Erica Jong from Fear of Flying
There is nothing fiercer than a failed artist. The energy remains, but, having no outlet, it implodes in a great black fart of rage which smokes up all the inner windows of the soul. Horrible as successful artists often are, there is nothing crueler or more vain than a failed artist.
Next up: a failed philosopher.
There's nothing good about being ordinary. People don't respect you for it. People run after people who are different, who have confidence in their own taste, who don't run with the herd. There is nothing gained by giving in to the pressures of group vulgarity.
Next up: the ordinary philosopher.
I had gone to graduate school because I loved literature, but in graduate school you were not supposed to study literature. You were supposed to study criticism. Some professor wrote a book 'proving' that TOM JONES was really a Marxist parable. Some other professor wrote a book 'proving' that TOM JONES was really a Christian parable. Some other professor wrote a book 'proving' that TOM JONES was really a parable of the Industrial Revolution. . . . Nobody seemed to give a shit about your reading TOM JONES as long as you could reel off the names of the various theories and who invented them. . . . My response was to sleep through as much of it as possible.
Reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/HUgwM1Ky228?si=6wWUNMJW0kehsPaA
All natural disasters are comforting because they reaffirm our impotence, in which, otherwise, we might stop believing. At times it is strangely sedative to know the extent of your own powerlessness.
Praise the Lord?
What all the ads and whorescopes seemed to imply was that if only you took proper care of your smells, your hair, your boobs, your eyelashes, your armpits, your crotch, your stars, your scars, your choice of Scotch in bars - you would meet a beautiful powerful, potent, and rich man who would satisfy every longing, fill every hole, make your heart skip a beat (or stand still), make you misty, and fly you to the moon (preferably on gossamer wings), where you would live totally satisfied forever.
Yo, Jacob!
Once I worshipped Keats for dying young. Now I think it's braver to die old.
Too close to call let's say.
Quote of the day
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Umberto Eco from The Name of the Rose
Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means...
Or here: Posts are not submitted to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a post, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means...
Then why do you want to know?
Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do.
Ah, the tricky part. You know, if you're fractured and fragmented.
Love is wiser than wisdom.
Not unlike hate, he reminded himself.
Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.
Next up: fear wonkers.
How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.
Or a pill?
True learning must not be content with ideas, which are, in fact, signs, but must discover things in their individual truth.
Cue dasein.
Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means...
Or here: Posts are not submitted to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a post, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means...
Then why do you want to know?
Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do.
Ah, the tricky part. You know, if you're fractured and fragmented.
Love is wiser than wisdom.
Not unlike hate, he reminded himself.
Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.
Next up: fear wonkers.
How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.
Or a pill?
True learning must not be content with ideas, which are, in fact, signs, but must discover things in their individual truth.
Cue dasein.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Edith Wharton from The Age of Innocence
A smiling, bantering, humouring, watchful and incessant lie. A lie by day, a lie by night, a lie in every touch and every look; a lie in every caress and every quarrel; a lie in every word and in every silence.
It was as normal day...
...and wondering where he had read that clever liars give details, but that the cleverest do not.
So, which one are you?
...he arrived late at the office, perceived that his doing so made no difference whatever to any one, and was filled with sudden exasperation at the elaborate futility of his life.
Bummer.
It was a sombre snowy afternoon, and the gas-lamps were lit in the big reverberating station. As he paced the platform, waiting for the Washington express, he remembered that there were people who thought there would one day be a tunnel under the Hudson through which the trains of the Pennsylvania railway would run straight into New York. They were of the brotherhood of visionaries who likewise predicted the building of ships that would cross the Atlantic in five days, the invention of a flying machine, lighting by electricity, telephonic communication without wires...
The fool!
Is there nowhere in an American house where one may be by one's self?
Every fucking room for me. Though, needless to say, for better and for worse.
But he had lived in a world in which, as he said, no one who loved ideas need hunger mentally.
I remember when it used to be that way here: https://ilovephilosophy.com/index.php
On the other hand, check this out: https://ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.p ... &start=475
A smiling, bantering, humouring, watchful and incessant lie. A lie by day, a lie by night, a lie in every touch and every look; a lie in every caress and every quarrel; a lie in every word and in every silence.
