Books

Memoir of a Non-Irish Non-Jew, 99 pages (paperback $999,999.99) by Richard May
What is our identity, if we awaken in the moment?
Memoir of a non-Irish non-Jew isn't about being Irish and Jewish or non-Irish and non-Jewish. It is about the chase of tracking down one's ancestral origins, whatever they may be, and the delightfully quirky unexpected discoveries that await you along the way, no matter what your family origins. "You are a link in the chain of your blood. Be proud of it, it is an honor to be this link," G. I. Gurdjieff. But it's also about learning not to identify with the achievements and failing of one's ancestors or even with one's own carefully crafted persona. "What do I have in common with the Jews? I don't even have anything in common with myself, " Franz Kafka. Who are we? Remembering with awareness of various levels of irony the response of Bodhidharma, the Indian monk who brought Buddhism from India to China, to King Wu's question, "Who are you?" — "I don't know"! What is our identity, if we awaken in the moment from the stories of our lives and the dreams of our culture?
http://www.lulu.com/content/803771

Paradise Emporium -- a collection, 247 pages - $9.48
by CL Frost
This newly released collection by a versatile, highly skilled writer and artist includes short stories in the science fiction, fantasy, magical realism and speculative genres. Among these is the short story from which the collection derives its title as well as many fine poems and a huge assortment of visual artistry that also covers a wide variety of genres.
http://www.lulu.com/browse/book_view.php?fCID=561988

World of Villages: A Six-Year Journey Through Africa and Asia, 499 pages - out of print, but used copies are readily available at very reasonable prices.
by Brian Schwartz.
The author traveled with, and stayed among, the native villagers everywhere he traveled throughout Africa, Asia, and Indonesia getting to know the strange behaviors of strange peoples.
Published in 1986 by Random House ISBN: 0517558157
Also published as Travels Through the Third World by Macmillan ISBN: 0283992123
Brian Schwartz also wrote China Off the Beaten Track - How to do it on your own, published by St. Martin's Press ©1983 Library of Congress # 82-61428. Copies of this book are also readily available.

Aberrations of Relativity, 201 pages - $15.00
by Fred Vaughan
This is a collection of articles that emphasize one the most observable aspects of relative motion, i. e., aberration effects. There are many informative diagrams and illustrations with many new insights. What the author calls "observational relativity" is defined in this book as a possible alternative to Einstein's special theory.
The reader will gain valuable insights into all aspects of relativity including why Einstein considered it necessary to embrace time dilation and length contraction in his special theory, and why that might very well not have been necessary.
The book is written for the intelligent (maybe very intelligent) layman, with little in the way of advanced mathematics required to fully comprehend the discussions.
http://www.lulu.com/content/572819

In Proust's Footsteps, 99 pages (hardcover $22.40)
by Maria Claudia Faverio
"In Proust's Footsteps" is Maria's fifth poetry book after "Entropy", "Behind the Mask", "Metaphors instead of Formulas", and her "Selected Poems" collection. Maria is a committed, award-winning poet whose books are highly recommended by the Poetic Genius Society. Maria is also the current editor for poetry and prose of the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry.
http://www.lulu.com/content/430375

Learn about this talented Australian author, poet, and artist as well as her many creations of prose, poetry, classical music CDs, puzzle books, fairy tales, and artistic images at the following site: http://www.lulu.com/mycreations.

NATAN, 108 pages - $13.69
by Albert Frank and Muriel Hustin
Nath is a genius, Tanguy an idiot. Any such extremes disturb people. In recognition of this fact, a pharmaceutical corporation is undertaking experiment with a new drug, ?normality pills?, that would move them both toward the norm. It is decided to put them in contact using e-mail exchanges. Those responsible for the experiment will monitor the exchanges. So a deep friendship evolves between two individuals who normally would never have even met. Their dialogue is moving right up to the terrifying conclusion. One of the themes of the narrative is the loneliness of the extremes.
http://www.lulu.com/content/71060

Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher To Atheist, 342 pages - $25.00
by Dan Barker
After 19 years of evangelical preaching, missionizing, evangelism and Christian songwriting, Dan Barker "threw out the bathwater and discovered there is no baby there." Barker describes the intellectual and psychological struggle required to move from fundamentalism to freethought. Sections on biblical morality, the historicity of Jesus, bible contradictions, the unbelievable resurrection, and much more. This book is an arsenal for skeptics and a direct challenge to believers.
http://ffrf.org/shop/books/details.php?cat=fbooks&ID=FB5

