My house and my evening, because I'm a litle bored -now changed to talk about virtue first.

Mar 09, 2007 14:54

I'm currently reading The Great Gatsby, and last night I came across one of the funniest. most insightful lines ever written in the English language.  Roughly paraphrased--   "Every man suspects himself of being guilty of at least one of the cardinal virtues.  I am the most honest man I have ever met." To me it summed up the ideals of th 20s (and also the 60s and 00s)  in which adherence to normative codes of value  become incredibly suspect to the point that even the average man finds himself "guilty of virtue".  Fitzgerald messed up though (not surprising considering he was a drunken lout).   Honesty is not one of the cardinal virtues (prudence, temerence, fortitude, justice,  faith, hope and charity), but simply a "social good".  Somehow this annoys me,and while The Great Gatsby is incredibly deliberate in all of its details, I don't think he deliberately had the narrator misuse the idea of cardinal virtues.   That said it left me all ponder-like about being guilty of virtue.  Everybody wants to fashion themselves as a radical, who has departed from Judeo-Christian values, even though most of us are firmly grounded in them.   I feel imensely ridiculous about my sense of  loyalty, which once attached to a person becomes practically parodic.  Thankfully I don't get too loyal too often (imagine the trouble that would cause!)  Ramble ramble ramble.  I realized the other day that i'm in dire need of schooling.  I was trying to write about me feelings over an ad that glamourized gang banging and couldn't for the life of me come up with a clear way to say that it should serve as a strong indictment of our society as a whole that rape could be glamourous enough to sell clothing rather than a sign that the fashion industry was the purveyor of smut and responsible for it.  See, I'm totally incoherent.  Somebody get me to a theory 101 class stat!

I live with a broken down ballerina, a vegan metalhead, a dreadlocked Japanese fashion designer, a tiny  lost girl with eyes larger than her breasts who paints mad things until 4 in the morning and two black cats who act like they have been given massive doses of LSD.   The house in a lot of ways feels transplanted from Vancouver- lots of marijuana smoke and good vibes.   Not things I'm especially into, but it will make a good place to get my bearings and relax in.

I'm looking forward to tonight, I'm working the door for the Arts and Crafts CMW showcase.  Young Galaxy,  Apostle of Hustle and a bunch of other great bands.  Apostle of Hustle is basically my new favorite thing- he makes me think of John the Baptist and therefore Nick Cave.   I wouldn't be surprised to see him wandering on Queen West in a hair shirt, at least no more surprised than I would be if I saw, say, Jesus walking around handing out pamphlets for his new commune.    
And no, I can't let anybody in for free.
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