The only thing funnier than pathetic setbacks are when those pathetic setbacks are memorialized in story. I avoided the normal pairing of Tragedy w/ Comedy, because Farce is directly related to Tragedy. Farce is Tragedy that fails to elicit sympathy and instead summons the audience's smug contempt. Really, I paired these two, because I'm hoping one of the combatants will successfully combine BOTH Farce AND Tragedy into a single composition.
Combat Expiration: 12am PST, 10/31/2010
Critique Expiration: 12am PST, 11/1/2010
Bonuses/Penalties: +2 if posted by 6pm PST 10/29/2010, +1 if posted by 12am PST, 10/30/2010.
CombatWords, October 22, 2010: Vice, Virtue and Free Will
I usually keep a torn up copy of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius on my desk. To create order in a world that is full of inconstant people, he urges one to focus on knowing rightness (which he doesn't axiomatize) and then applying it, regardless of conditions around one. Bold philosophy, but I wonder how well it holds up in a cattle car filled with freezing, starving, dehydrated people on their way to a death factory? He would say that sticking to virtue, even when self-detrimental, is evidence of free will. I think I agree with that notion, having cooked up my own proof for free will before I even read MA: suicide & celibacy—two actions which contradict models of genetic determinism. Oh, but the cattle car, the cattle car! Maybe there are triggers that exist so deeply within us that most people don't encounter them even once in life? And jammed in a cattle car, must we return to our origins as meat circuitry?
Combat Expiration: 12am PST, 10/24/2010
Critique Expiration: 12am PST, 10/25/2010
Bonuses/Penalties: +2 by 8pm PST, 10/22/2010; +1 by 2am PST, 10/23/2010; -1 by 6am 10/25/2010, -2 by 12pm 10/25/2010
So I love the Beandog Militia—what can I say? They are deadly satirists. When they're not busy mocking some poor degenerate on Twitter, they're busy mocking everybody & everything else—selves included. In fact, they've got the #tcot (Top Conservatives On Twitter) believing a conspiracy theory THE BEANDOGS PROPOSED! This is sheer win of course, for when the subject of satire actually starts to believe his/her satirist, it means the satirist has effectively entered into the satirized party's personal narrative. Write satire directed at any target you'd like... even yourself.
Combat Expiration: Midnight PST, 10/17/2010
Critique Expiration: Midnight PST, 10/18/2010,
Bonuses: +2 for comps that post by 8pm PST 10/15/2010; +1 for comps that post by 2am PST 10/16/2010. -1 for comps that post by 6am 10/17/2010; -2 for comps that post by 12pm PST 10/17/2010
There are various types of 'farewell.' The "have a nice life," one; "see you later today," or; "Not sure if we'll see each other or not." The ways we say goodbye are just as subtle as the ways we say "hello." Hello and Goodbye are more complicated than simple starts and finishes; they represent how we conceive of our relationships with others. Hit any riff you'd like, but be more specific than a simple relationship or interaction—the ways we say hello or goodbye indicates our outlook, our sense of free will or determinism, and so forth.
Combat Expiration: Midnight PST, 10/10/2010
Critique Expiration: Midnight PST, 10/11/2010
Bonuses/Penalties: +2 for compositions posted by 8pm PST, 10/8/2010 and +1 for posts that make it by 2am PST, 10/9/2010. -1 for postings up after expiration, but before 6am PST, 10/10/2010 and -2 for posts that make it by Noon PST, 10/10/2010
I don't want to end up like the Star Wars kid, but I don't mind laughing at him. I don't like racist humor, but I love humor that seems to be racist. Yes, I like to break some taboos, but I think other taboos are essential. Pedophiles fill me with some serious homicidal rage. You can offer me all the evolutionary psych and boo-hoo bullshit about fuxed up minds/childhoods; I still want to destroy them. In fact, that fury I feel for pedophiles is so intense, I just try to put it out of my mind most of the time. I think this is healthy, as we have a tendency to become our enemies. If you think enough about pedophiles, you start to see them everywhere. So sometimes, it's better not to think about them—this is the wisdom of taboo. Some things are filled with such infectious horror, they should be forbidden.
Of course, who does the forbidding? Well we do. We forbid ourselves and we forbid others; and as attitudes change, so do taboos. This is why I'm skeptical of taboos, even though I also see their value. You can't reason with some people and you just have to forbid them. Not all good judgments can be explained or rationalized and taboo is a recognition of this truth. Then again, lots of taboos are stupid
Combat Expiration: Midnight PST, 10/3/2010
Critique Expiration: Midnight PST, 10/4/2010
Bonuses/Penalties: +3 if posted by 6pm PST, 10/1/2010; +2 if posted by 9pm PST, 10/1/2010; and +1 if posted by Midnight PST, 10/2/2010
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