Occupy the Internet
THINQon is a platform for a more intelligent web. It aims to replace the ruling paradigm of the web – that of sharing and gathering information – with a sharing and achieving of understanding. Instead of the Q&A model it offers an experience. A platform for discovery of ideas, people, and yourself.     Continue >
Charlie Kaufman and meta
Help! I need an adult! I think Charlie Kaufman touched my brain inappropriately. If I had to show you on a doll I think it would be somewhere in the right hemisphere. It was a prolonged touch and the damage hasn't abated even though I've been in a perpetual cold shower since his last movie. Am I even writing this now? Maybe my mind is jumping to the future and Kaufman is still violating my neural linings in this very moment!

WHAT DO I EVEN KNOW?

Am I the same person who started this post? If not, can I meet that Robin Layter in a dream somewhere and have him explain his motives? How would I know if my dreamspace was collapsing at my feet? Charlie Kaufman why do you love circles so much? Or are they spirals? Or they something else? Am I writing this or are you? Am I my own God, what is time, what are words, where is the beginning, is there an end? Don't pose so many questions Charlie, I'm looking for the answers. Adapt what to what?

You love tears, you love borders, you love transposition and transference, but who are you? Who am I? Is life a giant work of art at the hands of a Da Vinci? Are we all merely players like a DiCaprio? Where do I end and you begin?

Is meta out of the picture yet people? Can we concede that it is cool and not very practical? Abstract anything far enough and all you'll see is whiteness which might very well be blackness, but that still doesn't change the fact that you are sitting at a stop light and it's red. Sure everything is about itself, I understand, but I want to get from point A to point B.

Of all artistic tracks Meta is the most egotistical. It's always drawing attention to itself. So stop it. Think about something else, you're going to hurt your brain and mine is already dead you've violated it one too many times.
Good. The first step is always to acknowledge you have a problem. Yes, you don't know who you are. That's good. Go with it. Who are you? That's right - you don't know. So where do we go from here.

Your current state of hysteria will subside after a while, and in that whirlpool you will be able to think, to look into the void. That is, if you are brave enough. Many choose to simply close their eyes and never look into the void. To be blind, which is supposedly easy. Why think of these questions, better to escape and stick to red light-green light.

Embrace the fear. (If you are not too bored with these clichés already you should be. I'm trying to sound like one of those teachers in the martial arts movies speaking in fortune cookie language). Now you can think, calm down and think. Don't let the whirlpool scare you but look straight in the middle. Straight into the void in the middle, the rest is nothing and the way out is through the void.

For a masterful account of this, read Poe's: A decent into the Maelstrom.

Kaufman is only trying to scare you (which movies did you see by the way?), but don't run after the tail, look for where the head will be. A pity it's all tails.
Books Discussed
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems
by Edgar Allan Poe


In response to Arthur Mont
Correction to above. I said: "Embrace the fear."  It was as a joke as I felt like Sancho Panza saying cliché after cliché. You need to learn to live with the fear, not actually to embrace it.

I now feel bad saying it as people constantly say embrace this embrace that. Why? Many things we shouldn't embrace but rather kick to the ground. Many things in life are diseases and you shouldn't embrace them. Kick them, fight them, and if you can't beat them, try to survive them, but definitely don't embrace (except as a fighter - keep your friends close but your enemies closer).
Join the Community
Full Name:
Your Email:
New Password:
I Am:
By registering at THINQon.com, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Discussion info
Latest Post: October 29, 2009 at 10:04 AM
Number of posts: 3
Spans 5 days
People participating

  
Searching
No results found.