E. S. Dallaire's 'Metaphor & Reality

A reading of E. S. Dallaire's narrative essay 'A Visit From Homer', originally written in June 2017. The written version can be found by following this link:   https://esdallaire.substack.com/p/a-visit-from-homer   Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!

A reading of E. S. Dallaire's literary review 'On Rachel Cusk's 'Outline' Trilogy', originally published on his own website on December 13, 2019. The written version can be found by following this link: https://esdallaire.substack.com/p/on-rachel-cusks-outline-trilogy   Follow E. S. Dallaire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!

A reading of E. S. Dallaire's essay 'Oil World', published September 19, 2020, on Substack. The written version can be found by following this link:   https://esdallaire.substack.com/p/oil-world   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   E. S. Dallaire's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire E. S. Dallaire's Substack: https://esdallaire.substack.com/  

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire expands on what the propositions 'The body has a philosophy all its own,' and 'To figure out how not to regard [the body] as a riddle is no doubt one of the perennial tasks for philosophers,' mean to him, presently. He talks about his current reading of St. Thomas Aquinas' 'Summa Theologica', and how that 13th century philosopher applied himself to the same question – E. S. Dallaire has not read enough of this text to really give a detailed description of that philosopher's conclusions concerning the primacy of the body in the contemplation of eternal truth, but he does give an account of some of the thoughts he's been having 'around' the text – specifically, about the authorities St. Thomas Aquinas defers to in his arguments, as well as Aquinas' non-materialist understanding of ancient philosophical statements and formulae.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!     E. S. Dallaire's Substack Magazine: https://esdallaire.substack.com/ E. S. Dallaire's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

**ORIGINALLY RECORDED BEGINNING OF SEPTEMBER 2019 (but never uploaded to Libsyn, my podcast distributor - for those who noticed that the episode count for this podcast series starts at '003'. Unfortunately, the sound quality on the inaugural episode I recorded is too poor, with an incessant buzzing in the background, so that one will remain 'lost')** In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire uses Plato's descriptions of the five natural constitutions of the city state (Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, Tyranny), as well as their degeneration from one state to the next - as outlined in the eighth book of Plato's 'Republic' - to identify the quality and nature of the character and founding principles of the United States of America, as well as those of his own country, Canada.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   E. S. Dallaire's Substack Magazine: https://esdallaire.substack.com/ E. S. Dallaire's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

**ORIGINALLY RECORDED BEGINNING OF SEPTEMBER 2019 (but never uploaded to Libsyn, my podcast distributor - for those who noticed that the episode count for this podcast series starts at '003'. Unfortunately, the sound quality on the inaugural episode I recorded is too poor, with an incessant buzzing in the background, so that one will remain 'lost')** In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire uses Plato's descriptions of the five natural constitutions of the city state (Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, Tyranny), as well as their degeneration from one state to the next - as outlined in the eighth book of Plato's 'Republic' - to identify the quality and nature of the character and founding principles of the United States of America, as well as those of his own country, Canada.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   E. S. Dallaire's Substack Magazine: https://esdallaire.substack.com/ E. S. Dallaire's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', and by popular demand(!), writer E. S. Dallaire is once again joined by Nikole, an English teacher and poet, to discuss what it really means to 'Know Thyself', especially with respect to the demands placed upon them by the social world, given that they are both now, more or less, occupying solid positions within that world, both professionally and as individuals. In this episode the distinction is made between one's social 'identity', and the part of the self which first compels an individual—likely in their teenage years—to start asking serious questions about life, the world, and their place within it. The result: 'identity' is determined to be a band-aid solution to a question that becomes increasingly uncomfortable not to have an answer to as one grows older and enters the adult world, while the part of the self that is so concerned to answer the question in the first place is something much more elusive and difficult to pin down. It is this latter concept which Nikole and E. S. Dallaire spend the majority of the episode discussing, batting back and forth possible definitions and fleshing out their consequences, if adopted, by an individual. The underlying, unspoken thrust of this episode is the question of what it means to live a meaningful life, especially as the full consequence of that question comes to bear down on a soul in the moments before death.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Nikole's poetry blog: https://modernlady2017.wordpress.com/ E. S. Dallaire's Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ E. S. Dallaire's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire  

