Semiautonomy and You
Why, for example, should a group of simple, stable compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen struggle for billions of years to organize themselves into a professor of chemistry? What's the motive?
- Robert M. Pirsig, "Lila"
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain.
- Friedrich Schiller, "The Maid of Orleans," Act III, Scene 6
...asking for the impossible is one good definition of a revolution.
- Simon Schama, "Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution"
[A brief aside before plunging into the fray. For some reason, when I began this entry, the word "semiautonomous" was bouncing around in my head. The concept seemed a grand contradiction - "semi-"independence and control over your life sounds a bit like quasi-murder or partial pregnancy - so I threw it in there into the title. Not sure if I'll even touch on it in the course of what I write. But my aside. Oh yes. ANYWAY. In consulting the dictionary to check on the exact definition of "semiautonomous" [apparently it's only an adjective, the noun doesn't seem to exist, oddly enough], I found another cool word. "Autonym." Isn't that keen? A pseudonym is a false name, and anonymity means namelessness [implying the existence of the "nameless name," or anonym], but an autonym, well...that's your true name. To publish under your autonym is simply to use your own name, as opposed to the pen name of the pseudonym or the no-name of the anonym. Your real name. And I thought to myself, "Self"...that's how I address myself in these situations..."Self, isn't that strange? A word that no one ever uses, whose definition seems self-evident." An autonym. What would be the possible context in which such a rare vintage of a word might be swished around and imbibed? And I decided that an autonym, more than just one's actual name, ought to be one's secret, unknown, unpronouncable and indelible True Name, the secret name we give to ourselves and never tell anyone, the alias we use in our dreams, the alter ego, the doppelganger, the person we fool ourselves into believing we actually are when no one else is around to see how frail, how foolish, how disappointingly real we are.]
[That's what it SHOULD mean. Autonym. I like my definition better.]
[hrm.]
[I did say it would be brief, didn't I? My apologies. On with the show...such as it is.]
Not sure where to go now. That "aside" really took its sweet time, didn't it? The actual post now is going to feel anticlimactic. And if there's one thing I detest, it's a lack of sufficient climax.
Take my wife. Please!
Maybe I'll just pelt you with Borscht Belt Catskills comedian one-liners and punchlines until you all just leave.
hmm.
What to say, what to say...
Boy, that new ELEKTRA movie looks pretty terrible, doesn't it.
Yeah.
Although Jennifer Garner is pretty hot. So.
But I didn't actually see DAREDEVIL. Let alone that body-switching movie she did last year. So she's not hot enough to get me to watch a shitty movie, I don't think.
....
[glances at watch]
So, what are we, about a half hour into this movie, Joel?
TV commercial tagline I just heard: "Forget everything you think you know about RESIDENT EVIL...." Somehow I don't think that line was written with me in mind. Because I don't know shit about RESIDENT EVIL. Something about zombies, no? Personally, I can't stand when people spend hours playing video games. For one thing, a lot of the time, they're just stoned, and I don't like stoners. Secondly, as a writer [stop snickering back there in the cheap seats! fucking assholes....], I find video games to be something a nascent but growing danger to the art of storytelling. This isn't just some snotty, bespectacled, Ivory Tower knee-jerk reaction against video games, because I don't wear glasses, for one. Video games are visual and textual experiences, and have the veneer of telling a story. But they're not stories, they're only puzzles. Do A to get to B. A doesn't work, try C then. Repeat ad nauseum. Games have no consequences. They allow you to make mistake after mistake and try again, only on the eighth attempt the unknown isn't quite so mysterious, the shocking less so, the horrific merely noteworthy. It's not really a story. I guess it makes no claim to be, so why am I bitching, but still...a few months ago, that second RESIDENT EVIL movie came out, and I can't remember how many people were talking about excitedly! Like they were highly anticipating seeing it! Because, and this is without a hint of irony, they really thought it would make for a good movie! Based on a video game. And then the purists would walk out of the theater and complain that it "wasn't as good as the game." As if they were discussing the works of Shakespeare or Dickens. It just...astounds me.
...
Well that wasn't much of a discussion. Just came across as a cranky old rant. "I don't like video games, I'm old!" "In my day we had PITFALL, and we liked it!" bah. I guess I'm not feeling particularly erudite or verbose to-day. Sorry folks. Next time, I promise, I'll be profound as all get out. Just you wait. You'll see. Top of the world, ma. You'll see.
