tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post6479279934285670823..comments2024-03-19T16:24:23.777-07:00Comments on Playing D&D With Porn Stars: Good FansZak Sabbathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-9045860083855247642012-04-30T08:44:31.483-07:002012-04-30T08:44:31.483-07:00grrr snao snap snap bark barkgrrr snao snap snap bark barkZak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-85799186710309132362012-04-30T08:11:33.029-07:002012-04-30T08:11:33.029-07:00It's a poet's take, not a philosopher'...It's a poet's take, not a philosopher's. I failed to make you happy with it, though, so apologies.Calithenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14783899060873651832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-87081921491863480502012-04-30T04:40:11.067-07:002012-04-30T04:40:11.067-07:00brilliantbrilliantAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-84948699626647710442012-04-27T07:54:42.187-07:002012-04-27T07:54:42.187-07:00...and it probably makes a lot of sense to people ......and it probably makes a lot of sense to people who get paid to sit in universities talking about art instead of getting paid based on exactly how many Bees or Mercurys come to sup and wallow in the moist fastness of their scented petals.Zak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-47128743696825866652012-04-27T06:11:08.873-07:002012-04-27T06:11:08.873-07:00'O thou whose face hath felt the Winter's ...'O thou whose face hath felt the Winter's wind;<br />Whose eye has seen the Snow clouds hung in Mist<br />And the black-elm tops 'mong the freezing Stars<br />To thee the Spring will be a harvest-time—<br />O thou whose only book has been the light<br />Of supreme darkness which thou feddest on<br />Night after night, when Phoebus was away<br />To thee the Spring shall be a tripple morn—<br />O fret not after knowledge—I have none<br />And yet my song comes native with the warmth<br />O fret not after knowledge—I have none<br />And yet the Evening listens—He who saddens<br />At thought of Idleness cannot be idle,<br />And he's awake who thinks himself asleep.'<br /><br />Now I am sensible all this is a mere sophistication, however it may neighbour to any truths, to excuse my indolence—so I will not deceive myself that Man should be equal with jove—but think himself very well off as a sort of scullion-Mercury or even a humble Bee—It is [no] matter whether I am right or wrong either one way or another, if there is sufficient to lift a little time from your Shoulders.<br /><br />Your affectionate friend<br /><br />John Keats—<br /><br />-------------<br /><br />People often quote the middle of this letter on aesthetic education and community, but the last sentence is critical too - the piece relevant to your post - and of a piece with the rest.Calithenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14783899060873651832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-44324130870597010602012-04-27T06:07:59.997-07:002012-04-27T06:07:59.997-07:00My dear Reynolds,
I have an idea that a Man might...My dear Reynolds,<br /><br />I have an idea that a Man might pass a very pleasant life in this manner—let him on any certain day read a certain Page of full Poesy or distilled Prose and let him wander with it, and muse upon it, and reflect from it, and bring home to it, and prophesy upon it, and dream upon it—untill it becomes stale—but when will it do so? Never—When Man has arrived at a certain ripeness in intellect any one grand and spiritual passage serves him as a starting post towards all "the two-and thirty Pallaces" How happy is such a "voyage of conception,' what delicious diligent Indolence! A doze upon a Sofa does not hinder it, and a nap upon Clover engenders the ethereal fingerpointings—the prattle of a child gives it wings, and the converse of middle age a strength to beat them—a strain of musick conducts to 'an odd angler of the Isle' and when the leaves whisper it puts a 'girdle round the earth. Nor will this sparing touch of noble Books be any irreverence to their Writers—for perhaps the honors paid by Man to Man are trifles in comparison to the Benefit done by great Works to the 'Spirit and pulse of good' by their mere passive existence. Memory should not be called knowledge—Many have original Minds who do not think it—they are led away by Custom—Now it appears to me that almost any Man may like the Spider spin from his own inwards his own airy Citadel—the points of leaves and twigs on which the Spider begins her work are few and she fills the Air with a beautiful circuiting: man should be content with as few points to tip with the fine Webb of his Soul and weave a tapestry empyrean—full of Symbols for his spiritual eye, of softness for his spiritual touch, of space for his wandering of distinctness for his Luxury—But the Minds of Mortals are so different and bent on such diverse Journeys that it may at first appear impossible for any common taste and fellowship to exist between two or three under these suppositions—It is however quite the contrary—Minds would leave each other in contrary directions, traverse each other in Numberless points, and [at] last greet each other at the Journeys end—A old Man and a child would talk together and the old Man be led on his Path, and the child left thinking—Man should not dispute or assert but whisper results to his neighbour, and thus by every germ of Spirit sucking the Sap from mould ethereal every human might become great, and Humanity instead of being a wide heath of Furse and Briars with here and there a