Something I just found myself saying (in the context of why I've only blogged about abortion and not written the book I almost have in my head about abortion).
Is that really a book in my head? I'll be the one to define my own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of what constitutes a book.
July 30, 2012
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Life may be short, but it doesn't have to be nasty or brutish.
That's what Roe and similar edicts do to us.
IMHO.
Avoid Heidegger and go with Levinas, on existence.
Existence and existents is good.
He's a poet about fatigue, something that's there a lot to be said about poetically, if it's dead-on.
Search inside for "want," say p.24-25.
And then comes Eternal Life, or not.
Would be a great book, but don't expect much, if any, positive feedback. It's just too polarized out there.
I'd buy it though.
Decided June 29, 1992. A day the lives in my memory because I had an office in the Hovde Building and used to park in the ramp behind the federal courthouse (the Robert W. Kastenmeier United States Courthouse, don't you know.) That afternoon I walked from the office to my car and walked past the front of the Federal Courthouse, where about 8 picketers were looping around in front of the doors, with placards expressing support for Roe v. Wade and the supposed right to an abortion. Hannah Rosenthal, a local Madison activist was standing at the base of the steps next to a WMTV cameraman, who was holding his camera a knee level, angled up to catch the signs and the facade of the courthouse above. Rosenthal was there directing the cameraman to frame the protestors in tight and to shoot along the major axis of their elliptical path, from a low angle. Other than Rosenthal, the 8 picketers and the cameraman, and myself, there was no one within 500 feet of the front of the courthouse.
I drove home and flipped on the evening news that night to see the local coverage of the Casey decision, which included quick edits of these shots from the courthouse. It conveyed a large organized protest, when in fact what you saw is all there was. I always think of that when I see anything on the local news – that there may be an individual who is aligned with the group protesting who is literally at the shoulder of the gopher/camera operator, giving stage direction in order to create something out of nothing.
Karl Weick has a nice saying that's sort of Wittgenstein for dummies:
How can I know what I think until I see what I say?
It ain't a book until it's written down.
That reminds me of a book by a Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft, The Unaborted Socrates. Socrates "wakes up" in an abortion clinic and starts debating people.
"... the mystery of what constitutes a book."
It's only a mystery because you read so many of them on your electronic thingy, rather than picking one up and turning the pages. Turning the pages imposes its own order - no jumping around with word searches, go-to functions and the like. Just following the thought, seeing life through the eyes of the characters, in that old beginning-to-end sequence.
Richard, that would be the same as listening to an LP all the way through both sides from beginning to end in order!
As if the arrangement of songs were a thing itself, or something.
Are you trying to say the arrangement of chapters has meaning?
You don't start at the back to see where all that is going?
Be interesting if you could combine the perspective of a journey toward understanding which the seekers among us would like with the constitutional law perspective which is based on principles. Many an abolitionist made that journey and even (I think) Lincoln made such a journey.
I pitched an abortion book this morning to Althouse. Did that inspire this thread?
I actually haven't read your response yet. Sounds like a no!
Logically the clause "even for the non-aborted" means the aborted are alive. Reveal? Or the inexactness of someone not indoctrinated in abortion othodoxy?
Is the book about abortion to be aborted. Or still born on the CRT of a laptop? Lots of symbolism available here.
Just remeber...you didn't write that. Somebody else did.(God I love memes)
dammit Laptops don't have crt's...mea culpa.
dammit Laptops don't have crt's...mea culpa.
Haha, I just remembered my high school days of lugging a CRT monitor around for lan parties. That sucker weighed about 40 lbs, I always ripped the cord out on accident, and was generally a pain.
@Chip
Remember 45's. There was no confusion of which song went where and in what order. Ahhh...the good ol' days. When your choice was Coca-Cola or Dr. Pepper. Or the even gooder ol' days when the choice was Dr. Pepper or water. Or the really really really good ol' days when you had to go out to the well, drop a bucket down, haul it back up, and pray you didn't get dysantary. Or the really really really really really good ol' days when we first climbed outta' the trees, and had to lean into the mud puddle to get a drink while keeping an eye out for crocodiles, lions, bears, wolves, etc..
@Dose
My high school days we had paper tape with holes punched in it for a storage medium. And if it tore you could just scotch tape it back together. In my senior year they upgraded to punch cards. Had a big black plastic phone you dialed up the server on, and placed the reciever on a cradle. You thought AOL was bad?!
"...I've only blogged about abortion and not written the book I almost have in my head about abortion."
It's not a book until the third trimester.
EDH FTW.
You could write most of the first draft and then throw it out.
A partial book abortion.
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