.diminished discords (xvii)

this week, on Laeth's mind

once i publish the new novel i am putting together a new essay collection with the most recent musings for the many people who only like to read me about boring stuff like metaphysics. because a writer who publishes is always a bit like a prostitute.

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when people pester me about something theology related i'm going to use the Jon Stewart defense and say i'm only a novelist, and my theology is also a product of my imagination. which is of course a cop out, but also true. when i ridicule classical metaphysics i'm mostly talking to myself in the past. i wish someone had told me (instead of wasting years of my life, and so much money on books) that all that mysticism and symbolism stuff was total nonsense. oh well. you live and you learn. hopefully.

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while we don't die any sooner or any later than anyone else (sorry), smokers disproportionally support state functions through the insane taxes we pay on tobacco. so you're welcome. or we're sorry. i'm not sure anymore. probably the latter. although, actually, we are double victims. first we pay the taxes, and then we have to suffer the things the state uses the taxes for. but do we complain. no. that’s stupid. we just light up again.

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machine vomit has no cultural context for its mashups (it can't). and that's a big part of why it's so bland, because we as humans that actually live look for them all the time in what we read, listen to and watch, even if unconsciously. our abstract knowledge (such as language) is all contextual not only with all uses of language we encounter, but with everything we have experienced with all our senses, external and internal. in other words, we are alive.

machine vomit exists in the eternal present every traditionalist supposedly loves so much because it’s not alive. for something to be alive, it means it’s also in motion. of course, the more purposefully rejecting of education and refinement we become, the more static we will be, and the more we will like contextless vomit.

i thought of this as i listened to Dexter Gordon quote Jarabe Tapatio in the middle of his solo over a post bop extravaganza because he was, at the time, living in mexico. (you know the tune for sure but probably don't know the name. i actually love mexican folk music, although i don’t think i ever shared that until now). Dexter was also known to quote happy birthday in his solos if it was the birthday of someone he knew in the audience. and he would recite the lyrics of songs before he played them instrumentally because he believed the lyrical context was part of the whole of the tune. long tall Dex was a real character.

there will never be a machine vomit Dexter Gordon.

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we need archivists and proper curators for the alternative future.

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the material is always spiritual. but the spiritual is not always material. materiality is thus rarer, an exclusive privilege.

if materiality is a corruption, then logically it was the spirit that was corrupted first in order to become material. so there is still no reason for classical metaphysics to be so hard on materiality, after all it originated in the spirit. it's the spirit's fault.

i don't believe this. just highlighting how absurd classical metaphysics is.

though of course, the same metaphysics says reason is a lower faculty, so it’s impossible for anyone espousing it to care for logical argument. that's why there is no point in discussing anything with those who hold these views. i know because i used to be one of them. i was convinced that saying it's a mystery beyond rational thought was an answer. luckily the voice that asks questions didn't shut up.

it shows questions are more valuable than answers. you can more easily tell if a question does not make sense. an answer can sound profound even when it's meaningless, if unchallenged by good questions.

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assuming a benevolent dictator can exist, he won't live forever. that same power will probably fall into a less benevolent one. even likelier, one with an axe to grind against the supporters of the previous one. oh well. i'm sure it'll be fine. at least you get some revenge. and that's always nice and never corrupting for the soul.

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at least now with fake intelligence we can finally get rid of the idea that the mind is like a computer. and by we i mean those of us who can still think. now, the glory of the flesh being revealed so strikingly by what its mortal enemies believed to be the final blow against it, is very poetic and comedic. of course it's also tragic, because lots of people won't get it. but that too is part of the lesson. and of the poetry.

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many people who believe in a wisdom beyond words sure tend to talk about it a lot. maybe they should dance instead. or squeal like pigs. it would make for a stronger, more coherent case.

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strictly speaking, ideas cannot be true or false. they are useful or they're not, depending on how well they function in helping us understand something we see, hear, feel, etc. perhaps that's what it means in christianity that the truth is a person. but of course, truth itself is also an idea. and we would have no... uh... idea what an idea is if we had no words. so it also makes sense, not only that the truth be a person, but for that person to be The Word.

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about 1 Corinthians 14, consider this: if you follow the chapter, you see the argument is very rationally constructed. Paul was a master rhetorician. yet, there are two verses that are a complete nonsequitur interpolation. a logical conclusion would be that they were added by another. i am convinced the bible is full of this.

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if you believe materiality to be an illusion, what is the reason to keep living. wouldn't it be best to skip it as soon as you reach the conclusion. either that or, if it's all an illusion anyway, give in to every desire while you wait for the saving grace of disembodiment.

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if i thought God and Good would always win i honestly wouldn't lift a finger because it would mean i couldn't change the outcome. it's the same reason i don't vote. but life on earth, unlike elections, is not decided in advance, because God, for all his faults, is not a politician.

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the doctrine of the trinity depicts each person of the godhead as less individual than even the lowest creature, who at least gets to exist by himself. this body is mine and no one else's. the trinity says God can't even have this. that's why it strikes modern people as nonsensical and this is overcome only through respect and awe for tradition, that is, in a roundabout way, and there is no explanation. it's a perennial mystery, why the highest God is less individual than your cousin Kyle, who is not the sharpest crayon in the box.

this profound violation of individuality in God did not bother a typical medieval because he didn't feel himself to be an individual. he was as much himself as he was his ancestors and his church. who can say that today with a straight face.

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every author must be on amazon. so i'm not. my merchandise is exclusive.

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i have come to regard ‘The Fall' as just another unwarranted later intrusion, unrelated to the original intent. Adam and Eve were cursed, and then banished from a protected place, a different image and metaphor altogether from a fall, which does not appear in the story. if anything, the narrative states clearly that it was the opposite, an elevation ('man became like us'). it was just unearned, and that's the reason for the curse and the banishment. but it was not a fall.

it's amazing how much baggage a text can acquire throughout the centuries. and how buried the real words are below it. i know it's unavoidable (and can even be good in some senses), but once you start to see it in one place, you start to see it in all the places. i have to thank Joseph Smith for his intelligence in unmasking this and other examples, and of course his boldness too.

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the idea that any organization, of whatever kind, could even plan to do anything is abhorrent and should be grounds to forcibly dismantle it. (i originally had a specific action in mind by a specific organization when i wrote this, but then thought that the broader version made more sense).

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apocalypse is scary. unveiling is sexy. choose your words carefully.

lady reality is getting naked and you're a pessimist...

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a god as friend and guide
to share our joys and call upon
when good days subside

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the soul of lusitania is always sad, and laughs about it

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energy drinks. you mean wine, milk, whisky.

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you can still hate necessary less than goods. evil is always unnecessary.

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i am an hourglass-earther, because i think the earth is shaped like a woman.

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sailing stones.
where nothing else grows
they grow uneasy.

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musical portion today is by Todd Fletcher, a composer i discovered on the social network previously known as twitter. he has released many hours of music, and i am still only acquainted with a small part of his work. this one hit me particularly hard. it’s full of expansive harmonies and beautiful melodies. not a dull moment in it. and it reminds me of Zappa’s Sad Jane.

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people asked me questions, so i recorded the answers.

if you have further questions, i will record further answers.

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lastly, my appearance on Brad Kelly ‘s podcast is now free to listen. if you like literature, and if you can, consider contributing to Brad’s work. (and also buying his books; i recommend both).

variegated canna lily flowers from the garden