Page 156 of 292
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 2:31 am
by iambiguous
Suicide
“The modern barbarity of ‘saving’ the suicidal is based on a hairraising misapprehension of the nature of existence.” Peter Wessel Zapffe
As though anyone here would save me.
“Sometimes, you can't save someone from themselves.” Dave Grohl
Let alone Courtney.
“I personally don't think about jumping because things can't possibly get worse. To the contrary, I contemplate it because I believe things probably will.” Tyler Knight.
And definitely will eventually.
“I want to feel the rush of death, the high of utter nothingness, the fragility of my own mortality. Let it slip through my fingers like sand and when it's gone for good, I'll be none the wiser.” Kayla Krantz
Take a number?
“Death frees us from the sickness of modern life.” Steven Magee
And all the rest of it proabably.
“Murder can be made to look like suicide, and suicide can be made to look like murder.” James Patterson
And he ought to know.
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 2:44 am
by iambiguous
Cool Hand Luke
[Luke wins a poker hand on a bluff]
Dragline: Nothin'! A handful of nothin'. You stupid mullet head, he beat you with nothin', just like today when he kept comin' back at me, with nothin'.
Luke: Yeah, well...sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Tell that to the Captain.
Dragline: He was smiling...That's right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they didn't know it 'fore, they could tell right then that they weren't a-gonna beat him.
So, they killed him.
Captain: What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men.
Said the Stooge.
Boss: Sorry, Luke. I'm just doing my job. You gotta appreciate that.
Luke: Nah - calling it your job don't make it right, Boss.
Next up: Rain on the Scrawcrow.
Dragline: Why you got to go and say fifty eggs for? Why not thirty-five or thirty-nine?
Luke: I thought it was a nice round number.
Let's imagine he said a 100.
The Girl: [Washing her car with the radio on loud to get the prisoners' attention]
Dragline: Hey, Lord... whatever I done, don't strike me blind for another couple of minutes.
I hear that: https://youtu.be/cINFeXqwbDo?si=qOGb41lG6kSEHhGD
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 7:38 pm
by iambiguous
The Social Network
Mark Zuckerberg: I'm just saying I need to do something substantial in order to get the attention of the clubs.
Erica Albright: Why?
Mark Zuckerberg: Because they're exclusive. And fun. And they lead to a better life.
Erica Albright: Teddy Roosevelt didn't get elected president because he was a member of the Phoenix club.
Mark Zuckerberg: He was a member of the Porcelain, and yes he did.
The deep state let's call it.
Mark Zuckerberg: I'm not a bad guy.
Marylin Delpy: I know that. When there's emotional testimony, I assume that 85% of it is exaggeration.
Mark Zuckerberg: And the other fifteen?
Marylin Delpy: Perjury. Creation myths need a Devil.
The criminal justice system let's call it.
Mark Zuckerberg: I invented Facebook.
Marylin Delpy: I'm talking about a jury. I specialize in voir dire - jury selection. And what the jury sees when they look at the defendant. Clothes, hair, speaking style... likability.
Mark Zuckerberg: Likability?
Marylin Delpy: I've been licensed to practice law for all of 20 months and I could get a jury to believe you planted the story about Eduardo and the chicken. Watch what else. Why weren't you at Sean's sorority party that night?
Mark Zuckerberg: You think I'm the one who called the police?
Marylin Delpy: Doesn't matter. I asked the question and now everyone's thinking about it. You've lost your jury in the first ten minutes.
Let's call this the criminal justice system too.
Tyler Winklevoss: Sir, it's against university rules to steal from another student, plain and simple.
Larry Summers: You've spoken to your house master?
Cameron Winklevoss: Yes, sir. And the house master made a recommendation to the Ad Board, but the Ad Board won't see us.
Larry Summers: Have you tried dealing with the other student directly?
Cameron Winklevoss: Mr. Zuckerberg hasn't been responding to any of our emails or phone calls for the last two weeks. He doesn't answer when we knock on his door at Kirkland and the closest I've come to dealing with him face-to-face is when I saw him on the quad and chased him through Harvard Square.
Larry Summers: You chased him?
Cameron Winklevoss: [Stuttering a little] I-I-I saw him and I know he saw me. I went after him and then he disappeared.
Larry Summers: I don't see this as a university issue.
Tyler Winklevoss: Of course this is a university issue. There's a code of ethics and an honor code and he violated them both
Larry Summers: You enter into a code of ethics with the university, not with each other.
Tyler Winklevoss: I'm sorry, president Summers, but what you just said makes no sense to me at all.
Larry Summers: [Sarcastically] I'm devastated by that.
Next up: a code of ethics here.
Eduardo Saverin: Hey, Mark.
Mark Zuckerberg: Wardo.
Eduardo Saverin: You and Erica split up.
Mark Zuckerberg: [confused] How did you know that?
Eduardo Saverin: It's on your blog.
Mark Zuckerberg: Yeah.
Eduardo Saverin: Are you all right?