It was as normal day...
...and wondering where he had read that clever liars give details, but that the cleverest do not.
So, which one are you?
...he arrived late at the office, perceived that his doing so made no difference whatever to any one, and was filled with sudden exasperation at the elaborate futility of his life.
Bummer.
It was a sombre snowy afternoon, and the gas-lamps were lit in the big reverberating station. As he paced the platform, waiting for the Washington express, he remembered that there were people who thought there would one day be a tunnel under the Hudson through which the trains of the Pennsylvania railway would run straight into New York. They were of the brotherhood of visionaries who likewise predicted the building of ships that would cross the Atlantic in five days, the invention of a flying machine, lighting by electricity, telephonic communication without wires...
The fool!
Is there nowhere in an American house where one may be by one's self?
Every fucking room for me. Though, needless to say, for better and for worse.
But he had lived in a world in which, as he said, no one who loved ideas need hunger mentally.
I remember when it used to be that way here: https://ilovephilosophy.com/index.php
On the other hand, check this out: https://ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.p ... &start=475
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Alice Walker from The Color Purple
What will people say, you running off to Memphis like you don't have a house to look after?
Shug say, Albert. Try to think like you got some sense. Why any woman give a shit what people think is a mystery to me.
Well, say Grady, trying to bring light. A woman can't git a man if peoples talk.
Shug look at me and us giggle. Then us sure nuff. Then Squeak start to laugh. Then Sofia. All us laugh and laugh.
Feminism, let's call it.
God is different to us now, after all these years in Africa. More spirit than ever before, and more internal. Most people think he has to look like something or someone---a roofleaf or Christ- but we don't. And not being tied to what God looks like, frees us.
God, God, God. God and race. God and gender. So far.
It didn't take long to realize I didn't hardly know nothing. And that if you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don't mean nothing if you don't ast why you here, period.
You gotta start somewhere, right?
Sofia the kind of woman no matter what she have in her hand she make it look like a weapon.
And look how that turned out.
I try to teach my heart not to want nothing it can't have.
Me too. And look how that turned out.
Well, sometime Mister git on me pretty hard. I have to talk to Old Maker. But he my husband. I shrug my shoulders. This life soon be over, I say. Heaven last all ways.
You ought to bash Mister head open, she say. Think bout heaven later.
Or, razor in hand, slit his throat?
What will people say, you running off to Memphis like you don't have a house to look after?
Shug say, Albert. Try to think like you got some sense. Why any woman give a shit what people think is a mystery to me.
Well, say Grady, trying to bring light. A woman can't git a man if peoples talk.
Shug look at me and us giggle. Then us sure nuff. Then Squeak start to laugh. Then Sofia. All us laugh and laugh.
Feminism, let's call it.
God is different to us now, after all these years in Africa. More spirit than ever before, and more internal. Most people think he has to look like something or someone---a roofleaf or Christ- but we don't. And not being tied to what God looks like, frees us.
God, God, God. God and race. God and gender. So far.
It didn't take long to realize I didn't hardly know nothing. And that if you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don't mean nothing if you don't ast why you here, period.
You gotta start somewhere, right?
Sofia the kind of woman no matter what she have in her hand she make it look like a weapon.
And look how that turned out.
I try to teach my heart not to want nothing it can't have.
Me too. And look how that turned out.
Well, sometime Mister git on me pretty hard. I have to talk to Old Maker. But he my husband. I shrug my shoulders. This life soon be over, I say. Heaven last all ways.
You ought to bash Mister head open, she say. Think bout heaven later.
Or, razor in hand, slit his throat?
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Nihilism...
“At most, You exist for 80/90 years, and you don't exist for ∞. 80/90 Years. Do you think your existence makes any difference to the period you don't exist? Assuming you were born for a noble and great purpose to do some great things is an idiotic self-consoling assumption. Your existence is worth absolutely nothing.” Anupam S Shlok
See, I told you!
“Then he would lean back in his chair and match the tips of his fingers together in a little steeple and tell me why I couldn't sleep and why I couldn't read and why I couldn't eat and why everything everyone did seem so silly, because they only died in the end.” Sylvia Plath
So, what's that make posting here?
