Jonathan Carroll's Blog, page 81

CarrollBlog 7.5

from Mikaela in Sweden:

Wanted to share this short bit of an article in a Swedish magazine called "ordfront".

It´s just such a wonderful description of something that I guess we all feel now and then...

The best description of how it feels like to be schizophrenic came from a catatonic man. He needed eight weeks psychotherapy (without medications) five days a week to be able to move out of the hospital and get back to work. One of his symptoms was that he was constantly bowing. When asked why

CarrollBlog 7.4

While I was waiting at the airport for someone a couple of days ago, I see Marilyn Manson of all people come through the arrivals gate. He's hand in hand with a pretty young woman. A bunch of fans stop him for autographs. What's most interesting is he looks very tired, a word I wouldn't normally associate with the King of Evil. Once many years ago I was leaving the building in New York where John Lennon lived. At that moment a limo pulled up in front of the place and suddenly there he was-- Lenn

CarrollBlog 7.3

Just because you're smart doesn't mean you're right

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The more you talk about yourself, the less people listen

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If you ever start thinking a little too highly of yourself, write for five minutes with your wrong hand. It's a nice instant-humbler.

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Never *ever* try to catch a sharp object when you drop it.

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Don't try finding shelter from the rain by walking close by a building. That's where all the big drops fal

CarrollBlog 7.2

At the neighborhood butcher they have a new feature-- free postcards of meat. On one wall near the front counter is a large selection of postcards with photos of different cuts-- steak, roast, chops, etcetera. All of them shot against stark white backgrounds so you get the real oomph of the delicious looking heartiness of the...meat. You can have as many of them as you like. Standing on line waiting my turn, I think who the hell would send someone a postcard with a picture of meat on it? "Having

CarrollBlog 7.1

A woman is walking down the street talking loudly to herself, gesturing dramatically, shaking her head. I'm sitting at an outdoor restaurant watching. My first thought-- uh oh-- here comes a nut. Then I see a man walking a few feet behind her. He's looking at the back of her head very intently. I wonder "what's *he* doing, staring at her like that?" Suddenly she plunks herself down at a table near me. The man sits down across from her and she goes on talking-- to him. I realized that in seconds

CarrollBlog 6.30

The Lonely Shoe Lying on the Road

by Muriel Spark

One sad shoe that someone has probably flung

out of a car or truck. Why only one?

This happens on an average one year

in four. But always throughout my

life, my travels, I see it like

a memorandum. Something I have

forgotten to remember,

that there are always

mysteries in life. That shoes

do not always go in pairs, any more

than we do. That one fits;

the other, not. That children can

thoughtlessly and in a merry fashion

CarrollBlog 6.29

The Effort

by Billy Collins

Would anyone care to join me

in flicking a few pebbles in the direction

of teachers who are fond of asking the question:

"What is the poet trying to say?"

as if Thomas Hardy and Emily Dickinson

had struggled but ultimately failed in their efforts—

inarticulate wretches that they were,

biting their pens and staring out the window for a clue.

Yes, it seems that Whitman, Amy Lowell

and the rest could only try and fail

but we in Mrs. Parker's third-period Engli

CarrollBlog 6.28

I was listening to a lecture by Ken Wilbur about consciousness. He mentioned something I had never thought about. Yet as soon as I heard it, my mind jumped on its horse and rode off in all sorts of interesting directions. Wilbur said one of the profound differences between mankind centuries ago and today was that in the past because a person was born, raised and usually died in one community and rarely left, their exposure to religious/spiritual ideas was limited to what was taught or believed o

CarrollBlog 6.26

On my Twitter account (jscarroll) I get lots of feedback from people who either do or don't like my comments and the links I post there. Most of their remarks are either nice or entirely reasonable, but there's one guy in particular who has begun to fascinate me. For no apparent reason he sends almost daily YouTube clips of stuff that is absolutely irrelevant to me, my work, what I have posted, whatever. Things like clips from old Russian movies of the 1950's, a performance by a Hungarian violin

CarrollBlog 6.25

The art gallery up the street that you thought would fail as soon as you saw the kind of things they were displaying. It lasted a year but now there are signs in the window saying it's closing and everything is half price. The objects on display are awful and garish. Even at half price, who would pay 100 euro for an inflated balloon wrapped in different colored string, or 500 euro for a giant magenta plastic phallus that doubles as a stool? The gallery is full of such things and as the rain begi