Mark Zuckerberg: I need you.
Eduardo Saverin: I'm here for you.
Mark Zuckerberg: No, I need the algorithm you used to rank chess players.
Eduardo Saverin: Are you OK?
Mark Zuckerberg: We're ranking girls.
He means women of course.
Erica Albright: Is it true that they send a bus around to pick up girls who want to party with the next Fed chairman?
Mark Zuckerberg: So you can see why it's so important to get in.
Erica Albright: Okay, well, which is the easiest to get into?
Mark Zuckerberg: [pauses, taken aback] Why would you ask me that?
Erica Albright: I was just asking.
Mark Zuckerberg: None of them. That's the point. My friend Eduardo made $300,000 betting oil futures one summer, and Eduardo won't come close to getting in. The ability to make money doesn't impress anybody around here.
Right.
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 7:58 pm
by iambiguous
Slavoj Žižek
We don't really want to get what we think that we want.
I am married to a wife and relationship with her are cold and I have a mistress. And all the time I dream oh my god if my wife were to disappear - I'm not a murderer but let us say- that it will open up a new life with the mistress.Then, for some reason, the wife goes away, you lose the mistress.
You thought this is all I want, when you have it there, you turn out it was a much more complex situation.
It was not to live with the mistress, but to keep her as a distance as on object of desire about which you dream.
This is not an excessive example, I claim this is how things function. We don't really want what we think we desire.
In a nutshell: https://youtu.be/WGS9M6uiOW4?si=Ku7lbAsXiyFQdwtZ
Liberals always say about totalitarians that they like humanity, as such, but they have no empathy for concrete people, no? OK, that fits me perfectly. Humanity? Yes, it's OK – some great talks, some great arts. Concrete people? No, 99% are boring idiots.
When did it go down to 99%?
There is a contradiction between market liberalism and political liberalism. The market liberals (e.g., social conservatives) of today want family values, less government, and maintain the traditions of society (at least in America's case). However, we must face the cultural contradiction of capitalism: the progress of capitalism, which necessitates a consumer culture, undermines the values which render capitalism possible.
Unless, of course, he's wrong.
does not wait for the "ripe" objective circumstances to make a revolution, circumstances become "ripe" through the political struggle itself.
Such as it is?
To wit: Biden vs. Trump.
Don't forget to vote.
For Lacan, language is a gift as dangerous to humanity as the horse was to the Trojans: it offers itself to our use free of charge, but once we accept it, it colonizes us.
What, even the objectivists?!!!
...A friend has to be outside my reach, beyond my grasp. And there can be no friendship with someone whom I am not ready to betray: a friend is someone I can betray with love.
Not unlike all my friends here.
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 9:41 pm
by iambiguous
The Believer
Daniel Balint: Let me put it this way: Who wants to destroy the Jews? Who wants to grind their bones into the dust? And who wants to see them rise again? Wealthier, more successful, powerful, cultured, more intelligent than ever? Then you know what we have to do? We have to love 'em. What? Did he say ''Love the Jews''? It's strange, I know. But with these people, nothing is simple. The Jew says all he wants is to be left alone to study his Torah... do a little business... fornicate with his oversexed wife,but it's not true. He wants to be hated. He longs for our scorn. He clings to it, as if it were the very core of his being. If Hitler had not existed, the Jews would've invented him. For without such hatred, the so-called Chosen People would vanish from the earth. And this reveals a terrible truth and the crux of our problem as Nazis. The worse the Jews are treated, the stronger they become. Egyptian slavery made them a nation. The pogroms hardened them. Auschwitz gave birth to the state of Israel. Suffering, it seems, is the very crucible of their genius. So, if the Jews are,as one of their own has said... a people who will not take ''yes'' for an answer... let us say ''yes'' to them. They thrive on opposition. Let us cease to oppose them. The only way to annihilate this insidious people once and for all... is to open our arms, invite them into our homes... and embrace them. Only then will they vanish into assimilation, normality and love. But we cannot pretend. The Jew is nothing if not clever. He will see through hypocrisy and condescension. To destroy him, we must love him sincerely. If the Jews are strengthened by hate, wouldn't this... destruction that you speak of, whether it's by love or any other means... wouldn't that make them more powerful than they are already? Yes. lnfinitely more. They would become as God. It's the Jews' destiny to be annihilated so they can be deified. Jesus understood this perfectly. And look what was accomplished there with the death of just one enlightened Jew. Imagine what would happen if we killed them all.
Of course, we'll have to run this by Satyr and Veritas Aequitas.
Do we hate them because they push their way in where they don't belong? Or do we hate them because they're clannish and keep to themselves? Because they're tight with money, or because they flash it around? Because they're Bolsheviks, or because they're capitalists? Because they have the highest IQs, or because they have the most active sex lives?
Of course, we'll have to run this by Satyr and Veritas Aequitas.