remote Oak or Pine, would become a grand democracy of Forest Trees. It has been an old Comparison for our urging on—the Bee hive—however it seems to me that we should rather be the flower than the Bee—for it is a false notion that more is gained by receiving than giving—no the receiver and the giver are equal in their benefits—The f[l]ower I doubt not receives a fair guerdon from the Bee—its leaves blush deeper in the next spring—and who shall say between Man and Woman which is the most delighted? Now it is more noble to sit like Jove [than] to fly like Mercury—let us not therefore go hurrying about and collecting honey-bee like, buzzing here and there impatiently from a knowledge of what is to be arrived at: but let us open our leaves like a flower and be passive and receptive—budding patiently under the eye of Apollo and taking hints from every noble insect that favors us with a visit—sap will be given us for Meat and dew for drink—I was led into these thoughts, my dear Reynolds, by the beauty of the morning operating on a sense of Idleness—I have no read any Books—the Morning said I was right—I had no Idea but of the Morning and the Thrush said I was right—seeming to say—Calithenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14783899060873651832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-71989237736584036232012-04-27T06:05:41.060-07:002012-04-27T06:05:41.060-07:00Yes, of course. People are like this with everythi...Yes, of course. People are like this with everything, but you do run into it with gamers too, especially the ones who are passionate enough to discuss RPGs online. In philosophy we get to this issue through Hume and Kant and the "Paradox of Taste." John Keats' letter to Reynolds of 1818 has some useful advice on the subject.Calithenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14783899060873651832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-33187170741878886502012-04-26T19:57:15.052-07:002012-04-26T19:57:15.052-07:00Many people in RPGs are chauvinistic about their t...Many people in RPGs are chauvinistic about their taste. If you can't think of any you are blessed and should count yourself lucky to not know them.Zak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-67796046710771002632012-04-26T19:47:45.111-07:002012-04-26T19:47:45.111-07:00Not trying to be a jerk - genuinely curious. The g...Not trying to be a jerk - genuinely curious. The general points are worth making, certainly.Calithenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14783899060873651832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-7687933247039629232012-04-26T19:33:22.983-07:002012-04-26T19:33:22.983-07:00I also enjoyed the essay, I'm just trying to f...I also enjoyed the essay, I'm just trying to figure if it has application to the chicken wire and ice cream.Calithenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14783899060873651832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-69163711709025488112012-04-26T19:32:32.521-07:002012-04-26T19:32:32.521-07:00Does this have anything to do with roleplaying gam...Does this have anything to do with roleplaying games?<br /><br />Since the answer is certainly 'yes' if you scope it broad enough, I guess I can refine my question to 'what'?Calithenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14783899060873651832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-58160073957637130592012-04-24T11:28:41.583-07:002012-04-24T11:28:41.583-07:00@Schleirmacher
You have made a grave and egregiou...@Schleirmacher<br /><br />You have made a grave and egregious error if you believe the only way to enjoy fine prose, camerawork, drafting technique, humor etc. is to see in it reflections of your own ideas, attitudes, etc.<br /><br />To cite a painfully obvious example that even the dumbest person should be able to grasp: the demolition derby.. Cars hitting each other--that spectacle is beautiful. I identify with no car involved.Zak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-24236291901620944092012-04-24T11:15:06.097-07:002012-04-24T11:15:06.097-07:00I think you have to first accept a certain cultura...I think you have to first accept a certain cultural pragmatism (common enough among Americans, Protestants, etc. etc.)to see that passage as 'necessarily negative.' (as opposed to 'sufficiently negative' if you follow my usage.) It's about pleasure. Which is a vexed issue. It's not bad, it's just not more than pleasure.The Cramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05278933189696141920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-13642483213486246582012-04-23T02:10:01.191-07:002012-04-23T02:10:01.191-07:00Hm. This provokes and frustrates me, because I am ...Hm. This provokes and frustrates me, because I am convinced you are wrong, but I cannot defeat you. I contend that this:<br /><br />"The person who likes the movie because it shows people who they can identify with doing things they want to do. This person is not doing anything unnatural or unforgivable, but they are doing a thing that has no aspect of generosity in it. You're just appreciating yourself, or things that it will help you or your ego--on some level--to appreciate."<br /><br />is what every fan of anything is ultimately doing, but I cannot construct an antithesis as eloquent as your thesis.Schleiermacherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14548096872222148381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-49412316800246537282012-04-22T12:39:55.458-07:002012-04-22T12:39:55.458-07:00Dig it! Nail. On. The. Head.