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire is once again joined by Nikole, an English teacher and poet who was a guest in 'Episode 020 – Does the Soul Exist, and If So, Where Is It?', to discuss art and the artist's place and role in the modern world. Nikole draws upon her current reading of Nietzsche's 'The Birth of Tragedy', and the discussion soon becomes a very lively compare/contrast between Nietzsche's ideal and the typical or common relationships which individuals describe as having with the art they consume today, in 2020.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Nikole's poetry blog: https://modernlady2017.wordpress.com/ E. S. Dallaire's Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ E. S. Dallaire's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire uses the philosophy implied by Shakespeare's claim that 'All the world's a stage' as a springboard to dive deep into the surreal quality of the present socio-political climate: a climate which seems to be spreading fast throughout much of the world, setting up a situation—brewing the elements for a perfect storm, if you will—in which police authority, or the authority of the law in general, is being challenged and opposed and protested, the results of which action no one can be certain of at present. In this moment of indecision and uncertainty, wherein it seems order and chaos have collided, history seems to have re-emerged. Those participating and those looking on are perhaps noticing a surreal quality hovering around the present, and in this episode E. S. Dallaire contends that this is a sign of their sense of reality, as they've come to understand it over the past several decades, is being overwhelmed by something inexplicable, something which seems to be coming from the 'outside', and exceeding their expectations of what is 'normal'.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire opens up the discussion with a bit of a riff on the distance between an individual's impression of their own civilized nature and the reality which lies underneath the surface of this guise—a reality which undeniably features brutality and violence in the struggle for life and against death which animals take part in, and which humans too, no matter how far we feel we've come, have not escaped. Then he moves on to talk about the recent protests, the development of the Autonomous Zone in Seattle, and the generally charged moment in history which has rapidly caught up to the modern world over the past two weeks. He wonders what role philosophers may have in all of this—the conclusion to this question is the title of the episode.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire discusses the thinking which lies behind his philosophical claim that 'understanding is but a phantom' and that what it proposes and constructs is nothing more than a mirage. He references a philosophical text written by Dorothy Emmet, entitled 'The Nature of Metaphysical Thinking', extensively, and also draws from his own essay 'The Light of the World' (link below) in order to further examine the underlying assumptions for his claim. In this episode he did not try to argue that he is correct, or that his claim is 'true'; rather, he desired only to give a descriptive account of the reasons which led to him making it. This is all prompted by the fact that the claim that 'understanding is but a phantom', has, in his own thinking, proved challenging—for how can one proceed with conviction in their philosophical inquiries if this be the case? Dorothy Emmet offers much food for thought as to why—or 'how', rather—this need not be devastating.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   'The Light of the World' - E. S. Dallaire's essay, as referenced in this episode: https://esdallaire.ca/the-light-of-the-world/esdallaire/   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire takes on a subject which, in this series, has been his most challenging to date, for the fact that he attempts to work with ideas he has not yet fully grasped, and tries to explicate them in real-time for the listener and also for his own sake, to see what the limits of these ideas are, and what their implications are for his own work moving forward. Not to be too mysterious, the analysis which occurs in this episode is of an individual striving to discover new knowledge, yet bounded by certain assumptions about reality which are embedded in the language he uses, this idea suggesting that the assumptions may be impossible to get around, so long as he tries to 'encode' his understanding using the language he knows. Posited in this episode is the idea that the world—the modern world, perhaps, or else whatever world an individual happens to find themselves in—is a product of a language which is laden with certain assumptions, meaning that the individual has an even more arduous challenge before him: that, in order to develop new knowledge, not only does he have the problem with language mentioned above, but he also has to 'see around' the world in which he dwells in order to perceive anything new—such a world which encompasses or comprehends all which hitherto he has presumed to exist. The development of the above, in this episode, concludes with an analysis of da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa'.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire wonders what objects in the world today, as it presents itself to you when you step outside your front door, hold within themselves a comprehensive vision both of what the modern individual aspires to, and what ties them to the ground of modern reality—physically of course, like a root, but also an intellectual and/or spiritual tie, or tether, which keeps them grounded and sure about where they're placing their own two feet upon the plain of existence. 'Where do we think we stand in the grand scheme?' he wonders, and he spends the episode looking around areas where the modern world's aspirations might be found, and along the way, as he's looking, he explains why he'd hope to find an object, or structure, which encapsulates the whole scheme and project of modern life.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   'A Monster Tremendous' (poem E. S. Dallaire read to conclude the episode): https://esdallaire.ca/a-monster-tremendous/esdallaire/   Personal website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire re-examines his lamentations from the last episode concerning the Yoga practitioner's inability to transfer his or her successes in the Yoga philosophy to the modern urban world, which seemingly opposes the expression of Yoga at every level, be it physical or mental. E. S. Dallaire admits he was significantly off the mark in last week's episode, but, like one who is ever-vigilant in their pursuit of truth with a capital 'T', he is more than willing to acknowledge his mistakes, publicly even, if it means he will move closer to his goal! In this episode, in an effort to augment his error (he still may not be totally correct), he claims that if the Yogi cannot apply his or her learning to the mis-alignments he perceives within the modern urban world, then perhaps the Yogi's philosophy is not all it's cracked up to be. E. S. Dallaire references Confucius for back up in the latter half of the episode!   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire is led to confront the fact that teachings of the Yogic tradition do not align with life as experienced within the urban landscape of the modern world. He engages with this problem with reference to his own Yoga practice, claiming that one naturally reaches a plateau—even in the practising of the merely physical component of Yoga, which he claims is the extent to which the tradition has been embraced by the Western world—where one must engage seriously with the spiritual philosophy of Yoga teachings, and come to terms with the fact that the advances one has experienced in clarity of thought, in bodily strength and flexibility, and in overall mind-body connection, are not the strengths or improvement or skills which the 'modern world' values and encourages one to foster and develop in any setting outside of the yoga studio.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire notes the similarities between Socrates' notion of the soul's existence after death and the practising of philosophy as a preparation and being toward death, on the one hand, and the motivation of the Buddhist's meditation, which is likewise a preparation for the soul's transition from the material world of cyclic existence, to that of Buddha Nature, in the moments just before, and just after death, on the other hand. He compares these two notions—Plato's, as given in the dialogue 'Phaedo'; that of the Buddhist tradition, as he surmised from his reading of 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead'—in an effort to better understand what might be required of him, as an individual rededicating themselves to serious and intentional philosophical inquiry.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this very special episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire is joined by a guest to define and discuss what the soul is, whether it exists, whether it has changed down through the ages or whether it is as it has always been precisely as it was identified and defined by thinkers thousands of years ago, as something unchangeable and even eternal. His guest's name is Nikole, she is a teacher by profession and temperament, and a wild child at heart, and this is her first appearance on a podcast. Together we decided on the topic question, and we travelled through some interesting places in our discussion during the hour-long recording!   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/esdallaire?lang=en

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire examines the role human reason plays in an individual's attempt to perceive and come into contact with reality. He reads aloud a passage written by Plotinus, refers back to episode 018 where he examines the Platonic dialogue 'Phaedo', and describes Thomas Aquinas' view of the role human reason plays in aligning the individual with the Divine, all in an effort to locate his own perspective on the matter, which he feels he needs to have a better grasp of, for the fact that it has become pertinent to the development of the novel he is working on.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire examines the arguments Socrates gives for the soul's continued life and existence after the death of the body in the dialogue entitled 'Phaedo', in which Socrates is sitting in his cell moments before he must drink the poison which he has been sentenced to drink by the state of Athens. His friends marvel at Socrates' apparent ability to face his own death with such serenity, but Socrates tells them he is convinced that, for a philosophical spirit such as his, death of the body is the best event which could be hoped for.   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.! That would be much appreciated!   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESDallaire

In this episode of 'Metaphor & Reality', writer E. S. Dallaire begins with a few critical comments upon the work of art by Maurizio Cattelan entitled 'Comedian', and then goes on to talk about the 'art object' in general, and what 'high art' might evolve into in decades to come, keeping in mind advances in Artificial Intelligences, which in the past two or three years have been producing imitation art (poetry, music, digital animation) which is becoming more and more like the 'real thing'. This question of what the 'real thing' is, is a question which Maurizio Cattelan's recent work inspires, and it is the question which E. S. Dallaire closes the episode on. Article wherein is found the Shakespearean sonnet produced by an AI 'poet': https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/10/ai-sonnets-shakespeare/   If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to Share, Subscribe, Comment, Rate, etc.!   Personal Website: https://esdallaire.ca/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/esdallaire?lang=en