The Magic of Ed Rehmus, 192 pages - $15.00
by Ed Rehmus (edited by Fred Vaughan)
This collection of creations by Edward Rehmus includes essays, artwork, poetry, linguistic studies, comics, and puzzles. The style of Ed Rehmus' prose is reminiscent of H. L. Mencken in his hay day. As a friend said of Ed in eulogy, "He went for the bones of what he was considering and the stormy winds could make off with the sails if that was a consequence!" On his own behalf Ed had said, "What indolence and what prodigality to trust to usage that which ought always to be spontaneous, creative and conscious: speech!"
http://www.lulu.com/content/476575 - regular price.

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These Late Skirmishes

by the late Edward Rehmus

Discern some little light at least
in ancient secret hieroglyphs
And see them snatched away by Academe —
as false!

Or chance upon the key to Death
and you'll be warned to look away
to Life because Death is
morbid.

Discover sainthood within yourself
and they'll say no, that's wicked
only Christ is God and you are
ego.

Who are these sudden savants,
unwanted advisors of ubiquity,
saying our gumption is no more than chutzpah?

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History Lesson

by Prof. Ed Rehmus

by Edward Rehmus

(2003)

Now that Babylon has fallen, we must move quickly on to that other Arab stronghold: Syria! (Damascus, specifically.) With these important stations of the Ancient World under his belt — see, we've already got the "Future" (albeit the minimal Walt Disney version) — Napoleon is now ready to move on to that uttermost ancient of stations: China!

This game, we know from history, eventually plays out. And of course, even Napoleon knows his empire, though eternal, is not immortal, so he will coast the rest of the way downward to land on a soft pillow in the history books.

Sadly, however, every conqueror leaves a wasteland behind him, having been obliged at times to violate sensible tradition. When this Empire falls, speaking ex nostradamu, the entire world will have become a cesspool.

Now, this being so, the wretched survivors of the 21st Century must deal with reviving the corpse of civilization bequeathed to them. They may have certain advantages, such as science and "libertas in chaos," but since they lack the genius of classical skills, their machine will be lopsided and feckless. Thus will begin to brew new human bacteria and soon thereafter will appear the symptoms of kings and leaders like blisters on the social skin. And then the cycle begins anew, of this disease called monkey mumps.

Ed in Paris (1999)

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Instruction

by Ed Rehmus

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The Sermon

by Ed Rehmus

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Strange Being

by Ed Rehmus

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Bookworm

by Ed Rehmus

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A Visit to St. Nick

by Ed Rehmus

In Earthly Powers, Anthony Burgess describes the libretto of an opera based on the life of St. Nicholas, borrowed largely from an account by Anatole France. Since few people know anything about this peculiar person, other than that he is the patron saint of children (and shipwrecked sailors), it might be interesting to take a closer look. The opera is far too long to quote verbatim from the novel, but briefly this is the gist of the plot up to the end of the first act.

The story begins, somehow, with the corpses of Bishop Nicholas' three sons (Mark, Matthew and John) who have been put into a pickle barrel, whereupon, because of the pickle acid, they have been resurrected. The first son turns Nicholas's house into a brothel & Nicholas is tempted by sins of the flesh. Nicholas invokes Jesus Christ, who appears as the naked god, Pan, whereupon the poor man yields to his weaknesses. Afterwards, he flagellates himself & is thereby purified enough to be able to attend the Council of Nicaea in order to denounce the Aryan heresy. In case you've forgotten, the Aryan heresy suggests that the Father and the Son are the same substance: Homoousia. Whereas the True Faith insists that they are only of similar substance: Homoiousia, thus proving the importance of an iota.

Meanwhile the second son is busy forging documents to denounce Nicholas as an even worse heretic; At the Council, the women of the town, appear in order to ask for prayers for their men who are in a storm at sea. The Council, of course, wants to throw them out for disrupting their holy deliberations, but jolly old St. Nick intercedes for the sailors' wives by wrestling with an Aryan bishop. At this point Matthew reveals the documents proving that his father has stated that the only true God is Venus. Nicholas is ecclesiastically disgraced just as all the ships at sea go down.

