Friday, August 03, 2007

Courage and Masochism (or Eliza? Where the devil is my bondage mask?)

In the end, isn't all our strength, all our courage, merely a form of masochism?

How do you tell the difference between the man who will withstand any amount of pain, tolerate any amount of humiliation, for the things he believes in and the people he loves;

and

the man who believes in pain and loves humiliation to the point where he will tolerate other people just to experience these things?

That is, if there is a difference.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

you talking abt me?

Anonymous said...

i suppose the difference of chosing to be stupid or idiotic respectively?

P said...

Strange, I never thought of it that way...

Anonymous said...

There is third facet too right - A man taking pain, humiliation and suffering to test himself whether he can actually take ti the extent he thinks he can
-S

Themadi said...

eehh? -- **facial expression all twisty in confusion like in the cartoons**

Anonymous said...

Yes and how do you tell the difference between a masked man wielding a knife who silently slits open someone's stomach in an operating room and a bandit who does the same on a deserted highway by moonlight? Perhaps every so often context is more alibi than explanation and granted intention an invisible cloak -- who knows what unseen velvet folds conceal (but it cannot be the stupor of sameness because the design is more intelligently intricate than that -- the world 'crazier and more of it than we think incorrigibly plural' etc). a cleverly wrought comparison but not quite the same as being equal to (or true):)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous who asked about the difference between the masked man in the OR and the bandit on the road, you might want to think about the foll:

1. I gave the masked man (or woman, more likely) permission to slit my stomach. The same is not true for the bandit.

2. The masked man/woman will restitch my stomach and I'm going to sue him/her for everything s/he is worth if I die in the process (well, that would be a metaphysical problem but you et the drift, the big picture, the broad brushstrokes etc). Unfortunately, there's no court where I can sue bandits if they slit my stomach and don't restitch it - (though would be extremely interested in one if there is - there are few bandits I'd like to sue the hell out of ).

3. I'm not sure about you but I can definitely tell the difference between the an abdominal surgeon and the bandit (well at least without anaesthesia and not on a deserted highway, of course, if I were mugged on the road by a surgeon-turned-bandit, things start to look murky.

n!

Anonymous said...

that's some good shit you've been smoking! :D

Anonymous said...

the extremes, they say, appear alike.

But they really are extremes; the difference they say is in the pudding.

The difference would be in the effect and the experience.

However, there is always doubt as long as you are in the 'relative'. Certainities are a characterstic of the absolutes.

Do i answer any of your question; no. i just think what you might want to think about is the relation between language and the experience.

then perhaps you might have a different question... and one with an answer :) tho you might still not be able to put it in words