“He who hates himself is not humble.” Emil M. Cioran
Let's explore that.
“People say I have to be good. But what does it mean to be good? To follow the precepts of another man's thinking? To bind oneself to the morality of another man's religion? Where others see morality, I see a means to power. Where others see ethics, I see a mark of the weak.”Makuochukwu Okigbo
Pick one:
1] way too cynical
2] not nearly cynical enough
“To accept the meaninglessness of existence, is to isolate oneself from the world and the imprisoned, mindless actors within it." Demi White
Virtually here.
“She would never understand how these creatures could find any sort of solace or contentment with the meaningless existence they had been shackled to.” Tobin Elliott
Me? I understand it half as much.
“At most, You exist for 80/90 years, and you don't exist for ∞. 80/90 Years. Do you think your existence makes any difference to the period you don't exist? Assuming you were born for a noble and great purpose to do some great things is an idiotic self-consoling assumption. Your existence is worth absolutely nothing.” Anupam S Shlok
See, I told you!
“Then he would lean back in his chair and match the tips of his fingers together in a little steeple and tell me why I couldn't sleep and why I couldn't read and why I couldn't eat and why everything everyone did seem so silly, because they only died in the end.” Sylvia Plath
So, what's that make posting here?
“He who hates himself is not humble.” Emil M. Cioran
Let's explore that.
“People say I have to be good. But what does it mean to be good? To follow the precepts of another man's thinking? To bind oneself to the morality of another man's religion? Where others see morality, I see a means to power. Where others see ethics, I see a mark of the weak.”Makuochukwu Okigbo
Pick one:
1] way too cynical
2] not nearly cynical enough
“To accept the meaninglessness of existence, is to isolate oneself from the world and the imprisoned, mindless actors within it." Demi White
Virtually here.
“She would never understand how these creatures could find any sort of solace or contentment with the meaningless existence they had been shackled to.” Tobin Elliott
Me? I understand it half as much.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Stupidity...
“The boundary between stupidity and intelligence cannot be drawn with a straight-edged ruler. It is rather a no-man’s land, a zone between two immense forces which sometimes are at war and sometimes drowsing through an armistice.” Walter B. Pitkin
Here? The boundary between friend and foe?
“I find it curious that people are prone to ‘fight to the death’ for the very things that will ultimately ‘fight for their death.” Craig D. Lounsbrough
Let's just say it doesn't surprise me at all.
“Intelligent people can still get into some stupid-ass foolery” Jonny Garza Villa
Happens all the time here. If only virtually.
“Against stupidity we have no defense. Neither protests nor force can touch it. Reasoning is of no use. Facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved — indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions. So the fool, as distinct from the scoundrel, is completely self-satisfied. In fact, they can easily become dangerous, as it does not take much to make them aggressive. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Don't get me started here!!
“A stupid person who does not acknowledge his stupidity is also an egoist.” Sukant Ratnakar
Ah, the Ayn Randroids!
"She was so goddamn stupid, she didn't even have sense enough to feel ashamed.” Allie Ray
I've noted that a few times here as well.
“The boundary between stupidity and intelligence cannot be drawn with a straight-edged ruler. It is rather a no-man’s land, a zone between two immense forces which sometimes are at war and sometimes drowsing through an armistice.” Walter B. Pitkin
Here? The boundary between friend and foe?
“I find it curious that people are prone to ‘fight to the death’ for the very things that will ultimately ‘fight for their death.” Craig D. Lounsbrough
Let's just say it doesn't surprise me at all.
“Intelligent people can still get into some stupid-ass foolery” Jonny Garza Villa
Happens all the time here. If only virtually.
“Against stupidity we have no defense. Neither protests nor force can touch it. Reasoning is of no use. Facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved — indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions. So the fool, as distinct from the scoundrel, is completely self-satisfied. In fact, they can easily become dangerous, as it does not take much to make them aggressive. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Don't get me started here!!
“A stupid person who does not acknowledge his stupidity is also an egoist.” Sukant Ratnakar
Ah, the Ayn Randroids!
"She was so goddamn stupid, she didn't even have sense enough to feel ashamed.” Allie Ray
I've noted that a few times here as well.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
God...
