"Lunarian, n. An inhabitant of the moon, as distinguished from Lunatic, one on whom the moon inhabits. The of Vermont." - Ambrose Bierce in :"The Devil's Dictionary"
This is I edit
Born in Flandres Belgium on April 16 1953. Raised (ref A.Bierce in op.cit. s.v. Low-bred) on books from an early age. Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne, Jack London, Herman Melville, Mark Twain were devoured against the grain with very poor school results, but leading to the discovery of many other Giants some of them I cherish for life: Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Heinrich Heine, Damon Runyon, Studs Terkel... (for a general picture see:[1], [2], [3])
The central location of Flanders in the heart of Old Europe allows for many of its inhabitants to be proficient in the surrounding languages: French, German, English. I took much advantage from this in the many readings I did in the beautyful University Library, the Boekentoren, of my hometown Ghent. I am not a graduate myself but I could not resist the public facility offered by the Library.
I have never collected books but bought many of them just to read...which leaves me with quite a library. Most titles reflect my search for human sanity. As you may guess, I am still searching and my library still grows.
My most involved readings are of Giambattista Vico, Gottfried Leibniz, Maine de Biran, Ernst Cassirer and Julian Jaynes.
Among the so-called spiritual guides I particularly like Idries Shah, Chögyam Trungpa and John Blofeld.
I've devided my books in sections on :
- Evolution of Conciousness/ Natural Science and Psychology
- History/Philosophy,Science and Religion
- Poetry and Literature (in that order)
- History of Art/ Biography of Painters.
What I Did... edit
So far I have contributed to the Louis Massignon, Sufi studies, Idries Shah, François Pétis de la Croix, Andrew Michael Ramsay, François Bernier articles as a mere number until a discussion over the editing of François Bernier prompted me to create an account.
Among the things I did for fun was a walk (in 1993) from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (France) to Santiago de Compostella. In Cebreiro I was shown the Holy Grail. I can now tell it's a beaker...
Up till now I have painted a rather large set of very colorful pictures, but I remain much more commented on as a colorful character than I am admired for my masterpiece.(I bow to Wang Yani)
...You did edit
Les Neuf Sœurs, Society of Arcueil, Henry de Boulainviller, Philipp Albert Stapfer, Jules Vallès, Théophile Ferré, Gustave-Henri Jossot, Jean-Nicolas Démeunier, Corentin Louis Kervran, James Mark Baldwin, Roger de Piles, Margaret Smith, Lawrence Washington, Jean René Bazaine, Marie-Alain Couturier, Aubrey Herbert ...
A Gift I Am Grateful For edit
Pep Talk edit
- Not men who crib from others' books; not those who waste their nights in venery and wine, or sweating out schemes to hoodwink thruth and virtue and hide the follies and ribaldries of the day before so as to pass for wise and good in the day ahead; nor lastly the indolent who, standing secure in the shade of their sloth, or roaming about unnoticed in the dense night of their anonimity, rob the valiant of the honor that is their due, and make bold at any chance to slash at the fair name of others, although, in the darkness of their black passion of envy, their poisonous strokes glance and sink into their own entrails. No, but men of the loftiest intellect, of a learning all their own, generous and great-hearted, whose only labor is to enrich with deathless works the commonwealth of letters.
October 25, 1725 : Giambattista Vico in a letter to his friend Fra Bernardo Maria Giacco.
- ( in: Fisch and Bergin: "The Autobiography of Giambattista Vico -translated from the Italian" Cornell University Press, 1944)
P.S. I have to admit, I am not beyond a little venery and wine myself.
Lunarian 11:00, 9 October 2006 (UTC)