Tag: france

Separating seeing and speaking

Paulo Coelho writes on page 93 of The Spy that:

“For millions of years, [humans] spoke only to what [they] could see. Suddenly, in one decade, ‘seeing’ and ‘speaking’ have been separated. We think we’re used to it, yet we don’t realize the immense impact it’s had on our reflexes. Our bodies are simply not used to it.

“Frankly, the result is that, when we talk on the phone, we enter a state that is similar to certain magical trances; we can discover other things about ourselves.”

This in a story set in Paris in the 1914 — after the Exposition Universelle (nee World’s Fair) of 1889 and before World War One.

A few, notable passages from previous pages include:

“A nice cup of coffee will salvage the rest of your day.”

And

“Maybe you’re looking for things you haven’t yet found…. And suddenly life turns into utter boredom.”

Dukan sees where food + politics/Econ/society mix

Article in the UK Guardian about the Dukan Diet. Addresses obesity as culture, obesity as economic model, obesity as product of economic growth (and capitalism’s mktg + advertising)

“the economic model of the west is based on obesity” — food companies, pharma.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/jan/07/saturday-interview-pierre-dukan-diet

Later he says, “[US and UK] are addicted to sweetness.” differing cultures — on food, meals, flavors.

Later, “obesity … corresponds with economic growth. You can see it in China now. A lot of processed food with sugar, salt and fat combined with advertising and marketing. People don’t move so much.”

on Foucault, for the first time

This is brilliant:

“The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.”

I gleaned it from the wikpedia entry on Michel Foucault. (h/t to brotha Scott for the lead)

It resonates with some of my writing from two weeks ago:

i don’t seek understanding, to be understood by my people. i’ve been exhausted by judgment from others, and my own self-judgment and my judging others. i’ve reigned in some of that judgment, less consumed with burning my energy in that drain/waste. it detracts from channeling it elsewhere.