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Interview with Bob Odenkirk

nytimes.com

91–100 of 153 posts

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#91
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A triple "It's not this... it's that"...

The robots use it a lot because it's a common construct in their training data, because it's a common construct in text written by humans

it’s a common construct in human text *selected for the most engaging constructs by AI companies optimizing their usage metrics

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#92
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, read the piece. He's not saying it from comfort, he's saying it after a heart attack, after his kids grew up, after the form he loved became a young man's game. The farce isn't a punchline delivered from above; it's what's left when the registers that used to hold you don't anymore. And his answer isn't despair, it's "we've got to keep trying… there's a breeze beneath my wings." That's not whimsy. Th…

A triple "It's not this... it's that"...

Yeah, sadly thought the same. I even agree with the clanker's sentiment.

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#93
post #18
post #144

[stub for offtopicness] [article authors don't write these headlines, you guys - let alone interview subjects]

When you're successful and rich (enough, at least), this is a nice whimsical thing to say. When you're suffering in the trenches, this isn't very helpful.

Did you read the interview? He basically says as much.

>There’s no question that the security that you feel from not being afraid of a health issue or housing is a great comfort and helps you to be more at peace with life. It’s just not as much help as you think it should be.

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#94
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of thought that only rich and successful people can have. If you're working every day in a coal mine so you can feed your children otherwise they will go hungry, then you don't have these kind of thoughts. Similarly, if you're fighting in a war so your family isn't raped or murdered then you don't have these kind of thoughts either. Basically, you're lucky if you live in a situation that gives you th…

Miners had elevated suicide rates and alcoholism rates. And when you read stories of families from such environments, similar thoughts were present. Yes, they did had these kind of thoughts. It is not just perfectly possible to be poor hard worker with family and have depression or missing meaning of life, but entirely common.

Miners may have had elevated suicide rates or alcoholism, but are you telling me they sat around thinking life is a meaningless farce?

Miners suffered from hideous diseases due to breathing in huge amounts of toxic chemicals, so yes, that resulted in elevated risk of suicide and alcoholism.

But were they really sitting around discussing absurdism, nihilism, life being a farce? This sort of thinking is really much more of a modern phenomenon, a privilege of the rich and educated with lots of free time.

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#96
post #9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question: "Is this real, or is this just a ride?" And…

So basically, Buddhism?

Or Camus.

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#97
post #6
post #144

[stub for offtopicness] [article authors don't write these headlines, you guys - let alone interview subjects]

> The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question: "Is this real, or is this just a ride?" And…

> The world is like a ride in an amusement park

only difference is, in real world there may be consequences that you may not be able to undo so you may have to be little careful while riding.

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#98
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the zeitgeist is overwhelmingly nihilist, dare to be an absurdist.

Auberon Quinn, is that you?

> But let me give you a very serious warning. Be careful how you ask me to do anything outré, to imitate the man in the pantomime, and to sit on my hat. Because I am a man whose soul has been emptied of all pleasures but folly. And for twopence I'd do it."

> "Do it, then," said Lambert, swinging his stick impatiently. "It would be funnier than the bosh you and Barker talk."

> Quin, standing on the top of the hill, stretched his hand out towards the main avenue of Kensington Gardens.

> "Two hundred yards away," he said, "are all your fashionable acquaintances with nothing on earth to do but to stare at each other and at us. We are standing upon an elevation under the open sky, a peak as it were of fantasy, a Sinai of humour. We are in a great pulpit or platform, lit up with sunlight, and half London can see us. Be careful how you suggest things to me. For there is in me a madness which goes beyond martyrdom, the madness of an utterly idle man.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20058/20058-h/20058-h.htm

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