Ex Nihilo

[Delirious]

quite meaningless, this one... but however:

what does Ex Nihilo mean? should be "out of nothing" or something like that, but it would be nice to know for sure. anyone into latin, or whatever it is?

oh, and while I´m at it; if someone feels like explaining the phrases "enter suicidal angels" and "the sun fired blanks", feel free to do so.

 

[Arch]

No real meaning. Just like reading a Dr. Suess book.

 

[rahvin]

it does mean "from nothingness".
i suspect angels might get suicidal in the event of their falling from the grace of god (theirs was the glory of heaven, but they refused it because of false pride).
and a sun that fires blanks is a source of energy that fails to spread warmth, like a cold shell where feelings are supposed to be but in fact are not.

 

[Steve]

After reading rahvin's post it makes sense to me (which I haven'tr managed in the past year )

 

[Delirious]

i suspect angels might get suicidal in the event of their falling from the grace of god (theirs was the glory of heaven, but they refused it because of false pride).

well, something like that. my major problem is the sentence itself, though. it just doesn´t make sense to me. it sounds like an exhortation to actually enter the suicidal angels...
I guess I misinterpret the "enter" in some way...

and a sun that fires blanks is a source of energy that fails to spread warmth, like a cold shell where feelings are supposed to be but in fact are not.

oh, that does make sense, indeed.

 

[rahvin]

well, something like that. my major problem is the sentence itself, though. it just doesn´t make sense to me. it sounds like an exhortation to actually enter the suicidal angels...
I guess I misinterpret the "enter" in some way...

oh, i see what you mean now.
no, i think it comes from theatre-plays language and it just implies an inversion of the subject:
[some] suicidal angels enter

at the beginning (and sometimes midway through) of a scene in a play, if you read the script - let's take for instance shakespeare's historical drama richard ii, since i just saw it in london - you would see the first lines list the characters entering the scene in just the same way:
enter
- bubububu, earl of lancaster
and so on.

 

[Fathomless]

regarding the sun fired blanks, not only do I think it has a meaning, as rahvin pointed out, but I think it's a double-entendre. In the beginning when Mikael says, "Upon our evening/When the sun fired blanks," I think it's meant to imply the sort of muted orangeish affect the sun takes on at sunset.

 

[wildfyr]

or maybe he's implying the opposite of a spectacular (Zodiacal) sunrise??? yeeeeeah... that double stuff, that's the ticket.

like... encouraging on the negative scale

:Spin:

 

[Steve]

Entering their minds or their worlds? Maybe what rahvin said?

 

[rahvin]

@fathomless: agreed on the orange-ish glow. i think it's the same with "evening": the actual sunset and the dying moments of a relationship.

 

[Villain]

I know this is not the correct interpretation, but each time I happen to take a direct look to a bright light-source (say, a sun) and see those flashy images before my closed eye-lids, I think of calling them the sun-fired blanks. A funny association, I think.

-Villain

 

[Steve]

WHen you look at the sun and close your eyes, it does project blank images, just shapes into your vision... interesting.

 

[Delirious]

oh, i see what you mean now.
no, i think it comes from theatre-plays language and it just implies an inversion of the subject:
[some] suicidal angels enter

at the beginning (and sometimes midway through) of a scene in a play, if you read the script - let's take for instance shakespeare's historical drama richard ii, since i just saw it in london - you would see the first lines list the characters entering the scene in just the same way:
enter
- bubububu, earl of lancaster
and so on.

but of course! I have read Macbeth so I can´t understand I didn´t think of that.

 

[Steve]

Can anyone understand Shakespeare?

 

[rahvin]

Can anyone understand Shakespeare?

i like shakespeare. i hope if i continue to admire him he won't hold it against me when i don't understand. :Spin:

 

[Steve]

I like Shakespeare, but it ruins everything what I have to do in school... Of course, I hate Charles Dickens...

 

[Incendiare]

Can anyone understand Shakespeare?

I understand Shakespeare. He's good, but not great.

 

[Steve]

I could, but Sometimes it's confusing.... wait, maybe it's the school edited versions... (I haveall my books from english this year)

 

[t.a.j.]

I think Rahvin is right, I've always seen the suicidal angels as a metaphor for the hedonists, hedonism is sinful after all, and angels succumbing to such sin might well be suicidal. and going beyond that, men die from overindulgence and all the aftereffects of hedonism, the inabillity to do anything that would not mean pleasure...

Hedon talks about us, we are the suicidal angels.
notice that, angels, higher beings, something better, suicidal, self destructive, far from being something better, in decline.

ok, enough inconsistent rambling.

 

[Fathomless]

I understand Shakespeare. He's good, but not great.

If Shakespeare's not great, then who is? A rhetorical question, of course, you needn't bother to answer. But Jesus, I consider Shakespeare to be the gold standard for the beauty of words. If anyone expresses anything more eloquently, then I need to read that guy.