I don’t write because I am afraid to write because I am not happy, and I will inevitably come off as a feverish, selfish clot of ailments and grievances, in the words of Bernard Shaw. I feel, at regular intervals, completely bleak. Probably it is some asanine, inopportune chemical thing. Crises should not occur when APs are imminent — it’s bad form.
But there have been good things: Arman and Bilal sent me stuff like chocolate and photographs and a CD, all of which are things that I like. One of my favorite photos is of a church billboard (with Arman looking aesthetic nearby) on which is spelled out: “1 CROSS PLUS 3 NAILS EQUALS 4 GIVEN.” I think this is so brilliant. In general, tactlessness in advertising is terrific.
The other thing that happened that was good: Frontage Roads went to press. We rock hard. This is the cover, and this is the title bit of last year’s cover. I think the constructed letters are clever, so I overuse them, like the photograph above. Anyway, note the hidden anti-establishment messages in the letters.
I am trying, awkwardly, to vary my sentence structure. Meursault doesn’t care.
what you may also find to be funny is the name and the racial composition of that church.
Someday, I’d like to sit in and listen to their congregation:
christianity + spanish/korean culture and language barrior = a jigsaw puzzle mess of confusion
I can see the feathers and the insults flying.
“Aye, man, you believe in a “Tree God,” you a pagan man, yah man. No heaven for you, man…”
-Also Anush, its spelled with an I, asinine:
1 : marked by inexcusable failure to exercise intelligence or sound judgment
totally inexcusable… ; )
Never blame such things on chemical imbalances; so rarely is that at the root of such feelings.
With something as fundamentally unique and individual as one’s state of happiness, I don’t know how much personal example can really help, but in my case, every fit of unhappiness not directly tied to a known event or condition has been due to not knowing myself.
Quite TOKish, I admit, but true, at least for me; a strong philosophical base makes so many other problems melt away. Of course, I’m one to talk, being a recently declared Existentialist, but you may want to consider if the reason you aren’t happy could simply be because you do not know what constitutes happiness.
Soli, that was asanine.
ignore him.
asinine with an i! i writhe in black shame.
black shame… is there any other kind?
There’s bright turquoise shame, but it doesn’t have quite the same effect.
Your cover and title are both rad! I wish my school newspaper had talent like that.
blame it on waking up at 7:00 AM to do Euro
But at any rate, I don’t think it is. Perhaps it souns cliché, but can you really discredit a belief for being widely held and expressed?
Fine, then; I leave you with http://www.gwar.net/
I want you to sink into the ground void of passion. With your beautiful unattainable humanist ideals then, when you’ve reached your origin, confer with the dirt about how much it enjoys being dirt.
(I can’t really break down the arguments of existentialist thinking (for its not a true philosophy, rather than an outlook on life. like free masonry their could exist muslim existentialists, i was once entralled by the “chillax” nature that I read in the ancient greeks, how ideal i thought. now i think again, for there are serious cultural and societal consequences that we would view to be quite negative if we saw it in our own curernt; moden eyes, anyway, my mmoc alaling myself for idinner so i gott go but ehre is a sampling of my deconstruction, all my points have already been made in the breif thing of prose above, seeyou peoples)
Let us look at the lead proponant of modern exestentialist thought
“Nor, if God does not exists, are we provided with any values or commands that could legitimate our behaviour. This we have neither behind us, nor before us in a luminous realm of values, any means of justification or excuse. We are left alone, without excuse. That is what I mean when I say that man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment that he is thrown into this world he is responsible for everything that he does.”
Read that twice and understand how ridiculous it is. We are condemned by our own nonexistant morality. How are we responsible? (note, at the heart of existentialist ideology (a non ideology) is a condemnation, and a false/split one too.
There is at the heart of Existentialist thinking a nagging question. We are to redefine ourselfs seperate from any notions of “self” given to us by religion and science, and found this on the our “humanity” which is what everything else is founded on. Strangest of the strange our humanity is also as subjective as our religion and science.
