Today's Stichomancy for Stanley Kubrick
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pericles by William Shakespeare: 'tis dangerous. Well, I perceive he was a wise fellow, and
had good discretion, that, being bid to ask what he would of
the king, desired he might know none of his secrets: now do I
see he had some reason for 't; for if a king bid a man be a
villain, he's bound by the indenture of his oath to be one.
Hush! here come the lords of Tyre.
[Enter Helicanus and Escanes, with other Lords of Tyre.]
HELICANUS.
You shall not need, my fellow peers of Tyre,
Further to question me of your king's departure:
His seal'd commission, left in trust with me,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: be no doubt as to the force and the continuity of my
abstemiousness. Three of them were examiners in seamanship, and
it was my fate to be delivered into the hands of each of them at
proper intervals of sea service. The first of all, tall, spare,
with a perfectly white head and mustache, a quiet, kindly manner,
and an air of benign intelligence, must, I am forced to conclude,
have been unfavourably impressed by something in my appearance.
His old, thin hands loosely clasped resting on his crossed legs,
he began by an elementary question, in a mild voice, and went on,
went on. . . . It lasted for hours, for hours. Had I been a
strange microbe with potentialities of deadly mischief to the
A Personal Record |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: seasonable death? What more deserving of song and eulogy than
resplendent victories and deeds of highest note? Surely if one man
rather than another may be accounted truly blest, it is he who, from
his boyhood upwards, thirsted for glory, and beyond all contemporary
names won what he desired; who, being gifted with a nature most
emulous of honour, remained from the moment he was king unconquered;
who attained the fullest term of mortal life and died without
offence[4] committed, whether as concerning those at whose head he
marched, or as towards those others against whom he fought in war.
[3] See Symonds' "Greek Poets," ch. v.
[4] As to the word {anamartetos} so translated, see Breitenbach, Exc.
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: magistrates. I allude to the late Monsieur Popinot, the deceased judge
of the Royal courts. When the question of replacing him came up, his
nephew, the heir to his benevolence, did not reside in this quarter.
He has since, however, purchased, and now occupies, the house where
his uncle lived in the rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve; he is the
physician of the Ecole Polytechnique and that of our hospitals; he
does honor to this quarter; for these reasons, and to pay homage in
the person of the nephew to the memory of the uncle, we have decided
to nominate Doctor Horace Bianchon, member of the Academy of Sciences,
as you are aware, and one of the most distinguished young men in the
illustrious faculty of Paris. A man is not great in our eyes solely
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