Despair...
“The majority of my patients consisted not of believers but of those who had lost their faith.” Carl Jung
And he cured them all, right?
“It's lies. It's all lies. Some of them are just prettier than others, that's all. People see what they think is there.” Terry Pratchett
Pick one:
1] Donald Trump
2] George Santos
“At night I no longer dreamed, nor did I let my imagination work during the day. The once vibrant escapes of watching myself fly through the clouds in bright blue costumes, were now a thing of the past. When I fell asleep, my soul became consumed in a black void. I no longer awoke in the mornings refreshed; I was tired and told myself that I had one day less to live in this world. I shuffled through my chores, dreading every moment of every day. With no dreams, I found that words like hope and faith were only letters, randomly put together into something meaningless - words only for fairy tales. ” Dave Pelzer
Next up: words like dasein?
“Whether you are man or woman, rich or poor, dependent or free, happy or unhappy; whether you bore in your elevation the splendour of the crown or in humble obscurity only the toil and heat of the day; whether your name will be remembered for as long as the world lasts, and so will have been remembered as long as it lasted, or you are without a name and run namelessly with the numberless multitude; whether the glory that surrounded you surpassed all human description, or the severest and most ignominious human judgment was passed on you -- eternity asks you and every one of these millions of millions, just one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not, whether so in despair that you did not know that you were in despair, or in such a way that you bore this sickness concealed deep inside you as your gnawing secret, under your heart like the fruit of a sinful love, or in such a way that, a terror to others, you raged in despair. If then, if you have lived in despair, then whatever else you won or lost, for you everything is lost, eternity does not acknowledge you, it never knew you, or, still more dreadful, it knows you as you are known, it manacles you to yourself in despair!” Søren Kierkegaard
Exactly!
“No death, no doom, no anguish can arouse the surpassing despair which flows from a loss of identity." H.P. Lovecraft
Of course, he's only paraphrasing me.
“I tried to groan, Help! Help! But the tone that came out was that of polite conversation.” Samuel Beckett
Don't you just hate that?
Quote of the day
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iambiguous
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Re: Quote of the day
Umberto Eco from Foucault's Pendulum
“If the eye could see the demons that people the universe, existence would be impossible. —Talmud, Berakhot, 6"
Next up: the demons here.
“Our cause is a secret within a secret, a secret that only another secret can explain; it is a secret about a secret that is veiled by a secret. —Jafar as-ādiq, sixth Imam”
Uh, your guess is as good as mine?
You cannot escape one infinite, I told myself, by fleeing to another; you cannot escape the revelation of the identical by taking refuge in the illusion of the multiple.
Not that millions haven't already done so.
The Templars had read Avicenna, and they were not ignorant, like the Europeans. How could you live alongside a tolerant, mystical, libertine culture for two centuries without succumbing to its allure, particularly when you compared it to Western culture, which was crude, vulgar, barbaric, and Germanic?
This guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna
Diotallevi and Belbo, both from Piedmont, often claimed that any good Piedmontese had the ability to listen politely, look you in the eye, and say “You think so?” in a tone of such apparent sincerity that you immediately felt his profound disapproval.
You think so?
But point taken. Especially here.
A lunatic is easily recognized. He is a moron who doesn’t know the ropes. The moron proves his thesis; he has a logic, however twisted it may be. The lunatic, on the other hand, doesn’t concern himself at all with logic; he works by short circuits. For him, everything proves everything else. The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy.
Next up: the pinhead.
“If the eye could see the demons that people the universe, existence would be impossible. —Talmud, Berakhot, 6"
Next up: the demons here.
“Our cause is a secret within a secret, a secret that only another secret can explain; it is a secret about a secret that is veiled by a secret. —Jafar as-ādiq, sixth Imam”
Uh, your guess is as good as mine?
You cannot escape one infinite, I told myself, by fleeing to another; you cannot escape the revelation of the identical by taking refuge in the illusion of the multiple.
Not that millions haven't already done so.
The Templars had read Avicenna, and they were not ignorant, like the Europeans. How could you live alongside a tolerant, mystical, libertine culture for two centuries without succumbing to its allure, particularly when you compared it to Western culture, which was crude, vulgar, barbaric, and Germanic?
This guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna
Diotallevi and Belbo, both from Piedmont, often claimed that any good Piedmontese had the ability to listen politely, look you in the eye, and say “You think so?” in a tone of such apparent sincerity that you immediately felt his profound disapproval.
You think so?
But point taken. Especially here.
A lunatic is easily recognized. He is a moron who doesn’t know the ropes. The moron proves his thesis; he has a logic, however twisted it may be. The lunatic, on the other hand, doesn’t concern himself at all with logic; he works by short circuits. For him, everything proves everything else. The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy.
Next up: the pinhead.
