It's Not All In Your Head
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It's Not All In Your Head
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Re: It's Not All In Your Head
#2> “The dream of a fully frictionless existence, a world of highly efficient cyborgs. Because if you’re not perfectly productive, if you let up for even a moment, you must be sick: The forces of decay will swallow you whole.“
Alas, the author reaches a mountain of a question (as a side note, at that): why are we so dissatisfied with human imperfections?
Re: It's Not All In Your Head
#3> “The dream of a fully frictionless existence, a world of highly efficient cyborgs. Because if you’re not perfectly productive, if you let up for even a moment, you must be sick: The forces of decay will swallow you whole.“ Alas, the author reaches a mountain of a question (as a side note, at that): why are we so dissatisfied with human imperfections?
For your specific question, I really like the take from Walter M. Miller Jr.'s "A Canticle for Leibowitz" (one of my favorite novels):
> The closer men came to perfecting for themselves a paradise, the more impatient they became with it, and with themselves as well. They made a garden of pleasure, and became progressively more miserable with it as it grew in richness and power and beauty; for then, perhaps, it was easier to see something was missing in the garden, some tree or shrub that would not grow. When the world was in darkness and wretchedness, it could believe in perfection and yearn for it. But when the world became bright with reason and riches, it began to sense the narrowness of the needle's eye, and that rankled for a world no longer willing to believe or yearn.
Re: It's Not All In Your Head
#4> “The dream of a fully frictionless existence, a world of highly efficient cyborgs. Because if you’re not perfectly productive, if you let up for even a moment, you must be sick: The forces of decay will swallow you whole.“ Alas, the author reaches a mountain of a question (as a side note, at that): why are we so dissatisfied with human imperfections?
For your specific question, I really like the take from Walter M. Miller Jr.'s "A Canticle for Leibowitz" (one of my favorite novels): > The closer men came to perfecting for themselves a paradise, the more impatient they became with it, and with themselves as well. They made a garden of pleasure, and became progressively more miserable with it as it grew in richness and power and beauty; for then, perhaps, it was ea…
Hadn't heard of this book, I'll have to check it out. It vaguely reminds of something Dostoevsky's Underground Man might have said when he was railing against the utopian rationalists.
edit: typo
Re: It's Not All In Your Head
#5This is a review of two books about living with chronic illness: a memoir by columnist Ross Douthat and a novel by Tao Lin, the Ted Chiang of literary trolling.
Re: It's Not All In Your Head
#6Former VICE journalist, dirtbag left guy, and one time Something Awful poster Sam Kriss is reviewing a Tao Lin novel in the conservative Catholic journal First Things?
The future truly is strange.
Re: It's Not All In Your Head
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
For your specific question, I really like the take from Walter M. Miller Jr.'s "A Canticle for Leibowitz" (one of my favorite novels): > The closer men came to perfecting for themselves a paradise, the more impatient they became with it, and with themselves as well. They made a garden of pleasure, and became progressively more miserable with it as it grew in richness and power and beauty; for then, perhaps, it was ea…
Hadn't heard of this book, I'll have to check it out. It vaguely reminds of something Dostoevsky's Underground Man might have said when he was railing against the utopian rationalists. edit: typo
Re: It's Not All In Your Head
#8> “The dream of a fully frictionless existence, a world of highly efficient cyborgs. Because if you’re not perfectly productive, if you let up for even a moment, you must be sick: The forces of decay will swallow you whole.“ Alas, the author reaches a mountain of a question (as a side note, at that): why are we so dissatisfied with human imperfections?
Satisfaction does not breed improvement.
Re: It's Not All In Your Head
#9> “The dream of a fully frictionless existence, a world of highly efficient cyborgs. Because if you’re not perfectly productive, if you let up for even a moment, you must be sick: The forces of decay will swallow you whole.“ Alas, the author reaches a mountain of a question (as a side note, at that): why are we so dissatisfied with human imperfections?
As valid as that pondering is, and as much as I cherish A Canticle for Leibowitz as one of my faves, I must too scoff at this chestnut like so: "Ah, yes, I too have watched The Eternals."
Re: It's Not All In Your Head
#10Former VICE journalist, dirtbag left guy, and one time Something Awful poster Sam Kriss is reviewing a Tao Lin novel in the conservative Catholic journal First Things? The future truly is strange.
I'm not familiar with Kriss or Tao Lin, but First Things, while predominantly Catholic, is ecumenical. They have regular columns from protestants, Jews, Muslims, and even Peter Thiel. I've found they will print some authors from outside their normal milieu if they offer some insight that would benefit the high brow literary conservatism that characterizes the magazine.