tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post2504469215829101328..comments2023-12-23T19:04:18.739-05:00Comments on The Crow's Eye: Liberatory Nihilism, Or how I faced the future my children have inherited...Jack Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-19093772121256304362010-06-24T10:16:00.147-04:002010-06-24T10:16:00.147-04:00Sometimes, it makes sense to abandon the terms of ...<i>Sometimes, it makes sense to abandon the terms of engagement set by your opponent, y'know?</i><br /><br />I do. To accept the terms of engagement desired by the enemy is to strategically surrender to one's own weakness against it. Thus the wisdom of the guerrilla option. Giap's <i>People's War, People's Army</i> is a good read in this regard, and many other sources.<br /><br />Being of a depressive bent, I have to struggle mightily against giving up. Crucial to not giving up on myself and the future in general is a wholehearted rejection of the pacifist, meliorist nostrums of liberalism.<br /><br />Anything that impedes the functioning of the death state and/or hastens the collapse of empire is a good thing. Including embracing - even becoming - a <i>monstrum.</i>RedPhillipnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-56859381017897010842010-06-24T09:32:01.762-04:002010-06-24T09:32:01.762-04:00Phillip,
Little of this, little of that. Can you ...Phillip,<br /><br />Little of this, little of that. Can you embrace a monstrum* in defense of beauty?<br /><br />I think so.<br /><br />*<br /><br />I wanted to calculate my own despair, to purse it until I came to the logical conclusion of a mathematical nihilism.<br /><br />I want to dispense with hope and faith in human decency, and see if I can still retain my integrity, see if I can still exist (that is, stand out) within and for a commonweal.<br /><br />I think so.<br /><br />But, I'm done with this passiveness which infects our ilk, this pretense to pacifism and do-gooder respect for the crushing machine parts who rule us.<br /><br />Sometimes, it makes sense to abandon the terms of engagement set by your opponent, y'know?<br /><br />Respect,<br /><br />Jack<br /><br />* - "a thing that evokes fear and wonder" ~ WikiJack Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-14572137856120206632010-06-23T22:33:18.111-04:002010-06-23T22:33:18.111-04:00The menu of monsters is infinite. Most any will d...The menu of monsters is infinite. Most any will do when the charge is to go out among the horror and lay waste to the wasted and broken aborted world we find there.<br /><br />I imagine myself troll-like and flailing about in my rage - chewing off my hands in despair. Only to vomit the pieces and have more of me arise to repeat the futility some more. An army of my hopeless self, belching fire and shitting acid on a world forever irreparable. I despise myself for caring so much that so much beauty, so much life, is destroyed by such venal stupidity and greed.RedPhillipnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-20196319858717013592010-06-23T15:52:52.955-04:002010-06-23T15:52:52.955-04:00I don't know if my kobold reference was a tota...I don't know if my kobold reference was a total fail or The Compleat Win, now.<br /><br />I just wanted to pick a monstrum to make a point about doing things from the outside...Jack Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-86730445331588281162010-06-23T13:52:15.512-04:002010-06-23T13:52:15.512-04:00Kobolds were the best first level villains in Dung...Kobolds were the best first level villains in Dungeons & Dragons.<br /><br />Then I kind-of got into them, understood their culture more, how they were misunderstood by humans, and now I have a 7th level Kobold Mage that kicks ass.Solar Heronoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-56666231992209297772010-06-22T12:22:15.574-04:002010-06-22T12:22:15.574-04:00I really enjoyed American Gods, but not enough to ...I really enjoyed American Gods, but not enough to read the sequel or any other works by the author.fwoanhttp://forwantofanail.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-9511238130128529692010-06-21T22:11:25.560-04:002010-06-21T22:11:25.560-04:00Toward the end of the book, when Gaiman reveals th...Toward the end of the book, when Gaiman reveals through his protagonist named "Shadow" that Hinzelmann is a kobold, Shadow describes Hinzelmann as a goblin-faced old man. In the story, Hinzelmann has created a small idyllic town in the northern woods of Michigan (or Wisconsin, I forget which) and the town annually has a lottery for the "sink date" of an old jalopy that is driven out onto the iced-over lake on which the town is built.<br /><br />After Shadow realizes Hinzelmann is a kobold, he travels to the town to investigate the jalopy in this year's lottery. The day he arrives, it's almost time for the jalopy to break through and sink. Shadow is trying to open the trunk when the ice gives way. As the car is sinking he gets the trunk open and sees the corpse of a 12-year-old girl who was reported missing the prior Fall. Shadow realizes that all the jalopies at the bottom of the lake have a similar child corpse in them. Hinzelmann the kobold has been sacrificing a child every year since he arrived and created the town, to keep the town idyllic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-9977725201191300912010-06-21T20:35:31.079-04:002010-06-21T20:35:31.079-04:00Kobolds are mischievous bastards, in most myths. I...Kobolds are mischievous bastards, in most myths. I was aiming for that.<br /><br />Goblins, not so much. They horde up and do very bad things to the very pretty people.<br /><br />Then again, now I'm stretching the imagery beyond its original purpose.<br /><br />S'all good.Jack Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-92098336225079496172010-06-21T20:06:42.115-04:002010-06-21T20:06:42.115-04:00Same thing, really. Just finished Gaiman's &q...Same thing, really. Just finished Gaiman's "American Gods" last week. There's a character in there named Hinzelmann who is a kobold of Germanic legend, in human form. The plot premise is about ancient gods of legend and myth, versus modern gods of technology. Pretty decent read, and the only Gaiman I've read. It was passed on to me by an old college friend with whom I trade books periodically. I'd only heard and read Gaiman's name and reputation in brief passing before this. Can't say I buy into the "genius" hype I've read about him, not based on American Gods anyway, but it was a good read.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-76705456081432100362010-06-21T19:20:51.943-04:002010-06-21T19:20:51.943-04:00Don't know enough Gaiman to get the reference....Don't know enough Gaiman to get the reference.<br /><br />Was thinking the original Bavarian-Black Forest variety, and their cognates throughout pre-Jesusian Europe.Jack Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499087036876745723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-3375534396178785652010-06-21T18:36:02.066-04:002010-06-21T18:36:02.066-04:00kobolds?
like Gaiman's Hinzelmann?
goblin-fa...kobolds?<br /><br />like Gaiman's Hinzelmann?<br /><br />goblin-faced kid-killers?<br /><br />yikes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-83762789699183798072010-06-21T09:41:59.799-04:002010-06-21T09:41:59.799-04:00yesyesC-Nihilisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16593930492411196818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102937856333775840.post-60919505413253655552010-06-19T18:52:54.324-04:002010-06-19T18:52:54.324-04:00AmenAmenFrederickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12796513694478927710noreply@blogger.com