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iambiguous
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Re: Quote of the day
Margaret Atwood from Oryx and Crake
Can a single ant be said to be alive, in any meaningful sense of the word, or does it only have relevance in terms of its anthill?
No, seriously?
Not real can tell us about real.
God, right?
So many crucial events take place behind people’s backs, when they aren’t in a position to watch: birth and death, for instance. And the temporary oblivion of sex.
Let's try to explain that.
The proper study of Mankind is Everything.
Hmm, does that include philosophy?
And he couldn't stand to be nothing, to know himself to be nothing. He needs to be listened to, he needs to be heard. He needs at least the illusion of being understood.
Good luck with that, right?
Arboreal, a fine word. Our arboreal ancestors, Crake used to say. Used to shit on their enemies from above while perched in trees. All planes and rockets and bombs are simply elaborations on that primate instinct.
You know, if that's actually true.
Can a single ant be said to be alive, in any meaningful sense of the word, or does it only have relevance in terms of its anthill?
No, seriously?
Not real can tell us about real.
God, right?
So many crucial events take place behind people’s backs, when they aren’t in a position to watch: birth and death, for instance. And the temporary oblivion of sex.
Let's try to explain that.
The proper study of Mankind is Everything.
Hmm, does that include philosophy?
And he couldn't stand to be nothing, to know himself to be nothing. He needs to be listened to, he needs to be heard. He needs at least the illusion of being understood.
Good luck with that, right?
Arboreal, a fine word. Our arboreal ancestors, Crake used to say. Used to shit on their enemies from above while perched in trees. All planes and rockets and bombs are simply elaborations on that primate instinct.
You know, if that's actually true.
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Impenitent
- Posts: 4999
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Re: Quote of the day
FSU was 13-0 - they got rejected from the college playoffs
https://www.thedailybeast.com/undefeate ... yoffs-snub
“They become the first Power Five team to be left out of the College Football Playoffs. Really bad lobbying effort…Lets blame DeSanctimonious!!!” - Trump
-Imp
https://www.thedailybeast.com/undefeate ... yoffs-snub
“They become the first Power Five team to be left out of the College Football Playoffs. Really bad lobbying effort…Lets blame DeSanctimonious!!!” - Trump
-Imp
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iambiguous
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- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Suicide...
“Anyone who's happy in a world this fucked-up has some serious psychological issues. You think I'm crazy because I see things as they are. You'd rather put on Disneyland goggles and watch TV and pretend it's fine. It's not crazy if I see monsters when I live in a fucking nightmare.” Leah Raeder
Yo, Gary!
“In a world where everyone struggles to survive whatever the cost, how could one judge those who decide to die?” Paulo Coelho
I don't.
“My best friend is dead, and I could have saved her. It’s so wrong so completely and painfully wrong, that I walked through my front door tonight smiling.” Nina LaCour
Anyone here know why she did that?
“And why is suicide the biggest sin of all? All your life you're told that you'll be going to this marvellous place when you pass on. And the one thing you can do to get you there a bit quicker is something that stops you getting there at all. Oh, I can see that it's a kind of queue-jumping. But if someone jumps the queue at the Post Office, people tut. Or sometimes they say, 'Excuse me, I was here first.' They don't say, 'You will be consumed by hellfire for all eternity.' That would be a bit strong.” Nick Hornby
Yeah, what about that?
“There was a footpath leading across fields to New Southgate, and I used to go there alone to watch the sunset and contemplate suicide. I did not, however, commit suicide, because I wished to know more of mathematics.” Betrand Russell
So, what does it for you?
“When I arrived at the house in the suburbs that night I seriously contemplated suicide for the first time in my life. But as I thought about it, the idea became exceedingly tiresome, and I finally decided it would be a ludicrous business. I had an inherent dislike of admitting defeat. Moreover, I told myself, there's no need for me to take such decisive action myself, not when I'm surrounded by such a bountiful harvest of death—death in an air raid, death at one's post of duty, death in the military service, death on the battlefield, death from being run over, death from disease—surely my name has already been entered in the list for one of these: a criminal who has been sentenced to death does not commit suicide. No—no matter how I considered, the season was not auspicious for suicide. Instead I was waiting for something to do me the favor of killing me. And this, in the final analysis, is the same as to say that I was waiting for something to do me the favor of keeping me alive.” Yukio Mishima
Or, as Anton Chigurh might suggest, you could just flip a coin. Leaving it entirely up to fate. Or physics.
“Anyone who's happy in a world this fucked-up has some serious psychological issues. You think I'm crazy because I see things as they are. You'd rather put on Disneyland goggles and watch TV and pretend it's fine. It's not crazy if I see monsters when I live in a fucking nightmare.” Leah Raeder
Yo, Gary!
