Thread for mundane ironists

a thread for mundane ironists

In the Company of Men

Chad: What’s the difference between a golf ball and a G-spot?
Howard: I don’t know.
Chad: I’ll spend twenty minutes looking for a golf ball!

Pick one:
1] before Howard meets Christine
2] after Howard meets Christine

Chad: I’ll wonder to myself, “He got the balls for this?” Right? I can’t help but think it.
Keith: I do.
Chad: Yeah?
Keith: Yes. Ax anybody.
Chad: Let me give you a professional tip. The word is “ask.”

Just imagine if Keith were deaf too.

Chad: Show. Me. Your. Balls.
Keith: I don’t…
Chad: Listen. You got a pair the kind that men carry around, you wear them on your sleeve. That’s what business is about: Who’s sporting the nastiest sack of venom and who is willing to use it.

Well, Keith axed for it. He shows Chad his balls.

Howard [finally confessing the truth]: We did.
Christine: What?
Howard: We did know.
Christine: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Howard: You went out with me, dated me, had fun with me but you went to bed with him. Don’t say anything. I can tell. I’m sitting here, some asshole who cares about you and you’re in love with him. Are you so desperate… you can’t see a yard in front of you? Chad? He doesn’t like you. He loathes you. He detests you and your pathetic retard voice. That’s what he calls it. Christine, you bought that shit? See each other at parties? He’s my friend, okay? We hang out back home. You better wake up. You were used. It’s a game. To Chad, it was a game, and he found you “so perfect,” he said. “She’s deaf.” That was the thing. Not love you. Not flowers and the feelings I have for you inside. No, it was meant to be a sport fun to watch you fall apart. I’m telling you…
Christine: Stop it!
Howard: Christine, l…We did this thing, and I am so sorry…but I can’t change it because it’s true.
Christine: No! Chad would never do that!
Howard: Why are you trusting him?! Look at me. What did I ever do to you? Kindness, courtesy. What is the matter with you? Can’t you see I’m the good guy? I’m the good person here. I can’t alter what we’ve done, and I’m a fuck and a bastard and everything else on your list, but I’m here. I’m here, and I’m telling you…I love you.

No, seriously, what would you do?

Chad [to Christine]: I was gonna let you down easy, but I can’t keep a straight face…so fuck it. [he burst out laughing] Surprise. So how does it feel? I mean right now. This instant. How do you feel inside, knowing what you know? Tell me.
[she slaps him]
Chad: That’s all? It only hurts that much? Well, I guess I can go now.

It’s just acting. It’s all scripted. But we know better, don’t we?

Chad: I did it short. Over in a second. Left her sobbing in the hotel room. Then I walked over to Pizza Hut. It was your hotel room actually.
Howard: What?
Chad: See, I knew you’d be late wrapping stuff up, so I took the liberty. I got a maid to open up, and l…Well, I did the same thing when I first fucked her. I thought that you might find her there, so…
Howard: Chad.
Chad: What?
Howard: I’m trying to tell you I’m in love with her.
Chad: Oh…

Enough said?

.

Entanglement?
.
…too modern for me. :raised_hand_with_fingers_splayed:t3:

**God **

“It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.” Voltaire

Or else?

“God, Who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet He seems sometimes to be present, sometimes to be absent. If we do not know Him well, we do not realize that He may be more present to us when He is absent than when He is present.” Thomas Merton

Uh, point taken?

“I stared up at the sky and raised my middle finger, just in case God was watching. I don’t like being spied on.” Annabel Pitcher

Yeah, what about that?

“If we assume that man actually does resemble God, then we are forced into the impossible theory that God is a coward, an idiot and a bounder.” Henry Louis Mencken

Yeah, what about that?

“Mine was a patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus.” Anne Lamott

Next up: Judgment Day, right?

“The whole war between the atheist and the theist comes down to this: the atheist believes a ‘what’ created the universe; the theist believes a ‘who’ created the universe.” Criss Jam

Unless, of course, it has always existed.
What or Who then?

I thought you were dead.

Pick one:

  1. No, seriously. :lol:
  2. Next up: The afterlife.

:banana_dance:

1 Like

I’ve been posting for the last couple of years at the Philosophy Now forum. I also found a by invitation only “private forum” that focuses entirely on the relationship between science and philosophy. That’s the only “board”.

