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Apr. 20th, 2012
Thomas Mann On Art
Apr. 20th, 2012 08:00 amArt is not a cynical deception, a seductive stimulus to confirm and strengthen the lusts of the flesh! Art is the sacred torch that must shed its merciful light into all life’s terrible depths, into every shameful and sorrowful abyss; art is the divine flame that must set fire to the world, until the world with all its infamy and anguish burns and melts away in redeeming compassion.
-- Thomas Mann, the short stories
Here is an early example of the realization that, with the death of God, art seems to be our last recourse for meaningfulness. But I think that too much of the old Christian culture is bled into these ideas about art. For instance, why could not art be about domination and sadism rather than compassion? It does not have to be Christianity, but there seems to be another source for these substantive values besides art itself, an apparently human-centered, rather egalitarian conception. I am quite happy with that moral anchoring, but it is a distinction worth noting.
-- Thomas Mann, the short stories
Here is an early example of the realization that, with the death of God, art seems to be our last recourse for meaningfulness. But I think that too much of the old Christian culture is bled into these ideas about art. For instance, why could not art be about domination and sadism rather than compassion? It does not have to be Christianity, but there seems to be another source for these substantive values besides art itself, an apparently human-centered, rather egalitarian conception. I am quite happy with that moral anchoring, but it is a distinction worth noting.
Thomas Mann On Art
Apr. 20th, 2012 08:00 amArt is not a cynical deception, a seductive stimulus to confirm and strengthen the lusts of the flesh! Art is the sacred torch that must shed its merciful light into all life’s terrible depths, into every shameful and sorrowful abyss; art is the divine flame that must set fire to the world, until the world with all its infamy and anguish burns and melts away in redeeming compassion.
-- Thomas Mann, the short stories
Here is an early example of the realization that, with the death of God, art seems to be our last recourse for meaningfulness. But I think that too much of the old Christian culture is bled into these ideas about art. For instance, why could not art be about domination and sadism rather than compassion? It does not have to be Christianity, but there seems to be another source for these substantive values besides art itself, an apparently human-centered, rather egalitarian conception. I am quite happy with that moral anchoring, but it is a distinction worth noting.
-- Thomas Mann, the short stories
Here is an early example of the realization that, with the death of God, art seems to be our last recourse for meaningfulness. But I think that too much of the old Christian culture is bled into these ideas about art. For instance, why could not art be about domination and sadism rather than compassion? It does not have to be Christianity, but there seems to be another source for these substantive values besides art itself, an apparently human-centered, rather egalitarian conception. I am quite happy with that moral anchoring, but it is a distinction worth noting.
Talk about a downer.
_ _ _
“Creating new people, by having babies, is so much a part of human life that it is rarely thought even to require a justification. Indeed, most people do not even think about whether they should or should not make a baby. They just make one. In other words, procreation is usually the consequence of sex rather than the result of a decision to bring people into existence. Those who do indeed decide to have a child might do so for any number of reasons, but among these reasons cannot be the interests of the potential child. One can never have a child for that child’s sake.
[...]
“Each one of us was harmed by being brought into existence. That harm is not negligible, because the quality of even the best lives is very bad—and considerably worse than most people recognize it to be. Although it is obviously too late to prevent our own existence, it is not too late to prevent the existence of future possible people.”
-- David Benatar, "Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence" (2006)
_ _ _
“Creating new people, by having babies, is so much a part of human life that it is rarely thought even to require a justification. Indeed, most people do not even think about whether they should or should not make a baby. They just make one. In other words, procreation is usually the consequence of sex rather than the result of a decision to bring people into existence. Those who do indeed decide to have a child might do so for any number of reasons, but among these reasons cannot be the interests of the potential child. One can never have a child for that child’s sake.
[...]
“Each one of us was harmed by being brought into existence. That harm is not negligible, because the quality of even the best lives is very bad—and considerably worse than most people recognize it to be. Although it is obviously too late to prevent our own existence, it is not too late to prevent the existence of future possible people.”
-- David Benatar, "Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence" (2006)
Talk about a downer.
