Philosophy revisited.

Erik, do you know if there is a way that I can attach a Word file on blogger? Does it permit attachments? (I wrote comments to Chris's post about my poem, and sent it to him in a Word format, using the comments feature.)

I'm going to put what I thought were the highlights here, as this is half a memoric (I can invent words too!) blog and half a peer-response one. Without further, the highlights:

About the use of "nadir" -

This is one word I think you misunderstood what I wanted it to be. It’s
not “our lowest point” but more of an underdog – the guy who would save us, if
we needed saving. He who came from nothing (Mary / Joseph / …God) rather
than from the political powerhouse (i.e. Roman empire). Not to mention, “eli eli lamma sabacthani” – “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” – sounds pretty nadir-esque to me.

About "form" (poem/short story/etc) - Erik, Chris and I have discussed things we have written before, and we have often noted that it would be good to do something in one form rather than another (usually the one something has been done in) - I think there is a reason that people choose to write a poem about a family farm, or a philosophical-theological poem about God - it's not the same in another medium. To roughly (and incorrectly) quote Kevin Brooks, and indirectly Marshall McLuhan, the medium is not the message here--the artist's integrity is.

First philosophical point - is it God's "lowest move" (underhanded, stealthy, last-ditch) to bring Christ to the scene?

About the "time" setting in the poem - what would the difference be if the poem were set years ago rather than today?

Chris said, "so his [God's] plan would never fail..." My response, "Heavy philosophy again – unless, of course, he wanted it to [fail]. We cannot know the mind of the creator, or we would be the creator."

Chris said, "You are going up against [...] the Word of God." My response, "I prefer to think of it as going alongside the Word of God (thus the ability to have the multiple interpretations)."

I can't even begin to put how many philosophical offshoots that could've been launched from what he wrote and my responses to those. If the two of you want to read it, I'd be more than happy to e-mail it, but then you'd have to leave a comment here with your e-mail address in it. (And have a version of MS Word compatible with the comments features, I guess.)

I ended it with T.S. Eliot's dedication to the Waste Land, "To Ezra Pound el miglior fabbro" (The best (better) craftsman). I think that we, as our select group of NDSU Undergraduate English majors, are our best hope for "making it" as I have have said before ad infinitum. I cannot help but think that there's always someone behind a writer. To make an obscure allusion that only I can appreciate, a Lawrence Ferlinghetti to an Allen Ginsberg or Jack Kerouac... (Or, to use what has been said, An Ezra Pound...) Whether it's some random publisher, friends, or whatever, there's someone giving that impetus (or funding). We are that impetus for each other. From drunken ramblings with random editors (sinister as we may find them to be!) or from people met online (no matter how Gothic we might think them), it's what we need to do.

Well, friends, I have again overwritten myself.

I hope everything fares well in Iowa and Alaska and soon-to-be Oregon for the three of you.