Part 2: He Who Pun Would Pick a Pocket and T’is a Sin to Steal a Pin I recall one of the cases my mother oversaw, when she sat on a state board for educators, involving a junior college professor who was caught breaking into a house to steal furs. He had responded to anContinue reading “The Attraction/Repulsion of the Taboo”
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And the Word Is
What ancestor worship, abstract thought, and celebrity have to do literally with the price of beef In the beginning, the word may not have been with God nor was it likely “God,” but at some point words moved out of their parents’ home and took over the human universe. We cannot be sure when itContinue reading “And the Word Is”
The Attraction/Repulsion of the Taboo
Part 1 At a pop-up Don’t Tell Comedy event last Friday night in Culver City, California, comedian Ellen Harrold had a series of jokes about sleeping and dreaming which reached a kind of edgy climax with “the dad dream we’ve all had.” The audience was mostly on the young side. It was BYOB. I wasContinue reading “The Attraction/Repulsion of the Taboo”
Coming Up Short
I intended to be taller but somehow did not quite make it all the way. In my best friend’s wedding I was the best man. I was also the shortest of the groomsmen. At the time it really stood out to me. When I look at the photos it still leaves an impression. Fortunately, heContinue reading “Coming Up Short”
And He Shall Have Music
The rain abated long enough for me to walk back to the dealership for my car. The air was fresh and full of memories, some recent, others remote. I recalled the morning and the names of the service reps, and how the other customers had looked. Mixed with that were memories all along Santa MonicaContinue reading “And He Shall Have Music”
The Myth of Antisocial Intellectuals in Popular Conception and Fictional Characterization
I started watching The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and was immediately aware of a connection between Dr. Moriarty and the common idea of the disaffected nerd. The intellectual takes interest in obscure subjects because of social ineptitude and rejection. He or she pursues solitary hobbies or joins with other quirky types in nerdy interests. TheContinue reading “The Myth of Antisocial Intellectuals in Popular Conception and Fictional Characterization”
The Immorality of Distinction in Human Relationships
In The Pianist, the artist as an exceptional individual stands passively defiant to the lie of the antagonists. His very existence challenges the Big Lie of the Nazis. He is the greatest pianist in the world, a Jew, a member of the outcast and inferior group. Similarly, Polanski himself feels this way about his ownContinue reading “The Immorality of Distinction in Human Relationships”
THE REVERIE ALONE
Since my dad’s passing weekends giveMe leisure more than ever I have knownAnd showed what pleasure one can liveWith reverie alone. Often in naked thought I standBefore the mirror of my mindAnd feel that in itself is grand,And love my genius blind. As options for the bees and birdsBecome few now I take my easeByContinue reading “THE REVERIE ALONE”
A Matter of Identity
It first occurred to me in context of sexuality that people’s thinking, and particularly ideological and paradigmatic conceptions, are based on identity, not facts or evidence or logic or science or even just belief. This was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was thinking about a lot of identity-centered concepts, notContinue reading “A Matter of Identity”
A Certain Slant
Something alone at night longs for the sightOf a woman sitting at a desk, the lightCast by a lamp upon the desk, a glowOver her shoulders, gilding longing inA mythology of feelings, quietlyApart from actual experience. That longing, something ignorant of life,Lives out of time in a flickering its own,A momentary impression, independentlySuspended sense ofContinue reading “A Certain Slant”
I Dwell In Possibility 