Daniel Balint: Billings, if Hitler didn't kill six million, why is he your hero?... Concentration camps all over Europe, and he only gets rid of a measly two hundred thousand... He's a putz.
[Some surprise that a Nazi is arguing against a denier]
Ancient Jew: Hitler was not a putz. Hitler was real. God created him to punish the Jews for abandoning God.
[the other survivors are embarrassed by this, but the Ancient Jew ignores them]
Ancient Jew: It is you who are putzes. Little pishas with your dreams of hatred and killing...
[Danny scoffs, gets up to leave]
Hate Counselor: Where do you think you're going?
Daniel Balint: We have nothing to learn from these people. They should learn from us.
Ancient Jew: And what should we learn from you, Daniel?
Daniel Balint: Kill your enemy.
Not that we'd ever go that far here, of course. At least to the best of my knowledge.
Guy Danielson: People hate Jews, do you agree?
Daniel Balint: The very word makes their skin crawl. They undermine traditional life, and they deracinate society. Just take a look at the greatest Jewish minds ever. Marx, Freud, Einstein. What have they given us? Communism, infantile sexuality, and the atom bomb.
Guy Danielson: Danny, this is great. But how can you believe all of this... when you're a Jew yourself?
Let's just say that, rooted existentially in dasein, he has his reasons. This and the script.
Daniel Balint: You wanna know the real reason why we hate them? Because they exist. We have all the reasons we need in three simple letters. J-E-W... Jew! You say it a million times, it's the one word that never loses its meaning.
Let's think up a few more.
I'll start: Nazi.
Rav Zingesser: And you, had you come out of Egypt you would have been destroyed in the desert with all of those who worshipped the Golden Calf!
Young Danny: Then let him destroy me now. Let him crush me like the conceited bully he is.
[looks up]
Young Danny: Go ahead.
Maybe next time. You know, if Trump wins the election.
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 10:14 pm
by iambiguous
Time
“The past is never dead. It's not even past.” William Faulkner
Tell that to the future?
“The timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.” Khalil Gibran
Death being, what, irrelevant here?
“Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.” Jean de La Bruyère
Pick two
1] genes
2] memes
“Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time.” Jorge Luis Borges
Of course, that's almost certainly bullshit.
“My past is everything I failed to be.” Fernando Pessoa
Don't go there?
“Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.” Stephen King
Here's to hoping that we want it to. If you get my drift.
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 10:41 pm
by iambiguous
A History of Violence
[Richie asks Joey if he likes being married]
Richie Cusack: Do you like being married?
[Joey/Tom shrugs]
Richie Cusack: Does it work for you? I can't see it working for me. I never got the urge, you know? A lot of great-looking women in the world. I never met one made me wanna give up all the others.
Actually, I'm with Richie here.
[Mr. Fogarty tells Edie to question Tom about his past]
Carl Fogarty: Yeah? Well, why don't you ask "Tom" about his older brother Ritchie?
Edie Stall: [rolls her eyes] He doesn't have...
Carl Fogarty: [cutting her off] Ask "Tom" about how he tried to rip my eye out with barbed wire. And ask him, Edie, how come he's so good... at killing people?
Of course, he still has a few more to go, doesn't he?
Edie Stall: What are you, like, some multiple personality schizoid? It's like flipping a switch back and forth for you?
Tom Stall: I never expected to see Joey again.
Edie Stall: Oh, yeah. Joey. What, was he in hiding? Was he dead?
Tom Stall: I thought he was. I thought I killed Joey Cusack. I went out to the desert, and I killed him.
Edie Stall: Oh, my God.
Tom Stall: I spent three years becoming Tom Stall. Edie, you have to know this. I wasn't really born again until I met you. I was nothing.
Edie Stall: I don't believe you.
Well, sure, it might be true.
Edie asks Tom about where the name 'Stall' came from]
Edie Stall: So... you didn't grow up in Portland. And you never talk about your adopted parents because you don't have any! And our name... Jesus Christ, my name. Jack's name. Sarah's name? Stall? Tom Stall? Did you just make that up? Where did that name come from?
Tom Stall: I mean...It was available.
If you get his drift. And I think that I do.
Richie Cusack: I'm pretty pissed at you, bro-heem. You could've called. You could've dropped a postcard in the mail. We're brothers, what'd you think would happen.
Tom Stall: I thought that business would come first.
And he wasn't wrong.
[Edie asks Tom for the truth about if he's Joey Cusack]
Tom Stall: Edie. Honey, are you okay?
Edie Stall: Tell me the truth.
Tom Stall: The truth?
Edie Stall: Please, you can do that, can't you? You can do that, can't you, please?
Tom Stall: What do you think you heard?
Edie Stall: It's not what I heard. It's what I saw. I saw Joey. I saw you turn into Joey right before my eyes. I saw a killer... the one Fogarty warned me about. You did kill men back in Philly, didn't you? Did you do it for money, or did you do it because you enjoyed it?
Tom Stall: Joey did, both. I didn't... Tom Stall didn't.
