Two Ppl Eat an Apple in the Garden
Hegel's Introduction to His Philosophy, Go Ahead Don't "Like me"
Two Ppl Eat an Apple in the Garden: Hegel's Introduction to His Philosophy, Go Ahead Don't "Like me" David MacGregor I When Mr. John Milton Searched for a topic Of his great epic poem He chose Mosaic Legend of the Fall As everyone knows The lyric is called Paradise Lost A melody First published in 1666 Revised in 1674 Milton's masterpiece Appeared after English Civil War Resulted in reinstatement of Monarchy Under Charles II Milton in hiding After the Restoration He had famously approved Maybe too rashly Execution of Charles I In 1649 He escaped obliteration Only Maybe out of sympathy For Going completely blind (Or maybe Providence?) During a time of English pandemonium (Pandemonium (Is one of the words (Gifted by Milton (To the English (Language) The Year 1776 Marked culmination Of Milton's hope for Republican rule Serried ranks in Lexington April morning Americans slaughtered Innocent On their home turf In 1775 (Serried is another word (Milton (Gave the Universe) Still not realized in England But founded in The United States of America By The Declaration of Independence Under the Christian Cross "In God We Trust" 2 It is striking therefore That when Hegel Searched for Absolute Metaphor A Picture-Thought Of his Philosophy He chose the image Of Adam and Eve After the Fall Hegel Sublimely aware Of Milton's Quest for the bright universe For a universe of light Not darkness Recommended it In his Lectures on Aesthetics Because Milton Made the awful figure Of Satan So powerful So Ir-Rational So Relatable So In short Evil After all A third of God's angels Sided with Satan Who was jealous Of Jesus That God Made His Son Even with Satan's Daughter Called Sin 3 What is the best First thing To read in Hegel? My LSE advisor Donald MacRae In 1975 Pointed to the Phenomenology of Mind Hegel's first published work Funeral in Berlin Read it Like a novel He counseled And his advice Still may be best (Hey guys (It's 700 pages (This isn't a lull (In the bombing (During the Second World War (We got things to do) But I would On the contrary Suggest [every student discards a teacher] (Seconding (The recommendation (Of one of Hegel's (Greatest exponents (GRG Mure) The little tale Picture-thought Of Adam and Eve 4 Since this is Substack And a poem Where Freedom of Speech Is Exulted Like nobody's business I must admit Is written Under extortion Of memory First black belt poem American Samurai I am in Govan Glasgow 1976 New [ ] Wife Nothing is going good She got into Oxford First woman to get into that one But we had no money Or not enough No ideas For my PhD thesis That hasn't been Rehearsed before Somewhere 5 Remember this poem Is just about Me It's my life And I can Talk about it If I want To 6 Govan, Glasgow Is amazing The Lochs The canals The ship-building The workers In their Iconic Caps The cranes perched Above the ships Just as high as I was After a few pints Of suds While watching The workers In the vast emporium Of rational drunkenness On the docks of Govan Darkness at noon Govan at noon The place we rented was Ok On Deer Park But not after I brought home The dog Or maybe It was the landlord An Iraqi With his beautiful Syrian wife Was choosing our Rental stay To completely convert Our apartment Into something Else I mean The commentaries On Hegel and Kant Are unbelievable A quick stroll In the Critique of Reason Is worth All the rest Or just do Prolegomena 7 In desperation I buy The Lesser Logic English translation Just published The commentaries Are giving the goalie A sunburn The so-called Lesser Logic Is really The first Volume Of the Encyclopedia Another Hegel Joke On You Which he called Part One Of the Encyclopedia Every poet Needs A lexicon In despair I curl up On a wooden bench In our Govan apartment Drilling for gas lines Beneath me Thumbing in desperation Through The Encyclopedia Logic And coming upon Hegel's picture-thought Introduction to Logic (Paragraph 24 (pp. 42-45 (Hegel's Logic (Being Part One Of the Encyclopedia Of the Philosophical Sciences) I mean If Kepler thought Only God Was Infinite So the empirical Universe Is Finite It Ends Just like you and me Maybe suddenly Maybe not Games in star-lit Universes When it's over It's over Then maybe There was infinity In the human mind As a kid I lived materialism Beneath the bright star Of the Emergency Shelter 8 Hegel said The whole myth Of the Fall Is a myth Look at it He said Probably influenced By his mother Or Maybe The German guy Who Wrote The Status of Women Von Hippel Or something Who was also Mayor Of Konigsberg And the greatest Feminist That Ever Lived Along with Mary Wollstonecraft Besides Hippel Was to the amazement of Commentators One of Hegel's favourite Authors Or maybe both Or maybe by sheer Force of Logic When you were a tadpole And I was a fish You know The whole official story Eve Dumbly Is seduced By a snake To break a promise (and whispered (something (sexual) Not to share An apple With Adam Therefore Eternal sin For both of Them Blah-blah-blah The other way To look at it Though Says Hegel Is the birth of knowledge Through Eve Who plucks the apple From the tree of knowledge To the astonishment Of Adam Their mutual sin Is knowing Themselves In Eden Knowing Eden Is not Enough Heaven is not enough Especially after Granddaughter Adeline That Eve Broke open The myth of leisure We just can't hang around here Covered with leaves Adam graduating Into Self-Consciousness Adam and Eve Eve and Adam Said Hegel [Stretching a point] Created Somehow The American Revolution Even with Bonnie's shoulder Exploding On Assunpink Creek Adam and Eve Trapped In Nature Released To The Idea 9 Now the Ultimate Scholarly Admission Is that at the beginning My attitude to America Was mixed I mean I gotIdealityEarly (No one else has) But America? Even my early work Mentions Marx And Engels's Strong Admiration For America Marx's letter To Lincoln Etcetera I never got Until Jamaica Or Trinidad Or St Kitts How much colour Means After giving it up Hegel says All the beautiful colours Every wonderful Hue Of the Universe Is/ Are Reflected in Human skin Besides Hegel I am Not known For conspiracy theory Of the worst sort Don't look me up Cuz I'm not there Call me Sancho Paza Or King Arthur Or somewhere In between Not sure what caused it Except what Hegel called The Understanding Consciousness The delayed And fragile Leap From The Consciousness Of the Roman Empire Is what Happened Every picture Before my eyes Eve and Adam Freedom is a word I seldom use Without thinking When I've been loved So there I was My wife About to reinvent Lost in the Fun House Lolita An epic Made in America At University of Glasgow So getting what Hegel was Saying Freedom Is Freedom Of thought First Amendment To the American Constitution Look it up In the Phenomenology The Introduction To the Introduction To my heart 10 Somewhere Alexander Hamilton Took a tumble In my heart With Report on Manufactures But that was later Not in Govan I don't know the answer To Thelma and Louise Adam And Eve Except That day Eve Offered me The Apple Lyndon Station In Toronto First in Black and White And then In technicolour The birth of self-consciousness Moses's Hegel's Whole Story The snake From Don't tread on me I realized That the most Dangerous Agent Is the American Agent Tumbling in the rapids Of the Ottawa River Below Parliament HillDear Reader I here produceTwo images To illustrate The birth of Reason The sense of Right and Wrong That Hegel's Account Of the Fall Imprinted On my memory Upon my Consciousness As though An ancient tale Should have So much Impact As though Hegel Admonished That such an old tale Would be alive Today
The first picture below Is Eve In black and white Every colour of the rainbow Then later After My black-belt-in-training I coloured it in After Jamaica After You (The quotations are from (Hegel's remarkable (Preface (To the Philosophy of Right)