William Wright posted about some dreams he had in "Going swimming and Silver Stein Books." I mentioned in a comment that Silverstein was a common Jewish name, and then Bill thought of Shel Silverstein, who is probably best known as a children's author but who also did various other things, such as drawing cartoons for Playboy and writing some well-known songs performed by other artists (most notably "A Boy Named Sue" and "The Cover of the Rolling Stone"). I never read any of Silverstein's books as a child, my parents having correctly identified him as someone to whom children should give a wide berth, so I know him mainly for the two songs mentioned. "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" is very well-written, and of course the title -- a "rolling stone" which is also something you can read -- fits right in with Bill's ideas.
Bill's dream was specifically about Silver Stein books, though, so I searched for some of his children's poems. One of the ones I found caught my eye:
The narrator of the poem loses his head and can’t find it because he no longer has eyes with which to look or a brain with which to think. In the he decides to "sit down / On this rock / And rest for just a minute" -- the joke being that the "rock" is actually the missing head.
This made me think of Peter for two reasons. First, back in August I posted "Where is Peter's mind?" connecting Peter with that Pixies song and the idea of a missing mind or head. Second, the Silverstein poem devotes a whole line to the words “On this rock,” which is a familiar turn of phrase:
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18).
Only after making those connections did I check Bill’s latest post and discover that he, for entirely different reasons, has also connected Silverstein with Peter. The title of the post is “Shel Silverstein, Michael’s Book, and Peter.”
I remembered that I had once used Silverstein on this blog as a general reference to Jews, but at first I couldn’t find where. It turns out it was actually the closely related name Silberstein, and it was in the March 2023 post “An odd stereotype from H. G. Wells: Orientals live fast, die young.” The post also has to do with quicksilver, or mercury.
2 comments:
The idea that Peter's "Mind" is actually contained on a stone/ rock makes this play on the lost head being mistaken for a rock from "The Loser" all the better.
William,
And speaking of beheadings....
Recall my recent comments about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ,
and Green being symbolic of the Pale Horse in Revelation.
copy and paste ( link below)
"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century
chivalric romance in Middle English alliterative verse.
The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later.
It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot
combining two types of folk motifs: the beheading game
and the exchange of winnings.
It is an important example of a chivalric romance,
which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest
which tests his prowess. It remains popular in modern
English renderings from ******J. R. R. Tolkien****
Simon Armitage, and others, as well as through film
and stage adaptations.
The story describes how Sir Gawain, who was not yet a knight
of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious
"Green Knight" who dares any man to strike him with his axe
if he will take a return blow in a year and a day.
Gawain accepts and beheads him
, after which the Green Knight stands,
picks up his head, and reminds Gawain of the appointed time.
~~~~~~~
I asterisked J.R. R. Tolkien, because I've noticed that you make reference
to Tolkien and his work quite a bit in your writings.
Recall my recent comments (with many links) regarding
comets being harbingers of chaotic events and times
including in the Arthurian stories and how
it connects not only with Hale-Bopp ( recall what happened 4 years
after 1997 ) on Sept 11, 2001 , and with Halley's Comet in 1910
( 2 years later on April 15 1912, the sinking of the Titanic)
and I don't believe that it is a coincidence that the comet
that is in our solar system now, coined the Comet of the Century
( first appeared with the naked eye) on Sept 27, 2024,
at the Golden Gate Bridge on the 40th parallel north.
Hurricane Helene also appeared on that date.
In a previous comment, I connected the floating head'
of The Wizard of Oz to the symbolism of the power of the head.
( see link )
Of course we know that JFK was assassinated in the head because
it was a ritual (sacrifice) symbolic of the dying King and the End
of Camelot.
Take out the head, the body dies.
Another 'head' event was Trump's rally at Butler PA this
past summer.
And keep in mind the etymology of the word comet having
to do with the head.
copy and paste:
comet(n)
1200, from Old French comete (12c., Modern French comète),
from Latin cometa, from Greek (aster) komētēs, literally
"long-haired (star)," from komē "hair of the head"
(compare koman "let the hair grow long"), which is
of unknown origin. So called from resemblance of a
comet's tail to streaming hair.
And speaking of stones and rocks, of course
there is the King Arthur's connection
with Excalibur.
Everything is connected to a MUCH bigger picture, no?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur
JFK (7/7) Movie CLIP - The Truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BckPa2_A8gI
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.(Wizard of Oz)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHYw0nTcQXc
King Arthur and the Comet – what really happened in the C6th?
https://aslanhub.com/2019/11/king-arthur-and-the-comet/
https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-10-11/the-comet-of-the-century-approaches-closest-point-to-earth.html
https://ourplnt.com/earth-passed-through-tail-of-halley-comet/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight
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