Iz brodograđevne i pomorske baštine
U trenutku koji bi se mogao označiti sudbinskim i dramatičnim za opstanak
časopisa Brodogradnja gotovo kućni autor zapaženih priloga u ovoj rubrici ponudio
je, umjesto već priređenoga članka iz svoga serijala, tekst za koji drži kako bolje
odgovara aktualnim okolnostima i časopisa i hrvatske brodogradnje. Prijedlog smo
prihvatili i članak izvorno napisan na engleskom jeziku tako i objavljujemo kako bi se
što autentičnije prezentirala bit autorove poruke.
Uredništvo
Velimir SALAMON
The Parting Text and the Pledge
Confronting the impossibility of printing may disturb the life of a magazine. Although a
magazine can continue to appear in the electronic form as this one presently does, the designer
involved in tradition may consider the lack of the printed issue to be a serious blow.
Since English replaced the Latin language as the universal tongue of the scholars, particularly
since English was established as the official language in naval architecture, the following text will
be given in English.
Furthermore, questions in this Project are observed to be protected by the question mark and
hence are not deemed to be as stupid as answers may frequently be. So:
Questions
The answer to these questions is also given. Many, particularly those dedicated to the Golden
Calf renamed to Profit, might consider it stupid. But it is more than an answer, more than the
promise, it is a decision, a pledge of not quitting even when the case is obviously lost. Also, as
Karen Blixen would say “the artist is never poor“. His or her reward is not material. The
compensation is contained in the non-material joy of creation, which is not, however, considered to
be immaterial. So here is the answer:
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Answer
Commentary
It may not prove to be wise to ignore one's own identity. It is considered to be wrong to reduce
the richness of the human thought to a single issue. The American culture is presently being
aggressively imposed, reducing all other cultures and even languages to its size. Clearly “money
makes the buttocks move“ as the Gypsies would say.
But should we ignore our natural beauties like the Plitvice Lakes, the wonderful Adriatic Sea
and the islands, the waterfalls of the river Krka or the high mountains, should we forget the
musicians like the anonymous folk players, the composers Ivan Zajc, Ivo Tijardović, Rudolf Matz,
or Boris Papandopulo for instance, the violinists like Franjo Krežma or Zlatko Baloković or the
violoncellist Monika Leskovar, should we ignore the painters like Vlaho Bukovac, Edo Murtić or
Celestin Medović, the sculptors like Ivan Meštrović, Vanja Radauš or Antun Augustinčić, the
photographers like Milan Pavić, Ivo Pervan or Damir Fabijanić, should we discard the Croatian
writers like Miroslav Krleža, Antun Gustav Matoš or Tin Ujević, the scientists like Ruđer
Bošković, Franjo Getaldić, Ivan Đikić, Vladimir Prelog or others, should we discard the directors
like Krešo Golik, Antun Vrdoljak, Krsto Papić etc., the actors like Pero Kvrgić, Relja Bašić,
Marija Kohn, could we neglect the perfection of our traditional folk architecture or the signed one,
or the fragrance of aromatic herbs, the multitude of excellent food and drinks ... ?
Should we ignore the national design of the necktie called the cravatte, which is merely a false
derivative of the term Croat? Must we ignore the Slavic design of the basket-hilted sword, the
standard weapon of the Venetian Dodge’s powerful Slavic bodyguards from Dalmatia or Istria,
who were called Schiavoni like their weapon, which was consequently adopted by most of the
European knights ?
Schiavona
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Should we simply ignore the multitude of the ideas, anonymous or not, which were the
important contributions to the culture of the world? It would not be entirely adequate if this
richness was reduced only to the American culture however esteemed it was.
Here, culture is, above all, considered to be the variety and the saturation of the ideas, and
hence is opposing the reduction however demanded it may be.
It seems that the philosopher Plato in the antiquity, rightly considered the reality to remind of
the shadows upon the cave walls of the people moving around the fire in its midst. Modern views,
like the modern mathematics, which allows more than the recognizable three dimensions, support
this notion. Even the modern technology calls the reality virtual.
Once Bob Dylan or Robert Zimmerman used to sing The Times They Are a-Changing. Also, in
the novel The Role of My Family in the World Revolution by Bora Ćosić one character states this
when they were pissing into the river from the bridge – Voja Bloša said that everything is flowing.
