Talk:Freedom
From CyberOne Wiki
Hey all - when we discussed our passions and also when we contemplated what each group would present, we talked about freedom as it relates to music and pushing the boundaries of musical genres. I thought I'd include a couple links to some music that I thought illustrated this "pushing the limits" phenomenon. The first is a link to a music video made by Grandmaster Flash, one of the pioneers of hip hop music. The second is a link to a recording in which Rakim is the MC (the vocals) and the beat is produced by DJ Premier. Remembering that hip hop found its roots in jazz, rock, funk, soul etc., you can hear the progress from these predecessor genres in Grandmaster Flash and then the further evolution in Rakim/DJ Premier, which is more akin to modern-day hip-hop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3kRuJhIVIo (Grandmaster Flash)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_juupxSj6wI (Rakim/DJ Premier)
-Brian K
PS As a more personal aside, I would suggest searching on youtube for "DJ Premier" and listening to some more of the tracks he produced, specifically those in which the MC is Guru. The name of their group is GangStarr. Here is a link to the title track off one of their best albums, "Moment of Truth": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH3hrtp1T84&feature=related
PPS This video really doesn't, in my mind, have to do with what's said above. It's just a prime example of what I think of when I try to picture spontaneous, ecstatic be-ing. Al is human fire in this one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=YIV5KnCeB98. OK - I'll stop with the youtubing now... BK
About Fear and Loathing:
Hey guys,
Completely by coincidence I came across an interview with Johnny Depp in Esquire today, and before I could look away - which I tried to do but failed at - I saw a section where he talks about Fear and Loathing (Depp played Raoul Duke in the movie):
"Look, see this little carrot near the dip? Watch. I'll put it in my mouth as if it were a cigarette holder. Now I'm Raoul Duke. I spent so much time with Hunter Thompson, it just became second nature. As soon as I put anything resembling a cigarette holder in my mouth, he starts to come out." -JD in Esquire, January 2008.
Saw it and thought it was a funny anecdote about the book/movie.
- Cara
I mentioned Pnin in class last Monday. Nabokov beautifully captured how we struggle against ourselves and what we know in his passage describing Timofey Pnin's recollection of a past love, Mira Belochkin. I want to leave it for you to read, so as not to lessen its force, but I encourage you to see how the expanse of freedom may itself be so devastatingly vast that our acts to impose upon ourselves and limit the acceptable space for our memories may furnish a liberty that contends with the freedom we suppose we ultimately desire.
^---- Matt, you lost me at the end. - Steve
Follow-up from Feb. 4th's Fear & Loathing discussion
We mostly centered around Hunter Thompson's subjective goals and experience of self, etc., but the question still remains from when we embarked upon the novel: Should people be absolutely free to do whatever they choose, as long as it does not "hurt" another? I'm curious as to what some of your gut reactions to this question are, or where it takes you. --Rhaferd.jd10 23:25, 10 February 2008 (EST)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
I mentioned in class the close relationship between this book and Nietzsche's work, for anyone who's interested, this is the the passage from Nietzsche which the book is a direct reference/response to:
- The greatest weight.— What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you in your loneliest loneliness and say to you: "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again—and you with it, speck of dust!"— Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine!" If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you; the question in each and every thing, "Do you desire this once more, and innumerable times more?" would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight! Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal? —
- The Gay Science, §341.
Here, for comparison, is a link to the first couple of pages of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
--Steve
I thought this was interesting apropos of our law vs. faith discussion... if you're one of the faithful, here are a few more non-laws to live by.
- Cara