- Robert M. Pirsig, "Lila"
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain.
- Friedrich Schiller, "The Maid of Orleans," Act III, Scene 6
...asking for the impossible is one good definition of a revolution.
- Simon Schama, "Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution"
[A brief aside before plunging into the fray. For some reason, when I began this entry, the word "semiautonomous" was bouncing around in my head. The concept seemed a grand contradiction - "semi-"independence and control over your life sounds a bit like quasi-murder or partial pregnancy - so I threw it in there into the title. Not sure if I'll even touch on it in the course of what I write. But my aside. Oh yes. ANYWAY. In consulting the dictionary to check on the exact definition of "semiautonomous" [apparently it's only an adjective, the noun doesn't seem to exist, oddly enough], I found another cool word. "Autonym." Isn't that keen? A pseudonym is a false name, and anonymity means namelessness [implying the existence of the "nameless name," or anonym], but an autonym, well...that's your true name. To publish under your autonym is simply to use your own name, as opposed to the pen name of the pseudonym or the no-name of the anonym. Your real name. And I thought to myself, "Self"...that's how I address myself in these situations..."Self, isn't that strange? A word that no one ever uses, whose definition seems self-evident." An autonym. What would be the possible context in which such a rare vintage of a word might be swished around and imbibed? And I decided that an autonym, more than just one's actual name, ought to be one's secret, unknown, unpronouncable and indelible True Name, the secret name we give to ourselves and never tell anyone, the alias we use in our dreams, the alter ego, the doppelganger, the person we fool ourselves into believing we actually are when no one else is around to see how frail, how foolish, how disappointingly real we are.]
[That's what it SHOULD mean. Autonym. I like my definition better.]
[hrm.]
[I did say it would be brief, didn't I? My apologies. On with the show...such as it is.]
Not sure where to go now. That "aside" really took its sweet time, didn't it? The actual post now is going to feel anticlimactic. And if there's one thing I detest, it's a lack of sufficient climax.
Take my wife. Please!
Maybe I'll just pelt you with Borscht Belt Catskills comedian one-liners and punchlines until you all just leave.
hmm.
What to say, what to say...
Boy, that new ELEKTRA movie looks pretty terrible, doesn't it.
Yeah.
Although Jennifer Garner is pretty hot. So.
But I didn't actually see DAREDEVIL. Let alone that body-switching movie she did last year. So she's not hot enough to get me to watch a shitty movie, I don't think.
....
[glances at watch]
So, what are we, about a half hour into this movie, Joel?
TV commercial tagline I just heard: "Forget everything you think you know about RESIDENT EVIL...." Somehow I don't think that line was written with me in mind. Because I don't know shit about RESIDENT EVIL. Something about zombies, no? Personally, I can't stand when people spend hours playing video games. For one thing, a lot of the time, they're just stoned, and I don't like stoners. Secondly, as a writer [stop snickering back there in the cheap seats! fucking assholes....], I find video games to be something a nascent but growing danger to the art of storytelling. This isn't just some snotty, bespectacled, Ivory Tower knee-jerk reaction against video games, because I don't wear glasses, for one. Video games are visual and textual experiences, and have the veneer of telling a story. But they're not stories, they're only puzzles. Do A to get to B. A doesn't work, try C then. Repeat ad nauseum. Games have no consequences. They allow you to make mistake after mistake and try again, only on the eighth attempt the unknown isn't quite so mysterious, the shocking less so, the horrific merely noteworthy. It's not really a story. I guess it makes no claim to be, so why am I bitching, but still...a few months ago, that second RESIDENT EVIL movie came out, and I can't remember how many people were talking about excitedly! Like they were highly anticipating seeing it! Because, and this is without a hint of irony, they really thought it would make for a good movie! Based on a video game. And then the purists would walk out of the theater and complain that it "wasn't as good as the game." As if they were discussing the works of Shakespeare or Dickens. It just...astounds me.
...
Well that wasn't much of a discussion. Just came across as a cranky old rant. "I don't like video games, I'm old!" "In my day we had PITFALL, and we liked it!" bah. I guess I'm not feeling particularly erudite or verbose to-day. Sorry folks. Next time, I promise, I'll be profound as all get out. Just you wait. You'll see. Top of the world, ma. You'll see.
posted by Patrick at 4:50 AM
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