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Meanwhile, I am a little disappointed that the Sicilian over on the solipsism thread hasn't responded. Admittedly, I deliberately didn't address several of his arguments, as they really weren't worth addressing since they ignored what I was saying, but: I really can't see that I missed anything in his arguments. Can you?

It is great, although—DFW's "This Is Water" speech is far shorter and more accessible. I think I shall have to start Infinite Jest over; I got through a third of it over a few years—it's actually not a problem to read it that slowly, because it's more about human pathology than its plot—but I do think at this point I've forgotten too much to just jump back in. It will get five stars on Goodreads once I finish, but for now I trust Professor Integralist Juggernaut.

F.R. Leavis founded literary magazine The Criterion in the 1920s; loop diagrams are the first truly monstrous calculations you see in quantum field theory.

And unfortunately, the narrator for the version of The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life talks in this sped-up Captain Kirk cadence, but with a British accent; something about it—maybe the constant, oscillating pitch changes—makes it more difficult to process the meaning of what's being said.

Tsundereloose is pretty good; I'm not sure I ever explained the origin of auroraloose: I just took it off Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh and replaced "Leigh" with "loose," for no reason I can think of other than that both began with "L." (Also, though I don't bother anybody about it because it's pure idiosyncrasy and I don't actually care that nobody else does it, auroraloose is not capitalized.) I sometimes replace "loose" with other words, such that my imgur account (which I made so as to post images here) is auroralinear, so if you come across auroraleavis or auroraloopdiagram somewhere online, it's probably me. I shall have to think of different prefixes to "loose" now, though.

As to The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, it's hard to process as an audiobook. Also the beginning is kind of annoying, because it's a bunch of positivist philosophy of science from the beginning of the 20th century that I don't at all agree with.

Also, I should say: I almost went for The Autobiography of Malcolm X for my next audiobook to listen to; but I went with The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Emile Durkheim.

Well, geez and fuck. You're certainly part of the world.

Yes, it is indeed an understatement. But I meant it so? I would not be able to suffer for the sins of the world. I mean, look how lewd you are.

Well that's quite fair; I cannot say I desire to be crucified. The Heretic movie seemed at first to me just a standard Enlightenment attack on Christianity, but your description of it makes me want to see it; maybe I'll do so later this week.

But really, I don't know what you mean by saying that's an understatement. Because I do believe Christ suffered more than I have, even if I worked harder for a reasonable science position than he did.

To be fair, I don't really know what the primary meaning of masochism is; though I do know what it means in an anime context. Also, come on; I'm not the one who made the dildo reference, even if that was my first thought upon encountering the Astro Blaster. I actually just used a basketball and tennis ball when I taught momentum in class; the Astro Blaster was way too dildo-adjacent.

The movie Heretic sounded obnoxious to me, but—your recommendation saves it, Onii-chan. Maybe I will go see it.

But what do you mean by Christ enduring wrangling being an understatement? Nobody as yet has blindfolded me and asked me to state who hit me while blindfolded.

I admit I wearied somewhat at that solipsism thread. As I've been saying, I don't like being jumpy; it is good to wait to respond to such things, to forfend the acceleratory nature of the internet conversation. But the past few days I was more just not wanting to deal with it; but they're both worth saving. And so—ahaha, soon I shall return.


Not of the sexual variety? Probably?

But more seriously—and yes, I suppose it is very me to take such a question seriously—not anymore, but maybe I used to be? For Nietzsche conflated the Christian/slave morality with masochism, enjoying punishing oneself for one's sins, a kind of sexual thrill for condemnation that allows one to feel superior for having suffered. Certainly Calvinism is of this school, but: As someone who doesn't do anything halfway, I Calvinismed myself out of Calvinism. Torture yourself enough and you realize torture is bad, duh. And this I did realize. So, while I certainly know the comfort self-analysis can provide in the face of fear and insecurity, I no longer despair. As the Catholics say, despair is a sin. For me at bottom there is not enjoying wrangling with oneself, but rather laughing at oneself because Christ endured the wrangling for me, and was always much better at it anyway.

Finally, yes, MAL is probably a bit more evil than Goodreads, though as it is a similar kind of forum, for keeping track of media consumption, I don't mind it.

Referring to the image you provided: I know what that is! My students loved when I used it in class.

Honestly I didn't fully read your replies to TibetanJazz666; knowledge is not irrelevant, but I am as yet not convinced it's worth considering the CTMU.

And I do have a Goodreads account. For a while I have thought that Goodreads is the only social media platform that is not inherently evil (as long as one discounts the official Goodreads ads and recommendations). But my Goodreads account is not something I share with anyone, so I shall contact you about it elsewhere.

Before I forget though: Don't forget that I made fun of your books as well.

Also, it is indeed somewhat unseemly to talk about the other thread here, though I don't remember which of us started it. I appreciate your responding to the CTMU aspect though, as I knew nothing about it. But he does have a point: At least superficially he doesn't see it worth it to continue the conversation with me (though that he does continue it is more evidence of dissonance); it's definitely not worth it to ask him about the CTMU. His disposition makes him a bad defender.

I do hope I can talk anime with him sometime.

But wait—have you read any Dostoyevsky? He is all about broken people having crazy intellectual freakouts. I wouldn't go with Notes from Underground, though; it's good, but not exactly exciting as a novel. I say go with The Idiot, though Crime and Punishment did a really good job depressing me when I was 13.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is one of my big books. Kuhn will help your depression; you can't be sad with him telling you about how science really works. (I admit I was too harsh with TibetanJazz666 in my last reply—though thinking about it I kind of doubt myself there because he's the one advocating bludgeoning people—because this week the stars were right and the city of R'lyeh rose. But my amusement and fascination with the world always beats my depression in these cases.) I don't know if I mentioned this to you, but I tell all my friends in the sciences this is a book they should read if they want to be good researchers.

The Glass Bead Game isn't really about broken people and systems, though a couple broken systems do come up; it's more about Hesse's notion of the heroic man (something he likes to write about, it seems), this time in an academic setting. There is a lot more going on, of course, particularly with how we use knowledge, but it's very much set within high academic strata and apart from the world. So it might not be what you want.

I don't think I'll respond anymore to the guy, but he was right about how the two horses of Phaedrus are identified (though that doesn't really change the metaphor, and it's not entirely wrong to say the noble horse is rational). Math guy I kind of like though.