OPERA, n. A play representing life in another world, whose inhabitants have no speech but song, no motions but gestures and no postures but attitudes.
Interpretation
Opera is a dramatic art form that expresses emotions and narratives through music and performance rather than spoken dialogue.
This quote by Ambrose Bierce provides a whimsical definition of opera, emphasizing its unique nature as an art form that transcends the limitations of language and conventional acting. It illustrates how opera conveys complex human experiences and emotions through song, gesture, and attitude, thereby immersing its audience in a world where traditional communication is transformed into a rich tapestry of artistic expression.
In practice
This quote can be used to introduce a lecture on the significance of music in drama and performance arts.
PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar "itching palm" ("Palma hominis") is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.
Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
Judge: And what is your occupation in general? Brodsky: Poet, poet-translator. Judge: And who recognized you to be a poet? Who put you in the ranks of poet? Brodsky: No one. And who put me in the ranks of humanity? Judge: Did you study it?...How to be a poet? Did you attempt to finish an insitute of higher learning...where they prepare...teach Brodsky: I did not think that it is given to one by education. Judge: By what then? Brodsky: I think that it is from God.
The novelist does not long to see the_x000D_ lion eat grass. He realizes that one and_x000D_ the same God created the wolf and the_x000D_ lamb, then smiled, βseeing that his_x000D_ work was good.β
When I was younger, I thought I had to shut myself off, work really hard to cry. I learned after a while that that's just not... You know, often in life, you cry when you're caught off-guard. That's where I need to be when I'm acting, too.
The picture is not made by the photographer, the picture is more good or less good in function of the relationship that you have with the people you photograph.
The ostensible subject of my photographs may be motion, but the subtext is time. A dancer's movements illustrate the passage of time, giving it a substance, materiality, and space. In my photographs, time is stopped, a split second becomes an eternity, and an ephemeral moment is solid as sculpture.
I never knew I was a surrealist till Andre Breton came to Mexico and told me I was.
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