those same people go to the store to shop, interact with co-workers, neighbors, etc. only a hermit lives alone, with minimal contact with humanity.

to be an "actor" in a philosophical sense does not require a stage or an audience, just human interaction.

no it doesn't require interaction, it requires putting on a show.

back in college i had a really bad "friend" who was an actor-- the little fucker was not only treacherous and duplicitous, but also a consummate attention whore.

actors lack self esteem and require the public to constantly feed them what they lack. so they are constantly performing. they are annoying, childish creatures that ought to be shot.

go hang out with theatre people for a month & you'll be able to smell the desperation from miles away.

Two of my all-time favourite books and one I'm not aware of - what's this Hanh chappy about?

For posterity, I'm re-reading Kierkegaard's Concluding unscientific postscript and Morty Feldman's collected writings, amongst my dipping in-and-out of Eliot/ Pound.

merry wives of windsor- my stepbrother's in the play, so i'm going over lines mostly.

I know how it is with them. my brother was a theatre guy, and studied in in college as wel. my ex wife was a costumer for the alley theatre here in Houston. I am well versed onthe inanities of people whose inner selves are non-existant and who rely on their outer selves to give them some sense of "being"
it is sad.

The tech people in theatre are much better, although most of them are failed actors as well. my ex wife was not. she came to it from a clothing design/fabrication background as opposed to a theatre background.

their theatre foppery used to drive her insane.

Love the Eliot too. Getting a lot more into reading again lately.

Gotta change my mind before it burns out

I found some Eliot the other day that I forgot I even had, some Collected Poems. On a side note, I strongly recommend his "Choruses From the Rock" for any among us here that are psychologically/spiritually troubled.

I've heretofore maintained an affinity for Either/Or Part I, but these days Part II speaks, well, volumes; there's simply no philosopher as astonishingly insightful as Kierkegaard. I recently finally read Johannes Climacus too.
And Saint Augustine is always worthy of numerous re-readings; I'm getting much more out of it this time around.

Understanding Our Mind was originally published as Transformation at the Base in 2001. The edition I have is from '06 and is put out by Parallax Press (United Buddhist Church). Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and the text is derived from a series of talks he gave years ago. It's based on Abhidharma and Mahayana teachings and explores a re/deconstruction of fifty sacred Buddhist verses concerning "a turning of the Dharma." So far, I've found the commentary useful in managing stress. The book is a gift from a friend, so I'm more or less obligated, I suppose, to read it.

Thanks much for your reply, Glice.

See, that's interesting that you're getting into part II of either/ or - on a rational 'this is a book to understand' level I can see that (part of) the point was to eschew the dichotomy 'either/ or' (that whole anti-Hegel bit). But ultimately, in my heart of hearts (as a slightly younger chap), the aesthetic life spoke to me a bit more clearly. I should probably go back to it again (still not having grown whiskers).

I may check out that book, I'm fascinated with where Buddhism re-interprets itself (not so different from the reformation/ Gnosticism, but further from home).

"Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the great teachers of our time. He reaches from the heights of insight down to the deepest places of the absolutely ordinary."
- Robert Thurman
(Uma's pappy)

Hey, thanks Glice for not taking offence at my "sweeping statement" (ha - reference from a comment you made in the "racist" poll thread) that Kierkegaard is, at least for myself, undoubtedly the best.

Thich Nhat Hanh is great. I won't say anything dopey like he changed my life, but I will say that reading his books in the 1990s made a huge impact on how I think and live.

gmku, I'm not forty just yet, so I suppose that means we both discovered him sorta around the same age. Per my admitted literary snobbery and reluctance to embrace much contemporary writing, I didn't hear of him in the nineties.

I've discovered recently that Cosmos, an international science magazine published in Australia, is a good read.

I would agree, but I'm not sure if the holes are in my reading or his writing... and I'm still young.


By that sort of logic I'll start reading him in 40 years or so.

Ah, gentle posting, it's nice, no?

Yes, it's very agreeable. And I'll take this opportunity to apologize to all for my past abrasive nature at times.

Oh well, the above may be a bit banal, but by and large I feel saner at least.

I'm quite flattered, but confused, given how much of a cunt I'm capable of being. Whatever the weather, I'm glad you're feeling saner. That always seems such an ineffable zephyr, but it's nice when it visits.

I just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
Now, I'm starting The Kite Runner.

I did it out of order! I've heard The Kite Runner is a better read, but I don't see how it could surpass A Thousand Splendid Suns. I'll have to see.

Yes, by Thomas Bernhard,think i'd like to give Concrete a go but think it's out of print at the moment,why are all the good books out of print?,think they ought to let Bible, Koran,Upanshads,Highway Code, etc go out of print for a while,see if the world slips deeper into pandemonium.....

curently reading On photography - Susan Sontag

ubik for the second time.

A Scanner Darkly.

Good Morning, Midnight (Jean Rhys). Just started it but I know it's my kind of thing, a lonely woman getting drunk and lost in lowlife Paris.