Of late, however, PN has been plagued with a problem revolving around the lag time between posting [and pretty much everything else there] and it actually showing up at the forum. For the second time in a month now the site is down. The last time for 2 entire days [as I recall].

Also, I was curious to see how the new format worked.

I still check out new posts from day to day and I think Carleas is making an effort to actually bring the forum back around to…philosophy?

In my own rendition of the “best of all possible worlds” here, both Faust and Only_Humean return as moderators and ILP reconfigures back into what I believed was the best philosophy forum online.

God

“It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.” Voltaire

Or else?

“God, Who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet He seems sometimes to be present, sometimes to be absent. If we do not know Him well, we do not realize that He may be more present to us when He is absent than when He is present.” Thomas Merton

Uh, point taken?

“I stared up at the sky and raised my middle finger, just in case God was watching. I don’t like being spied on.” Annabel Pitcher

Yeah, what about that?

“If we assume that man actually does resemble God, then we are forced into the impossible theory that God is a coward, an idiot and a bounder.” Henry Louis Mencken

Yeah, what about that?

“Mine was a patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus.” Anne Lamot

Next up: Judgment Day, right?

“The whole war between the atheist and the theist comes down to this: the atheist believes a ‘what’ created the universe; the theist believes a ‘who’ created the universe.” Criss Jami

Unless, of course, it has always existed.
What or Who then?

Stendhal from The Red and the Black

Each man for himself in that desert of egoism which is called life.[/b]

Close enough?

An English traveller relates how he lived upon intimate terms with a tiger; he had reared it and used to play with it, but always kept a loaded pistol on the table.

Or a bazooka.

Your career will be a painful one. I divine something in you which offends the vulgar.[

And certainly, the Kidz.

What is the use of a love that makes one yawn? One might as well take to religion.[

Or [up in the clouds] philosophy?

Prestige! Sir, is it nothing? To be revered by fools, gaped at by children, envied by the rich and scorned by the wise.

Unless, perhaps, you’re a magician?

For the future, I shall rely only upon those elements of my character which I have tested. Who would ever have said that I should find pleasure in shedding tears? That I should love the man who proves to me that I am nothing more than a fool?

Your future might be different.

In the Company of Men

Chad: What’s the difference between a golf ball and a G-spot?
Howard: I don’t know.
Chad: I’ll spend twenty minutes looking for a golf ball!

Pick one:
1] before Howard meets Christine
2] after Howard meets Christine

Chad: I’ll wonder to myself, “He got the balls for this?” Right? I can’t help but think it.
Keith: I do.
Chad: Yeah?
Keith: Yes. Ax anybody.
Chad: Let me give you a professional tip. The word is “ask.”

Just imagine if Keith were deaf too.

Chad: Show. Me. Your. Balls.
Keith: I don’t…
Chad: Listen. You got a pair the kind that men carry around, you wear them on your sleeve. That’s what business is about: Who’s sporting the nastiest sack of venom and who is willing to use it.

Well, Keith axed for it. He shows Chad his balls.

Howard [finally confessing the truth]: We did.
Christine: What?
Howard: We did know.
Christine: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Howard: You went out with me, dated me, had fun with me but you went to bed with him. Don’t say anything. I can tell. I’m sitting here, some asshole who cares about you and you’re in love with him. Are you so desperate… you can’t see a yard in front of you? Chad? He doesn’t like you. He loathes you. He detests you and your pathetic retard voice. That’s what he calls it. Christine, you bought that shit? See each other at parties? He’s my friend, okay? We hang out back home. You better wake up. You were used. It’s a game. To Chad, it was a game, and he found you “so perfect,” he said. “She’s deaf.” That was the thing. Not love you. Not flowers and the feelings I have for you inside. No, it was meant to be a sport fun to watch you fall apart. I’m telling you…
Christine: Stop it!
Howard: Christine, l…We did this thing, and I am so sorry…but I can’t change it because it’s true.
Christine: No! Chad would never do that!
Howard: Why are you trusting him?! Look at me. What did I ever do to you? Kindness, courtesy. What is the matter with you? Can’t you see I’m the good guy? I’m the good person here. I can’t alter what we’ve done, and I’m a fuck and a bastard and everything else on your list, but I’m here. I’m here, and I’m telling you…I love you.

No, seriously, what would you do?

