Frantik Girl
Friday, June 25, 2004
Literature Warning: This Product Should Not Be Used While Operating Heavy Machinery Or Sitting In An Office
Listening to an unabridged audiobook of Of Mice and Men may cause the user to burst suddenly and uncontrollably into tears, especially when George tells Lenny (sniff) about the rabbits and Lenny is SO happy because he’s all innocent (sniff) and you just know that George loves him so he tells him about the rabbits again cause he knows that Lenny didn’t MEAN to kill the pretty lady and the pup and he thought George was gonna be so angry at him but George ain’t because he knows he didn’t mean no harm but Lenny’s gonna get lynched and George (whimper, sniff) takes out the gun because otherwise Lenny will die afraid and George wants his last moments to be perfectly happy and you just know that George is ruined too cause all his hopes and dreams were borrowed from Lenny and taking care of Lenny gave his life meaning that it would never have had and now he has to shoot him in the back of the head and then he’s going to just crawl into a bottle and his soul will die along with Lenny on the shore of that river…
It is therefore not recommended that you read this book at work or you might have to run into the bathroom and huddle in a stall and cry for ten minutes.
Personal Note: Like using any controlled substance while at work, it was kinda nice to feel some genuine emotion while trapped beneath the fluorescent tubes.
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Let's Talk About God... Baby.
I'm an atheist, you might have noticed. This doesn't mean I don't like talking about god, God, Gods, Goddesses and so forth. I usually approach such talks in the same spirit as I discuss Buffy The Vampire Slayer: as an involving and exciting fiction. I can get very excited about Buffy.
So with this in mind, I'd like to direct you to a post on Joe's website, Labyrinth of Meat Coils. I'm also reproducing my commentary here on my site, mostly because I need to fill space and look like I've been writing. Read Joe's original post first, then:
That was good stuff. Thought provoking even. As a moral relativist, I'm actually most interested in the last point you make: the idea that God (air quotes) may be on everybody's side. Or maybe God (air quotes) is on no one's side? Let's assume for a moment that God does exist, and that God is in fact an active participant and observer of all terrestrial happenings. Then what conclusions can we draw? The quickest conclusion is that we're saddled with your typical uncaring god, but the more interesting conclusion is that god does care, and cares equally for all points of view. Terrorist and World trade Center employees, Hitler and the Allies, Joe Lopez and George W Bush are all equally rightous in his sight.
I'll actually take my queue from JRR Tolkien here: in The Silmarillion, Tolkien creates a new, albeit heavily borrowed from Genesis, creation myth for Middle Earth. In it, Illuvata (AKA. God (air quotes)), creates the Valar and then conposes a song for them to sing. Then after they start singing, he gives the greatest of them the freedom to improvise. Most of the impovisers harmonize nicely, but Melchor sings a dissonant little tune, cause he's bad. As Melchor starts screwing up the song, Illuvata redirects the rest of the choir around him and the song becomes even more beautiful. This happens sevral more times, and from this song, Middle Earth is created. The Valar go down to Middle Earth to give it form, and Melchor spends the rest of Eternity trying to screw it up (Sauron and those guys come later).
The point is: to God, the dissonance was just as beautiful as the song, perhaps more so, because it added complexity to his song and allowed even greater harmonies to be created. Every act Melchor took to destroy, only made it more beautiful in the mind of Illuvata. Maybe not to the people of Middle Earth though. To them, the actions of Melchor brought death, suffering, blood and the ruin of entire civilizations.
Does that mean God doesn't care about our suffering? Not at all... he thinks it's beautiful.
We Were Experiencing Technical Difficulties
One reason I haven't posted here in a long while is because my old blog template didn't seem to work with the new blogger software. So I've gone back to one of thier pre-made templates. Not overly flashy, but it works. I'll be better, I promise.
