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Part two of conversation with Robin Hungerford, on the cosmic giggle, Kafka as comedy, David Foster Wallace’s suicide, recognizing hypocriticality, humor-as-defense, Woody Allen & Sebastian Horsley, the power of spontaneity, born into a hell world, body armor, laughter yoga, the inner party pooper, reductionism and language, exposing the will to power, exploring discomfort, laughter-as-social-cohesion, seeing Blue Velvet with the wrong audience, enmeshing, David Lynch & catering to the audience vs. relinquishing control of how one is perceived, the play between conscious and unconscious, Seen & Not Seen & self-marginalization, trying to move from the margins to the mainstream, the other side of the margin, Taxi Driver II, how culture makes its own makers, individual connections and meaningful exchanges, spiritual resonance, the real objective, the biggest nobody, the third thing, conversational journeys, the golden age of now, creating a liminal space for letting go, a post-celebrity utopia, two parallel cultures, serial creation, an element of fate, movie magic, the other life, the hunger artist, Seen & Not Seen & Steppenwolf.
Songs: “Dehanches de la Lune,” by Sleepy John Corbeck, “Les Couteaux,” by Titan, “Monkey Said” by The Freak Fandango Orchestra,
I wasn’t sure what to make of this episode of the podcast when I first fired it up, but as usual it gave shape to all kinds of thoughts.
I love the topic of spontaneity of speech/thought/writting. There’s a powerful inner genius that can be awoken sometimes when you let go of the control we try to wield over our mind. I experience often when I write my raps, although there’s no way to force it or encourage it to my knowledge. I suppose if I could do that it wouldn’t be truly spontanous though. I also experience it upon reading a good book and talking to myself about it in order to make greater sense of what I just read.
spontaneity is the greatest strength of your podcast.
thanks for the reminder.
Occasionally, I experience laughter that puts me in mind of the phrase “I could have died laughing,” and not by choking but by asphyxiation as in one’s diaphragm cramping making inhalation impossible.
Recently, while reading a book on men’s hair care–how vain of me–I started laughing, starting as small giggles, then developing into uncontrollable laughter–this was at the description of calculating one’s “curl factor,” and “sebumatizing,” a procedure for spreading the sebum at the base of the hair follicle to the rest of the follicle’s length.
Ouspensky, following Gurdjieff, explained laughter in terms of a spiritual physiology in which the Center receives an impression that it splits into a yes and no, and that generates too much energy for the Accumulator to handle, energy that must be released or else it turns into poison; thus, laughter is purgative. For example, while reading the hair care book I was assailed with yes this may be true, the author is in control, and no I can’t believe that I’m reading this with the intent of earnestly seeking knowledge; seeing myself thus engaged stimulated laughter.
One could say that the moral of Steppenwolf was that Harry Haller needed to learn to laugh–it’s quite explicit, actually. But the novel didn’t make me laugh, although I love it.
While reading the hair care book and laughing, I felt a tickling in my throat, nausea and shortness of breath. I had to put down the book because I began to think I would die laughing. The problem is one of over-stimulation, and with experience I’ve come to accept that I can rapidly become overstimulated by laughter, even joy.
what I have come to understand by joy is very different from happiness of euphoria and it is I think something that cannot result in over-stimulation. On the contrary it’s such a subtle and delicate sensation that it can only continue for as long as I am sufficiently under-stimulated to observe it….