Hard News: The Death of Evidence
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I am simply in control of my pleasures, they are not in control of me.
Yeah but, As I believe the Maasai Know a bit aboot the running, how are your ankles Peter? :)
a rabbit, a giraffe & a lion
go into a pub...Rabbit, giraffe and a lion
walk into a bar,
one of them should have seen it. -
Speak for your self
Oh we all do
And before you accuse me of not knowing what pleasure is and being all ascetic
Ah, the pre-emptive strike, a well known tactic of those who take themselves too seriously .... at times.
You didnt see the sarcasm tag then, I can capitalise them next time if thats helpful.And would you face death puffing on a ciggie, slurping a single malt.
I dont know if you and Dennis Potter are in the same class. But you can prove me wrong, I welcome it. -
we physiologists
Is that the royal we?
Speak for your self.
Just wanted to say only priests and politicians think they can speak for everyone.
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I am simply in control of my pleasures, they are not in control of me.
Indeed, Peter, it sometimes seems your only vice is a delight in listing your virtues.
;-)
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Dennis Potter come back, I loved watching him smoke on the tele talking about death Oh so calmly and with great dignity.
What a shame Potter's life and work was neither calm nor dignified. I watched The Singing Detective over the weekend -- and while it's a very great piece of television drama, it reeks of Potter's writhing disgust and hatred at his own body, human sexuality, and any woman who even tried to be more than than blow-up fuck-puppets in the theatre of his own sexual obsessions and dysfunction. Misogyny is no more attractive when it is (to some degree) self-aware and articulate to a fault.
Oddly enough (and vaguely on-topic), Potter was also quite the Puritan where drugs were concerned -- beyond his own addictions to booze and "lovely tubes of bliss". (Pointless trivia: the working title of The Singing Detective was Smoke Rings.)
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Indeed, Peter, it sometimes seems your only vice is a delight in listing your virtues. ;-)
Peter's post kinda made me want to go out, buy some black tar heroin, and shoot it directly into my eyeball whilst eating a deep fried Mars bar. Help: I think I might have some sort of bizarre 'obstinately contrarian' mental condition. :)
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buy some black tar heroin, and shoot it directly into my eyeball whilst eating a deep fried Mars bar
But, but, what about the parasite? So.. maybe not the deep fried Mars bar at least?
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Craig - while agreeing with much of what you wrote about Potter, he *did* do a powerful interview (while sucking on a flask of Brompton's cocktail I understand) while dying.
And anyone who has had - longterm- a skin disease knows all about "writhing disgust and hatred at (their) own body"- it's kinda reinforced by the leper-look almost all other humans throw at you.
Most of us, however, go other ways than Potter's - I actually like me &
my (odd) body, and thus love me & mine- -
Please Danielle, please! Not the deepfried Mars bar!
(O, wait a mo' - I think I might've had this conversation once before on PAS...but I still maintain, after eating part of one, it is almost the sickest fried food on the planet.*)
*Do not expect me to inform you of the even worse ones...they involve live things and make my gut wrench.
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Speaking of gut wrench, ya take the sheeps one, stuff it with offal and oatmeal...
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*and* selected flavourings - and then you steam/simmer it....
I ate haggis in my childhood (we werent told what it contained) and also black pudding. Delicious, the both of them-
mind you, you dont want to know about braxty...
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What a shame Potter's life and work was neither calm nor dignified.
Was only talking about his end. I know of no one whose life is a dignified progression toward death.
it reeks of Potter's writhing disgust and hatred at his own body,
Yep got that.
human sexuality, and any woman who even tried to be more than than blow-up fuck-puppets in the theatre of his own sexual obsessions and dysfunction.
Gee, did I get that wrong. I thought he was taking the piss out of all those movies and books from the era in which he grew up. With hardboiled dicks and floosies. But I aver to your obviously greater grasp of the inner workings of the man.
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I was 18 when i first watched "the singing detective" and to me it was incredibly powerfully pro-woman.It was the men who were just completely fucking lost.That was the point, he was rotting.
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buy some black tar heroin, and shoot it directly into my eyeball whilst eating a deep fried Mars bar
Danny Boyle is your master now?
