Jing-reed's Musings from Thailand

Fractals — The Shapes and Colors of Infinity

               [click to enlarge]

Recently began rereading Arthur C. Clarke's excellent SF novels the 'Rama series'.  These inventive novels contain an account of  humanity's first three 'visitations' by an alien species.  And in fact it provoked me to create the above fractal image entilted 'Rama Revealed III'. Then synchronistically a friend emailed, and knowing of my obsession with world of fractal design, asked if I had seen the Youtube video about 'fractals' introduced by. and featuring Arthur C. Clarke.  

"Arthur C. Clarke presents this unusual documentary on the mathematical discovery of the Mandelbrot Set (M-Set) in the visually spectacular world of fractal geometry. This show relates the science of the M-Set to nature in a way that seems to identify the hand of God in the design of the universe itself. Dr. Mandelbrot in 1980 discovered the infinitely complex geometrical shape called the Mandelbrot Set using a very simple equation with computers and graphics."

     Arthur Clarke - Fractals - The Colors Of Infinity  [1 of 6]

 

PROUST — WITH SUBTITLES IN THAI

Often difficult to determine where something actually began. Ostensibly it all started with a new section of my daily journal, entitled quite simply 'Memories'. Bits of flotsam and jetsam from the past that bob to the surface which I then include as an extension of my daily journal chatter. Enjoyable and keeps the neurons firing.

Recently wrote to a friend and included the text of an article from Time magazine by a favorite author, Alex Kerr. The article, “Retreat to the Past”, was about his home in the remote Iya valley of Japan’s Shikoku Island. Mr. Kerr discovered this hidden Japanese Shangri-La in 1970, when he was 19 years old, and I had also wandered into the magical spot some 15 years before and so I was intimately aware that his flowing poetic prose was indeed based on fact.

Soon found myself rereading sections of his wonderful book “Lost Japan” published in 1996. Encountered a reference to Marcel Proust’s “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu” [Remembrance of Things Past]. A monumental work which I had read many years ago. For whatever reason immediately decided that I would rename my ‘Memories’ section of my journal to “A la Recherche…”, but in Japanese. [One of the marvelous features of reaching ‘geezer-hood’ is that your eccentric and bizarre behavior really doesn’t have to have a reason.] Also a great feature of my newly acquired MS Word 2003 is the ability for me to enter Japanese or Thai characters directly into my journal.

So I began working with my Japanese Word Processor, with its handy kanji character dictionary, in an attempt to translate the French into Japanese. Nothing which I was able to produce seemed plausible, nor completely Japanese for that matter. Couldn’t write to a Japanese friend in Hanamatsu for help in that I lost his email address in a recent computer melt down. So instead I wrote to my email buddy Tony in Australia asking for the e-address of a Japanese friend of his, who happens to live in Shikoku.

Almost immediately he responded with the correct translation in Japanese [which becomes “In Search of Lost Time” ], and was so thoughtful as to even include a small jpg of the Japanese edition of Proust’s “A la Recherche…”.

Goal achieved, case closed. . . . or so I thought.

A week later I decided to have my lunch with a bit of midday news on the telly. Less than exciting, time to find something different. In changing channels I hit the wrong number combination of my satellite TV service and found myself on the American sit-com channel which normally has the most mindless of TV fare.

However today it was a movie in French. At the same moment that I pressed the button for information about the title [“Le Tempes Retrouvé ”], the woman on screen called out, “Marcel, Marcel”. In an instant I knew it was undoubtedly an adaptation of the last book of Proust’s “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu” , confirmed by the fact that it was more than two and a half hours long [I had only missed the first five minutes]. Subtitled, however the subtitles were in Thai.

Within a few moments I knew that I was being treated to cinematic art. A rare treat in this time of endless Hollywood drivel. And although my comprehension of French was a bit rusty, it was sufficient in order to enjoy this unique and beautiful film as the sick and dying Proust experiences his lifetime as one memory merges into the next.

The title of the movie is from Proust’s final book, entitled ‘Time Regained’. And though his work had already grown to more than seven volumes and some 4.000 pages, it was still unfinished when he died in 1921.

Evidently once tweaked, Indra’s web of universal connections keeps vibrating. . .

Somerset Maugham

1874-1965

Coincidence
—an accidental and remarkable occurrence of events or ideas at the same time, suggesting but lacking a causal relationship

Synchronicity
—the fact or state of being synchronous; simultaneous occurrence

The definition of synchronicity, according to Carl Jung, is a meaningful coincidence, i.e. a coincidence that holds some personal significance for the observer.

Yesterday, within a 12 hour period, I found myself surrounded by references to the British author Somerset Maugham. First was an email from an American friend, currently living in Vermont, with a quote from Maugham about Buddhist temples in Thailand.

“They are unlike anything in the world, so that you are taken aback, and you cannot fit them into the scheme of the things you know. It makes you laugh with delight to think that anything so fantastic could exist on this somber earth.”

I knew that Somerset Maugham had spent considerable time in Thailand, and also here in Chiang Mai, during 1920-1930 [?]. Had always meant to do some investigation on this, but somehow never got around to following up on it.

Next a friend dropped by the house to chat, and knowing about my obsessive reading habit, offered to give me a couple of books that a visiting friend of his had given him. Geoff explained that his friend just didn’t have enough room in his luggage bulging with gifts and trinkets picked up during his three weeks in Thailand. Books he had brought along to read and never gotten around to even cracking open.

One was a biography about Somerset Maugham by Jeffrey Meyers. Just published and I hadn’t heard or read about it. The other book was “Earthly Powers” by Anthony Burgess, one of the finest contemporary British authors. Though I hadn’t read it, I knew that this tome, first published in 1980, had utilized the persona of Somerset Maugham as the protagonist of the novel.

Later in the day I was working on a short piece I have begun on the life and works of the Russian author Gogol. Needed some specific information and decided to try the internet. Was happily surfing the now abundant sites in Russian when one link suddenly presented me a page, not about Gogol, but rather Somerset Maugham. An absolute wealth of information as well as abundant photos and artwork. [The Gogol information was there also, but on a different page.]

It was at this point that I questioned, “what the significance of these three differing references to Somerset Maugham? Where do they fit in my life?”

An author whom I haven’t even thought about in decades is suddenly being presented to me from three unrelated sources. Nothing more than coincidence? Hardly.

No immediate answer, but intuitively know that the answer will eventually surface.