I love this! What a great metaphor. A sturdy appreciation of this wonderful, horrifying and messy, profoundly dear puzzle of life does give a certain immunity to torture by vigilantes...
Great treatment. Nolan’s next project for sure given his trajectory.
I can forgive bad writing (as I forgive myself) but not bad faith. The writing and faith problem infected my discipline at the end of the 80s making it impossible to read “architectural theory” as well. So us gleeful form makers just ignored it, embracing our big dumbness. Others wrote about what we were doing as “Deconstructivist” when what we were actually doing was a deep dive into maximizing the good and beautiful by amassing as much geometrically meaningful layers and ordering systems as our due dates allowed, forgoing sleep altogether, altogether stupidly. We were not taught the true, but the complexity of the exploration exposed some of that around the edges. We did not realize this at the time, but we made things
Our son entered university two years out of lockdown, though it still felt like a parole period. He entered as a philosophy major, and his first class ended that path before it began. Near as I can tell the class was about meaninglessness and philosophy around death and logically therefore suicide. Literally.
Raw from faceless and placeless Covidity, he bailed after the first week for a Norse mythology class, almost as dark but in a mentally healthy and sustainable way, because those folks were keeping the myths that were seeking Lewis’ and later Shaw’s The True Mythos. Our son loved this class but as a practical and perhaps philosophical matter is now committed to “job training” rather than mind training. Happy medium is macroeconomics for him, seeking patterns in our behaviors and intentions, with a geospatial concentration so he can focus on Creation and the Real real. Or at least this is what Dad is projecting. He’s his own dude, Faithful on his own, and Covid-wise to seek for now the happy medium as avocation.
Without any relevant knowledge passed from father to son, he and his lifelong buddy are restoring a Honda minibike from my childhood in the early 70’s, which “will not be fast, but will be loud”. Come to think of it, he may end up a philosopher after all.
This essay has me thinking that it might be your Christian mission or Catholic apostolate to get a visiting lecturer position at your local U. Revenge tour.
yes but with a new wrinkle. He tried again, this time with a course on Plato’s Republic. I even listened to a podcast series so I’d be able to discuss. This time the professor kept canceling lectures, “acknowledging the trauma you may be feeling due to… (fill in the blank)
No offer of tuition refund of course. Dad was about ready to call the Dean, but apparently the students generally felt sorry for the professor because he was such a mess and they were Covid-resigned to this sort of behavior from their me-first older generations. They learned about poor personal philosophy at least.
Love this. Just this week i got sucked into interacting with a young British guy on yt live arguing for pro-extinction of the human race as an antidote for suffering. Claimed to be superiorly rational and belittled anyone who didn’t think mass extinction was the way forward. I think he could have used a run in with philosophy Batman.
I love this! What a great metaphor. A sturdy appreciation of this wonderful, horrifying and messy, profoundly dear puzzle of life does give a certain immunity to torture by vigilantes...
lol true.
Liking this before reading bc GK is the goat.
No doubt
Comically, GK had a nasally higher voice from what I’ve heard of recordings of him.
Just imagining a rotund bat suit exiting the shadows saying, “You are not ubermensche” in his pitchy voice makes me smile.
"Some men just want to watch the world burn..."
"Then let's catch those men on fire."
Wow this is a phenomenal read. Bravo!
<3
Great treatment. Nolan’s next project for sure given his trajectory.
I can forgive bad writing (as I forgive myself) but not bad faith. The writing and faith problem infected my discipline at the end of the 80s making it impossible to read “architectural theory” as well. So us gleeful form makers just ignored it, embracing our big dumbness. Others wrote about what we were doing as “Deconstructivist” when what we were actually doing was a deep dive into maximizing the good and beautiful by amassing as much geometrically meaningful layers and ordering systems as our due dates allowed, forgoing sleep altogether, altogether stupidly. We were not taught the true, but the complexity of the exploration exposed some of that around the edges. We did not realize this at the time, but we made things
Our son entered university two years out of lockdown, though it still felt like a parole period. He entered as a philosophy major, and his first class ended that path before it began. Near as I can tell the class was about meaninglessness and philosophy around death and logically therefore suicide. Literally.
Raw from faceless and placeless Covidity, he bailed after the first week for a Norse mythology class, almost as dark but in a mentally healthy and sustainable way, because those folks were keeping the myths that were seeking Lewis’ and later Shaw’s The True Mythos. Our son loved this class but as a practical and perhaps philosophical matter is now committed to “job training” rather than mind training. Happy medium is macroeconomics for him, seeking patterns in our behaviors and intentions, with a geospatial concentration so he can focus on Creation and the Real real. Or at least this is what Dad is projecting. He’s his own dude, Faithful on his own, and Covid-wise to seek for now the happy medium as avocation.
Without any relevant knowledge passed from father to son, he and his lifelong buddy are restoring a Honda minibike from my childhood in the early 70’s, which “will not be fast, but will be loud”. Come to think of it, he may end up a philosopher after all.
Loved to hear about someone's experience now, ten years after mine. Seems like it hasn't changed much.
This essay has me thinking that it might be your Christian mission or Catholic apostolate to get a visiting lecturer position at your local U. Revenge tour.
yes but with a new wrinkle. He tried again, this time with a course on Plato’s Republic. I even listened to a podcast series so I’d be able to discuss. This time the professor kept canceling lectures, “acknowledging the trauma you may be feeling due to… (fill in the blank)
No offer of tuition refund of course. Dad was about ready to call the Dean, but apparently the students generally felt sorry for the professor because he was such a mess and they were Covid-resigned to this sort of behavior from their me-first older generations. They learned about poor personal philosophy at least.
Calling the project of the philosopher one of clarity and simplicity is quite a Chestertonian flip, and I love it.
Philosophy should be comprehensible and prose quality matters. The incentives currently do not reward that.
Love this. Just this week i got sucked into interacting with a young British guy on yt live arguing for pro-extinction of the human race as an antidote for suffering. Claimed to be superiorly rational and belittled anyone who didn’t think mass extinction was the way forward. I think he could have used a run in with philosophy Batman.
"I think extinction is the antidote to suffering."
"Then you're gonna love me." *flying kick from the shadows*
Lmao