Memoirs of the Phoenix Shatterings Reece Harris 9781432776220 Books
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MEMOIRS OF THE PHOENIX
The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise.
-Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The phoenix has been an enduring mythological symbol for millennia and across vastly different cultures. Despite such varieties of societies and times, the phoenix is consistently characterized as a bird with brightly colored plumage, which, after a long life, dies in a fire of its own making only to rise again from the ashes. From religious and naturalistic symbolism in ancient Egypt, to a secular symbol for armies, communities, and even societies, as well as an often-used literary symbol, this mythical bird's representation of death and rebirth seems to resonate with humankind's aspirations.
Although many cultures have their own interpretation of the phoenix, the differences in nuance are overshadowed by the mythical creature's more homogeneous characteristics. The phoenix is always a bird, usually having plumage of colors corresponding to fire yellow, orange, red, and gold. The most universal characteristic is the bird's ability to resurrect. Living a long life (the exact age can vary from five hundred to over a thousand years), the bird dies in a self-created fire, burning into a pile of ashes, from which a phoenix chick is born, representing a cyclical process of life from death. Because it is reborn from its own death, the phoenix also took on the characteristics of regeneration and immortality.
Let us imagine the Phoenix has written for us Memoirs. Death, always wishing for us a full and meaningful life, reads to us from these Memoirs.
We therefore recall here some of these from that audience
1. How our friend Death both preserves and enhances our life.
2. How it was that the American Indian Swan-Woman wove the first basket and how the first poem rose up from Dawn.
3. How it was that problems of translation from the Japanese revealed something unexpected about the roots of language and something astounding about me and perhaps ourselves.
4. How it was that geometry came to be and has re-marked a paradox of our age the rationality of the irrational.
5. Finally, we invite Sophocles to return and recall for us how it was necessary that Oedipus step back into his origins and so is even now bursting forth Phoenix-like from our future.
In conclusion, such an attempt to rethink ourselves from the beginning may not now be inappropriate and might even find an audience.
Memoirs of the Phoenix Shatterings Reece Harris 9781432776220 Books
When you pick up Memoirs of the Phoenix you will be quickly drawn in by the poetic descriptions of the authors dream like memories.As the book progresses Mr. Harris leads us through concepts of reality, dreams, philosophy and poetry. Of course, I'm oversimplifying the journey, but as the text flows from the poetic to the technical it provided me moments of wonder and awe. Mr. Harris states, near the end, that the book can be read like a totem pole with no beginning and no end. I chose to read straight through, but on many occasions would flip several pages back only to discover key concepts I had missed.
One of the main things I gleaned from this book was how language is woefully inadequate for how we communicate. Our thoughts and ideas are not easily translated and so we fall back on simple, easy to digest statements, such as "all men are created equal", but as Mr. Harris explores the concept of the word "equal" - among other words - we hopefully come to a better understanding of ourselves and our place as humans.
I highly recommend this book. Read it slowly, read it twice and you will find many insights.
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Memoirs of the Phoenix Shatterings Reece Harris 9781432776220 Books Reviews
Besides its profundity, what most impresses me about this wonderful new book by Reece Harris is his audacity, especially within the English-speaking context. We are used to extended essays by Michel Serres, Pascal Quignard, and other French writers who move with ease through a number of seemingly disconnected domains, yet keep a thread of continuity intact. Here Reece Harris also breaks with the timidity of our usual Baconian method, ploddingly inductive, and boldly establishes unsuspected links between East and West, mathematics and literature, religion and philosophy, and dozens of other fields. On the same page, we may find Rilke, Navajo baskets, Noh plays, Shakespeare, the Ganges, and Euclid. He reminds us of a trapeze artist, swinging skillfully from point to point and leaving us breathless with admiration. While deeply intellectual, he is never arid, and he constantly speaks from his own experience of living in America, Europe, India, and Japan. By the end of the book, we are questioning all of our previous assumptions, guided by his engagingly Socratic voice. This is an internal seminar that no one should miss, and I heartily recommend this work to all seekers of truth.
KIRKUS REVIEW
Harris, Reece
MEMOIRS OF THE
PHOENIX
Shatterings
Outskirts (262 pp.)
$19.95 Paperback
May 26, 2011
ISBN 978-1432776220
Our dreams may be more valuable than we know, says one visionary scholar. It has been said that our dreams are simply the result of the subconscious mind trying to open a locked doorway to knowledge, and a pathway to memories that sometimes feel as tangible as reality. According to Jung,the father of analytical psychology, dreams come from the amount of an individual's psychic energy and help determine whether they're an extrovert or an introvert in waking life. This idea of dreams and manifested memories is at the crux of the debut work by philosophy scholar and professor Harris (St. John's College, Univ. of Maryland). The author is not just a teacher, but a student of Jungian dream examination and how this idea crosses
over to other philosophies, evolutionary linguistics and great works of literature and art. This all leads the spiritual traveler to a better understanding of what their dreams and memories mean and what our hearts truly desire. Through careful examination of concepts from titans like Aristotle, Plato, Jung, Nietzsche, Hegel, Asian philosophy mentor Roshi Zenkei Shibayama, Native American and Buddhist influences, Harris presents powerful intersecting ideas to the reader. He also draws parallels between literary works by Sophocles, Plato, Dante, Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce, Lady Murasaki, Ezra Pound and others. Works of art included in the book--from the collage on the front cover to the familiar sight of the eternal Ouroboros at the end--make an impact on the reader, and mathematics and poetics also play a role in defining the author's desire to "shatter" common ways of thought. Like most philosophers espousing new ideas, Harris tends to speak at length to make his point at times, but the book is ultimately rewarding.
A great read for the patient but thirsty philosopher and soul searcher.
Kirkus
A delightful read! Harris skirts the boundaries of what is known and how it can be said to know it. He sees the floor below through which science cannot penetrate; and the ceiling above through which imagination cannot pass. Part poetry; part myth; part science; part philosophy; part psychology; part imagination; part dreams; part didactic - and all experienced best with fine wine and JSB's Preludes and Fugues played quietly in the background.
I am so sorry to disparage a person's hard-won achievement, but I believe this was self-published for a reason. So far the book is fairly terrible--a stream-of-consciousness meandering through the author's disparate and random thoughts on...his thoughts...in a large serif font. It makes little sense to me. I will update if I can make it through the rest.
When you pick up Memoirs of the Phoenix you will be quickly drawn in by the poetic descriptions of the authors dream like memories.
As the book progresses Mr. Harris leads us through concepts of reality, dreams, philosophy and poetry. Of course, I'm oversimplifying the journey, but as the text flows from the poetic to the technical it provided me moments of wonder and awe. Mr. Harris states, near the end, that the book can be read like a totem pole with no beginning and no end. I chose to read straight through, but on many occasions would flip several pages back only to discover key concepts I had missed.
One of the main things I gleaned from this book was how language is woefully inadequate for how we communicate. Our thoughts and ideas are not easily translated and so we fall back on simple, easy to digest statements, such as "all men are created equal", but as Mr. Harris explores the concept of the word "equal" - among other words - we hopefully come to a better understanding of ourselves and our place as humans.
I highly recommend this book. Read it slowly, read it twice and you will find many insights.
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