July 29, 2019
"[W]e are like a musician who faintly hears a melody deep within the mind, but not clearly enough to play it through."
Wrote the priest and ecologist Thomas Berry, quoted on the last page of "Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet," by Will Hunt, the audiobook of which I finished today. The audiobook I listened to just before that was also titled "Underground" — "Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche," by Haruki Murakami. That's what's known as a mildly interesting fact — 2 books with the same title, read in sequence. For balance, let me quote something from the last page of the Murakami "Underground": "Reality is created out of confusion and contradiction, and if you exclude those elements, you’re no longer talking about reality. You might think that—by following language and a logic that appears consistent—you’re able to exclude that aspect of reality, but it will always be lying in wait for you, ready to take its revenge."
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15 comments:
Yes, when Reality pounces, logic is a weak weapon. Better just run away and hide.
Good old Jean-Jacques Rousseau re-emerges. His rejection of rule by the mind's reasoning lead to the end of the Ancien Regime. That lead to the Revolution and that lead to the Military Conquest State and the Emperor whose mind created the Code Napoleon.
Interesting times.
Papadopolous' book is a better audio book. It will become very important in the next few weeks as they unravel this attempted coup d'etat. We listened to it a couple of weeks ago and my wife was so angry she was ready to attack the radio. Australia and Britain were deeply involved.
I don't listen to political books anymore. I can see skimming political books (and obviously I read a lot of political articles). But when it comes to what can be spoken directly into my ears, I need something with beauty, profundity, or maybe brilliant comedy.
I can't see calling an audiobook good when it made you angry about politics. There's so much stupid stirring up of hate and anger in politics these days. It's ridiculous manipulation and a big waste of time.
"Reality is created out of confusion and contradiction,
No its not. Confusion and contradiction are human emotions and reality is not created out of them.
and if you exclude those elements, you’re no longer talking about reality.
Sure you are.
You might think that—by following language and a logic that appears consistent—you’re able to exclude that aspect of reality,
I'd be surprised if anyone ever seriously entertained that ludicrous idea.
but it will always be lying in wait for you, ready to take its revenge."
Teleology is popular with children
The Murakami quote sounds like something Jordan B Peterson would say.
Musicians don't have that problem. Maybe he's tone-deaf.
Are we seeking synchronicity?
He said "a musician." But his idea is not clearly really deeply clear.
Far from hopeless or arrogant--both of which interpretations seem extreme to me--it sounds a lot like "Man proposes, God disposes" or to update, Black Swans Matter.
Narr
The Revolution WAS the end of the Old Regime--and what was so great about the old regime anyway?
It's too late for synchronicity!
Narr
I'm going to bed
I'm always happy when someone discovers Murakami. I suppose we can argue all day about the conflict between reality and the perception of reality, but that conflict makes for fascinating and compelling literature. I urge Ms Althouse to read Murakami's "Windup Bird Chronicle"
Confusion and contradiction abound. Murakami struggles to understand what his country really is as it was transformed by World War II. Maybe it helps that I've lived in Hawaii for many years and worked in Japan alongside Japanese to appreciate Murakami, but I think all can appreciate his work, especially his early work.
I'm thrilled you listened to Underground. When you first started posting about reading Murakami, I mentioned it specifically in the comments.
I found the book so eye opening about different ways that we humans behave.
The engineer mindset/personality seems to transcend culture. the methodology to their values is consistent whether Asian, American, European. i bet it could be mapped out along the Big 5 axes, and it would show the vulnerabilities to evil.
but the response to illness, and to order-that seemed uniquely Japanese. the alienation, the Othering that the Japnese can do seems utterly foreign to any part of the USA. whether left/right/religious/irreligious/angry/silly/joyful, we interact, engage. sometimes such engagement is ugly, but it is never that kind if ignoring denial at the crux of the attack on the subways.
his fictional isolated protagonists are always dispossessed, alienated. They aren't just his caught up-in-between characters at all.
Ann Althouse said...
I don't listen to political books anymore.
Rare is the political book whose contents you can't fully glean from the title.
For me, underground is where the missile launch control centers are.
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