“How Beastly The Bourgeois Is
How beastly the bourgeois isspecifically the male of the species-
Presentable, eminently presentable-shall I make you a present of him?
Isn’t he handsome? isn’t he healthy? isn’t he a fine specimen?doesn’t he look the fresh clean englishman, outside?Isn’t it (G)od’s own image? tramping his thirty miles a dayafter partridges, or a little rubber ball?wouldn’t you like to be like that, well off, and quite the thing?
Oh, but wait!Let him meet a new emotion, let him be faced with another man’s need,let him come home to a bit of moral difficulty, let life face him with a new demand on his understandingand then watch him go soggy, like a wet meringue.Watch him turn into a mess, either a foll or a bully.Just watch the display of him, confronted with a new demand on his intelligence,a new life demand…” D. H. Lawrence
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From one Apollodorus, 1st/2nd century Greek myth compiler:Robin Hard Translation (1997).
Perseus and Andromeda
“Arriving in Ethiopia, which was ruled by Cepheus, he foundthe king’s daughter Andromeda exposed as prey to a sea monster;for Cassiepeia (Cassiope), the wife of Cepheus, had claimed to rivalthe Nereids in beauty, boasting that she surpassed them all.The Nereids were enraged by this, and Poseidon, who sharedtheir anger, sent a sea-flood and a monster against the land.Now Amon (who had an oracle at the oasis of Siwa in Egypt,which was regarded by the Greeks as an oracle of Zeus.) had prophesieddeliverance from this calamity if Cepheus’ daughter Andromedawere offered as prey to the monster, and compelled by the Ethiopians,Cepheus had done so and tied his daughter to a rock. As soon as Perseussaw her, he fell in love, and promised Cepheus that he would destroythe monster if he would give him the rescued girl as a wife.When oaths had been sworn to this effect, Perseus confrontedthe monster and killed it, and set Andromeda free.”It finishes that: ‘a brother of Cepheus had been promised Andromedain marriage, took great exception to these dealings and plotted againstPerseus. But Perseus, learning of the conspiracy against him,showed the Gorgon head to that brother and his plotters, turning allto stone.’ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ THESE TWO QUOTES. Finding them first late 2025; and reading over and oversome of my own work consistently tilled for months prior, but posting hereat that same end of 2025; I find myself un-surprised by some similarity.And so I have decided to note that for the reader here. JMD!
“…Presumptuous and ignorant men, who arrogate to yourselves the whole earth,were God to summon at once all past and present generations, what proportionwould those Christian and Mussulman sects, calling themselves universal, bearin the vast assemblage ? What would be the judgment of (H)is fair andimpartial justice respecting the actual mass of mankind ? It is in estimating thegeneral system of (H)is government that you wander among multiplied absurdities?and it is there, that in reality, truth presents itself in all its evidence. It is therethat we trace the simple but powerful laws of nature and reason; the laws ofthe common mover, the general cause; of a God impartial and just, who, thatmight send (H)is rain upon a country, asks not who is its prophet; who causes(H)is sun equally to shine on all tribes of men, whether distinguished by fairor sable complexion, on the Jews as on the Mussulman, on Christian as on theheathen; who multiplies the inhabitants of every country with whom order andindustry reign; who gives prosperity to every empire where justice is observed,where the powerful is restrained, and the weak live in safety, and where allenjoy the rights which they derive from nature and an equitable compact…”
Constantin Francois Volney - THE RUINS 1811; Trans: from the French by James Marshall
“…as soon as I came up against this wall of wind, as we emerged from the MalaccaStrait, intelligence ceased to be of any use: and with intelligence there went allthe feelings which normally inspire the human mind. The mind had then jettisonedeverything that might prove harmful to it; since a thing that is of no use can only beharmful. Only the animal instinct which remains hidden deep inside each one ofus had risen to the surface , there to exaggerate its dimensions, take completepossession of the boat-man unit, and impose on it the only order that then madesense: to hang on, whatever happens – hang on, without attempting to understand,keep the head as close to the wind as possible, giving a wide berth to land and rocks,and, above all, live in the present, shutting the mind to everything else…”
Bernard Moitessier – SAILING TO THE REEFS; Trans: from the French by Rene Hague
How beastly the bourgeois isspecifically the male of the species-
Presentable, eminently presentable-shall I make you a present of him?