“In a world where everyone struggles to survive whatever the cost, how could one judge those who decide to die?” Paulo Coelho
I don't.
“My best friend is dead, and I could have saved her. It’s so wrong so completely and painfully wrong, that I walked through my front door tonight smiling.” Nina LaCour
Anyone here know why she did that?
“And why is suicide the biggest sin of all? All your life you're told that you'll be going to this marvellous place when you pass on. And the one thing you can do to get you there a bit quicker is something that stops you getting there at all. Oh, I can see that it's a kind of queue-jumping. But if someone jumps the queue at the Post Office, people tut. Or sometimes they say, 'Excuse me, I was here first.' They don't say, 'You will be consumed by hellfire for all eternity.' That would be a bit strong.” Nick Hornby
Yeah, what about that?
“There was a footpath leading across fields to New Southgate, and I used to go there alone to watch the sunset and contemplate suicide. I did not, however, commit suicide, because I wished to know more of mathematics.” Betrand Russell
So, what does it for you?
“When I arrived at the house in the suburbs that night I seriously contemplated suicide for the first time in my life. But as I thought about it, the idea became exceedingly tiresome, and I finally decided it would be a ludicrous business. I had an inherent dislike of admitting defeat. Moreover, I told myself, there's no need for me to take such decisive action myself, not when I'm surrounded by such a bountiful harvest of death—death in an air raid, death at one's post of duty, death in the military service, death on the battlefield, death from being run over, death from disease—surely my name has already been entered in the list for one of these: a criminal who has been sentenced to death does not commit suicide. No—no matter how I considered, the season was not auspicious for suicide. Instead I was waiting for something to do me the favor of killing me. And this, in the final analysis, is the same as to say that I was waiting for something to do me the favor of keeping me alive.” Yukio Mishima
Or, as Anton Chigurh might suggest, you could just flip a coin. Leaving it entirely up to fate. Or physics.
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iambiguous
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Re: Quote of the day
Arthur C. Clarke from 2001: A Space Odyssey
Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth.
Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.
But every one of those stars is a sun, often far more brilliant and glorious than the small, nearby star we call the Sun. And many--perhaps most--of those alien suns have planets circling them. So almost certainly there is enough land in the sky to give every member of the human species, back to the first ape-man, his own private, world-sized heaven--or hell.
How many of those potential heavens and hells are now inhabited, and by what manner of creatures, we have no way of guessing; the very nearest is a million times farther away than Mars or Venus, those still remote goals of the next generation. But the barriers of distance are crumbling; one day we shall meet our equals, or our masters, among the stars.
Men have been slow to face this prospect; some still hope that it may never become reality. Increasing numbers, however are asking; 'Why have such meetings not occurred already, since we ourselves are about to venture into space?'
Why not, indeed? Here is one possible answer to that very reasonable question. But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger.
Go ahead, fit yourself in there somewhere.
It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.
Just our luck that they congregate here.
The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be.
The fucking internet!!!
Now I'm a scientific expert; that means I know nothing about absolutely everything.
What's that make us then?
. . . the newspapers of Utopia, he had long ago decided, would be terribly dull.
Heaven, for example?
Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
Of course, we know how that turned out.
Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth.
Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.
But every one of those stars is a sun, often far more brilliant and glorious than the small, nearby star we call the Sun. And many--perhaps most--of those alien suns have planets circling them. So almost certainly there is enough land in the sky to give every member of the human species, back to the first ape-man, his own private, world-sized heaven--or hell.
How many of those potential heavens and hells are now inhabited, and by what manner of creatures, we have no way of guessing; the very nearest is a million times farther away than Mars or Venus, those still remote goals of the next generation. But the barriers of distance are crumbling; one day we shall meet our equals, or our masters, among the stars.
Men have been slow to face this prospect; some still hope that it may never become reality. Increasing numbers, however are asking; 'Why have such meetings not occurred already, since we ourselves are about to venture into space?'
Why not, indeed? Here is one possible answer to that very reasonable question. But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger.
Go ahead, fit yourself in there somewhere.
It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.
Just our luck that they congregate here.
The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be.
The fucking internet!!!
Now I'm a scientific expert; that means I know nothing about absolutely everything.
What's that make us then?
. . . the newspapers of Utopia, he had long ago decided, would be terribly dull.
Heaven, for example?
Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
Of course, we know how that turned out.
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iambiguous
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Re: Quote of the day
Nihilism...
“I would, thank God, watch the universe perish without shedding a tear.” Marquis de Sade
Can you say that?
“Life — for me — is neither good nor bad, neither a theory nor an idea. Life is a reality, and the reality of life is war. For one who is a born warrior, life is a fountain of joy, for others it is only a fountain of humiliation and sorrow.”― Renzo Novatore
Cue the warriors here?
