• When a majority rejects democracy, then in what does democracy consist? 8 Hours
• Every truth is someone's cliché. 22 Hours
• Only in far mode can one object to far mode. 1 Day
• An accurate thinker is right: a fertile one is interesting when wrong. 2 Days
• @julioxlemos True, but I'm not sure if even in that field that procedure is correct. 2 Days
• @InstanceOfClass Indubitably. Which tells us a lot about the usefulness of moral philosophy. 2 Days
• Moral philosophy warns us against deriving ought from is, when it is far more common, and pernicious, to derive is from ought. 2 Days
• Write what you know that's not yourself. 3 Days
• Having It All -- in which the first word represents desultory acquisition, the second conformity, and the third inability to choose. 3 Days
• Sometimes it is tempting to be topical. 4 Days
• "It is a great temptation to a novelist to make things up." --Randall Jarrell 5 Days
• The only cognitive gap that ought to concern us is the enormous one between good thinking and our own. 5 Days
• @GabrielDuquette I learned long ago that it is impossible to talk anyone out of a work of art he likes ever. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette And no more relevant for that. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette For whatever I say there is doubtless some dark motive. Fortunately it can be evaluated independently of that fact. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Nonetheless it is impossible to watch the scene without laughing, as Wilde said about the death of Little Nell. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette That they would be irrelevant, even if true. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette This is exactly the sort of invidious speculation encouraged by examples from movies of wise and sympathetic shrinks. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Fine, except the number of math geniuses who ever wanted to be working class schmoes is already vanishingly small. [1] 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette I do not accept movie clips in lieu of argument, even when the argument is about the movie in question. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette But we, the audience, are none of those things, so we have that going for us, right? That is noxious. [2] 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette No movie is "about" any such thing. But here our magical genius is "troubled" and violent and in need of psychiatry. [1] 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette If you agree that it promotes that particular piece of consolatory wickedness then I have done my good deed for the day. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Or in a book, Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman is another unpretentious example of what I mean. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette As a work of art it has many weaknesses but in this respect it is a perfect contrast. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette A homely one: Young Tom Edison, with Mickey Rooney. The movie takes pains to let you in to how he thinks. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Good Will Hunting, like Amadeus, is at least in part a "genius is magic" movie. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette That what they do is NOT magic. They do exactly what we do, just better, so we should study, not worship from afar. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette It is a symptom of our deranged Weltanschauung that an intelligent person would even think to ask such a question. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Pretty much. A cursory acquaintance with history wises you up to that. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette For the nth time, I'm not rewriting the movie. I'm explaining why this theme is popular and insidious. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette The lie is that geniuses are different. The truth is that geniuses are better. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette It has everything to do with it. It is one more excuse not to acknowledge your superiors. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Geniuses are supposed to be "troubled" when in fact they are just better than you and me in every way. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Amadeus, for instance, is a defense brief for Salieri -- and the audience by implication. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Only certain rarities, which bolster the lies we tell ourselves, like the Untutored Genius, are common in art. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette While "what would you prefer" essentially demands that I write an entirely different movie. Neither is reasonable. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Yes. As for your questions, "what would you change" essentially demands that I rewrite the movie. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette I recommend that you consider carefully the question I asked instead of speculating invidiously on my emotional life. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette A better question is how these things become cliches in art when they are so thin on the ground. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette What kind of question is that? Exactly how much idiocy am I obliged to inherit? Why am I obliged to inherit any? 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Oh look! Tough love! 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette NB: The history lesson that Damon shuts up the Harvard brat with in the bar is wrong from beginning to end. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette The Untutored Genius has an even more dismal history. These coarse and stupid archetypes coarsen and stupify the viewer. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette He has a strong affinity for the Tragic Clown too, as in the movies I cited. [3] 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Williams revived it almost single-handedly (cf. Awakenings) because it appeals to his coarse and obvious mind. [2] 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette The all-wise, all-sympathetic shrink is a coarse and fatuous cliche that prevailed in the movies from about 1940-65. [1] 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Is there some parallel universe where these movies are universally acclaimed masterworks? 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Well, no, sorry, those movies are just not any good. They are not, however, like the ones I cited, earth-shatteringly bad. 6 Days
• @GabrielDuquette Well, no. At least you omitted Dead Poets Society, which would put any self-respecting adolescent off poetry for life. 6 Days

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