A conglomeration of things
Spending today at Newberry Crater National Monument. Here are a couple pictures from Paulina Peak and one from the Paulina Lake loop trail. Newberry Crater is like a less symmetric version of Crater Lake, with a cinder cone and lava flow separating the two lakes within the crater. The landscape to the south is dotted with what I assume to be baby volcanoes. Lots of smoke in the air from forest fires burning to the north.
Mike: You look like one of the guys from Mythbusters. Are you?
Flink: Mike, I’d like to bust that myth! Although wait…
Mike: What?
Flink: No, you’re not gonna want to transcribe this … to bust the myth I’d have to set up an elaborate experiment, but I’m not an engineer, so we have here a paradox.
Mike: Who are you?
Flink: Who wants to know?
Mike: Pretend you’re telling my mom.
Flink: We having a complicated identity musing going on here.
Mike: Is everything okay?
Flink: I don’t like that question very much. Because either everything is too broad or it’s just slightly passive-aggressive.
Mike: I am not a good interviewer.
Flink: You are a very good interviewer. I’m just a challenging subject.
Mike: So I understand you have strong feelings on Noam Chomsky’s work. Unpopular feelings. Among linguists. We can go off the record if you want.
Flink: I think maybe I should just seize the pen. [Here Flink seizes the pen and the handwriting in the transcription changes.] First, any opinion about linguistics is technically an ‘unpopular’ opinion — or anyways a non-popular opinion. That said, I think his books Syntactic Structures (1957) and Aspects of the Theory of Syntax 1965) are brilliant books. However, his desperation for an abstraction has, I believe, prevented his work from substantive progress for decades now, and I find most of his dogma to be prima facie implausible — regardless of his pronouncements, “science” is not best served by thought experiment and increased levels of abstract analysis of models.
XO, Noam — Flink.
Mike: I think Noam Chomsky is probably a good (if frustrated) person.
Flink: His politics are good, but he has a reputation for … purging generations of grad students. But who knows, it’s all just gossip.
Mike: Do you think he’s unhappy?
Flink: I have never gotten that impression from anything he’s written.
Mike: In general, do you think there’s an overemphasis on happiness? In the culture at large.
Flink: Of course, but what the fuck else are you going to overemphasize?
Mike: I would say skateboard tricks and the Fast and the Furious movies.
Flink: That’s very ableist of you.
Mike: What does that mean? I think you have a bigger vocabulary than me.
Flink: Indubitably.
Mike: Ha ha ha.
Flink: Ableism is discrimination on the basis of physical ability.
Mike: I am having a hard time with this interview. Help me end it on a high note.
Flink: I think you’re doing very well.
Mike: Well, it’s been great having you in the studio today. Take care.
Flink: I apologize for at any point leading you to believe that I had anything interesting to say about Noam Chomsky.
The Cascades at sunset, viewed from the road up to Newberry Caldera. South of Bend, east of La Pine.
Trailhead view outside the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness this morning.
I’m in a coffee shop in Berkeley, a few blocks from my friend Ben’s apartment. Ben is letting me stay here while I recover from my wild boar attack. I’ve alternately struggled and dealt with my depression for most of my adult life, and being boar-hobbled has me feeling a little down. But the sun is out today, and it helps to be outside and near other people — I’m in a little courtyard area right now, and a nearby couple is talking about sustainable construction techniques. Jefferson Airplane was playing on the stereo earlier, and before that I walked through a gigantic cloud of pungent marijuana smoke with no apparent source. I’m happy that Berkeley hasn’t challenged any of my preconceptions about it.
On the other hand, I got some weird looks and prolonged stares walking down the street today [thanks mostly to my legs], and I’m slightly worried that in a place with a generalized weirdness quotient as high as Berkeley, I’m the one attracting stares.
There’s another person here reading a book with her laptop open in front of her. It’s a 12-inch G4 Powerbook, which was only available from I think 2003 to 2006, and suddenly I wish I could talk directly to the part of my brain responsible for knowing this and persuade it to replace this information with knowledge on what I should do with my life.
Hey Kim, I hope you liked this letter. I wasn’t sure how to finish it, so I drew a caveman playing a keyboard. I talked to a doctor yesterday and he said my legs are in good shape after the wild boar attack and I can “ride the Tour de France” if I want. Personally I think that might be a bit much, but that’s good news anyway. I hope you are enjoying Kansas.