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Phil basically sends a man to his grave letting him choke to death so disgusted is he in that man's character towards woman and the way Potter films it you don't regret the death.
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Back to the subject of this post .. watch out Russell, Deborah Hill Cone is onto you. Even by her own standards this piece is bizarre.
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My apologies, DHC's article related to the previous post (on vox pops), not this one.
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I've never seen The Singing Detective as misogynist either. There are misogynist *characters* in it, and Potter is clearly, uh, well... yeah, the man has issues with women, obviously. But he seems tortured by them rather than thoughtlessly accepting of them (ETA: the issues, not the women).
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Perhaps if we tried to use thoughts to encourage us to have more positive feelings we would achieve more. But that's just how I feel. That's from one of the people who is proud to say I don't know anything.
Oh dear, talk about "pride in ignorance"
Alexander Pope said "A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."
Still, with a name like Hill Cone we should expect a little Volcanic spluttering. It would seem Ms. Cone may have passed over the "Pierian Spring" in favour of a little stronger beverage. The closest she comes to understanding Economics is being economic with rational thought, to compare economic theory with medical knowledge is sheer fantasy. -
My apologies, DHC's article related to the previous post (on vox pops), not this one.
Yeah, it sorta fits in this thread through, so feel free to discuss it (without being abusive of DHC).
This was pretty mad:
Brown no doubt embraces the maxim "comment is free but facts are sacred" but it is not a binary equation. That's why economics has gone from being solely about crunching numbers to including everyday questions about what makes people tick. Just look at the influence of Freakonomics and the FT's Undercover Economist.
Er, both of which are all about looking for data in different places, rather than simply theorising. They are about facts.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a well-reasoned book called Blink about the value of intuition over facts.
Late last year Steven Pinker pwned Gladwell in a manner that should be instructive to all journalists, myself included.
Update: But I've just realised there is in fact a thriving discussion on the other thread, so best continue there ...
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I'm not the only one who says you should be wary of know-it-alls. Physicist Richard Feynman might have received the Nobel Prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics but he said he was never certain about anything, and reckoned progress came from a "satisfactory philosophy of ignorance".
Boy does she completely misunderstand what Feynmann means by that. And even what he is referring to. But hey, a physicist said it, and used the word "ignorance" so that means ignorance is A'ok.
Oh Deborah, poor poor dishevelled Deborah.
Will she regard me as a lower form of life, I'm just a commenter on a blog. Like lint on her dress, or chewing gum on the pavement.
My worship from afar seems futile, somehow.
heehee -
and Potter is clearly, uh, well... yeah, the man has issues with women, obviously. But he seems tortured by them rather than thoughtlessly accepting of them (ETA: the issues, not the women).
Up to a point. I'd grant that Potter was ferociously self-aware of his shitty attitudes towards women and disgust at autonomous female sexuality (and much else besides), but after seeing things like Blackeyes (incidentally, TVNZ gets a co-production credit) and Double Dare, you begin to ask whether the torture was more S&M self-abuse than anything else. I can admire Potter enormously (and uncomfortably) but denying that the man was a fucked up misogynist requires the kind of contortions required to explain away T.S. Elliot's anti-Semitism. It muddies the waters in a way that does neither man justice.
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Fellow Manawatu MP Iain Lees-Galloway is unimpressed with Power's head in sand approach.
It’s an issues paper, which means it is open for discussion and consultation. But Simon has shut down the discussion and basically told us there is no point in engaging in the consultation. All because John Key decided he would make a ‘war on P’ central to his popularity strategy.
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It’s an issues paper, which means it is open for discussion and consultation. But Simon has shut down the discussion and basically told us there is no point in engaging in the consultation.
Basically,that's disingenuous theatre and if Lees-Galloway doesn't know that he's got no business being in Parliament. Loathe as I am to admit it, the current government is not going to last forever and there's nothing preventing anyone from making submissions, or Labour adopting the whole damn paper as party policy.
I certainly don't notice Mr. Power chilling discussion around here...
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What's disingenous about noting that a Minister has made crystal clear there is no point discussing what is in an official discussion paper? I don't recall hearing that, other than about the Brash 2025 report. What am I missing?
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