Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.08.2007, Blaðsíða 6

Let us be on guard against the dangerous old conceptual
fiction that posited a “pure, will-less, painless, timeless
knowing subject”; let us guard against the snares of
such contradictory concepts as “pure reason,” “absolute
spirituality,” knowledge in itself”: these always demand
that we should think of an eye that is completely unthink-
able, an eye turned in no particular direction, in which
the active and interpreting forces, through which alone
seeing becomes seeing ‘something’, are supposed to be
lacking; these always demand of the eye an absurdity
and a nonsense. There is only a perspective seeing, only
a perspective “knowing”; and the more affects we allow
to speak about one thing, the more eyes, different eyes,
we can use to observe one thing, the more complete will
our “concept” of this thing, our “objectivity” be.
Nietzsche – The Geneaology of Morals
Personally, I have always been rather fond of the image
of goldfish. Perhaps I ought to be one… Form is an
aberrant error, posed by those without the strength to
actually exist. Without rearranging yourself you seek to
rearrange the world; as if it listens! There is nothing as
dull as the finite; positing yourself and your treatment
of others as fixed particularities: Who here really cares?
Is that which cannot be doubted anything more than
a feigning interest… Immanent truth, fuck you to the
whole debacle.
For too long I have tried to remove the word “but”
from from my vocabulary… but it’s hard; For too long I
have searched for this haven of the absolute; this exis-
tential refuge of the “real” man; the man who cannot
admit that he might be wrong. He ‘knows’ he is right;
he is the total psychological opposite of the agnostic;
he claims absolute certitude about all things and has,
obviously, entered the realm of ideal forms manifested
in Plato’s parable of the cave. Oh, how I envy the “real”
man, in the “real” world, who is licensed to define others
as insane – his happiness must know no boundaries.
Is, is, is!... the absurdity of the word haunts me. It
“is” positioned beyond the realm of the ridiculous. If it
were eradicated, human thought might, one day, enter
the age of reason; “I don’t know what anything ‘is’; all
I know is how it seems to me at any given moment”:
In linguistics, “E-prime” denotes a modified English
vocabulary lacking all forms of the verb “to be”. Com-
position in E-prime thus cannot contain the passive voice.
In eliminating most uses of the passive mode, it obliges
the writer to acknowledge explicitly, rather than to hide,
the agent, doer or judger; the grammatical construct
changes “George Bush is good” to “George Bush ap-
pears good to me”. Telling someone “George Bush is
good” imputes the state of goodness to Bush, rather than
communicating the subjective nature of one’s experience
of Bush. Otherwise stated, using E-prime renders it more
difficult for a writer or reader to confuse one’s opinion
with a deity-like certainty, which may otherwise lead to
an omniscient-sounding pronunciamento. It ‘is’ the key
to agreeing to disagree.
What is the time? Is it in our heads or in our mouths?
Are we chewing on a piece of space? Does this raft
stand fast? Are structures fleeting? But why but why?
Because we worry. Yes. At bottom we worry. Perhaps
it is all about fashion – it is not the most unlikely of
candidates: Robert A. Wilson pointed out that when
Ouspensky was studying with Gurdjieff, he found it
hard, at first, to understand the exclusive human ability
to forget where one is, what one is doing, and what is
going on around one. Above all, he questioned Gurdjieff’s
insistence that this “forgetting” was a type of hypnosis.
Then, one day, after World War I had begun, Ouspensky
saw a truck loaded with artificial legs, headed toward
the front. Trained as a mathematician, he realized that
just as it is possible to calculate how many persons will
die of heart attacks in a given quarter, by probability
theory, it is possible to calculate how many legs will be
blown off in a battle. But the very calculation is based
on the historical fact that most people most of the time
will do what they are told by superiors (or, as a cynic
once said, most people would rather die, even by slow
torture, than to think for themselves). Ouspensky then
began to understand how ordinary men become kill-
ers, and victims of killers. He realized that “normal”, or
“real”, consciousness is much like hypnosis: “People in
a trance will do what they are told – even if they are
told to march into battle against total strangers who
have never harmed them, and attempt to murder those
strangers while the strangers are attempting to murder
them.” Orders from above are tuned-in; the possibility
of choice is – not-tuned-in.
