Comments on: And a happy birthday to the late Herman Melville http://blog.refractal.org/2008/08/01/and-a-happy-birthday-to-the-late-herman-melville/ tracing the network's resolution Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:52:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: m http://blog.refractal.org/2008/08/01/and-a-happy-birthday-to-the-late-herman-melville/comment-page-1/#comment-16 m Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:30:07 +0000 http://blog.refractal.org/?p=134#comment-16 I offer the following comment in light of the description of your blog, "Sailing the frontier of modern resolution," and taking this phrase in its most literal sense; the page from Melville's passport application was both horrifically foreign and eerily familiar. It was familiar in the very intimate sense that... I recognized Melville's signature! Having graced the cover and back of many a book, I recognized Melville's signature as his own, but this very time it had been used <i> by him </i> and not by some publisher in a well designed office in New York. I both was warmed by this recognition (ah! I <i> know </i> something of this man! I know his signature!) and silently taken aback knowing that here, for the first time, I was seeing him sign a document as a signature should be employed. On a less personal level, I immediately felt slightly aghast at the description of features, which, to my politically sensitized ears (eyes?) sound like a frightening form of phrenology. But then I reconsidered. How else to describe a person... for there was no picture! There was no photograph! These descriptions <i> are in place of </i> of an image. Reflections on the quality of resolution from my modern life... I offer the following comment in light of the description of your blog, “Sailing the frontier of modern resolution,” and taking this phrase in its most literal sense; the page from Melville’s passport application was both horrifically foreign and eerily familiar. It was familiar in the very intimate sense that… I recognized Melville’s signature! Having graced the cover and back of many a book, I recognized Melville’s signature as his own, but this very time it had been used by him and not by some publisher in a well designed office in New York. I both was warmed by this recognition (ah! I know something of this man! I know his signature!) and silently taken aback knowing that here, for the first time, I was seeing him sign a document as a signature should be employed.

On a less personal level, I immediately felt slightly aghast at the description of features, which, to my politically sensitized ears (eyes?) sound like a frightening form of phrenology. But then I reconsidered. How else to describe a person… for there was no picture! There was no photograph! These descriptions are in place of of an image.

Reflections on the quality of resolution from my modern life…

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