a thread for mundane ironists

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8341

[b]Karl Kraus

The world is a prison in which solitary confinement is preferable.[/b]

Found that out yet?

There are people who can never forgive a beggar for their not having given him anything.

Sure, I suppose so.

We are sacrificing ourselves for our ready-made goods; we are consumers and live in such a way that the means may consume the end.

He once came close to understanding this better than most.

Life is an effort that deserves a better cause.

Obviously: Is that even possible?

The mission of the press is to spread culture while destroying the attention span.

That and bombarding us with advertisements.

A woman who cannot be ugly is not beautiful.

Hmm, any women like that here?

8342

[b]Jennifer Jason Leigh

I don’t need a reason to kill myself—I need a reason not to.[/b]

You know, from time to time.

You know, you really do choose your existence in a way.

Still, not nearly as much as you don’t.

I like to investigate all different kinds of people, I guess, and find out what makes them who they are, and try to be honest in the portrayal, and truthful, and find out how to understand that person, how to communicate that person’s experience.

On the other hand, look where that got me.

I hope my talent has something to do with it. I just think this business is so crazy. I obviously do the best I can, and the directors I admire see something in me. But this is a strange business, and there are people who are incredibly talented who never make it, who never get these opportunities. So that’s why I say I’m lucky. I don’t feel that I’m not talented - I think I am talented - but I also think I’m very lucky.

Now imagine the implications of this for, say, you and I.

Even when you think you can detach yourself from the characters, you don’t. Because you’re spending so much time trying to realize this person and make them real that they do infect you, in a way. And you do take them home and live with them, even if you think you’re turning the character off. But in order to pull off a role convincingly, you wind up thinking about that person all the time, and it does sort of creep into you. And then there are things that you’ll respond to, or react to in a very different way than you would normally.

Not unlike some the characters I play here, he thought.

I just don’t plan things. I live a month at a time.

Sounds like planning to me.

8343

[b]tiny nietzsche

the postmodernists always doubt twice[/b]

And then doubt their doubts twice more.

good things happen to bad people. no one is in charge

It’s either that or Kushner.

rock, paper, serotonin

Though not necessarily in that order.

an optimist in the streets, but a fatalist in the sheets

Obviously.

take art and make drugs

And in that exact order.

it’s warm today considering how vast and empty space is

That and [here] it’s nearly Summer.

8344

[b]Isadora Duncan

The dancer’s body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul. The true dance is an expression of serenity; it is controlled by the profound rhythm of inner emotion. Emotion does not reach the moment of frenzy out of a spurt of action; it broods first, it sleeps like the life in the seed, and it unfolds with a gentle slowness. The Greeks understood the continuing beauty of a movement that mounted, that spread, that ended with a promise of rebirth.[/b]

Next up: The philosopher’s mind.

A dancer, if she is great, can give to the people something that they can carry with them forever. They can never forget it, and it has changed them, though they may never know it.

Next up: A philosopher, if she is great…

Movements are as eloquent as words.

More to the point, movement that transcends words. For example…

If I could say it, I would not have to dance it.

So, what do you fall back on?
You know, if anything at all.

I am seeking that dance which might be the divine expression of the human spirit through the medium of the body’s movement.

Nope, no fucking way, he thought.

I wonder how many parents realize that by the so-called education they are giving their children, they are only driving them into the commonplace, and depriving them of any chance of doing anything beautiful or original.

My guess: Lots and lots and lots and lots.

8345

[b]Malcolm Mclaren

The popularity of punk rock was, in effect, due to the fact that it made ugliness beautiful. [/b]

So, is that actually true?

There are two rules I’ve always tried to live by: turn left, if you’re supposed to turn right; go through any door that you’re not supposed to enter. It’s the only way to fight your way through to any kind of authentic feeling in a world beset by fakery.

Let’s come up with a third rule.

To be a flamboyant failure, that’s better than being any kind of benign success.