“This omnipresent cult of the body is extraordinary. It is the only object on which everyone is made to concentrate, not as a source of pleasure, but as an object of frantic concern, in the obsessive fear of failure or substandard performance, a sign and an anticipation of death, that death to which no one can any longer give a meaning, but which everyone knows has at all times to be prevented. The body is cherished in the perverse certainty of its uselessness, in the total certainty of its non-resurrection.” Jean Baudrillard
Though not just the postmodern body, of course.
“Nihilism is best done by professionals." Iggy Pop
So, would you like to audition?
“The world is perhaps ultimately to be defined as a place of suffering. Man is a suffering animal, subject to ceaseless anxiety and pain and fear.” Iris Murdoch
Then, for some, this part:
"...and he still has hell to look forward to." Dr. Beardsley
“Kevin is right about his cat. It’s all there in his dead cat. The Great Judge can’t answer Kevin: ‘Why did my cat die?’ Answer: ‘Damned if I know.’ There is no answer; there is only a dead animal that just wanted to cross the street. We’re all animals that want to cross the street only something mows us down half-way across that we never saw.” Philip K. Dick
Damned if we know either.
“I would, thank God, watch the universe perish without shedding a tear.” Marquis de Sade
Can you say that?
“Life — for me — is neither good nor bad, neither a theory nor an idea. Life is a reality, and the reality of life is war. For one who is a born warrior, life is a fountain of joy, for others it is only a fountain of humiliation and sorrow.”― Renzo Novatore
Cue the warriors here?
“This omnipresent cult of the body is extraordinary. It is the only object on which everyone is made to concentrate, not as a source of pleasure, but as an object of frantic concern, in the obsessive fear of failure or substandard performance, a sign and an anticipation of death, that death to which no one can any longer give a meaning, but which everyone knows has at all times to be prevented. The body is cherished in the perverse certainty of its uselessness, in the total certainty of its non-resurrection.” Jean Baudrillard
Though not just the postmodern body, of course.
“Nihilism is best done by professionals." Iggy Pop
So, would you like to audition?
“The world is perhaps ultimately to be defined as a place of suffering. Man is a suffering animal, subject to ceaseless anxiety and pain and fear.” Iris Murdoch
Then, for some, this part:
"...and he still has hell to look forward to." Dr. Beardsley
“Kevin is right about his cat. It’s all there in his dead cat. The Great Judge can’t answer Kevin: ‘Why did my cat die?’ Answer: ‘Damned if I know.’ There is no answer; there is only a dead animal that just wanted to cross the street. We’re all animals that want to cross the street only something mows us down half-way across that we never saw.” Philip K. Dick
Damned if we know either.
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iambiguous
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Re: Quote of the day
Cave Man from Modern Human's Handbook
We feel like we are in debt just because we are breathing.
In debt to who though?
Therefore, even if you were to die today, it wouldn’t matter what happens after that because you wouldn’t be experiencing it.
No, seriously, how important is that?
By wanting the things that you don’t have, in order to be happy, you are not trying to end the suffering you have, you are simply trying to rationalize it. When you have those things, you will realize your suffering did not end. Only the reasons for it have changed.
In other words, whatever that means.
If you worry because bad things might happen, you suffer from the things that are yet to happen. If they don’t happen, it means you suffered for nothing and if they do happen, it means you suffered for nothing again.
On the other hand, if you worry about something and it doesn't happen you can experience a surge of relief. But point taken of course.
At the age of 80 in your deathbed maybe you can tell yourself; My life was terrible, I suffered all time. Nobody is going to remember me in the next 100 years. But I fixed that small thing, so, maybe my existence was not a complete waste.
Uh, how small?
You are not powerful because you can change the world. You are powerful because you have the ability to withstand it.
Well, that too.
We feel like we are in debt just because we are breathing.
In debt to who though?
Therefore, even if you were to die today, it wouldn’t matter what happens after that because you wouldn’t be experiencing it.
No, seriously, how important is that?
By wanting the things that you don’t have, in order to be happy, you are not trying to end the suffering you have, you are simply trying to rationalize it. When you have those things, you will realize your suffering did not end. Only the reasons for it have changed.
In other words, whatever that means.
If you worry because bad things might happen, you suffer from the things that are yet to happen. If they don’t happen, it means you suffered for nothing and if they do happen, it means you suffered for nothing again.
On the other hand, if you worry about something and it doesn't happen you can experience a surge of relief. But point taken of course.
At the age of 80 in your deathbed maybe you can tell yourself; My life was terrible, I suffered all time. Nobody is going to remember me in the next 100 years. But I fixed that small thing, so, maybe my existence was not a complete waste.
Uh, how small?
You are not powerful because you can change the world. You are powerful because you have the ability to withstand it.
Well, that too.
