Tag Archives: possess

These fools possess a wisdom so corrosive that it strips them of their ability to behave appropriately or to be members of the status quo. Yeats’s fools are always outsiders, observing circumstances and belief systems with such a degree of objectivity that they become totally subjective and self-absorbed.

Susan Johnston Graf, W B Yeats Twentieth Century Magus: An In-Depth Study of Yeat’s Esoteric Practices and Beliefs, Including Excerpts from His Magical Diaries [Amazon, Bookshop, Abebooks, Local Library]

Hermetic quote Graf W B Yeats Twentieth Century Magus fools possess wisdom corrosive strips ability behave members status quo outsiders totally subjective self absorbed

The past (the tradition that leads to our electronic present) is, for the Web user, irrelevant, since all that counts is what is currently displayed. Compared to a book that betrays its age in its physical aspect, a text called up on the screen has no history. Electronic space is frontierless. Sites-that is to say, specific, self-defined homelands-are founded on it but neither limit nor possess it, like water on water. The Web is quasi-instantaneous; it occupies no time except the nightmare of a constant present. All surface and no volume, all present and no past, the Web aspires to be (advertises itself as) every user’s home, in which communication is possible with every other user at the speed of thought. That is its main characteristic: speed.

Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]

Hermetic quote Manguel The Lbrary at Night web quasi-instantaneous occupies no time except a nightmare of a constant present