MALLARMÉ AND INTERNATIONALISM

Bertrand Marchal’s welcome new edition of Mallarmé’s early correspondence will surely invite a fresh look at the often subtle intersections between text and hors-texte. The question is an engaging one not only because of Mallarmé’s own pronouncements questioning the mimetic function of literary language but because the oblique referentiality that does occur, sometimes in spite of the poet\u27s overt intentions, points to unexpected structures of thought. I have shown elsewhere how these are at work in the verse, where Mallarmé’s cherished notions of friendship among poets and ideal readership play upon his use of the muse figure. A somewhat different though equally fruitful place of enquiry are Mallarmé’s essays of the 1880s and ‘90s, what he called his “poèmes critiques,” which have as their subject the necessity of forging a new language. These pieces are written in Mallarmé’s late hermetic prose style and so are examples of that new language. The grand synthesis of Mallarmé’s thinking along these lines is in La Musique et les Lettres, delivered in 1894 as an invited lecture at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, later published in England in a volume of the Taylorian lectures, but appearing in France with some modifications in the Figaro and the Revue Blanche soon after Mallarmé’s return from the tour (O.C. 1607). Mallarmé’s idea, here as elsewhere, is to lay the ground for a universal poetic language, that is to say a supra-national poetics for all language(s). Thus the relationship is only indirect with other, more literal internationalist activity such as the Esperanto movement; while universalism is implied in Mallarmé’s essay, no specific human language (other than French!) is ever mentioned. As will be discussed below, this suggestive expression of 19th century international political utopianism stems in fact from the poet’s own foray into political activism in the early 1870s. Moreover, the surprising mix of politics and poetics informs the inception of the Symbolist movement around 1876, at least as understood by Mallarmé who would become its chef d’école

Review of Marthe Robert, \u3ci\u3eEn haine du roman\u3c/i\u3e

En haine du roman is a lively and well-written discussion with the stated objective of wanting to account for the near religious veneration with which Flaubert viewed his activity as a writer. The answer is that Flaubert\u27s exclusive devotion to writing was a retreat from life, indeed a hatred of it and particularly of the drives towards social success and power and, at root, sexual conquest and procreation. Yet the very fact that he wrote, and that he wrote books like Madame Bovary when he (as he sometimes said) preferred writing books like La Tentation de saint Antoine, points to the vestige of such drives and also to something like a struggle within between two contending dimensions of his character

Hallucination and Point of View in \u3ci\u3eLa Tentation de saint Antoine\u3c/i\u3e

Over the past twenty-five years, as readings of Flaubert\u27s texts have become increasingly concerned with the definition of various narrative structures, the study of point of view has been inextricably tied to determining how his narratives generate (or, to some minds, subvert) meaning. Thus it is that almost all hermeneutical approaches have been concerned with point of view in one way or another, the procedure usually being to establish the principal or authoritative narrational axis (or perhaps a pseudo-authoritative one) and then to plot and analyze the departures from it. Point of view is not a new concern, of course, and has occupied readers of Flaubert for as long as there have been studies on style indirect libre and irony. Nor does this question originate in critical debate; Flaubert\u27s manuscripts show him aware of changes in perspective. Despite the excellent and numerous analyses of this topic already in print, we need to take a further look at point of view in La Tentation de saint Antoine. The reason is simply (and perhaps not surprisingly) that the preoccupation in Flaubert studies with structure is with narrative structure and that this has informed the discussion of a work that only partly qualifies as narrative. Given the theatrical origins of this text and the cross-fertilization that occurs in it between theatrical and narrative forms, this approach is too narrow. With respect to point of view particularly, little attempt has been made to look at the work\u27s hybrid nature, at the structures inherited from the theatrical as well as from the novelistic sides of its parentage, in order to describe more clearly some of its fundamental characteristics

Hallucination and Point of View in \u3ci\u3eLa Tentation de saint Antoine\u3c/i\u3e

Over the past twenty-five years, as readings of Flaubert\u27s texts have become increasingly concerned with the definition of various narrative structures, the study of point of view has been inextricably tied to determining how his narratives generate (or, to some minds, subvert) meaning. Thus it is that almost all hermeneutical approaches have been concerned with point of view in one way or another, the procedure usually being to establish the principal or authoritative narrational axis (or perhaps a pseudo-authoritative one) and then to plot and analyze the departures from it. Point of view is not a new concern, of course, and has occupied readers of Flaubert for as long as there have been studies on style indirect libre and irony. Nor does this question originate in critical debate; Flaubert\u27s manuscripts show him aware of changes in perspective. Despite the excellent and numerous analyses of this topic already in print, we need to take a further look at point of view in La Tentation de saint Antoine. The reason is simply (and perhaps not surprisingly) that the preoccupation in Flaubert studies with structure is with narrative structure and that this has informed the discussion of a work that only partly qualifies as narrative. Given the theatrical origins of this text and the cross-fertilization that occurs in it between theatrical and narrative forms, this approach is too narrow. With respect to point of view particularly, little attempt has been made to look at the work\u27s hybrid nature, at the structures inherited from the theatrical as well as from the novelistic sides of its parentage, in order to describe more clearly some of its fundamental characteristics