Yes, art is subjecti...Dig it! Nail. On. The. Head.<br /><br />Yes, art is subjective...but it doesn't give douchebags the right to dismiss it with a wave of their hairy knuckled hand.<br /><br />And yes, some of my favorite writers/artists were in some/many respects, creeps. Burroughs, Kerouac, HSThompson...all pricks...talented pricks who didn't let their faults compromise the inherent value of their work...but pricks nonetheless.<br /><br />Speaking of Burroughs, howz about a pseudo-Gamma-Worldian campaign map based on the Red Night Trilogy, Naked Lunch, and the rest of Bill's bizarro wasteland geography!?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-80238415737283124932012-04-22T09:34:40.894-07:002012-04-22T09:34:40.894-07:00Hi there. Your articles must require a lot of rese...Hi there. Your articles must require a lot of research and rumination to put together. I love how the internet puts all those connections at our fingertips.<br /><br />I like WSB but my most consistent contact is through the "Spare Ass Annie" collaboration with The Disposable Heroes of Hiphopracy. His delivery is unreproducible in my head.<br /><br />Anyway, that's prepamble. I have a podcast http://www.pennyredpodcast.com on which I interview roleplayers "inside the Actors Studio" style and I'd like to have you as a guest.<br /><br />Episode #4 or #5 and then #8 onwards is really where I've settled on a style if you'd like to check it out.<br /><br />Drop me a line (contacts on the page) if you're interested and I can send over the questions. It usually takes 1-1.5 hours to record depending on how may opinions a guest has. You seem to have a few...hzdgmghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07344265624409177298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-38340534351423291902012-04-22T06:08:42.935-07:002012-04-22T06:08:42.935-07:00the term 'sympathetic imagination' is part...the term 'sympathetic imagination' is particularly helpful (i refer to<br />it as 'mirror neurons', but your term is good).<br /><br />i plan on including this *entire blog post* in a letter to my cousin,<br />a classical composer, seein' as how we tend to trade these kinds of<br />thoughts in our exchanges about creativity.<br /><br />it seems like whenever i really like one of your posts i'm tempted to make a comparison between what you're talking about mathematics.<br /><br />in mathematics (and no other currently understood field of human endeavor, though we are getting close to an age when other fields will resemble math; ie, once the symbol-processing content of the human psyche has been fully assimilated by ultra-smart future humans, someone can go, i like harry potter, and someone else can go, oh, i like fictional characters belonging to the class XY556 too! maybe we should date!), asd-spectrum type people like me has spent his life being inclined to become obsessively fond of things about which he doesn't have to worry about the whole 'i like/make this therefore i'm good' dilemma.<br /><br />that's because, in mathematics, there are 'dualities'.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duality_(mathematics)" rel="nofollow">what are dualities?</a><br /><br />"In mathematics, a duality, generally speaking, translates concepts, theorems or mathematical structures into other concepts, theorems or structures, in a one-to-one fashion, often (but not always) by means of an involution operation: if the dual of A is B, then the dual of B is A."<br /><br />so, i can really hate a particular mathematician's way of doing math. but when it comes to their results, i can usually find a way of seeing how they're sorta like things i love, because for mathematics revolves around finding, proving, and exploiting dualities.<br /><br />(this has had a cumulative snowball effect which has led to mathematics being able to 'dualize' nature, thereby describe nature, thereby invent things based on nature.)<br /><br />but that can't happen in art (yet) because of our K-12 education system (and the limitations of our current century's understanding of the human psyche).<br /><br />it has been multiple-choice quizzed into my cranium that truman capote is a good writer who is fundamentally important as an expression of good 'ol american bullshit and that william s burroughs was a druggie who wrote complicated atemporal narratives, just like that turgid gravity's rainbow.<br /><br />college is sorta different, of course, but still exposes the same fundamental set of prejudices, ie moby dick and tristram shandy are both great books (how? what characters? what plot?) and ancestors of gravity's rainbow, unlike that naked lunch.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-50936188770127570392012-04-21T18:40:28.945-07:002012-04-21T18:40:28.945-07:00Oh my god I forgot about that Nike commercial...