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iambiguous
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Re: Quote of the day
Tom Perrotta
And of course they used her like a disposable object, without regret or apology, because that’s what privilege is—the license to treat other people like shit while still getting to believe that you’re a good person.
Didn't that start here?
We’re agnostics, she used to tell her kids, back when they were little and needed a way to define themselves to their Catholic and Jewish and Unitarian friends. We don’t know if there’s a God, and nobody else does, either. They might say they do, but they really don’t.
No, they really, really, really do. Right, IC?
Also, tell that to the lefovers.
It's like the human race has been programmed for misery.
Praise the Lord?
When your words are futile, you’re better off keeping them to yourself.
Talk about futile!
No matter what she was doing-baking cookies, walking around the lake on a beautiful day, making love to her husband-she felt rushed and jittery, as if the last few grains of sand were at that very moment sliding through the narrow waist of an hourglass. Any unforeseen occurrence-road construction, an inexperienced cashier, a missing set of keys-could plunge her into a mood of frantic despair that could poison an entire day.
You know, being one of the leftovers.
Sarah smelled chocolate on Lucy's breath as she leaned forward to plant a soft kiss on the tip of her cute little nose. A vision came to her as her lips touched Lucy's skin, a sudden vivid awareness of the life they'd lead together from here on out, the hothouse intimacy of a single mother and her only child, the two of them sharing everything, breathing the same air, inflicting their moods on each other, best friends and bitter rivals, competing for attention, relying on each other for companionship and emotional support, forming the intense, convoluted, and probably unhealthy bond that for better and worse would become the center of both of their identities, fodder for years of therapy, if they could ever figure out a way to pay for it. It wasn't going to be an easy future, Sarah understood that, but it felt REAL to her -- so palpable and close at hand, so in keeping with what she knew of her own life -- that it almost seemed inevitable, the place they'd been heading all along. It was enough to make her wonder how she'd ever managed to believe in the alternate version, the one where the Prom King came and made everything better.
And we know how all of that turned out. Or we think we do.
And of course they used her like a disposable object, without regret or apology, because that’s what privilege is—the license to treat other people like shit while still getting to believe that you’re a good person.
Didn't that start here?
We’re agnostics, she used to tell her kids, back when they were little and needed a way to define themselves to their Catholic and Jewish and Unitarian friends. We don’t know if there’s a God, and nobody else does, either. They might say they do, but they really don’t.
No, they really, really, really do. Right, IC?
Also, tell that to the lefovers.
It's like the human race has been programmed for misery.
Praise the Lord?
When your words are futile, you’re better off keeping them to yourself.
Talk about futile!
No matter what she was doing-baking cookies, walking around the lake on a beautiful day, making love to her husband-she felt rushed and jittery, as if the last few grains of sand were at that very moment sliding through the narrow waist of an hourglass. Any unforeseen occurrence-road construction, an inexperienced cashier, a missing set of keys-could plunge her into a mood of frantic despair that could poison an entire day.
You know, being one of the leftovers.
Sarah smelled chocolate on Lucy's breath as she leaned forward to plant a soft kiss on the tip of her cute little nose. A vision came to her as her lips touched Lucy's skin, a sudden vivid awareness of the life they'd lead together from here on out, the hothouse intimacy of a single mother and her only child, the two of them sharing everything, breathing the same air, inflicting their moods on each other, best friends and bitter rivals, competing for attention, relying on each other for companionship and emotional support, forming the intense, convoluted, and probably unhealthy bond that for better and worse would become the center of both of their identities, fodder for years of therapy, if they could ever figure out a way to pay for it. It wasn't going to be an easy future, Sarah understood that, but it felt REAL to her -- so palpable and close at hand, so in keeping with what she knew of her own life -- that it almost seemed inevitable, the place they'd been heading all along. It was enough to make her wonder how she'd ever managed to believe in the alternate version, the one where the Prom King came and made everything better.
And we know how all of that turned out. Or we think we do.
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iambiguous
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- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
God...
“Crap.
It's all crap.
Living is crap.
Life has no meaning.
None. Nowhere to be found.
Crap.
Why doesn't anybody realize this?” K-Ske Hasegawa
Uh, too depressing?
“If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.” James Baldwin
Right, the concept of God...
“I have found God, but he is insufficient.” Henry Miller
Then what?
“How can He be perfect? Everything He ever makes...dies.” George Carlin
Of course, he knows better now.
“Religion is still useful among the herd - that it helps their orderly conduct as nothing else could. The crude human animal is in-eradicably superstitious, and there is every biological reason why they should be. Take away his Christian god and saints, and he will worship something else...” H.P. Lovecraft
Money? Sex? The consumption of mass quantities?
“I hate you, God. I hate you as though you actually exist.” Graham Greene
Would you like me to explain that?