[as Edie runs into the bathroom to vomit]
You rell me: https://youtu.be/Ug4TkRz3bUY?si=S5n3RqaPqTKxYIL_
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 6:30 pm
by iambiguous
Manhattan
Isaac Davis: You honestly think that I tried to run you over?
Connie: You just happened to hit the gas as I walked in front of the car?
Isaac Davis: Did I do it on purpose?
Jill: Well, what would Freud say?
Isaac Davis: Freud would say I really wanted to run her over, that's why he was a genius.
Next up: what Jung would say.
Isaac Davis: Has anybody read that Nazis are gonna march in New Jersey? Y'know, I read this in the newspaper. We should go down there, get some guys together, y'know, get some bricks and baseball bats and really explain things to them.
Party Guest: There is this devastating satirical piece on that on the Op Ed page of the Times, it is devastating.
Isaac Davis: Well, a satirical piece in the Times is one thing, but bricks and baseball bats really gets right to the point.
Of course, they'll likely have bricks and baseball bats too. And death camps.
Isaac Davis: What are you telling me, that you're going to leave Emily, is this true, and run away with the winner of the Zelda Fitzgerald emotional maturity award?
Yale: Look, I love her, I've always loved her.
Isaac Davis: What kind of crazy friend are you?
Yale: I'm a good friend! I introduced her to you, remember?
Isaac Davis: Right, what was the point? I don't understand that!
Yale: Well, I thought you liked her?
Isaac Davis: Yes, I do like her, now we both like her!
Yale: Yeah, well I liked her first!
Cue the skeleton.
Mary Wilke: Don't psychoanalyze me. I pay a doctor for that.
Isaac Davis: Hey, you call that guy that you talk to a doctor? I mean, you don't get suspicious when your analyst calls you at home at three in the morning and weeps into the telephone?
Mary Wilke: All right, so he's unorthodox. He's a highly qualified doctor.
Isaac Davis: He's done a great job on you, y'know. Your self esteem is like a notch below Kafka's.
Before or after the metamorphosis?
Isaac Davis: She's 17. I'm 42 and she's 17. I'm older than her father, can you believe that? I'm dating a girl, wherein, I can beat up her father.
Next up: Soon-Yi's father.
Isaac Davis: This is so antiseptic. It's empty. Why do you think this is funny? You're going by audience reaction? This is an audience that's raised on television, their standards have been systematically lowered over the years. These guys sit in front of their sets and the gamma rays eat the white cells of their brains out!
Next up: raised on social media.
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 7:38 pm
by iambiguous
God
“In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen: the realistic presentation of the sexual act and praying to God.” Orson Welles
Next up: praying to God for sex.
On or offscreen.
“God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us. ” Socrates
Of course, that's the wrong God, isn't it?
“If you don't understand how something works, never mind: just give up and say God did it. You don't know how the nerve impulse works? Good! You don't understand how memories are laid down in the brain? Excellent! Is photosynthesis a bafflingly complex process? Wonderful! Please don't go to work on the problem, just give up, and appeal to God.” Richard Dawkins
The atheist as smartass?
“If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does.” Christopher Hitchens
He didn't though, did he?
“If you violate laws of God, you're a sinner.
If you violate laws of men, you're a criminal.
If you violate your own laws, you're pathetic.” Toba Beta
Your own laws? And what might that entail?
“Those who believe that they believe in God, but without passion in their hearts, without anguish in mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in the God idea, not God Himself.” Miguel de Unamuno
Exactly, IC! Your God is, in my view, this ridiculous philosophical contraption!!
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2024 12:39 am
by iambiguous
Cool Hand Luke
Carr: Them clothes got laundry numbers on them. You remember your number and always wear the ones that has your number. Any man forgets his number spends a night in the box. These here spoons you keep with you. Any man loses his spoon spends a night in the box. There's no playing grab-ass or fighting in the building. You got a grudge against another man, you fight him Saturday afternoon. Any man playing grab-ass or fighting in the building spends a night in the box. First bell's at five minutes of eight when you will get in your bunk. Last bell is at eight. Any man not in his bunk at eight spends the night in the box. There is no smoking in the prone position in bed. To smoke you must have both legs over the side of your bunk. Any man caught smoking in the prone position in bed... spends a night in the box. You get two sheets. Every Saturday, you put the clean sheet on the top... the top sheet on the bottom... and the bottom sheet you turn in to the laundry boy. Any man turns in the wrong sheet spends a night in the box. No one'll sit in the bunks with dirty pants on. Any man with dirty pants on sitting on the bunks spends a night in the box. Any man don't bring back his empty pop bottle spends a night in the box. Any man loud talking spends a night in the box. You got questions, you come to me. I'm Carr, the floor walker. I'm responsible for order in here. Any man don't keep order spends a night in...
Luke: ...the box.
Carr: I hope you ain't going to be a hard case.
Luke: [Smiles, shakes head]
Of course they don't get much harder, do they? He just never plans anything out is all.
