I'm totally glad I took the time to try to translate this, it was very insightful! :)
Wm. Blake has this cryptic line in the Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "Opposition is True Friendship". I always took it to mean that best friends are those that do not hesitate to disagree, in the most forceful way possible if it be needed, but hold no grudge and bear no wound but spring apart again after each battle, ready to laugh together again. In fact I find it impossible to judge the depth of my affection for anyone with whom I am always in concord. I am therefore attracted to those who are "schon häufig gnadenlos und aggressiv" in their thoughts and writing, for the wait for a test is always short and they don't go for "making nice", "keeping the peace" and pretending to agree when they do not.
Of course, I also have to feel, once a test comes, that the offered arguments or corrections are sound, that the feeling comes from an honest place and reasoned thought, that the disagreement is not just some manipulative or melodramatic flailing; that the minds involved are living and flexible, for, to quote Blake again in the same passage, "The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind". Whether I learn something or I teach something is all the same, as long as there was an ex/change.
(I don't presume to know our host very well and I'm not asking to be "tested", but I've always found him to be vigorously informative about language, which is why I've now followed him to his personal journal to learn more of how he makes his supper and his nest. From what I've read, in the context of what I wrote above, I can only imagine his friends are lucky to have him be forcefully honest with them! And if they can't take what he has to dish out, they weren't friends truly, by my reckoning. ;))
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2008-11-29 05:28 am (UTC)Wm. Blake has this cryptic line in the Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "Opposition is True Friendship". I always took it to mean that best friends are those that do not hesitate to disagree, in the most forceful way possible if it be needed, but hold no grudge and bear no wound but spring apart again after each battle, ready to laugh together again. In fact I find it impossible to judge the depth of my affection for anyone with whom I am always in concord. I am therefore attracted to those who are "schon häufig gnadenlos und aggressiv" in their thoughts and writing, for the wait for a test is always short and they don't go for "making nice", "keeping the peace" and pretending to agree when they do not.
Of course, I also have to feel, once a test comes, that the offered arguments or corrections are sound, that the feeling comes from an honest place and reasoned thought, that the disagreement is not just some manipulative or melodramatic flailing; that the minds involved are living and flexible, for, to quote Blake again in the same passage, "The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind". Whether I learn something or I teach something is all the same, as long as there was an ex/change.
(I don't presume to know our host very well and I'm not asking to be "tested", but I've always found him to be vigorously informative about language, which is why I've now followed him to his personal journal to learn more of how he makes his supper and his nest. From what I've read, in the context of what I wrote above, I can only imagine his friends are lucky to have him be forcefully honest with them! And if they can't take what he has to dish out, they weren't friends truly, by my reckoning. ;))