12-28-2015, 01:03 PM
(12-27-2015, 03:29 PM)Jacob Wrote: Rayheinrich - Thanks for your thoughts. I’m more than a little confused by how that first stanza
is unclear but it seems to have been unclear to everyone so… I guess I’m the crazy one here.
You're not crazy, you just happen to be the only one who knows where it's buried.
(12-27-2015, 03:29 PM)Jacob Wrote: What’s funny is that I thought the problem with those lines was that the sentiment is a little cliche.
It's not uncommon for lines to have more than one problem.
(12-27-2015, 03:29 PM)Jacob Wrote: Side note regarding the sun: it’s possible my understanding of the science here is flawed, but I have
noticed what I assumed was the same effect with the sun, where if you look at it directly for a second
or two you see a small white circle, whereas held in your peripheral vision, like you usually do, it looks
larger and brighter, with indistinct edges.
Just checked, it turns out the cone to rod sensitivity differential is only significant at low light levels.
And, while purely anecdotal, I will still relay to you that I just went outside and tried to verify this for
myself. As far as I'm concerned, the damn sun is MUCH brighter when you look at it directly. Maybe we
could search the literature and come up with some definitive double-blind studies that would provide us
with some insight here. I'd do it right now if I was able to see my screen.
(12-27-2015, 03:29 PM)Jacob Wrote: Isn’t there some quote about analysis being more profitable when you assume that the writer knows what
they are doing?
I'm not aware of any such quote. Critics, as a rule, are given to assume the writer is a mad monkey.
I think the quote you're alluding to is about accepting critique. Here are a few I found that seem apropos:
"The assumption of right precludes reflection; that of error, enhances it." - Simone de Beauvoir
"What benefit a student who assumes no teacher?" - Yunmen Wenyan
"You must embrace ignorance; assuming your critics are in error only reinforces your own prejudice." - G.B. Shaw
And the Bible:
(12-27-2015, 03:29 PM)Jacob Wrote: I think that being really exacting about grammar and punctuation is appropriate for prose but not
always for poetry, being that poetry is more about the music of language than the mathematics. I
think we’ll have to agree to disagree about this one.
While it's quite reasonable to write poetry without using punctuation marks
(most of my own poetry is done in this manner), the poem must still contain punctuation
of other sorts and must be written with this in mind. Just removing the punctuation marks
from an existing poem will create a jittery mess that's not only hard to understand, but rather
tedious to read as well.
Looking forward to your re-emergence.
(Hopefully the desert won't be so arduous the second time 'round.)
Ray
a brightly colored fungus that grows in bark inclusions