God
“God is the name we give to the science we don't understand. Science is the name we give to the God we don't understand.” Steve Maraboli
We not including me, for example.
“It comes as no surprise to find [Norman] Mailer embracing [in the book On God] a form of Manicheanism, pitting the forces of light and darkness against each other in a permanent stand-off, with humanity as the battlefield. (When asked if Jesus is part of this battle, he responds rather loftily that he thinks it is a distinct possibility.) But it is at points like this that he talks as if all the late-night undergraduate talk sessions on the question of theism had become rolled into one. 'How can we not face up to the fact that if God is All-Powerful, He cannot be All-Good. Or She cannot be All-Good.'
Mailer says that questions such as this have bedevilled 'theologians', whereas it would be more accurate to say that such questions, posed by philosophers, have attempted to put theologians out of business. A long exchange on the probability of reincarnation (known to Mailer sometimes as “karmic reassignment”) manages to fall slightly below the level of those undergraduate talk sessions. The Manichean stand-off leads Mailer, in closing, to speculate on what God might desire politically and to say: 'In different times, the heavens may have been partial to monarchy, to communism, and certainly the Lord was interested in democracy, in capitalism. (As was the Devil!)'
I think it was at this point that I decided I would rather remember Mailer as the author of Harlot's Ghost and The Armies of the Night.” Christopher Hitchens
Let's decide: which one is the Stooge?
“Worshiping the Devil is no more insane than worshiping God...It is precisely at the moment when positivism is at its high-water mark that mysticism stirs into life and the follies of occultism begin.” Joris-Karl Huysmans
Just out of curiosity, which thread here best reflects either the high-water mark of positivism, or the low-water mark of mysticism. If, of course, you can tell them apart.
“To me, God is like this happy bus driver.” Jerry Stahl
He means train conductor, of course.
“Orange is one of God's favorite colors--- He stuck it right there between red and yellow as the second color in the rainbow. He decorates entire forests with shades of orange every autumn. It shows up in sunrises at the start of the day, sunsets at the end of the day, and in the glow of the moon at the right time of night.” Reggie Joiner
Next up: that thing on Trump's head.
“I believe that people who are devoutly religious, within any specific religion, have no true respect for the ultimate vastness that is God.” Clair Huffaker
Come on IC, that's a kick in the nuts, right?
Quote of the day
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iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
A particularly strange true story.
At the beginning of the film we see her hunched over a basket of cleaning implements; she is scrubbing the floor while her employer tacks yet another chore on to her list of tasks. She’s a maid…a housekeeper. In her own way she was another Henry Darger.
It might be said she embodied two aspects of religiosity that propelled her artistic impulses: ecstasy and mental affliction.
And just her luck: One of her employers was a German art critic.
Here’s the thing though: He liked her painting. He was an art critic. Does that make them good? They are striking though. At least I thought so.
She also made her own paints.
Then there is WWI…and being a “boche”. And always the real world where art and money sometimes cohere but most times do not. Not until after you die. Or [in this case] after you are put in an insane asylum.
Seraphine
Mother Superior: I’m glad to see you are doing so well. Are you lacking for anything.
Seraphine: Time, Mother Superior. Cleaning takes it all.
Mother Superior [patting her on the head]: And in there? Is everything better?
Better than what?
Employer [appraising a painting she asked Seraphine to bring her]: Shall I tell you what I think? You’re wasting your time. These apples are anything but apples. They could just as easily be plums or peaches. Go back to your cleaning. You have better things to do.
fArt, right Satyr?
Wilhelm: Who painted this?
Mme Duphot: That? I forget.
Wilhelm: Tell me who painted this.
Mme Duphot: Seraphine.
Wilhelm: What do you mean?
Mme Duphot: Your…I mean, our cleaner. She worked at the convent. One day, her guardian angel commanded her to paint.
[snickers from all the other dinner guests]
Mme Duphot: My son insisted I keep hold of it.
Wilhelm: I’ll buy it off you.
Next up: a guardian angel sends you here.
Wilhelm: You can’t spend your life cleaning when you have gold in your hands.
Seraphine: “Be ardent in your work and you will find God in your cooking pots,” said Saint Teresa of Avila.
Wilhelm: I’m not very religious, you know.
Seraphine: But the Virgin Mary? Sir believes in the Virgin Mary, at least?
Wilhelm: It depends.
Seraphine: It depends on what?
Wilhem: On how I am feeling. But I believe in the soul. Definitely. I believe that we humans have a soul. It’s what makes us so sad, compared to animals. Animals are never sad, are they?
Seraphine: Yes, they are. If you take her calf from a cow, she cries.
An idiot-savant perhaps?
God knows.
Wilhem: Seraphine, now I am going to tell you what I think. You’re talented. But you will have to work very hard. Don’t worry about what other people say. They know nothing.
And [he shuddered to think] the equivalent of that here.
Seraphine [to Wilhelm]: Sir thinks someone of my rank isn’t able to understand things as well as him.
Wilhelm: Not at all. Not at all.
Seraphine: Lies!
Wilhelm: Don’t talk to me like that!
Seraphine: How do you think people talk to me, ever since I was born?
Art and...class?
Madame Delonges: Your flowers are strange. They move. They look like insects. They look like eyes, wounded eyes. Shredded flesh. Terrifying things.
Seraphine: Me, too. When I look at them, what I’ve done scares me.
How about you: https://www.google.com/search?q=seraphi ... =453&udm=2
Title card: Seraphine died in 1942 in Clermont Asylum. Thanks to Uhde, her work was exhibited 3 years later in Paris and worldwide. She is known today as Serpahine de Senlis.
Thanks Uhde, I'd never heard of her.
At the beginning of the film we see her hunched over a basket of cleaning implements; she is scrubbing the floor while her employer tacks yet another chore on to her list of tasks. She’s a maid…a housekeeper. In her own way she was another Henry Darger.
It might be said she embodied two aspects of religiosity that propelled her artistic impulses: ecstasy and mental affliction.
And just her luck: One of her employers was a German art critic.
Here’s the thing though: He liked her painting. He was an art critic. Does that make them good? They are striking though. At least I thought so.
She also made her own paints.
Then there is WWI…and being a “boche”. And always the real world where art and money sometimes cohere but most times do not. Not until after you die. Or [in this case] after you are put in an insane asylum.
Seraphine
Mother Superior: I’m glad to see you are doing so well. Are you lacking for anything.
Seraphine: Time, Mother Superior. Cleaning takes it all.
Mother Superior [patting her on the head]: And in there? Is everything better?
Better than what?
Employer [appraising a painting she asked Seraphine to bring her]: Shall I tell you what I think? You’re wasting your time. These apples are anything but apples. They could just as easily be plums or peaches. Go back to your cleaning. You have better things to do.
fArt, right Satyr?
Wilhelm: Who painted this?
Mme Duphot: That? I forget.
Wilhelm: Tell me who painted this.
Mme Duphot: Seraphine.
Wilhelm: What do you mean?
Mme Duphot: Your…I mean, our cleaner. She worked at the convent. One day, her guardian angel commanded her to paint.
[snickers from all the other dinner guests]
Mme Duphot: My son insisted I keep hold of it.
Wilhelm: I’ll buy it off you.
Next up: a guardian angel sends you here.
Wilhelm: You can’t spend your life cleaning when you have gold in your hands.
Seraphine: “Be ardent in your work and you will find God in your cooking pots,” said Saint Teresa of Avila.
Wilhelm: I’m not very religious, you know.
Seraphine: But the Virgin Mary? Sir believes in the Virgin Mary, at least?
Wilhelm: It depends.
Seraphine: It depends on what?
Wilhem: On how I am feeling. But I believe in the soul. Definitely. I believe that we humans have a soul. It’s what makes us so sad, compared to animals. Animals are never sad, are they?
Seraphine: Yes, they are. If you take her calf from a cow, she cries.
An idiot-savant perhaps?
God knows.
Wilhem: Seraphine, now I am going to tell you what I think. You’re talented. But you will have to work very hard. Don’t worry about what other people say. They know nothing.
And [he shuddered to think] the equivalent of that here.
Seraphine [to Wilhelm]: Sir thinks someone of my rank isn’t able to understand things as well as him.
Wilhelm: Not at all. Not at all.
Seraphine: Lies!
Wilhelm: Don’t talk to me like that!
Seraphine: How do you think people talk to me, ever since I was born?
Art and...class?
Madame Delonges: Your flowers are strange. They move. They look like insects. They look like eyes, wounded eyes. Shredded flesh. Terrifying things.
Seraphine: Me, too. When I look at them, what I’ve done scares me.
How about you: https://www.google.com/search?q=seraphi ... =453&udm=2
Title card: Seraphine died in 1942 in Clermont Asylum. Thanks to Uhde, her work was exhibited 3 years later in Paris and worldwide. She is known today as Serpahine de Senlis.
