This is an outstanding article from today’s Aeon, by Costica Bradatan, in praise of contrarians. The great mystics have, I would like to say, quite often and unavoidably been cast in the role of contrarians, at times unintentionally and at other times intentionally — much to their credit either way, and not infrequently at a heavy cost to themselves.
This is my favourite comment on contrarianism: The prose poem by Ivo Andric "A Story from Japan" which describes a successful takeover of the Empire by a group of conspirators including the poet Mori Ipo. When the group meets for their first official assembly the poet is not among them. A slave is despatched with a sedan chair but he returns not with the poet but with a letter:
'Mori Ipso sends greetings to his fellow conspirators at their parting. I thank you comrades for our common suffering and faith and victory and I ask you to forgive me that I am unable to share victory with you as I shared the struggle but poets - unlike other people - are loyal only in misfortune and they abandon those who are doing well. We poets are born for struggle, we are passionate hunters, but we do not partake of the booty. The barrier that divides me from you is narrow and invisible, but is not the blade of a sword also thin and yet it is deadly. I could not cross over it and join you without detriment to my soul for we can stand everything except power.'
For some time now I have been trying and failing to find another copy of Andric's "Anxieties" published in 1917 which I lost somewhere along the way and telos's of which I deeply regret. A reward is offered to anyone who finds a copy for me. Please email reception@salleyvickers.com
Excellent! "Ironically, what we need most badly now is something that’s most difficult to get in our age of compulsive conformism: an authentic contrarian spirit." - “Without contraries is no progression." (Blake)
Thanks already for "The Pragmatic Mystic." I'm now taken by your books, first ordering "The Letter of James," satisfying my own pragmatic proclivity.
He's a very interesting writer
Reminds me of my favorite contrarian- Wendell Berry.
This is my favourite comment on contrarianism: The prose poem by Ivo Andric "A Story from Japan" which describes a successful takeover of the Empire by a group of conspirators including the poet Mori Ipo. When the group meets for their first official assembly the poet is not among them. A slave is despatched with a sedan chair but he returns not with the poet but with a letter:
'Mori Ipso sends greetings to his fellow conspirators at their parting. I thank you comrades for our common suffering and faith and victory and I ask you to forgive me that I am unable to share victory with you as I shared the struggle but poets - unlike other people - are loyal only in misfortune and they abandon those who are doing well. We poets are born for struggle, we are passionate hunters, but we do not partake of the booty. The barrier that divides me from you is narrow and invisible, but is not the blade of a sword also thin and yet it is deadly. I could not cross over it and join you without detriment to my soul for we can stand everything except power.'
For some time now I have been trying and failing to find another copy of Andric's "Anxieties" published in 1917 which I lost somewhere along the way and telos's of which I deeply regret. A reward is offered to anyone who finds a copy for me. Please email reception@salleyvickers.com
Excellent! "Ironically, what we need most badly now is something that’s most difficult to get in our age of compulsive conformism: an authentic contrarian spirit." - “Without contraries is no progression." (Blake)
Thanks already for "The Pragmatic Mystic." I'm now taken by your books, first ordering "The Letter of James," satisfying my own pragmatic proclivity.