In the second and final act of the opera, Nicholas, after a stint with sackcloth and ashes, has been reinstated by the Pope and is now once again a full bishop. However, it seems that a number of German tribes have been converted to Xtianity by Arians and the heresy is going full blast. John, the third son, is all for going to Germany in order to torture and kill heretic women and children. Nicholas argues that theirs is a religion of love, but John points out that "These are foul heretics who believe Christ to be co-eternal with the Father!" So Nicholas is persuaded to join in the holy war, though he soon regrets it. He asks heaven to send down Love, and "Venus herself appears, as goddess of brothels for soldiers." Mothers are screaming for miracles and one of them hands Nicholas the bloody corpse of her child. Nicholas, with the child in his arms now asks God why he brought the three wicked sons back to life in the first place and when there is no answer, "You are a God of Hate, a God who murders the innocent!" There is no reply and the curtain descends.

Thus, to this day, the red suit represents Nicholas's sins of the flesh, which he atones for with the ashes of chimneys, while the bag upon his back is his burden of shame. Of course, in our time, we no longer honor shame, so the bag merely contains the poisonous fruits of materialistic Capitalism.

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So Much For Everything, then!

by Ed Rehmus

Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematician of the 18th Century who was clever enough to point out that the fundamental logarithmic number e multiplied by itself the square root of minus one time(s), and that then multiplied by itself 3.14159265... times cannot be saved from non-existence by the addition of one, but at least is nothing less than zero. This is clever because the formula successfully contains all five fundamental numbers (0, 1, π, e and i).

Leonhard Euler

Even less relevant, however, was his announce-ment to the atheist Denis Diderot, "Sir, (a+b)ⁿ/ n = x, hence God exists!" Since Diderot was not a mathe-matician he was totally bumfuzzled by that. But since Euler went on to challenge the atheist, "what do you say to that?" Leonhard obviously must have had more to say than that the sum of any two known rational numbers to some power (presumably not zero) and then divided by that power will equal some unknown number. Unfortunately, since Diderot fled the scene red-faced and bladder-emptied by this puffball, the ultimate proof of God's existence remains untransmitted to us.

Although mathematics is probably the most thorough-going of all man's anthropomorphic pursuits, it still cannot break free of anthropomorphism itself. It uses a symbolically human abstraction of human logic to prove purely human questions and to set the parameters of purely human quests. Since we cannot understand any intelligence higher than our own we can never properly evaluate the limits of our confinement nor its priority in the cosmic ladder.

There are yet a few wisemen of the tribe, mirabile dictu, who insist that things are just as wonderful as they have always been. Isn't motherhood still the purpose of existence? Dubya may have his faults, but he is still our president, isn't he? Global warming will help us cut down on our fuel bills, won't it? Why do I need Medicare if I never get sick? Amidst such incontrovertible axioms, Euler's incandescent formula sends rays of glaring irrelevance over the whole meaningless night of Panglossian optimism.

But now into this darkness comes a devastating, heart-stabbing news flash from current astronomy that the universe is about to become even darker. For the universe is not merely expanding in every direction, but said expansion is growing faster and faster by the nanosecond. Within a relatively short time we shall have blown far outside the range of all the stars to find ourselves spinning alone and silent in empty space. Solipsism seems not only the province of anthropism but is apparently the irrational, if not downright nonsensical, predilection of astrophysics as well.

You might well ask, what virus it is that causes a cell to explode. Then maybe some 21st Century Euler could measure the velocity thereof, provided of course he was able to decide whether to use a microcosmic, macrocosmic or anthropocosmic hourglass.

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ALL THE HEADS

by Edward Rehmus

To trap the Mind with nets of

tranquil gardens

Is to unlock the damned Tower's secrets.

The Endtime goes dropping through the capitals as

they come chopping off,

& the moment of Madame La Guillotine

is reincarnated

while the Aeon melts.

Headlessness is rampant & quartered

on Eternity's red escutcheon

Wheras Reality for all its quicksilverability &

flimsiness &

elephant leaping

Still sticks to the soul like thistle's burrs

And the shifting gates

rise and recede in the Abysses like

nothing more than telepath poles

outside a brain window

And the heads planted with eyes still blinking

in the rotting earth...

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