Thanks Uhde, I'd never heard of her.
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Impenitent
- Posts: 5775
- Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:04 pm
Re: Quote of the day
I'm guilty as charged - Hunter Biden
-Imp
-Imp
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iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Iris Murdoch from The Sea, the Sea
Of course, reading and thinking are important but, my God, food is important too.
Bread and roses as some suggest.
We are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason. But we cannot just walk into the cavern and look around. Most of what we think we know about our minds is pseudo-knowledge. We are all such shocking poseurs, so good at inflating the importance of what we think we value.
Not counting those [here and there] who are entirely transparent, of course.
...emotions really exist at the bottom of the personality or at the top. in the middle they are acted. this is why all the world is a stage.
Click, of course.
How different each death is, and yet it leads us into the self-same country, that country which we inhabit so rarely, where we see the worthlessness of what we have long pursued and will so soon return to pursuing.
What's your excuse?
I've felt as if I didn't exist, as if I were invisible, miles away from the world, miles away. You can't imagine how much alone I've been all my life.
Of course, that is precisely what others of us crave.
What I needed with all my starved and silent soul was just that particular way of shouting back at the world.
Instead, we ended up here.
Of course, reading and thinking are important but, my God, food is important too.
Bread and roses as some suggest.
We are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason. But we cannot just walk into the cavern and look around. Most of what we think we know about our minds is pseudo-knowledge. We are all such shocking poseurs, so good at inflating the importance of what we think we value.
Not counting those [here and there] who are entirely transparent, of course.
...emotions really exist at the bottom of the personality or at the top. in the middle they are acted. this is why all the world is a stage.
Click, of course.
How different each death is, and yet it leads us into the self-same country, that country which we inhabit so rarely, where we see the worthlessness of what we have long pursued and will so soon return to pursuing.
What's your excuse?
I've felt as if I didn't exist, as if I were invisible, miles away from the world, miles away. You can't imagine how much alone I've been all my life.
Of course, that is precisely what others of us crave.
What I needed with all my starved and silent soul was just that particular way of shouting back at the world.
Instead, we ended up here.
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iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
This guy is so despicable he attends the funerals of complete strangers only in order to pass out his business card. And his business is being a sleazy lawyer.
But it’s not as bad as it looks. He was once a respectable [and respected] attorney. But then some sons of bitches shafted him. Now he gets by on crumbs and booze.
So what are the odds then that he can take on the medical establishment, the legal establishment and the Roman Catholic Church?
Well, what’s the script say?
Money and power. That’s always being exposed again and again in films like this. We know we’re being suckered into going along but we let them do it to us anyway. Vicarious truth and justice is better than nothing at all.
The world isn’t always like this of course. But it is often enough to propel cynics like me into the future.
And I’m always a sucker for a film where a cynical, corrupt scumbag gets drawn into a set of circumstances that completely turns him [or her] around. But there are consequences.
Look for Bruce Willis. He’s supposed to be in here [uncredited] but I never spot him. Same with Tobin Bell.
The Verdict
Mickey [to Frank]: Listen to me. Listen to me… listen to me, Frank, ‘cause I’m done fuckin’ with you. I can’t do it any more. Look around you: You think that you’re going to change? What’s going to change it? You think it’s going to be different next month? It’s going to be the same. And I have to stop. This is it. I got you a good case, it’s a moneymaker. You do it right and it will take care of you. But I’m through. I’m sorry, Frank, this is the end. Life is too fucking short, and I’m getting too fucking old.
On the other hand, as Mickey knows full well, Frank was shafted by the powers that be.
Dr. Gruber: Her doctors murdered her. They gave her the wrong anesthetic and they put her in the hospital for life. Her doctors killed her. She ended up drowning in her own vomit.
Galvin: Do you know who her doctors were?
Dr. Gruber: I read the file. Yeah. Marx and Towler. I know who they were.
Galvin: The most respected…
Dr. Gruber: Whose side are you arguing…? I thought that you wanted to do something. I don’t have any interest in the woman’s estate. I have an interest in the Hospital; and I don’t want those bozos working in the same shop as me. They gave her the wrong anesthetic. They turned the girl into a vegetable. They killed her and they killed her kid. You caught 'em.
Will the powers that be get to him too?
Galvin: Uh, why, why are you doing this?
Dr. Gruber: To do the right thing. Isn’t that why you’re doing it?
That's how a lot of them start out, isn't it?
Galvin: How did you settle on the amount?
Bishop Brophy: We thought it was just.
Galvin: You thought it was just?
Bishop Brophy: Yes.
Galvin: Because it struck me, um, how neatly ‘three’ went into this figure: 210,000. That means I would keep seventy.
Bishop Brophy: That was our insurance company’s recommendation.
Galvin: Yes, that would be.
Bishop Brophy: Nothing we can do can make that woman well.
Galvin: And no one will know the truth.
Bishop Brophy: What is the truth?
Galvin: That poor girl put her trust into the…into the hands of two men who took her life. She’s in a coma. Her life is gone. She has no home, no family. She’s tied to a machine. She has no friends. And the people who should care for her - her doctors… and you and me - have been bought off to look the other way. We’ve been paid to look the other way. I came here to take your money. I brought snapshots to show you so I could get your money. I can’t do it; I can’t take it. 'Cause if I take the money I’m lost. I’ll just be a…a rich ambulance chaser. I can’t do it. I can’t take it.
Next up:
Galvin: I swear to you I wouldn’t have turned the offer down unless I thought that I could win the case…
Doneghy: What you thought!? What you thought…I’m a workingman, I’m trying to get my wife out of town, we hired you, we’re paying you, I got to find out from the other side they offered two hundred…
Galvin: I’m going to win this case Mr. Doneghy… I’m going to the Jury with a solid case, a famous doctor as an expert witness, and I’m going to win five or six times what they…
Doneghy: You guys… you guys are all the same! The doctors at the hospital, you…it’s always what I’m going to do for you. And then you screw up, and it’s, “Ah, we did the best that we could, I’m dreadfully sorry.” And people like us live with your mistakes the rest of our lives.
It's all up to the Script now.
Galvin: I’m going to help her.
Mickey: To do what…? To do what, for chrissake…? To help her to do what? She’s dead…
Galvin: They killed her. And they’re trying to buy it…
Mickey: That’s the fucking point, dummy. Let them buy it. We let them buy the case. That’s what I took it for. You let this drop – we’ll go up to New Hampshire, kill some fuckin’ deer…
Galvin: I can win this case.
Mickey: You won, Frankie. You won. When they give you the money, that means you won.
Ah, a pragmatist!
But it’s not as bad as it looks. He was once a respectable [and respected] attorney. But then some sons of bitches shafted him. Now he gets by on crumbs and booze.
So what are the odds then that he can take on the medical establishment, the legal establishment and the Roman Catholic Church?
Well, what’s the script say?
Money and power. That’s always being exposed again and again in films like this. We know we’re being suckered into going along but we let them do it to us anyway. Vicarious truth and justice is better than nothing at all.
The world isn’t always like this of course. But it is often enough to propel cynics like me into the future.
And I’m always a sucker for a film where a cynical, corrupt scumbag gets drawn into a set of circumstances that completely turns him [or her] around. But there are consequences.
Look for Bruce Willis. He’s supposed to be in here [uncredited] but I never spot him. Same with Tobin Bell.
The Verdict
Mickey [to Frank]: Listen to me. Listen to me… listen to me, Frank, ‘cause I’m done fuckin’ with you. I can’t do it any more. Look around you: You think that you’re going to change? What’s going to change it? You think it’s going to be different next month? It’s going to be the same. And I have to stop. This is it. I got you a good case, it’s a moneymaker. You do it right and it will take care of you. But I’m through. I’m sorry, Frank, this is the end. Life is too fucking short, and I’m getting too fucking old.
On the other hand, as Mickey knows full well, Frank was shafted by the powers that be.
Dr. Gruber: Her doctors murdered her. They gave her the wrong anesthetic and they put her in the hospital for life. Her doctors killed her. She ended up drowning in her own vomit.
Galvin: Do you know who her doctors were?
Dr. Gruber: I read the file. Yeah. Marx and Towler. I know who they were.
Galvin: The most respected…
Dr. Gruber: Whose side are you arguing…? I thought that you wanted to do something. I don’t have any interest in the woman’s estate. I have an interest in the Hospital; and I don’t want those bozos working in the same shop as me. They gave her the wrong anesthetic. They turned the girl into a vegetable. They killed her and they killed her kid. You caught 'em.
Will the powers that be get to him too?
Galvin: Uh, why, why are you doing this?
Dr. Gruber: To do the right thing. Isn’t that why you’re doing it?
That's how a lot of them start out, isn't it?
Galvin: How did you settle on the amount?
Bishop Brophy: We thought it was just.
Galvin: You thought it was just?
Bishop Brophy: Yes.