_ _ _
“Creating new people, by having babies, is so much a part of human life that it is rarely thought even to require a justification. Indeed, most people do not even think about whether they should or should not make a baby. They just make one. In other words, procreation is usually the consequence of sex rather than the result of a decision to bring people into existence. Those who do indeed decide to have a child might do so for any number of reasons, but among these reasons cannot be the interests of the potential child. One can never have a child for that child’s sake.
[...]
“Each one of us was harmed by being brought into existence. That harm is not negligible, because the quality of even the best lives is very bad—and considerably worse than most people recognize it to be. Although it is obviously too late to prevent our own existence, it is not too late to prevent the existence of future possible people.”
-- David Benatar, "Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence" (2006)
_ _ _
“Creating new people, by having babies, is so much a part of human life that it is rarely thought even to require a justification. Indeed, most people do not even think about whether they should or should not make a baby. They just make one. In other words, procreation is usually the consequence of sex rather than the result of a decision to bring people into existence. Those who do indeed decide to have a child might do so for any number of reasons, but among these reasons cannot be the interests of the potential child. One can never have a child for that child’s sake.
[...]
“Each one of us was harmed by being brought into existence. That harm is not negligible, because the quality of even the best lives is very bad—and considerably worse than most people recognize it to be. Although it is obviously too late to prevent our own existence, it is not too late to prevent the existence of future possible people.”
-- David Benatar, "Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence" (2006)
Hamlet (2,2) Old Jephthah
Apr. 20th, 2012 02:00 pmPolonius re-enters the scene, coming before the players to make their introduction, and Hamlet’s contempt and derision falls to new lows, complete with jokes about the old man needing adult diapers, and Hamlet then takes up the tone he had at the beginning of the scene, playing noxious word games and using cryptic allusions, this time using the biblical tale of Jephthah.
HAMLET
O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
LORD POLONIUS
What a treasure had he, my lord?
HAMLET
Why,
'One fair daughter and no more,
The which he loved passing well.'
LORD POLONIUS
[Aside] Still on my daughter.
HAMLET
Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
LORD POLONIUS
If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
that I love passing well.
HAMLET
Nay, that follows not.
LORD POLONIUS
What follows, then, my lord?
HAMLET
Why,
'As by lot, God wot,'
and then, you know,
'It came to pass, as most like it was,'--
the first row of the pious chanson will show you
more; for look, where my abridgement comes.
Marvin Rosenberg fills us in on that pious chanson:
Jephthah had promised God, if he won a battle, to sacrifice whatever he first encountered on his return home - and it was his daughter. She willingly submitted to her death - only asked first, as Ophelia might have, “that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity.”
So, there is a biting parallel here, though Hamlet knew not how well. In any case, finally, the players are here.
HAMLET
O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
LORD POLONIUS
What a treasure had he, my lord?
HAMLET
Why,
'One fair daughter and no more,
The which he loved passing well.'
LORD POLONIUS
[Aside] Still on my daughter.
HAMLET
Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
LORD POLONIUS
If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
that I love passing well.
HAMLET
Nay, that follows not.
LORD POLONIUS
What follows, then, my lord?
HAMLET
Why,
'As by lot, God wot,'
and then, you know,
'It came to pass, as most like it was,'--
the first row of the pious chanson will show you
more; for look, where my abridgement comes.
Marvin Rosenberg fills us in on that pious chanson:
Jephthah had promised God, if he won a battle, to sacrifice whatever he first encountered on his return home - and it was his daughter. She willingly submitted to her death - only asked first, as Ophelia might have, “that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity.”
So, there is a biting parallel here, though Hamlet knew not how well. In any case, finally, the players are here.
Hamlet (2,2) Old Jephthah
Apr. 20th, 2012 02:00 pmPolonius re-enters the scene, coming before the players to make their introduction, and Hamlet’s contempt and derision falls to new lows, complete with jokes about the old man needing adult diapers, and Hamlet then takes up the tone he had at the beginning of the scene, playing noxious word games and using cryptic allusions, this time using the biblical tale of Jephthah.
HAMLET
O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
LORD POLONIUS
What a treasure had he, my lord?
HAMLET
Why,
'One fair daughter and no more,
The which he loved passing well.'
LORD POLONIUS
[Aside] Still on my daughter.
HAMLET
Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
LORD POLONIUS
If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
that I love passing well.
HAMLET
Nay, that follows not.
