the indicative
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Month: May, 2019
May 19, 2019
the infinitive in Shakespeare’s “To be, or not to be”
“Philosophy and Grammar“
Gentile da Fabriano
__________
when I referred to Shakespeare’s
perhaps most famous monologue,
To be, or not to be, in my most
recent transmission, in order to
shed light on the idea of tempi,
that it would parallel Beethoven’s
Opus 111 in its philosophical
significance, however might’ve I
done so unintentionally, I was
nevertheless quite spot on, it is
perhaps his most potent
disquisition, as is Beethoven’s
own masterpiece, on existence
but let me extrapolate
to be, or not to be, both infinitives,
which is to say that their form, their
mood, relate to infinity, the infinite,
etymological correlatives, which
means that the actions, thus, are
not localized, not specific, but
belong to all places at all times and
for all people, the very stuff, let me
point out, of philosophy
whether ’tis nobler in the mind to
suffer, infinitive, the slings and
arrows of outrageous fortune, or
to take, infinitive again, arms
against a sea of troubles, and by
opposing end, bare infinitive,
which is to say, without the
preposition to, them
as in
to die, to sleep, infinitives, no more,
and by a sleep to say, infinitive, we
end the heartache and the thousand
natural shocks that flesh is heir to,
’tis a consummation devoutly to be
wished, passive infinitive
you’ll find that the rest of the
soliloquy abounds in infinitives,
the grammatical home, the
territory, of philosophy
with this speech, incidentally,
Shakespeare kicks off, in
literature, the Renaissance, much
as Beethoven with his Opus 111
firmly establishes, in music, the
Romantic Period
compare, meanwhile, thou shalt
not kill, an imperative, the mood,
the tenor, the register, is of
commandments, it differs from
the infinitive in that, though
seemingly universal at first, there
is an exception to its authoritative
span, and that exception is the
speaker, all others are called upon
to abide, this is not philosophy,
this is power
much as in music, see in that context
my earlier text, one can read an awful
lot between the lines
R ! chard
May 12, 2019
tempo in Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no 32, Opus 111
_
for Lajla, who wondered
where I’ve been these past
few weeks
if music is a communication, as I firmly
believe it is, even listing it as one of my
languages on all of my formal
applications, it should have, much as
in any other communication, a set of
rules, a structure, a grammar, which
indeed it does
where the mood of a verb, for instance,
in English, indicative, I am, conditional,
if I were, subjunctive, that I be, infinitive,
to be, or, indeed, again infinitive, not to
be, that is, indicative once more, the
question
whether ’tis, indicative, nobler in the
mind to suffer, infinitive, the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune,
or to take, infinitive, arms against a
sea of troubles, and by opposing,
participle, end, infinitive, them – but
you get my drift, in music we have
tempo, adagio, andante, allegro,
presto, among others, to set,
indeed, the mood
as chamber music, an entertainment
for aristocrats, moved from the dance
rhythms of their salons during the
Classical Period to the more diverse
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