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Reprint of a prophetic post by Andre Jute
Reprint of a prophetic post by Andre Jute from 26 November 2004. If you
can't guess who the organ grinder's monkey is, you should treasure your innocence! ******** RAT may be in the pits now but surely the memory of our glory days entitles us to a first class temple dog. You know, the wannabe solid state guru who sits across the gateway and demands engineering credentials before we are permitted to post. The fellow who claims before we build and test it that any amp we build will not be good enough because it isn't the brand he overpaid for on the high street. Those unbalanced people who come to RAT not to learn something but merely to spoil our pleasure in tubes. I think we are entitled to have Arny Krueger himself as our temple dog. He is the organ grinder. A first class newsgroup like RAT is entitled to be serviced by the organ grinder himself. We should not have to put up with the organ grinder's dull-witted monkey. We want Arny! Accept no substitutes! Return the monkey for a refund! Bring us Arny! We want Arny! Andre Jute Rabble-rouser |
#2
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wrote in message
oups.com Reprint of a prophetic post by Andre Jute from 26 November 2004. http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...b5ab7ddf7daa04 "Though I am not seriously suggesting we invite Arny here there is one respect in which Arny would be superior to his monkey Pinkerton. It seems to me Pinky is going through some sort of midlife crisis and taking it out on us. The man is recklessly spraying his spite omnidirectionally, as witness his rash statements about a loudspeaker driver whose name he hasn't heard yet. At least Arny would be more controlled. I've allways found Arny easier to take because he is rational, which Pinkerton is not. Pinky is a fanatic, on a misiion to spread the misery, as you have already observed today. (I wish I said that first.)" Interesting. I was of course unaware of my fame and adoration in RAT. However, this post needlessly libels Pinky. |
#3
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Lafcadio =96 the existential escapist
Lafcadio, one of the key characters in =93Les Caves du Vatican=94 by Andre Gide, is an interesting example of the escapist, since he personifies the dilemma of how the individual is to achieve mastery over his actions inside a society for which that individual has no respect. Part escapist, part motivated by transcendence, he seeks some resolution. The same theme of arbitrary murder as an =93intellectual act=94 features in Hitchcock=92s film =93Rope=94 (1948). Gide, in =93Prom=E9th=E9e mal encha=EEn=E9=94 says =93that which distinguis= hes man from animals is the =91acte gratuite=92 a gratuitous action which is motivated by nothing =96 not any interests, passions, nothing =96 an action without vested interest which simply occurs. It is an act with no goal, no master, a free act.=94 The person who thus acts without reasoning can be called free. Such a person can accomplish anything, even an action which is completely absurd. In =93Les Caves du Vatican=94 Gide makes one of his characters carry out such an act. The young Lafcadio is travelling to Rome by train and finds himself in the same compartment as an old man called Fleurissoire. Suddenly, as the old man is standing by the train door the idea occurs to Lafcadio to push his travelling companion out. He decides that if he can count up to 12 before the train passes a set of lights on the track, he will take no action. But on the count of 10 they pass a light and he carries out his act. The action is one accomplished without any foundation to it, as a result of an arbitrary decision which emerges by accident out of a pure mental caprice. The underlying philosophy of the existential movement was a lot more profound than the tawdry and emotionally bankrupt act of Lafcadio =96 who is as much an ante hero as a hero in a French intellectual game which loves nothing better in life than a double paradox. Gide, the =91sombre casuist=92 had long been accused of labyrinthine thought and while his vision of the society that had condoned the awfulness of the First World War was as bleak as that of the other existentialists, the acte gratuite was more a piece of escapism than a moral solution =96 more a grudge reaction that =93if society can be so absurd, how can its inhabitants not be equally absurd=94. Gide=92s belief was that =93the individuality of Man was the only thing of intrinsic worth in the universe, and that apart from Man and his works everything was absurd, chaotic and meaningless. Man=92s destiny, therefore, was to revolt against the outside world, to develop to the full his latent powers and so contribute to the uniqueness of the human race. Man=92s function is self-creation, his aim is to release through =91authentic living=92 the God that is within him=94 (F.J. Jones). Like Nietzsche, Gide sees Man as his hero, his God =96 a force of nature different in kind to animals and the rest of life. But in attempting to deify man he runs across the familiar problem that the history of mankind is stained through and through with absurdity, cruelty and animal behaviour =96 not so much of an intellectual riddle to a Darwinist, of course. Unlike Max Jacob, who postulated that man was fundamentally absurd (=93une personalite n=92est qu=92une erreur persistante=94) or Rimbaud who chose to live a life of absurdity =96 a =93dereglement de tous les sens=94 - Gide was left with the attitude that since man had to be god like, the absurdity had to come from somewhere outside of him =96 maybe in society, or something else about the human condition. In the majority of escapist literature, everyday life is humdrum but not weird, and the escapist escapes through imagination and dreams of adventure. For Gide =96 wrapped up in his labyrinthine intellectual knots - everyday life, though equally empty, has a more profound absurdity, and his attempt to escape from it is a perpetual attempt to return to some kind of authenticity. Lafcadio tries to escape, however, only to enter a world even more disturbing and chaotic than the one he is attempting to transcend =96 something close to the world not of the freethinker but of the criminally insane. By this period of French literature and the arts one thing was for sure =96 the rigidly scientific deterministic =93reality=94 proposed by Descartes, where there was no room for absurdity =96 was as warped and out of shape as the clocks of Dali. (Evans A "This Virtual Life" 2003) |
