(no subject)

[felis_ultharus]

A quiet day. Been trying to reach node357, to no avail. I'll try again tonight. Wondering if he just wants to be alone right, now. I sometimes go into my shell and avoid phone calls. 'Tis better, sometimes, than trying to interact with people, in certain moods.

Anyway, on another subject, here's an meme I've been working on:

LJ Interests meme results

1. arts:
   I've always been an arts geek. I love literature especially, though painting and architecture both strike chords with me. I worry that our over-rational, efficiency-obsessed culture may has lost its sense of the importance of the arts, and with it the importance of meaning and beauty.
2. canadian literature:
   I love literature. It's the mirror in which we see ourselves, the clay by which we shape the world, the light that reveals (or distorts), and the crucible in which ideas burn. Somewhere along the line, our civilization got to thinking that great art was universal across time and place. Reading the great "universal" literature of Britain and America, I came to realize that "universal" means "British" or "American" -- for any other people, these books are a distorted mirror, a poor flame, a dry clay, and a crucible that consumes without transformation. I became interested in the soul of the place where I lived...
3. final fantasy:
   You either hate video games or love them. No shame in either. But I couldn't help notice at some point that the later Final Fantasies were more interesting, more thought-provoking, more creative, and struck a deeper chord than most of the novels I was reading for my lit classes. Final Fantasy VII especially.
4. gay rights:
   One of my reasons for being here. My coming-out experience was bad, to say the least, and it's important to me not only that I'm a fully equal citizen in my country -- and that no one anywhere need die or face jail time for what we are -- but that no kid growing up will have to face what I faced. Given the suicide statistics I've seen, we have our work cut out for us :(
5. harry potter:
   Like Final Fantasy, this is a case where the "pop culture trash" (as some people in literature seem to think it) is better art than the official art of our time. In terms of craft, the novels are flawless -- good plotting, good characters, good style, original. What puts it over the top for me is that she's not shy about dealing with real-world problems. While so much adult lit has gone over to dull navel-gazing, JK Rowling is taking on bigotry, censorship, press concentration, civil rights, poverty, and a host of other issues.
6. john ralston saul:
   Voltaire's Bastards may not be *the* most important non-fiction book of the 20th-century, but it's certainly in the top 5. Saul's work manages to get at the roots of pretty much all of Western Civilization's problems of the last 300 years without over-simplification -- and does it all in plain English. Every page of his work is a revelation. His stuff is the best approach to the problems of business, academia, and politics, and it's what we need to face if we're going to get out of the mire we're in.
7. mythology:
   I love mythology. I love it because of the way it gives access to the different values and ways of thinking of other cultures. I love it because of the insight it grants to the human psyche. Mostly it just appeals to the geeky kid in me ^_^
8. new democratic party:
   I learned pretty early that political cynicism is luxury of the comfortable. People who've been denied their rights and freedoms, people who've ever been left genuinely hungry, can't pretend that politics doesn't matter. I joined the NDP because I believe what they believe. And I volunteer for them because I hope it'll help keep back the ugly tide of far-right politics we're seeing now.
9. psychology:
   A particular obsession of mine. Psychology is the modern way of following Socrates' dictum of living the well-examined life. I've been learning a lot more lately, and I'm increasingly. uncomfortable with behaviourism, with its denial of free will and humanity. And I've always been uncomfortable with Freud. I suppose I'm simply Jung at heart.
10. rufus wainwright:
    An original muscian, great lyrics, a Montrealer, gay, and gorgeous. What more could you ask for?
    
    *knows already montrealais's answer will be "consonants"*

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

Wrote 12 pages today. Haven't left the house. Beginning to worry this trip will be like the last.

Comments

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

I suppose I'm simply Jung at heart

ow. pun. ;)

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

I have a congenital condition requiring me to make Jung/Young puns. Believe it or not, that was actually one of my better efforts 0_o

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

actually not so bad as puns go. And I like Jung. ^_^ Freud's a raving lunatic (although it always amused me that his name means "joy") but Lacan is interesting even if he's Freudian... of course it might just be Zizek's influence that made me like Lacan. Zizek is fun. ^_^ It hasn't been long enough for me to really miss obscure philosophers though.

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

Don't know much about Lacan, except what I've gotten filtered through postmodernism -- which has naturally prejudiced me against it. Maybe I haven't gotten the full story...?