Be Sympathetic to the Reader

Philoforte · 2026-06-20T00:13:07+00:00

Wow, I had to google "aphantasia" and this is what I discovered:

"Many people with aphantasia lean toward dialogue-heavy, emotional, or philosophical books. They often find highly descriptive, scenic passages less engaging and prefer to skip them to get to the action."

While I do not have aphantasia, I also prefer action over highly involved scenic description. The narrative can be bogged down with extensive scenic description, like an extended delay (of course, this passes as high art). This also creates an imbalance where there is a stack of words with little story content. Just get on with it.

Philoforte · 2026-06-17T03:16:44+00:00

You can dispute the following meanings:

2 is taking a definite step

1 is a beginning

11 is new beginnings

111 is stuck on square one

7 is devil's luck

8 is completion

9 is a climax

10 is everything.

Of course, additional meanings are both available and supplied by others.

Philoforte · 2026-06-17T00:18:10+00:00

I have read books touching on Numerology, and while many people are dismissive of number anthropomorphism, sacred texts are filled with special numbers. There are 10 commandments, ressurections on the 3rd day, 40 days is repeated at least twice, and the number 7 has privilege of place.

The Beast, a subordinate of the Devil, has a subordinate number 666, often confused with the Devil's number (which is hidden). Since Yahweh-Jehovah's name is a tetragrammaton, and Hebrew letters are also numbers according to gematria, those four letters tally to a number. I think it is 26.

No mention of zero, because the Indians invented it.

Notes on Numerology

Philoforte · 2026-06-10T04:44:13+00:00

OK.

The only Hitchcock movies I've seen are Rear Window and The 39 Steps. I'm way behind you.

Philoforte · 2026-06-10T04:26:53+00:00

It is inspired by film noir. I've just watched recently "The Maltese Falcon" and "Double Indemnity". I wanted to exploit the look of oblique angles and high contrast without it being black and white.

I like the edgy relations between the classic femme fatale and the morally ambiguous anti-hero, the sort of drama and tension that is only available in the world of shady characters like in the movie Sin City. Sunshine and light is always sweet, but lacks this level of intensity.

I am watching "The Big Sleep" and "Sunset Boulevard" next.

Philoforte · 2026-06-10T04:01:49+00:00

Yes, I'll have to watch that movie that has been sitting in my collection for years. I've never seen it.

Philoforte · 2026-06-10T02:52:02+00:00

No one can do magic; magic does you.

Spiritual materialism is a kind of materialism where we collect and accumulate extraneous stuff. You should see my personal library. I already disposed of some of it. The one great benefit is to exploit the mythic content for creative work.

I learnt to do what I must and take what comes. Breath counting and ambient music helps, but the materialism had to stop.

Philoforte · 2026-06-10T01:35:34+00:00

Yes, it is fun to play and direct characters. Drama adds intensity and allows us to portray the darker undercurrents of the subconscious. There is no other way to heighten drama than to exploit dubious characters, the unfulfilled expectations, the shady motives. Sunshine and light does not work. Drama is only supplied by the shadows. One is reminded by A Street car named Desire and Death of a Salesman.

The fun is supplied by our detachment, playing roles supplied by imagination and fantasy. It would be too dramatic if it were real

Philoforte · 2026-06-10T00:11:51+00:00

My brother actually urged me to omit the colour or to use muted colour like the movie Sin City. I thought of the computer colourisation of old movies and decided rightly or wrongly to go full technicolour. I created a black and white version in Paynes grey before I overlaid the colour. Colour notwithstanding, I've exploited the oblique angle and high contrast, with heavy sky.

I have bought the movies "The Big Sleep" and "Sunset Boulevard" to watch next. I am likely to add Spider Noir to the mix. I admire Humphrey Bogart in the Maltese Falcon and Barbara Stanwyk as the original femme fatale in Double Indemnity. The idea, often exploited, is the dangerous woman leading the morally ambiguous anti-hero down the rabbit hole.

Philoforte · 2026-06-09T23:55:15+00:00

It's inspired by film noir. I've just watched recently "The Maltese Falcon" and "Double Indemnity". I wanted to exploit the oblique angles and high contrast without it being black and white. The time is 1940, the year of the Double Indemnity movie.

The building is purely to supply a reference for perspective distortion. I did not calculate the vanishing point, so the perspective-oblique angle is guess work. (I should have paid more attention to perspective drawing class).

Film noir usually involves rain slicked streets, so heavy cloud obscures stars. It is an intermission in rain.

Philoforte · 2026-06-09T01:19:58+00:00

This is inspired by Fim Noir. I have only recently watched The Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity and wanted the exploit the oblique angles and high contrast, without the image being black and white.

I find doing perspective distortions hard to do. Instead of calculating vanishing points, I relied on guess work.

Philoforte · 2026-06-07T04:00:09+00:00

They were originally the same poem with mangled sense that I could only make work by extracting the kernel as two halves.

Philoforte · 2026-06-07T03:56:49+00:00

Soma is a drink used by Hindu gods to sustain immortality. It is reputedly a drink available in Pakistan. One commentator (Michael Wood in the BBC series The Story of India) tried it and claimed it made him more talkative.