War and crime – the chronic problems of our species
– seem, to the existentialist, the direct results on drifting
off into self-hypnosis, losing track of experience and
“living” in a “real” universe. In the “real” universe, the
“real” man is always right, and the blood and horror
secondary to proving that is only an appearance, easily
forgotten. The “real” man knows that he is only a re-
acting mechanism and ultimately the “real” universe
itself is to blame for “making” him explode into such
furies.
The “real” universe where this madness appears as
sanity is our collective creation. In existential experience,
we are mere gamblers… but we have become hypnotized
by our models and belief systems and we walk toward
hell thinking the “real” universe makes it impossible to
stop and try something else.
To put it simply: If we said “maybe” more often, the
world “might” be a better place.
10_RVK_GV_1_007_OPINION
Is, is, is!... the absurdity of the
word haunts me. It “is” positi-
oned beyond the realm of the
ridiculous. If it were eradica-
ted, human thought might, one
day, enter the age of reason; “I
don’t know what anything ‘is’;
all I know is how it seems to me
at any given moment.”
The Heroes of Our Fictions
Text by Magnús Björn Ólafsson
WWW.GRAPEVINE.IS
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12 TÓNAR at Skólavörðustígur 14
H A L LG R Í M S K I R K J A
and online at
All events take place in Hallgrímskirkja unless otherwise stated
Season ticket to all events of the festival: ISK 8.000
KIRKJULISTAHÁTÍÐ HALLGRÍMSKIRKJU
Skólavörðuholti, 101 Reykjavík, Tel 510 1000, Fax 510 1010
Saturday 11 August
17.00 Mass in b-minor by J.S. Bach, period performance.
ISK 4.900/3.600
19.30 Jacob´s ladder, art exhibition
Sunday 12 August
11.00 Festive Mass in Hallgrímskirkja
19.00 Mass in b-minor by J.S. Bach, period performance.
ISK 4.900/3.600
Monday 13 August
12.00 Music and Meditation, music performed by members
of The Hague International Baroque Orchestra.
14.00–17.00 Masterclass I – Christopher Herrick organ.
19.00 SKÁLHOLT – Mass in b-minor by J.S. Bach,
period performance. ISK 4.900/3.600
Tuesday 14 August
9.00–11.00 Masterclass II – Christopher Herrick organ.
12.00 Music and Meditation, participants in organ
masterclass play chorals by Buxtehude.
14.00–17.00 Masterlass III – Christopher Herrick organ.
20.00 Religion on screen – symposium.
Dedicated to the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman.
21.00–23.30 Young Art:
Music, improvisation, performance, dance etc.
artists: Nico Muhly, Ben Frost, Borgar
Magnason, Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir,
Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson, Pétur Ben,
Valgeir Sigurðsson, Babar Jazz trio and more.
coordinator: Helgi Hrafn Jónsson
Wednesday 15 August
12.00 Music and Meditation, participants in organ
masterclass play chorals by Buxtehude.
20.00 TJARNARBÍÓ – Vier Minuten, celebrated German
film. ISK 1.000/600
20.00 Organ Fireworks! Christopher Herrick at the
Klais-organ in Hallgrímskirkja. ISK 2.000/1.500
Thursday 16 August
12.00 Music and Meditation, music performed
by Björn Steinar Sólbergsson
23.00 La Passion de Jeanne d´Arc. Midnight performance,
the famous silent film by C.T. Dreyer with music
composed and played by Wilfried Kaets organ.
ISK 1.500/1.000
Friday 17 August
12.00 Music and Meditation, music by Buxtehude performed
by organist Eyþór Ingi Jónsson
19.00 SKÁLHOLT – Israel in Egypt by Handel, period
performance, first performance in Iceland.
ISK 4.900/3.600
Saturday 18 August
15.00–21.00 Feast of hymns! The hymn at present times,
approached in different musical performances,
workshops, symposium and more.
Sunday 19 August
11.00 Festive Mass in Hallgrímskirkja
19.00 Israel in Egypt by Handel, period performance
ISK 4.900/3.600