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Friday 15 November 2013

Wrapped in cellophane and isolated from everything great


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Winchester Bay, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 24  October 2013



It is very remarkable that we should be inclined to think of civilization -- houses, trees, cars, etc. -- as separating man from his origins, from what is lofty and eternal, etc. Our civilized environment, along with its trees and plants, strikes us as though it were cheaply wrapped in cellophane and isolated from everything great, from God, as it were. That is a remarkable picture that intrudes on us.


Ludwig Wittgenstein, private note, 1946, in Vermischte Bemerkungen (1977), edited by G.H. von Wright; translated by Peter Winch as Culture and Value, 1980

 


Outside Winnemucca, Nevada: photo by Austin Granger, 23 April 2013



Along the Willamette River,  Oregon City: photo by Austin Granger, 7 November 2013
  

St. Francis with his friends, Portland. Sculpture by the late Berthold "Tex" Schwietz, 1988: photo by Austin Granger, 5 November 2013



Via Matris, the Grotto, Portland: photo by Austin Granger, 6 March 2012


Church, Alameda: photo by Austin Granger, 14 November 2012
 


Lincoln City, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 23 October 2013



The Nativity of Jesus, Cloverdale, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 30 August 2012 



Air Museum, Tillamook, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 3 April 2012
 

Sermon on the Mount, Portland: photo by Austin Granger, 21 December 2012
 

Sermon on the Mount, Portland: photo by Austin Granger, 23 November 2012



 Prayer: photo by Austin Granger, 26 November 2011



The Last Supper, Rhyolite, Death Valley: photo by Austin Granger, 25 February 2011
 

The Last Supper, Portland: photo by Austin Granger, 10 January 2013

4 comments:

Unknown said...

There is a place nearby where there is a hole in the cellophane and I am going to go through it now into the sea

Love,

Harris

Elmo St. Rose said...

preternatural...that's the word
and the sight when the light falls,
falls right

Hey Harris Cubadubaadobe

Mose23 said...

It's always a wonderful thing when you read a note by Wittgenstein and find he's caught the truth of a thing simply and plainly and you can't look at the World in the same way again.

The futility of the civilising impulse perfectly illustrated by those sparce gardens.

TC said...

Few things are so pleasant as a gathering of enquiring minds.

Events compel one who has fallen by the wayside to seek solace in such company.

But where is Sanctuary?