It is so fun to hear James Warren and Christopher Hitchens talk... I don't agree with everything they say (gee, could you see that coming?), but they are a delight to hear in a TV forum such as Washington Journal. Warren is so sarcastic; he congratulated the show's host, Brian Lamb, for getting a mention on Gilmore Girls, and hoped it'd increase the teen-girl viewership of Washington Journal. Last week, in the Chicago Tribune, Warren ran a week of transcribed phone-messages from Henry Kissinger over the years. Some of them implicate Henry in genocide in Pakistan (which adds to his resume of bombing Cambodia and assisting genocide in East Timor). Lamb read one of the nuttier ones aloud, which was (Im not making this up; theyre in the National Archives, folks) Kissinger and Barbara Walters flirting. It was just so wrong. As Lamb read it, Hitchens was muttering underneath things like, Ulgh, ghahstly, and when the host went to him for comments he said, Well, you cahnt eat enough to vomit enough, cahn you? 
Hitchy might like the Iraq war, but I still hold out hope for him. I hope to see his Henry Kissinger movie, if not to actually get around to reading the book.
not to sound like Im shirking reading. Been reading Dylans book, and its great. He goes into unusually detailed well, detail about every little thing in the room in various moments in his life from 40, 30 years ago. Its not really a true autobio, as far as I can tell, but just little snippets of his life, microscopically viewed. Subsequently, its highly worth reading and not easy to excerpt from well, there is this very pessimistic passage, Dylan reacting to Clausewitzs war-philosophy tome Vom Kriege, which strikes me as poetic in its negativity:
Clausewitzs book seemed outdated, but theres a lot in it thats real, and you can understand a lot about conventional life and the pressures of environment by reading it. When he claims that politics has taken the place of morality and politics is brute force, hes not playing. You have to believe it. You do exactly as youre told, whoever you are. Knuckle under or youre dead. Dont give me any of that jazz about hope or righteousness. Dont give me that dance that god is with us, or that God supports us. Lets get down to brass tacks. There isnt any moral order. You can forget that. Morality has nothing in common with politics. Its not there to transgress. Its either high ground or low ground. This is the way of the world and nothings gonna change it. Its a crazy, mixed-up world and you have to look it right in the eye. Clausewitz in some ways is a prophet. Without realizing it, some of the stuff in his book can shape your ideas. If you think youre a dreamer, you can read this stuff and realize youre not even capable of dreaming. Dreaming is dangerous. Reading Clausewitz makes you take your own thoughts a little less seriously.
Well kinda seems dour for a struggling but determined musician who sees destiny as choosing him, and makes me wonder if he isnt talking more about his thoughts in 2003 than in 1963. Of the books he cites from page 36 to 46, he seems most impressed with Thucydidess The Athenian General:
a narrative which would give you chills. It was written four hundred years before Christ and it talks about how human nature is always the enemy of anything superior. Thucydides writes about how words in his time have changed from their ordinary meaning, how actions and opinions can be altered in the blink of an eye. Its like nothing has changed from his time to mine.
a view usually shared by folks into Classical things, and who knows? Maybe they and Dylan are right about learning much from reading ancient stuff, which Ive rarely taken much interest in (although I had good experiences in Dr. Talberts classes of old Egypt and Mesopotamia at VCU).
But probably my favorite passage is Dylan thinking about where he stands in the popular music biz, after contemplating radio songs of Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, and such:
I agonized about making a record, but I wouldnt have wanted to make singles, 45s- the kind of songs they played on the radio. Folksingers, jazz artists, and classical musicians made LPs, long-playing records with heaps of songs in the grooves- they forged identities and tipped the scales, gave more of the big picture. LPs were like the force of gravity. They had covers, back and front, that you could stare at for hours. Next to them, 45s were flimsy and uncrystallized. They just stacked up in piles and didnt seem important. I had no songs in my repertoire for commercial radio anyway. Songs about debauched bootleggers, mothers that drowned their own children, Cadillacs that only got five miles to the gallon, floods, union hall fires, darkness and cadavers at the bottom of rivers werent for radiophiles. There was nothing easygoing about the folk songs I sang. They werent friendly or ripe with mellowness. They didnt come gently to the shore. I guess you could say they werent commercial Whatever the case, it wasnt that I was anti-popular culture or anything and I had no ambitions to stir things up. I just thought of mainstream culture as lame as hell and a big trick. It was like the unbroken sea of frost that lay outside the window and you had to have awkward footgear to walk on it.