Galvin: Because it struck me, um, how neatly ‘three’ went into this figure: 210,000. That means I would keep seventy.
Bishop Brophy: That was our insurance company’s recommendation.
Galvin: Yes, that would be.
Bishop Brophy: Nothing we can do can make that woman well.
Galvin: And no one will know the truth.
Bishop Brophy: What is the truth?
Galvin: That poor girl put her trust into the…into the hands of two men who took her life. She’s in a coma. Her life is gone. She has no home, no family. She’s tied to a machine. She has no friends. And the people who should care for her - her doctors… and you and me - have been bought off to look the other way. We’ve been paid to look the other way. I came here to take your money. I brought snapshots to show you so I could get your money. I can’t do it; I can’t take it. 'Cause if I take the money I’m lost. I’ll just be a…a rich ambulance chaser. I can’t do it. I can’t take it.
Next up:
Galvin: I swear to you I wouldn’t have turned the offer down unless I thought that I could win the case…
Doneghy: What you thought!? What you thought…I’m a workingman, I’m trying to get my wife out of town, we hired you, we’re paying you, I got to find out from the other side they offered two hundred…
Galvin: I’m going to win this case Mr. Doneghy… I’m going to the Jury with a solid case, a famous doctor as an expert witness, and I’m going to win five or six times what they…
Doneghy: You guys… you guys are all the same! The doctors at the hospital, you…it’s always what I’m going to do for you. And then you screw up, and it’s, “Ah, we did the best that we could, I’m dreadfully sorry.” And people like us live with your mistakes the rest of our lives.
It's all up to the Script now.
Galvin: I’m going to help her.
Mickey: To do what…? To do what, for chrissake…? To help her to do what? She’s dead…
Galvin: They killed her. And they’re trying to buy it…
Mickey: That’s the fucking point, dummy. Let them buy it. We let them buy the case. That’s what I took it for. You let this drop – we’ll go up to New Hampshire, kill some fuckin’ deer…
Galvin: I can win this case.
Mickey: You won, Frankie. You won. When they give you the money, that means you won.
Ah, a pragmatist!
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iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Death
“It's all right, Tessa, you can go. We love you. You can go now.'
'Why are you saying that?'
'She might need permission to die, Cal.'
'I don't want her to. She doesn't have my permission.” Jenny Downham
These things can get convoluted to say the least.
“But I’m not guilty,” said K. “there’s been a mistake. How is it even possible for someone to be guilty? We’re all human beings here, one like the other.”
“That is true” said the priest “but that is how the guilty speak” Franz Kafka
How else is there?
“Accepting death doesn't mean you won't be devastated when someone you love dies. It means you will be able to focus on your grief, unburdened by bigger existential questions like, "Why do people die?" and "Why is this happening to me?" Death isn't happening to you. Death is happening to us all.” Caitlin Doughty
Right, and how's that working out for you?
“About here, she thought, dabbling her fingers in the water, a ship had sunk, and she muttered, dreamily half asleep, how we perished, each alone.” Virginia Woolf
And dreamily, half asleep here...?
Those who shun the whimsy of things will experience rigor mortis before death.” Tom Robbins
You tell me.
“It’s awful, telling it like this, isn’t it? As though we didn’t know the ending. As though it could have another ending. It’s like watching Romeo drink poison. Every time you see it you get fooled into thinking his girlfriend might wake up and stop him. Every single time you see it you want to shout, 'You stupid ass, just wait a minute,' and she’ll open her eyes! 'Oi, you, you twat, open your eyes, wake up! Don’t die this time!' But they always do.” Elizabeth Wein
"Stupid ass" works for me. Though, actually, they are "pinheads".
“It's all right, Tessa, you can go. We love you. You can go now.'
'Why are you saying that?'
'She might need permission to die, Cal.'
'I don't want her to. She doesn't have my permission.” Jenny Downham
These things can get convoluted to say the least.
“But I’m not guilty,” said K. “there’s been a mistake. How is it even possible for someone to be guilty? We’re all human beings here, one like the other.”
“That is true” said the priest “but that is how the guilty speak” Franz Kafka
How else is there?
“Accepting death doesn't mean you won't be devastated when someone you love dies. It means you will be able to focus on your grief, unburdened by bigger existential questions like, "Why do people die?" and "Why is this happening to me?" Death isn't happening to you. Death is happening to us all.” Caitlin Doughty
Right, and how's that working out for you?
“About here, she thought, dabbling her fingers in the water, a ship had sunk, and she muttered, dreamily half asleep, how we perished, each alone.” Virginia Woolf
And dreamily, half asleep here...?
Those who shun the whimsy of things will experience rigor mortis before death.” Tom Robbins
You tell me.
“It’s awful, telling it like this, isn’t it? As though we didn’t know the ending. As though it could have another ending. It’s like watching Romeo drink poison. Every time you see it you get fooled into thinking his girlfriend might wake up and stop him. Every single time you see it you want to shout, 'You stupid ass, just wait a minute,' and she’ll open her eyes! 'Oi, you, you twat, open your eyes, wake up! Don’t die this time!' But they always do.” Elizabeth Wein
"Stupid ass" works for me. Though, actually, they are "pinheads".
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iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
The Verdict
Mickey: Do you know who the attorney for the Archdiocese is? Ed Concannon!
Galvin: He’s a good man…
Mickey: He’s a good man? Heh, heh, he’s the Prince of fucking Darkness! He’ll have people testifying they saw her waterskiing in Marblehead last summer. Now look, Frank, don’t fuck with this case!
He fucks with it.
Judge: Frank, what will you and your client take right now this very minute to walk out of here and let this damn thing drop?
Galvin: My client can’t walk, your Honor.
Cue the judge from Hell?
Judge: It seems to me, a fellow’s trying to come back, he’d take the settlement, get a record for himself. I, myself, would take it and run like a thief.
Galvin: I’m sure you would.
If you get his drift.
And the Vatican certainly does.
Mickey [to Laura]: Stearns thought Frankie needed some help, so they bribed a juror. So Frankie finds out. He comes to me in tears. He thinks that anybody who knows what a ‘spinnaker’ is got to be a saint. I told him ‘Frankie, wake up. These people are sharks. What do you think they got so rich from? Doing good?’ He can’t be comforted. He tells the boys at Stearns and Harrington they’ve disappointed him, he’s going to the Judge to rat them out. But they were way ahead of him. Before he can get there here comes this Federal Marshal, and Frankie’s indicted for Jury tampering, they throw him in jail, he’s gonna be disbarred, his life is over.
Of course, here, Laura is well ahead of them.
Then...
Mickey [to Laura]: Okay, so now he’s in jail. He, finally, he gets to see the light, he calls up Harrington, he says he thinks he made a mistake. As if by magic, just like that, charges against him are dropped, he’s released from jail. He’s fired from the firm, his wife divorces him, he turns to drink and mopes around three and a half years. You like that story, Laura?
A miracle!
Nurse Rooney: You know you guys are all the same. You don’t care who gets hurt. You’d do anything for a dollar. You’re a bunch of whores. You got no loyalty…No nothing…You’re a bunch of whores!
See, I told you!
Mickey: Do you know who the attorney for the Archdiocese is? Ed Concannon!
Galvin: He’s a good man…
Mickey: He’s a good man? Heh, heh, he’s the Prince of fucking Darkness! He’ll have people testifying they saw her waterskiing in Marblehead last summer. Now look, Frank, don’t fuck with this case!
He fucks with it.
Judge: Frank, what will you and your client take right now this very minute to walk out of here and let this damn thing drop?
Galvin: My client can’t walk, your Honor.
Cue the judge from Hell?
Judge: It seems to me, a fellow’s trying to come back, he’d take the settlement, get a record for himself. I, myself, would take it and run like a thief.
Galvin: I’m sure you would.
If you get his drift.
And the Vatican certainly does.
Mickey [to Laura]: Stearns thought Frankie needed some help, so they bribed a juror. So Frankie finds out. He comes to me in tears. He thinks that anybody who knows what a ‘spinnaker’ is got to be a saint. I told him ‘Frankie, wake up. These people are sharks. What do you think they got so rich from? Doing good?’ He can’t be comforted. He tells the boys at Stearns and Harrington they’ve disappointed him, he’s going to the Judge to rat them out. But they were way ahead of him. Before he can get there here comes this Federal Marshal, and Frankie’s indicted for Jury tampering, they throw him in jail, he’s gonna be disbarred, his life is over.
Of course, here, Laura is well ahead of them.
Then...
Mickey [to Laura]: Okay, so now he’s in jail. He, finally, he gets to see the light, he calls up Harrington, he says he thinks he made a mistake. As if by magic, just like that, charges against him are dropped, he’s released from jail. He’s fired from the firm, his wife divorces him, he turns to drink and mopes around three and a half years. You like that story, Laura?
A miracle!
