Quotes for Stubborn Hangovers and Chafed Lungs
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Them Or Us?
Hi dull,
I believe that K. was talking about those he knew over the years... those who would avert their gaze rather than look directly at a beautiful woman and risk a sexual reaction that might pull them off the so-called path of enlightenment. Then woman becomes the scapegoat, the "temptress," out to ruin the man who otherwise might have been all right (and the moon is made of green cheese . . . this type of thinking has been used down through the centuries to portray woman as evil, and blamed by men as being weak and soulless"”then these male idiots can use this as an excuse to suppress or murder them and make it seem just fine in their "religious" thinking...) Some seekers in India have even been known to cut off their penises (of course, one per person) to repress their sexuality in their quest to know 'God,' and beauty in general is literally shut out of their lives, even the beauty of the earth and the sky, so focused on their distorted goal that they've become, like a horse wearing blinders. I think that's what K was driving at. But you raise an interesting point.
Poptop
Hi dull,
I believe that K. was talking about those he knew over the years... those who would avert their gaze rather than look directly at a beautiful woman and risk a sexual reaction that might pull them off the so-called path of enlightenment. Then woman becomes the scapegoat, the "temptress," out to ruin the man who otherwise might have been all right (and the moon is made of green cheese . . . this type of thinking has been used down through the centuries to portray woman as evil, and blamed by men as being weak and soulless"”then these male idiots can use this as an excuse to suppress or murder them and make it seem just fine in their "religious" thinking...) Some seekers in India have even been known to cut off their penises (of course, one per person) to repress their sexuality in their quest to know 'God,' and beauty in general is literally shut out of their lives, even the beauty of the earth and the sky, so focused on their distorted goal that they've become, like a horse wearing blinders. I think that's what K was driving at. But you raise an interesting point.
Poptop
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I am of course notoriously hooked on cigarettes. I keep hoping the things will kill me. A fire at one end and a fool at the other. -Vonnegut, Cold Turkey
Is that the one?
another good Vonnegut is:
I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all. -Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
Working Stiffs
"As Ezra said, 'Do your W-O-R-K.' That's where the vigor comes from, the creative fucking process. Puts dance in the bones. Like I said, if I don't write for a week, I get sick. I can't walk. I've got to type. If you chopped by hands off, I'd type with my feet. So I've never written for money; I've written just because of an imbecilic urge." "”Charles Bukowski
___
JL: In the beginning, when I decided I was going to write"”or I go should say, when I realized I had to write"”I had no idea for anything. All I had was a typewriter, and I wrote a letter to somebody finally. That's how it started.
RL: I don't believe in a writer's block. No, I really don't. I think if you learn"”if you become a professional at the very start"”I'm going to talk to the high school theater kids in Muncie, I've done it a number of times. And I say, "OK, be amateurs, but only in the meaning of the word amateur, which is 'to love,' an amateur is a lover, like the Latin, amo, amas, amat. That's fine, love the theater. But also be a professional. Right now. Don't wait to be a professional. That means having a professional ethic and a professional discipline and, more than anything, a professional attitude. Always work at the top of your form. No matter what you do, whether you're writing a letter or you have a bit part in a play, do it the best you know how. And then you're a professional immediately.
You cultivate the habits of professional discipline if you write every day. OK, you take Sundays off. But if you decide you're going to be a writer, unless you write every day, you're not a professional. The best compliment Herman Shumlin, who directed "Inherit the Wind," gave us, he said, "I like you guys 'cause you're working stiffs." That's a journalism expression for a guy who gets up every morning, goes to the office, sits down to his typewriter, and bats it out. Now if you get that habit, you get so you can't sleep at night if you haven't done that every day, you know? If I don't write five pages a day, even when I'm traveling"”I travel a lot, I take notebooks along and I do longhand. I've just graduated to a word processor. My partner was way ahead of me. If you get in the habit, then you won't develop a writer's block. "”Authors of "Inherit the Wind," Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee
"As Ezra said, 'Do your W-O-R-K.' That's where the vigor comes from, the creative fucking process. Puts dance in the bones. Like I said, if I don't write for a week, I get sick. I can't walk. I've got to type. If you chopped by hands off, I'd type with my feet. So I've never written for money; I've written just because of an imbecilic urge." "”Charles Bukowski
___
JL: In the beginning, when I decided I was going to write"”or I go should say, when I realized I had to write"”I had no idea for anything. All I had was a typewriter, and I wrote a letter to somebody finally. That's how it started.