#4
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Andy Evans wrote:
Lafcadio the existential escapist Lafcadio, one of the key characters in Les Caves du Vatican by Andre Gide, is an interesting example of the escapist, since he personifies the dilemma of how the individual is to achieve mastery over his actions inside a society for which that individual has no respect. Part escapist, part motivated by transcendence, he seeks some resolution. The same theme of arbitrary murder as an intellectual act features in Hitchcocks film Rope (1948). Gide, in Promthe mal enchan says that which distinguishes man from animals is the acte gratuite a gratuitous action which is motivated by nothing not any interests, passions, nothing an action without vested interest which simply occurs. It is an act with no goal, no master, a free act. The person who thus acts without reasoning can be called free. Such a person can accomplish anything, even an action which is completely absurd. In Les Caves du Vatican Gide makes one of his characters carry out such an act. The young Lafcadio is travelling to Rome by train and finds himself in the same compartment as an old man called Fleurissoire. Suddenly, as the old man is standing by the train door the idea occurs to Lafcadio to push his travelling companion out. He decides that if he can count up to 12 before the train passes a set of lights on the track, he will take no action. But on the count of 10 they pass a light and he carries out his act. The action is one accomplished without any foundation to it, as a result of an arbitrary decision which emerges by accident out of a pure mental caprice. The underlying philosophy of the existential movement was a lot more profound than the tawdry and emotionally bankrupt act of Lafcadio who is as much an ante hero as a hero in a French intellectual game which loves nothing better in life than a double paradox. Gide, the sombre casuist had long been accused of labyrinthine thought and while his vision of the society that had condoned the awfulness of the First World War was as bleak as that of the other existentialists, the acte gratuite was more a piece of escapism than a moral solution more a grudge reaction that if society can be so absurd, how can its inhabitants not be equally absurd. Gides belief was that the individuality of Man was the only thing of intrinsic worth in the universe, and that apart from Man and his works everything was absurd, chaotic and meaningless. Mans destiny, therefore, was to revolt against the outside world, to develop to the full his latent powers and so contribute to the uniqueness of the human race. Mans function is self-creation, his aim is to release through authentic living the God that is within him (F.J. Jones). Like Nietzsche, Gide sees Man as his hero, his God a force of nature different in kind to animals and the rest of life. But in attempting to deify man he runs across the familiar problem that the history of mankind is stained through and through with absurdity, cruelty and animal behaviour not so much of an intellectual riddle to a Darwinist, of course. Unlike Max Jacob, who postulated that man was fundamentally absurd (une personalite nest quune erreur persistante) or Rimbaud who chose to live a life of absurdity a dereglement de tous les sens - Gide was left with the attitude that since man had to be god like, the absurdity had to come from somewhere outside of him maybe in society, or something else about the human condition. In the majority of escapist literature, everyday life is humdrum but not weird, and the escapist escapes through imagination and dreams of adventure. For Gide wrapped up in his labyrinthine intellectual knots - everyday life, though equally empty, has a more profound absurdity, and his attempt to escape from it is a perpetual attempt to return to some kind of authenticity. Lafcadio tries to escape, however, only to enter a world even more disturbing and chaotic than the one he is attempting to transcend something close to the world not of the freethinker but of the criminally insane. By this period of French literature and the arts one thing was for sure the rigidly scientific deterministic reality proposed by Descartes, where there was no room for absurdity was as warped and out of shape as the clocks of Dali. (Evans A "This Virtual Life" 2003) So that's why valve's sound better ;-) Dave www.davewhitter.myby.co.uk Music is Art - Audio is Engineering Steam is Fun |
#5
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Imagination, the two edged sword---------
But imagination is a two edged sword =96 it creates both instruments of destruction like the nuclear bomb, and instruments of salvation as in nuclear power or radiation treatment for cancer. The very gift that can destroy our environment is the one gift that can offer some kind of lateral thinking that might save us. We need imagination to save us from our own imagination: The human species uniquely confronts the dilemma of a powerful imagination that, while it makes escape to a better life possible, also makes possible lies and deception, solipsistic fantasy, madness, unspeakable cruelty, violence and destructiveness =96 evil. (Storr) In another, more emotional way, imagination also lies behind the divine discontent humans feel: Imagination, it is safe to say, is more highly developed in human beings than in any other creature. It is clear that the development of human imagination is biologically adaptive; but it is also the case that we have had to pay a certain price for this development. Imagination has given man flexibility, but in doing so has robbed him of contentment (Storr) The two edged sword of imagination, to Storr, contains the unavoidable disappointment of man=92s environment never perfectly meeting his needs or fulfilling his desires for perfect happiness. Even transcendental experiences of happiness, like falling in love, are transient. Dissatisfaction with what is, or =91divine discontent=92 is an inescapable part of the human condition. This is a view echoed by Yi-Fu Tuan: I should like to add another definition of what it is to be human to the many that already exist: a human being is an animal who is congenitally indisposed to accept reality as it is. |
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