Nurse Rooney: You know you guys are all the same. You don’t care who gets hurt. You’d do anything for a dollar. You’re a bunch of whores. You got no loyalty…No nothing…You’re a bunch of whores!
See, I told you!
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
The Verdict
Young Lawyer: …and he’s black.
Concannon [sternly): I’m going to tell you how you handle the fact that he’s black. You don’t touch it. You don’t mention it. You treat him like anybody else. Neither better or worse. And, uh, let’s get a black lawyer to sit at our table. Okay…?
A couple of them as I recall.
Mickey [to Frank]: All we have is the witch doctor, right?
Well, and Laura.
Concannon [to Laura]: I know how you feel. You don’t believe me, but I do know. I’m going to tell you something that I learned when I was your age. I’d prepared a case and old man White said to me, “How did you do?” And, uh, I said, “Did my best.” And he said, “You’re not paid to do your best. You’re paid to win.” And that’s what pays for this office…pays for the pro bono work that we do for the poor…pays for the type of law that you want to practice…pays for my whiskey… pays for your clothes…pays for the leisure we have to sit back and discuss philosophy as we’re doing tonight. We’re paid to win the case. You finished your marriage. You wanted to come back and practice the law. You wanted to come back to the world. Welcome back.
I guess "the system" isn't as bad as we thought it was.
Mickey: The ‘History’…?
Galvin: Yeah, how old are you, how many children do you have…
[he stops, handing Mickey the admitting form…then he leaves the office]
Mickey [reading from the form]: How old are you, how many children do you have…when did you last eat.
The epiphany!
Laura [looking up at men holding Frank back after he punched her in the face]: Leave him alone.
The beginning of the end. One of them, anyway.
Galvin: If she had eaten, say one hour prior to admission, the inducement of a general anesthetic…the type you gave her…would have been negligent?
Dr. Towler: Negligent. Yes…it would have been criminal. But that was not the case.
Galvin: Thank you.
Unless, of course, it actually was the case.
Kaitlin [testifying why she kept a copy of the admittance form]: After the operation, when that poor girl she went into a coma, Dr. Towler called me in. He told me that he’d had five difficult deliveries in a row and he was tired…and he never looked at the admittance form. And he told me to change the form. He told me to change the ‘1’ to a ‘9’…or else…or else he said, he said he’d fire me. He said I’d never work again. Who were these men? Who were these men? I wanted to be a nurse!
Just another rendition of a...house of games?
Galvin: You know, so much of the time we’re just lost. We say, “Please, God, tell us what is right; tell us what is true.” And there is no justice: the rich win, the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time, we become dead. We think of ourselves as victims…and we become victims. We become…we become weak. We doubt ourselves, we doubt our beliefs. We doubt our institutions. And we doubt the law. But today you are the law. You are the law. Not some book…not the lawyers…not the, a marble statue…or the trappings of the court. See those are just symbols of our desire to be just. They are…they are, in fact, a prayer: a fervent and a frightened prayer. In my religion, they say, “Act as if ye had faith… and faith will be given to you.” If…if we are to have faith in justice, we need only to believe in ourselves. And act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts.
This and Judgment Day.
Judge: Have you reached a verdict?
Jury Foreman: We have, your Honor. Your Honor, we have agreed to hold for the Plaintiff. But your honor, are we limited on the size of the award? What I mean. sir, are we permitted to award an amount greater than the amount the plaintiff asked for?
The judge. Remember him?
Then the verdict.
Young Lawyer: …and he’s black.
Concannon [sternly): I’m going to tell you how you handle the fact that he’s black. You don’t touch it. You don’t mention it. You treat him like anybody else. Neither better or worse. And, uh, let’s get a black lawyer to sit at our table. Okay…?
A couple of them as I recall.
Mickey [to Frank]: All we have is the witch doctor, right?
Well, and Laura.
Concannon [to Laura]: I know how you feel. You don’t believe me, but I do know. I’m going to tell you something that I learned when I was your age. I’d prepared a case and old man White said to me, “How did you do?” And, uh, I said, “Did my best.” And he said, “You’re not paid to do your best. You’re paid to win.” And that’s what pays for this office…pays for the pro bono work that we do for the poor…pays for the type of law that you want to practice…pays for my whiskey… pays for your clothes…pays for the leisure we have to sit back and discuss philosophy as we’re doing tonight. We’re paid to win the case. You finished your marriage. You wanted to come back and practice the law. You wanted to come back to the world. Welcome back.
I guess "the system" isn't as bad as we thought it was.
Mickey: The ‘History’…?
Galvin: Yeah, how old are you, how many children do you have…
[he stops, handing Mickey the admitting form…then he leaves the office]
Mickey [reading from the form]: How old are you, how many children do you have…when did you last eat.
The epiphany!
Laura [looking up at men holding Frank back after he punched her in the face]: Leave him alone.
The beginning of the end. One of them, anyway.
Galvin: If she had eaten, say one hour prior to admission, the inducement of a general anesthetic…the type you gave her…would have been negligent?
Dr. Towler: Negligent. Yes…it would have been criminal. But that was not the case.
Galvin: Thank you.
Unless, of course, it actually was the case.
Kaitlin [testifying why she kept a copy of the admittance form]: After the operation, when that poor girl she went into a coma, Dr. Towler called me in. He told me that he’d had five difficult deliveries in a row and he was tired…and he never looked at the admittance form. And he told me to change the form. He told me to change the ‘1’ to a ‘9’…or else…or else he said, he said he’d fire me. He said I’d never work again. Who were these men? Who were these men? I wanted to be a nurse!
Just another rendition of a...house of games?
Galvin: You know, so much of the time we’re just lost. We say, “Please, God, tell us what is right; tell us what is true.” And there is no justice: the rich win, the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time, we become dead. We think of ourselves as victims…and we become victims. We become…we become weak. We doubt ourselves, we doubt our beliefs. We doubt our institutions. And we doubt the law. But today you are the law. You are the law. Not some book…not the lawyers…not the, a marble statue…or the trappings of the court. See those are just symbols of our desire to be just. They are…they are, in fact, a prayer: a fervent and a frightened prayer. In my religion, they say, “Act as if ye had faith… and faith will be given to you.” If…if we are to have faith in justice, we need only to believe in ourselves. And act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts.
This and Judgment Day.
Judge: Have you reached a verdict?
Jury Foreman: We have, your Honor. Your Honor, we have agreed to hold for the Plaintiff. But your honor, are we limited on the size of the award? What I mean. sir, are we permitted to award an amount greater than the amount the plaintiff asked for?
The judge. Remember him?
Then the verdict.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
I’ve always been drawn to films set in small towns. In part because I spent a good part of my own youth growing up in one. And in part because everywhere I went, one way or another, there was God. And all the things which made that inevitable.
The guy just got out of prison. And boy is he ever on his best behavior. But you know right from the start where this is going. To the part where you can’t help but wonder: If God does exist where does He fit in here? Especially as the guy found God in prison.
Of course some folks think: Why should we give a fuck about them anyway? They are all just hicks from the sticks trudging from day to day in the strait jacket of their own prattle and prejudice. Only aren’t we all in our own way. Give or take the part about God. And the particular narrative we cling to as “reality”.
Of course, nothing changes. God goes on. People will just chalk it up to a misguided soul who didn’t get Him the way we are supposed to.
The Eye of God
Sheriff [voiceover]: Sunday evenings, my dad read to us from the Bible. The stories were beautiful, austere, terrifying. And one loomed over all the others–the story of Abraham. God sends a man to slaughter his own son, only to stop him perilously close to the act, to reveal it’s all been a ruse. To me that story was, and always will be, not Abraham’s story, but Isaac’s. This boy must grow with the image of his own father poised above him without it ever explained why he’s a victim. I always knew I would devote my life to clarity. I would save the world’s uncomprehending victims. What I never knew is, when dealing with matters of life and death, as policemen inevitably do, there’s no way around the question of God. In fact, there are moments when there’s nothing else that can be thought of but, why? And like Isaac found there’s only silence in response. Lonely, indeterminate silence.
Here too? Though not counting IC of course.
Parole officer: So you found religion too?
Jack: Yes, sir.
Parole officer: That’s neither one way or the other with me, religion. If Christ died for my sins, I sure as hell ain’t seen any of the benefits. But if you get satisfaction in praying, so be it.
The Golden Mean let's call it.
Jack: I need to know where the church is in town.
Parole officer: That should be easy enough. Just pick and choose. Unless you’re a Morman or a Jew.
Or, perhaps, you worship No God?
Ainsley: I don’t think I believe in God.
Jack: That’s all right.
Ainsley: It is?
Jack: You just ain’t found Him yet. He’s in your life, you just can’t see Him.
Ainsley: Don’t nobody see God.
Jack: But we see what He does. That’s what faith is.
Ainsley: How do I get faith?
Jack: You just got to let go.
