Smart Talented Unique Person(s) in Demand (STUPID) discussion
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Hey! if Jon Stewart can interview Bill O'Reilly and nobody got hurt! why can't I interview MyFlesSingOut!?
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The Crimson Fucker, King Of The Lost
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Nov 15, 2010 09:35AM
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Hi, Alfonso. Hey, I just had a sudden flash of inspiration: If this goes well we should do a second interview where I can only answer questions with images found through Google Image Search. What do you think?
Mod
but let's get things started!
WHAT THE FUCK MFSO!? WHAT THE FUCK???
I think that the word 'fuck' is totally fucking indispensable and perhaps one of the most satisfying fucking words to ever fucking escape the human fucking mouth. In keeping with a sort of 'persona' I've developed here on GR I'll link to a few things related to swearing, one purely funny and one academic (and funny in its own way).
Mod
but let's get to the "serious" questions dude!
MFSO: On a website populated almost entirely by people who are in some degree or another intellectuals, your shelves just strike me as so... intellectual. Forty-eight books on linguistics? I know a Linguistics major who doesn't have that many! Can you tell us a little about your background and what it is you do?
Keep in mind that I have nearly 800 books on my to-read list. I'm sure many of those books with a "linguistics" tag are unread, for instance. But yeah, I've read some purely intellectual stuff in my day. A lot of it in college. (Segueing into answering the question about background) I attended college at this tiny, sorta eccentric, liberal arts school from 2003-2007. On a whim I moved to Austin, Texas after graduating and did a whole lot of nothing (crappy jobs, long stretches of poverty, being fairly isolated, procrastinating about grad school, and so forth) there for two years until moving back to the Chicago area and eventually grabbing up my current job, which I've spent time discussing at length elsewhere to the point where I'll just cut and paste the most succinct-yet-well-explained summary of:I work as a Mental Health Specialist (a hifalutin term that more or less equates to camp counselor/prison guard) at a residential treatment facility (behavioral and psychological rehabilitation) for children and teenagers and I work directly with teenage boys in an area known within the institution to house the most violent and troubled and gang-affiliated of the patients (or "clients" as we call them for some stupid reason).
So yeah, I'm not exactly in an intellectual field. I could go on and on about the crazy shit that happens at my current job but I'll shush for now.
I've had vague aspirations since leaving college (before that I was on the vague path of the tortured artist/all-I-care-about-is-the-music-,-man type of musician) to get the proper degrees and teach something at the college level. Most likely philosophy or literature/creative writing. I'm more interested in fiction these days than intellectual non-fiction stuff. Jeezus that was long-winded. Sorry.
Mod
I'm just going to come out with the most obvious question:
what is meant by "My Flesh Sings Out"? Is it a reference to a book, song or movie? -and why did you chose it for your GR name?
It's a direct lyrical quote from a musician named Devendra Banhart in a song of his called "The Body Breaks" (at 1:42). I think that the song is beautiful (even though I'm not a huge fan of his music overall) and that lyric always resonated with me a lot. I started getting really interested in the intersection of philosophy and science after leaving school (I think I learned more by reading on my own and discussing things online with people than I did in college), particularly how the brain and the mind are related. I also think about death a fair amount, like humans are want to do. So the line began to take on an even deeper meaning because of all this preoccupation with the idea of mind and matter being inseparable and death seeming inevitable I began thinking of the "flesh" as the brain and the "singing" as consciousness and just thought it was all very sad and beautiful and meaningful and all that. So when it came time to give myself a name on goodreads I went with that. It summed up a lot of what I was thinking about at the time.
I've thought about changing it many times but I feel established on GR with that name and there's so many threads with people referring to "MFSO" or "Flesh" or "Fleshy" that would just confuse the future internet archaeologists when they dig up ancient threads about twincest and cakefarts. I keep it for the scientists, yo.
Mod
but lets try something more bookish...
Okay, now it's time for Lord of The Flies! You are shipwrecked on the island with characters from the book, as well as a few GoodReaders. Do you join Ralph in trying to preserve the old order, or do you strike out with Jack and his group, representing the more primative view, but perhaps one better adapted to survival in this new environment? Name three GoodReaders you'd like to have with you in your group.
Good one. Hmmm. My most serious answer would be something about striking a middle ground between the Ralph and Jack factions, but I'll have to side with trashing old order in favor of some sort of banshee yelp of primativism. If I'm on an island I might as well start beheading some pigs and kicking some ass while covered in war paint. Well, first off I'd need karen there so we could breed and keep the GoodReads royal bloodline alive. This would happen because nothing makes people want to induce pregnancy like being stranded in a Lord of the Flies scenario.
I'd like for David to be there just to see how he'd react to the situation. Plus, I think listing favorite types of things in hierarchical orders would be a great way to pass the time in between breeding and killing.
I'd like for brian gottlieb to be there so that David had someone to snuggle with at night and argue violently and entertainingly with during the day.
Mod
but this is getting interesting!!! let's continue!!!
Sometimes I ask questions to feel out what author a GoodReader especially enjoys, and why. With you, the choice seems straightforward- you've got an entire shelf dedicated to David Foster Wallace. What is it about his writing that captivates you, and what can you tell readers who aren't familiar with him?
Alfonso wrote: "hahahah! great choices! i would have pick only chicks tho!"Right! What was I thinking??
Oh man, a DFW question. This could take a long time. Bust out some footnotes...
Ok. I really love Wallace because he gives me that rare and hard-won and often sought after feeling of saying what I've tried to say but couldn't. Didn't even really "know" that I wanted to say. Basically a mental orgasm. Puzzle pieces falling perfectly into place. Angels singing and light bursting through the clouds.
He was pretty neurotic and bookish, but also very charming and funny. A down-to-earth genius, basically. An encyclopedic brain attached to a heart of gold.
Mod
but let's talk current GoodReads!!! let me see... something that's relevant right now!!!! oh!! i know!!!
You've been quite vocal over on that group opposed to the proposed new "bumble bee" mascot. What is it about that bee that touches a nerve so? What do you think would be the ideal mascot for GR?
Ah yes, BumbleFuck, the bane of my existence. Well, the image is just childish as hell and goodreads.com is not. That's really all there is to it. I would be seriously pissed off if that was at the top of the screen every time I check the update feed on GR or stare longingly at David's profile image for hours on end.I don't really think we need a mascot, but if we do it should be this:
Mod
but let's talk about something fun!!! cuz just thinking about that Bee makes me angry!!!
Plato held a symposium, where great minds could get together for a drinking party (oh, and to discuss Love). If you could hold a symposium (a drinking party, that is) with five literary characters of your choosing, which characters would you invite, and what would be the topic of discussion?
Another good one. A difficult one, but a good one nonetheless. This might take a minute...Okay.
-Hal Incandenza from Infinite Jest, because he's more or less a version of a young DFW.
-Murray, the eccentric professor of pop culture studies from White Noise, because he's just hilarious and does occasionally show some good insight into the nature of things.
-Lenore Beadsman from The Broom of the System because she's just awesome all around and I'd need someone there to be infatuated with and flirt with.
-Kate from Wittgenstein's Mistress because she's basically a human encyclopedia and she's a beautifully tragic figure who's lived through a world in which she was the only living creature left on the planet. There has to be some interesting insights developed through a crazy experience like that.
-Yahweh from the Old Testament so we could all gang up on Him and beat his ass.
The topic of discussion: Open (with an unofficial focus on sex jokes).
Drinking Heavily and Staying Up All Night: Required. Not Optional.
Tone: A well-paced alternation between the ecstatically, uproariously funny and the super-duper intense and serious.
Mod
now! no Interview her in stupid will be completed without a Babe reunion question!!! here is yours:
Several GoodReader Babes had a reunion in Portland, and now there is discussion of a Babe reunion in NYC. As a dweller of Illinois (how do you say that? Illinois-ian?), do your sympathies lay more with one coast than another? Why is it just babes getting together, and do you envision any reunions representing our GoodReaders in America's heartland?
