The art of (un)debate

About bloody time!! Granted, long hiatus caused by the usual lack of inspiration (or at least, lack of long-lasting inspiration of any sort), but I promise to be just as incoherent as usual, so that my "comeback" can seem like nothing more than boredom and guilt for not writing for so long...

Mood: bored by the holidays...dizzy from playing far too much Theme Hospital (nostalgia!)

Song: New Wave (esp. on The B-52 's side...with hints of Nouvelle Vague here and there, just for the fun of comparing); currently listening to The Mooney Suzuki's similar artists, soon to move on to The BellRays...my music is everywhere these days!

Quote:

Oooooorrrrrr, appropriate for how I spent the first days of the year: "Reality is an illusion caused by lack of alcohol."

Film: La Faute à Fidel! (reminds me too much of myself when I was a spoilt brat - was, whatever people may say about me now!) For the sake of sharing and wasting bloggin space, my comment from Flixster goes as follows: "What better - and more original - way to portray the zeitgeist of post-'68 than through the eyes of a child? The great thing about this is that Gavras has managed to keep this pretty neutral, considering it's the kind of theme most people like to take sides on. Seeing the political banter from the point of view of a child helps to see what is truly important about these discussions in the end. And, she sort of reminded me of myself, not only phisically, but also in being just a spoilt a little brat sometimes...haha..."

Book: you tell me! Finally finished The New Journalism, so am now in between Hemingway, Camus, Kafka and Dostoyevsky. Any thoughts? If only I could afford more Tom Wolfe...

Written last night in a rush of broken inspiration (couldn't sleep because the Theme Hospital receptionist wouldn't shut up in my head). Well, here goes...ad verbatum, cos I can't be bothered to prim it up:

I love a good argument. A good discussion, debate. Unfortunately, debate does not seem to love me. Everytime I try to get into a discussion in a web forum, be it picking fights with religious/conservative posters on IMDB, or arguing about who deserved to win Brazil's Next Top Model on Orkut, my posts always seem perfectly timed to the dieing out of the banter. In "real life", however, I am cursed with the same problem many of us ex-debate club nerds have, which is the inability, or better, incapacity to find the right words at the right time. Unless I am arguing principles and beliefs which are already a fixed part of my character (which is why I love picking fights with religious people so much), then it's just no good. Even worse is when you try arguing with a specialist on the issue, or someone who has set beliefs on everything; then it's a definite no-win situation.

Trouble is, you see, I'm a relativist. Nothing is black and white; all I see are grey areas, be it in politics, in art, in life. Makes it a bit difficult to get your point across when you're arguing with a communist militant, an art-house film snob, a boyfriend...Eventually, I just begin to argue "the other side", independantly of whether I agree with it or not, independantly of whether it makes any sense or is remotely a good argument, just for the sake of getting a different point of view across. No wonder I never win any battles. To some, I am a die-hard socialist. To others, I'm as conservative as it gets (my not making it in my last interview only further proves that - haha!). It all depends on how far left or right my opponent swings me.

Me? I swing to the music; whatever tickles my fancy; just going with the flow. In the end, I guess that turned out rather nicely for me.