It does depend on just how heavy, I am open to some bondage and s&m but I have my limits.
Are you for or against legalizing pot?
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It does depend on just how heavy, I am open to some bondage and s&m but I have my limits.
Are you for or against legalizing pot?
For because I like it, no other real reason.
Do you agree with Erwin Schrödinger's statement that:
"The sensation of color cannot be accounted for by the physicist's objective picture of light-waves. Could the physiologist account for it, if he had fuller knowledge than he has of the processes in the retina and the nervous processes set up by them in the optical nerve bundles and in the brain? I do not think so."
I do not agree.
How our eyes determine color and relay that information to the brain isn't horribly complicated.
What's the one thing your eyes have seen, that you wish you could forget?
I had a friend once say to me "the ability to forget is as important as the ability to remember." I find a lot of truth in that.
I wouldn't say any "one thing" specific, but rather in general, anything where suffering, and/or great loss have occurred. perhaps it is enough that we are left with the impression of it on our souls as opposed to having to relive it in our mind's eyes.
whats the funniest book you have read?
Jesus, Lykren, I'm scaring you? Glad you made it through okay. Take care of yourself, man.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lykren
I'm with Clopin: 9th Symphony, chiche or otherwise. It's like looking into the face of God.
And no s&m/b&d for me. It's about the least erotic thing I can imagine. Granted, tastes differ, and I don't care what consenting adults do. But no, not for me (although not a few women asked for it when I was single).
The funniest literary fiction I've ever read was Straight Man by Richard Russo. Nobody's Fool and The Risk Pool had their moments, too, and were both better books. But all were fun.
What is the most boring book you've ever read?
my funniest books all belong to Patrick McManus, a non-fiction writer who I suspect stretches the truth quite a bit for comedic purposes. ive read all his books and they make me laugh right out loud.
the boring book question is close to my answer for how many books have you started but not finished.
the competition would be between moby dick, a catcher in the rye (both of which I finished), mrs Dalloway, a small town in Germany, the accidental tourist, and zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. maybe a 6-way tie?
what was particular discouraging to me about moby dick was, high seas adventures are one of my favorite story sources, and moby dick could have been that (a high sea adventure), but it absolutely was not.
inspiration for the next question then: have you read some classics that left you wondering, how on earth is this considered a classic?
Not really. I've had that problem with some modern books by supposedly good writers, but classics seldom let me down.
Have you ever been near death, and aware that you were near death? I don't mean have you ever had a "near death experience." I mean have you ever had an experience in which you said, in effect, "Okay, this is as far as this story goes: I'm not getting out of this one alive."
I have a fondness for Beethoven's 7th meself.
Yes, and it was the same incident that caused the seizure. I had to go to the hospital for a few days, but luckily no permanent damage, though I did have back pain for a year after.
Another close shave was when I was 12 and got separated from my dad while hiking. I got picked up by a helicopter!
Are you ever troubled by seemingly highly abstract philosophical questions?
Yikes! I've had some close calls, too; one more or less a miracle. Anyway, glad we met, Lykren. :)
No, I'm not troubled by abstract philosophical questions. The best ones are like good mysteries--even if some don't have solutions.
Do you enjoy abstract expressionism in painting less that art with more recognizable subjects?
I'm glad we met too :)
Yes but don't tell Stluke! I love Turner's abstract stuff though.
In the same vein, what are a few works of art (any mediums) that for you are the limit beyond which lies the inaccessible? That is, what's the farthest you'll venture into the avant garde before calling it quits?
It's hard to say. There is a Jackson Pollack at the Boston MFA called "Troubled Queen" that I am very fond of. But it's probably at my limit for real appreciation. (I don't think I would have cared for "Totally Bonkers Queen"). But a limit for appreciation is not the same as a limit for tolerance. I smile patiently a lot of conceptual art without really having much use for it. A few years ago, an art student walked through an airport with a fake bomb strapped to her (I think it was) chest as a conceptual art project. That crossed a line for me.
Should Stalinist-era art be conserved?
Why not, maybe we'll come to like some of it.
I have a friend who is sexually aroused by really avant garde theater and installation pieces.
Do you think science is approaching the truth?
Science is always approaching the physical truth and always proving itself insufficient for determining ethical and aesthetic truth.
What will be the next new genre of literature? Will it build on or break away from postmodern literature?
I think it'll confuse (purposefully) the notions of building on and breaking away with former traditions. Though maybe that's just called postmodernism. I don't know, the label 'postmodernism' is either too vague or I really don't get it.
If science is always approaching the physical truth, but never, by implication, reaching it, how can we say it's even approaching it? Like what is the reference point it is approaching but never reaching.
I... don't know?
Given the enormous market demand when do you think we will see safe and reliable products, treatments or surgeries to;
1. Enlarge penises
2. Regrow hair
3. Lose weight without dieting or exercising
?
I don't know either, but I want to. I think its approach is an illusion but I would waver if you pinned me down.
1. 2100
2. 2040
3. 2025
Is androgyny cool or sexy?
