[PREV - THE_CAGED_SELF]    [TOP]

SPONTANEOUS_COMBUSTION

                                             July 13, 2007


I've often remarked that the idea of
spontaniety has a strong appeal to the
"over-intellectualized introvert".          THE_MIST

This is a subject that I think I
know something about, but it's no
longer a hot topic on my mind.


To some extent it's a
solved problem with me:

   o   I don't have so much trouble
       being "spontaneous", presuming      When I was younger, I had
       I'm in an environment that's        more trouble with this,
       receptive to it.                    and I was not inclinced to
                                           cut myself much slack on
   o   There are many, many, people        it...  but in retrospect I
       around with far worse               think a lot of my guarded
       problems with this than I --        character was entirely
       particularly in my chosen           justifiable.
       profession, where the term
       "Asperger's" is often heard.             If you feel like you're
                                                living under siege,
   o   It's not at all clear to me              maybe it's not entirely
       that a lack of spontaneous               your problem.
       extroversion is anything to
       apologise for: maybe you're                 And if I don't
       quiet, contemplative,                       sit on 90% of the
       reflective... so?                           thoughts running
                                                   through my head,
                                                   I often come off
                                                   as obnoxious,
                                                   conceited, etc.
                   LINES
                                                      Why the hell would
                                                      anyone want me
                                                      to become an
                                                      extrovert?


There was a desperate drive to
escape from Fifties America,
a feeling that civilization was
over-civilized, that humanity             I suspect that servicemen
needed to get back in touch with          returning from the
a simpler, more primitive existence.      Pacific were quite a
                                          corrupting influence...

                                             Utopian visions
                                             of island paradises:

                                             "South Pacific";
                  The psychoanalysis         "Shanghai Lil";
                  cult probably didn't       Margret Mead
                  help much, either.
                                               Symptoms:
                  Your problems are all
                  the result of repressed      Tiki parties and exotica;
                  desires, you know.
                                               "Playboy";

                                               Rumors of "key parties"...

                                                 KEYPART



Paul Goodman had a
recurrent obsession with              GOODMAN
spontaniety that he
couldn't seem to get over.

     He was stuck on the
     notion that he was      KNOTS
     stuck with too
     many notions...


                                        KEROUAC   SUBTERRA   BEAT
   Anti-intellectual intellectuals
   are a strange phenomena:             DAMN_INTELLECTUALS

                                        ICKY_GOBBING

                                               TRIBAL
   All the rage in "The Sixties":

    "Fill your heart with love today
     Don't play the game of time
     Things that happened in the past
     Only happened in your Mind                  I think of that as a
     Only in your Mind; Forget your Mind         David Bowie song
     And you'll be free"                         (from "Hunky Dory"),
                                                 but apparently it's
                                                 by "Biff Rose and
                                                 Paul Williams", and
                                                 was also recorded by
                                                 Tiny Tim.  It dates
                                                 back to 1968.

                          [ref]



--------
[NEXT - SINISTER_TIME]