Like, in the end, he does?
Or shall we run this by Ainsley on Big Brother?
Ainsley [to Tommy]: I think I might have left my husband tonight.
So, what does he think?
Parole Officer: The state feels that Jack is rehabilitated…but they always say the spouse has a right to know.
Ainsley: What did he do?
Parole Officer: He nearly beat a woman to death and, uh…
Ainsley: And what?
Parole Officer: And, uh, she was carrying their child at the time.[/b]
More dots to connect, alas.
Sheriff: “Revelation.”
Jack: You’ve read the Bible. It’s more than most Christians.
Sheriff: Your parole officer is right. If this goes to trial, we’ll win. You’ll get the chair. I want that. I want your life to end. I used to think a man’s life was God’s domain. But you’ve changed that.
Who changed it all for you?
Sheriff: This got nothing to do with God.
Jack: Everything’s got to do with God. It’s that you and this whole world’s forgot.
Sheriff: Was God with you on Friday night?
Jack: You don’t believe that?
Seriff: I don’t see why he’d let that happen to one of His children.
Jack: God ain’t about asking why.
Seriff: You never ask why?
Jack: Even if I did, think I’d hear an answer?
Really, what does that tell you about religion? You believe what you do and that's the end of it. Then you bump into someone like me.
Sheriff [voiceover]: Faith. God tells a man to sacrifice his own son. The man has faith, and he will do it. He doesn’t ask why. Maybe Abraham, as he binds his son, knows why they are there. I don’t anymore.
How about this:
God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe said, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God said, "No"
Abe said, "What?"
God said, "You can do what you want Abe, but the next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well, Abe said, “Where you want this killin' done?"
God said, “Out on Highway 61”
Ainsley [to Tom]: Children. That’s all we are, Lord, if you’re out there at all. Your children, boys and girls. Forgive us.
Of course, we know what's coming, don't we?
The guy just got out of prison. And boy is he ever on his best behavior. But you know right from the start where this is going. To the part where you can’t help but wonder: If God does exist where does He fit in here? Especially as the guy found God in prison.
Of course some folks think: Why should we give a fuck about them anyway? They are all just hicks from the sticks trudging from day to day in the strait jacket of their own prattle and prejudice. Only aren’t we all in our own way. Give or take the part about God. And the particular narrative we cling to as “reality”.
Of course, nothing changes. God goes on. People will just chalk it up to a misguided soul who didn’t get Him the way we are supposed to.
The Eye of God
Sheriff [voiceover]: Sunday evenings, my dad read to us from the Bible. The stories were beautiful, austere, terrifying. And one loomed over all the others–the story of Abraham. God sends a man to slaughter his own son, only to stop him perilously close to the act, to reveal it’s all been a ruse. To me that story was, and always will be, not Abraham’s story, but Isaac’s. This boy must grow with the image of his own father poised above him without it ever explained why he’s a victim. I always knew I would devote my life to clarity. I would save the world’s uncomprehending victims. What I never knew is, when dealing with matters of life and death, as policemen inevitably do, there’s no way around the question of God. In fact, there are moments when there’s nothing else that can be thought of but, why? And like Isaac found there’s only silence in response. Lonely, indeterminate silence.
Here too? Though not counting IC of course.
Parole officer: So you found religion too?
Jack: Yes, sir.
Parole officer: That’s neither one way or the other with me, religion. If Christ died for my sins, I sure as hell ain’t seen any of the benefits. But if you get satisfaction in praying, so be it.
The Golden Mean let's call it.
Jack: I need to know where the church is in town.
Parole officer: That should be easy enough. Just pick and choose. Unless you’re a Morman or a Jew.
Or, perhaps, you worship No God?
Ainsley: I don’t think I believe in God.
Jack: That’s all right.
Ainsley: It is?
Jack: You just ain’t found Him yet. He’s in your life, you just can’t see Him.
Ainsley: Don’t nobody see God.
Jack: But we see what He does. That’s what faith is.
Ainsley: How do I get faith?
Jack: You just got to let go.
Like, in the end, he does?
Or shall we run this by Ainsley on Big Brother?
Ainsley [to Tommy]: I think I might have left my husband tonight.
So, what does he think?
Parole Officer: The state feels that Jack is rehabilitated…but they always say the spouse has a right to know.
Ainsley: What did he do?
Parole Officer: He nearly beat a woman to death and, uh…
Ainsley: And what?
Parole Officer: And, uh, she was carrying their child at the time.[/b]
More dots to connect, alas.
Sheriff: “Revelation.”
Jack: You’ve read the Bible. It’s more than most Christians.
Sheriff: Your parole officer is right. If this goes to trial, we’ll win. You’ll get the chair. I want that. I want your life to end. I used to think a man’s life was God’s domain. But you’ve changed that.
Who changed it all for you?
Sheriff: This got nothing to do with God.
Jack: Everything’s got to do with God. It’s that you and this whole world’s forgot.
Sheriff: Was God with you on Friday night?
Jack: You don’t believe that?
Seriff: I don’t see why he’d let that happen to one of His children.
Jack: God ain’t about asking why.
Seriff: You never ask why?
Jack: Even if I did, think I’d hear an answer?
Really, what does that tell you about religion? You believe what you do and that's the end of it. Then you bump into someone like me.
Sheriff [voiceover]: Faith. God tells a man to sacrifice his own son. The man has faith, and he will do it. He doesn’t ask why. Maybe Abraham, as he binds his son, knows why they are there. I don’t anymore.
How about this:
God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe said, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God said, "No"
Abe said, "What?"
God said, "You can do what you want Abe, but the next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well, Abe said, “Where you want this killin' done?"
God said, “Out on Highway 61”
Ainsley [to Tom]: Children. That’s all we are, Lord, if you’re out there at all. Your children, boys and girls. Forgive us.
Of course, we know what's coming, don't we?
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Philosophy
“What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.” Epictetus
So, how do you interpret this? Internally, as it were.
“I'm looking into my past lives. I'm convinced some of them still owe me money.” Graham Parke
Or at least an explanation.
“If you know that I am an unbeliever, then you know me better than I do myself. I may be an unbeliever, but I am an unbeliever who has a nostalgia for a belief.” Pier Paolo Pasolini
Sound familiar?
“We are a society of notoriously unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive, dependent — people who are glad when we have killed the time we are trying so hard to save.” Erich Fromm
Yes, of course virtual reality counts.
“Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.” Bertrand Russell
Uh, naturally?
“To win true freedom you must be a slave to philosophy.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Pick one:
1] new post
2] new thread
3] new philosophy forum
“What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.” Epictetus
So, how do you interpret this? Internally, as it were.
“I'm looking into my past lives. I'm convinced some of them still owe me money.” Graham Parke
Or at least an explanation.
“If you know that I am an unbeliever, then you know me better than I do myself. I may be an unbeliever, but I am an unbeliever who has a nostalgia for a belief.” Pier Paolo Pasolini
Sound familiar?
“We are a society of notoriously unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive, dependent — people who are glad when we have killed the time we are trying so hard to save.” Erich Fromm
Yes, of course virtual reality counts.
“Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.” Bertrand Russell
Uh, naturally?
“To win true freedom you must be a slave to philosophy.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Pick one:
1] new post
2] new thread
3] new philosophy forum
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Another small town, another love story. And boy do I know a thing or two about falling in love there: Sharon! Mary Margaret! Margie! Carol!
But you never forget the first time you bump into someone actually worth falling in love with. Someone who finally makes you understand there is more to the world than the town you had always mistaken for the world. And the last thing you come to care about then is that she’s your friend’s sister.
Or, for that matter, your cousin's sister.
This brought back so many memories for me. The gap between a mind at that age and the complexity of the world as it really is. And it’s all the wider back then because you are so sure that it’s not. And while I’ve tried and tried to make contact again with the two women above this reminds me of most, I have never been successful.
And these particular folks are a hell of a lot more down to earth than lots of big city types I have known. Some of them anyway.
This is mostly about marbling love into the quotidian—the world you have to live in day to day to day to day. The miraculous and the mundane. The thrills side by side with the trials and the tribulations. It’s like watching a rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s The River: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAB4vOkL6cE
All the Real Girls
Tip: Are you stupid or just blind?
Noel: Neither one. You clearly don’t know him.
Tip: What are you talking about? I’ve seen him fuck every girl in this town.
Noel: That’s not true.
Tip: It is true. Just ask him.
Bottom line: he tried to?
Bo: It’s different when it’s your family.
Paul: I wouldn’t know that.
Bo: What Tip sees in you is exactly what he hates in himself. You think he’s just gonna forgive you and forget about it? Grow up, tell you it’s all right? “Go ahead, date my sister, I’ve seen what you done to every other girl on town, but it’s okay.” What do you want him to do?
Paul: I want him to calm down.
Bo: That’s not going to happen. If you were not in the history of all as the hapless ex-boyfriend. But you are.
