Order and Disorder

From “Connoisseur of Chaos,”
by Wallace Stevens, in
Parts of a World, 1942:


I
A.  A violent order is a disorder; and
B.  A great disorder is an order.
    These Two things are one. (Pages of illustrations.)              
IV
A.  Well, an old order is a violent one. This proves nothing.
    Just one more truth, one more
    Element in the immense disorder of truths.
B.  It is April as I write. The wind
    Is blowing after days of constant rain.
    All this, of course, will come to summer soon.
    But suppose the disorder of truths should ever come
    To an order, most Plantagenet, most fixed. . . .
    A great disorder is an order.
    Now, A And B are not like statuary, posed
    For a vista in the Louvre. They are things chalked
    On the sidewalk so that the pensive man may see.
V
    The pensive man . . . He sees that eagle float
    For which the intricate Alps are a single nest.
Related material:
“Derrida on Plato on writing says ‘In order for these contrary values (good/evil, true/false, essence/appearance, inside/outside, etc.) to be in opposition, each of the terms must be simply EXTERNAL to the other, which means that one of these oppositions (the opposition between inside and outside) must already be accredited as the matrix of all possible opposition.’ “

— Peter J. Leithart

See also

Skewed Mirrors,
Sept. 14, 2003


“Evil did not  have the last word.”
— Richard John Neuhaus, April 4, 2005

Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone
a last a loved a long the


PARIS,
1922-1939
“There is never any ending to Paris.”
— Ernest Hemingway