Great interview with Nolan about the Odyssey. Anglo-Americans have fixated either on the feats of film technology or the usual thought-destroying algorithmically popular topics. By contrast this is a nuanced philosophical exploration.
People on here will ask “Is it too late to start over at 28?” and everyone will reply “Yikes. Hate to break it to you gramps but it was over for you 10 years ago.” Meanwhile my 63 year old neighbor is taking the bar exam because he has a list of pharma companies he plans to sue
One of things not many seem to appreciate is the political fallout of this catastrophe. Gaza destroyed the Genocide Joe coalition. Iran is destroying MAGA. And there is no political force on the horizon that can gather anything more than minimal consent.
It’s not just partisan polarization. Most people hate both parties and all politicians for selling them out to the insurers and the lobby and the next guy writing them a check. They hate the mainstream press; now a term of abuse. And they hate the tech oligarchs too. Witness the backlash against AI already.
The US is the richest nation in history. But it is strategically soft bc the political order has been destroyed by the feeding frenzy of the elites. Elite-mass relations are more or less openly hostile. Trust of elites and national institutions could hardly be any lower. Trust has collapsed more generally. We’re looking at a very advanced state of decomposition here.
This country is going to fight a twenty year long counterinsurgency war against an Iran? Are you fucking kidding me? There will be firing squads in the streets within two years.
a lot of people, especially westerners, especially-especially americans, conflate considering others with being controlled & respond with defiance. it’s very weird behavior.
unlearn shame. all forms of shame: unemployment, illness, vulnerability, longing, desire, errors, failures. you do not need to feel ashamed of what you are experiencing or living. freedom and shame cannot coexist.
Literature is humanity’s longest conversation with itself about what it means to be alive. It has been going on for thousands of years. You are not late, you are not unqualified, you are not too much or too little or too broken. Pull up a chair. This conversation was always about you.