide
arlene1471 : omg
literarydiscussions: and of course,... if Eternal Security of Salvation is

TRUE, why then, of course one may commit suicide and still be

saved....
literarydiscussions: but... you see, such a PRACTICAL, PALBABLE

example of the error of that doctrine...
literarydiscussions: but, there are many scriptural verses which argue

against salvation by faith alone....
literarydiscussions: but protestants ignore those
arlene1471 : i know
arlene1471 : a book is just a book, after all
arlene1471 : open to interpretaion
literarydiscussions: St. Paul says, i believe to the Corintians,.... Now

that I shall be away from you, even more ardently must you work out

your salvation with FEAR AND TREMBLING
arlene1471 : that is why magisterium i sthere
literarydiscussions: now, why the fear and trembling, if your salvation

is eternally secure...
literarydiscussions: and St. Paul says,..."i discipline and subdue my

own flesh, lest having pointed the way to others, I myself should be

lost
arlene1471 : one is never assured ofones salvation
arlene1471 : up to the last minute
arlene1471 : we can never really know
arlene1471 : salation is gods mercy
arlene1471 : salvation
literarydiscussions: there is one old testament prophet (i am forever

forgetting the name).... who wrote "If a man spends his entire life in

righteousness, but in his last days turns to iniquity... then all of his

righteousness shall be counted for nothing..."
literarydiscussions: perhaps Ezekiel
literarydiscussions: BUT,... if a man spend his life in inequity, and in

his last days, repents and turns to righteousness... THEN all of his

iniquity shall be counted as nothing
arlene1471 : i know
arlene1471 : its the last moment that counts the most
literarydiscussions: and in Ezekiel or Isaiah, it says, "If a tree falls to

the north, then there it lies, to the north, and if it falls to the east,

then there it lies to the east"
literarydiscussions: the falling of the tree is symbolic of the final

estate, the last moment
arlene1471 : hmmmmm
literarydiscussions: there is nothing to change the direction of a tree,

once it falls
arlene1471 : very thorough
literarydiscussions: an old greek abbot pointed that out, once in a

sermon
arlene1471 : very wise
literarydiscussions: the protestants tend to ignore the old

testament,... or treat it as something which was replaced... whereas

the orthodox find all of the new testment concealed in the old

testment..... the saying "The New testament is in the Old testament

concealed, and the old testament is in the new testament revealed
arlene1471 : agree with you 200 %
literarydiscussions: and, of course, St. James, "True religion is simply

this: to comfort widows and orphans in their affliction, and to remain

unspotted from the world"
arlene1471 : i remember st james for his discourse on the tounge
literarydiscussions: now, Gandhi, in his autobiography, explains why

he personally rejected Christianity as he saw it, in England, where he

made a careful study
arlene1471 : the smallest member of thebody but the one that

causes most damage
literarydiscussions: the rudder the smallest part of the ship
arlene1471 : hey.....
arlene1471 : sorry but ihave to go
literarydiscussions: ok... see you later.. ingat ka
arlene1471 : early work tomorrow
literarydiscussions: ok
arlene1471 : salamat po
literarydiscussions: walan anuman

++++++++++

aiden_dream : hello
literarydiscussions: oh, hello there
aiden_dream : how is life treating you?
aiden_dream : am I bothering?
literarydiscussions: not at all,... i just had a long chat with literature

major in philippines
aiden_dream : I hope it was fruitful
literarydiscussions: it was,... and i can send it to you if you are

interested... it was about literature, and also the bible and various

conflicting christian doctrines
aiden_dream : yes I would love to read
literarydiscussions: ok
aiden_dream : I cant stay much now
aiden_dream : have 10 minutes perhaps
literarydiscussions: i must send right now... this morning or i shall

forget
literarydiscussions: but i shall wait the 10 minutes
aiden_dream :
literarydiscussions: you see... by means of saving chat dialogues..