LORD POLONIUS
What follows, then, my lord?
HAMLET
Why,
'As by lot, God wot,'
and then, you know,
'It came to pass, as most like it was,'--
the first row of the pious chanson will show you
more; for look, where my abridgement comes.
Marvin Rosenberg fills us in on that pious chanson:
Jephthah had promised God, if he won a battle, to sacrifice whatever he first encountered on his return home - and it was his daughter. She willingly submitted to her death - only asked first, as Ophelia might have, “that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity.”
So, there is a biting parallel here, though Hamlet knew not how well. In any case, finally, the players are here.
HAMLET
O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
LORD POLONIUS
What a treasure had he, my lord?
HAMLET
Why,
'One fair daughter and no more,
The which he loved passing well.'
LORD POLONIUS
[Aside] Still on my daughter.
HAMLET
Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
LORD POLONIUS
If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
that I love passing well.
HAMLET
Nay, that follows not.
LORD POLONIUS
What follows, then, my lord?
HAMLET
Why,
'As by lot, God wot,'
and then, you know,
'It came to pass, as most like it was,'--
the first row of the pious chanson will show you
more; for look, where my abridgement comes.
Marvin Rosenberg fills us in on that pious chanson:
Jephthah had promised God, if he won a battle, to sacrifice whatever he first encountered on his return home - and it was his daughter. She willingly submitted to her death - only asked first, as Ophelia might have, “that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity.”
So, there is a biting parallel here, though Hamlet knew not how well. In any case, finally, the players are here.
I like her spirit
Apr. 20th, 2012 04:00 pm
We all become disillusioned sometime, and the truth shall set you free.
I like her spirit
Apr. 20th, 2012 04:00 pmWe all become disillusioned sometime, and the truth shall set you free.
Frank Langella
Apr. 20th, 2012 06:00 pmFrank Langella has a saucy autobiography coming out, titled "Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women as I Knew Them".
_ _ _
The word “slut” has been invoked in the public discourse as an ugly slur. But Langella’s book celebrates sluttiness as a worthy — even noble — way of life. When Bette Davis wants to have “racy phone conversations . . . rife with foreplay,” he agrees, because how could you not? When Elizabeth Taylor says, “Come on up, baby, and put me to sleep,” who is he to resist? (He does make her chase him first.) By his cheerful debauchery, Langella reveals something certain commentators have obscured: sluts are the best — hungry for experience and generous with themselves in its pursuit. He talks about how joyful it was in his 20s to “throw some scripts, jeans and a few packs of condoms into a bag,” and head out to do plays and bed theater apprentices.
There is so much happy sexuality in this book that reading it is like being flirted with for a whole party by the hottest person in the room. It’s no wonder Langella was invited everywhere.
-- Ada Calhoun at The New York Times
_ _ _
Nothing like a reminder that I have never lived life, and, most likely, never shall, having to make my contentment with words and pictures, imitations of life.
_ _ _
The word “slut” has been invoked in the public discourse as an ugly slur. But Langella’s book celebrates sluttiness as a worthy — even noble — way of life. When Bette Davis wants to have “racy phone conversations . . . rife with foreplay,” he agrees, because how could you not? When Elizabeth Taylor says, “Come on up, baby, and put me to sleep,” who is he to resist? (He does make her chase him first.) By his cheerful debauchery, Langella reveals something certain commentators have obscured: sluts are the best — hungry for experience and generous with themselves in its pursuit. He talks about how joyful it was in his 20s to “throw some scripts, jeans and a few packs of condoms into a bag,” and head out to do plays and bed theater apprentices.
There is so much happy sexuality in this book that reading it is like being flirted with for a whole party by the hottest person in the room. It’s no wonder Langella was invited everywhere.
-- Ada Calhoun at The New York Times
_ _ _
Nothing like a reminder that I have never lived life, and, most likely, never shall, having to make my contentment with words and pictures, imitations of life.
Frank Langella
Apr. 20th, 2012 06:00 pmFrank Langella has a saucy autobiography coming out, titled "Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women as I Knew Them".
