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(3.9) | 1 | "[Bachelard] is neither a self-confessed and tortured atheist like Satre, nor, like Chardin, a heretic combining a belief in God with a proficiency in modern science. But, within the French context, he is almost as important as they are because he has a pseudo-religious force, without taking a stand on religion. To define him as briefly as possible - he is a philosopher, with a professional training in the sciences, who devoted most of the second phase of his career to promoting that aspect of human nature which often seems most inimical to science: the poetic imagination ..." - J.G. Weightman, The New York Times Review of Books… (more) |
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We have only to speak of an object to think that we are being objective. | |
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What better proof can there be that fire, in the very precise sense of C. G. Jung, is the point of departure "for a fertile archaic complex," and that a special psychoanalysis must destroy its painful ambiguities the better to set free the lively dialectics which bestow on reverie its true liberty and its true function as a creative mental process? (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.) | |
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Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language. | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in EnglishNone ▾Book descriptions "[Bachelard] is neither a self-confessed and tortured atheist like Satre, nor, like Chardin, a heretic combining a belief in God with a proficiency in modern science. But, within the French context, he is almost as important as they are because he has a pseudo-religious force, without taking a stand on religion. To define him as briefly as possible - he is a philosopher, with a professional training in the sciences, who devoted most of the second phase of his career to promoting that aspect of human nature which often seems most inimical to science: the poetic imagination ..." - J.G. Weightman, The New York Times Review of Books ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description
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THE PSYCHOANALYSIS OF FIRE
Gaston Bachelard. (Translated by Alan C.M. Ross.) 1968 (reprint ed.); 115 pp. $15.50. Beacon Press.
Eloquent. Not the physics or ecology, but the poetic imagination of fire. Fire and Respect. Fire and Reverie. Sexualized Fire. Firewater (brandy) and spontaneous combustion. Idealized Fire. Fire and Purity. Original Fire. Now over sixty years old, this short book contains more engaging paragraphs and thoughts about fire than anything before or since. He's pyromantic and perspicacious; thanks, Gaston Bachelard.
"Fire and heat provide modes of explanation in the most varied domains, because they have been for us the occasion for unforgettable memories, for simple and decisive personal experiences. Fire is thus a privileged phenomenon which can explain anything. If all that changes slowly may be explained by life, all that changes quickly is explained by fire. Fire is the ultra-living element. It is intimate and it is universal. It lives in our heart. It lives in the sky. It rises from the depths of the substance and offers itself with the warmth of love. Or it can go back down into the substance and hide there, latent and pent-up, like hate and vengeance. Among all phenomena, it is really the only one to which there can be so definitely attributed the opposing values of good and evil. It shines in Paradise. It burns in Hell. It is gentleness and torture. It is cookery and it is apocalypse. It is a pleasure for the good child sitting prudently by the hearth; yet it punishes any disobedience when the child wishes to play too close to its flames. It is well-being and it is respect. It is a tutelary and a terrible divinity, both good and bad. It can contradict itself; thus it is one of the principles of universal explanation.
"In one Australian tribe the legend is very amusing, or, rather, it is because a bird is being amusing that it succeeds in stealing the fire. "The deaf adder had formerly the sole possession of fire, which he kept securely in his inside. All the birds tried in vain to get some of it, until the small hawk came along and played such ridiculous antics that the adder could not keep his countenance and began to laugh. Then the fire escaped from him and became common property." Thus, as is often the case, the legend of fire is the legend of licentious love. Fire is associated with innumerable jokes. | |
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