Wesley: it is what it is means: it sucks, but we’re going to deal with it
me: sometimes. maybe it means: “there are obstacles so complex that we don’t even have time to go into them here, but we both know that we both know just how bad they are.”
Wesley: it means it’s not what we hoped for, or what an unrealistic person might mistake it for
the phrase “it is what it is.” some folks seem to think this phrase is a empty-headed tautological cliché along the lines of “wherever you go, there you are.”
and i have to admit … that is what “it is what it is” looks like.
but my gut is telling me there’s something more there … that “it is what it is” isn’t as dumb as it looks. the phrase has a weird longevity and power. it usually only hits home when spoken, not written. i almost want to say it’s a handy paraphrase of Wittengenstein’s “what we cannot speak of we must pass over in silence.”
someone please meditate on this and fill me in.
what’s the minimum one needs to establish a bank?
-a working ATM machine dispensing U.S. currency
-the word “BANK” graven into stone
-a pile of gold or other treasure
-security for the gold/treasure
-a man in a suit with a pen behind a desk, who can make deals backed by the gold/treasure
optional extras include…
-a location on Wall Street, center of the banking universe
-freelance trader guys trading on flatscreens
-doric columns
still need to figure out…
-what does the bank offer?
-how do we get people to USE the bank?
is it on time?
are they happy with it?
if your answers are “yes” and “yes”
there is no problem
Saturday morning…
TEDDY, 10:23am :: hey, can you look this over, make corrections if needed and get 100 xeroxed and delivered by 5? love ya.
GEORGE, 12:06pm :: You need to stop letting Eliot spitzer borrow your blackberry
TEDDY, 12:35pm :: I know, its presumptuous, but can you hooker imean hook a brother up PLEASE?
GEORGE, 12:48pm :: Pls explain the rush. Generally I don’t do anything the day I am asked to do it, or even the next day, except in bona fide emergencies.
TEDDY, 1:22pm :: Help I’m in a real jam. Can you go to kinkos and hook me up. If not, no worries.
Around 1:30pm George placed a call to Teddy. No transcript is available.
GEORGE, 1:49pm :: Will try and deliver by 5. 6 at the latest.
TEDDY, 2:20pm :: Thanks again, owe you
GEORGE, 3:50pm :: Had some static at kinko’s, ETA 540
Around 5:20 the job was delivered. George and Teddy embraced.
five stars awesome awesome awesome
It is spooky to read a writer who has looked so deeply into what people are really like, and come away so disgusted with his conclusions. West is probably the most convincing misanthrope I’ve ever read.
Let’s see, what else, what else …
The letters in Miss Lonelyhearts are exceptionally convincing and authentic. I almost wonder if West held down the Lonelyhearts job or somehow stumbled onto an archive of these documents.
Despite being a few decades older, Day of the Locust has as much to say as the Big Lebowski about L.A. in 2008. It’s still a city of actors and actors who have given up.
I’ll probably post the first page of Miss Lonelyhearts in a day or two. The opening—especially the very first sentence—somehow manages to build a great deal of momentum instantly out of nothing.
(also: thanks for the tip, Wes)
two people who both want to hear the other say “i’m sorry” cannot affect a reconciliation
a person willing to say “i’m sorry,” even when right, is a peacemaker
If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top buoyant enough to keep you afloat that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver. But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. I think that we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings as constituting the only means for solving a given problem.
-Fuller
j/k = just kidding
1/2 x j/k = j/2k = half kidding
cancel (this is a venal sin)
cancel twice (this is a mortal sin)
say the words “you can trust me.”
ask the question “are you mad at me?”
put off the purchase of ink or toner
