The imagination mediates between fantasy and reality. You have a decision to make, the consequences of which occur in reality. However, before you make the decision you imagine the possible scenarios and outcomes in the realm of fantasy. Then you decide. You cannot renounce your imagination. That would be a potentially harmful asceticism similar to [...]
Groups
All my life I have been confused by “groups.” How does one form a “group?” What motivates people to form groups? When is a group officially a “group?” What do groups do? When I was a kid I assumed this would all make sense when I was grown up, but my mind still reels. They [...]
Parody: Imagine
Imagine there is Heaven Imagine there is Hell God exists above us Below us Satan dwells Imagine all the dead people Rising from the grave Imagine men with a country A place to call your home Something to live and die for A purpose beyond your own Imagine all the dead people Eating human brains [...]
When animals attack!
As satisfying as it is to see a man triumph by calculating his position, adapting to his surroundings and conquering it through logic, it is equally satisfying to see a fool miscalculate, over step his boundaries, and suffer the violent consequences of the untamed wild. This is cosmic justice. This is why it is better [...]
Civil disobedience
A recurring comic theme in the film Dr. Strangelove is the juxtaposition of obedient social etiquette contrasted to nuclear apocalypse looming in the background. President Muffley calls Dmitri the Soviet Premier on the phone: “Fine, I can hear you now, Dmitri. Clear and plain and coming through fine. I’m coming through fine, too? Good, then! [...]
The fall of the dinosaurs
When I was young, dinosaurs captured my imagination. What thrilled me was not so much the fossils, the categorization of bones, the reconstruction of the skeletons or the various hypotheses surrounding how they lived or how they became extinct. It had nothing to do with the science behind it and surrounding it. My fascination did [...]
The wisdom of myth
The Icelandic Sagas are a treasure of Western literature. They have captured our hearts and minds for generations. Although they were written by different anonymous authors, they are similar enough to be grouped together as a collection of Sagas. There are the old standbys like Egil’s Saga and The Saga of the Volsungs, but there [...]
Divine wrath
Why is it we enjoy thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards so much? Even if they are disastrous, even if our day is ruined, even if people die, we secretly enjoy them. Why? We enjoy them because we are reminded that we are not really in control. Secretly we don’t want to be in control. We [...]
Anamorphosis
In this picture by Hans Holbein the Younger entitled “The Ambassadors,” an odd shape floats at the bottom. It is a skull or “Memento Mori” (reminder of mortality) drawn in the style of anamorphosis. Anamorphosis is an artistic technique that distorts an image unless one views it at the proper angle or perspective. If one [...]
Hearts
Last night I played the card game Hearts with friends. Hearts is an evasion game based on “tricks,” or turns in which a cards are played, and whoever loses “takes the trick”: they must take the cards that were played and adds their number to his score. You do not want points. Every Heart is [...]
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