My philosophy professor from St. Olaf e-mailed me the galleys to his upcoming collection of essays, Love, Love, Love today. His name is Charles Taliaferro, and his teaching style is hilarious, yet open and informative, and he was able to make even the driest philosophers fun to learn about. He's one of those minds who, as soon as he starts speaking aloud, you know exits in rarefied air. I've read about two-thirds of this collection of essays already, and each one in fun to read yet profound in their own way, in the grand progressive Christian tradition of G.K. Chesterton. Here are some of the essay titles from Love, Love, Love: "Jury Duty with James Bond" "Drugs, a Bear, and an Owl: A Testimony" "I Want to Hold Your Hand!" "I Am So Sorry!" "Shipwrecks and Immortality" "Are We in a Crisis Yet?" "Going Down? Several Problems with Hate" "Confessions of a Sleepwalker" "The Goblins and My Parents" "Now That Is An Interesting Machine Gun" "A Modest Defense of Magic" "Enemies Are at the Gate, But Friends Are at the Door!" "It's Waterloo, Baby!"
What a cool guy.
19 comments:
He often spilled coffee in class, I think as a way to relax the class and make everyone laugh. It worked surpisingly well.
In other news, look for my soon to be published collection of essays:
Hate, Hate, Hate
featuring titles such as "Shopping for Crap at IKEA", "Stuck in Traffic", "John Madden Gives Brett Favre a Gentle, Yet Masculine Massage", and my personal favorite, "Republicans? More like Republican'ts!"
What I like is how no one ever respond's to Mikey's comments except me. Quite hilarious.
I just figured he was you.
Hey, thanks a lot. I am a real person but I chose not to use blogspot, but rather the far superior livejournal. If you wanted to see me cry you got it.
Okay, peeps. I just got off the phone with a very distraught Mikey. Are you happy now? I know I am.
Tell "Mikey" we feel for him.
You know what's worse than shopping for crap at IKEA, Mikey? Ordering said crap online and paying more in shipping than the actual item originally cost. Try that one on for size.
I used to use LiveJournal, but I got very annoyed at their weird template/style system, so I left. Which was a shame, because there were some cool people there, even though LJ itself was a bit sucky. It was so sucky it convinced me to spend money on membership and more space for profile pics. LiveJournal also wants you to go on a voyage of self-discovery every time you make a post, so you can tell the world what 'mood' you're in. Things like 'tickled' and 'har-har' make it into the moodlist though, so I always doubted its validity. You even feel obligated to start listening to music, just to put something in that horribly empty box. I find it difficult to concentrate on typing and listening to music, but it seems that most LiveJournalists can't make a post without playing some righteous air-guitar to their favourite hair band.
...I had a big lesbian following on LiveJournal though. I was like the male Cher.
Yeah, I agree. I find the little emotive aspects of livejournal incredibly trite. My favorite? One blogger has quotes from LoTR that changes in her icon form depending on her mood. I am a fan of hair metal, although I know better then to type and wail on my air guitar at the same iewhtiahtatjldkjkjl....sorry about that I was overcome with the awesomeness that is Warrant.
Also, I love the people who will drive 4 hours to get to an IKEA to pick up their stuff. I mean, it does make sense considering their shipping prices, but I fully expect all my IKEA bought furniture to turn to dust once I try and move them from the spot I assembled them at.
Is it true, "Mikey," that people studying psychology are just trying to get therapy on the sly?
Ha ha. So much is funny to me in this comment thread. Jimi/Cher, I'm glad you're back up and running. Computer problems fixed?
Asura, you are crazy. Don't ever change.
Well, I've found that a lot of people I know personally in clinical psychology usually have major issues of their own, which may be why they sought out that field in the first place. I havn't had a counseling psych class since undergrad; and it was pretty crappy free therapy. I'll give you a hint, we had to read a book titled, "Being a Gentle Man".
That said, as David will attest, I do offer free counseling services to writers seeking to reach their potential. It is sort of like sports psychology, but for those of the creative ilk.
Except poets, who are beyond my ability to help and should probably just give up.
Oh, fine. You went and got all serious on us.
Actually, though, that sounds really great. It's needed. I don't know if I can read your LiveJournal to see if there's more on it, though -- there's something that, just now, I'm finding visually difficult about it. But I'm having a weird morning. I'll try later.
I expect that the only thing we can do for poets is the Mary-Anne/Ginger Coconut-Induced Personality Shift. I believe that you'll find it in the DSM-IV under MAGCIPS.
My bad. Don't take anything I say online seriously. My counseling services basically involve me shouting "AUTHOR'S PREFERENCE!" and smacking his newest work with a baseball bat while David weeps softly in the corner.
My services are not cheap however, one hour = one pint of any microbrew beer.
I'd pay to see that.
Mikey is also a pro at cliche advice. Par example:
"These things happen"
Actually, that's not advice, exactly, is it? Well, hopefully someone gets my drift.
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