Philosophy

Review See my critique on TBinDC. Notes John Rawls throughout – see Zotero for Theory of Justice notes. p24 Seeking alignment — >Contra Berlin’s argument that pluralism of values means inevitable conflict among them, analysis of real political choices would begin with the project of seeking alignment between the protection of negative and of positive liberties. Only after a project of pursuing alignment had been exhausted would one turn to debating a trade-off between these two categories of liberties. ...

Review I love an eye-catching, one-word title. “Porn” is about as good a one as you could think up, though at times I wondered if “Taboo” might be a more fitting title for Polly Barton’s exploration into the scandalous arts. Through interviews with 19 people, most of whom she already knew, the author reports more about societal expectation and anxiety than the specific “oral history” of the porn industry. What is common, what is kink? What is normal, problematic? At a few points, this question comes up: “Do we fuck this way because of porn, or does porn look like this because it’s how we fuck?” ...

Review I have eyeballed this book at my local shop for weeks and weeks, picking it up and flipping through it probably four or five times. I decided to put a hold on it at my local library instead of purchasing it – and I’m glad I did. Not because I find it a little odd that a book all about the ills of capitalism to be sold for $18 before tax. Rather, because I think this book means well but I think it is rather wrapped up in itself to the extent that it forgets two things: who it is written for; and, what the point it wants to make is. Those are big problems. ...

Review I found this book by asking for seminal texts on the concept of “good” or “goodness” after/while reading The Human Condition. I described my current beliefs and my problems with Arendt’s formulation of goodness (which she has little to say on in The Human Condition), and was told that my beliefs would probably line up the most with Murdoch’s text. I think that is right. For only 120 pages, or perhaps less, I took a long time to get through this. I made highlights on most pages, sometimes whole pages, breaking only to circumvent the kindle/goodreads long highlight rule, so I could come back later and get them all. (Yes, this is a very, very, rare Kindle read for me, because I knew I’d be doing a lot of highlighting and didn’t want to transpose the whole book). ...

Review Quick disclaimer to say that I am woefully unqualified to review Arendt. I am not well read philosophically. I picked this up alongside Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling because 1) it kept showing up in other books I read, notably GHAM and The Long Form; and 2) I am interested in ideas around “goodness” – what it is, how to be it, what it means to be it. Arendt speaks relatively little about goodness. ...

Review Notes p8 - Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a story, but they’re like poison to the filmmaker or artist. p19 - A film should stand on its own. It’s absurd if a filmmaker needs to say what a film means in words. The world in the film is a created one, and people sometimes love going into that world. For them that world is real. And if people find out certain things about how something was done, or how this means this or that means that, the next time they see the film, these things enter into the experience. And then the film becomes different. I think it’s so precious and important to maintain that world and not say certain things that could break the experience. p21 -So you don’t know how it’s going to hit people. But if you thought about how it’s going to hit people, or if it’s going to hurt someone, or if it’s going to do this or do that, then you would have to stop making films. You just do these things that you fall in love with, and you never know what’s going to happen. p36 - There’s an expression: “Keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole.” If you keep your eye on the doughnut and do your work, that’s all you can control. You can’t control any of what’s out there, outside yourself. But you can get inside and do the best you can do. TB: a lot like radical acceptance. p57 - The thing about meditation is: You become more and more you. TB: Why, David, you’ve talked me right out of it! p67 - [Sound] is just another tool to ensure that you’re following that original idea and being true to it. (TB: emphasis mine.) p73 - When people are in fear, they don’t want to go to work. So many people today have that feeling. Then the fear starts turning into hate, and they begin to hate going to work. Then the hate can turn into anger and people can become angry at their boss and their work. p77-78 - TB: Story of Frank Silva and the accidental creation of BOB. Just incredible stuff. p83 - The idea is the whole thing. If you stay true to the idea, it tells you everything you need to know, really. TB: emphasis mine. Very similar to how I’ve heard other writers and makers (I think Adam Savage in particular) speak, the thing knows what it wants to be. The truth of it is what you’re trying to get to. I like that a lot. Truth is important to me. I try to make sure that what I write is true. p93 - In stories, in the worlds that we can go into, there’s suffering, confusion, darkness, tension, and anger. There are murders; there’s all kinds of stuff. But the filmmaker doesn’t have to be suffering to show suffering. You can show it, show the human condition, show conflicts and contrasts, but you don’t have to go through that yourself. You are the orchestrator of it, but you’re not in it. Let your characters do the suffering. TB: next page he goes into the van Gogh idea. Very good. p103 - I have smoked marijuana, but I no longer do. I went to art school in the 1960s, so you can imagine what was going on. (TB: lol) p121 - I don’t necessarily love rotting bodies, but there’s a texture to a rotting body that is unbelievable. Have you ever seen a little rotted animal? I love looking at those things, just as much as I like to look at a close-up of some tree bark, or a small bug, or a cup of coffee, or a piece of pie. You get in close and the textures are wonderful. TB: Okay, David. p125 - “Having a setup” – very good practical advice about having a place for which you’re ready for work all the time. p151 - Keep your own voice. Don’t do anything for the sole purpose of impressing any studio or some money people. (TB: empasis mine) p155 - How we see films is changing. The video iPod and videos online are changing everything. (TB: lol) p159 - Stay true to yourself. Let your voice ring out, and don’t let anybody fiddle with it. Never turn down a good idea, but never take a bad idea. (TB: emphasis mine.) Review Okay, where to begin. I have a lot of love for David Lynch, and reading this (which I did in about an hour, it’s quite short and spaced out), I heard his voice, which is very pleasant. I got a kick out of some of it. ...

Review Notes “What those ancient Greeks (who, after all, did have a bit of understanding of philosophy) assumed to be the task for an entire lifetime because expertise in doubting is not acquired in days or weeks; what was attained by the old, veteran combatant (==who had preserved the equilibrium of doubt through every seductive snare, fearlessly denying the certainty of the senses and of thought, uncompromisingly defying the anxiety of self-love and the flattering advances of sympathy==)—in our times, this is where everyone begins.” Abraham: “Lord in heave, I thank you; it is after all better that he believe me to be a monster than that he should lose faith in you.” What provokes such dedication to a thing so terrible? SK asks: what sin could be more frightful than this? “No one who was great in the world shall be forgotten, but everyone was great in his own way, and everyone in proportion to the greatness of what he loved.” “the power whose strength is weakness, great through the wisdom whose secret is foolishness, whose form is madness, great through the love that is hatred of oneself.” “The entire content of his life is contained in this love, and yet the situation is such that it would be impossible for this to become a reality, impossible for it to be translated from ideality to reality.” “Only inferior natures forget themselves and become something new.” “For only in infinite resignation do I become transparent to myself in my eternal validity, and only then can there be talk of grasping existence by virtue of faith.” “By virtue of the absurd…” ==“Thus, then, my intention in telling the story of Abraham is to extract from it, in the form of problems, the dialectical element it contains, so that we might see what an enormous paradox faith is, a paradox that is capable of turning a murder into a holy act that is well-pleasing to God, a paradox that restores Isaac to Abraham, which no thinking can master, because faith begins precisely at the point where thinking leaves off."== (end of the Preliminary in the Problemata). In Problema I, extended discussion of the sacrifice of a daughter for ’the good of the whole community’ and what a hero that makes the father, and even moreso the fiancé. Not heroic! What the fuck! In Problema I re: a peasant more or less and approaching the King’s chamber. See page 77 for full context. “On the contrary, he should find joy in observing every rule of decorum with happy and confident enthusiasm, which is precisely what will make him openhearted and cheerful.” Difficult to suppress the chortle I made at this. Get real. “It is far more difficult to receive than to give—that is, if one has had the courage to do without and has not proven a coward in the hour of need.” Review I picked this up because it is at one point referenced in God, Human, Animal, Machine, and then I also saw it referenced in Carl Roger’s On Becoming a Person, which I was thumbing through in the bookstore the other day. I picked this up with little knowledge of Kierkegaard beyond those two citations, other than a vague awareness of his status as a philosopher/theologian. ...

Review A friend gifted this book to me for my birthday last month. I’m glad they did, because I’d have missed it otherwise! I did not quite know what to expect going in, but it proved to be a lovely mix of memoir, history, and question-asking. Very me. I’m going to keep this constrained to just my experience reading the book. This has been one of my most notated books in recent memory and a lot of my notes are questions. I’m going to resurrect my dusty substack to meander through some of those. I’ll edit this review later with links to those posts. ...