Wednesday 12 July 2006

A blank, my lord.

I can't imagine how civilisation first flourished in the Middle East, or China, or anywhere really hot, because there is nothing like brilliant sunshine for addling the brain and crippling the creative instinct.

So it is with me on this summer day. I shall not let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud, feed on my damask cheek, but confess straight away that this morning I can think of nothing to write and cannot even be bothered to search for something good which someone else has written and which I can copy.

I hope regular readers of OMF will not be gumple-foisted with me.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

What, and you still expect people to append comments? The nerve.

Tony said...

Why not? Though I did hope for more constructive ones. If that's the best you can come up with after such a long silence, Grumio, then all I can say is, well, to be perfectly honest I can't think of anything to say.

Anonymous said...

Constructive in the way that "To be perfectly honest I can't think of anything to say" is? I despair. You won't draw into making a second comment like that. Oh blast.

Tony said...

I can see there's no point in pussy-footing around when there's a keen brain like yours seeking for the meaning in my responses, so I will just remind you that the fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.
Selah.

Tony said...

Anyway, I didn't say I was going to make constructive comments, I was just hoping that others might. Fat chance.

Anonymous said...

"Where equal mind and contest equal ago".

Enough. The rest is silence.

PS When do you want to have lunch at Apicius?

Minerva said...

What we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence...or rather, that is the way of the honourable man...

Tony said...

Yes, thank you, young Min, couldn't have put it better myself.
But what is all that about honourable men? As far as I recall, there was no qualification to Proposition 7; old Witters just wrote Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen, and left it at that. Is my memory at fault, or are you just adding your own commentary?
Actually, it's very perspicacious of you to quote from the Tractatus, for I have often thought that much of it is applicable to my own writing, for example My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless (Prop. 6.54).

ruth said...

The silly season has set in early I see.
The great early civilisations of Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Mediterranean in general were created under hot climatic conditions whereas those in colder climes seem to have mainly been interested in drinking and chopping each other up.

Tony said...

Yes, Ruth, I know; that's what I said. I was merely expressing wonder that anyone could ever do anything like starting agriculture or inventing paper when they were all hot and sweaty.

What d'you mean, "silly season"? I do hope you're not suggesting that a note of frivolity is creeping into OMF. Wittgenstein, frivolous?

Anonymous said...

I thought frivolity was OMF's raison d'etre, the core of its being, its mantra, its mission statement – in short that OMF is the ne plus ultra of frivolity.

Oh, and Wittgenstein – as frivolous as a fruitcake and just as nutty. Oh yes.

Tony said...

Well spotted, you're a sharp one, you are.

Innit marvellous,eh? You sweat out well-researched 600-word essays on matters of great moment and they get diddley-squat reaction from the readers; jot down a casual note saying you've got nothing to say today, and it evokes twelve wide-ranging comments.
Actually, come to think of it, six of them were mine, it's been a quiet day down here on the Sussex Riviera.

Apicius, yes. Only Thursday 20th or 27th possible: either of these any good?

Anonymous said...

That's the whole point. We, your readers, come here in search of bootless rambling, for this is what you advertise. And what could be more lacking in boot than a post saying that it has nothing to say? Capital!

Matters of great moment are not for the reader of OMF – as our American friends would no doubt say, that's not the deal.

27th looks good.