“…indeed existence precedes essence…”
“man is the future of man”
we are attempting to build a roof on top of paper walls. We can not take shelter under our humanity when we fundamentally don’t believe in its existance.
There are a few more problems I have found with Sartre in my (admittedly breif) readings of his.
Actually, I now bargain for forgiveness, I’ve had a couple 50/50 days on nightline with a touch of mexican eye lid pinching. OW!
Goodness, if there is such a thing, deliver me from this tangled mess I call existance
Bring me to the mushrooms of antequity, so I may converse with the sagacious frogs whose wisdom extends beyond the tangible reaches of our limited senses.
hee! I dream my reality!
-naptime yall… Tireder than you may believe
in case i don’t talk to you later…
uh… i’m pretty sure i used verdana for the entirety of the obrien interview. so unless schaack messed with it when he put in the introductory paragraph when i wasn’t there… there’s only one font…?
Bilal:
Existentialism is a broad term. Let’s agree that we’ll stick to the kind I’ve advocated here and elsewhere recently, which is Sartrean Existential Secular Humanism.
In Sartre’s case, there is no room for a ‘Muslim Existentialist,’ or at least not a Muslim Sartrist. Sartre’s entire beliefe structure was built on the assumption that God does not exist.
You make it sound more ridiculous than it is. We are condemned…. to freedom. In other words, we have no choice but to be free in our moral decisions. Sartre would argue (or, at least, I would argue as a Sartrist) that anyone who denies this makes an essentially free choice to do so. Bear in mind that Sartre’s idea of freedom does not imply a lack of coercion or societal pressures; it merely means that no divine will will meddle in your affairs.
Our humanity is not a ‘paper wall’ but rather is Existentialism’s greatest philosophical achievement. Never before has a system so entirely allowed for our individual identity. Sartre does not say that our humanity itself is subjective to any outside observer; he agrees with Descartes in a sense, in that the individual is supreme, not irrelevant. Don’t confuse Existentialism with Nihilism.
The individual is not a weak point in Existentialist doctrine. Religious views tend to hold that a divine will is the objective observer that defines reality in its true form. Sartre gives this power to all humans, but also forces us to accept that what is absolutely real and important to us may not hold true to another’s point of view. It is a mistake to say that Sartre didn’t believe in our humanity; that’s all he believed in. The basic principle of Sartrean Existentialism is self-determinism, the notion that all can be decided for oneself.
We are responsible for ourselves because we are the supreme power behind our actions. Note that this is not at all a pessimistic or even moralistic stance; remember that Sartre ultimately believes in complete Relativism, meaning that the only person we are responsible to is ourselves.
Ah, perfect… on to Relativism. One of the great criticisms of Existentialism is its utter amorality; don’t we need some rules, some ultimate guidance, after all? Let’s see… why do we need rules? Well, we need them for society. We don’t need them for ourselves; we live by our own systems as individuals. However, when multiple people interact, the options are ultimate authority in the form of law or anarchy.
This does not contradict Sartre AT ALL! Sartre merely says that no supreme being exists to enforce such moral guidelines. If mankind as a whole wishes to unite behidn these rules, they have led themselves there through self-defining decisions and that’s fine with Sartre. Sartre was not an Anarchist; he was, in fact, a Socialist who was all for governmental protections and programmes.
wow, that was long.
True that about the muslim thing, i was making a broad statement about a broad topic, and then I narrowed down to sarte, but its four AM and I don’t remember where my toes are.
-click
holy fuck. you two would do well to notice that this box is labeled “comments” not “doctoral theses”.
Yes, but Deepu, I didn’t know your philosophy placed sex so grandly. I regret to inform you that the most recent popular trend has been despiritualising every aspect of human life. And suggest for you the way’s of the wicca.