RL: I don't believe in a writer's block. No, I really don't. I think if you learn"”if you become a professional at the very start"”I'm going to talk to the high school theater kids in Muncie, I've done it a number of times. And I say, "OK, be amateurs, but only in the meaning of the word amateur, which is 'to love,' an amateur is a lover, like the Latin, amo, amas, amat. That's fine, love the theater. But also be a professional. Right now. Don't wait to be a professional. That means having a professional ethic and a professional discipline and, more than anything, a professional attitude. Always work at the top of your form. No matter what you do, whether you're writing a letter or you have a bit part in a play, do it the best you know how. And then you're a professional immediately.
You cultivate the habits of professional discipline if you write every day. OK, you take Sundays off. But if you decide you're going to be a writer, unless you write every day, you're not a professional. The best compliment Herman Shumlin, who directed "Inherit the Wind," gave us, he said, "I like you guys 'cause you're working stiffs." That's a journalism expression for a guy who gets up every morning, goes to the office, sits down to his typewriter, and bats it out. Now if you get that habit, you get so you can't sleep at night if you haven't done that every day, you know? If I don't write five pages a day, even when I'm traveling"”I travel a lot, I take notebooks along and I do longhand. I've just graduated to a word processor. My partner was way ahead of me. If you get in the habit, then you won't develop a writer's block. "”Authors of "Inherit the Wind," Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee
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Awfully close if it's not. I think they one I saw was in response to hearing something or other about a lawsuit involving lung cancer and smoking. Thanks for posting that, though.
Certainly; I am not quite sure about the one you've mentioned. Perhaps I can find it somewhere, if not, maybe I won't. heh. ah, well, we'll see...
Vonnegut "I've got a lawsuit against Brown & Willliamson now. Because I have been chain-smoking Pall Malls since I was 11. And on their package they promised to kill me." (laughs)
This may not be it, found it on http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?id=1997 this site, which is an interview with mr vonnegut. probably not it, interesting though.
Vonnegut "I've got a lawsuit against Brown & Willliamson now. Because I have been chain-smoking Pall Malls since I was 11. And on their package they promised to kill me." (laughs)
This may not be it, found it on http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?id=1997 this site, which is an interview with mr vonnegut. probably not it, interesting though.
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More Than Space And Time
Writing itself is one of the great, free human activities.
There is scope for individuality, and elation, and discovery.
In writing, for the person who follows with trust and
forgiveness what occurs to him, the world remains always
ready and deep, an inexhaustible environment, with the
combined vividness of an actuality and flexibility of a
dream. Working back and forth between experience and
thought, writers have more than space and time can offer.
They have the whole unexplored realm of human vision.
"”William Stafford
First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse
something that is already clear in my mind. If it were
clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need
to write about it. . . . We do not write in order to be
understood; we write in order to understand.
"”C. Day Lewis
Writing itself is one of the great, free human activities.
There is scope for individuality, and elation, and discovery.
In writing, for the person who follows with trust and
forgiveness what occurs to him, the world remains always
ready and deep, an inexhaustible environment, with the
combined vividness of an actuality and flexibility of a
dream. Working back and forth between experience and
thought, writers have more than space and time can offer.
They have the whole unexplored realm of human vision.
"”William Stafford
First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse
something that is already clear in my mind. If it were
clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need
to write about it. . . . We do not write in order to be
understood; we write in order to understand.
"”C. Day Lewis
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Brother Schenker
Founding member
Yea, well, Henry had a way of allowing his enthusiasm over someone or something to become blown way out of proportion; in other words, he tended to exaggerate when dishing out praise.
'Murti was great at mental mechanics; watching how thought moves and behaves. But in the end, he was not enlightened---no, by virtue of the fact that he saw a solvable crisis regarding the human condition, and was distressed all his life by his perception that not a single person really "got" what he said. And that's because he didn't really say much that was worth a damn. It was all commentary and mechanical---as if all of us were walking around with bad sums in our heads and all we needed to do was add what he suggested or implied and then we'd be seeing clearly and acting from that clarity.
