From “ Blaise Bohrs’ Last Act and Coda”
Dedication:
To all humankind, Past, Present and Future, with hopes I have not left anyone out.
List of Illustrations
Jacob’s ladder (verse and image; passage from Fitzgerald)
Plato’s epistemology (chart)
Great chain of being (chart)
Semiotics
How Vision Works
Radio
Contra Poets and liars
Urizen (Blake) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urizen
Forward to this book
I know that Blaise often seems to speak in irreconcilable voice, connoting differing levels of Emotion and Intelligence, but that is a not infrequent trick of human nature, and a man who is irreverent as to his own nature, condition and fate is more likely to do it. And all narrative, exposition and reflection, from all perspectives, has been faithfully compiled, with only carefully considered edits according to the standards set by Matthew J. Bruccoli with “The Last Tycoon.” --Marguerite,
Parish Secretary and President of the Altar Society, St Miguel’s, an island, the Phillipines
Introduction (by Blaise and Padre)
James 4:14 ” What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” * 2 Peter They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” * Kings 19:11-13 And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. * John 18:38 “What is truth?” * Exodus 22:18 You shall not suffer a witch to live.
Chapter 1: From Blaise Bohrs Journal (as edited by Marguerite and Padre)
From Blaise’s journal, the present
My old dirt farm in the sub-suburbs has long since been claimed by developers and turned into zero lot line tight packed cul-de-sacs of cookie cutter houses. Same with the car graveyard and trailer park. The city has gobbled them up and now there is no longer a buffer zone between the metropolis, Prairie City, and the white flight satellite city to the north. Just one unbroken sea of McMansions, shopping centers, and strip malls - the Massage Parlors always manage to find their niche. But there is still one small numinous area along the lakefront. They tried to fill in the swamp three different time for “lakefront villas”, and all green times it swallowed the tons and tons and tons of fill dirt and broken chunks of concrete and assorted rocks without so much as a burp. So they let it be.
There is an old road skirting the swamp and a shiny new elevated thoroughfare set back from the swamp a few hundred yards, whose purpose is to shuttle commuters between antipodes of lucre – or to church. I like to walk the old road with my dog.
I walk along the edge of the suburban lake at night and there is absolutely no one with me. And the only noise is the swishing of my own footfalls through the grass and the occasional whoosh of a quick passing car along the thoroughfare, from here to there and quickly along the edge of the city with no interceding stoplights. Built shiny and clean, built to connect places that have scarcely sprung up yet, row upon row of vertical spits of bare timber – too close together. Window facing window, not enough room for even a Chihuahua to piss between them.
I do not know where my dog is but I hear him, out in the dark, probably down near the water. He is not my old Chihuahua Paco. He is a retriever. At least the guy told me he is part retriever. He is a good boy.
I do not know why I came back to the United States, but at least I chose Oklahoma. I am teaching shop in the last highschool before the end of the world to still teach shop. The boys like it but damn several girls like it, and the boys like that the girls like it. I think they are secretly sick of crop-tops and perfume.
Stephanie, Assistant to an Assistant Editor, Harper Collins
Re: perfume and crop-tops: Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. The Male Gaze. Shouldn’t mention it? Doesn’t matter what the boys think. Must research. There’s a recent paper from Bryn Mawr.