“All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.” Chuck Palahniuk
I try not to be. Right, God?
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” C.S. Lewis
The fool! Right, God?
“When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, There's just something about you that pisses me off.” Stephen King
Come on, is that really true?
“I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” Oscar Wilde
At least until He created woman.
“God has no religion.” Mahatma Gandhi
Tell that to the folks in Hell.
Right, IC?
“God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas but for scars.” Elbert Hubbard
The ones He put there in particular.
“All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.” Chuck Palahniuk
I try not to be. Right, God?
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” C.S. Lewis
The fool! Right, God?
“When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, There's just something about you that pisses me off.” Stephen King
Come on, is that really true?
“I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” Oscar Wilde
At least until He created woman.
“God has no religion.” Mahatma Gandhi
Tell that to the folks in Hell.
Right, IC?
“God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas but for scars.” Elbert Hubbard
The ones He put there in particular.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Stieg Larsson...
It was completely impossible to box with her. She had only one style, which we called Terminator Mode. She would try to nail her opponent, and it didn’t matter if it was just a warm-up of friendly sparring.
Next up [here]: It was completely impossible to post with her.
You know who.
Zalachenko...you're just an ordinary asshole who hates women.
That's her dad.
There's always someone willing to believe malicious rumours.
And two more to start them.
She had discovered that the most effective method of keeping the fear at bay was to fantasize about something that gave her a feeling of strength. She closed her eyes and conjured up the smell of gasoline.
Her too: https://youtu.be/k26hmRbDQFw?si=3lxyHjIDDZtc-9cl
From a purely physical standpoint she didn't have a chance, but her attitude was that death was better than capitulation.
Think henry quirk and Ruby Ridge.
Wennerström was devoting himself to fraud that was so extensive it was no longer merely criminal---it was business.
Need that explained to you?
It was completely impossible to box with her. She had only one style, which we called Terminator Mode. She would try to nail her opponent, and it didn’t matter if it was just a warm-up of friendly sparring.
Next up [here]: It was completely impossible to post with her.
You know who.
Zalachenko...you're just an ordinary asshole who hates women.
That's her dad.
There's always someone willing to believe malicious rumours.
And two more to start them.
She had discovered that the most effective method of keeping the fear at bay was to fantasize about something that gave her a feeling of strength. She closed her eyes and conjured up the smell of gasoline.
Her too: https://youtu.be/k26hmRbDQFw?si=3lxyHjIDDZtc-9cl
From a purely physical standpoint she didn't have a chance, but her attitude was that death was better than capitulation.
Think henry quirk and Ruby Ridge.
Wennerström was devoting himself to fraud that was so extensive it was no longer merely criminal---it was business.
Need that explained to you?
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Existentialism...
“There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point…The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.” Richard Dawkins
Any adults here?
“Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?” Cornelia Funke
What to make of that, right?
“I took a test in Existentialism. I left all the answers blank and got 100.” Woody Allen
True story:
Dr. Gordon Pond's philosophy class at ECC. The mid-term exam: "Why?"
I wrote in my blue book...
"Pick one:
1] why not?
2] because"
“I rebel; therefore I exist.” Albert Camus
Then this part: https://www.britannica.com/story/how-di ... -camus-die
“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett
How's that going for you?
“The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself.” Albert Camus
Someone define literal for us, okay?
“There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point…The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.” Richard Dawkins
Any adults here?
“Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?” Cornelia Funke
What to make of that, right?
“I took a test in Existentialism. I left all the answers blank and got 100.” Woody Allen
True story:
Dr. Gordon Pond's philosophy class at ECC. The mid-term exam: "Why?"
I wrote in my blue book...
"Pick one:
1] why not?
2] because"
“I rebel; therefore I exist.” Albert Camus
Then this part: https://www.britannica.com/story/how-di ... -camus-die
“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett
How's that going for you?
“The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself.” Albert Camus
Someone define literal for us, okay?
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
John Lennon...
Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.
Like all of my many, many right friends here!
Time wounds all heels.
What, even Paul?!
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives.
So, don't forget to vote!
