[lit-ideas] Re: Aesthetics and Evolution/Denis Dutton RIP
- From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:44:02 -0600
Ah yes, here again -- another example of the waxwing slain by the false
azure of the window pane.
Well writ.
Mike Geary
On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 3:32 AM, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Mike: I draw Donal's attention to the recent (12/3/10) mass suicide of
> red-winged blackbirds (5000) in Arkansas. Donal, no doubt believes they
> killed themselves because they realized they were in Arkansas … but he's
> wrong.
>
>
>
>
>
> Of course he is. Donal is almost always wrong when he speculates about the
> motives of birds. On the other hand, you are wrong to conclude that birds
> would protest Republican triumphalism, just as you are almost always wrong
> when you speculate about suicides caused by Republican triumphalism.
>
>
>
> I think the birds were sad. Not suicidally sad, mind you, or in modern
> parlance,
> severely-depressed-but-not-so-depressed-as-to-be-incapable-of-action, but
> rather the birds were sad enough to become sloppy, less attentive, a bit off
> their game, under the weather, oppressed by the weight of the world. That’s
> all it took. They were birds after all. One miscalculation and they were
> just so many blood-soaked feathers. Not the love Emily Dickinson wrote
> about.
>
>
>
> What were they sad about? I think they realized they were beasts, and
> became sad about their own stupidity and ignorance. Not as a status thing,
> mind you. Not by comparison to other animals. Just by itself. They realized
> they were birds and that birds are stupid, ignorant automata and it made
> them sad.
>
>
>
> For humans, this is bad news. Humans rely on status comparisons a lot. The
> rest of us, who think we possess more stupidity and ignorance than our
> fellow humans or even than birds, will feel obliged to feel sad too. Maybe
> even sadder. Much sadder. Our reaction could snowball, or circle on an
> updraft, out of control.
>
>
>
> I like my “I’ve lived a life of stupidity and ignorance and all I got was
> this T-shirt” T-shirt, and don’t want to feel sad when I put it on. Nor do I
> want to stop drinking from my “I’ve lived a life of stupidity and ignorance”
> coffee mug. Plus being sad is…well, it’s not a happy place.
>
>
>
> So I hope our scientists will come up with a fallacious but believable
> explanation for the dead birds, one that will stick. After all, what do we
> pay them for?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Other related posts:
