Who is Uri Geller? | Biography

[Math Is Hard]

** hint** it doesn't take an Alfred Einstein to figure this one out...

 

[plover]

Who mused in his "love song"

Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question?

Do I dare to answer?
'Tis not Prince Hamlet, nay —
Nor Lazarus, though he may
Wish to be — or not.
His measured afternoon
In crustacean shell, or cloth cocoon
Is caught in shadow — and will never show
Those riders on the waves: the dancers,
As they come and go.

Who is Clara Reisenberg? (No googling! But you may wave your hands in the air. "Think of your fingers as delicate butterfly wings ...")

This one is actually tough as stated, I'll post the easier version later if no one gets it.

 

[Gokul43201]

I'm still clueless on the Love Song thingy First I thought it was a song...now it's clearly a poem...and quite a curious one, at that ! Not anyone contemporary, I presume, from the language ?? Hmm...must be someone famous...I wonder who...

Clara Reisenberg - I'm waving, but so far, it hasn't helped. :grumpy:

 

[Math Is Hard]

I'm still clueless on the Love Song

That love song would belong to one J. Alfred Prufrock
(that's the answer I was seeking, even though he is not the author of the work)

plover, c'mon, drop some hints, would ya? :grumpy:

 

[plover]

But the part about waving your hands is a hint, just ask Brian Wilson...

 

[Gokul43201]

That love song would belong to one J. Alfred Prufrock
(that's the answer I was seeking, even though he is not the author of the work)

plover, c'mon, drop some hints, would ya? :grumpy:

I still had no idea, so I googled it Kinda ironic that I've never come across the Love song of J. Alfred Prufock, when I'm currently reading a 600-odd paged book titled The Letters of T.S.Eliot. In retrospect, Eliot's style is just barely discernible from the quoted lines (only if you include plover's). Honestly, though, I would have guessed at least 5 other names before guessing Eliot :uhh:

Now about this butterfly lady...and this Brian Wilson thingy...is that the composer (or somesuch) guy from way long ago. I don't think I know a thing about him...just that he was long before I came around. Now, there are probably more Brian Wilsons walking around, feeling neglected...sorry, you guys

 

[plover]

Clara Reisenberg was much better known by her stage name: Clara Rockmore. (And if you wave your hands right, you end up with Good Vibrations, though I don't know if Ms. Reisenberg ever tried this.)

Kinda ironic that I've never come across the Love song of J. Alfred Prufock, when I'm currently reading a 600-odd paged book titled The Letters of T.S.Eliot. In retrospect, Eliot's style is just barely discernible from the quoted lines (only if you include plover's).

Hmm... I 've always thought of Prufrock as Eliot's best known poem (well, after the ones in Cats...), maybe that's just because my father liked it and we read it in one of my high school English classes. And I'm flattered you think I got the style close enough to be recognizable.

There's a good essay by Cynthia Ozick on Eliot. It talks about the slow restoration of sanity among literature scholars from the time in the mid-twentieth century when Eliot was more or less deified.

 

[Gokul43201]

Darn...it takes an essay by Cynthia Ozick to finally convince me that I am insane !

Whose "who's" question is it ?

 

[plover]

Another clue:

Clara Rockmore was a protegé of Lev Sergeyevich Termen, but they were separated for more than 60 years after the KGB kidnapped Termen (no, I'm not kidding here...)

 

[plover]

Darn...it takes an essay by Cynthia Ozick to finally convince me that I am insane !

Unfortunately, my own comment, as I now realize, is very ambiguously worded—so I'm not sure what yours means...

What I meant was that scholars in the 50's and 60's had a tendency to treat Eliot as some sort of exalted being, which some of them (including Ozick) feel a bit embarrassed about at this point. In recent years, he's been assessed much more objectively.

So if that is indeed what you heard me saying, does that mean that you deify Eliot?

 

[Math Is Hard]

Hmm... I 've always thought of Prufrock as Eliot's best known poem (well, after the ones in Cats...), maybe that's just because my father liked it and we read it in one of my high school English classes.

You know, I believe I pondered more about Prufrock in Calculus class than English- the part where he talks about measuring his life in coffee spoons. Made me think of Riemann sums in a way.

And I'm flattered you think I got the style close enough to be recognizable.

Very beautiful language, plover. I admired it, also.

 

[Gokul43201]

Unfortunately, my own comment, as I now realize, is very ambiguously worded—so I'm not sure what yours means...