Distribution patterns, weed incursions and origins of terrestrial flora at the Capricorn-Bunker Islands, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

A checklist of vascular plants of the 15 Capricorn-Bunker Islands (CBI) (lat 23° 11’ to 24° 07’S; long 151° 43’ to 152° 43’E) compiled from 2007/08 surveys, recorded 131 vascular plant species including 44 (34%) native and 87 (66%) naturalized species from 55 families and 104 genera. New native records include Hernandia nymphaeifolia and Boerhavia sp. (Bargara L.Pedley 5382). An increase of about 35 exotic species over 23 years was recorded indicating a weed incursion rate of 1.5 species per annum. Cakile edentula (13 islands) and Solanum americanum (12 islands) are the most widespread exotic weeds. The naturalised flora ranged from 5% at Erskine Island (low disturbance) to 68% at Lady Elliot Island (very high disturbance). Achyranthes aspera, Argusia argentea and Pisonia grandis are the only species found on all 15 islands. Six indigenous species are limited to one island: Boerhavia sp. (Bargara L.Pedley 5382), Calophyllum inophyllum, Clerodendrum inerme, Hernandia nymphaeifolia, Stephania japonica and Ximenia americana. Patterns of plant distributions, diversity and origin are discussed. Eleven indigenous species reach their southern limit at the CBI, indicating connectivity with the Indo-Pacific region. PATN analyses using native flora generated two island groups. Tryon, Heron, North West, Masthead, Wilson, Wreck and Erskine Islands are the most closely related islands. Another group of related islands includes North Reef, Lady Musgrave, Fairfax Islands, Hoskyn and One Tree Islands. With the inclusion of the exotic flora, Lady Elliot Island separated into its own distinct group. Greater conservation management efforts are required to control and minimise the introduction of exotic weed species to islands with high human visitation

Impact hazard protection efficiency by a small kinetic impactor

In this paper the ability of a small kinetic impactor spacecraft to mitigate an Earth-threatening asteroid is assessed by means of a novel measure of efficiency. This measure estimates the probability of a space system to deflect a single randomly-generated Earth-impacting object to a safe distance from the Earth. This represents a measure of efficiency that is not biased by the orbital parameters of a test-case object. A vast number of virtual Earth-impacting scenarios are investigated by homogenously distributing in orbital space a grid of 17,518 Earth impacting trajectories. The relative frequency of each trajectory is estimated by means Opik’s theory and Bottke’s near Earth objects model. A design of the entire mitigation mission is performed and the largest deflected asteroid computed for each impacting trajectory. The minimum detectable asteroid can also be estimated by an asteroid survey model. The results show that current technology would likely suffice against discovered airburst and local damage threats, whereas larger space systems would be necessary to reliably tackle impact hazard from larger threats. For example, it is shown that only 1,000 kg kinetic impactor would suffice to mitigate the impact threat of 27.1% of objects posing similar threat than that posed by Apophis

Dendritic transport. I. Colchicine stimulates the transport of lysosomal enzymes from cell bodies to dendrites.

Injection of colchicine into the lateral cerebral ventricle of the rat was found to induce a paradoxical translocation of two lysosomal enzymes, dipeptidyl peptidase II (Dpp II) and acid phosphatase, from the soma of neurons to the dendrites. Following a single injection of colchicine, neuronal somata, which normally contain the bulk of these lysosomal enzymatic activities, become depleted of these enzymes, whereas dendrites become abnormally enriched. All neurons which contained these enzymes, except those of the mesencephalic nucleus of the trigeminal nerve, displayed this phenomenon. Lysosomal enzyme translocation into dendrites was observed in the mitral cell layer within 1 hr after a colchicine injection and could be induced in most neuronal populations by injections of colchicine as low as 25 micrograms. Five days after a 100-micrograms colchicine injection, a normal pattern of enzyme distribution was observed, indicating that the effect of colchicine was reversible. Enzyme translocation was not accompanied by gross changes in cell morphology, nor did it result in the specific loss of neuronal cell bodies which contained these enzymes. The results indicate that colchicine, under conditions known to inhibit axoplasmic transport, stimulates the transport of lysosomal enzymes from the cell body to the dendrites

Screening, intervention and outcome in autism and other developmental disorders: the role of randomized controlled trials

We draw attention to a number of important considerations in the arguments about screening and outcome of intervention in children with autism and other developmental disorders. Autism screening in itself never provides a final clinical diagnosis, but may well identify developmental deviations indicative of autism—or of other developmental disorders—that should lead to referral for further clinical assessment. Decisions regarding population or clinic screening cannot be allowed to be based on the fact that prospective longitudinal RCT designs over decades could never be performed in complex developmental disorders. We propose an alternative approach. Early screening for autism and other developmental disorders is likely to be of high societal importance and should be promoted and rigorously evaluated