Surely, though, there must be exceptions.

What are the politics of boredom?

My guess: dull.

Through all aspects of society be it art, design, the financial markets, government, technology or communications we are witnessing unprecedented global transformation - the result of which is impossible to predict.

Mclaren gets serious.

Sid Vicious began the age of participation in which everyone could be the artist. Sid proved that you don’t have to play well to be the star. You can play badly, or not even at all. I endorsed that attitude. If you can’t write songs, no problem - simply steal one and change it to your taste.

A true role model!
You know, for a fucking junkie.

8346

[b]so sad today

i don’t feel well but i never have[/b]

Repeat as necessary.

i came, i saw, i went back to therapy

Repeat as necessary.

weak point: human relationships

Weaker than yours perhaps?

people just want you to be ok so you will shut the fuck up

Can you blame them?

for every half hour i spend talking to someone it takes me four to recover

Or, here, posting.
And four only if you’re lucky.

nothing good happens out of bed

You know, theoretically.

8347

[b]Iris Murdoch

Moralistic is not moral. And as for truth - well, it’s like brown - it’s not in the spectrum. Truth is so generic. [/b]

Well, that certainly settles nothing at all.

Real misery cuts off all paths to itself.

Especially when you’re doing the cutting yourself.

Another person’s illness is often harder to bear than one’s own.

Philosophically for example.

Being good is just a matter of temperament in the end.

And that’s mostly genes, right?

Learning philosophy is learning a particular kind of intuitive understanding.

In other words, huh?

I am not famous for anything in particular. I am just famous.

Me, I am not not famous for anything in particular. Unless you count here of course. :laughing:

8348

[b]Robert Musil

And what would you do if you could rule the world for a day? I suppose I would have no choice but to abolish reality.[/b]

How about for two days?

One does what one is; one becomes what one does.

On the other hand, it’s trickier than it sounds.

The difference between a healthy person and one who is mentally ill is the fact that the healthy one has all the mentall illnesses, and the mentally ill person has only one.

Not much that doesn’t explain.

One must conform to the baseness of an age or become neurotic.

Remember when that wasn’t true?

The thought is not something that observes an inner event, but, rather it is this inner event itself. We do not reflect on something, but, rather, something thinks itself in us.

Dasein? How the hell would I know?

Progress would be wonderful - if only it would stop.

You know, instead of all that dialectics shit.

8349

[b]so sad today

your “positive energy” scares the shit out of me[/b]

Here? You know who you are.

you can’t make someone love you but you can pretend they do

Not much you can’t pretend is true, right?

i prefer dark shitty places

Let’s make this one!

once i overcome my insomnia, internet addiction, body dysmorphia, propensity for isolation, romantic obsession, bizarre food rituals, negative self-talk, low self-esteem, fear of intimacy, compulsive personality, and inability to let myself live in peace it’s over for you bitches

Brace yourself, okay?

here is my commencement speech: no one knows anything.

Not only that, but at least twice as much as they didn’t know before.

i mean, fuck everything kind of

I mean, sure, why not?

8350

[b]Lester Bangs

The ultimate sin of any performer is contempt for the audience.[/b]

On the other hand [sometimes] the ulimate sin of the audience is to be contemptible.

I can guarantee you one thing, we will never agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis.

I forget, what did we agree on?

Rock’n’roll is an attitude, it’s not a musical form of a strict sort. It’s way of doing things, of approaching things. Writing can be rock’n’roll, or a movie can be rock’n’roll. It’s a way of living your life.

Let’s decide what that makes ILP then.

All humans are the same sex, except albinos.

Obviously: a category mistake.

The great thing about The Clash of course is that they keep searching for answers beyond that.

Beyond this too.

I’ve always believed the New Left is rank.

Then rank it is.

8351

[b]Robert Fripp

Usually people think that it is the musicians who create the music, but in fact it is music who creates the musicians. [/b]

He nearly doubted that.