Chad [to Christine]: I was gonna let you down easy, but I can’t keep a straight face…so fuck it. [he burst out laughing] Surprise. So how does it feel? I mean right now. This instant. How do you feel inside, knowing what you know? Tell me.
[she slaps him]
Chad: That’s all? It only hurts that much? Well, I guess I can go now.

It’s just acting. It’s all scripted. But we know better, don’t we?

Chad: I did it short. Over in a second. Left her sobbing in the hotel room. Then I walked over to Pizza Hut. It was your hotel room actually.
Howard: What?
Chad: See, I knew you’d be late wrapping stuff up, so I took the liberty. I got a maid to open up, and l…Well, I did the same thing when I first fucked her. I thought that you might find her there, so…
Howard: Chad.
Chad: What?
**Howard: I’m trying to tell you I’m in love with her. **
Chad: Oh…

Enough said?

Sure as hell wouldn’t “listen”.

The Fabulous Baker Boys

Jack: l have to go.
Girl: Why?
Jack: A job.
Girl: Funny hours.
Jack: Funny job.
Girl: Will l see you again?
Jack: No.

And, at the time, he probably even meant it.

Jack: ‘‘Be the envy of your friends with Miracle Hair’’? This is paint, Frank.
Frank: No, it’s a magical sheath that simulates a dazzling head of hair.
Jack: Frank, this is paint!
Frank: Just help me put it on. You’re supposed to spray in a circular motion.

Whatever works?

Frank: Good evening and welcome to the Starfire Lounge. My name is Frank Baker. And 88 keys across from me is my little brother, Jack. My brother and l have been playing together for how long, Jack?
Jack: Thirty one years.
Frank: That’s a lot of water under the bridge, huh, Jack?
Jack: A lot of water.
Frank: Of course, things were different then. l was 11, Jack was 7. The only one who’d listen to us was the family cat, Cecil. We must have shaved 3 lives off that cat, huh, Jack? But seriously, it’s been 15 years since Jack and l stepped on stage as professionals. But though we’ve played some of the finest venues in the world, there’s always been a very special place for us. That place is this place. The Starfire Lounge. Why? l guess you could just say… the people.

The look on Jack’s face? Priceless.

Lloyd: Terrific, boys, really terrific. Yes, sir! You’re just what we needed on a night like this.
Frank: Thanks, Lloyd.
Lloyd: Only Jack, do me a favor will you, pal? lf you want to smoke on stage, put on a pair of sunglasses and go play with the niggers on State Street.

Little does Lloyd know?

Jack: Count it.
Frank: Jack.
Jack: Count the fucking money, Frank.

Then count it again.

Frank: What is this?
Charlie: Your pay.
Frank: What about tomorrow night?
Charlie: lt’s all there. Both nights.
Frank: What are you saying, Charlie?
Charlie: You and Jack have been working here a long time.
Frank: 12 years.
Charlie: Maybe it’s time we took a vacation from one another.
Frank: Vacation? Come on, it’s Monday night! You said so yourself. l got the pianos for two nights.
Charlie: lt wasn’t even half full out there tonight. l have six waiters in the back listening to basketball. l gotta move the liquor. So, l have to fill the tables. lt’s a matter of economics. l love you guys. You’re class. But people today…they don’t know class if it walks up and grabs them by the balls.

Cue Susie. Susie Diamond.

The Fabulous Baker Boys

Frank: Thank you, Miss Moran, that’s enough. Miss Moran… Miss Moran!
[shouts]
Frank: Blanche!
Blanche/Monica: Sorry! I get so caught up in it sometimes, it’s scary.
Frank: Yes, it is.

You tell me: https://youtu.be/HxDqVhC-1ko?si=YpoefMViom8epzEU

Susie [literally stumbling through the door]: God damn it! Shit! This shoe.
[walks over to Frank]
Susie: ls this where the auditions are?
Frank: Where the auditions were. We’re finished.
Susie: What about me?
Frank: You’re an hour and a half late.
Susie: l had trouble catching a cab.
Frank: Punctuality, first rule of show business.
Susie: This is show business?

Good point?

Susie: l come down here, break a heel and you won’t give me a chance because l’m a little late!
Frank: You’re an hour and a half late. Want me to say it again?
Susie: Well, it’s not exactly bewitching me. Besides, you’re not going anywhere.
Frank: l beg your pardon?
Susie: lntuition. l had a hunch about this all day. Only, in my mind, it was a little more glamorous…So, where’s the winner?

