Hardcore Aphorizmz

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
There aren't any intentions to this thread really. I was hoping we could discuss the aphorisms rather than all posting dozens but I don't really mind if ppl do that, either.

I think Nietzsche is the king of aphorisms, his aphorisms routinely shock me and I'm left wondering if it's the shock I'm seduced by or something truthful in the statements:

In the end one loves one's desire and not what is desired.

He rises well above the sort of aphorism that is merely amusing or well phrased. His aphorisms are shanks to the heart.

Whoever despises himself still respects himself as one who despises.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
What does this mean? What is polish?

I thought that one was fairly self-explanatory, i.e. urban living fosters social dexterity and superficial charm (edit: what pattycakes said) but a deep understanding of life comes from living in marginal environments.

It's from Dune, where the ruling classes, bourgeois merchants and their various hangers-on live in a handful of towns and cities and the rest of the population comprises hard-as-nails mystical survivalists who inhabit a desert that makes the Sahara look about as inhospitable as the Wiltshire countryside on a sunny May morning.
 
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Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I thought that one was fairly self-explanatory, i.e. urban living fosters social dexterity and superficial charm (edit: what pattycakes said) but a deep understanding of life comes from living in marginal environments.

It's from Dune, where the ruling classes, bourgeois merchants and their various hangers-on live in a handful of towns and cities and the rest of the population comprises hard-as-nails mystical survivalists who inhabit a desert that makes the Sahara look like about as inhospitable as the Wiltshire countryside on a sunny May morning.

What do you make of that argument, then?

I'd have thought some people who live in urban locations have more of an experience of 'real' life than anyone - unless these count as sort of desert islands in the midst of slick urbanity.

One thing I think you do forget living in a city is the natural cycle of life - which is right in your face in the countryside.
 

Leo

Well-known member
ok, well in that case...

yogi addressed our ongoing desire for exclusivity, the knowing, the in-crowd, the notion of needing to be the insider who's privy to the cool shit before others and later knee-jerk rejects that same coolness once a wider audience becomes aware, our constant striving to discover the next obscure hip scene and abandon what was previously held on high once the plebs rush in, our endless futile pursuit of the next big thing.

"nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
What do you make of that argument, then?

I'd have thought some people who live in urban locations have more of an experience of 'real' life than anyone - unless these count as sort of desert islands in the midst of slick urbanity.

I thought as I was typing my response that some parts of some cities (IRL, I mean) are pretty marginal environments - but it makes sense in the context of the book. It's basically about a sheltered, perhaps luxurious artificial environment vs a harsh, unforgiving, natural one.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
It reminds me of Tolstoy's attitude towards cities and the countryside - all his urban characters are graceful hypocrites/scumbags, his rural characters all salt of the earth, godly, honest people. Mind you, it's worth remembering that most (if not all) of his urban characters are rich, dissolute, sheltered from the poverty of the slums (which you find in Dostoevsky, e.g.)

Tolstoy famously hated Chekhov's story 'Peasants', which showed rural life in a much less glamorous light.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Do other religions than Catholicism have confessional? I think that must be a powerful attraction of Catholicism, like cut-price therapy
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Tolstoy famously hated Chekhov's story 'Peasants', which showed rural life in a much less glamorous light.

Probably noteworthy that both communist and fascist visual propaganda has historically idealised the agricultural lifestyle.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
They don't think it be like it is, but it do
I love the use of three different words to mean basically the same thing.
Anyway, I read somewhere the other day "Steal a man's wallet and he will be poor for a week, but teach him to mix vinyl and he will be poor for a lifetime".
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
"Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

Always liked that one. I think it might be Terry Pratchett.
 
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