{"id":5776,"date":"2026-07-09T03:34:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/?p=5776"},"modified":"2026-08-02T18:48:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T01:48:02","slug":"coda-to-the-old-observatory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/coda-to-the-old-observatory\/","title":{"rendered":"Coda to The Old Observatory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty<\/span> years <\/span>before<\/span>, James had given<\/span>
\nlectures on exoplanets at Meiji U<\/span>
\nin<\/a> Tokyo, which was a kind of heaven<\/span>
\nfor him. What particularly drew<\/span>
\nhim to it was how this mosaic<\/span>
\nof simulacra was basic-<\/span>
\nally<\/span> and utterly itself: a French cafe<\/span>
\ndetailed down to a Cinzano ashtray<\/span>
\nreplete with aproned gar\u00e7on<\/span>
\n(sauf qu\u2019il ne parle pas fran\u00e7ais);<\/em><\/span>
\nbookshops in a language there was no way<\/em><\/span>
\nto read. James loved the foreign.
\n<\/em><\/span>Tokyo was a place to find it within,<\/em><\/span>
\neither the foreign itself, or its twin.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A young colleague at Meiji,<\/span>
\nwhom he told he\u2019d once tried<\/span>
\nAikido, asked him if he\u2019d maybe<\/span>
\nenjoy the service of a personal guide<\/span>
\nto the headquarters, the Hombu Dojo.<\/span>
\nJames would never have gone solo.<\/span>
\nHe was eternally grateful he did.<\/span>
\nAikido took, so amid<\/span>
\nhis abtruse models of planetary<\/span>
\nformation, birth and death there arose<\/span>
\na \u00a0paradigm of throws and blows<\/span>
\nturning around balance and ki.<\/span>
\nOne reason James liked linked verse:<\/span>
\nits goal was to persuade, not coerce.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The Old Observatory<\/a> is \u00a0a poem about a \u00a0retiring professor of astronomy who organises a renga competition.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/span>https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Blueprint-for-a-Benji.pdf<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty years before, James had given lectures on exoplanets at Meiji U in Tokyo, which was a kind of heaven for him. What particularly drew him to it was how this mosaic of simulacra was basic- ally and utterly itself: a French cafe detailed down to a Cinzano ashtray replete with aproned gar\u00e7on (sauf qu\u2019il … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Coda to The Old Observatory”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5776"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5841,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5776\/revisions\/5841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}