CombatWords 7/29/2011: Brain & Mind Damage

CombatWords 7/29/2011: Brain & Mind Damage

Have you ever slammed your head into a brick wall? Choked to unconsciousness? Blacked out while drinking? That’s the more ordinary sort of brain damage. Phineas Gage and Rosemary Kennedy are more extreme versions of brain damage—actual chunks of their brains were removed. Horrifying, but Anders Behring Breivik and Bin Laden are perhaps even more extreme—ideas damaged their minds.

I like incomplete things and people. So write about that.

Combat Expiration: 12am PST 8/1/2011

Critique Expiration: 12am PST, 8/3/2011

Bonuses/Penalties: +2 if posted by 7pm PST, 7/29/2011; +1 if posted by 2am PST, 7/30/2011. -1 if posted by 6am PST, 8/1/2011; -2 if posted by 12pm PST, 8/1/2011

The Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html


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Combatwords, July 22, 2011: Insanity

Combatwords, July 22, 2011: Insanity

If you tell me that psychosis, neurosis or any flavor of insanity is a mere social construct, I’m going to ask who diagnosed you crazy and why you have a problem with shrinks. We want to be outsiders, but not too far outside. You don’t want to be too much of a conformist, but if you’re too much of a weirdo, you’re not going to get the boy/girl/gold/glory and might as well eat corn chips until you’re the size of a fridge. Insanity might be a social construct, but what are you suggesting—that you’re outside society? That you eat dinner in the morning and make conversation with ghosts? I’ve got news for you—that’s basically insanity. I mean sure, personally, I’d just call you eccentric; but I’m not a judge on American Idol and I’m not your therapist either. And these freaks are on the lookout for any abnormal behavior (BF Skinner won), so if you can’t wear your best ‘I’m normal’ hat, you’d best expect trouble.

I can’t even remember if I’ve done this topic before, but I selected it because it seems like the in-thing lately is to get 5150’ed and involuntarily spend your money on a nuthouse. I have a friend who mentioned that she once wanted to kill herself to her shrink—so the therapist of course locked her up right then and there. So this is the opposite vector—if you go around talking about how uncomfortable this rotten world makes you feel, get ready for more rottenness. In her case, she couldn’t even talk about how rotten she USED to feel. Even those who are paid to professionally deal with insanity don’t want to hear it. So don’t tell me it’s ‘only’ a social construct. Maybe insanity is an analytic concept, but what are you going to do? Fight a mental health institution? That’s sounding pretty nutty to me.

Combat Expiration: 12am PST 7/25/2011

Critique Expiration: 12am PST, 7/27/2011

Bonuses/Penalties: +2 if posted by 7pm PST, 7/22/2011; +1 if posted by 2am PST, 7/23/2011. -1 if posted by 6am PST, 7/27/2011; -2 if posted by 12pm PST, 7/27/2011

The Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html




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Combatwords, July 15, 2011: Balance

Combatwords, July 15, 2011: Balance

I was reading some scifi fascist—maybe it was Jerry Pournelle, maybe it was someone else—my point is that he made the creepy point that if the Western World (ie anyone who has the time and/or inclination to read/play Combatwords) truly wanted to throttle industrial/technical/economic competition, all we had to do was buy grain. If each of us bought an extra 10 kg of grain, we could kill the rest of the world by driving food prices so high, we wouldn’t need to worry about the deforestation of the Great Rift Valley, Iranian nukes, illegal immigration, or Chinese plastic.

I also read a great story by James Blish called ‘We All Die Naked.’ Extinction by garbage. Dine on neon shrimp before being buried in feces and ash tainted rubble (the shrimp are in the water… the shrimp shit in the water… we eat the shrimp… we shit in the water… the shrimp eat shit…). It’s like those tales of hoarders whose decades worth of newspapers topple and bury them alive, except it’s a whole civilization doing it. Those bottles and CDs that come with new hardware we’ve purchased must be balanced very carefully atop our desks of phones, books and dishes (if we’re slobs)(you are a slob)(I have spies everywhere). Aha! KW finally gets to the thesis of this week’s combat: balance.

The word ‘destabilizing’ is so context-specific, we almost don’t see it anymore. Yet, we often hear we’re in unstable times; that things are destabilizing (were they ever stable?). And it’s true. We aren’t on stable ground. You might say we’re standing on liquefying ‘deep shit’ and are trying to find a way to walk upon it, like mini-Jesuses (Jesii). So why not just make the topic ‘stability?’ Because ‘stability’ is a judgment—maybe not absolutely, but the word is laden with concepts I would just as soon subsume beneath the liquefying mountain called ‘balance.’

Combat Expiration: 12am PST, 7/18/2011

Critique Expiration: 12am PST, 7/20/2011. Nobody (self included) has been doing critiques lately. Here’s a modest proposal: whoever does the most critiques this week, starts off with a base +1 for next week’s combat. I know! Reward people with more of something they’ve already demonstrated they don’t value!

Bonuses/Penalties: +2 if posted by 3pm PST, 7/15/2011; +1 if posted by 2am PST, 7/16/2011. -1 if posted by 6am PST, 7/20/2011; -2 if posted by 12pm PST, 7/20/2011

The Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html

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Combatwords for July 11, 2011: The Rules of Sci-Fi

Combatwords for July 11, 2011: The Rules of Sci-Fi

The famous and influential sci-fi editor Groff Conklin said there were only a few types of sci-fi stories: invasions from space, space travel & possible worlds, parapsychological concepts, time travel & possible worlds, worlds of tomorrow, the superscience of humanity, and earth wonders. So this topic can either be on the archetypes of novelty, or sci-fi (or sci-po). Be creative. Even if you think this topic isn't for you, surely you have given some thought to science—and perhaps been proven wrong. That's even better. Flawed misunderstandings of the truth are the most entertaining truths of all.

Combat Expiration: 12am PST, 7/11/2011

Critique Expiration: 12am PST, 7/13/2011

Bonuses/Penalties: +2 if posted by 9pm PST 7/8/2011; +1 if posted by 2am PST, 7/9/2011; -1 if posted by 6am 7/11/2011; -2 if posted by 12pm 7/11/2011



The Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html

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Combatwords for July 1, 2011: Independence

Combatwords for July 1, 2011: Independence

If I was rich, I'd be stalked by the hungry suits, craving my signature. I would ride the taxi—no—a limo to a fortress of glass and the worm of hunger would slide through my telephone receiver; my monitor.

If I had a bunker with a million barrels of oil and a hydroponic farm glazed in a ten horsepower halo of lights, I could grow my food and finally, be alone. It would be a coffin; a place free of aspiration. A pyramid where I would bury myself and wait for the afterlife. The bombs would detonate. I'd hear it on the radio. My friends would be on the radio. When they bored me enough, I would switch it off and inject myself with my homegrown fruit of the poppy.

If I could contain every metabolic process inside my bulk, I'd never piss again. Never move again. I would be a statue of boredom. I could plant myself where pigeons congregate and I could be their septic scepter: a statue of shit.

Combat Expiration: 12am PST, 7/4/2011

Critique Expiration: 12am PST, 7/6/2011

Bonuses/Penalties: +2 if posted by 8pm PST 7/1/2011; +1 if posted by 1am PST, 7/2/2011; -1 if posted by 6am 7/4/2011; -2 if posted by 12pm 7/4/2011



The Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html

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