The Feminization of American Culture: Ann Douglas: 9780374525583: Amazon.com: Books

[Bled Welder]

I know LA.  You're not so old, Paul.  Gods never die.

Why does my front right tooth hurt?



On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 9:19 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>wrote:

>  On 9/29/2012 11:49 AM, Bled Welder wrote:
>
> I would think that it does.  One might almost go the way of....how or why
> did Wallace end it, and certain gods live?  On?
>
>  Paul, am I hallucinating?
>
>  Am I?
>
>  Or I AM.
>
>
> Once as a child I sat through an I AM meeting. Theosophy.  Back in the
> 30s.  It was in an old residential hotel in downtown L.A. where my ancient
> Great Aunt and her husband lived.  I think it was that building you still
> see in movies and TV with the Big Neon Sign on top.  It seems so real.
>
>
> P
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 8:31 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>wrote:
>
>>  On 9/29/2012 11:19 AM, Keith Davis wrote:
>>
>> This discussion leads naturally to questions of P's substance use...
>>
>>
>>
>>  And the difference between alcohol and hallucinogenic substances.
>>
>> Alcohol can be hallucinogenic too but by that time you're so far gone it
>> doesn't matter.
>>
>>
>> P
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 10:47 AM, Bled Welder <bledwelder at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> I hate to break this to you, but the gods gave us booze.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 7:35 AM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>> "Whiskey don't make liars, it just makes fools
>>>> So I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said" --James McMurtry
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 7:19 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>  On 9/29/2012 7:41 AM, alice wellintown wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>  The big three of the 30s and 40s, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and
>>>>>>> Faulkner were
>>>>>>> all heavy alcohol users.  Was this mainly to fight inner demons, or
>>>>>>> was it
>>>>>>> integral to their creative powers?  Their writing was so different.
>>>>>>> What
>>>>>>> were the common elements? Where was the "family resemblance"?
>>>>>>> (Wittgenstein)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> Looking back, from Wittgenstein, we might say that the idea, a family
>>>>>> resemblance, is one that, if only when we look back, peep in the
>>>>>> public record, open the old photo albums, watch those old home movies,
>>>>>>   generates memories and defeated desires, so Nihilism...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> and, like the phrase about family resemblance, American Nihilism,
>>>>>> while not fathered by Nietzsche, looks a lot like the mustached
>>>>>> European madman.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We might also photoshop into the portrait, Mr Eliot, who is, after
>>>>>> all, as much a part of this American generation of nihilists as the
>>>>>> others, though he does find a dead tradition to bury his individual
>>>>>> talents in.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And there are lotz of others, though not as famous as these members of
>>>>>> the family.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But what kind of nihilism? There are so many in American fiction.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And, we might say that  Pynchon, with his early works, V., and Lot49,
>>>>>> is much in the family; no conclusion or final illumination, no Joycean
>>>>>> epiphany. The heart is darkness, the bomb is pushed from its precipice
>>>>>> by the boys, the island burns, the beasty is in us and we are
>>>>>> metaphysically and aesthetically lost; sometimes in the pun house,
>>>>>> sometimes in the labyrinth, sometimes in the mundane stranger's
>>>>>> murdering meaninglessness under the indifferent sun , sometimes in the
>>>>>> grip of Them.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Does Booze make this nihilism more intense, release the aesthetic from
>>>>>> the metaphysical sickness unto death? Camus talked of suicide and
>>>>>> rolling a stone; perhaps this is what the booze soaked nihilism
>>>>>> afforded?
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  I kind of think it might.  For example Proust and Joyce weren't big
>>>>> drinkers, and both  In Search of Lost Time and Ulysses ended quite
>>>>> affirmatively.
>>>>>
>>>>> I wonder if Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights) and Samuel Richardson
>>>>> (Clarissa) might not have taken a drop or two to get them into a darker
>>>>> view of things.  They were quite the exceptions to their respective eras.
>>>>>
>>>>> On a personal note I've observed that watching the  PBS nightly news
>>>>> in a semi alcoholic haze makes the very serious discussions  appear
>>>>> slightly  absurd.
>>>>>
>>>>> P
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>   --
>>>> "Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
>>>> creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the trust
>>>> in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments of darkness
>>>> groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates than the simplest
>>>> urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> www.innergroovemusic.com
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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