Hell, even in the big city this is now more or less how it's likely to be.
Girl [to Tip]: He’s gonna fuck your sister over like he fucked over every other girl in this town.
Unless, of course, she's wrong.
Noel: You’re the first person that I’ve wanted to tell that to, 'cause you’re the first person that I’ve wanted to talk to for more than five minutes…ever.
Well, not counting Joseph Gordon-Levitt, perhaps.
Paul [to Noel after her confession]: I’m looking at you right now and I hear you talking and all the words that are coming out of your mouth are like they’re coming out of a stranger. Why don’t you put your fucking hair back on and come back, just come on back.
Love and human remains, remember?
Paul [drunkenly]: Listen, I want to talk…about when we were dating, I wanted to say to you that if I hurt your feelings…if I hurt your feelings, that I’m sorry…
Mary-Margaret [interrupting]: Shut up.
Paul: I’m sorry I hurt your feelings!
Mary-Margaret: Shut up!
Paul: I’m really sorry and I’m trying to apologize to you in a real way.
Mary-Margaret [seething with anger and pain]: You’re not sorry. You know how I know that? Because you’re not smart enough to be sorry. Guys like you…you never quit, and you never leave - you’re gonna be here forever. How does it make you feel knowing that?
I got out myself. In other words, for better or worse.
Paul [to Mary-Margaret]: Do you wanna know a secret that I didn’t tell anybody ever?.. You know how ducks fly home in a V? It’s like a v-shape when they get home? I was walking my dog and I looked up and there’s this big V above me, there’s all these ducks flying back to their home. And right when they flew above me, I saw 'em and, they crashed into a big house! The whole V! And then, they hit the ground, and they just kinda curled up. You ever fucking see that? Have you ever seen a mistake in nature? Have you ever seen an animal make a mistake?
Unless, of course, we're animals ourselves?
Elvira [Paul’s mother]: You sitting around crying, it ain’t gonna do you any good. I got news for you. Grow up and balance your personal life with your responsibilites.
Paul: What am I supposed to do, dress up as a clown and change bed pans? I don’t understand why I have to listen to this crap when you know I’m fucking standing here with a broken heart about ready to split my ribs.
Elvira: Oh that’s good. That’s a good one.
[She flaps the clown costume]
Elvira: Do you know what this is? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS?!
Paul: Clown clothes.
Elvira: That’s right. This is what I get for living through hard times. These are the clothes I wear. This is my face now. Do you want to look like me? Do you want to look like this? I was fucking beautiful!
[She slaps him across the face. Then again]
Elvira: Look at me. I got my own battles to attend to. It don’t mean that I don’t love you. It’s just that I can see the future and you got other opportunities. Opportunities that I don’t have.
You either get this and rub it in or you don't.
But you never forget the first time you bump into someone actually worth falling in love with. Someone who finally makes you understand there is more to the world than the town you had always mistaken for the world. And the last thing you come to care about then is that she’s your friend’s sister.
Or, for that matter, your cousin's sister.
This brought back so many memories for me. The gap between a mind at that age and the complexity of the world as it really is. And it’s all the wider back then because you are so sure that it’s not. And while I’ve tried and tried to make contact again with the two women above this reminds me of most, I have never been successful.
And these particular folks are a hell of a lot more down to earth than lots of big city types I have known. Some of them anyway.
This is mostly about marbling love into the quotidian—the world you have to live in day to day to day to day. The miraculous and the mundane. The thrills side by side with the trials and the tribulations. It’s like watching a rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s The River: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAB4vOkL6cE
All the Real Girls
Tip: Are you stupid or just blind?
Noel: Neither one. You clearly don’t know him.
Tip: What are you talking about? I’ve seen him fuck every girl in this town.
Noel: That’s not true.
Tip: It is true. Just ask him.
Bottom line: he tried to?
Bo: It’s different when it’s your family.
Paul: I wouldn’t know that.
Bo: What Tip sees in you is exactly what he hates in himself. You think he’s just gonna forgive you and forget about it? Grow up, tell you it’s all right? “Go ahead, date my sister, I’ve seen what you done to every other girl on town, but it’s okay.” What do you want him to do?
Paul: I want him to calm down.
Bo: That’s not going to happen. If you were not in the history of all as the hapless ex-boyfriend. But you are.
Hell, even in the big city this is now more or less how it's likely to be.
Girl [to Tip]: He’s gonna fuck your sister over like he fucked over every other girl in this town.
Unless, of course, she's wrong.
Noel: You’re the first person that I’ve wanted to tell that to, 'cause you’re the first person that I’ve wanted to talk to for more than five minutes…ever.
Well, not counting Joseph Gordon-Levitt, perhaps.
Paul [to Noel after her confession]: I’m looking at you right now and I hear you talking and all the words that are coming out of your mouth are like they’re coming out of a stranger. Why don’t you put your fucking hair back on and come back, just come on back.
Love and human remains, remember?
Paul [drunkenly]: Listen, I want to talk…about when we were dating, I wanted to say to you that if I hurt your feelings…if I hurt your feelings, that I’m sorry…
Mary-Margaret [interrupting]: Shut up.
Paul: I’m sorry I hurt your feelings!
Mary-Margaret: Shut up!
Paul: I’m really sorry and I’m trying to apologize to you in a real way.
Mary-Margaret [seething with anger and pain]: You’re not sorry. You know how I know that? Because you’re not smart enough to be sorry. Guys like you…you never quit, and you never leave - you’re gonna be here forever. How does it make you feel knowing that?
I got out myself. In other words, for better or worse.
Paul [to Mary-Margaret]: Do you wanna know a secret that I didn’t tell anybody ever?.. You know how ducks fly home in a V? It’s like a v-shape when they get home? I was walking my dog and I looked up and there’s this big V above me, there’s all these ducks flying back to their home. And right when they flew above me, I saw 'em and, they crashed into a big house! The whole V! And then, they hit the ground, and they just kinda curled up. You ever fucking see that? Have you ever seen a mistake in nature? Have you ever seen an animal make a mistake?
Unless, of course, we're animals ourselves?
Elvira [Paul’s mother]: You sitting around crying, it ain’t gonna do you any good. I got news for you. Grow up and balance your personal life with your responsibilites.
Paul: What am I supposed to do, dress up as a clown and change bed pans? I don’t understand why I have to listen to this crap when you know I’m fucking standing here with a broken heart about ready to split my ribs.
Elvira: Oh that’s good. That’s a good one.
[She flaps the clown costume]
Elvira: Do you know what this is? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS?!
Paul: Clown clothes.
Elvira: That’s right. This is what I get for living through hard times. These are the clothes I wear. This is my face now. Do you want to look like me? Do you want to look like this? I was fucking beautiful!
[She slaps him across the face. Then again]
Elvira: Look at me. I got my own battles to attend to. It don’t mean that I don’t love you. It’s just that I can see the future and you got other opportunities. Opportunities that I don’t have.
You either get this and rub it in or you don't.
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iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
A post modern family if there ever was one. At least here in America. The father is gone and the mother is struggling in order to pay all the bills necessary to raise two kids. There is nothing that really anchors them. So [one day at a time] they deal with the dysfunction as best they can. And one of them is losing her mind. She’s just a kid. About 6 years old and already a cutter. She thinks she’s an angel when she flies out the window.
Life pummels them and they pummel each other. That’s the American way.
And sex. The accursed male libido. It has to be reined in and most times most men are able to. Sort of. But things can get complicated. We just pretend that they don’t.
On the other hand, he knows how vulnerable she is. And he is familiar enough about her precarious “situation” to know this: that sex with him can only make things a whole lot worse.
And the hints are broad: He’s done this before.
Good luck trying to put it all in perspective.
My own particular subtext: Where does the "society" fit into all this? What is the minimum each citizen should be able to expect from it? Especially children. Should Megan have to abandon the poetry contest because her family can’t afford to get her to it? Should she be reduced to stealing ties from her employer?
Blue Car
Lily [reading from a book]: “A man in Mexico burst his own eardrums with a pencil and sewed his eyelids shut because he said the government is deaf and blind to people’s pain.”
On the other hand, isn't she's next?
Diane [Megan’s mother]: I expect you to take care of her when I’m gone.
Meg: Get a babysitter.
Diane: I can’t afford a babysitter. You do have a responsibility to this family.
Meg: You had her. You take care of her.
Diane [startled]: What did you say?
Ouch?
Meg [to Lily]: It’s gonna get infected. You gotta stop hurting yourself.
Or, uh, what?
Auster: A world emerges from little details. For example, when we buried my son, I had forgotten to put in my contact lenses. I stood over him before they closed the coffin, trying to fix him in my memory. I could see the red from his sweater and his blue pants, and there was a scab on his forehead that hadn’t healed. It was from a bicycle accident. I could feel that scab when I kissed him, but when I looked at him…he was out of focus.