“Crap.
It's all crap.
Living is crap.
Life has no meaning.
None. Nowhere to be found.
Crap.
Why doesn't anybody realize this?” K-Ske Hasegawa
Uh, too depressing?
“If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.” James Baldwin
Right, the concept of God...
“I have found God, but he is insufficient.” Henry Miller
Then what?
“How can He be perfect? Everything He ever makes...dies.” George Carlin
Of course, he knows better now.
“Religion is still useful among the herd - that it helps their orderly conduct as nothing else could. The crude human animal is in-eradicably superstitious, and there is every biological reason why they should be. Take away his Christian god and saints, and he will worship something else...” H.P. Lovecraft
Money? Sex? The consumption of mass quantities?
“I hate you, God. I hate you as though you actually exist.” Graham Greene
Would you like me to explain that?
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iambiguous
- Posts: 9685
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Existentialism...
“New mysteries. New day. Fresh doughnuts.” David Lynch
Actually, it's the other way around.
“Humans and nature can never be friends!
Nature will never hesitate to starve you in the drought, drown you in the rain, burn you in the sun, and kill you with an earthquake, a hurricane or a disease; and as such, nature should always be seen as an enemy not a friend.” Mouloud Benzadi
Keep this away from Maia!
“...the sky here's very strange. I often have the sensation when I look at it that it's a solid thing up there, protecting us from what's behind...from nothing, I suppose.” Paul Bowles
If not less than that.
“At that time, I often thought that if I had had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but look up at the sky flowing overhead, little by little I would have gotten used to it.” Albert Camus
I guess now we'll never know.
“I wonder if being sane means disregarding the chaos that is life, pretending only an infinitesimal segment of it is reality.” Rabih Alameddine
Right, just pretend that's the case.
“To stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing.” Albert Camus
You know, being philosophical.
“New mysteries. New day. Fresh doughnuts.” David Lynch
Actually, it's the other way around.
“Humans and nature can never be friends!
Nature will never hesitate to starve you in the drought, drown you in the rain, burn you in the sun, and kill you with an earthquake, a hurricane or a disease; and as such, nature should always be seen as an enemy not a friend.” Mouloud Benzadi
Keep this away from Maia!
“...the sky here's very strange. I often have the sensation when I look at it that it's a solid thing up there, protecting us from what's behind...from nothing, I suppose.” Paul Bowles
If not less than that.
“At that time, I often thought that if I had had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but look up at the sky flowing overhead, little by little I would have gotten used to it.” Albert Camus
I guess now we'll never know.
“I wonder if being sane means disregarding the chaos that is life, pretending only an infinitesimal segment of it is reality.” Rabih Alameddine
Right, just pretend that's the case.
“To stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing.” Albert Camus
You know, being philosophical.
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iambiguous
- Posts: 9685
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Paul Murray from Skippy Dies
You know, you spend your childhood watching TV, assuming that at some point in the future everything you see will one day happen to you: that you too will win a Formula One race, hop a train, foil a group of terrorists, tell someone 'Give me the gun', etc. Then you start secondary school, and suddenly everyone's asking you about your career plans and your long-term goals, and by goals they don't mean the kind you are planning to score in the FA Cup. Gradually the awful truth dawns on you: that Santa Claus was just the tip of the iceberg - that your future will not be the rollercoaster ride you'd imagined,that the world occupied by your parents, the world of washing dishes, going to the dentist, weekend trips to the DIY superstore to buy floor-tiles, is actually largely what people mean when they speak of 'life'.
In short: birth school work death.
Sometimes the reason we do not see the answer is that we are looking too closely at the question.
Afraid I'll need a few examples here.
To believe in explanations is good, because it means you may believe also that beneath the chaotic, mindless jumble of everything, beneath the horrible disjunction you feel at every moment between you and all you are not, there dwells in the universe a secret harmony, a coherence and rightness like a balanced equation that’s out of reach for now but some day will reveal itself in its entirety.
Fat chance?
Fix that hair! Close that mind! Repeat after me! Page me the second the old man croaks it! Now, are you boys ready? A Seabrook boy is always ready. Ready to work. Ready to play. Ready to listen to his teachers, especially the greatest educator of them all, Jesus. as Jesus said to me once, Greg, what's your secret? And I said, Jesus--study your notes! Get to class! Shave that beard! You show up to your first day on the job dressed like a hippie, of course they're going to crucify you, I don't care whose son you are . . .
Never thought of that, did you?
History, in the end, is only another kind of story, and stories are different from the truth. The truth is messy and chaotic and all over the place. Often it just doesn't make sense. Stories make things make sense, but the way they do that is to leave out anything that doesn't fit. And often that is quite a lot.
So, what do you leave out, Mr. Pinhead?
