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Dear M Foucault, or, How I knew our relationship was doomed (Sestina) by zodiac

Do you hold words so dear that you hold words – so? Dear, that do. Hold words so dear that you do words that do hold you so, dear – so dear. That you hold – Do words, dear, that do you. Hold words so that. Do you? (hold words?) So, dear.

zodiac 23-Apr-04/7:12 AM
Think of how often, in the middle of doing something pointless and pleasurable, you suddenly think, hey, I wish there was some way I could be paid to do this for the rest of my life. Sure, you'd probably better spend your time developing an AIDS cure or portable non-polluting jetpack that runs on urine, but at least you're not developing super-cholera am I right? And you can (make a living doing something pointless, I mean,) provided no-one realizes how pointless it is - else they'd stop buying your books or taking your classes.

Philosophers are the best at this, followed by writers. Any decent philosopher has to have noticed that no new idea has been formulated in the field of philosophy since 1) all questions in philosophy are steaming cornucopiae of bow'ls, and 2) this is probably because there's no way to really know anything with any degree of certainty. And maybe 3) there is no God worth thinking much about in this lifetime. As far as I know, all of these were said pretty well in the 19th century, if not before. Naturally, philosophers can't come out and say that or they'd lose tenure, so they've spun it out endlessly in gobbledygook code and hundreds if not thousands of people have lived long comfortable lives doing philosophy instead of having to work in coal mines or something.

That said, certain philosophers probably do think they're saying something new and important. These are the gay ones. The half-decent ones know it's just a game and treat it as such, i.e., Wittgenstein. That's fine. Incidentally, if you think you're life is something more than a game, then it's most likely just a more deadly game, i.e., designing super-cholera or participating in Middle Eastern politics.

I haven't read Wittgenstein since I was required to do so years ago, and I don't think I ever will again. It's sufficient for me to condense his entire body of work into a one-line summary which I use to whiffle-bat anyone who thinks anything means anything.




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