Next up: what he forgot to keep in focus around Megan.
Auster [after reading her poem]: Okay…you tell me.
Meg: I don’t know.
Auster: Why not? Are you afraid I’m going to tell you your work stinks?
Meg: Does it?
Auster: What do you think?
Meg: Probably. I don’t know.
Auster: Come back when you do.
[rises, starts to leave]
Meg: It doesn’t stink. There’s a line that I like.
Auster: Which one?
Meg: “Lost leaves spin past the glass, but the trees don’t go. They stay by my window.”
Auster: What about the rest of it?
Meg: I could go deeper.
Auster: Good for you.
Next up: he goes deeper.
Meg [to Auster]: Why are you so nice to me?
More to the point [mine], what if Megan had been the only exception? Instead, he's just one more dick in search of one more hole to put it in.
Meg: I’ll go and live with Dad.
Diane: Oh, good. You do that. You think he is so wonderful? See how you like it.
Meg: At least he doesn’t control everything I do.
Diane: Your father doesn’t give a shit about you. How many times did he come last year? Three?
Meg: He doesn’t come because of you.
Diane: He can’t even manage to pay the $60 a week in child support he owes me. I am up to here in debt to give you a life I can’t afford. I go to work 12 hours a day and I go to school at night so that I can make life nice.
I was totally sympathetic.
Meg [at poetry contest]: This poem – po-em – is for Mr. Auster. It’s called “Now That I’ve Read Your Book”.
The book? Just another prop, as it turned out.
Life pummels them and they pummel each other. That’s the American way.
And sex. The accursed male libido. It has to be reined in and most times most men are able to. Sort of. But things can get complicated. We just pretend that they don’t.
On the other hand, he knows how vulnerable she is. And he is familiar enough about her precarious “situation” to know this: that sex with him can only make things a whole lot worse.
And the hints are broad: He’s done this before.
Good luck trying to put it all in perspective.
My own particular subtext: Where does the "society" fit into all this? What is the minimum each citizen should be able to expect from it? Especially children. Should Megan have to abandon the poetry contest because her family can’t afford to get her to it? Should she be reduced to stealing ties from her employer?
Blue Car
Lily [reading from a book]: “A man in Mexico burst his own eardrums with a pencil and sewed his eyelids shut because he said the government is deaf and blind to people’s pain.”
On the other hand, isn't she's next?
Diane [Megan’s mother]: I expect you to take care of her when I’m gone.
Meg: Get a babysitter.
Diane: I can’t afford a babysitter. You do have a responsibility to this family.
Meg: You had her. You take care of her.
Diane [startled]: What did you say?
Ouch?
Meg [to Lily]: It’s gonna get infected. You gotta stop hurting yourself.
Or, uh, what?
Auster: A world emerges from little details. For example, when we buried my son, I had forgotten to put in my contact lenses. I stood over him before they closed the coffin, trying to fix him in my memory. I could see the red from his sweater and his blue pants, and there was a scab on his forehead that hadn’t healed. It was from a bicycle accident. I could feel that scab when I kissed him, but when I looked at him…he was out of focus.
Next up: what he forgot to keep in focus around Megan.
Auster [after reading her poem]: Okay…you tell me.
Meg: I don’t know.
Auster: Why not? Are you afraid I’m going to tell you your work stinks?
Meg: Does it?
Auster: What do you think?
Meg: Probably. I don’t know.
Auster: Come back when you do.
[rises, starts to leave]
Meg: It doesn’t stink. There’s a line that I like.
Auster: Which one?
Meg: “Lost leaves spin past the glass, but the trees don’t go. They stay by my window.”
Auster: What about the rest of it?
Meg: I could go deeper.
Auster: Good for you.
Next up: he goes deeper.
Meg [to Auster]: Why are you so nice to me?
More to the point [mine], what if Megan had been the only exception? Instead, he's just one more dick in search of one more hole to put it in.
Meg: I’ll go and live with Dad.
Diane: Oh, good. You do that. You think he is so wonderful? See how you like it.
Meg: At least he doesn’t control everything I do.
Diane: Your father doesn’t give a shit about you. How many times did he come last year? Three?
Meg: He doesn’t come because of you.
Diane: He can’t even manage to pay the $60 a week in child support he owes me. I am up to here in debt to give you a life I can’t afford. I go to work 12 hours a day and I go to school at night so that I can make life nice.
I was totally sympathetic.
Meg [at poetry contest]: This poem – po-em – is for Mr. Auster. It’s called “Now That I’ve Read Your Book”.
The book? Just another prop, as it turned out.
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iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Richard Wright from Native Son
He looked round the street and saw a sign on a building: THIS PROPERTY IS MANAGED BY THE SOUTH SIDE REAL ESTATE COMPANY. He had heard that Mr. Dalton owned the South Side Real Estate Company, and the South Side Real Estate Company owned the house in which he lived. He paid eight dollars a week for one rat-infested room.
Next up: the rats room free.
He was not concerned with whether these acts were right or wrong; they simply appealed to him as possible avenues of escape. He felt that some day there would be a black man who would whip the black people into a tight band and together they would act and end fear.
Nope. Unless you count Barry.
These conditions reflected the failures of modern civilization—the death of genuine spiritual values and traditions, the harsh ness of economic greed and exploitation, the avarice for glittering material goods that, in a culture of consumerism, ultimately possessed the possessor.
If only until the workers of the world unite.
Behind Trump?
Toward no one in the world did he feel any fear now, for he knew that fear was useless; and toward no one in the world did he feel any hate now, for he knew that hate would not help him.
Go ahead, try that yourself.
There are times, Your Honor, when reality bears features of such an impellingly moral complexion that it is impossible to follow the hewn path of expediency. There are times when life’s ends are so raveled that reason and sense cry out that we stop and gather them together again before we can proceed.
On the other hand, run that by Bigger.
He wanted suddenly to stand up and shout, telling them that he had killed a rich white girl, a girl whose family was known to all of them. Yes; if he did that a look of startled horror would come over their faces. But, no. He would not do that, even though the satisfaction would be keen. He was so greatly outnumbered that he would be arrested, tried, and executed. He wanted the keen thrill of startling them, but felt that the cost was too great. He wished that he had the power to say what he had done without fear of being arrested; he wished that he could be an idea in their minds; that his black face and the image of smothering Mary and cutting off her head and burning her could hover before their eyes as a terrible picture of reality which they could see and feel and yet not destroy. He was not satisfied with the way things stood now; he was a man who had come in sight of a goal, then had won it, and in winning it had seen just within his grasp another goal, higher, greater. He had learned to shout and had shouted and no ear had heard him.
Personas some call them.
He looked round the street and saw a sign on a building: THIS PROPERTY IS MANAGED BY THE SOUTH SIDE REAL ESTATE COMPANY. He had heard that Mr. Dalton owned the South Side Real Estate Company, and the South Side Real Estate Company owned the house in which he lived. He paid eight dollars a week for one rat-infested room.
Next up: the rats room free.
He was not concerned with whether these acts were right or wrong; they simply appealed to him as possible avenues of escape. He felt that some day there would be a black man who would whip the black people into a tight band and together they would act and end fear.
Nope. Unless you count Barry.
These conditions reflected the failures of modern civilization—the death of genuine spiritual values and traditions, the harsh ness of economic greed and exploitation, the avarice for glittering material goods that, in a culture of consumerism, ultimately possessed the possessor.
If only until the workers of the world unite.
Behind Trump?
Toward no one in the world did he feel any fear now, for he knew that fear was useless; and toward no one in the world did he feel any hate now, for he knew that hate would not help him.
Go ahead, try that yourself.
There are times, Your Honor, when reality bears features of such an impellingly moral complexion that it is impossible to follow the hewn path of expediency. There are times when life’s ends are so raveled that reason and sense cry out that we stop and gather them together again before we can proceed.
On the other hand, run that by Bigger.
He wanted suddenly to stand up and shout, telling them that he had killed a rich white girl, a girl whose family was known to all of them. Yes; if he did that a look of startled horror would come over their faces. But, no. He would not do that, even though the satisfaction would be keen. He was so greatly outnumbered that he would be arrested, tried, and executed. He wanted the keen thrill of startling them, but felt that the cost was too great. He wished that he had the power to say what he had done without fear of being arrested; he wished that he could be an idea in their minds; that his black face and the image of smothering Mary and cutting off her head and burning her could hover before their eyes as a terrible picture of reality which they could see and feel and yet not destroy. He was not satisfied with the way things stood now; he was a man who had come in sight of a goal, then had won it, and in winning it had seen just within his grasp another goal, higher, greater. He had learned to shout and had shouted and no ear had heard him.
Personas some call them.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
She was born in the wrong place at the wrong time. And she’s bloody bored. And she is fully determined [and fully prepared] to make damn sure everybody knows it.