On the way back, Dennis, who has been unusually quiet this lunchtime, speaks up. ‘I’ve been thinking about that Robert Frost poem,’ he says. ‘I don’t think it’s about making choices at all.’
‘What’s it about?’ Geoff says.
‘Anal sex,’ Dennis says.
‘Anal sex?’
‘How’d’you figure, Dennis?’
‘Well, once you see it, it’s pretty obvious. Just look at what he says. He’s in a wood, right? He sees two roads in front of him. He takes the one less travelled. What else could it be about?
Let's think of something.
You know, you spend your childhood watching TV, assuming that at some point in the future everything you see will one day happen to you: that you too will win a Formula One race, hop a train, foil a group of terrorists, tell someone 'Give me the gun', etc. Then you start secondary school, and suddenly everyone's asking you about your career plans and your long-term goals, and by goals they don't mean the kind you are planning to score in the FA Cup. Gradually the awful truth dawns on you: that Santa Claus was just the tip of the iceberg - that your future will not be the rollercoaster ride you'd imagined,that the world occupied by your parents, the world of washing dishes, going to the dentist, weekend trips to the DIY superstore to buy floor-tiles, is actually largely what people mean when they speak of 'life'.
In short: birth school work death.
Sometimes the reason we do not see the answer is that we are looking too closely at the question.
Afraid I'll need a few examples here.
To believe in explanations is good, because it means you may believe also that beneath the chaotic, mindless jumble of everything, beneath the horrible disjunction you feel at every moment between you and all you are not, there dwells in the universe a secret harmony, a coherence and rightness like a balanced equation that’s out of reach for now but some day will reveal itself in its entirety.
Fat chance?
Fix that hair! Close that mind! Repeat after me! Page me the second the old man croaks it! Now, are you boys ready? A Seabrook boy is always ready. Ready to work. Ready to play. Ready to listen to his teachers, especially the greatest educator of them all, Jesus. as Jesus said to me once, Greg, what's your secret? And I said, Jesus--study your notes! Get to class! Shave that beard! You show up to your first day on the job dressed like a hippie, of course they're going to crucify you, I don't care whose son you are . . .
Never thought of that, did you?
History, in the end, is only another kind of story, and stories are different from the truth. The truth is messy and chaotic and all over the place. Often it just doesn't make sense. Stories make things make sense, but the way they do that is to leave out anything that doesn't fit. And often that is quite a lot.
So, what do you leave out, Mr. Pinhead?
On the way back, Dennis, who has been unusually quiet this lunchtime, speaks up. ‘I’ve been thinking about that Robert Frost poem,’ he says. ‘I don’t think it’s about making choices at all.’
‘What’s it about?’ Geoff says.
‘Anal sex,’ Dennis says.
‘Anal sex?’
‘How’d’you figure, Dennis?’
‘Well, once you see it, it’s pretty obvious. Just look at what he says. He’s in a wood, right? He sees two roads in front of him. He takes the one less travelled. What else could it be about?
Let's think of something.
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iambiguous
- Posts: 9685
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Sue Monk Kidd from The Secret Life of Bees
Have you ever written a letter you knew you could never mail but you needed to write it anyway?
Or [of course]: Have you ever written a post you knew you could never submit but you needed to write it anyway?
Sometimes I didn't even feel like getting out of bed. I took to wearing my days-of-the-week panties out of order. It could be Monday and I'd have on underwear saying Thursday. I just didn't care.
Next up: wearing your days-of-the-week jockstrap.
I worried so much about how I looked and whether I was doing things right, I felt half the time I was impersonating a girl instead of really being one.
Personas let's call them.
The whole problem with people is they don't know what matters and what doesn't.
Let's set them straight.
People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It's that hard. If God said in plain language, "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.
On the other hand, unlike God, we don't send the bad guys to Hell.
I'll write this all down for you, I said. I'll put it in a story.
I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants--for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters.
Okay, but only if it really does.
Have you ever written a letter you knew you could never mail but you needed to write it anyway?
Or [of course]: Have you ever written a post you knew you could never submit but you needed to write it anyway?
Sometimes I didn't even feel like getting out of bed. I took to wearing my days-of-the-week panties out of order. It could be Monday and I'd have on underwear saying Thursday. I just didn't care.
Next up: wearing your days-of-the-week jockstrap.
I worried so much about how I looked and whether I was doing things right, I felt half the time I was impersonating a girl instead of really being one.
Personas let's call them.
The whole problem with people is they don't know what matters and what doesn't.
Let's set them straight.
People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It's that hard. If God said in plain language, "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.
On the other hand, unlike God, we don't send the bad guys to Hell.
I'll write this all down for you, I said. I'll put it in a story.
I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants--for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters.
Okay, but only if it really does.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 9685
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Despair...
