Re "The last line is quite literally magic.": *Exactly* what I thought when I copied it in!
Off-topic, but re our exchange about 2001:a Space Odyssey: on a radio show today devoted to film-soundtrack music the movie came up for discussion and the presenter mentioned that whereas silence is rare in film (as the sounds of popcorn-munching audiences detract from the illusion) in 2001 Kubrick dared to allow long periods of quiet - which also contributes to that hypnotic element I mentioned. Here's a quote from the web on that subject: "The first spoken word is almost a half hour into the film, and there's less than 40 minutes of dialogue in the entire film (duration 161 minutes). Much of the film is in dead silence (accurately depicting the absence of sound in space), or with the sound of human breathing within a spacesuit." ---In [email protected], <turquoiseb@...> wrote : Thanks for finding this. Lovely passage, perfectly written. The last line is quite literally magic. From: "s3raphita@... [FairfieldLife]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, November 8, 2014 5:48 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Birth of the Hippies Re the comments about Huxley and meditation: yes he knew all about the different styles of meditation but towards the end of his life (alongside his continuing interest in psychedelics) he came to advocate Jiddu Krishnamurti's teaching as being more helpful than structured meditation sessions. In his last novel Island the mynah birds are trained to repeat "Attention" and "Here and Now". “Here and now, boys,” the bird repeated yet once more, then fluttered down from its perch on the dead tree and settled on her shoulder. The child peeled another banana, gave two-thirds of it to Will and offered what remained to the mynah. “Is that your bird?” Will asked. She shook her head. “Mynahs are like the electric light,” she said. “They don’t belong to anybody.” “Why does he say those things?” “Because somebody taught him,” she answered patiently. What an ass! her tone seemed to imply. “But why did they teach him those things? Why ‘Attention’? Why ‘Here and now’?” “Well …” She searched for the right words in which to explain the self-evident to this strange imbecile. “That’s what you always forget, isn’t it? I mean, you forget to pay attention to what’s happening. And that’s the same as not being here and now.” “And the mynahs fly about reminding you—is that it?” She nodded. That, of course, was it. There was a silence.