then many around the world, can participate in such topics.... at their

leisure, despite the time zone differences
aiden_dream : true
literarydiscussions: and, it becomes a multicultural effort
aiden_dream : its an advantage really
literarydiscussions: the internet will be the great equalizer, to save

mankind... through virtual association and fellowship
aiden_dream : yes haha
aiden_dream : but perhaps it not good for me
literarydiscussions: a rabbi once pointed out to me, that even though

the jewish scriptures have the famous verse about "an eye for an eye

and a tooth for a tooth".... yet jewish legal interpretation has found

ways to avoid ever practicing that as part of justice
aiden_dream :
aiden_dream : I dont like that sentence
literarydiscussions: so, you see.... Judaism was able to evolve, change,

adapt
aiden_dream : yes!!hey you are starting another religous talk?
literarydiscussions: oh, mercy no...
aiden_dream : haha
literarydiscussions: ha ha
literarydiscussions: whatever would make you think THAT
aiden_dream :
aiden_dream : God knows
literarydiscussions: just making random idle comments
literarydiscussions: as they pop into my head
aiden_dream : yes am relieved!
aiden_dream :
aiden_dream : you know a friend of mine decided to send me nafisis

book
literarydiscussions: if we look at the american government, and

constitution, we see mechanisms for change and adaptation
literarydiscussions: how wonderful!
aiden_dream : yes !!!
aiden_dream : I am curious to read it
literarydiscussions: well, we can discuss some time,
aiden_dream : haha true
aiden_dream : poor me ..I have an exam tomorrow
literarydiscussions: well, best of luck, study hard
aiden_dream : I try
aiden_dream : but am not in a good mood these days
literarydiscussions: i notice that is often the case
aiden_dream :
literarydiscussions: but, you are under much pressure
aiden_dream : yes am a melancholic creature
literarydiscussions: Robert Burton, contemporary of Shakespeare,

wrote "Anatomy of Melancholy"... i have it here... a sprawling large

book of seeming ramblings
aiden_dream : oh interesting it must be
literarydiscussions: yes, quite unusual...
aiden_dream : I could write pathology and phisiology of it
aiden_dream : physiology
literarydiscussions: Samuel Johnson wrote, "Often i have awakend 2

hours earlier than i wish, simply to read Anatomy of Melancholy
aiden_dream : wowow
aiden_dream : and he was a melancholic type like me?
aiden_dream : this samuel?
literarydiscussions: you should have the paperback "From Sad to

Glad" by one of the pioneers of antidepressant medicine
literarydiscussions: hmmm... not certain about samuel being

depressive
literarydiscussions: google.com would reveal that
literarydiscussions: in biographic pages
aiden_dream : reveal what?
literarydiscussions: if johnson was depressive
aiden_dream : effect of antidepressants?
literarydiscussions: nooo... if some ancient person was reckoned

melancholic by his peers
aiden_dream : oh I dont mind if he was..but its strange to steal 2

hours from sleep to read about melancholy
literarydiscussions: socrates was never described as melancholic
aiden_dream : socrates is my love
literarydiscussions: well.. do we not deprive ourselves of sleep for the

sake of study... through desire
literarydiscussions: our desire for knowledge...
aiden_dream : I dont think he was melancholic
literarydiscussions: i spent one year in a monastery, where one could

really only sleep 5 hours per day.... but, i would resist sleep to do extra

reading... since i had a great passion for such reading
literarydiscussions: but i was only 25
aiden_dream : oh interesting you were in such uninteresting place
literarydiscussions: then
literarydiscussions: and how would you know that a monastery is

UNINTERESTING
aiden_dream : oh am only 26 and I ususally sleep 5-hours even less
aiden_dream : I was kidding
aiden_dream : but it has walls
aiden_dream : so limits one
literarydiscussions: well,.... that is your nature.... which suits you for

medical school..... i lecture one highschool student because he wants

to sleep 8 and 9 hours...
literarydiscussions: and i explain to him, that he must learn to live on

much less, if he wants to actualize his academic goals
aiden_dream :
aiden_dream : I love to sleep though but its wasting time sometimes
literarydiscussions: well youth must have its pleasures
aiden_dream : but I think a high school student deserves to sleep

more
literarydiscussions: well... he speaks as though he could never endure

less than 8 hours per night, and he is college bound, and a gifted

writer
aiden_dream : yes I think its good for him to sleep enough
aiden_dream : 8 hours sounds reasonalbe
aiden_dream : and look he writes and I cant ...so the lenght doesnt

matter much
literarydiscussions: time will tell
aiden_dream : one could live more in 100 hours in one or one could

live for 100 years and gain nothing
aiden_dream : what it has to tell?
aiden_dream : oh oh ..time I must study
aiden_dream :
aiden_dream : thank you and bye byeeeeeeeeeee

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