I guess it wasn’t Monica.

Frank: Do you have any previous experience as a singer?
Susie: No.
Frank: Any entertainment experience at all?
Susie: Well, for the last couple of years l’ve been on call for Triple A Escort Service.[/b]

Just don’t call her a whore.

Susie: Guest vocalist? Who’s next week, Beverly Sills? How come you guys are the only ones with your picture on the poster?
Frank: We’ll talk later. Where’s your dress?
Susie: What are you talking about?
Frank: ls there a language problem? Where’s your dress for tonight?
Susie: What, do l look like l’m naked?
Frank: What, that? What are you, insane? Are you going trick or treating?
Susie: He doesn’t like my dress, right?

I liked it.

Frank: She says ‘‘fucking’’ in front of an entire room of people.
Susie: l apologized.
Frank: Did you hear her?
Jack: Fucking.
Susie: They were on their third Mai Tai by the time l got out there.
Frank: Fucking.
Susie: For Christ’s sake, l said it, l didn’t do it.

That’s true.

Death

“Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep. And yet a third of life is passed in sleep.” Lord George Gordon Byron

One word: dreams.
Mine in particular.

“The absence of the will to live is, alas, not sufficient to make one want to die.” Michel Houellebecq

So far, anyway.

“Even in the grave, all is not lost.” Edgar Allan Poe

For the worms in particular.

“I think people believe in heaven because they don’t like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living and they don’t like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish.” Mark Haddon

I know, I know: what if that were actually true?!

“Death should take me while I am in the mood.” Nathaniel Hawthorne

Of course, not many of us would still be around if that were the case. Most, I suspect, would be long gone.

“Most men fear getting laughed at or humiliated by a romantic prospect while most women fear rape and death.” Gavin de Becker

New thread?

The Fabulous Baker Boys

Susie [to Jack]: Listen, you’re not going soft on me, are you? I mean, you’re not going to start dreaming about me and waking up all sweaty and looking at me like I’m some sort of princess when I burp?
Jack: Forget it.
Susie: lt would be too creepy, with us working together.
Jack: Better hurry, you’re a nickel down on your cigarette.

French, as I recall.

Frank: You know, I think it’s been years since l’ve seen you without a cigarette. The whole room upstairs smells like an ashtray. You know that? The sheets, the carpets, the drapes. The towels, my tux, my shirt. Want to smell my shirt?
Jack: Maybe later.
Frank: l’m not kidding. Do you know what an insidious habit that is? How many do you smoke a day? Must be hundreds!
Jack: This is just a wild stab, but is something bothering you?
Frank: Leave her alone. l mean it. This isn’t a hatcheck girl you can leave behind at the Sheraton. You’ve got two shows a night with her.
Jack: You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Frank: l know trouble, and it’s name starts with ‘S’.
Jack: Do me a favor, Frank. Relax.
Frank: Do me a favor, little brother. Stick to cocktail waitresses.

The beginning of the end, let’s call it.

Frank: Okay, we’ll take the Plaza. Then the Capri for 5 days.
Susie: Not the Luau Lounge again.
Frank: What the matter? They don’t salt their peanuts?
Susie: Singing ‘‘Feelings’’, knee-deep in paper orchids and plastic Tiki lamps is not my idea of a fun evening.
Frank: Fun? Who promised you fun? We get paid, remember?
Susie: l’m saying, maybe we should vote on it. Maybe we should ask Jack what he thinks.
Frank: l don’t have to. l know what he thinks. lt’s 5 days, the money’s green. We’re there. Speaking about ‘‘Feelings’’, you might brush up on the lyrics. The other night, you sang the first verse twice.
Susie: Really? That explains the gasps l heard from the audience.
Frank: Okay, let’s hear it. We trashed the Avedon, the Luau Lounge - what’s our beef with ‘Feelings’?
Susie: Nothing… except who cares? I mean, does anybody really need to hear ‘Feelings’ again in their lifetime? It’s like parsley, okay? Take it away, nobody’s going to know the difference.
Frank: ‘Feelings’ is not parsley!
Susie: Frank, to you ‘Feelings’ may be goddamn filet mignon, but to me, it’s parsley. It’s less than parsley.
Frank: Look, ‘Feelings,’ despite what you may think of it, has always been one of the bright moments of the show, and a consistent crowd-pleaser, and consequently we have an obligation to perform it. If we didn’t, the audience would be disappointed.
Susie: Oh. Well, they weren’t exactly crying their eyes out on New Year’s Eve.
Frank: You passed over ‘Feelings’?
Susie: Yeah. Oh, and ‘Bali Hai’ went out with the bathwater, too.
Frank: Ah ha. I see. The cat goes away for the night, and the mice take over the orchestra.
Susie: Hey! I ain’t no mouse.
Frank: That’s right - you’re parsley.

What the hell, let’s climb into the Way Back Machine: https://youtu.be/CyBcHUe4WeQ?si=i9Ti77wkkgyW7TPb

Jack: Why don’t you loosen the leash?
Frank: Let’s not let a whiff of perfume blow off 15 years. Be reasonable.
Jack: l play 300 nights a year with you. How much more reasonable do you expect me to be?

On the other hand, unlike Frank, Jack can actually play the piano…seriously? All Frank can do is to teach the rugrats.

Susie: l told Frank l’m quitting.
Jack: Congratulations.
Susie: As of now.
Jack: lf you need a recommendation, you let me know.
Susie: Jesus you’re cold! You know that? You are like a fucking razor blade.
Jack: Careful, you’ll have me thinking you’re going soft on me.
Susie: You don’t give a fuck, do you? About anything.
Jack: What do you want from me? You want me to tell you to stay, hmm? Is that what you’re looking for? You want me to get down on my knees and beg you to save the Baker Boys from doom? Forget it, sweetheart. We survived for 15 years before you strutted onto the scene. Fifteen years. Two seconds, you’re bawling like a baby. You shouldn’t be wearing a dress; you should be wearing a diaper.
Susie: Jesus, you and Egghead are brothers, aren’t you?

And not just literally?

Jack: Let me tell you something. They’ve dropped like flies in every fucking hotel in the city. We’re still here! We’ve never held a day job in our lives. He’s an easy target, but add it up, he’s done fine.
Susie: Yeah, Frank has done great. He has the wife, kids, little house in the suburbs. While his brother lives a shitty apartment with a sick dog, Little Orphan Annie and a chip on his shoulder size of a Cadillac.
Jack: Listen to me, princess. We fucked twice. That’s it. Once the sweat dries, you still don’t know shit about me. Got it?
Susie: I know one thing. While Frank Baker was home putting his kids to sleep last night, little brother Jack was out dusting off his dreams for a few minutes. I was there. I saw it in your face. You’re full of shit. You’re a fake. Every time you walk into some shitty daiquiri hut, you’re selling yourself on the cheap. Hey, I know all about that. I’d find myself at the end of the night with some creep and tell myself it didn’t matter. And you kid yourself that you’ve got this empty place inside where you can put it all. But you do it long enough and all you are is empty.
Jack: I didn’t know whores were so philosophical.
Susie: At least my brother’s not my pimp. You know, I had you pegged for a loser the first time I saw you, but I was wrong. You’re worse. You’re a coward.

Who won?

Philosophy

“It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.” Voltaire

Well, with important exceptions of course.

"There is no reality except in action.” Jean-Paul Sartre

Pick one:
1] For better
2] For worse

“I would prefer a sword to fight duel, but a pen to plan a war.” Robert Thier

Woke?

“To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher.” Blaise Pascal

If only up in the clouds?

“As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.” Bertrand Russell

The True Homeric gods, of course.

“Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.” Simone de Beauvoir

The ethics of ambiguity, indeed.

The Fabulous Baker Boys

Back to…

Frank: My name is Frank Baker and you know my little brother Jack. My brother and l have been playing together for…l don’t know. Jack?
Jack: 31 years.
Frank: But of course, back then… it was a little different. We were just kids. The only one who’d listen to us was the family cat, Cecil. We must’ve shaved 3 lives off that cat, huh?

Huh, Jack?

Jack: What’s happened to you? Have you been kissing ass so long, you’re starting to like it? You let that guy turn us into clowns tonight. We were always small time, but we were never clowns.

The “telethon”.

Frank: l want to explain something to you, little brother. There are people in this world who depend on me. l got a wife and kids who expect to wake up with food on the table and heat in the house. l got a mortgage. l got car payments. And l got you, my little brother Jack. He’s so hip, so cool and sure that he’s better than everyone. Don’t you think l’d like to walk up to one of those assholes and blow smoke in his face? God damn right l would! But l can’t. l have to be responsible. l have to make the numbers balance in my favor every month so everyone else can go on living their lives. There’s no medals but you’d notice if l closed up shop. Don’t talk to me about dignity.

Ah, the real world. And for millions upon millions of us.

Jack: Would you stop that please.
Nina: [while loudly playing with her paddle ball] You want me to make some coffee? How 'bout some eggs? I can make you some eggs, if you want.
Jack: Knock it off with that fucking thing…it’s driving me nuts! Jack you want eggs, Jack you want coffee. You’re not my housekeeper, I’m not your fucking father. I can’t babysit you every time your mama gets an itch!

Nina. I almost forgot about her.

Later up on the roof…

Nina: You’re having a bad day, right?
Jack: Right.
Nina: lt’s okay. My mom had a lot of those. Sometimes that’s why l came down.
Jack: Hey, teach you later? What are you going to do, go around playing ‘‘Jingle Bells’’ the rest of your life?

He’s really one of the good guys.

Henry: I’ve got Tuesdays and Thursdays open. There yours if you want them, Jack.

We gotta have a happy ending right?

Frank: Let’s cut the bullshit. You came here to talk business, right? We’ll put the other night behind us. ln a couple of weeks, it’ll be the same. Now you can go.
Jack: l’m not coming back, Frank.
Frank: Then what’s there to talk about?

Next up: Jack and Susie, sitting in a tree…

Deliverance

Lewis: There ain’t gonna be no more river. Just gonna be a big, dead lake.
Ed: It’s a very clean way to make electric power. Those lakes provide many people with recreation. My father-in-law has a houseboat on Lake Bowie.
Lewis: You push a little more power into Atlanta…a little more air conditioners for your smug little suburb…and you know what’s gonna happen? They’re gonna rape this whole landscape. They’re gonna rape it.
Ed: That’s an extreme point of view, Lewis.
Bobby: It is. Extremist.

On the other hand, it’s not fractured and fragmented.

Bobby: Talk about your genetic deficiencies—isn’t that pitiful?

It was rather stark.

Drew: Goddamn, you play a mean banjo. Hey, you wanna play another one?
Bobby: Give him a couple of bucks.

Fucking Bobby. But he’ll get his, right?

Lewis: Your name Griner?
Griner: What you wanna know for?
Lewis: I was wondering if you and your brother could take a couple of trucks down to Aintry for us.
Griner: Drive 'em down there for what?
Lewis: Me and my buddy here are taking a canoe trip down the Cahulawassee. We’d like our cars to be down in Aintry when we get there. Be there about Sunday noon.
Griner: [sarcastically] Canoe trip?
Lewis: That’s right, a canoe trip.
Griner: What the hell you wanna go fuck around with that river for?
Lewis: Because it’s there.
Griner: It’s there all right. You get in there and can’t get out, you gonna wish it wasn’t.

Oh, yeah.

Ed: [to Lewis, whispering] Look, Lewis, let’s go back to town and, ah…play golf.
Lewis: [ignoring Ed] I’ll give you thirty dollars to take those cars down to Aintry.
Griner: I’ll take fifty.
Lewis: Fifty, my ass.
Ed: Lewis, don’t play games with these people!
Griner: Whud you say?
Lewis: I said “fifty, my ass.”
Ed: [whispering urgently] Lewis!
Griner: I’ll do it for forty.
Lewis: Mm-hmm…
[to Ed]
Lewis: You good for ten?
Ed [relieved]: Sure.

Aintry, it is then. The hard way.

Lewis: [Ed and Lewis are driving to find the river and come to a dead end] Well, we fucked up.
Ed: You better let them show us.
Lewis: You’re missin’ the whole point, Ed.
Griner: Where you goin’ city boy?
Lewis: We’ll find it. We’ll find it.
Griner: It ain’t nothin’ but the biggest fuckin’ river in the state.

Next up: his cousins.

Free Will

“Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.” V.S. Naipaul

Next up: most people here.

“You say: I am not free. But I have raised and lowered my arm. Everyone understands that this illogical answer is an irrefutable proof of freedom.” Leo Tolstoy

It sure seems that way.

“Human beings do not like being pushed about by gods. They may seem to, on the surface, but somewhere on the inside, underneath it all, they sense it, and they resent it.” Neil Gaiman

James Kirk…meet Apollo.

“You can do what you decide to do — but you cannot decide what you will decide to do.” Sam Harris

Not counting all of the secret “internal components” of the human brain that may or may not actually exist to “somehow” give you autonomy.

“But recently I have learned from discussions with a variety of scientists and other non-philosophers (e.g., the scientists participating with me in the Sean Carroll workshop on the future of naturalism) that they lean the other way: free will, in their view, is obviously incompatible with naturalism, with determinism, and very likely incoherent against any background, so they cheerfully insist that of course they don’t have free will, couldn’t have free will, but so what? It has nothing to do with morality or the meaning of life. Their advice to me at the symposium was simple: recast my pressing question as whether naturalism (materialism, determinism, science…) has any implications for what we may call moral competence. For instance, does neuroscience show that we cannot be responsible for our choices, cannot justifiably be praised or blamed, rewarded or punished? Abandon the term ‘free will’ to the libertarians and other incompatibilists, who can pursue their fantasies untroubled. Note that this is not a dismissal of the important issues; it’s a proposal about which camp gets to use, and define, the term. I am beginning to appreciate the benefits of discarding the term ‘free will’ altogether, but that course too involves a lot of heavy lifting, if one is to avoid being misunderstood.” Daniel C. Dennett

We’ll need a context of course.
From the other side?

“God isn’t about making good things happen to you, or bad things happen to you. He’s all about you making choices–exercising the gift of free will. God wants you to have good things and a good life, but He won’t gift wrap them for you. You have to choose the actions that lead you to that life.” Jim Butcher

Yet another example of someone asserting something about God to be true…simply by asserting it.

Deliverance

Bobby: We beat it, didn’t we? Didn’t we beat that?
Lewis: You don’t beat it. You don’t beat this river…

Prescient, let’s call him.

Lewis: Machines are gonna fail. And the system’s gonna fail. Then…
Ed: And then what?
Lewis: Then survival. He who has the ability to survive. That’s the game: survive.
Ed: And you can’t wait for it to happen, can you? You can’t wait for it. Well, the system’s done all right by me.
Lewis: Oh, yeah. You got a nice job. Got a nice house…nice wife…nice kid.
Ed: You make that sound rather shitty, Lewis.
Lewis: Why do you go on these trips with me, Ed?
Ed: I Iike my Iife, Lewis.
Lewis: Yeah, but why do you go on these trips with me?

I forget: did Ed tell him?

Ed: He knows the woods, though. He really does.
Drew: Not really. He learned 'em, he doesn’t feel ‘em. That’s his problem. He wants to be one with nature and he can’t hack it.
Bobby: This is a hell of a time to be tellin’ us that.

Drew in particular, right?

Ed: Look, what is it that you require of us?
Mountain Man: What we, uh, “re-quire” is that you get your god-damn ass up in them woods.

Bobby’s ass too.

Mountain Man: [to Bobby] Them panties. Take 'em off.

That can’t be good.

Lewis: Anybody know anything about the law?
Drew: I was on a jury duty once. It wasn’t a murder trial.
Lewis: Murder trial? I don’t know the technical word for it, Drew, but I know this: You take this man and turn him over to the sheriff, there’ll be a trial all right. Trial by jury.
Drew: So what?
Lewis: We killed a man, Drew. Shot him in the back. A mountain man. Cracker. Gives us somethin’ to consider.
Drew: All right, consider it. We’re listening.
Lewis: Shit, all these people are related. I’ll be damned if I’ll come back and stand trial with this man’s aunt and uncle…maybe his mama and his daddy sittin’ in the jury box.

Good point?

Drew: This ain’t one of your fuckin’ games, Lewis! You killed somebody!

Trying to save Bobby’s ass?

Deliverence

Lewis: Now you listen, Ed! Damn it, we can get out of this thing! Without any questions asked! We get connected up with that body and the law this thing’s gonna be hangin’ over us the rest of our lives. We gotta get rid of that guy.
Drew: Just how are you gonna do that, Lewis? Where?
Lewis: Anywhere. Everywhere. Nowhere. You know what’s gonna be here? Right here. A lake. As far as you can see. Hundreds of feet deep. Hundreds of feet deep. Did you ever look over a lake and think about somethin’ buried underneath it? Buried underneath it! Man, that’s about as buried as you can get!