Besides she can get away with it [around some] because she’s so gorgeous.
It’s the 1950s. England. No Beatles yet. So there’s really not much here that isn’t viewed as an act of rebellion. But she’s no teddy boy.
Instead, she sees through much of the bullshit that is “normal society” and plays the innocent waif. Gosh, what’s all the fuss, she seems to says, all I did was…
But, really, how many options [for “girls”] were there back then?
In many ways she is not nearly as sophisticated as she likes others to think she is. And she plays her games around folks not so much intent on being dignified as in being seen that way by others. Every culture has its own rendition of saving face.
Look, if all you do is watch the scene with her and shrink going through the alphabet, you know you’re watching a gem.
Oh, and by the way, “Up yer bum!”
Wish You Were Here
Lynda: Have I got nice tits, or have I got nice tits?
Yeah, sure, as tits go?
Lynda: But I was only showing them my new knickers, Mr. Figgis, look.
And, back then, that was like being buck naked.
Dave: Do you fancy me?
Lynda: Not half as much as you fancy yourself.
And the equivalent of that here?
Lynda: Do you love me?
Eric: No, I don’t love anyone…not even myself.
Don't expect Lynda to grasp that of course.
Lynda [to Eric]: You don’t know how lucky you are. I’m practically a virgin.
On the other hand, in a shack?
Lynda: No plonker, no nooky.
He wondered what that meant.
Eric [unbuttoning her dress]: You’d better take this off and all. I can just fit you in before the novices handicap at Kempton.
Lynda: Just hold me please, just hold me.
Needless to say, he’s not the holding type.
Eric: I don’t believe you. How? How do you know you’re pregnant?
Lynda: You’re the one who should know. You put it up me, Mr. Bareback Rider. You knew when you were gonna spunk! How the hell was I supposed to know?! All you see are tits and arses.
Eric: Have you seen a doctor? How do you know it’s mine?
Lynda: If it walks with a limp and thinks with its p****, it’s yours.
I guess we'll never know.
Besides she can get away with it [around some] because she’s so gorgeous.
It’s the 1950s. England. No Beatles yet. So there’s really not much here that isn’t viewed as an act of rebellion. But she’s no teddy boy.
Instead, she sees through much of the bullshit that is “normal society” and plays the innocent waif. Gosh, what’s all the fuss, she seems to says, all I did was…
But, really, how many options [for “girls”] were there back then?
In many ways she is not nearly as sophisticated as she likes others to think she is. And she plays her games around folks not so much intent on being dignified as in being seen that way by others. Every culture has its own rendition of saving face.
Look, if all you do is watch the scene with her and shrink going through the alphabet, you know you’re watching a gem.
Oh, and by the way, “Up yer bum!”
Wish You Were Here
Lynda: Have I got nice tits, or have I got nice tits?
Yeah, sure, as tits go?
Lynda: But I was only showing them my new knickers, Mr. Figgis, look.
And, back then, that was like being buck naked.
Dave: Do you fancy me?
Lynda: Not half as much as you fancy yourself.
And the equivalent of that here?
Lynda: Do you love me?
Eric: No, I don’t love anyone…not even myself.
Don't expect Lynda to grasp that of course.
Lynda [to Eric]: You don’t know how lucky you are. I’m practically a virgin.
On the other hand, in a shack?
Lynda: No plonker, no nooky.
He wondered what that meant.
Eric [unbuttoning her dress]: You’d better take this off and all. I can just fit you in before the novices handicap at Kempton.
Lynda: Just hold me please, just hold me.
Needless to say, he’s not the holding type.
Eric: I don’t believe you. How? How do you know you’re pregnant?
Lynda: You’re the one who should know. You put it up me, Mr. Bareback Rider. You knew when you were gonna spunk! How the hell was I supposed to know?! All you see are tits and arses.
Eric: Have you seen a doctor? How do you know it’s mine?
Lynda: If it walks with a limp and thinks with its p****, it’s yours.
I guess we'll never know.
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iambiguous
- Posts: 11317
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Watching this is always a surreal and exasperating experience for me. It is basically two films in one. One is completely enthralling and the other is, well, rather tedious. To me. Judah, Ben, Jack and Dolores converge around the crime while Cliff, Lester, Halley and Wendy haggle over the misdemeanors. It’s actually reached the point now where, aside from the part where Professor Levy comes into play, I’m mostly fast fowarding on to the crime. Lester and Halley in particular set my teeth to grinding.
In my view, this might well have been as enthraling as Another Woman had he saved the comedy for his next film. Remember Alice? Me neither.
The Seder scene alone is a masterpiece.
I just think it would have been so much beter had it explored in more depth, say, the relationship between Judah and Jack…drawing in on some of the characters from the Seder perhaps.
May, for example.
Bottom line: The world with and without God. Because, without Him, morality can never be more than a shifting point of view cobbled together existentially out in a particular world. This film imagines an actual context in which one confronts the proposition that “in the absense of God all things are permitted”. And they are permitted because they are rationalized.
Woody Allen felt that he had been too “nice” to the characters in the end of Hannah and Her Sisters, so he wrote this film as a response to those feelings. IMDb
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Clifford [on Lester’s films]: Hey, I can’t watch his stuff. It’s sub-mental.
Let's run that by Halley.
Judah [to Ben]: I’ve done a foolish thing. Senseless, vain, dumb. Another woman. Maybe I was flattered, vulnerable. Maybe because she was helpless and alone. Now my life’s about to go up in smoke.
Cue Law and Order?
Judah: You know what’s funny? Our entire adult lives, you and I have been having this same conversation in one form or another.
Ben: It’s a fundamental difference in the way we view the world. You see it as harsh and empty of values and pitiless, and I couldn’t go on living if I didn’t feel with all my heart a moral structure with real meaning and forgiveness, and some kind of higher power. Otherwise there’s no basis to know how to live. And I know you well enough to know that the spark of that notion is inside you, too.
See, didn't I tell you?
And it's not like there aren't at least a zillion "moral structures" from which to choose.
Professor Levy [voiceover]: The unique thing that happened to the early Israelites was that they conceived a God that cares. He cares but, at the same time, he also demands that you behave morally. But here comes the paradox. What’s one of the first things that that God asks?
Asks...or commands? Of Abraham for example
Clifford: A strange man defecated on my sister.
Wendy [matter of factly]: Why?
Clifford: I don’t know. Is there any reason I could give you that would answer that satisfactorily? Human sexuality is just…it’s so mysterious. Which I guess is…you know. I guess it’s good in a way.
Provided, of course, you don't get caught?
Judah [to Jack]: She’s not an insect! You don’t just step on her!
Instead, you hire someone else to.
In my view, this might well have been as enthraling as Another Woman had he saved the comedy for his next film. Remember Alice? Me neither.
The Seder scene alone is a masterpiece.
I just think it would have been so much beter had it explored in more depth, say, the relationship between Judah and Jack…drawing in on some of the characters from the Seder perhaps.
May, for example.
Bottom line: The world with and without God. Because, without Him, morality can never be more than a shifting point of view cobbled together existentially out in a particular world. This film imagines an actual context in which one confronts the proposition that “in the absense of God all things are permitted”. And they are permitted because they are rationalized.
Woody Allen felt that he had been too “nice” to the characters in the end of Hannah and Her Sisters, so he wrote this film as a response to those feelings. IMDb
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Clifford [on Lester’s films]: Hey, I can’t watch his stuff. It’s sub-mental.
Let's run that by Halley.
Judah [to Ben]: I’ve done a foolish thing. Senseless, vain, dumb. Another woman. Maybe I was flattered, vulnerable. Maybe because she was helpless and alone. Now my life’s about to go up in smoke.
Cue Law and Order?
Judah: You know what’s funny? Our entire adult lives, you and I have been having this same conversation in one form or another.
Ben: It’s a fundamental difference in the way we view the world. You see it as harsh and empty of values and pitiless, and I couldn’t go on living if I didn’t feel with all my heart a moral structure with real meaning and forgiveness, and some kind of higher power. Otherwise there’s no basis to know how to live. And I know you well enough to know that the spark of that notion is inside you, too.
See, didn't I tell you?
And it's not like there aren't at least a zillion "moral structures" from which to choose.
Professor Levy [voiceover]: The unique thing that happened to the early Israelites was that they conceived a God that cares. He cares but, at the same time, he also demands that you behave morally. But here comes the paradox. What’s one of the first things that that God asks?
Asks...or commands? Of Abraham for example
Clifford: A strange man defecated on my sister.
Wendy [matter of factly]: Why?
Clifford: I don’t know. Is there any reason I could give you that would answer that satisfactorily? Human sexuality is just…it’s so mysterious. Which I guess is…you know. I guess it’s good in a way.
Provided, of course, you don't get caught?
Judah [to Jack]: She’s not an insect! You don’t just step on her!
Instead, you hire someone else to.