As for Soli, I am ending my discussion on this comment box. But you understand, perhaps as a person who seperates with his/her tounge, that you must exagerate, you must enlarge everything, for thats where you see the cracks, and that where you stick in the ice pic.
Anyway, mail me or something, I don’t know if I’ll respond yet, because it would mean that I must research, know this is not because i enjoy my ignorance, but rather…. I enjoy my recent musical and artistic exploits more than I do this current discussion.
It is also an indicator as to why i feel so strongly against the Existentialist thinking, for a final result I often feel from those who call themselves Existentialists, are a lack of passion.
because passions should be controlled
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I scream,
control this.
Hey Anush, have you ever gotten more than twenty comments?
Also, you’ll be pleased to note, I guess, that arman finally convinced me to cut my hair. It’s shorter, and she put blueberry flavoring in it.
-yay.
A Bilal: I’d be glad to mail you on the topic, but I can’t seem to find your email address… is it just a catch-all @ stillpondering.com?
“Yes, but Deepu, I didn’t know your philosophy placed sex so grandly. I regret to inform you that the most recent popular trend has been despiritualising every aspect of human life. And suggest for you the way’s of the wicca.”
It should be noted that I haven’t said anything prior to this comment.
Truth, but you’re also #20, Congratulations!
I mistook shidobu, it is arvind, which is just as exciting, and man my spelling/grammer is weird when i read it a second time around.
-Forever 21…
Yeah, its anything at stillpondering,
also, it would do people good to use their real names so I know, you know, where to send my brown box packages if i am required to by the xulu.
-also 22, i guess
“Yes, but Deepu, I didn’t know your philosophy placed sex so grandly. I regret to inform you that the most recent popular trend has been despiritualising every aspect of human life. And suggest for you the way’s of the wicca.”
if in fact that was directed at me:
I don’t remember chiming in on my personal philosophy at any point up there, and more importantly I’m pretty certain I didn’t explain the position of sex in said philosophy, so I am led to wonder what you are responding to…
Arvind- I believe he was responding to ‘holy fuck.’
ah.
well played.
Hey, Anush, have you ever gotten 30 comments?
Is it possible to get the flu in the summer, on your last day of school? Yes, it is. It hurts to sit up.
Also, I am a tad delirious, but most of all angry, its kinda weird especially when you dream about greek girls, yeah man, tough women, man. eat you alive, thats right my friend, alive and raw. They dont need no flavoring, you’re already pretty savory man, with what all that fat you’ve got, yeah?
-The Greek Women Eat you Alive
Bilal Ghalib
for some reason i get a lot of talking on angsty entries. it’s generally not sympathy, though, you bastards. although i guess the existentialist thing is my fault for mentioning meursault. i can’t be blamed for bilal’s greek women, however. or for deepu. sorry deepu.
i think i am too lazy/behind on euro to formulate thought on existentialism, except once a homeless crack addict i was talking to named david mentioned it. he’s probably dead by now.
everyone read the poisonwood bible and become disillusioned with this country - go!
Dude, are you actually using only one space after a period now? Hahaa!
-Camaaan 30!
what are a couple synonyms for punishment?
Vanilla Ice. That counts a couple.
very nice cover, anush!
“everyone read the poisonwood bible and become disillusioned with this country - go!”
already did - i win!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3190875796%20
you know you want it.
also if you’ve yet to see the video
http://jesus-action-figure.com/Elements/Jesus-Action-Figure.mov
“everyone read the poisonwood bible and become disillusioned with this country - go!”
Hah, like I need to read a book to become disillusioned with this country
“Hah, like I need to read a book to become disillusioned with this country
”
You haven’t been disillusioned until you’ve read The Poisonwood Bible. It’ll disillusion your pants off.
and possibly also your socks. Who knows.
*perpetuates insanely long and self-perpetuating list of comments*
I don’t think anush has a blog anymore, I think she’s just gonna post her entries as comments here henceforth. As evidenced by the above pseudo-comment post thing.