#giucomix reading

[giucomix]

this mussolini guy is crazy, its like hes some kind of duce

[giucomix]

The lama and the khan wasted no time in entering into a relationship of priest and patron modelled on that between Pagpa and Kubilai Khan in the thirteenth century. Sonam Gyatso bestowed teachings and tantric initiation upon Altan Khan. In return, he received a promise of patronage, and a Mongolian title that was partly a translation of Sonam Gyatso's own name: Ghaikhamsigh vcir-a dar-a say-in cogh-tu buyan-tu dalai, ‘The Wondrous Vajra-Holder, Excellent, Splendid Meritorious Ocean’, a mouthful that was quickly shortened by the Tibetans to ‘Dalai’. Thus Sonam Gyatso became the first Tibetan to receive the title Dalai. Since he was the third in a line of rebirths the title was posthumously awarded to his predecessors, which made him the third Dalai Lama.

[giucomix]

Only a small circle of persons recognize my name, and it's always twisted in unbelievable ways: Gramasci, Granusci, Gramisci, Granisci, Gramasci, even Garamascon, with all kinds of bizarre variations. At Palermo, while I was waiting for my suitcases to be checked in the baggage room, I came upon a group of workers from Turin, on their way to the place of banishment. Along with them was a formidable, ultra-individualistic anarchist, known as "The Only One," who refused to give any information about himself to any one, particularly the police and other authorities. ''I'm 'The Only One'—that's all": this is how he answered them. In the crowd around him, I recognized ordinary criminals of the Mafia brand and a certain Sicilian ("The Only One" must be Neapolitan or from south of Naples) arrested for mixed criminal and political reasons. We introduced ourselves. The Sicilian stared at me for a while, then asked, "Gramsci, Antonio?" Yes, Antonio! I answered. "It can't be " he said "Antonio Gramsci must be a giant, not a little squirt like you." He didn't say any more, just withdrew to a corner, sat down on an unmentionable object and, like Marius above the ruins of Carthage, meditated on lost illusions. During all the time we had to stay in the same room, he avoided speaking to me and didn't even say good-bye at the end. Another episode similar to this occurred later, but it was more interesting and complex. We were about to leave, the carabiniere guards had already put us in irons and chains. Now I was·bound in a new uncomfortable way since the irons clamped my wrists rigidly, the wristbone outside the irons knocking painfully against them. The head guard came in, a huge noncommissioned officer who, when he read the names off, stopped at mine and questioned whether I was a relative of "the famous deputy Gramsci." I answered that I was he, himself, whereupon he observed me with pitying eyes, and murmured something incomprehensible. At every station, I heard him talking about me, always referring to me as "the famous deputy" when groups formed outside the jail. (I have to add that he arranged for the irons to be adjusted more comfortably.) The way the wind is blowing these days, I wondered whether I might not risk a beating from some overexcited individual. At a certain point the NCO, who was traveling in the second jail car, came into the one where I was and began to talk to me. He was extraordinary, bizarre, full of "metaphysical needs," as Schopenhauer would have said, which he succeeded in satisfying in the oddest, most disorderly ways you can imagine. He told me he had always pictured me as "cyclopean" and hence was quite disappointed to see me in the flesh.

Antonio Gramsci's Existential Nightmare

This letter and the preceding one have no stamps on them because I forgot to buy them in time.

[giucomix]

[giucomix]

In the first volume I regarded it as superfluous to illustrate this theory by examples, for every one can do this for himself by a little reflection upon cases of the ludicrous which he remembers. Yet, in order to come to the assistance of the mental inertness of those readers who prefer always to remain in a passive condition, I will accommodate myself to them.

[giucomix]

Before the suppression of Buddhism by the Communists in the mid-twentieth century, Tibet had the largest proportion of monks – as much as a quarter of the entire adult population – of any Buddhist country.

Huh?! Is that even sustainable

However, the expansion of the monasteries, as with any growing institution, meant that the standard for entrance was lowered. A Tibetan saying has it that the great monasteries are like the ocean, containing all kinds of fish. Few restrictions were placed on the conduct of monks, as long as they did not seriously breach the basic rules of monasticism, such as celibacy.

Okay yeah

At times, these rules were honoured in the letter, but not the spirit; for example, though heterosexual sex was punished with expulsion from the monastery, one kind of homosexual sex was very much a part of monastic life.

Obviously.

Senior monks often took a young monk under their wing as a drombo, a passive sexual partner; since the kind of sex practised in this context did not involve penetration, it was not considered a breach of the rules.

I think there was a post a few weeks back about how most "erotic relationships that don't map cleanly to our modern notions of sexuality" are really just variations of this

At the far end of the spectrum were the dob-dobs, or ‘punk monks’

The what?

tough guys who carried heavy clubs, keeping order in the monastery, acting as bodyguards to the lamas and even fighting for the monastery's interests when necessary.[...] They grew their hair long and wore a different version of monks’ standard robes.

Sure okay. I can only imagine them with mohawks now

[giucomix]

… I probably have 30 years yet to live, or perhaps 40, or maybe only a day: therefore I have decided to use this day, or, I should say, these 30 years, or, I should say, this day that is perhaps mine to live—I have decided to use it in such a way, that, even if not a single day in my life has been well used, this one, with God’s help, will be.

Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks Vol. 4 NB4:52

[giucomix]

It has become common practice in recent years for those who argue that Tibet is historically a part of China to point to the period of Mongol rule as the first instance of this. But, as we have seen, to characterise the situation of the late thirteenth century as representing the incorporation of Tibet into China would be a great oversimplification. For a start, Kubilai's eastern Mongol empire was never equivalent to China, though it included China as its greatest territory. For the benefit of their Chinese subjects, the Mongols ruled like the Chinese, adopting the Chinese reign name ‘Yuan’ and styling themselves as successors to the defeated Song dynasty. For this reason, Chinese historians treat the Mongols as merely another dynasty.

But the Mongol khans, even when they were at each other's throats, still considered themselves to be part of the great Mongol empire established by Genghis Khan.

Super interesting. And it seems that calling Kublai Khan a "Chinese emperor" is something Chinese historians are very defensive about even today. Obviously not taking sides on a historiographical controversy I just found out about—