wait_out
Master Don Juan
Just for kicks, I picked up "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky the other day. And it made me realise how much I miss competent authors. Sweet god, the man could write. So could a lot of other people... Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Hemingway... on a whole lot of subjects. I see all the guys griping about looks on the general forum -- but there's already an amazing, hilarious, tragic story called Cyrano de Bergerac which is a great read and explains exactly that. I was obsessed with learning about humanity when I was young, I loved classic authors. Whatever the limits of my smothered teenage life -- i had access to great loves, massacres, cruelty, and ultimately redemption before death. Human life meant something, and we were looking at it.
So then -- why am I now reading day after day, godawful articles on Slate and Salon that offer nothing about the human existence except the desperate need of the authors for exposure and more page hits? And even worse, the nitwits commenting on them below the article? Yes, a million monkeys banging away may create a masterpiece, but isn't that negated by having to read through a million scripts created by monkeys? These blogs and pseudo-news outlets are supposed to be offering enlightening social commentary, but get real, most of it is trash.
But what captures the internet, after all.... nyan cat? It's funny, but substance? In the 19th century and before, there was a true preoccupation with the human condition and how to resolve our lives to god, in the face of the inhumanity of man which was too familiar. Death was close and love had consequences. Unfortunately now it seems like our elite cultural energy goes primarily into marketing and getting outraged about pet causes on blogs.
I feel like the internet has been bad for me! Why does it feel like we've cut off the rawest, most real aspects of life -- death, obsession, madness, love, oblivion -- that remind us to cherish our present? I remember a uni student trying to say Antigone -- the lead character in a greek tragedy -- was depressed and needed therapy (to give context, she was condemned to be living burial for having broken the law to rescue her slain, disgraced brother's body from carrion). Wow. We used to kill slaves for sport in arenas and scorn guys in the audience as "unmanly" for fainting! Now we have... romcoms and zero historical memory? Humans are the same bad old things they ever were. I'll give Pan's Labyrinth was a fine movie but it didn't feel like a 21st century story. How did we become so blind and short sighted? It's as if humanity was born in 1996.
This is a pretty scattered post -- but i feel my THOUGHTS have become scattered by continually trying to skim value out of trash, rather than force myself to comprehend anything in depth. Anyone else feel like they're getting faster at doing 10 things at once... but paradoxically, stupider? This may sound strange too but i feel my emotions have been getting shallower directly related with my thinking. I understood love in a world with death, responsibility, pathos, and kindness... but not in one when we pretend there are no true consequences to anything whatsoever, humans simply won't develop to that level of emotional maturity.
I sense this as a 0 reply thread... but if anyone can relate I'd be very curious for your opinion.
So then -- why am I now reading day after day, godawful articles on Slate and Salon that offer nothing about the human existence except the desperate need of the authors for exposure and more page hits? And even worse, the nitwits commenting on them below the article? Yes, a million monkeys banging away may create a masterpiece, but isn't that negated by having to read through a million scripts created by monkeys? These blogs and pseudo-news outlets are supposed to be offering enlightening social commentary, but get real, most of it is trash.
But what captures the internet, after all.... nyan cat? It's funny, but substance? In the 19th century and before, there was a true preoccupation with the human condition and how to resolve our lives to god, in the face of the inhumanity of man which was too familiar. Death was close and love had consequences. Unfortunately now it seems like our elite cultural energy goes primarily into marketing and getting outraged about pet causes on blogs.
I feel like the internet has been bad for me! Why does it feel like we've cut off the rawest, most real aspects of life -- death, obsession, madness, love, oblivion -- that remind us to cherish our present? I remember a uni student trying to say Antigone -- the lead character in a greek tragedy -- was depressed and needed therapy (to give context, she was condemned to be living burial for having broken the law to rescue her slain, disgraced brother's body from carrion). Wow. We used to kill slaves for sport in arenas and scorn guys in the audience as "unmanly" for fainting! Now we have... romcoms and zero historical memory? Humans are the same bad old things they ever were. I'll give Pan's Labyrinth was a fine movie but it didn't feel like a 21st century story. How did we become so blind and short sighted? It's as if humanity was born in 1996.
This is a pretty scattered post -- but i feel my THOUGHTS have become scattered by continually trying to skim value out of trash, rather than force myself to comprehend anything in depth. Anyone else feel like they're getting faster at doing 10 things at once... but paradoxically, stupider? This may sound strange too but i feel my emotions have been getting shallower directly related with my thinking. I understood love in a world with death, responsibility, pathos, and kindness... but not in one when we pretend there are no true consequences to anything whatsoever, humans simply won't develop to that level of emotional maturity.
I sense this as a 0 reply thread... but if anyone can relate I'd be very curious for your opinion.