Dog Boy: Well, lookie here. I knew they'd get you. Them chains and a bonus of a couple of years... Your running days are over forever, boy. Hell, I'd like to see you try to run again. You know, you getting so you smell so bad I can track you myself.
Luke: Yeah, well, that ought to be easy for a genuine son of a bitch.
Tell that to Blue.
Luke: Anybody here? Hey, Old Man. You home tonight? Can You spare a minute. It's about time we had a little talk. I know I'm a pretty evil fellow... killed people in the war and got drunk... and chewed up municipal property and the like. I know I got no call to ask for much... but even so, You've got to admit You ain't dealt me no cards in a long time. It's beginning to look like You got things fixed so I can't never win out. Inside, outside, all of them... rules and regulations and bosses. You made me like I am. Now just where am I supposed to fit in? Old Man, I gotta tell You. I started out pretty strong and fast. But it's beginning to get to me. When does it end? What do You got in mind for me? What do I do now? Right. All right.
[Gets on knees, closes eyes and begins to pray]
Luke: On my knees, asking.
[Peeks up with one eye, waits. Then opens eyes and crosses arms]
Luke: Yeah, that's what I thought. I guess I'm pretty tough to deal with, huh? A hard case.
[Clicks tongue]
Fucking Dragline!
[Discussing God and the rain]
Luke: Let him go. Bam, Bam.
Dragline: Knock it off, Luke. You can't talk about Him that way.
Luke: Are you still believin' in that big bearded Boss up there? You think he's watchin' us?
Dragline: Get in here. Ain't ya scared? Ain't ya scared of dyin'?
Luke: Dyin'? Boy, he can have this little life any time he wants to. Do ya hear that? Are ya hearin' it? Come on. You're welcome to it, ol' timer. Let me know you're up there. Come on. Love me, hate me, kill me, anything. Just let me know it.
[He looks around]
Luke: I'm just standin' in the rain talkin' to myself.
At least he knows it.
Luke's Nephew: [on visiting day] Uncle Luke? Why can't you have chains?
Luke: John-boy, lemme tell you something. You know, them chains ain't medals. You get 'em for making mistakes. And you make a bad enough mistake, and then you gotta deal with the Man. And he is one rough old boy.
What would you have told him?
Arletta: [Speaking to her son Luke] You know, sometimes, I wished people was like dogs, Luke. Comes a time, a day like, when the bitch just don't recognize the pups no more, so she don't have no hopes nor love to give her pain. She just don't give a damn.
Unless the kids beat her to it.
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2024 12:55 am
by iambiguous
Madness
“Crazy people are considered mad by the rest of the society only because their intelligence isn't understood.” Wei Hui
Trust me: not all of them.
“Doubt … is an illness that comes from knowledge and leads to madness.” Gustave Flaubert
Anyone here still doubt that?
“When you are mad...you don't know it. Reality is what you see. When what you see shifts, departing from anyone else's reality, it's still reality to you.” Marya Hornbacher
Of course, the rest is history.
“All forms of madness, bizarre habits, awkwardness in society, general clumsiness, are justified in the person who creates good art.” Roman Payne
And good philosophy?
“If I am mad, it is mercy! May the gods pity the man who in his callousness can remain sane to the hideous end!” H.P. Lovecraft
I'm working on that from both ends myself.
“Humans, as a rule, don't like mad people unless they are good at painting, and only then once they are dead. But the definition of mad, on Earth, seems to be very unclear and inconsistent. What is perfectly sane in one era turns out to be insane in another. The earliest humans walked around naked with no problem. Certain humans, in humid rainforests mainly, still do so. So, we must conclude that madness is sometimes a question of time, and sometimes of postcode.
Basically, the key rule is, if you want to appear sane on Earth you have to be in the right place, wearing the right clothes, saying the right things, and only stepping on the right kind of grass.” Matt Haig
Didn't I tell you?
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2024 1:23 am
by iambiguous
Good Will Hunting
Sean: [sitting on a bench in in front of a pond in park] Thought about what you said to me the other day, about my painting. Stayed up half the night thinking about it. Something occurred to me... fell into a deep peaceful sleep, and haven't thought about you since. Do you know what occurred to me?
Will: No.
Sean: You're just a kid, you don't have the faintest idea what you're talkin' about.
Will: Why thank you.
Sean: It's all right. You've never been out of Boston.
Will: Nope.
Sean: So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that. If I ask you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, "once more unto the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. And look at you... I don't see an intelligent, confident man... I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart. You're an orphan right?
[Will nods]
Sean: You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally... I don't give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can't learn anything from you, I can't read in some fuckin' book. Unless you want to talk about you, who you are. Then I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't want to do that do you sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.
Run all that by me, chief.
Chuckie: [in a bar] Are we gonna have a problem here?
Clark: No, no, no, no! There's no problem here. I was just hoping you might give me some insight into the evolution of the market economy in the southern colonies. My contention is that prior to the Revolutionary War, the economic modalities, especially in the southern colonies, could be most aptly described as agrarian pre-capitalist.
