ink relaxation

antimony

Woodlot's monument

ink drawings by Lohbado

Antimony is a paradox of reason, of two opposing logical ideas. For example, discussion about beginning of the universe could occur on a relative level. In the absolute sense, ultimate beginning is not possible, due to infinite regress. The discussion of determinism/freewill also involves paradox. Biological, social and economic forces determine or condition the individual. And yet a person appears free to spontaneously choose and to make moral decisions.


There's a long section about antimonies in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. A paradox is a crack in what is apparently known. Examining paradox provides an opening through which to gaze beyond routine, beyond the familiar, to see beyond the limits of one's opinion and belief. Or it could be simple acknowledgement that life is vast, profound and mysterious. One's knowledge is pretty small when measured against the infinite cosmos. How one relates to paradox is up to the individual.

Lohbado thought of the character Shem the penman in Finnegans Wake, a book which recreates the sense of someone sleeping. Shem the penman created his own "faked O'Ryan's, the indelible ink"...  from bodily substances. "Then, pious Eneas.... shall produce nichthemerically from his unheavenly body a no uncertain quantity of obscene matter not protected by copiright in the United Stars of Ourania... and the first till last alshemist wrote over every square inch of the only foolscap available, his own body..." page 185.

A lot of paradox, or opposites... O-Ryan is another name for the devil. Ourania refers to both heaven, the constellation orion and urine. Shem the penman is a kind of alchemist who turns base metal into gold, or in this case, bodily fluid into ink and his skin into paper. Opposites occur on almost every page, evoking a transcendent quality, beyond this or that. It stimulates a process of contemplation, of taking a closer look, examining and marvelling.