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“The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.”
—Schopenhauer
Source: Unknown
Welcome to the occasional roundup edition of Other Life. Did you know I first started publishing a curatorial/round-up format in October 2019? I’ve run it on/off in that time, but that’s about 5 years ago now. I need to make a big spreadsheet of all the cool stuff I’ve collected and discussed…
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As I’m sure you know, AI voices are now pretty much human-quality (maybe just a few final percentage points remain).
I’ll be curious to see if any of you actually starting listening instead of reading.
Love in the Afternoon (1972) by Eric Rohmer
After many years with only one woman, you hardly remember what it was like.
The change in how you see women is so dramatic it's bizarre... I'm not talking about lust or temptation—both of which a loyal husband can generally solve, and both of which have been treated to death in works of art—I'm talking about the weird state(s) that come after the conquest (more or less) of lust and temptation.
Twenty years ago, I once had sex with a girl I met on a subway in the middle of the day. The same night. Today, if a younger female stranger speaks to me in public, it's like encountering an alien race I only vaguely remember from a past life. I generally don't feel lust or temptation toward other women anymore, but that is precisely what’s weird. Maybe it's a testosterone thing and it's bad, or maybe it's successful self-training in virtue… How do you know the difference, ultimately? Some men will make fun of this, but few will have a coherent answer to the question. One is not supposed to discuss these matters.
The mind of a loyal husband is much more bizarre than you would ever imagine from the outside. I've never been able to describe what I described above, and I've never heard it described either.
And that’s why I enjoyed this film, Love in the Afternoon (1972) by Eric Rohmer, which was recommended to me on Twitter (I don’t recall the context). I appreciated Frédéric's descriptions of what it's like, as a loyal husband and father, to see other women in the world.
The tale is realistic, it portrays a plausible scenario where a decent man could find himself dangerously close to having an affair. One of the problems with marriage is that if both partners are trustworthy, they begin to see each other as solved problems. Complete loyalty tends to be punished with mutual boredom, sadly. There are ways to counteract this, of course, but it's a real tendency, and the film isolates it well.
I thought this was a nice, and relatively wholesome (for a French guy), portrait of the midlife, married man's libidinal economy.
How Are Masterpieces Made? On Perennial Seller (2017) by Ryan Holiday
The book Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday is commendable because it advises writers to pursue excellence and adopt a long-term attitude.
There is one thing, however, that he neglects. He fails to acknowledge that many masterpieces result more from a mix of passion, exuberance, and courage—a certain excessive of vitality—than the systematic perfecting he lauds. The most obvious example is of course someone like Nietzsche, who produced several works that are now considered masterpieces, even though some of them were written quickly, in bursts of enthusiasm, without professional editing, and often riddled with mistakes, contradictions, and all kinds of excesses.
Systematic perfecting has its failure modes also, it should be noted. For instance, formulism and conformity, insofar as optimization generally means convergence toward some local maximum. I respect Ryan Holiday's success sincerely, but one must note that he has excelled primarily in the production of inspirational philosophy summaries for businessmen.
Holiday is correct that a writer should aim to produce masterpieces, and he himself is one kind of virtuoso, but it must be remembered that there are different types of writers and different types of masterpieces. Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday. (Hat tip to Alex Petkas who strongly encouraged me to read this).
Starling by Sarah Kinsley
This song is just too beautiful. I can hardly believe how beautiful it is. Perhaps I'm on a manic upswing, but I have not been touched by a song to this degree since I can remember. The lyrics have nothing to do with me, but nonetheless. Her voice is sometimes compared to Lana Del Rey's, you can hear that inspiration for sure, but this is more classically oriented. A different pathos and gravitas. I'm no music writer, but I felt compelled to report this. Listen.
Plato: Trial and Death of Socrates, August 20th at 7:00 AM - 8:15 AM Central
Join us for a discussion on Plato's Trial and Death of Socrates. While reading, please prepare some written observations or, at the very least, some questions for discussion. I'll begin with some remarks on what I find most interesting, but these meetings are primarily for you to develop your own ideas around the material. Members can RSVP here (free). Guests can RSVP here for a small fee.
Around Town
Mars Review of Books White Party, August 31. Discount code 'JMURPH723' for 20% off. Sadly I can’t make this but if you read this newsletter you’ll be welcomed. Tell Noah I say hello. Buy tickets here.
How Empires are Built, August 22-25. Alex Petkas (Cost of Glory) is organizing a weekend retreat in Quito, Ecuador for theorists and practitioners (aspiring or active) of empire-building. I’ll be there. Learn more here and apply to join here.