Will: Of course that's your contention. You're a first-year grad student; you just got finished reading some Marxian historian, Pete Garrison probably. You're gonna be convinced of that 'till next month when you get to James Lemon. Then you're going to be talking about how the economies of Virginia and Pennsylvania were entrepreneurial and capitalist way back in 1740. That's gonna last until next year; you're gonna be in here regurgitating Gordon Wood, talkin' about, you know, the pre-revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of military mobilization.
Clark: Well, as a matter of fact, I won't, because Wood drastically underestimates the impact of social...
Will: "Wood drastically underestimates the impact of social distinctions predicated upon wealth, especially inherited wealth"? You got that from Vickers' "Work in Essex County," page 98, right? Yeah, I read that too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? Do you have any thoughts of your own on this matter? Or do you, is that your thing, you come into a bar, read some obscure passage and then pretend - you pawn it off as your own, as your own idea just to impress some girls, embarrass my friend?
Will: See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, in 50 years you're gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're going to come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life: one, don't do that, and two, you dropped 150 grand on a fuckin' education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library!
Clark: Yeah, but I will have a degree. And you'll be servin' my kids fries at a drive-thru on our way to a skiing trip.
Will: Yeah, maybe. But at least I won't be unoriginal.
How did he like them apples?
Will: What do I wanna way outta here for? I'm gonna live here the rest of my fuckin' life. We'll be neighbors, have little kids, take 'em to Little League up at Foley Field.
Chuckie: Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way but, in 20 years if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house, watchin' the Patriots games, workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill ya. That's not a threat, that's a fact, I'll fuckin' kill ya.
Will: What the fuck you talkin' about?
Chuckie: You got somethin' none of us have...
Will: Oh, come on! What? Why is it always this? I mean, I fuckin' owe it to myself to do this or that. What if I don't want to?
Chuckie: No. No, no no no. Fuck you, you don't owe it to yourself man, you owe it to me. Cuz tomorrow I'm gonna wake up and I'll be 50, and I'll still be doin' this shit. And that's all right. That's fine. I mean, you're sittin' on a winnin' lottery ticket. And you're too much of a pussy to cash it in, and that's bullshit. 'Cause I'd do fuckin' anything to have what you got. So would any of these fuckin' guys. It'd be an insult to us if you're still here in 20 years. Hangin' around here is a fuckin' waste of your time.
You either get this or you don't.
So, is anyone here still stumped?
[exterior view of nondescript multi-floored office building]
Will: [cut to interior recruitment office] So why do you think I should work for the National Security Agency?
NSA Agent: [complacently] Well, you'd be working on the cutting edge. You'd be exposed to the kind of technology you wouldn't see anywhere else, because we've classified it. Superstring theory, chaos math, advanced algorithms.
Will: [succinctly] Code breaking.
NSA Agent: [evasively] That's one aspect of what we do.
Will: [confrontationally] Oh, come on. That is what you do. You guys handle 80% of the intelligence workload. You're seven times the size of the C.I.A.
NSA Agent: [smugly] We don't like to brag about that, Will, but you're exactly right. So the way I see it, the question isn't: "Why should you work for the N.S.A.?" The question is: "Why shouldn't you?"
Will: Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.?
[chuckles]
Will: That's a tough one, but I'll take a shot. Say I'm workin' at the N.S.A. and somebody puts a code on my desk. Something no one else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. I'm real happy with myself because I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army...
Will: [cut to Sean's office as Will recites the recruitment interview] in North Africa or Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels are hidin'. Fifteen hundred people that I never met, never had no problem with, get killed.
Will: Now the politicians are saying, "Send in the Marines to secure the area," 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there gettin' shot, just like it wasn't them when their number got called 'cause they were in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie over there takin' shrapnel in the ass. He comes back to find the plant he used to work at... got exported to the country he got back from, and the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job... 'cause he'll work for 15¢ a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place... was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. Of course, the oil companies used a skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain't helpin' my buddy at $2.50 a gallon. They're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil, of course. Maybe they even took the liberty to hire an alcoholic skipper, who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the icebergs. It ain't too long till he hits one, spills the oil... and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic.
Will: So now my buddy's out of work, he can't afford to drive, so he's walkin' to the fuckin' job interviews... which sucks because the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. Meanwhile, he's starvin', 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they're servin'... is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State.
Will: [indignantly] So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure, fuck it. While I'm at it, why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard?
Next thing you know he's hawking crypto currency and Dunkin' Donuts.
Sean: [in a bar] Hey, Gerry, In the 1960s there was a young man that graduated from the University of Michigan. Did some brilliant work in mathematics. Specifically bounded harmonic functions. Then he went on to Berkeley. He was assistant professor. Showed amazing potential. Then he moved to Montana, and blew the competition away.
Lambeau: Yeah, so who was he?