Also, I felt really, really bummed yesterday, then hung out with my friend Eric and felt much, much better. Gee, maybe I need a more social life?
I need to go mail out my package to tattoosandwhores, whom I want to hug so.
Hitchy might like the Iraq war, but I still hold out hope for him. I hope to see his Henry Kissinger movie, if not to actually get around to reading the book.
not to sound like Im shirking reading. Been reading Dylans book, and its great. He goes into unusually detailed well, detail about every little thing in the room in various moments in his life from 40, 30 years ago. Its not really a true autobio, as far as I can tell, but just little snippets of his life, microscopically viewed. Subsequently, its highly worth reading and not easy to excerpt from well, there is this very pessimistic passage, Dylan reacting to Clausewitzs war-philosophy tome Vom Kriege, which strikes me as poetic in its negativity:
Clausewitzs book seemed outdated, but theres a lot in it thats real, and you can understand a lot about conventional life and the pressures of environment by reading it. When he claims that politics has taken the place of morality and politics is brute force, hes not playing. You have to believe it. You do exactly as youre told, whoever you are. Knuckle under or youre dead. Dont give me any of that jazz about hope or righteousness. Dont give me that dance that god is with us, or that God supports us. Lets get down to brass tacks. There isnt any moral order. You can forget that. Morality has nothing in common with politics. Its not there to transgress. Its either high ground or low ground. This is the way of the world and nothings gonna change it. Its a crazy, mixed-up world and you have to look it right in the eye. Clausewitz in some ways is a prophet. Without realizing it, some of the stuff in his book can shape your ideas. If you think youre a dreamer, you can read this stuff and realize youre not even capable of dreaming. Dreaming is dangerous. Reading Clausewitz makes you take your own thoughts a little less seriously.
Well kinda seems dour for a struggling but determined musician who sees destiny as choosing him, and makes me wonder if he isnt talking more about his thoughts in 2003 than in 1963. Of the books he cites from page 36 to 46, he seems most impressed with Thucydidess The Athenian General:
a narrative which would give you chills. It was written four hundred years before Christ and it talks about how human nature is always the enemy of anything superior. Thucydides writes about how words in his time have changed from their ordinary meaning, how actions and opinions can be altered in the blink of an eye. Its like nothing has changed from his time to mine.
a view usually shared by folks into Classical things, and who knows? Maybe they and Dylan are right about learning much from reading ancient stuff, which Ive rarely taken much interest in (although I had good experiences in Dr. Talberts classes of old Egypt and Mesopotamia at VCU).
But probably my favorite passage is Dylan thinking about where he stands in the popular music biz, after contemplating radio songs of Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, and such:
I agonized about making a record, but I wouldnt have wanted to make singles, 45s- the kind of songs they played on the radio. Folksingers, jazz artists, and classical musicians made LPs, long-playing records with heaps of songs in the grooves- they forged identities and tipped the scales, gave more of the big picture. LPs were like the force of gravity. They had covers, back and front, that you could stare at for hours. Next to them, 45s were flimsy and uncrystallized. They just stacked up in piles and didnt seem important. I had no songs in my repertoire for commercial radio anyway. Songs about debauched bootleggers, mothers that drowned their own children, Cadillacs that only got five miles to the gallon, floods, union hall fires, darkness and cadavers at the bottom of rivers werent for radiophiles. There was nothing easygoing about the folk songs I sang. They werent friendly or ripe with mellowness. They didnt come gently to the shore. I guess you could say they werent commercial Whatever the case, it wasnt that I was anti-popular culture or anything and I had no ambitions to stir things up. I just thought of mainstream culture as lame as hell and a big trick. It was like the unbroken sea of frost that lay outside the window and you had to have awkward footgear to walk on it.
Also, I felt really, really bummed yesterday, then hung out with my friend Eric and felt much, much better. Gee, maybe I need a more social life?
I need to go mail out my package to tattoosandwhores, whom I want to hug so.
VIEW 12 of 12 COMMENTS
doctashock:
I've really been shirking on my reading responsibility lately.
clover:
*cough*