I have chosen you, so listen to what is revealed [to you] - Indeed, I am Allah. There is no deity except Me, so worship Me and establish prayer for My remembrance.
Hello my Spookies. today i have a special poem for you recited by me.
"Darkness" is Lord Byron's terrible tale of apocalypse and despair. In this narrative poem, a speaker dreams of a future in which the sun burns out and the whole world is left in darkness. Panicking, the survivors of this catastrophe gradually destroy all remaining life in their efforts to survive. Humanity, this poem suggests, is at the mercy of a vast and uncaring universe—and its own dark, selfish, violent impulses. This poem first appeared in Byron's 1816 collection The Prisoner of Chillon.
"In our time it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing. Where it is not true, it will generally be found that the writer is some kind of rebel, expressing his private opinions and not a ‘party line’. Orthodoxy, of whatever colour, seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style. The political dialects to be found in pamphlets, leading articles, manifestos, White papers and the speeches of undersecretaries do, of course, vary from party to party, but they are all alike in that one almost never finds in them a fresh, vivid, homemade turn of speech.
When one watches some tired hack on the platform mechanically repeating the familiar phrases [..] one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy: a feeling which suddenly becomes stronger at moments when the light catches the speaker's spectacles and turns them into blank discs which seem to have no eyes behind them. And this is not altogether fanciful.
A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology has gone some distance toward turning himself into a machine. The appropriate noises are coming out of his larynx, but his brain is not involved, as it would be if he were choosing his words for himself. If the speech he is making is one that he is accustomed to make over and over again, he may be almost unconscious of what he is saying, as one is when one utters the responses in church."
-- George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" (1946)
Beware of robots.
There are many people concerned about the development of artificial intelligence and its ascension towards sentience. However, perhaps we should be more concerned about the decline of humanity into slogan-spouting, mantra-reciting artificial intelligence.
ACTEURS DE CINÉMA ET HYPNOSE ? Hypnose DCS unique au monde
S’il y a une chose que les acteurs du monde du cinéma maîtrisent bien, c’est la capacité de s’intégrer pleinement dans le personnage qu’ils incarnent. Mais qu’est-ce qui se cache derrière cette capacité ? De nombreuses stars de cinéma utilisent une véritable hypnose professionnelle pour approfondir leur rôle.
L’hypnose n’est pas seulement une astuce cinématographique, mais une véritable pratique qui peut aider les acteurs à surmonter les blocages mentaux, les peurs et à entrer dans un état de concentration et d’imagination totale. Cela leur permet d’être vraiment authentiques à l’écran et de transmettre des émotions de manière puissante.
Alors la prochaine fois que vous regarderez un film et que vous vous demanderez comment un acteur peut paraître si réel, pensez à l’hypnose professionnelle qui pourrait se cacher derrière tout cela. C’est une pratique intéressante et puissante qui mérite d’être connue et appréciée. #hypnose #acteurs #cinéma #professionnels #concentration #émotions fortes
Dad had a few party pieces: Sonny Boy (Al Jolson); Don't Laugh At Me (Norman Wisdom); and this comic poem. He would regale the company with them - at parish do s, and family gatherings.
As he aged, we'd duet on Don't Laugh At Me, and, after he died, it became my party piece. But I never learned Albert and the Lion.
i love reading a strange poem aloud for the first time. every word is a surprise, every changing emotion a sudden wave washing over me. i am wandering down a deer path in the sunlit forest with my eyes closed and the poet's hand is guiding me gently by the jaw
"And when We bestow favor upon man, he turns away and distances himself; but when evil touches him, then he is full of extensive supplication." (41:51)
Just a little recitation that took forever to prepare in Italian, and it goes without saying that @langsandlit is an *amazing* Italian instructor for patiently helping me with this!
poetic English language translation of the text in ottava rima if that’s your thing (link)