Calling him a "con man" was, perhaps, an exaggeration. By all accounts he was picked and groomed to be seen and treated as a guru from childhood. And he told his audiences that he was not the World Teacher nor their guru. But if you're wearing a Mickey Mouse head and huge white gloves you can tell everyone that you're not Mickey Mouse until you're blue in the face but everyone is still gonna call you "Mickey" and ask you where you buried Minnie.
The thing is, he continued to dress and look the part, and continued to talk to audiences and be the center of attention. Did it until not long before he died at 90.
If you're honest you'll have to admit that aside from some excellent criticism about our slavery to fear & greed & vanity, there's not much being said in 'Murti's books. And all the stuff is written from an idealized perspective; a persepctive where there is no fear or sense of lack but instead a sense of balance and harmony with self and everything else on the planet. But that balance was obviously not a constant in his life (court cases, hassles associated with his various schools, etc)---so what the fuck? He was like the rest of us. He wasn't tapping into anything special or divine or holy. Any one of us can calm down and allow things to balance out and harmonize long enough to write down the thoughts that attend such a state of mind. Big deal. Collect them into a book and present them to the world without a hint of the context of the truly human life they came from, and bingo bammo: You're cultivating the image of a guru.
I consumed at least a few of his books, both "teachings" & dialogues, and redd the first 3 volumes of the Lutyens bios, and the Sloss bio, and eventually de-guru-ized him and moved on to others until I realized no one could tell, give, or sell me what I was after. I already had what I had been searching for. Had to find it by a process of elimination and reductio ad absurdum.
So what I'm saying is: There is value in reading K's work, but it ain't the be all and end all.
My name is AL.
Alexander T. Newport
Why not sit a spell and smoke a doobie?
All it takes for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing
indeed, I've got a feeling I may have slightly misquoted though :confused: obviously feel free to persecute me if that's the case.
Oh and I posted that quote after hearing about yet another disgracefully low pay rise at work. I think I may include it in my letter of complaint to the boss man...
Oh and I posted that quote after hearing about yet another disgracefully low pay rise at work. I think I may include it in my letter of complaint to the boss man...
Brother Schenker
Founding member
Holy ca-moly! Did I write that?!
Outta sight...
Sometimes writing is like being in a trance...and when you look back on something you wrote months or years before, it can be like reading someone else's work.
I am impressed.
Good job, AL!
the only good poet
One retreat after another without peace.
Trust the art in yourself, not you in art.
a simple little nugget that once meant something to me. don't know who wrote it.
a simple little nugget that once meant something to me. don't know who wrote it.
When a shepherd goes to kill a wolf
and takes his dog to see the sport,
he should take care to avoid mistakes.
The dog has certain relationships to the wolf
the shepherd may have forgotten.
Robert Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
(Read ZMM when I was young and that quote has stuck with me ever since. Dunno why. The only dog we ever had at home was a Jack Russell)
and takes his dog to see the sport,
he should take care to avoid mistakes.
The dog has certain relationships to the wolf
the shepherd may have forgotten.
Robert Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
(Read ZMM when I was young and that quote has stuck with me ever since. Dunno why. The only dog we ever had at home was a Jack Russell)
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
- Søren A. Kierkegaard
I divide my time as follows: half the time I sleep, the other half I dream. I never dream when I sleep, for that would be a pity, for sleeping is the highest accomplishment of genius.
- Søren A. Kierkegaard
I do not care for anything. I do not care to ride, for the exercise is too violent. I do not care to walk, walking is too strenuous. I do not care to lie down, for I should either have to remain lying, and I do not care to do that, or I should have to get up again, and I do not care to do that either. Summa summarum: I do not care at all.
- Søren A. Kierkegaard
Well, I could go on for several pages with Kierkegaard...!:)
- Søren A. Kierkegaard
I divide my time as follows: half the time I sleep, the other half I dream. I never dream when I sleep, for that would be a pity, for sleeping is the highest accomplishment of genius.
- Søren A. Kierkegaard
I do not care for anything. I do not care to ride, for the exercise is too violent. I do not care to walk, walking is too strenuous. I do not care to lie down, for I should either have to remain lying, and I do not care to do that, or I should have to get up again, and I do not care to do that either. Summa summarum: I do not care at all.
- Søren A. Kierkegaard
Well, I could go on for several pages with Kierkegaard...!:)
Father Luke
Founding member
Every man loves the smell of his own farts. - Father Luke