Edie Minturn Sedgewick poses for Artist Scott Lord at Tate Gallery Poetry Reading

Today, Edie Minturn Sedgewick, currently operating Edie's Farm on wordpress, avoided reporters at Scotland's National Gallery, showing up later at the Tate Gallery, to give a poetry reading. At the reading various depictions of the themes of sex and death were included in an exhibition by artist Scott Lord of The Univeristy of Edinburgh. Miss Sedgewick and Mr. Lord were both at one time residences of Massachusetts, in the United States and were enthralled in what they had in common during discussions about Boston. Miss Sedgewick, who had wanted to pose for Playboy magazine, passed away from a barbituate overdose in the early seventies and was revived, through esoteric means of suspended animation, by Dr. Glyn Davis, also of the University of Edinburgh. It is rumored that Professor Davis and Mr. Lord met through his researching for film criticism after classes on Scandinavian Film at the University of Copenhagen, which also offers a massive online college course. The Dashing Dr. Glyn Davis was delightful during the evening providing insights into art history and expressed a sincere interest in also reviving the art critic Kenneth Clark, were his small laboratory were to find funding from a more global source, possibly underwritten by the United States, although it is rumored that he present he has gotten Kenneth Clark"s hand to move a little in a friendly wave and maybe some knowing eyelid movement, like a wink. With some of the Liverpool poets from the early sixties he has no luck, particularly several attempts to bring back to life Mercy poet Hugh MacDiarmid. Mr. Lord is presently pitching articles and will soon join the staff of Cinema Scandinavia.

Behind in my homework University of Edinburgh, behind on my film review Australian magazine

I passed Scandinavian Film and Television in an online course offered by the University of Copenhagen with 87.9% (the first essay was student graded and bought it down) and got a statement of completion. So I added an Art course from the University of Edinburgh because I knew it included Underground Cinema, which I'm in the middle of now. I also have a lecture series on classic narrative film from a University in the United States that has one final test at the end. But I was introduced to a Masters Student from Australia that just began the first issue of a magazine. I missed the deadline to the first issue- but I apparently "pitched the article" and sent the first half one day before deadline and got an extension. So there is no rejection whatsoever on the first two-three paragraphs, the submission is still active- in effect a silent film review will appear in late in an issue centralizing on Ingmar Begman. (maybe I would have had two). The Danish course was structured with weekly quizes and these two courses are not, so I let my ten-week routine ease-up, not alot, but enough to be in a hurry to study quick and more precise. If and when the article makes it, it could be included in academia.edu, so of course I haven't hurried. The assignment includes essay and artwork- see above, but you know what, I had an old paperback on Underground Cinema years ago, which I liked, and I found the entire book, available free for download on the internet wayback archive, and their copy specifically is an autographed copy the author addressed to the "internet archive"- well isn't that the spirit of the thing? Given to the archive by the author with a note in pen- I'm very glad to use it for a class the month I probably will be published. (My new kick is taking courses from foreign Universities on line) One of the professors, and in this milleau there were five professors over ten weeks, was already mentioned in my webpages before I signed up, so needless to say he's included in the portion of the article I've aleady submitted- the other in the meantime has vistied Princeton, travelling from Denmark and my editor in Australia and I are reading his lecture after the class has finsished.

Taking Film online from University of Copenhagen and then Art from University of Edinburgh (Tate)

I'm finsihed 8 out of 10 weeks in my course on Scandinavian Film and Television online from the University of Copenhagen. I've enrolled in Art from the University of Edinburgh for after that. (During the course I got an offer to write for a periodical on Scandinavian film if I meet deadline- Carl Dreyer is known for his journalism.)

