Also, generous contibutors to an event I held in college promoting vegetarianism.

Without meaning to be cute, this book is a little bit of bullshit.

It deliberately conceals its primary agenda, which is to undercut cultural liberalism in a cutesy academic way, all summed up in the last line: “Sincerity itself is bullshit.”

Nonetheless enjoyable, and superficially relevant—points out a lot of the abuses of speech that have become far too common, full of evasiveness and convoluted crap (by the way, Jon Stewart is nobly battling this style of speech, which can be seen issuing forth from anyone on Fox News and Scott McClellan).

But no matter how much you hate relativism, sincerity (even newfangled sincerity) is, in fact, not bullshit.

It’s all the same stuff as the free information provided on the GRE website (which is also sent to you on a CD after registering for the test).

Two things:
1) Every moment with Jason Schwartzman in it was golden.
2) I attibute this to his acting talent alone.

I hate it when my friends are right, but this movie was Steve Martin’s weird old man fantasy. It’s loosely based on George Eliot’s Middlemarch (Steve as Casaubon, Claire as Dorothea, Jason as what’s-his-name, Dorothea’s other man). Claire Danes (who, by the way, is uniquely beautiful and a uniquely good actor and should be competing for roles with Scarlett Johansson) plays a delicate flower who just wants to be held, but it might just be because she’s depressive (maybe her incompetence should offend depressives rather than women). The action is forced into the rigidity of Steve Martin’s narration, and too much is made explicit (perhaps the audience is full of delicate flowers, too?). I was touched by some of the sweetness, by the post-breakup meeting, and even a little Schwartzman’s romanic moments (although these were obscured by his awesome comedic ability), but Steve Martin’s ineffective telling and simultaneous inability to show made me lose respect for the movie and start giggling and telling sarcastic jokes to the person next to me (who happened to be my mom, and she only appreciated some of them).

This show is funny and a lot of it, unfortunately, is true. I decided to watch it in order to learn about what it means to be a contemporary woman. But-these women still worship the white man. They want to “have sex like men,” and have power like men. This power is in money and beauty (which, alas, usually involves self-abuse)-the things which allow them to either pretend they don’t want men so they can get men they want, or to attempt to control them. They’re still chasing after husbands like women of the past who didn’t have much choice, only now, it’ a hell of a lot harder. This doesn’t mean, as some conseravatives may argue, that we need to undo the sexual revolution (and give women the advantage they in achieving marriage had by unifiedly witholding sex until marriage, minus the occasional secret hook ups). It just means the sexual revolution can’t just be about sex. A nobler feminism is offered by Virginia Wolfe, who asks women to view themselves in their own context, rather than as a reaction to men. Find meaning that doesn’t culminate in partnership. Don’t try to become equal to men by becoming the same as men. To thine own self be true.

Pretty messed up movie. Nietzsche commentary? I recommend it, friends. (Payoff is worth the long, painful beginning.)

Note: Different edition than shown—shortened “junior great books” version

The math-cracking part is a little keen on plugging in numbers rather than just simplifying the problem or solving it more directly (and more quickly—after all, it’s a timed test), but at least it’s boosting my confidence and bringing back long lost/ repressed memories of eighth grade algebra class.

I just watched this alongside a reading of Oliver Sacks’ “The Lost Mariner.”

“Life will torture you if you let it. It gives you cancer and injury… but it also gives you beer and butterflies… Besides, cloudy days have as much beauty as sunny ones, literally and like the methaphor. The world is pure nonsense. Accept that and enjoy the silly ride.”

Ha! An explication of JK’s philosophy, or at least the happier take on it. Makes me feel better, or drunk, or something.