Soundscape #58: “O What A Tangled Web We Weave”
October 19th, 2007The faculty of reason has been highly prized since the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th century. Philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume and Immanuel Kant examined the world through the lens of reason. Rationality and rigour were the order of the day. The movement argued for a systematic structure of thinking into every sphere of life, be it individual, society or the state. Its influence was widely felt in the 20th century early modernism period, which was itself a reaction against the hysteria of the 19th century.
British Museum, May 2007.
It seems that we have pushed the reason envelope even further now in the 21st century. In almost every aspect of our lives, we tend to overthink things sometimes, often falling back on the assumption that it’s better to be safe than sorry. This is not often the best approach in times of paranoia and mistrust. Sure, it’s good to think carefully through a problem but not everything needs a reason to be the way it is. People (myself included) seem to have a problem with the idea of the irrational. We kill ourselves over things we don’t understand when the best solution is often to just leave it alone. And then we wonder why we end up trapped and lost in a web we’ve spun ourselves.
Playlist:
1. (0:00) Bright Eyes - Take It Easy (Love Nothing) (Digital Ashes In A Digital Urn)
2. (3:20) Andrew Bird - Simple X (Armchair Apocrypha)
3. (7:58) Headlights - It Isn’t Easy To Live That Well (The Enemies EP)
4. (11:02) Gigolo Aunts - Simple Thing (Major Chords And Minor Themes)
5. (14:56) The Mendoza Line - Let’s Not Talk About It (Fortune)
6. (18:36) Wilco - It’s Just That Simple (A.M.)
7. (22:20) Dinosaur Jr - Nothin’s Going On (Hand It Over)
8. (25:35) Voxtrot - Easy (S/T)
9. (29:16) The Organ - There Is Nothing I Can Do (Grab That Gun)
10. (31:46) Teenage Fanclub - Nothing To Be Done (Pastels cover)
October 21st, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Hey Shorts, u of all people should leave reasons to the suits. Glorious Life IS irrational let it all be defined by a few mixtapes! But hey, that makes your life rich 10x times over. From the patron Saint of the irrational, “The only people that interest me are the mad ones, the ones that are mad to live, mad to talk, desirious of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing…but burn, burn, burn like roman candles in the night.” Kerouac
October 21st, 2007 at 10:14 pm
yes i rem that bit. must get the uncensored version soon.