Oh yeah, I didn't even think of Hal's sweet drug connections! Good call!I've spent most of my time on Earth in the Middle Part of the country. I've never actually even been to the East Coast. Except for some trip to NYC when I was still too young (like 2, I think) to have developed the capacity for long-term memory. And if we count Florida I'll still side with the West Coast because the rumors are true: Florida sucks. So I guess I have to side with the West Coast mainly because I've actually been there and can remember being there. I've really only been there three times: once in La Jolla, California for a vacation at my friend's rich grandparents house when I was 12. Another time I hiked along the coast in Washington in the summer and it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen and experienced. And earlier this year I also made a trip to Portland to hang out with a group of friends that I go waaaay back with, which was a great, debaucherous time.
Also, I have more friends on the West Coast, plus I like to smoke pot and I like what they're doing out that way with the legal status of the drug.
Sorry, East Coast, I just haven't experienced you yet!
And I would love to have a GoodReads meet-up in the Heartland of Real America. I'll take you all bar-hopping in Milwaukee.
(We may have to finish this up later, since I have to leave for work in like ten minutes. It's been fun so far and I look forward to answering more questions.)
Mod
and on the pot subject! those west coast mother fuckers blew it!!! they voted no on the legalization bill!!!! for once in their lazy lives they were ask to put down the bong and go vote! and they did an epic fail!!! bastards!!!!
and i agree with you! this is mad fun!!! a shame that you had to go to work before my last question!!! (work: life's greatest momentum killer!!!) but i'll leave the last question here for when you return!!! feel free to add your last words after it! (and no! with "last words" i dont mean i'm planning on killing you!)
last question:
You have a large shelf dedicated to consciousness. Do you think one day GoodReads itself could become a conscious entity, like "Hal" the computer in "2001: A Space Odyssey", or like "Skynet" from the "Terminator" movies? What do you think conscious GoodReads might do?
(Okay, I'm still at work but I've got a little time to do this now.)Wow. What a perfectly nerdy question to finish up with! Could GoodReads congeal into a singular conscious entity? This type of question is at the heart of the ongoing debates about the nature of consciousness. If we accept the premise that consciousness is an emergent property of (i.e., dependent upon) or is reducible to (i.e., equivalent to) certain arrangements of material bits and the physical forces that bind and animate them, then, in principle, yes, GoodReads could someday subjectively experience the world and perhaps even acknowledge this fact of the matter and ponder its own experience and other things. Neurons and their connections are basically like tiny computer bits made of organic material anyway and there already plenty of Artificial Intelligence type nerds plugging away at the project of creating replicas of the human brain. If Ray Kurweil is even remotely right about anything, we could have this technology before humanity destroys itself.
Now here's the rub: there is no real way to prove that anyone/thing is conscious. I can prove it to myself (as other presumably all other conscious entities that have the ability to think about consciousness also can) but this is where the story ends, as far as anyone can tell. This quality is precisely what makes consciousness what it is: inherently private, subjective, limited to a singular first-person point of view. It is experienced solely by the person having the experience. We can make approximations and well-informed guesses based upon what people do and say and what non-linguistic beings like babies or dogs do, and even correlate this with real time brain scanning technology and so forth. But all of the brain scanning and accompanying testimony (from the person being studied) in the world doesn't actually get the outsider any closer to the level of objective fact that other scientific inquiry reach when it comes to the objectively verifiable existence of someone's consciousness. It is indeed a leap of faith (one based on pretty sound induction) to believe that anyone else has conscious experience.
The debates over these issues will continue to rage (mostly in the cloistered halls of philosophy departments and the pages of academic journals) over this for sometime. It all gets very hairsplitting and incredibly complicated, to the point where after being immersed in it for a sufficient amount of time makes one want to (coming full circle now with the interview) scream WHAT THE FUCK??? WHAT THE FUCK???
Thanks for the interview, Alfonso! It was a pleasure.
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