Eight.

Charlie Kauffman is the man. I don't want to hear it. Since my last post on Synecdoche I've seen Human Nature and started Being John Malkovich again. My friend Pete said Kauffman was really cerebral, that's it hard to watch his films. I nodded in agreement thinking to myself that films in America at some point became mind numbing instead of mind stimulating. Film isn't for the mind only though, they're food for the emotions also and I think that Kauffman does that extraordinarily well. His protagonists are always asking philosophical existential questions. Those questions of course make us ask the same questions. What is love? What is eternity? What is hell? Is hell personal? What is freedom? Can we be free serving life in prison? What is human nature? How deep does the human soul go and what hides there? There's many other questions that one can ask.

I recently saw a film called the Invention of Lying. Really smart concept. The precept of the film is simple: noone has lied yet. There is no God, no religion, no fiction, no movies, just documentary films. And someone lies. The best bits of the film are the really tiny bits like the waiters telling people the food's no good and commenting aloud to customers who are on a date. "You're not on her level." "If I gave you my number would you call me?" "Shut up." etc.

Unfortunately this is a romantic comedy which is a genre I despise because it's fluff and the world has very little fluff in it. So here is this good idea, could have been remarkable film but very forgetable, because it rides the fence of the believable and the unbelievable. Life is about choices right? Writing is about choices, right? Wekgjrgfaerhgaeh epofuhiu ewfjewkfh. That was a choice. I wish I could see your reflection everywhere. That was also a choice. You get the point. Every little thing you put down is a choice, even a choice not to make a choice is a choice. In this film civilization and society exist. This to me smacks completely of a lie. Civilizations and societies are based on lies. How could a lie exist without lying? In order to watch this malarkey you have to suspend only half your thinking. Architecture, art, are all lies. How do I manipulate mathematics and stone and measurement to make people think this particular building reflect this philosophy? Lie. What I find remarkable is some women eat this shit up. They can watch mind numbing things like this for hours on end. They sit with bowl after bowl after bowl (no water), shoveling it into their mouths at the speed of blur, and me I sit watching them, mesmerized and nauseous after they swallow the first bite.

If you're tuning in waiting for Camus, you're in for a long wait, I think. The reading is progressing very slowly but it's daily, so keep waiting.

Who am I kidding, I'm talking to myself.