Thus they all evoked the famous Heraclitus’ sentence Panta rhei, panta kinetai kai uden menei!
Plato's observation of the reality
Heraklitus’ Panta rhei… idea
in the interpretation by the character from the novel by Bora Ćosić
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In July of 1944 the Croatian publishing company issued a certain text as the Foreword to the
book on the maritime culture by Petar Mardešić. The text is aimed at boosting the national pride
and hence strictly corresponds with the text from another, neighbouring society. It must be
understood that, at that time, it was deemed to be normal. But keeping one’s ground one must ask
himself whether it is always only the stranger who is responsible for our mishaps, or we may also
be to blame.
Note on Limericks
Further in the text each passage is accompanied by a poem called a limerick is presented. The
poem contains some ideas which the author considers to be important for a designer. The author
also feels that it is important to repeat certain notions until they are finally noticed. This idea which
is now, fortunately, supported by media, was in history abundantly employed by many. The
notorious Hitler’s Dr. Goebbels knew that the lies should be repeated at least ten times and to
make the eleventh repetition, true. This idea was perhaps known even before the Antiquity, when
the Roman senator Caton concluded every speech of his with Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem
esse delendam or with the request that the Phoenician Carthage is destroyed.
In history, the Latin language was solemnly proclaimed to be used for the universal
communication among the learned.
In that sense, the scholar and the artist Leonardo da Vinci was and still is regarded to be the
last person on the face of the Earth to possess all the knowledge, to know everything. One can not
be entirely certain, but Leonardo probably knew the knowledge which was translated into the
Latin. He was, most probably, less acquainted with the immense Greek culture, which is still
mandatory in mathematics but is communicated via the Greek alphabet. Leonardo was probably
ignorant of the huge Slavic culture since he was not supposed to read the Cyrillic lettering. He was
probably also less aware of the prodigal Arab culture and their scripture or of the cultures of India,
since they had a particular lettering, even less of the ones of China and Japan since he was,
probably, ignorant of their ideograms. Likewise, it is not certain that he knew the cultures of the
Spanish speaking world etc.
Even today, in 21st century, some scholars proudly claim that they do not understand a certain
text, that it is all Greek to them.
It actually appears that it might be true that God decided to descend to the Earth and confuse
the human languages in order to prevent the arrogant human endeavor to reach the Heaven by
building their Tower of Babel.
But today, the English tongue replaced Latin as the universal language of the scholars. It was a
necessity since the scope of the human knowledge became too augmented to be comprehended by
a single person. Therefore a single designer had to be replaced by a team of scholars who, led by
the chief designer who knew everybody’s task, perform to the best of their abilities.
Therefore, since the English tongue has been established mandatory, I communicate my ideas
with the limericks.
Here is the written definition of a limerick:
A limerick is a kind of a witty, humorous, or nonsense poem, especially one in five-line
anapestic or amphibrachic meter with a strict rhyme scheme (AABBA), which intends to be witty
or humorous, and is sometimes obscene with humorous intent. The form can be found in England
as of the early years of the 18th century.
The limerick packs laughs anatomical
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In space that is quite economical,
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
My first traditional limerick was written for my brother-in-law Goran Pavić, a scholar noted
also in France, who used to astonish people saying: What you say is interesting but is it divisible
with π ? The number of π is the first irrational number in mathematics, the number which can not
be expressed in a ratio a/b where a and b are integers and b is non-zero, or which can be divided
without a residue only by one and itself.
The limerick was written on board of a ship sailing from Rijeka to Split, since the road was
blocked by the JNA Army during the war in Croatia:
Science eagerly seeks the reply,
To the question How? but never to Why?
In this regard science,
Forms potent alliance,
Which can’t de divided by π .
Instead of trying to present limericks solely with words and ignoring the adequate recording, a
more sensible musical notation is here used. So the above limerick might go like this:
The limerick song
But, in the modern era, when change finally proved to be imminent, the limerick was also
bound to change.
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The traditional short poem turned into a, still short, song. To take care of the reduction which
dominates the entire civilisation and to achieve better concordance with the modern times which
broadened the scope of the insight, but also to essentially observe the usual limerick form, poems
were enlarged. For the same reason music was also introduced to address more human senses
simultaneously.
So the limerick poem became the popular song.
CETERUM AUTEM CENSEO....
Further I consider that ...
Fig 7 The limerick on science
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