Existentialism, Christianity and Evacuation Day

Sartre was slightly misinterpreted by our minister tonight during a reading of the book of Mark, understandably. But was it sneaky? First of he quoted, "existence precedes essence" and I coughed to signal it was from Being and Nothingness. Then he mentioned the author's name with the remark "Maybe that's why his novels bring only misery." And he used the title No Exit as though taken aback with a shudder. I'll agree that the Book of Mark uses the baptism of Jesus Christ as a narrative, which frames the discourse. Christ baptized is innocent. But then he went into a "counter-radical" theme that it was one King against another. I remembered that the Flies was based on Greek tragedy, so it's almost theology slighting Greco-Roman art. But to properly quote Sartre, "Life begins on the other side of despair." It's just that with the point of departure of "Man is God", what is ethical and aesthetic has a human source, not transcendent or supernal. But then I thought, why quote it if it is inevitable that someone will add that he didn't quote, "Hell is other people?", which really has nothing to do with Christ. Why relate it to the Book of Mark when really "to exist is to be perceived" would have been enough- Christ is perceived by God when baptized. And even that has implications of there being a soul, a God-connected soul. The kicker is its been thirty five years since I first was interested in a volume titled The Tragic Finale written by Wilfred Desan that outlined the For-Itself, In-itself relation. God would have been the in-itself and man the for-itself excepting that the epistemology of faith doesn't quite apply. I guess God's silence would account for the in-itself as a form of freedom. But life does begin the other side of despair. (Action is the responsibilty to create oneself authenticly- without "Bad Faith" or self-deception.) There is nothing in heaven; nothing in heaven that can; nothing in heaven that can prevent the individual from making himself and experiencing the freedom of becoming authentic. That is the despair. Despair For Itself. We are here to make love not referee wars and crucifixions, we are here to out conceptualize sin, to out think it, not to personify it. You know the "common folk" really would have said it wasn't really an Easter, but God was just watching someone die unnecesarily so he could turn around, resurrect and laugh at mankind for being tempted. "You stole my messiah and I could have sent him to heaven the whole time". In Sartre's ontology, it really isn't dependent upon man being governed by his sinful nature and the omnipotent creator being impotent. We record history best when God is impotent, when we can watch Empires fall. The other discussion was between my fiancee and I about my not realizing that St. Patrick (in perpetuity: et. al.) lived near to or before the time of Alfred the Great and that the Book of Kells is earlier than I thought. I was reading that he mostly spread the word in between Viking Invasions. I didn't mention to her that many of the Irish Princesses were mistaken for saints when the Vikings were around.

Postscript- The Following Week

Because she's the church librarian we were there this week as well. I passed the minister and thought keep things social untill necessary but do the reading, that is to say, read and don't find questions to ask untill they are needed. So after I said "Hello" the phrase "ground of being" came to me and then I remembered Paul Tillich. I went in and found a History of the Church and found a one page summarization of Paul Tillich and the "principle of correlation" which is based on faith. The someone mentioned that the author of the textbook I had in my hand is visiting the church from Oxford to attend a conference here in Boston this April.
Still arriving at a discussion of Paul Tillich by mentioning Sartre from behind the pulpit still seems a little surrepititious.

Donna's birthday: a wild rabbit greeted us getting out of the movie.

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It was raining at eleven o'clock and as I hurried to get the taxi, a wild rabbit greeted us while we were getting out of the movie. I bought her roses earlier this month and brought them to her while she was at work in the church library- the following week she gave me an engagement ring at the church before she went in to work.

That was Von Trier week. Right now, after this entry, I have a lecture from my online course on Scandinavian Film and television- but while I'm hurrying, the poster for Nymphomania by Lars von Trier was in the movie theater; so I got enthusiastic. Director Lars von Trier is a former student of the lecturer I'm taking the course from at the University of Copenhagen, so while setting up the computer, the first thing I saw tonight was our online forum, which is like the classroom milleau (modality), and we're still discussing von Trier after Vinterberg's film was reviewed in the United States. But its Donna's birthday, so we had a pizza and went to a movie, which is how we began dating. I tried to explain or not explain Stellan Starsgaard's early carreer and the films he made in Sweden during the seventies- I'm particularly  fond of them and have tried to review them.

We have a rabbit in the backyard, courtyard rather, but this isn't the first place we saw one. First it was at a Victorian cemetary where Longfellow, Winslow Homer, and Amy Lowell are buried. Then we returned for a second visit and found another small rabit. Then we went to Longfellow's House, which is a museum, and there were rabbits there on two seperate visits. Our building has nineteen floors and a view of the Prudential and John Hancock in Boston- there was a brown hawk last year that lands on the top and this year a white hawk, I'm not certain what type of white hawk, a little larger than the brown. Huge eyes. Needless to say, the rabbit near the theater decided to show up while we were out. The one at our residence I have seen by now on a half dozen occaisions.

I have a lecture to finish tonight on Scandinavian Film and television- I've completed five weeks and have five more left . The coincidental intellectual disclaimer: I don't see the need to apologize for the outlandish coincident disclaimer- I was adopted in 1962 and my adoptive mother died young, mostly from (juvenille)diabetes. No blessing required from this government that may or may not be heterosexual or any other that can't find peace (or spirituality). The film is about the human condition, and in that regard it is a work of art. Deepen, broaden, not necessarily in that order.

Valentine's: Donna and I went to a movie- our rabbit.

Quickly-I have a writing assignment for class, but it's been over a month since I've written here. After Christmas, the rabbit, who is nocturnal, that I see while I'm smoking was there while Donna and I were together. After a sizeable snowstorm it appeared in the courtyard. I was there tonight at the other entrance, which is unusual. I bought Donna living roses this time as I have gotten used to the minature pointsettia that is still there. We hadn't been to a film in a while and she asked if we could get a pizza. If you seen the film, it would not have been Alan Watts that I would have wanted to spend eight hours with, but not bad. Since Christmas, she has gotten to where she is librarian in the church by herself now that she's been there a while- since then I have also begun studying Film online at a European University. (January was spent revising and saving webpages written last year.)