#1
Mike Nelson here.
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I have interests in a few areas, such as:

- The best all-considered arrangement of socialist institutions (such as law, economics, etc.).
- Practical politics related to implementing the above (largely democratic/reformist).
- Philosophy related to the coordinates of the subject, including the impact of this on politics.
- Other countries and comparative social policy and politics.
- Quebec nationalism and the history of social movements.

I consider them important to myself largely in the above order, too. So an obvious mix of PPE sort of stuff. I have taken a wide range of undergraduate university courses on things related to the above: Major in economics, major in history, minors worth of philosophy, development studies and politics. Most people I talk to tell me I should go to grad school. I don't really have the marks for it, because I was really sick while in school (brain problems), but I think if I were healthy enough I could get through, especially if I was hand-holded by disability supports and such. There are a few universities that would let me in, probably, and from there I could always get into a masters in a cognate discipline at a somewhat better school afterwards if I wanted to continue on, or whatever. However, a few things make me very hesitant to do this.

I have no interest in completing schoolwork, and I never really have. I missed many assignments in university (due to anxiety problems but also because I saw it as largely make-work). Grad school seems to require you to operate at a pretty high level of discipline, which I don't really have, even if I were to work myself up into a state where I could maintain it for a while. I want to do research, but I have no interest in contriving a product out of it that doesn't flow organically from believing I might have something specific to say. Otherwise it is hoop-jumping, which I understand is fine for most, but grates against me horribly.

I've tried contacting professors with questions about directing me in my reading or keeping tabs on me but no one seems that interested since I'm still a beginner. One person I really respect suggested that I read about ten obvious books and then see what I wanted to read after that. Which is fine but not exactly motivating when you have extreme problems with getting things done. I would gain a lot from being in a structured environment, I think, but one that was focused on learning rather than producing contrived products. I'm not sure where to find that, though. I was thinking of just maybe auditing various courses, so I wouldn't have to put together papers but would still be able to follow along. Then I could sit in grad courses, make friends with grad students and professors, and generally improve, and then move on from there. But I'm not sure what to do, really.
#2
[account deactivated]
#3
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i hate to be one of those guys but you're not thinking practical enough. what career do you want? otherwise i dont see really see the point.
#4
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You have a real problem you need to work with a trained professional about overcoming. It can't really be fixed on internet comedy politix forum
#5
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why don't you do what i do, which is to work in a deadend career and lead an aimless existence that doesn't even manage to get hedonism right
#6
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the best you can do is happen upon a barely tolerable place where you can spend 40 hours a week. most people cast things in terms of interests and career paths-- it's all bullshit. the only thing that matters is what your coworkers are like. i would work for satan himself if my coworkers werent very serious and they provided good coffee in the break room
#7
Mike Nelson here.
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You people have low expectations.
#8
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yeah, but it tends to maximize my pleasure and performance in life since im a weirdo. ive already sunk myself into an engineering career and dont really care to dig out. not yet at least!
#9
Mike Nelson here.
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maximizing pleasure is for swine
#10
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i am aiming high, i plan to be famous and sell a million books and have a twitter with 50,000 followers and i'll bang aging literature groupies (there are 3 of them in the universe; 2 are aliens)
#11
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i'm aiming high, i intend to slowly but surely befriend impper and mooch off of him once he becomes rich and famous.
#12
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nothing would give me greater pleasure than to have a throng of moochers who can't stand me but will stay around as long as i give them things and throw decadent parties
#13
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well i dunno about a throng but if you'd get married you stand a strong chance to have at least one.
#14
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why do you care if i get married
#15
tardy on these heaters
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wear jorts or die sharting
#16
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lol i was just playing a dumb miso joke. i.e wives hate their husbands and leech off of them.

#17
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i'm really sensitive about marriage right now. Don't step.
#18
Mike Nelson here.
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why's that imperr :allears:
#19
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If you don't have dreams of revolution you're already dead.
#20
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im anti-anti-oedipus
#21
Mike Nelson here.
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babyhueypnewton posted:
If you don't have dreams of revolution you're already dead.

what limited imaginations people must have if they can only conceive of revolution as a fast thing, an easy thing, a violent thing

#22
mt.real
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let's hear it... slowly, quietly, and in an orderly fashion... for the incremental, common-sense... revolution... hit it, lawrence welk...
#23
Mike Nelson here.
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agreed... with speed.
#24
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you sound perfect for police academy to me.
#25
penitent
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im going to write books and make money and tantalise brendle with the possibility of a publishing deal i can get through all my connections but then i'll be 'ehhh i cant really pass this on, do you think you could do something with more mainstream appeal? with vampires maybe people like vampires'
#26
penitent
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how come nobody fucking posts in this forum
#27
penitent
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post. post you fuckers. i cant do this on my own
#28
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i actually went to a bar w/ this girl who is friends w/ a bunch of people i know, and it turns out she just got a job with a publisher and its her job to hunt for shit, she said if i know any cool writers let her know

so i told her about fuck & destroy, not sure if she was havin' it
#29
penitent
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i will sell out for money. i will write any old shit
#30
mt.real
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writing is one of the last remaining vocations i have respect for
#31
penitent
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dont its sheer prostitution, whats more its prostitution in an age of libidinal extinction
#32
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if dk's writing is anything like his music i'll pass.

hey dk.
#33
mt.real
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there's at least a tiny chance a writer is writing something he or she genuinely feels and is expressing it in words and i read it and that's still respectable despite the millions of shitty hacks. imo

i mean i guess you could say that labour prostitution is better because at least you're not expressing something for money, then, but ... uff

one of these things is microscopically better than the other, i'm sure of it
#34
mt.real
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i'm in montreal for the first time since being 14 and confused, and i have hooked up with a woman from France and we're going to get together and talk with each other in our respective languages to get good at conversations

it's such a nice genuine exchange of things to help another person, i am happy about it
#35
penitent
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my writings a lot better than my music.
#36
penitent
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self-expression is revolting egotism and based on outdated premises, good writing is never about self-expression.
#37
penitent
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abstract expressionist painter jackson pollock was literally an ideological weapon of the cia against communism. self-expressive art is generally asemic masturbatory nonsense inextricably bound up with the cult of the artist who creates while others passively consume. good art is about communication, reinsciption, conversation, it is created not by the artist himself but at the intersection between artist and viewer, art that is locked away in a safety deposit box to accrue value is Literally Not Art
#38
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Bluebeard is a good book dealing with this subject imo and vonnegut basically agrees with your premise.
#39
tardy on these heaters
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Art is always aimed (like a rifle, if you wish) at the middle class. The working class has its own culture and will have no truck with fanciness of any kind. The upper class owns the world and thus needs know no more about the world than is necessary for its orderly exploitation. The notion that art cuts across class boundaries to stir the hearts of hoe hand and Morgan alike is, at best, a fiction useful to the artist, his Hail Mary. It is the poor puzzled bourgeoisie that is sufficiently uncertain, sufficiently hopeful, to pay attention to art. It follows (as the night the day) that the bourgeoisie should get it in the neck.
#40
penitent
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SomeIsraeliFuck posted:
Bluebeard is a good book dealing with this subject imo and vonnegut basically agrees with your premise.



i havent read it but i have an instinctual dislike of vonnegut. more like vonneFATGUT amirite