What I meant was that scholars in the 50's and 60's had a tendency to treat Eliot as some sort of exalted being, which some of them (including Ozick) feel a bit embarrassed about at this point. In recent years, he's been assessed much more objectively.

So if that is indeed what you heard me saying, does that mean that you deify Eliot?

That is how I interpreted your words - I guess the ambiguity was lost on me.

Deify...mmmm...wouldn't go that far, but I do think he's something of a genius ! But that comes out of random readings - as does most of my knowledge, which is very unstructured - and that's how I can be a bit of an Eliot fan without having read Alfred Prufrock. You're not the first person I've shocked with my random ignorance.

 

[plover]

Well, I should at least provide an answer at this point.

Lev Sergeyevich Termen is better known in America as Leon Theremin, the inventor of the electric musical instrument called the theremin. Clara Reisenberg/Rockmore was the foremost virtuoso of the theremin. There was a documentary about the theremin that came out in the 90s, it's very much worth seeing. Up until the film-maker Steven Martin (no, not that Steve Martin) was working on this documentary in the early 90s, nobody really knew what had become of Leon Theremin, but Martin found him in Russia where he had been returned by the KGB back in the 30s, and where he had spent his life working as an engineer for the Soviet government. (He even developed the original "bugs" used by the KGB!) Martin reintroduced Termen and Reisenberg after about 60 years of separation—and apparently they had been in love at the time of his disappearance.
Lots of theremin info

To explain the rest of my clues: the theremin is played by causing shifts in the electromagnetic fields generated by the instrument literally by waving one's hands in the air. The quote about butterflies is from Clara Rockmore's discussion of theremin technique. Brian Wilson was the leader of the Beach Boys, and used a theremin in their song "Good Vibrations" (actually at the theremin site, it says that it wasn't an actual theremin that was used, just something similar).

Of course now everyone thinks I'm hopelessly obscurantist and will probably never try to answer my questions again...

Very beautiful language, plover. I admired it, also.

Thanks.

That is how I interpreted your words - I guess the ambiguity was lost on me.

Looking at it again, the second reading I was seeing now seems a bit strained. I'm not sure why I thought it more reasonable when I made my comment... :rofl:

Deify...mmmm...wouldn't go that far, but I do think he's something of a genius !

I don't think many people are trying to deny his excellence as a poet. It's more that now that the tenets of modernism under which he was enthroned have become (so to speak) untenable, he can be assessed in the same fashion as other poets rather than as some kind of monolithic presence. In order to have a full understanding of his accomplishments it's also best to view them in relation to other aspects of his life, e.g. his fairly awful quasi-fascist politics, and the dreadful way he dealt with his wife's mental illness. Some do see these circumstances as reason enough to reject Eliot's achievement—and some Eliot admirers seem to see Ozick's essay as making such a rejection. As for myself, I don't accept either thesis: it's not necessary to approve of someone as a person in order to find valuable things in their art (and I doubt Ozick thinks so either).

But that comes out of random readings - as does most of my knowledge, which is very unstructured - and that's how I can be a bit of an Eliot fan without having read Alfred Prufrock. You're not the first person I've shocked with my random ignorance.

I would describe myself as bemused rather than shocked. It is always the curse of the autodidact to have those who came to their knowledge through more well-worn paths view their collection of knowledge as strangely shaped and organized. I suffer from this myself.

 

[Gokul43201]

Bravo plover - obscurantist extraordinaire ! That was beautiful...brought tears to my eyes.

 

[Gokul43201]

plover, you ask again...

 

[plover]

Who's last seven initials are P.I.N.H.E.A.D. ?

(That's seven of nine total initials — the answer is not Star Trek related though. Again, no googling.)

 

[plover]

Hint: He doesn't like curtain calls. Those first two initials are far better known than the names they stand for. In fact, in the most common context where this person is encountered, I believe the fact that they are initials (and the fact that there are seven more) is never mentioned.

It would be quite surprising if you had never heard of this person.

 

[check]

Urg, I know this...but I can't...quite...think...of...it...URG!

 

[plover]

More hints:

While the character I'm referring to first appeared in a series of books, he is best known from the movie made from the first of these books. Both the movie and this inital book are named for this character.

Quite a few authors have written books featuring characters and settings from the original series. The most prolific of these being Ruth Plumly Thompson.