Isn’t he handsome? isn’t he healthy? isn’t he a fine specimen?doesn’t he look the fresh clean englishman, outside?Isn’t it (G)od’s own image? tramping his thirty miles a dayafter partridges, or a little rubber ball?wouldn’t you like to be like that, well off, and quite the thing?
Oh, but wait!Let him meet a new emotion, let him be faced with another man’s need,let him come home to a bit of moral difficulty, let life face him with a new demand on his understandingand then watch him go soggy, like a wet meringue.Watch him turn into a mess, either a foll or a bully.Just watch the display of him, confronted with a new demand on his intelligence,a new life demand…” D. H. Lawrence
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From one Apollodorus, 1st/2nd century Greek myth compiler:Robin Hard Translation (1997).
Perseus and Andromeda
“Arriving in Ethiopia, which was ruled by Cepheus, he foundthe king’s daughter Andromeda exposed as prey to a sea monster;for Cassiepeia (Cassiope), the wife of Cepheus, had claimed to rivalthe Nereids in beauty, boasting that she surpassed them all.The Nereids were enraged by this, and Poseidon, who sharedtheir anger, sent a sea-flood and a monster against the land.Now Amon (who had an oracle at the oasis of Siwa in Egypt,which was regarded by the Greeks as an oracle of Zeus.) had prophesieddeliverance from this calamity if Cepheus’ daughter Andromedawere offered as prey to the monster, and compelled by the Ethiopians,Cepheus had done so and tied his daughter to a rock. As soon as Perseussaw her, he fell in love, and promised Cepheus that he would destroythe monster if he would give him the rescued girl as a wife.When oaths had been sworn to this effect, Perseus confrontedthe monster and killed it, and set Andromeda free.”It finishes that: ‘a brother of Cepheus had been promised Andromedain marriage, took great exception to these dealings and plotted againstPerseus. But Perseus, learning of the conspiracy against him,showed the Gorgon head to that brother and his plotters, turning allto stone.’ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ THESE TWO QUOTES. Finding them first late 2025; and reading over and oversome of my own work consistently tilled for months prior, but posting hereat that same end of 2025; I find myself un-surprised by some similarity.And so I have decided to note that for the reader here. JMD!
“…Presumptuous and ignorant men, who arrogate to yourselves the whole earth,were God to summon at once all past and present generations, what proportionwould those Christian and Mussulman sects, calling themselves universal, bearin the vast assemblage ? What would be the judgment of (H)is fair andimpartial justice respecting the actual mass of mankind ? It is in estimating thegeneral system of (H)is government that you wander among multiplied absurdities?and it is there, that in reality, truth presents itself in all its evidence. It is therethat we trace the simple but powerful laws of nature and reason; the laws ofthe common mover, the general cause; of a God impartial and just, who, thatmight send (H)is rain upon a country, asks not who is its prophet; who causes(H)is sun equally to shine on all tribes of men, whether distinguished by fairor sable complexion, on the Jews as on the Mussulman, on Christian as on theheathen; who multiplies the inhabitants of every country with whom order andindustry reign; who gives prosperity to every empire where justice is observed,where the powerful is restrained, and the weak live in safety, and where allenjoy the rights which they derive from nature and an equitable compact…”
Constantin Francois Volney - THE RUINS 1811; Trans: from the French by James Marshall
“…as soon as I came up against this wall of wind, as we emerged from the MalaccaStrait, intelligence ceased to be of any use: and with intelligence there went allthe feelings which normally inspire the human mind. The mind had then jettisonedeverything that might prove harmful to it; since a thing that is of no use can only beharmful. Only the animal instinct which remains hidden deep inside each one ofus had risen to the surface , there to exaggerate its dimensions, take completepossession of the boat-man unit, and impose on it the only order that then madesense: to hang on, whatever happens – hang on, without attempting to understand,keep the head as close to the wind as possible, giving a wide berth to land and rocks,and, above all, live in the present, shutting the mind to everything else…”
Bernard Moitessier – SAILING TO THE REEFS; Trans: from the French by Rene Hague