We can never say that science has 'reached its goal', but when scientists find new things, our scientific knowledge increases. The reference point would be a state where mankind knows everything about all matter that makes up our universe, how it interacts, and how worlds and living things have developed, and exactly how they work. And what was before the Big Bang. Oh, and man will have mastered cold fusion ;)
What will happen to popular and art music in the next 20 years?
E: No.
Nothing much, besides ceaseless rapid change.
Do you listen to music while reading?
We can say we're approaching it because the universe is spatially and temporally finite and we learn more about that finitude every day...bit by bit it erases the Kantian sublime. As to postmodernism; it's not a vague concept, though it is often misunderstood. It's a branch of modernist literature that particularly resists narrative, character, or thematic closure. An excellent Top Ten Primer would be:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lykren
Gravity's Rainbow, New York Trilogy, Beloved, Neuromancer, Barthelme's The Dead Father, McCarthy's The Crossing, O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away, Ozick's The Messiah of Stockholm, Stephenson's Snow Crash, and most Robbe-Grillet novels.
If you want to read scholarly texts on the subject: McHale's Postmodernist Fiction, and Constructing Postmodernism, as well as Linda Hutcheon's A Poetics of Postmodernism are all excellent.
All the timeQuote:
Originally Posted by Lykren
What is the best film adaptation of a novel you have enjoyed?
You are clearly more learned than I. But I still don't see how 'resists closure' is not part of a larger movement to merely 're-define closure.' That is, wouldn't the patterns of non-closure become a form of closure? It seems to me it is the world that resists closure, and we who struggle to adapt.
Sorry to ask dumb questions, but how can one know this?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pike Bishop
edit: Solaris, Tarkovsky's version.
Yes, although it depends on what I'm reading - and what I'm listening. If either requires more concentration, then no.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lykren
No, resisting closure is not re-defining closure or else everything would become closure and nothing closure. The term would become redundant and useless.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lykren
Except space is expanding. But, in any case, the universe isn't writing any new laws.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pike Bishop
I think I was unclear, sorry. I meant, regardless of what the artist perceives their intent to be, aren't they subject to an impulse towards order and finality? So that the apparent tendency to reject closure is rather an unconscious decision to follow (adapt to) the world's curve and change?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pike Bishop
Why rule this out?Quote:
Originally Posted by North Star
A different universe might have different laws, if the cyclic model is true, and there will be infinite big crunches/bangs, but I highly doubt that there could be a world where the conservation laws don't apply.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lykren
What's the last thing you want to hear before dying?
We may discover new rules of the universe, but for the universe to re-write rules itself, it would have to alter the nature of its matter and energy. As North Star noted, the laws of thermodynamics, as well as the laws of entropy, counter the possibility. So, the universe "writing new laws" is a nice concept for coffee-house metaphysics, but it has no scientific basis, whatsoever.
The last thing I'd want to hear before dying would be. . . "With a purple umbrella"
Nah, just kidding but I don't know -- I think it wouldn't matter since I was about to leave anyway.
Where would you hide your gold, if you were a leprechaun?
In an abandoned gold mine? Like Calvin hiding in the bathtub so his mother can't give him a bath. Kind of.
Why does using a Q-tip feel so good?
Nice. . . I wonder if anyone here's ever been to an abandoned gold mine. . .
Hm... I think it feels good because. . . okay - definitely because we have fond memories associated with it. Also feels comfortable. . .
Same question!.
simple pleasures in life---lying down when youre tired, eating when youre hungry, drinking when youre thirsty, getting dry when youre wet, getting cool when youre hot, getting warm when youre cold, voiding your bladder when its full---and unclogging things that are clogged.
what's your favorite monty python scene from holy grail?
The part when God tells Arthur his plan about the Holy Grail, Arthur responds "Good idea, Lord," and God--incensed by Arthur's hubris--snorts "of course it is." If I hear the elderberries scene quoted once more...I will never see the movie again.
Are video games art?...why or why not?
Yes. They take a lot of skill in digital painting and computer graphics and CGI
Did you ever play "Pong"?
Sadly, I am that old. Darn fun it was, too.
Looking forward to the NFL draft?
theres a funny commercial for something, I cant remember what even---with andy Roddick playing pong in tennis.
I think even when I was younger and paid more attention to the nfl, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the draft. so no for me.
of all the remakes/re-writes of Sherlock holmes, both in tv, movies and books, which have you enjoyed the most? or found the most innovative? or refreshing? or true to the original? or some other question(s) ive not asked...smiles...
None has been true to the original with the possible exception of a BBC radio version I heard back in the 1970s. Unfortunately I can find no trace of it now.
Did Oswald act alone?
Jah, Occam's Razor, also that's what my dad told me.
Are there wrong reasons for loving someone?
If you mean romantic love, then yes, lots of them.
Are erotic and spiritual love really different aspects of the same thing?
There's a litany of wrong reasons for loving someone: shallowness, residual need from psychological trauma, adolescent admiration for transgressive behavior, need of or desire for money, narcissistic appreciation for their subjugating themselves, and many more. Love can be a dark fun house.
What musical genre will replace Hip-Hop as the favorite of America's youth?