hnry ffth

Two facts and a question

Wittgenstein knows!

Consider for example the proceedings that we call “games”. I mean board-games, card-games, ball-games, Olympic games, and so on. What is common to them all? — Don’t say: “There must be something common, or they would not be called ‘games’ “-but look and see whether there is anything common to all. — For if you look at them you will not see something that is common to all, but similarities, relationships, and a whole series of them at that. To repeat: don’t think, but look!

magicmolly:

Fact #1: I remember being deeply moved at age fourteen by a Sex and the City episode called “Games People Play”. It dealt with the ways in which people manipulate themselves and others in order to calibrate the amount of control they have in romantic situations.

I did not have any experience in romance, and the parts of the episode that moved me were the ones in which Carrie sat alone in her apartment thinking about stuff. The content of the stuff was less important than the visual portrayal of her sitting there. I had a tremendous amount of experience in sitting around.

But. The episode introduced me to the idea of games in a romantic context, which idea would recur again and again in magazines and movies that I absorbed over the next few years.

Fact #2: There are few things I enjoy more than games. Actual games. When I am with family we spend maybe 40% of the time playing backgammon or hearts or gin rummy. My childhood can be neatly organized by the progression from Chutes and Ladders to Othello to Stratego to Monopoly to Boggle to Parcheesi. When my younger brother grew old enough to consistently beat me at games, our relationship graduated from one of domination/subordination to one of mutual respect. I still meet my mom once a week to play backgammon.

Question: How did the concept of a game become this catch-all term to describe self-interested romantic maneuvering? It is completely the wrong word and the wrong idea.

A game has rules to which every player agrees. The back-and-forth exchange of control is material and evident. A game is made up of conventions and takes place in a circumscribed area. Most importantly, the stakes are understood.

None of these things applies to a relationship or even a flirtation. A game is the opposite of a relationship! “Games People Play” are not games at all— a person can’t play a game with someone who doesn’t know his hand has been dealt. The people in charge of such things have got to think of a new term in order to eliminate this imprecision.

kelsium:

Abortion is a medical procedure. Prevent it as much as possible. Don’t need one? Don’t get one. Need one? Get one. Got something to say about someone else’s medical procedure? Don’t. Like dicks? Eat one.

I wonder how long post-graduation it will take until I no longer internally pronounce all instances of “Benjamin” as “Benyameen.”

I just realised there are hardly any Soviets in my list.

faithandbegorrah:

zombienumbersix:

Y’all got any recommendations for Russian composers that aren’t awful and aren’t Tschaikovsky?

ETA: ARTEMYEV!

Shostakovich! Shos! ta! ko! vich!

rachmaninoff.

Who speaks Russian here? I’d like to know exactly what it is that Chekov says when he beams Kirk and Sulu out of their free-fall. Phonetically, it sounds like “Yah-mah-YORE!”

faithandbegorrah:

(via inothernews)

I haven’t seen the film, but that doesn’t sound familiar. Most of the common and really dirty Russian swears have some form of “yohb” or “yehb” (meaning “to fuck,” but way more offensive). It may be using a form of the verb “myat’,” meaning “to fuck” (more literally “to crush; to wrinkle” - not so much with the sex positivity, you see). This old article from the New Yorker on the Russian swearing system - and it is indeed an entire system - may help. If nothing else, it’s fascinating.

oh you people. he’s saying “ё мoё,” pronounced roughly “yo mayo,” with short Os.

it’s a shortened, mitigated version of the russian word for fuck, and so, meaningless on its own. it’s like saying ssssshhhhh….ugar. or ffffff….udge.