...Oh my god I forgot about that Nike commercial...<br /><br />but still, the writing held. Right up 'til the end.Zak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-29133458823957065512012-04-21T18:38:50.921-07:002012-04-21T18:38:50.921-07:00There's always a stink of irony when a writer ...There's always a stink of irony when a writer accuses another writer of being a sell out when the later ends up doing the same thing like William Lee did in those Nike Spots he starred in back in the mid 90's, but what can I say,I love the old man's stuff. Burroughs was the closest thing if HPL became a dope fiend and his Naked Lunch is nothing less then great. it's the closest thing in literature to feeling like your inside the mind of someone completely mad in a world even more insane. Burrroughs scenes in Drugstore Cowboy are fantastic.<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKPcR3tADXc&feature=related<br /><br />I read once Burroughs and David Lynch wanted to collaborate on a film project. What a shame it never happened.I.F.https://www.blogger.com/profile/04345074915911014741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-70952426334086229502012-04-21T16:20:19.441-07:002012-04-21T16:20:19.441-07:00you did not just distract me from finding a copy o...you did not just distract me from finding a copy of pappus' mathematical collection... you did not just distract me from finding a copy of pappus' mathematical collection...you did not just distract me from finding a copy of pappus' mathematical collection...you did not just distract me from finding a copy of pappus' mathematical collection...you did not just distract me from finding a copy of pappus' mathematical collection...you did not just distract me from finding a copy of pappus' mathematical collection...you did not just distract me from finding a copy of pappus' mathematical collection...<br /><br />*note to self: do not read Zak's blog while doing something highly important late at night*Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-10667697431455276282012-04-21T05:25:05.265-07:002012-04-21T05:25:05.265-07:00Powerful stuff... nice work!Powerful stuff... nice work!Kaijuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06184830369889881159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-66533945391287345502012-04-20T11:48:40.151-07:002012-04-20T11:48:40.151-07:00YES I APPRECIATE THE IRONY OF MY TYPOSYES I APPRECIATE THE IRONY OF MY TYPOSZak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-88638966647018232122012-04-20T11:44:30.305-07:002012-04-20T11:44:30.305-07:00That last bit is one thing I still do not quite un...That last bit is one thing I still do not quite understand: the "what we like is popular therefore...(anything)" <br /><br />I can understand wanting the reasons you like something to be understood<br /><br />I can even kinda sorta a little understand wanting your thing to be populat<br /><br />I can't understand what claiming it is or isn't popular could possibly mean in terms of quality. I mean, most of the worst things in the world are popular. Hell, there are way more murders than copies of Pathfinder sold every year. Does that mean murder is better than Pathfinder?<br /><br />And likewise the people who go "We like THIS and lots other people do too so we're normal". Last I checked any survey, the average person was a drooling idiot--what do they think calling themselves "normal" proves abut games?Zak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-41026095975469559122012-04-20T11:33:42.185-07:002012-04-20T11:33:42.185-07:00Agreed on both "wonderful essay" and &qu...Agreed on both "wonderful essay" and "world changed for the better". At some point I realized that upon finding someone who liked something I did, I would start asking them about other related things I also liked until they either hadn't heard of it or didn't agree with my judgement. In either case I'd walk away feeling superior, having ruined a chance to actually connect with a fellow fan. <br /><br />I think that your point about narcissism explains why sales figures of 4e vs. Pathfinder was edition-war ammunition. Whether a lot of other people like the same thing you do becomes really important when it's them mirroring your fandom that matters, not the enjoyment you get from it yourself.Tavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08589149850152191198noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-3061668981550147612012-04-20T08:29:50.012-07:002012-04-20T08:29:50.012-07:00> to love something openly is to admit that if ...> to love something openly is to admit that if it were taken away you'd be hurt and, therefore, to show people a way to hurt you and, therefore, to risk getting hurt for the sake of telling the truth to other people.<br /><br />Should be posted in letters of iron over the door to the internet.Roger G-Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08594440701279968693noreply@blogger.com