Sean: Ted Kaczynski.
Lambeau: Haven't heard of him.
Sean: [yelling to the bartender] Hey, Timmy!
Timmy: Yo.
Sean: Who's Ted Kaczynski?
Timmy: Unabomber.
[Lambeau winces as he realizes the point Sean is making]
And now Ted is dead.
To make another point.
Will: I read your book last night.
Sean: So you're the one.
Him and Carlton Fisk.
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2024 10:53 pm
by iambiguous
The Believer
Daniel Balint: In the mere three centuries since these guys emerged from the ghettos of Europe, they've taken us from a world built on order and reason and hurled us into a chaos of class warfare, irrational urges and relativity, a world where the very existence of matter and meaning is in doubt. Why? Because it is the deepest impulse of the Jewish soul to unravel the very fabric of life until nothing is left but thread, nothing but nothingness. Nothingness without end.
Of course, we'll have to run this by Ken first.
Mrs. Frankel: What do you think you would have done if you had been there?
Daniel Balint: Not what he did. Just stand there and watch?
Mrs. Frankel: How do you know? You've never been tested like he has. Here in this rich, safe, stupid country it is so easy to imagine oneself a hero. But, you have no idea what it was like. You can't conceive of it. Everything, all of Europe, was designed to break one's will. Millions went to camps many stronger, braver than you. They did nothing. Just as you would have done nothing.
Next up: what would Satyr and Veritas Aequitas have done?
Teacher: And God said…''Now take your son, your onIy son whom you Iove, Isaac and go unto the Iand of Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice on a mountain that I wiII show you.‘’ So, everyone, what’s reaIIy going on here?
Boy: It was a test of Abraham’s faith and devotion to God.
Teacher: Danny? As usuaI you have something to add?
Young Daniel: It’s not about his faith, it’s about God’s power. God says ‘‘You know how powerfuI I am?’’ ''I can make you do anything I want, no matter how stupid. ‘’ ''Even kiII your own son. ‘’ ‘‘Because I’m everything and you’re nothing.’’
To wit:
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"
Teacher: OK, Danny, but if Hashem is everything and we are nothing…how then are we to judge His actions?
Young Daniel: We have free wiII and inteIIigence, which God aIIegedIy gave us.
Teacher: What are you taIking about? God never Iets Abraham kiII Isaac. He gives him the ram so he doesn’t have to.
Young Daniel: PersonaIIy, I think that’s a Iie.
Teacher: You think? Based on what?
Young Daniel: There’s Midrash supporting it. My father read a book by ShaIom SpiegeI…that said Isaac died and was reborn.
Teacher: No-one foIIows that Midrash.
Young Daniel: I do! I foIIow it. But OK, say God provided the ram. So what? Once Abraham raised the knife, it was as if he’d kiIIed him in his heart. He couId never forget that and neither couId Isaac. He’s traumatised. He’s a putz the rest of his Iife.
Unless, of course, God and His mysterious ways do exist.
Daniel: Where’s your father now?
Carla: In a mental institution.
Daniel: Was he a Nazi?
Carla: l don’t know. We don’t talk about that. l don’t think he cares about all that stuff any more.
Daniel: What’s he care about?
Carla: Killing himself.
Amen?
Holocaust survivor: He stuck his bayonet… …in my son’s chest… …and lifted him up, impaled on it. My son was three years old. He… He held him so that the blood spurting out of him fell on my face. The soldiers were laughing. And when the blood stopped, the sergeant pushed my son…off his bayonet, and said…‘‘There. You can have him now.’’
Daniel: What’d you do?
Hate Counselor: What are you trying to say?
Daniel: What did you do while the sergeant was killing your son?
Mrs Frankel: What could he have done?!
Daniel: What could he have done? The sergeant’s killing his kid! What could he have done? He could’ve jumped the guy, gouged his eyes out, grabbed his bayonet…
Mrs. Frankel: They would’ve shot him on the spot. He would’ve been dead in two seconds. Who are you to judge?
Daniel: So he’s dead? Big deal. He’s worse than dead now. He’s a piece of shit!
So, Mr. Serious Philosopher, is this logical or not?
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2024 11:04 pm
by iambiguous
Sara Gruen from Water For Elephants
“Even as your body betrays you, your mind denies it.”
Nope, not my mine.
Dear God. Not only am I unemployed and homeless, but I also have a pregnant woman, bereaved dog, elephant, and eleven horses to take care of.
Just out of curiosity, if you were God, what would you do?
...if you expect people to try to do things your way, you're going to have to give some hints as to what that way is."
Uh, fractured and fragmented?
"Why the hell shouldn't I run away with the circus?"
Okay, but are there any left?
Sometimes I think if I had to choose between an ear of corn or making love to a woman, I'd choose the corn.
Let's run this by, well, you know who.
"The whole thing's illusion, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's what people want from us. It's what they expect."
Like, for example, deontology here?