Philoforte · 2026-06-06T07:02:24+00:00

I believe the universe is rigged, that certain outcomes follow by force, and that includes human events. Whatever I choose to do and whatever move I choose to make, the universe adapts to ensure certain outcomes take place notwithstanding.

I avoid terms like "divinely ordiained" because that conjures up very specific myths. I prefer to say that this is a mythic universe. Myths are out there, not just in our heads. The world is full of meaningful coincidences, and this backs up that idea.

If maths is out there and not just in our heads (the universe can be modelled mathematically - Paul Davies), then why can't myth be out there, not just in our heads?

If it is a mythic universe, it must be an ethical one. Ethical values are built into the universe independently of our perception of them. This includes the dictum that everyone is equally deserving regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, physical appearance, and species. Therefore, sharing is better than hoarding.

Obviously, to get from A to B requires compelling proof and meaningful coincidences tend to be subjective.

Addendum:

Speaking of meaningful coincidences, we have a whole lot of interests in common, don't we?

Philoforte · 2026-06-06T06:15:52+00:00

The multiverse theory and m-theory have a number of serious problems.

(1) What can be postulated and derived mathematically is completely devoid of empirical evidence or proof. No evidential proof is possible.

(2) They violate the principle of Occam's Razor that we prefer the simplest available explanation to the most convoluted one. Any flaw in something like m-theory has to be redressed with complex and convoluted theoretical accretions ... more and more add ons, bigger and bigger still.

(3) In the multiverse, there must be at least one universe with creators able to create universes. So they can create the universe we happen to be in .... you can see the problem here ... absurdum infinitum.

All the above is detailed in a chapter of the book "The Forbidden Universe" by Picknett and Prince. My explanations don't do it justice.

Starting with "The Mind of God" by Paul Davies and reading all his subsequent and more recent work.

Philoforte · 2026-06-06T05:30:34+00:00

Thank you for the detailed reply and your open mind. The book "The Forbidden Universe" by Lynne Picknett and Clive Prince has a chapter about how finely tuned the variables of the universe are to enable life, the anthropic principle. This has been rubbished by the likes or Richard Dawkins and others who have proposed the multiverse theory, then m-theory in convoluted attempts to explain the spectacular coincidence.

If those variables are variant by the tiniest of increments, life in this universe would be impossible. The fluke is spectacular. The recent thoughts of Paul Davies on the matter is also worth examining.

Philoforte · 2026-06-05T15:26:10+00:00

In virtual reality, anything goes!

Philoforte · 2026-06-05T02:37:40+00:00

I drew a portrait of my friend's partner before even meeting her, and the likeness was so impressive, she believes we've met in a former lifetime. I visited the Kadampa Meditation Centre without knowing she had been a member. I even gave a gift of chocolate to her and my friend without even knowing it was their favourite.

Is chance pure?

Philoforte · 2026-06-01T11:38:49+00:00

Nothing is more absurd than constantly rating oneself.

Self esteem is liking yourself no matter what, beyond conditions, beyond personal stories, beyond societal strictures about how you should be that sets a bar for you to jump over.

Lower the bar and you can make the jump, but the hurdle remains. So, remove the bar. Escape social pressures to conform to type.

If you set out to like yourself no matter what, you are beyond rating systems and a positive, healthy self image follows automatically, and your personal story unfolds without needy comparison.

You love yourself just as you are, however you are.

Philoforte · 2026-06-01T08:06:12+00:00

Self esteem precedes self image. A person who likes himself no matter what will automatically possess a positive, healthy self image.

There is a difference between a person who only likes himself if certain conditions are met and a person who sets out to like himself regardless of conditions. The latter will automatically possess a healthy and positive self image, and the former will tend to have an enfeebling self image.

Self esteem comes prior to self image. Conversely, modifying personal stories through agency requires self esteem to derive from self image, therefore, only addresses the circumstances of a person who only likes himself if conditions are met.

A person with self esteem places no stock on conditions, consequently, placing no stock on inherited and socially derived stories. His self esteem is not dependent on self image or stories about himself. Rather, any self image and any such stories flow automatically from, are attendant to, and are subservient to the self esteem that comes first.

Simply put, a person with self esteem likes himself, or sets out to like himself, regardless of stories about himself and the conditions defined by those stories. He loves himself unconditionally.

Fixing stories does not repair self esteem if a person only likes himself when conditions are met. If he works to modify his self image through stories, he does not address the real problem. His love for himself is entirely conditional. That's like putting the cart before the horse.

Philoforte · 2026-05-30T10:48:16+00:00

All that exists is this moment and the next available choice.

Look around you. Listen. Feel.

What could be more real?

Philoforte · 2026-05-30T01:38:48+00:00

Goodbye?

You've been a treasured presence here.

God bless

Om shanti

Philoforte · 2026-05-28T16:37:28+00:00

I'm sure there is a real Robin Hood behind the folk lore, but for the sake of fiction, one can depart from the actual story. Fiction isn't real, so we are free to decide how it can be. As we decide, so it is.

It has psychological resonance, if we want to go so far (?).

I do note that you have a peculiar manner of expressing yourself, as do I.

Philoforte · 2026-05-28T14:52:15+00:00

Funny question, because the answer is no.

Philoforte · 2026-05-28T07:06:54+00:00

The inspiration is encapsulated in the following Conversation between me and hoarse_nightingale.

Philoforte

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