The Music, Literature, and Philosophy Thread
 

Someone inspired this thread in me this am. Selfishly, I purposely put it in the section with the most traffic as I'd love to hear from the broadest population of peeps, and personally these arts (and one science) are instrumental in my early sobriety. I see there is no way to imbed YouTube videos, and I suppose that makes sense....(Just tried to attach the link; I need at least 25 posts in order to do so)

Music, lit, and philosophy are forces that are meaningful tools in living a healthy life for me. I'll start off light; this is Anderson Paak playing COME DOWN. Besides the for the ages bass hook, the lyrics remind me of the vulgar and terrifying feeling of the coke highs I suffered through …. "you might neva, eva come down".

If anyone has some tunes or words that move them, I'd love to read about them. :herewego

I enjoy reading a lot of poetry, and it is very hard to read, let alone sit with and contemplate a poem as one should unless one is sober. Some poets I have been reading lately are Naomi Shihab Nye, John Ashbery, and William Wordsworth.

Nice, Wordsworth (and his Romantic contemporary, Coleridge) were serious junkies. I am a fan of the genre, though I agree that "older" poetry are taxing reads that require a sober mind. Of all lit, it is by far the most difficult for me, often due to the era's parlance and metaphorical use of it. Great reminder, thanks! I am going to pull my Norton Anthology's tonight.

I have been reading Middlemarch (George Eliot) most recently. It reminds me that all human beings (i.e. not just alcoholics/addicts) can make incredible blunders in life. I haven't finished it, but I have a good idea where it is heading.

For music I liked Sixx AM in early recovery. It is a little on the depressing side now.

I am not a big fan of philosophy any more. It makes my head hurt trying to read it.

Lol, you got me on Eliot....never read. Sixx AM must be Nikki Sixx, correct? I've been meaning to pick up The Heroin Diaries and read it. I do follow him on IG; he just met with the Attorney General on the opioid crisis, and he has two Golden Retrievers he adores. I've had a few over the last 25 years. As to philosophy, I get it....very difficult and dense material, and frankly from Aristotle to Rawls, the conclusions are bleak. Of the 5 areas, I do enjoy Aesthetics, Logic, and Ethics a great deal. Literature, on the other hand offers me great hope.

and here's the track I mentioned in the 1st post....Anderson Paak's Come Down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZutBr7t02o

I am a huge Indie and Alternative Music fan and there are many artists with songs that I find moving and help inspire me towards recovery and a better life. The poetic quality of a lot of these artists' music goes unrecognized, in my opinion.

The best example I can think of from a commonly known artist is "Present Tense" by Pearl Jam. I can relate to these lyrics to my own personal struggles on so many levels.

(FYI - If you are not a fan of the musical quality of the song... the last two minutes are just instrumentals. :) )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0q0PsvQq0Y

It may not be high art but it's my medium...The Who's However Much I Booze is one of the best rock songs ever written about active alcoholism

I see myself on T.V., I'm a faker, a paper clown
It's clear to all my friends that I habitually lie; I just bring them down
I claim proneness to exaggeration
But the truth lies in my frustration
The children of the night, they all pass me by
Have to drench myself in brandy
In sleep I'll hide
But however much I booze
There ain't no way out
There ain't no way out
I don't care what you say, boy
There ain't no way out

I lose so many nights of sleep worrying about my responsibilities
Are the problems that screw me up really down to him or me
My ego will just confuse me
Some day it's going to up and use me
Dish me out another tailor-made compliment
Tell me about some destiny I can't prevent
And however much I squirm
There ain't no way out
There ain't no way out
I don't care what you say, boy
There ain't no way out

Won't somebody tell me how to get out of this place?!
Then the night comes down like a cell door closing
Suddenly I realize that I'm right now, I'm on the scene
While sitting here all alone with a bottle and my head a-floating
Far away from the phone and the conscience going on at me
And on at me, and I don't care what you say
There ain't no way out
There ain't no way out

Now the walls are all clawed and scratched
Like by some soul insane
In the morning I humbly detach myself
I take no blame
I just can't face my failure
I'm nothing but a well ****** sailor
You at home can easily decide what's right
By glancing very briefly at the songs I write
But it don't help me that you know
This ain't no way out
Won't somebody tell me?
I don't care what you say, boy
There ain't no way out

There ain't no way out
There ain't no way out
There ain't no way out

Give me the key, lock it away
There ain't
There ain't
There ain't no way out
There ain't no way out
There ain't no way out

I needed these honest songs in order to get real and start thinking about recovery.

I wanted to post the vid but there's a little profanity in it...oh well :)

D

I love George Eliot, Opio. Wish more people still read her.

"That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity."

I read a lot and I am not fussy.
Fiction, non fiction, romance, thrillers, mystery.
If it sounds interesting, I will read it.
I recently read When by Daniel Pink.
It’s about how brains are wired, and how time of day affects decision making.
It was great.
I am also a Mary Oliver fan.

I've read everything Cormac McCarthy has written at least twice for both literature and philosophy.
I highly recommend him for anyone interested.

Great stuff. I have picked up Blood Meridian and never finished it. Like everyone else, I have heard nothing but great things about him. In the contemporary American scene, I have enjoyed T.C. Boyle and David Foster Wallace a great deal. Another American, William Styron wrote a 80 page or so essay called "Darkness Visible". If anyone has read it, I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. I can't speak highly enough about how it tackles the afflictions of depression and addiction.

As for the Pearl Jam tune, that's a deep cut I have never heard (beautiful tune)....love them and they are on regular rotation in my workouts. They carry that dark edgy power I tend to gravitate to, lol. And Vedder's connection to The Who, whom he idolizes, made me smile. Again, a deep cut from By Numbers....great song and I agree it's down to brass tacks where alcoholism is concerned. BTW, I'd classify much of their discography as high art for what it's worth

Ah, there is a youtube imbed key...great lyrics here...remind me of Sartre's concept of god. Not for everyone, but it's a kicker at the gym

Yes, I have read Darkness Visible, boy, that was a long time ago.
I recall it being a book, though. Don't remember.
Really well done story of depression and, as I remember, recovery from it.

Yes, it resonated with me; I've read it a few times. My copy is a book, but it was written as an essay. It does focus on his suicidal ideation and crippling depression, but the outlier is his supplemental Halcyon and alcohol intake. It has been impactful for me...every word perfect on the really complex and intangible forces of the mind. The writing was hypnotic for me. I should pick it up today; I just received my order for Emile Durkheim's. Suicide: A Study in Sociology, but I am in a really dark place today and after I took a look, I just couldn't face it.

Going into the darker places of psychology and philosophy tends to hold me there.

I've broken free from ill thinking. My daily routines change up frequently, yet all now have a strong vein of positivity and the goodness of life.

TobyMac

C.S. Lewis

Confucius "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

I'm not religious, yet the Franciscan prayers are something I like exploring.
https://fslf.org/CommonFranciscanPrayers

The changes and evolution of thought processes in my own life and through history are fun to observe.

I love David Foster Wallace's This Is Water. Some of the thoughts in it help me to fight off the AV when it comes.

https://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI

Awesome pick Alice. I too have referred back to this many times over the years...just about the perfect commencement address. I don't think these observations come from anywhere but a highly contemplative and conflicted person, but he really pierces the essence of what is "important" in life. His father was a philosophy proff (symbolic logic) I believe....some of his short stories model that type of math in language as well. Tragic end

Interestingly enough, I believe David Foster Wallace got the motivation to write Infinite Jest while he was in rehab for his drinking.