So, is that more or less logical?

Drew: It is a matter of the LAW!!!
Lewis: The law? Ha! What law? WHERE’S THE LAW, DREW?

So, is that more or less logical?

Ed: Lewis, you’re the guy with the answers. What the hell do we do now?!
Lewis: Now you get to play the game.

The “survival of the fittest” game, let’s call it.

Sherrif: Let’s just wait and see what comes out of the river.

And he wrote the book on that.

Taxi Driver: Right there’s the town hall. Right over there’s the old fire station. Played a lot of checkers over there, sure did. All this land’s gonna be covered with water - best thing ever happened to this town.
[a truck in front of the cab is carrying a small church building on a flatbed trailer]
Taxi Driver: We might have to wait a minute for the church to get out the way.

Then the coffins being “relocated”.

Lewis: What happened on that last set of rapids? I don’t remember nothing. Nothing.

I forget: did he lose that leg?

Sherrif: Don’t ever do nothin’ like this again. Don’t come back up here.
Bobby: You don’t have to worry about that, Sheriff.
Sherrif: I’d kinda Iike to see this town die peaceful.

Whatever that means?

Though author Herman Raucher admits to moving the order of certain events around and interchanging some dialogue, the movie is (according to those involved) an accurate depiction of events in Raucher’s life in the summer of 1942 on Nantucket Island; he didn’t even change anyone’s name.

Summer of '42

Hermie [narrating as an adult]: Nothing from that first day I saw her, and no one that has happened to me since, has ever been as frightening and as confusing. For no person I’ve ever known has ever done more to make me feel more sure, more insecure, more important, and less significant.

"It is not only species of animal that die out. But whole species of feeling. And if you are wise you will never pity the past for what it did not know. But pity yourself for what it did.” John Fowles

[the three friends are gawking at a medical journal about sex]
Oscy: Now listen! Before I saw these pictures, I didn’t think it was possible, either. But these are pictures, Benjie, pictures! These aren’t drawings! I’ve seen those drawings! These are pictures!

Of course, you have to be old enough to actually get this.

Hermie [reading from the medical journal on sex]: What the hell is this in number four?
Oscy: That’s Latin.

And that’s not all it is, of course.

Oscy: Point six, Hermie, very important.
Hermie: Foreplay.
Oscy: Right! That word keeps cropping up.

You know, back then.

Hermie: Look, Oscy, if I follow these 12 points, she just might end up with a kid. And I can’t afford a kid at this stage in my life.

Being a kid himself.

Druggist: Do you know what these are for?
Hermie: Sure. You fill them up with water, and then you throw them off the roof.
Druggist: Well, I just wanted to make sure you knew what they were for.

Clever enough for you?

Dorothy: Oh, you drink coffee, don’t you?
Hermie: [trying to sound like an adult] … I consume a couple of cups a day.
Dorothy: Well, I have milk.
Hermie: Oh, no. I take it black.

He said, puffing on his pipe.

Hermie [to Dorothy after reading the telegram]: I’m sorry.

Next up: the irony, of course.

Dorothy [in a letter]: Dear Hermie: I must go home now. I’m sure you’ll understand. There’s much I have to do. I won’t try and explain what happened last night because I know that, in time, you’ll find a proper way in which to remember it. What I will do is remember you. And I pray that you be spared all senseless tragedies. I wish you good things, Hermie. Only good things. Always, Dorothy.

“During an interview on The Mike Douglas Show, Herman Raucher said that after the novel and movie were released, several women wrote letters to him claiming to be Dorothy. One of the letters was indeed from the real Dorothy, who wanted to know if she had psychologically damaged Raucher, and also informed him that she had been happily remarried and was now a grandmother. It was the last time that Raucher, by that time married with children, heard from Dorothy.”

Hermie [narrating as an adult]: I was never to see her again. Nor was I ever to learn what became of her. We were different then. Kids were different. It took us longer to understand the things we felt. Life is made up of small comings and goings. And for everything we take with us, there is something that we leave behind. In the summer of '42, we raided the Coast Guard station four times, we saw five movies, and had nine days of rain. Benji broke his watch, Oscy gave up the harmonica, and in a very special way, I lost Hermie forever.

The part I “root existentially in dasein”. What do you root it in?