Word: transcend
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Destruction of the "I." Above all, like all mystics, she hoped to transcend self. "We possess nothing in this world-for chance may deprive us of everything-except the power to say 'I.' It is that which has to be offered up to God, that is to say, destroyed." In common with other mystics, Simone Weil skirts the dilemma of how a totally effaced self can remain sentient enough to experience the ineffable joy of its oneness with God, in the rare event that it should be achieved. Simone Weil's own most telling religious experience...
...came as a great shock, then, that they awarded the Festival Grand Prize to Walter Meigs' "The Earth Dies in Winter," which was not even worthy of being exhibited at all. A sloppy and trashy piece of work, the jurors praised it for "the artist's ability to transcend visual symbols." What on earth does that mean? How could any painting transcend visual symbols...
...Museum Director Howard says it "gives a definite impression of an otherworldly quality." Worcester Museum Director Francis Henry Taylor, who will lecture on the mystery at Birmingham next week, points out that the "smile appears on the faces of most archaic figures, a happiness of expression seeming to transcend that of human beings...
Barring the unification of East and West, Whatmough believes the eventual answer to the problems of language barriers lies with electronic machines. As he puts it, "In this age it is by no means inconceivable to have electronic symbols which would transcend all linguistic symbols." Whatmough asserts such a system would eliminate the need for Interlingua...
Their story points up once more that the British as a nation are aware of one great truth which we Americans prefer to ignore: that certain moral principles can and do transcend mere personal happiness. I don't want "popularity" and "happiness" first of all for my children; if they attain the moral stature I wish for them I know they will often be both unpopular and unhappy...