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Posted by dorayme on 12/05/07 20:31
In article <q4A5j.3340$NY.2725@nlpi068.nbdc.sbc.com>,
William Gill <noreply@example.invalid> wrote:
> If I watched only "good" movies,
> I would watch far fewer than I already do. There are times when the
> only way to rest my brain is to occupy it with something that takes no
> real thought.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, the 20th Century German philosopher liked to
go the flicks in England after his intense classes and sit right
on the front row.
-------------------
* "Wittgenstein was always exhausted by his lectures. He was also
revolted by them. He felt disgusted with what he had said and
with himself. Often he would rush off to a cinema immediately
after the class ended. As the members of the class began to move
their chairs out of the room he might look imploringly at a
friend and say in a low tone, `Could you go to a flick?' On the
way to the cinema Wittgenstein would buy a bun or cold pork pie
and munch it while he watched the film. He insisted on sitting in
the very first row of seats, so that the screen would occupy his
entire field of vision, and his mind would be turned away from
the thoughts of the lecture and his feelings of revulsion. Once
he whispered to me `This is like a shower bath!' His observation
of the film was not relaxed or detached. He leaned tensely
forward in his seat and rarely took his eyes off the screen. He
hardly ever uttered comments on the episodes of the film and did
not like his companion to do so. He wished to become totally
absorbed in the film no matter how trivial or artificial it was,
in order to free his mind temporarily from the philosophical
thoughts that tortured and exhausted him" (Norman Malcolm, Ludwig
Wittgenstein: A Memoir [London, 1958], pp. 27-28)
--
dorayme
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