June 5, 2011

Longing

I long for somewhat ******* women and regret that I didn't live in Paris in the 20's. The fantasy doesn't include participating in WWII later on. Maybe I go off and volunteer in the Lincoln Brigade, get a noble wound (The Sun Also Rises) and after avoid the war by moving to Lisbon.

What Auden drank:

Did you know that W. H. Auden had martinis daily for with breakfast. The single period, daily, during which he was not drinking, was his afternoon nap. Don't try this at home.

Free will, god, the social contract, men & woman, all in one one short paragraph:

 The best extant philosophical and scientific evidence argues against the possibility of free will. Yet, we must pretend that it exists, otherwise we would be monsters walking the earth, if we are not already so. Absent the pretension of the existance of free will, there would be no accountability, right? That would not be so good for the presumed social contract, would it? a propos this, were there a god, it would not have designed natural selection as it has come down. Would it have purposefully made men and women so at odds with each other with regard to desire, love, sex? I don't think so. But it is the way it is (god, what a tautology!), and we men can only wish that women could forgive us. And, we them, I suppose.

Exeunt.