_ _ _
The word “slut” has been invoked in the public discourse as an ugly slur. But Langella’s book celebrates sluttiness as a worthy — even noble — way of life. When Bette Davis wants to have “racy phone conversations . . . rife with foreplay,” he agrees, because how could you not? When Elizabeth Taylor says, “Come on up, baby, and put me to sleep,” who is he to resist? (He does make her chase him first.) By his cheerful debauchery, Langella reveals something certain commentators have obscured: sluts are the best — hungry for experience and generous with themselves in its pursuit. He talks about how joyful it was in his 20s to “throw some scripts, jeans and a few packs of condoms into a bag,” and head out to do plays and bed theater apprentices.
There is so much happy sexuality in this book that reading it is like being flirted with for a whole party by the hottest person in the room. It’s no wonder Langella was invited everywhere.
-- Ada Calhoun at The New York Times
_ _ _
Nothing like a reminder that I have never lived life, and, most likely, never shall, having to make my contentment with words and pictures, imitations of life.
_ _ _
The word “slut” has been invoked in the public discourse as an ugly slur. But Langella’s book celebrates sluttiness as a worthy — even noble — way of life. When Bette Davis wants to have “racy phone conversations . . . rife with foreplay,” he agrees, because how could you not? When Elizabeth Taylor says, “Come on up, baby, and put me to sleep,” who is he to resist? (He does make her chase him first.) By his cheerful debauchery, Langella reveals something certain commentators have obscured: sluts are the best — hungry for experience and generous with themselves in its pursuit. He talks about how joyful it was in his 20s to “throw some scripts, jeans and a few packs of condoms into a bag,” and head out to do plays and bed theater apprentices.
There is so much happy sexuality in this book that reading it is like being flirted with for a whole party by the hottest person in the room. It’s no wonder Langella was invited everywhere.
-- Ada Calhoun at The New York Times
_ _ _
Nothing like a reminder that I have never lived life, and, most likely, never shall, having to make my contentment with words and pictures, imitations of life.
Evangelicals Have Sex, Too
Apr. 20th, 2012 08:00 pm(RNS) The statistics, some evangelicals say, can no longer be ignored.
Eighty percent of young evangelicals have engaged in premarital sex, according to a new video from the National Association of Evangelicals. and almost a third of evangelicals’ unplanned pregnancies end in abortion.
It’s time to speak honestly about sex because abstinence campaigns and anti-abortion crusades often aren't resonating in their own pews, evangelical leaders say.
-- Adelle M. Banks at ReligionNews.com
I would not get too excited about the prospect of seeing a big cultural sea change arising from this, but it is nonetheless encouraging to see at least a little tectonic shifting of the cultural ground.
Eighty percent of young evangelicals have engaged in premarital sex, according to a new video from the National Association of Evangelicals. and almost a third of evangelicals’ unplanned pregnancies end in abortion.
It’s time to speak honestly about sex because abstinence campaigns and anti-abortion crusades often aren't resonating in their own pews, evangelical leaders say.
-- Adelle M. Banks at ReligionNews.com
I would not get too excited about the prospect of seeing a big cultural sea change arising from this, but it is nonetheless encouraging to see at least a little tectonic shifting of the cultural ground.
Evangelicals Have Sex, Too
Apr. 20th, 2012 08:00 pm(RNS) The statistics, some evangelicals say, can no longer be ignored.
Eighty percent of young evangelicals have engaged in premarital sex, according to a new video from the National Association of Evangelicals. and almost a third of evangelicals’ unplanned pregnancies end in abortion.
It’s time to speak honestly about sex because abstinence campaigns and anti-abortion crusades often aren't resonating in their own pews, evangelical leaders say.
-- Adelle M. Banks at ReligionNews.com
I would not get too excited about the prospect of seeing a big cultural sea change arising from this, but it is nonetheless encouraging to see at least a little tectonic shifting of the cultural ground.
Eighty percent of young evangelicals have engaged in premarital sex, according to a new video from the National Association of Evangelicals. and almost a third of evangelicals’ unplanned pregnancies end in abortion.
It’s time to speak honestly about sex because abstinence campaigns and anti-abortion crusades often aren't resonating in their own pews, evangelical leaders say.
-- Adelle M. Banks at ReligionNews.com
I would not get too excited about the prospect of seeing a big cultural sea change arising from this, but it is nonetheless encouraging to see at least a little tectonic shifting of the cultural ground.