Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do. He wasn't just an actor in schlocky action flicks. Bruce had been cultivating a popular following in Hollywood, to attract investment for exploratory films. Then his life was cut short. Tao packaged up his unfinished written work, with his philosophies bookending sketches and descriptions of techniques. Sadly, the Amazon only focus on the martial arts aspects, ignoring the rest. -TayssirJohnGabbour
"How can there be methods and systems to arrive at something that is living? To that which is static, fixed, dead, there can be a way, a definite path, but not to that which is living. Do not reduce reality to a static thing and then invent methods to reach it."
"Because one does not want to be disturbed, to be made uncertain, he establishes a pattern of conduct, of thought, a pattern of relationships to man. He then becomes a slave to the pattern and takes the pattern to be the real thing."
"Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can can assume all forms and since Jeet Kune Do has no style, it can fit in with all the styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any technique or means which serves its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores."
"Do not deny the classical approach simply as a reaction, for you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there."
"A so-called martial artist is the result of three thousand years of propaganda and conditioning."
This is really fabulous. I've got the book on order and look forward to reading it.
I've been experimenting with writing poetry in Java, and have found that the experience 1) enligtening to me 2) discouraging and confusing to others. I've seen a lot of other code poetry, but most of what I have seen seems to be geared either to express something about the confusing nature of 'code' to the outsider that does not understand it, to generate bad poetry, or to hopelessly confuse the human reader with a 'poem' that a computer processes easily.
To me the more interesting topic is the language, its ability to act and interact with other writings. I like that java (or whatever) is a language formed from others, English, C, etc., just as natural languages grow from their predecessors and contemporaries. I also like that it is easier to see java as a obsolete language in the future, just as Latin has fallen out of favor, and just as English will some day.
I've just posted one such poem on a poetry board I frequent. I've received some interesting comments, and not at all what I expected. Not a single person has commented on the theme of the poem. Those who don't understand the () { } ; ?: s write the whole thing off: "maybe I could comment if I understood java." Those who do have some coding background offer code specific comments: "that should be in a run() method, not a Constructor" "too many comments" (!!!)
Everyone wants to know what it does. (It is an abstract class)Anyhow, the first Lee quotation above really speaks to my heart and purpose.
Can you post this poem on the Wiki? I'd love to see it. I've often speculated about writing poetry in Java
if(status < jones.status){
buyCar()}
but I've never done it... Please share!