People like me are aware of their so-called genius at ten, eight, nine. I always wondered, ``Why has nobody discovered me?'' In school, didn't they see that I'm cleverer than anybody in this school? That the teachers are stupid, too? That all they had was information that I didn't need? I got fuckin' lost in being at high school. I used to say to me auntie,``You throw my fuckin' poetry out, and you'll regret it when I'm famous,'' and she threw the bastard stuff out. I never forgave her for not treating me like a fuckin' genius or whatever I was, when I was a child. It was obvious to me. Why didn't they put me in art school? Why didn't they train me? Why would they keep forcing me to be a fuckin' cowboy like the rest of them? I was different I was always different. Why didn't anybody notice me? A couple of teachers would notice me, encourage me to be something or other, to draw or to paint - express myself. But most of the time they were trying to beat me into being a fuckin' dentist or a teacher.
Well, that certainly explains something, right?
I was the walrus, but now I am John...and so my friends, you'll just have to carry on. The dream is over.
Tell us about it!
Avant-garde is French for bullshit.
But only if you know what he means by that.
Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.
Like all of my many, many right friends here!
Time wounds all heels.
What, even Paul?!
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives.
So, don't forget to vote!
People like me are aware of their so-called genius at ten, eight, nine. I always wondered, ``Why has nobody discovered me?'' In school, didn't they see that I'm cleverer than anybody in this school? That the teachers are stupid, too? That all they had was information that I didn't need? I got fuckin' lost in being at high school. I used to say to me auntie,``You throw my fuckin' poetry out, and you'll regret it when I'm famous,'' and she threw the bastard stuff out. I never forgave her for not treating me like a fuckin' genius or whatever I was, when I was a child. It was obvious to me. Why didn't they put me in art school? Why didn't they train me? Why would they keep forcing me to be a fuckin' cowboy like the rest of them? I was different I was always different. Why didn't anybody notice me? A couple of teachers would notice me, encourage me to be something or other, to draw or to paint - express myself. But most of the time they were trying to beat me into being a fuckin' dentist or a teacher.
Well, that certainly explains something, right?
I was the walrus, but now I am John...and so my friends, you'll just have to carry on. The dream is over.
Tell us about it!
Avant-garde is French for bullshit.
But only if you know what he means by that.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Friedrich Nietzsche from Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter.
So, who is killing who here?
And when he invented his hell, that was his heaven on earth.
And look where that got him.
And life confided the secret to me: behold, it said, l am that which must always overcome itself.
And look how that turned out.
Dead are all gods: now we want the overman to live.
Go a pair and join them: https://knowthyself.forumotion.net/f6-agora
You have evolved from worm to man, but much within you is still worm. Once you were apes, yet even now man is more of an ape than any of the apes.
On the other hand, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
In the end one experiences only oneself.
Tell that to...me?
Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter.
So, who is killing who here?
And when he invented his hell, that was his heaven on earth.
And look where that got him.
And life confided the secret to me: behold, it said, l am that which must always overcome itself.
And look how that turned out.
Dead are all gods: now we want the overman to live.
Go a pair and join them: https://knowthyself.forumotion.net/f6-agora
You have evolved from worm to man, but much within you is still worm. Once you were apes, yet even now man is more of an ape than any of the apes.
On the other hand, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
In the end one experiences only oneself.
Tell that to...me?
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Anthony Doerr from All the Light We Cannot See
What do we call visible light? We call it color. But the electromagnetic spectrum runs to zero in one direction and infinity in the other, so really, children, mathematically, all of light is invisible.
You tell me.
It's embarrassingly plain how inadequate language is.
We'll need a context, of course.
Every hour, she thinks, someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world.
Not to worry though. New wars never stop coming.
What mazes there are in this world. The branches of trees, the filigree of roots, the matrix of crystals, the streets her father recreated in his models... None more complicated than the human brain, Etienne would say, what may be the most complex object in existence; one wet kilogram within which spin universes.
If not multiverses.
Werner wonders in the dead of night, isn’t life a kind of corruption? A child is born, and the world sets in upon it.
Going all the way back to God?
This, she realizes, is the basis of all fear. That a light you are powerless to stop will turn on you and usher a bullet to its mark.
For example: https://youtu.be/t7FwypV69qc?si=e1ijpJVe1k_keiSc
What do we call visible light? We call it color. But the electromagnetic spectrum runs to zero in one direction and infinity in the other, so really, children, mathematically, all of light is invisible.
