Definitely one of the very best in your video series! I particularly like your suggestion that listening to music, especially through headphones that transmit the sounds directly to the body, is a process that sensuously disrupts the hegemony of the literary text in front of you: The music that exploded, as it were. This kind of disruption can indeed have the liberating effect on our mind that you describe so touchingly. In this scenario, music does not lift us up into a transcendent realm of redemption, as Romantic metaphysics proposed, but it is purely immanent, occurring as a fluid, bodily-affective experience in the here and now of the material reading process. Great job!
these essays have been really interesting. you choose very unique topics to write about. I particularly like this personal turn you've done for your critiques - emphasizing the intersection between literature the body and the mind. good stuff man
Great lecture Gavin, I loved the approach of you synthesizing Burroughs powerful literature and techniques with your personal material experience with this one, was very engaging and you tied it together beautifully :). I've also personally dealt with personality/anxiety disorders since I was a young child and have also always found relief from my overloaded brain with doodling, all the way from when I was in kindergarten to my time in the Army, though maybe not as punctual or creative as your process haha. I particularly loved hearing you describe the thought process of your doodling akin to a free rhizomatic flow state apposed to maybe an "escape" as I probably would have described if asked in the past, definitely gave me a lot to take away. Keep up the fantastic work as always!
Your description of anxiety arising as you approach a situation was really good, it describes fellongs I’ve had too but have never been able to put to words.
Very enlightening and great essay! Your experience of anxiety and finding a way to balance it by creative processes. I got inspirations from your method and try to implement the automatic writing by the Surrealist: being half-awake/meditative state and let my pen write down the words that appear in my mind while reading a book and listening to f.e. Finnissy or Merzbow: result was my expression slipped into absurd, dreamlike and/or obscene expressions and my handwriting looked more like slur of symbols that looks like a word rather than cursive. That should be very interesting when I start with Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology, since I own a A3 version which has big blank spaces surrounding the text. The style of the Cut-Up triology reminds me somehow of my own experiences with psychedelics - and while I am really hesitant on endorsing the usage (it's a double-edged sword; it losens structures of the mind acquired from society, but you reall don't wanna put your head in a pool of acid and get dissolved afterwards), it allowed me to be in an improvising mind of state, branching into various directions like a mycelium and touching new territories of thoughts.
@@belacqua4435 Really interesting thoughts here! I’ll try this surrealist technique too just to see what comes of it. I’ve had Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology as a reading goal for ages and really need to dig into it, as I imagine I’d like it. I’ve always been curious about psychedelics myself, but I think I’m gonna continue learning about the scientific research to be sure some/any are safe for recreational use caus at the end of the day, I’m a pussy and am scared of experimentation 😬😜
@gavinyoung-philosophy I found the term 'automatic writing' ironic for the Surrealist poets and writers, since I didn't associate the dreamlike qualities of their works with technology or mechanical production. Though after I've encountered the concept of the Desiring Machines I found a deeper appreciation and understanding for the term, since the unbounded and bursting writing, freed from rationality, is in itself the product of the machine in a sense. The concept of automatic writing looks somewhat similar to Joyce's concept of epiphanies, though their difference is how they are written - Joyce wants to capture/record the moment if the idea manifests suddenly in the everyday while the automatic writing doesn't let reason to censor your thoughts. Usually the automatic writing were done on typewriters, but I've found using a pen a much more visceral experience, because in a sense I'm doing caligraphy of the chaotic kind. In this regard I am closer to Heidegger's way of writing, since he was sceptical of the nature of typewriters. For psychedelics - yes! A throughout research but also mental preparation and well-being are required to prevent you from getting a traumatic bad trip. I myself haven't gotten one yet but I was close to get one, and even at that point it was extremly uncomfortable to drift into a negative head space. From what I've learned about those trips are you're never prepared enough for your next trip, it will surprise you - in the best and worst ways possible.
I am a strong proponent of medication. The big problem are that that the prescriptions are mandatory, and a lack of competition in the market. Art should not be a sedative.
Definitely one of the very best in your video series! I particularly like your suggestion that listening to music, especially through headphones that transmit the sounds directly to the body, is a process that sensuously disrupts the hegemony of the literary text in front of you: The music that exploded, as it were. This kind of disruption can indeed have the liberating effect on our mind that you describe so touchingly. In this scenario, music does not lift us up into a transcendent realm of redemption, as Romantic metaphysics proposed, but it is purely immanent, occurring as a fluid, bodily-affective experience in the here and now of the material reading process. Great job!
these essays have been really interesting. you choose very unique topics to write about. I particularly like this personal turn you've done for your critiques - emphasizing the intersection between literature the body and the mind. good stuff man
@@julianalinat9594 Thank you! This feedback means a lot to me man :)
Great lecture Gavin, I loved the approach of you synthesizing Burroughs powerful literature and techniques with your personal material experience with this one, was very engaging and you tied it together beautifully :). I've also personally dealt with personality/anxiety disorders since I was a young child and have also always found relief from my overloaded brain with doodling, all the way from when I was in kindergarten to my time in the Army, though maybe not as punctual or creative as your process haha. I particularly loved hearing you describe the thought process of your doodling akin to a free rhizomatic flow state apposed to maybe an "escape" as I probably would have described if asked in the past, definitely gave me a lot to take away. Keep up the fantastic work as always!
@@LittleMakwa Thank you! I’m really glad you could resonate with my experience. Look at us, forming a little rhizomatic network together ;)
Your description of anxiety arising as you approach a situation was really good, it describes fellongs I’ve had too but have never been able to put to words.
@@alfonso31ification Really glad I could put your feelings into words Alfonso
As far as Anxiety relative to the social sphere, I like this axiom by Lacan: “Anxiety arises when we are unsure of what The Other expects from us.”
Thanks for sharing the personal in this one; I found it highly relatable.
@@dethkon I’m glad!
I love this video, keep up the good work.
@@nicholasv7560 Thank you so much Nicholas!
Very enlightening and great essay! Your experience of anxiety and finding a way to balance it by creative processes. I got inspirations from your method and try to implement the automatic writing by the Surrealist: being half-awake/meditative state and let my pen write down the words that appear in my mind while reading a book and listening to f.e. Finnissy or Merzbow: result was my expression slipped into absurd, dreamlike and/or obscene expressions and my handwriting looked more like slur of symbols that looks like a word rather than cursive. That should be very interesting when I start with Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology, since I own a A3 version which has big blank spaces surrounding the text.
The style of the Cut-Up triology reminds me somehow of my own experiences with psychedelics - and while I am really hesitant on endorsing the usage (it's a double-edged sword; it losens structures of the mind acquired from society, but you reall don't wanna put your head in a pool of acid and get dissolved afterwards), it allowed me to be in an improvising mind of state, branching into various directions like a mycelium and touching new territories of thoughts.
@@belacqua4435 Really interesting thoughts here! I’ll try this surrealist technique too just to see what comes of it. I’ve had Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology as a reading goal for ages and really need to dig into it, as I imagine I’d like it. I’ve always been curious about psychedelics myself, but I think I’m gonna continue learning about the scientific research to be sure some/any are safe for recreational use caus at the end of the day, I’m a pussy and am scared of experimentation 😬😜
@gavinyoung-philosophy I found the term 'automatic writing' ironic for the Surrealist poets and writers, since I didn't associate the dreamlike qualities of their works with technology or mechanical production. Though after I've encountered the concept of the Desiring Machines I found a deeper appreciation and understanding for the term, since the unbounded and bursting writing, freed from rationality, is in itself the product of the machine in a sense. The concept of automatic writing looks somewhat similar to Joyce's concept of epiphanies, though their difference is how they are written - Joyce wants to capture/record the moment if the idea manifests suddenly in the everyday while the automatic writing doesn't let reason to censor your thoughts.
Usually the automatic writing were done on typewriters, but I've found using a pen a much more visceral experience, because in a sense I'm doing caligraphy of the chaotic kind. In this regard I am closer to Heidegger's way of writing, since he was sceptical of the nature of typewriters.
For psychedelics - yes! A throughout research but also mental preparation and well-being are required to prevent you from getting a traumatic bad trip. I myself haven't gotten one yet but I was close to get one, and even at that point it was extremly uncomfortable to drift into a negative head space. From what I've learned about those trips are you're never prepared enough for your next trip, it will surprise you - in the best and worst ways possible.
I am a strong proponent of medication. The big problem are that that the prescriptions are mandatory, and a lack of competition in the market. Art should not be a sedative.
@@dillegitante I’m on medication :) I also strongly advocate for it, as it has helped make life livable
@gavinyoung-philosophy I think that medication can help a person establish some kind of routine.
@ Indeed
@@gavinyoung-philosophy Like you, I'm talking from experience :)
Let's stop pretending Burroughs is readable.
@@ConanDuke He definitely can be if you give it a shot! Some of his writing is rather beautiful