Books, Music, Movies and Philosophy (Updates Thursdays)
In belated honor of the fifth anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death here’s a new revision of my noted essay about his song, Smooth Criminal, considered as an exemplar of Reconstructivist Art. Michael Jackson’s...
to reawaken a sense of the Real in a world where everything has been demonstrated to be an illusion
The free Amazon music samplers are one of the great hidden treasures of the internet. There, buried deep on their digital downloads page is a link to literally hundreds of full length discs, absolutely...
I finally got a caption accepted into the New Yorker Caption Contest. Time to add “published in the New Yorker” to my resume! Vote here, but only if you like my caption the best!
Read Part I Even without the religious and spiritual dimension that was the ultimate foundation of Kierkegaard’s work, the narrative he inspired continues to garner resonance and popularity among a wide audience wrestling with...
"Kierkegaard's Narrative" is an existential humanist plot outline named after the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. In general, it runs as follows: An aimless young man drifts through life, obsessed with aesthetics, and seeking sexual fulfillment with a series of women, yet never making substantive choices or real commitments. The climax of the story is the protagonist's decision to commit to a single woman, and to enter into marriage.
The raw source material for this plotline is found in Kierkegaard's books "Either/Or," "Fear and Trembling," and "Repetition," in which he takes on the persona of various first-person narrators, and describes their experiences.
Both wrestle with the concept that everything we ordinarily view as “reality” could be in fact a highly convincing illusion.
For many people, the main appeal of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” movies is the “Jedi Way,” the philosophy/religion that guides the mystical Jedi knights. But where does this philosophy come from, and does it hold up under scrutiny?
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