You tell me.
It's embarrassingly plain how inadequate language is.
We'll need a context, of course.
Every hour, she thinks, someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world.
Not to worry though. New wars never stop coming.
What mazes there are in this world. The branches of trees, the filigree of roots, the matrix of crystals, the streets her father recreated in his models... None more complicated than the human brain, Etienne would say, what may be the most complex object in existence; one wet kilogram within which spin universes.
If not multiverses.
Werner wonders in the dead of night, isn’t life a kind of corruption? A child is born, and the world sets in upon it.
Going all the way back to God?
This, she realizes, is the basis of all fear. That a light you are powerless to stop will turn on you and usher a bullet to its mark.
For example: https://youtu.be/t7FwypV69qc?si=e1ijpJVe1k_keiSc
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Suicide...
“Life’s greatest gift is the freedom it leaves you to step out of it whenever you choose.” André Breton
Thank God?
“The girls took into their own hands decisions better left to God. They became too powerful to live among us, too self-concerned, too visionary, too blind.” Jeffrey Eugenides
Being virgins?
"When people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed, their options appear spare or nonexistent, their mood is despairing, and hopelessness permeates their entire mental domain. The future cannot be separated from the present, and the present is painful beyond solace. ‘This is my last experiment,’ wrote a young chemist in his suicide note. ‘If there is any eternal torment worse than mine I’ll have to be shown.'” Kay Redfield Jamison
I guess we'll never know until it's our turn.
“I can't deceive myself that out of the bare stark realization that no matter how enthusiastic you are, no matter how sure that character is fate, nothing is real, past or future, when you are alone in your room with the clock ticking loudly into the false cheerful brilliance of the electric light. And if you have no past or future which, after all, is all that the present is made of, why then you may as well dispose of the empty shell of present and commit suicide.” Sylvia Plath
Logic, let's call it.
“He was fucking sad. That's it. That's the point. He knows life is never going to get any different for him. That there's no fixing him. It's always going to be the same monotonous depressing bullshit. Boring, sad, boring, sad. He just wants it to be over.” Jasmine Warga
Point taken. And then some.
“People try to say suicide is the most cowardly act a man could ever commit. I don't think that's true at all. What's cowardly is treating a man so badly that he wants to commit suicide.” Tommy Tran
Too close to call. And then some.
“Life’s greatest gift is the freedom it leaves you to step out of it whenever you choose.” André Breton
Thank God?
“The girls took into their own hands decisions better left to God. They became too powerful to live among us, too self-concerned, too visionary, too blind.” Jeffrey Eugenides
Being virgins?
"When people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed, their options appear spare or nonexistent, their mood is despairing, and hopelessness permeates their entire mental domain. The future cannot be separated from the present, and the present is painful beyond solace. ‘This is my last experiment,’ wrote a young chemist in his suicide note. ‘If there is any eternal torment worse than mine I’ll have to be shown.'” Kay Redfield Jamison
I guess we'll never know until it's our turn.
“I can't deceive myself that out of the bare stark realization that no matter how enthusiastic you are, no matter how sure that character is fate, nothing is real, past or future, when you are alone in your room with the clock ticking loudly into the false cheerful brilliance of the electric light. And if you have no past or future which, after all, is all that the present is made of, why then you may as well dispose of the empty shell of present and commit suicide.” Sylvia Plath
Logic, let's call it.
“He was fucking sad. That's it. That's the point. He knows life is never going to get any different for him. That there's no fixing him. It's always going to be the same monotonous depressing bullshit. Boring, sad, boring, sad. He just wants it to be over.” Jasmine Warga
Point taken. And then some.
“People try to say suicide is the most cowardly act a man could ever commit. I don't think that's true at all. What's cowardly is treating a man so badly that he wants to commit suicide.” Tommy Tran
Too close to call. And then some.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Erica Jong from Fear of Flying
Yet a man assumes that a woman’s refusal is just part of a game. Or, at any rate, a lot of men assume that. When a man says no, it’s no. When a woman says no, it’s yes, or at least maybe. There is even a joke to that effect. And little by little, women begin to believe in this view of themselves. Finally, after centuries of living under the shadow of such assumptions, they no longer know what they want and can never make up their minds about anything. And men, of course, compound the problem by mocking them for their indecisiveness and blaming it on biology, hormones, premenstrual tension.
