but the Koran is revealed text (as Fundamentalists claim their Bible is, as the
Mormons claim Joseph Smith's books are): allowable as supernal truth and
therefore uncontestable -- the alternative to revealed text (that is, from God
directly) is falsehood, at least if you buy into the first concept, that God
can dictate text directly to humans.
?As the worshipping Corybantes are not in their senses ("ouk emphrones" -- "not
in their right mind") when they dance, so the lyric poets are not in their
senses when they make these lovely lyric poems. No, when once they launch into
harmony and rhythm, they are seized with the Bacchic transport, and are
possessed - as the Bacchantes, when possessed, draw milk and honey from the
rivers, but not when in their senses .... A poet is a light and winged thing,
and holy, and never able to compose until he has become inspired, and is beside
himself, and reason is no longer in him. So long as he has this in his
possession, no man is able to make poetry or to chant in prophecy .... For not
by art do they utter these, but by divine power .... It is not they who utter
these precious revelations while their mind is not within them, but the god
himself who speaks, and through them becomes articulate to us.?
? Plato, Ion
?writers are terrible people,
you don?t want them in your house?
? K. Rexroth
From: Maria Damon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Date: Mon Feb 19, 2007 09:11:44 AM CST
Subject: Re: Fwd: Beware of yourselves! Beware of each other!
plato basically says the same thing in The Republic, but there's enough
mitigating evidence to suggest that he only half-meant it. There is probably
plenty of counter-evidence in the Koran as well, not least of which is the
poetic language in which it's written.
