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Re: escapism (was re: JIN-ROH and LotR)

I like your optimistic interpretation of impluse.  I think there is great 
truth in the idea of spontaneousness being a sort of cure for a mundane and 
determined existence.  Perhaps this what the Existentialist's call to action 
was all about.  But as you stated impulses may have various sources and thus 
discernment is always needed to determine which to obey and which to deny, 
me thinks.


>From: "Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca>
>Reply-To: "Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca>
>CC: Over the Rhine List <Over-the-Rhine at actwin_com>
>Subject: Re: escapism (was re: JIN-ROH and LotR)
>Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 13:52:06 -0800 (PST)
>
>On Thu, 28 Mar 2002, Don Smith wrote:
> > For example, in _The Matrix_ (appropriately enough), there's a brief
> > scene in which Mouse says "to deny our impulses is to deny that which
> > makes us human".  Why is this in the film?
>
>I've always associated it with the idea, seen in other stories of a
>quasi-neo-Gnostic bent, that it is through spontaneous action that we can
>break out of our prefab existences -- Philip K. Dick gets into this in
>some of his writings, as do movies like _The Truman Show_ (where, if I'm
>not mistaken, Jim Carrey actually shouts, "I'm being SPONTANEOUS!").
>
>Of course, we might ask where these impulses *come* from ...
>
> > I remember a usenet post I read years ago, in which someone was arguing
> > that children should not be allowed to read books like the Narnia
> > series, because they might get the idea that faith was exciting, and
> > then when they grew up and found out how dull it is, they would leave
> > the church.
>
>[ LOL! ]
>
> > How sad, on so many levels.
>
>Well, true.  But I couldn't help laughing.  Absurdity does that to me.
>
>--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
>  "I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
>       Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom
>
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