“I am a metaphysical being, mystical and emotional, skeptical and cynical, happy and boisterous, loud and bawdy, quiet and melancholy, tender and cruel, full of mirth and despair. Inherent inconsistences mark me as part of nature, which is neither cruel nor fair, or reliable or predictable.” Kilroy J. Oldster
Either that or...God?
“For Death is the meaning of night;
The eternal shadow
Into which all lives must fall,
All hopes expire.” Michael Cox
Yep.
“There is absolutely no worse death curse than the humdrum daily existence of the living dead.” Anthon St. Maarten
So far, anyway.
“Sadness is the ambrosia of all art.” Frances Fong
Go figure?
“For how imperiously, how coolly, in disregard of all one’s feelings, does the hard, cold, uninteresting course of daily realities move on! Still we must eat, and drink, and sleep, and wake again -- still bargain, buy, sell, ask and answer questions -- pursue, in short, a thousand shadows, though all interest in them be over; the cold, mechanical habit of living remaining, after all vital interest in it has fled.” Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uh, but at least you're white, AJ?
“It's funny how despair can soon become an old companion." Jacqueline Carey
That ever happen to you?
“I am a metaphysical being, mystical and emotional, skeptical and cynical, happy and boisterous, loud and bawdy, quiet and melancholy, tender and cruel, full of mirth and despair. Inherent inconsistences mark me as part of nature, which is neither cruel nor fair, or reliable or predictable.” Kilroy J. Oldster
Either that or...God?
“For Death is the meaning of night;
The eternal shadow
Into which all lives must fall,
All hopes expire.” Michael Cox
Yep.
“There is absolutely no worse death curse than the humdrum daily existence of the living dead.” Anthon St. Maarten
So far, anyway.
“Sadness is the ambrosia of all art.” Frances Fong
Go figure?
“For how imperiously, how coolly, in disregard of all one’s feelings, does the hard, cold, uninteresting course of daily realities move on! Still we must eat, and drink, and sleep, and wake again -- still bargain, buy, sell, ask and answer questions -- pursue, in short, a thousand shadows, though all interest in them be over; the cold, mechanical habit of living remaining, after all vital interest in it has fled.” Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uh, but at least you're white, AJ?
“It's funny how despair can soon become an old companion." Jacqueline Carey
That ever happen to you?
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iambiguous
- Posts: 9685
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Umberto Eco from Foucault's Pendulum
Signora, there’s nothing in this world that demands more caution than the truth.
Take mine, for example.
We usually believe that the tamer is attacked by the lion and that the tamer stops his attack by raising his whip or firing a blank. Wrong: the lion was fed and sedated before it entered the cage and doesn't feel like attacking anybody. Like all animals, it has its own space; if you don't invade that space, the lion remains calm. When the tamer steps forward, invading it, the lion roars; the tamer then raises his whip, but also takes a step backward (as if in expectation of a charge), whereupon the lion calms down.
So, that's how its done!
Wherever you put it, Foucault’s Pendulum swings from a motionless point while the earth rotates beneath it. Every point of the universe is a fixed point: all you have to do is hang the Pendulum from it.
Let's hang one here...see what happens.
What is the hidden influence behind the press, behind all the sub-versive movements going on around us? Are there several Powers at work? Or is there one Power, one invisible group directing all the rest—the circle of the real Initiates?
In other words, now that Kissinger is dead.
What's that got to do with anything?
Yo, phyllo!
Yo, Iwannabeplato!!
Yo, Flannel Jesus!!!
We don’t see them, but, invisible, they act all around us.
Uh, more or less?
Signora, there’s nothing in this world that demands more caution than the truth.
Take mine, for example.
We usually believe that the tamer is attacked by the lion and that the tamer stops his attack by raising his whip or firing a blank. Wrong: the lion was fed and sedated before it entered the cage and doesn't feel like attacking anybody. Like all animals, it has its own space; if you don't invade that space, the lion remains calm. When the tamer steps forward, invading it, the lion roars; the tamer then raises his whip, but also takes a step backward (as if in expectation of a charge), whereupon the lion calms down.
So, that's how its done!
Wherever you put it, Foucault’s Pendulum swings from a motionless point while the earth rotates beneath it. Every point of the universe is a fixed point: all you have to do is hang the Pendulum from it.
Let's hang one here...see what happens.
What is the hidden influence behind the press, behind all the sub-versive movements going on around us? Are there several Powers at work? Or is there one Power, one invisible group directing all the rest—the circle of the real Initiates?
In other words, now that Kissinger is dead.
What's that got to do with anything?
Yo, phyllo!
Yo, Iwannabeplato!!
Yo, Flannel Jesus!!!
We don’t see them, but, invisible, they act all around us.
Uh, more or less?