Re: Quote of the day
Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 12:09 am
by iambiguous
Reservoir Dogs
Nice Guy Eddie: C'mon, throw in a buck!
Mr. Pink: Uh-uh, I don't tip.
Nice Guy Eddie: You don't tip?
Mr. Pink: No, I don't believe in it.
Nice Guy Eddie: You don't believe in tipping?
Mr. Blue: You know what these chicks make? They make shit.
Mr. Pink: Don't give me that. She don't make enough money that she can quit.
Nice Guy Eddie: I don't even know a fucking Jew who'd have the balls to say that. Let me get this straight: you don't ever tip?
Mr. Pink: I don't tip because society says I have to. All right, if someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I'll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just doing their job.
Mr. Blue: Hey, our girl was nice.
Mr. Pink: She was okay. She wasn't anything special.
Mr. Blue: What's special? Take you in the back and suck your dick?
Nice Guy Eddie: I'd go over twelve percent for that.
Next up: the serious philosophers among us take this up into the philosophical clouds and, theoretically, resolve it!
Mr. Blonde: Hey Joe, you want me to shoot this guy?
Mr. White: [laughs] Shit...You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.
Tough guy talk?
Mr. Pink: Hey, why am I Mr. Pink?
Joe: Because you're a faggot, alright?
Mr. Pink: Why can't we pick our own colors?
Joe: No way, no way. Tried it once, it doesn't work. You get four guys all fighting over who's gonna be Mr. Black, but they don't know each other, so nobody wants to back down. No way. I pick. You're Mr. Pink. Be thankful you're not Mr. Yellow.
Mr. Brown: Yeah, but Mr. Brown, that's a little too close to Mr. Shit.
Mr. Pink: Mr. Pink sounds like Mr. Pussy. How 'bout if I'm Mr. Purple? That sounds good to me. I'll be Mr. Purple.
Joe: You're not Mr. Purple. Some guy on some other job is Mr. Purple. Your Mr. PINK.
Mr. White: Who cares what your name is?
Mr. Pink: Yeah, that's easy for your to say, you're Mr. White. You have a cool-sounding name. Alright look, if it's no big deal to be Mr. Pink, do you wanna trade?
Joe: Hey! NOBODY'S trading with ANYBODY. This ain't a goddamn, fucking city council meeting, you know? Now listen up, Mr. Pink. There's two ways you can go on this job: my way or the highway. Now what's it gonna be, Mr. Pink?
Mr. Pink: Jesus Christ, Joe, fucking forget about it. It's beneath me. I'm Mr. Pink. Let's move on.
Oh, they move on alright, don't they?
Mr. Orange: [after killing Mr. Blonde] Hey you, what's your name?
LAPD Officer Marvin Nash: Marvin.
Mr. Orange: Marvin what?
LAPD Officer Marvin Nash: Marvin Nash.
Mr. Orange: Listen to me, Marvin, I'm a c...
[pauses]
Mr. Orange: ...listen to me, Marvin Nash, I'm a cop.
LAPD Officer Marvin Nash: Yeah, I know.
Mr. Orange: You do?
LAPD Officer Marvin Nash: Yeah, you're name's Freddy something.
Mr. Orange: Newendyke. Freddy Newendyke.
LAPD Officer Marvin Nash: Frankie Fischetti introduced us about five months ago.
Mr. Orange: Shit, I don't remember that at all.
LAPD Officer Marvin Nash: I do. Freddy... Freddy, how do I look?
Mr. Orange: [Freddy laughs] I don't know what to tell you, Marvin.
LAPD Officer Marvin Nash: That fuck! That sick fuck! That fucking bastard!
Mr. Orange: Marvin, I need you to hold on. There's cops waiting less than a block away.
LAPD Officer Marvin Nash: What the fuck are they waiting for? This fucking guy slashes my face, and he cuts my fucking ear off! I'm fucking deformed!
Mr. Orange: [yells] FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! I'M FUCKIN' DYING HERE! I'M FUCKIN' DYING!
[pauses and calms down]
Mr. Orange: All right, now you heard them, we'll make the move when they get back, so don't pussy out on me now, Marvin. We're just gonna sit here and bleed until Joe Cabot sticks his fucking head through that door!
And we know how that turns out, right, Mr. Pink?
Mr. Blonde: Listen kid, I'm not gonna bullshit you, all right? I don't give a good fuck what you know, or don't know, but I'm gonna torture you anyway, regardless. Not to get information. It's amusing, to me, to torture a cop. You can say anything you want cause I've heard it all before. All you can do is pray for a quick death, which you ain't gonna get.
[He removes his razor]
Mr. Blonde: You ever listen to K-Billy's "Super Sounds of the Seventies" weekend? It's my personal favorite.
How'd you like to be "stuck in the middle" with him?
Mr. Pink: For all I know, you're the rat.
Mr. White: For all I know you're the fucking rat!
Mr. Pink: All right, now you're using your fucking head!
Okay, maybe, but who ends up with the fucking jewels?