“There is a certain Faustian bargain writers make, where their excessive introspection and ruthless observation lends to a stunning landscape of the soul, but elevates their interiority to a dizzying height, from which all they can do is fall.”
It's funny of course to be gazing at / through the screen to read and to comment. Am I in my body? In recent years, I've become skilled enough that I can actually be in my body while I read or write but I do need to remind myself.
I think that Cranch teases Emerson with that illustration and possibly does him a disservice. The "transparent eyeball" (which I understood not at all when I first came across it in high school) now reads like a description of a deep meditation experience — not disembodiment, rather deep attunement or awareness of the informative sensations that run through all of us. Though Western Civ does an excellent job of training us to be unaware.
This zen koan speaks to what I'm getting at:
Yunyan asked Daowu, “How does Guanyin use all those hands
and eyes?”
Daowu answered, “It’s like feeling behind you for a pillow in the middle of the night.”
“I understand.”
“What do you understand?”
“The whole body is hands and eyes.”
“That’s very well expressed, but it doesn't say it all.”
Dang I love this essay. So good. Such a well articulated breakdown of an idea that’s so important to you, and the way you weave Tommy in is great.
Michael I love reading your essays after readying the essay architecture stuff. I can see some of the components and it makes me happy seeing quality things as a result. Your starting and ending sentences in paragraphs in this one are excellent and it’s fun reading it after hearing you talk about those specifically.
I like the transition from writing to help us think better to helping us live better, and think the idea that how we choose to engage with writing and what we do or don't let it mean is critical, and that thinking better can also directly support us living better, if we are purposeful about it.
Maybe a tangent, but makes me think of the adage, "everything in moderation, including moderation." I think part of the challenge and the fun of being human is constantly striving to strike a balance so we aren't too much lost in our heads, distraction, our responsibilities, experiencing our bodies, or in something else. Thanks for writing this, I definitely need to read more Tommy Dixon too!
Great piece! I'm glad you chose to pull a quote from Tommy about how writing can be vain, since it contextualizes his "horror" at winning the contest very well. I remember being puzzled at his word choice there, and now it makes perfect sense.
As someone who naturally lives in the big floating head, and loves to stay there, I think the best way to stay there is to become more embodied. Paradoxically, embodiment will teach me much more about how to be a big floating head. (This is also why AI would need a body before they can even approach AGI, imo).
“There is a certain Faustian bargain writers make, where their excessive introspection and ruthless observation lends to a stunning landscape of the soul, but elevates their interiority to a dizzying height, from which all they can do is fall.”
Beautifully named, terrifyingly felt.
It's funny of course to be gazing at / through the screen to read and to comment. Am I in my body? In recent years, I've become skilled enough that I can actually be in my body while I read or write but I do need to remind myself.
I think that Cranch teases Emerson with that illustration and possibly does him a disservice. The "transparent eyeball" (which I understood not at all when I first came across it in high school) now reads like a description of a deep meditation experience — not disembodiment, rather deep attunement or awareness of the informative sensations that run through all of us. Though Western Civ does an excellent job of training us to be unaware.
This zen koan speaks to what I'm getting at:
Yunyan asked Daowu, “How does Guanyin use all those hands
and eyes?”
Daowu answered, “It’s like feeling behind you for a pillow in the middle of the night.”
“I understand.”
“What do you understand?”
“The whole body is hands and eyes.”
“That’s very well expressed, but it doesn't say it all.”
“What would you say, older brother?”
“All through the body are hands and eyes.”
—Blue Cliff Record Case 89
(transl. by John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland)
Dang I love this essay. So good. Such a well articulated breakdown of an idea that’s so important to you, and the way you weave Tommy in is great.
Michael I love reading your essays after readying the essay architecture stuff. I can see some of the components and it makes me happy seeing quality things as a result. Your starting and ending sentences in paragraphs in this one are excellent and it’s fun reading it after hearing you talk about those specifically.
Thanks for the great read.
I like the transition from writing to help us think better to helping us live better, and think the idea that how we choose to engage with writing and what we do or don't let it mean is critical, and that thinking better can also directly support us living better, if we are purposeful about it.
Maybe a tangent, but makes me think of the adage, "everything in moderation, including moderation." I think part of the challenge and the fun of being human is constantly striving to strike a balance so we aren't too much lost in our heads, distraction, our responsibilities, experiencing our bodies, or in something else. Thanks for writing this, I definitely need to read more Tommy Dixon too!
Great piece! I'm glad you chose to pull a quote from Tommy about how writing can be vain, since it contextualizes his "horror" at winning the contest very well. I remember being puzzled at his word choice there, and now it makes perfect sense.
As someone who naturally lives in the big floating head, and loves to stay there, I think the best way to stay there is to become more embodied. Paradoxically, embodiment will teach me much more about how to be a big floating head. (This is also why AI would need a body before they can even approach AGI, imo).