“Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies, actually. No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world.”
-Michel Houllebecq
Thoughts?
it's flattering to depressed artsy sad sacks like me
How can one define something as subjective as love to something as subjective as life?
What if one gets pleasure from pain, for instance?
A little S&M never hurt anyone
Means nothing. Typical artist nonsense that is vague and general so that it can sound big.
>Those who love life do not read.
there are millions of normal and active people who love to read - they happen to read horribly trite bullshit - but they still read and read often.
of course it's a frenchie that is spouting some banal self-regarding pity party platitude that says a whole lot of nothing in the end. of course..
They read but they don't "read". Those in the know understand what I mean, even if you don't.
Autistic
>“As I finished my rice, I sketched out the plot of a pornographic adventure film called The Massage Room. Sirien, a young girl from northern Thailand, falls hopelessly in love with Bob, an American student who winds up in the massage parlor by accident, dragged there by his buddies after a fatefully boozy evening. Bob doesn't touch her, he's happy just to look at her with his lovely, pale-blue eyes and tell her about his hometown - in North Carolina, or somewhere like that. They see each other several more times, whenever Sirien isn't working, but, sadly, Bob must leave to finish his senior year at Yale. Ellipsis. Sirien waits expectantly while continuing to satisfy the needs of her numerous clients. Though pure at heart, she fervently jerks off and sucks paunchy, mustached Frenchmen (supporting role for Gerard Jugnot), corpulent, bald Germans (supporting role for some German actor). Finally, Bob returns and tries to free her from her hell - but the Chinese mafia doesn't see things in quite the same light. Bob persuades the American ambassador and the president of some humanitarian organization opposed to the exploitation of young girls to intervene (supporting role for Jane Fonda). What with the Chinese mafia (hint at the Triads) and the collusion of Thai generals (political angle, appeal to democratic values), there would be a lot of fight scenes and chase sequences through the streets of Bangkok. At the end of the day, Bob carries her off. But in the penultimate scene, Sirien gives, for the first time, an honest account of the extent of her sexual experience. All the cocks she has sucked as a humble massage parlor employee, she has sucked in the anticipation, in the hope of sucking Bob's cock, into which all the others were subsumed - well, I'd have to work on the dialogue. Cross fade between the two rivers (the Chao Phraya, the Delaware). Closing credits. For the European market, I already had line in mind, along the lines of "If you liked The Music Room, you'll love The Massage Room.”
So everyone who reads and goes to the movie is unhappy with life... I don't know about that one, Mike.
I get what he's trying to say. Unhappy people can make for devoted readers because they're searching for something. But the quote sucks.
He's probably right.
I would argue he is wrong because art is a part of life
Only if you think there's something praiseworthy about going to the movies and reading.
>there are millions of normal and active people who love to read - they happen to read horribly trite bullshit - but they still read and read often.
see
>books are not a part of this dimension of life
>they are a portal to another
neat, when do we get food replicators
No it isn't
Assuming you are not trolling, if art is not a part of life how would we even perceive it? It exists in our lifes. Pieces of art are things that can be experienced during our lifetime.
>life=existence
There's your issue
In otherwords: Ignorance is bliss and wisdom makes one bitter
lel
My cousin is an illiterate drug addict and is practically impossible to redeem. I don't think he enjoys life
I'm not saying saying life is the same thing as all of existence. A stone's existence for example is not being alive. To perceive said stone however one has to be alive. The experience of perceiving said stone becomes a part of the perceivers life
Yeah I actually think that through intelligence and study one can find way more way of enjoying life and become a happier person than one who is stupid
>phenomena=life
Again, did not say that. I said phenomena to be contained within life. Also what is life then according to you?
>phenomena=/=life
Who cares what a Lovecraft reading nerd thinks?
He's half-right. Of course if you're reading books in order to gain knowledge of life and people and feel feelings you no longer feel in your daily life then you don't have much going on with your own life, but for some people it's not to vicariously live through the experiences in the books but to understand the experience that the author was trying to convey and from it somehow develop yourself piece by piece into a person who can live his own life and create his own meaningful experiences.
>only literature and movies are art
lol. I really like Michel, but shit like this is just silly.
being fed up with the world doesnt mean youre unhappy.
then it's not pain anymore, but pleasure.
as a pretentious depressed artsy sad sack, i do
WHAT THE FUCK AM I READING
I'm pretty sure he included movies because it's the most popular artform, and people dont really watch movies, they just sit through mind-numbing blockbusters