A Trivial Comedy for serious people archives

That squirrel is very much like a man?

"You hate it when we anthropomorphize!" my friend said to me, and I stared at her in disbelief. I can't believe I said such a thing! Why should I hate anthropomorphization? I love things like that, I love making believe that animals are humans, I love that which is playful and childlike, I am all of these things, right? When did I say I didn't like this? It sounds so tremendously out of character, and yet I can absolutely see myself saying it.

I said "You know, you have license to kick me when I say dumb things. You shouldn't take me so seriously."

"You're difficult. You say all the time not take you seriously, but you'd be upset if we didn't."

She is right. Sometimes I do need a swift kick. I have said some jaw-droppingly dumb things, and probably will continue to say things. Most of the time I'm joking, sometimes I'm just testing ground, and trying to feel out what I really like and am. Sometimes I am just clearly on crack.

Do you want some examples?

1. In a medieval history class, I argued against the description of feudalism because "we should describe people in the terms they had available." Okay, not only does feudalism have a medieval etymology, I now think it's perfectly legitimate to describe economic systems with terms that the players involved did not have at their disposal.

2. Regarding sweetness and light, I'm not sure how much it's true that I only like escapist, sweet things. I make a lot of jokes about wanting to get back into the womb, wanting to live in my fairy fantasy happy no-badness land, but I am more serious than this, yes? Oh mercy, yes. Furthermore, I can probably provide a fairly coherent argument about how good "fantasy" novels are not escapist in the least, but are dealing with very real, human problems. And just because I have a hard time watching something doesn't mean I think it's crap (On the other hand, I don't believe the inverse is automatically true, don't get me started on Clockwork Orange - I find it hateful).

3. I want to relive my childhood. This is not very true, because my childhood wasn't really all that happy (It wasn't miserable, it just wasn't great.) It's a joke, mostly, but it's a truth that I am fascinated in the process of reflecting what things shaped me, and what made me who I am now. Plus, in general, I have a somewhat academic interest in children that I've never really acted on in an academic fashion. I'm not so much childlike but instead am cultivating qualities that are a fake-childhood. I live in primary colors, but my childhood was drab. I live with many books I did not read as a child because I like to see what we expect of children. Apparently I "went bad" at 12, and am getting back to the time before that (I was full of life and song! I laughed back then!) but I am not naive and I know that life is work, that my parents do not love each other, etc.

4. I used to think I was socialist, a eugenicist (I can't really remember if this is true or not, or if I'm imagining things about my past self, because I would really really like to believe better of myself on this count), and a utopian person. I can't really remember, sometimes, how strongly I believed these things. I read a lot of utopias, and I think I really have (and did have) an academic interest in the genre, but I also know that I did half read them with the sense that "I want to make the world better and I want this to be my blueprint." I read them before I had any conception of the history involved. I came away with this with the realization that most utopias have really fabulous beds. It's true, I think the people who write utopian novels must all be insomniacs. I am more careful than this, I am cautious almost to a fault about what I adopt into my political self.

So, take me seriously! But clearly not too seriously! If I listen hard enough, I can find what I believe.

2002-10-26, A list of dumb things I've said

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