Quiet is the absence of sound. Silence is the presence of silence.

I think I hear it now.

What has changed in 40 years? It’s very simple: 40 years ago there was a market economy. Today there is a market society – today everything, including ethics, has a price.

Let’s call this nihilism.

Expectation closes the door to what is happening in the moment.

If not now.

The way we describe our world shows how we think of our world. How we think of our world governs how we interpret our world. How we interpret our world directs how we participate in the world. How we participate in the world shapes the world.

My guess: for the better and for the worse.

If the audience doesn’t hear what is going on, is it going on?

For example: youtu.be/hzFsDQeTUT4

8352

[b]Philosophy Tweets

“Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.” Anton Checkov[/b]

Yes, a simple truth.

“Few people at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed an adman to tell them what they wanted.” John Kenneth Galbraith

Yes, a simple truth.

“Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.” Francis Bacon

When you think about it, yeah.

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” Frida Kahlo

Well, let’s just say some days.

“Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.” Salvador Dali

Well, let’s just say some people.

“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.” Francis Bacon

So, you’ve got about 10 to 12 hours.

8353

[b]Malcolm Mclaren

I never intended for the Sex Pistols to be immeasurably successful.[/b]

Immeasurably, however, what ever is?
Or, for that matter, isn’t?

Try managing a junkie - especially if you’ve never been one yourself.

So, any junkies here need managing?

The Pistols were like my work of art. They were my canvas.

Did they know that?

Rock and roll doesn’t necessarily mean a band. It doesn’t mean a singer, and it doesn’t mean a lyric, really. It’s that question of trying to be immortal.

Or, sure, stick with religion.

I’ve always thought that gaming and YouTube and the web is a very post-punk extravaganza.

Well, good for him!

Don’t kill the golden goose.

Not that we have one here.

8354

[b]Philip Glass

I don’t know what I’m doing and it’s the not knowing that makes it interesting.[/b]

That’s bullshit, I suspect.

You practice and you get better. It’s very simple.

Well, not counting what we do here perhaps.

A new language requires a new technique. If what you’re saying doesn’t require a new language, then what you’re saying probably isn’t new.

Under the sun, for example.

You get up early in the morning and you work all day. That’s the only secret.

For what he does more so than what, say, you do?

What I’ve noticed is that people who love what they do, regardless of what that might be, tend to live longer.

Okay, but then death becomes that much more unbearable, doesn’t it?

There’s almost no content in terms of language at all. I don’t like using language to convey meaning. I’d rather use images and music.

I get that, sure, but does he?

8355

[b]Philosophy Tweets

“They are so damn ‘intellectual’ and rotten that I can’t stand them anymore…I would rather sit on the floor in the market of Toluca and sell tortillas, than have anything to do with those ‘artistic’ bitches of Paris.” Frida Kahlo[/b]

Gosh, he thought, this sounds like something I might say here.

“The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” Jean-Paul Sartre

Well, if it wasn’t then clouded all the more by oblivion.

“Life begins on the other side of despair.” Jean-Paul Sartre

If there actually is one.

“After your death you will be what you were before your birth.” Arthur Schopenhauer

Comforted?

"Fascism is a lie told by bullies.” Ernest Hemingway

Trump!!!

“Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you quit, try.” Ernest Hemingway

How’s that working out for you?

8356

[b]Terry Eagleton

It is difficult to think of an origin without wanting to go back beyond it. [/b]

Starting with, say, our own?

From the viewpoint of political power, culture is absolutely vital. So vital, indeed, that power cannot operate without it. It is culture, in the sense of the everyday habits and beliefs of a people, which beds power down, makes it appear natural and inevitable, turns it into spontaneous reflex and response.

See, I told you!

Understanding is always in some sense retrospective, which is what Hegel meant by remarking that the owl of Minerva flies only at night.

Explain this please.

Successful revolutions are those which end up by erasing all traces of themselves.

Which may or may not explain why we have or have not ever had one.

Capitalism is the sorcerer’s apprentice: it has summoned up powers which have spun wildly out of control and now threaten to destroy us. The task of socialism is not to spur on those powers but to bring them under rational human control.

You know, after Trump.

For the most part football these days is the opium of the people, not to speak of their crack cocaine. Its icon is the impeccably Tory, slavishly conformist Beckham. The Reds are no longer the Bolsheviks. Nobody serious about political change can shirk the fact that the game has to be abolished.

And that’s before – way before – you get to our football.

8357

[b]A. S. Byatt

I don’t like gurus. I don’t like people who ask you to follow or believe.[/b]

In other words, here, the objectivists.

I don’t think it is an easy thing to write and expect to be commercial, even if you are from Venus and a hermaphrodite.

Not many of those however.

Everything is surprising, rightly seen.

If, from time to time, that’s even possible.

Books that change you, even later in life, give you a kind of electrical shock as the world takes a different shape.

You tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine.

…my solitude is my treasure, the best thing I have.

And then one day [for some] the only thing they have.

Outside our small safe place flies mystery.

Or: Inside our small safe place flies mystery.

8358

[b]Philosophy Tweets

“The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.” Salvador Dali[/b]

You know, in some fields.

“Instead of chopping yourself down to fit the world, chop the world down to fit yourself." D.H. Lawrence

What could be simpler?!

“He who despises himself esteems himself as a self-despiser.” Friedrich Nietzsche

Human all too human?

“Very often, all of the activity of the human mind is directed not in revealing the truth, but in hiding the truth.” Leo Tolstoy

Human all too human?

“Human beings like to see themselves reflected in clouded mirrors.” Pär Lagerkvist

Then it’s off to the funhouse.

“Any idiot can face a crisis - it’s day to day living that wears you out.” Anton Chekhov

Point taken.
On the other hand, not all crises are created equal.

8359

[b]Karl Kraus

Stupidity is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match. [/b]

Then they just stare each other down.

The immorality of men triumphs over the amorality of women.

Come on, would you really go that far?

The triumph of morality: A thief who has broken into a bedroom claims his sense of shame had been outraged, and by threatening the occupants with exposure of an immoral act he blackmails them into not bringing charges for burglary.

Help me out here.

The discovery of the North Pole is one of those realities which could not be avoided. It is the wages which human perseverance pays itself when it thinks that something is taking too long. The world needed a discoverer of the North Pole, and in all areas of social activity, merit was less important here than opportunity.

Help me out here.

Religion, morality, and patriotism are feelings that are manifested only when they are outraged.

If only all the time.

There are writers who can express in as little as twenty pages what I occasionally need as many as two for.

The lesson learned?

8360

[b]Jennifer Jason Leigh

For me, something dangerous would be playing the babe in a huge studio film. That would be terrifying because I’d stink… I want to explore human beings on as deep a level as I can.[/b]

Doesn’t surprise me.

It usually takes about two and a half weeks after you’re done filming where you kind of return to yourself again.

Or, here, a couple of minutes.

I’ve never done anything that I felt was crossing the line for me. But everybody has to make that decision individually. Like, I’ve never shot heroin to play a heroin addict. I’ve never turned a trick to play a prostitute. Whatever. You draw the line where you feel it could be harmful.

What else: dasein.

I think Robert Altman could see things in me that I didn’t know I possessed, which is really exciting. He also instilled a tremendous amount of confidence, because he would say things like, “These are the bare bones, but I want you to go fill it out. You find the character. You bring it to me. You write whatever you want.” And if you had an idea, he wouldn’t want to hear about it. He’s want you to show it to him.

Hey, we need someone like that here, he thought.

I love being in therapy. It’s just constantly fulfilling for me.

Nope, no way. But good for her.

I don’t really watch my moves all that often; I mean, really, I don’t.

Good to know?