Of course, she's only paraphrasing Satyr.
Somehow the idea of bearing his baby angers me. Let him bear his own baby!
Starting now, okay guys?
We're programmed for suffering, not joy. The masochism is built in at a very early age. You're supposed to work and suffer - and the trouble is: you believe it.
Pick one:
1] genes
2] memes
In a certain sense, you do write to seduce the world, but when it happens, you begin to feel like a whore. The disparity between your life and your work turns out to be as great as ever. And the people seduced by your work are usually seduced by all the wrong reasons.
What, even here?!!
She lives as if she is constantly on the brink of some great fulfillment. As if she were waiting for Prince Charming to take her away "from all this". All what? The solitude of living inside her own soul? The certainty of being herself instead of half of something else?
Next up: he lives as if he is...
Did I want to dance? Of course I did and that's not all.
Wink, wink?
Yet a man assumes that a woman’s refusal is just part of a game. Or, at any rate, a lot of men assume that. When a man says no, it’s no. When a woman says no, it’s yes, or at least maybe. There is even a joke to that effect. And little by little, women begin to believe in this view of themselves. Finally, after centuries of living under the shadow of such assumptions, they no longer know what they want and can never make up their minds about anything. And men, of course, compound the problem by mocking them for their indecisiveness and blaming it on biology, hormones, premenstrual tension.
Of course, she's only paraphrasing Satyr.
Somehow the idea of bearing his baby angers me. Let him bear his own baby!
Starting now, okay guys?
We're programmed for suffering, not joy. The masochism is built in at a very early age. You're supposed to work and suffer - and the trouble is: you believe it.
Pick one:
1] genes
2] memes
In a certain sense, you do write to seduce the world, but when it happens, you begin to feel like a whore. The disparity between your life and your work turns out to be as great as ever. And the people seduced by your work are usually seduced by all the wrong reasons.
What, even here?!!
She lives as if she is constantly on the brink of some great fulfillment. As if she were waiting for Prince Charming to take her away "from all this". All what? The solitude of living inside her own soul? The certainty of being herself instead of half of something else?
Next up: he lives as if he is...
Did I want to dance? Of course I did and that's not all.
Wink, wink?
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Umberto Eco from The Name of the Rose
Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.
Or, over and again, less courage.
The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain something. But afterward you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless.
Uh, meaning what exactly?
A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.
Not unlike posting here.
The older I grow and the more I abandon myself to God's will, the less I value intelligence that wants to know and will that wants to do; and as the only element of salvation I recognize faith, which can wait patiently, without asking too many questions.
No, really, try to actually grasp that, okay?
I dared, for the first and last time in my life, to express a theological conclusion: "But how can a necessary being exist totally polluted with the possible? What difference is there, then, between God and primogenial chaos? Isn't affirming God's absolute omnipotence and His absolute freedom with regard to His own choices tantamount to demonstrating that God does not exist?
No, really, try to actually grasp that, okay?
Then we are living in a place abandoned by God, I said, disheartened.
Have you found any places where God would have felt at home? William asked me, looking down from his great height.
Imagine God here then?
Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.
Or, over and again, less courage.
The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain something. But afterward you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless.
Uh, meaning what exactly?
A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.
Not unlike posting here.
The older I grow and the more I abandon myself to God's will, the less I value intelligence that wants to know and will that wants to do; and as the only element of salvation I recognize faith, which can wait patiently, without asking too many questions.
No, really, try to actually grasp that, okay?
I dared, for the first and last time in my life, to express a theological conclusion: "But how can a necessary being exist totally polluted with the possible? What difference is there, then, between God and primogenial chaos? Isn't affirming God's absolute omnipotence and His absolute freedom with regard to His own choices tantamount to demonstrating that God does not exist?
No, really, try to actually grasp that, okay?
Then we are living in a place abandoned by God, I said, disheartened.
Have you found any places where God would have felt at home? William asked me, looking down from his great height.
Imagine God here then?