Are you listening closely?
October 25, 2016 9:50 AM   Subscribe

"Narcissus was a man who was so in love with himself that he fell in love with his own reflection. No one else was good enough for him. He stared into the pool, and eventually wasted away." But that's not the whole story.
posted by Alterity (39 comments total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
I miss Alone.
posted by kimota at 10:28 AM on October 25, 2016 [6 favorites]


"This is too clever and self-obsessed by half..."

The Last Psychiatrist

"Oh."
posted by leotrotsky at 10:40 AM on October 25, 2016 [13 favorites]


More previously
posted by andorphin at 10:46 AM on October 25, 2016


the writer in love with himself writes about a mythical person in love with himself...much reflection in this brief piece.
posted by Postroad at 10:50 AM on October 25, 2016 [6 favorites]


So, what? This is a parody blog of some sort? Why?

Wait. Please tell me this is a parody blog and not real.
posted by destructive cactus at 11:10 AM on October 25, 2016 [8 favorites]


I enjoyed this piece at the beginning, but it began to grate pretty quickly. Then I started interpreting the "you" as referring to the author and it made much more sense.

Listen. You are an author. You are confident of your powers. You are probably much smarter than your audience. Why not tell your audience what they think, in no uncertain terms? If they are as smart as the author, they will understand that we are referring to some "other" (this just among friends, of course, of course) and if they're not, you are almost certainly correct, right?

But no. You are stupid. You are a navel-gazing idiot. (Are you still reading this? Do you have time to read elliptical prose that directly insults you? Do you see what I'm getting at here?)

In short, you are not Italo Calvino, and this is not If On A Winter's Night A Traveler, and having respect for your audience is actually A Thing.
posted by phooky at 11:13 AM on October 25, 2016 [12 favorites]


I think this was an interesting idea, but he (?) undercuts it by being wrong every time he says 'I know what you're thinking'.
Could have gotten it right at least once.
posted by MtDewd at 11:19 AM on October 25, 2016 [6 favorites]


Here's the trick to reading Alone: he's poking you to get you to rethink assumptions. There is no point in getting mad at him for it, that would be like getting mad at a hall of mirrors. If you don't have the assumptions he's pointing out, i.e. you're not the "you" he's addressing, then you don't have them. But if you're getting mad at someone you've never met because they're pointing out something you think they think about you personally, yes you and you alone and not any other of the potential readers, and you don't like what you think they think about you? Maybe there's something there. As someone who studied literature with a hefty dose of mythology, there are a lot of assumptions he makes about the popular interpretations of the myth that are not just correct, but taught to us in school. Like the assumption about the origin of Echo's name.

Alone is/was pretty open about being flawed himself too, he wrote some powerful pieces about his psychiatry work.
posted by fraula at 11:23 AM on October 25, 2016 [7 favorites]


Here's the trick to reading Alone: he's poking you to get you to rethink assumptions. There is no point in getting mad at him for it, that would be like getting mad at a hall of mirrors.

It would be like getting mad at a a guy on the bus who thinks he's a "great judge of character" and keeps shoving a mirror at you.
posted by thelonius at 11:27 AM on October 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


I liked it.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 11:28 AM on October 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Here's the trick to reading Alone: he's poking you to get you to rethink assumptions. There is no point in getting mad at him for it, that would be like getting mad at a hall of mirrors. If you don't have the assumptions he's pointing out, i.e. you're not the "you" he's addressing, then you don't have them.

I learned this halfway through and was able to get through the story. I really enjoyed the first half, honestly enjoyed it. The middle wasn't awful, once I realized the whole piece is trying to teach something, and maybe it's something you already know.

I found his patient understanding for narcissus and almost hateful contempt for Echo to be... gross, frankly.
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:36 AM on October 25, 2016 [5 favorites]


On the subject of assumptions,

It's so simple that no one has ever thought of it,

is probably a bad one to make when discussing ancient myths.
posted by destructive cactus at 11:47 AM on October 25, 2016 [8 favorites]


the core concept of - ancient myths are warnings, not just-so stories. I think they can be interpreted as such, but I would like to see confirmation from other sources. Is this the case?

I've read plato. In my class, we broke it down line by line to try to understand what plato was *really* saying, and how that was different from what we thought he was saying. Predicate logic. The math of ethics. If this and this and this, only if all three of those, then this other thing.

It's a very prescriptive exercise. Who cares what plato said? Well, some people do, and that's fine. But weather you enjoy plato as an exercise in understanding a true way to live a happy life (good luck with that), or as a way to chat with your boss about historic perspectives on this or that, it's all good.

So the thought that (a) we shouldn't enjoy myths as stories because (b) they are actually warnings, and (c) we can learn from them because (d) we, what, don't have sufficient modern stories or modern brains or modern hearts to figure out this stuff for ourselves.... well if a, b, c, and d are true, then I guess so be it.

I've now written a bunch about how I don't like the medium of the thought. I think the author of the original article did the same. Ironic.
posted by rebent at 11:53 AM on October 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


I enjoyed it until it got to the ending of "The narcissist is YOU". That seemed dumb; like people who said "We all are terrorists on the inside" (I've actually heard that one). Really?

It seems like an M. Night Shymalan ending to a potentially insightful take on the old myth and our current trend of labeling everyone a narcissist because it's the syndrome de jour of pop psychology at the moment.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 11:55 AM on October 25, 2016 [5 favorites]


I like TLP. Her essays are challenging to read for many reasons (some of them enumerated above), but for me, they're worth some time and effort, and I feel like I'm not a worse person for having engaged with them.
posted by infinitewindow at 12:05 PM on October 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm sorry, did you say something? I was busy looking in the mirror.
posted by sexyrobot at 12:08 PM on October 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


I think this is a fundamental misreading of a Greek myth. The critical lesson of all the Greek myths is DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE GODS; SACRIFICE TO THEM AND THEY WILL PROBABLY LEAVE YOU ALONE; IF YOU IGNORE THIS ADVICE YOU ARE FUCKED GOOD LUCK BEING A COW OR TREE OR SPIDER OR SOME DAMNED THING.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:13 PM on October 25, 2016 [28 favorites]


Anyone who finds this surprising or disorienting should read it, and possibly re-read it. Anyone who finds it obvious and pedantic need not finish.
posted by clockzero at 12:26 PM on October 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Having followed The Last Psychiatrist on and off for some years now, every time I see the name I think, somehow, of "The Lone Rhinoceros" by Adrian Belew. And I start humming "I'm The Last Psychiatrist / There ain't one hell of a lots of us / Left in this world."
posted by octobersurprise at 12:29 PM on October 25, 2016 [4 favorites]


Eh, very occasionally you come out OK. Ganymede did alright, assuming he swung that way.
posted by leotrotsky at 12:57 PM on October 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Some interesting initial ideas. I liked that bit about how a Nemesis isn't necessarily an enemy. If you've read TLP for any length of time, you'll see the secret decoder ring always spells "narcissism." What I find more irritating is his/her overuse of rhetorical questions that are dropped in as if they are blowing our minds. I'll take clear insights over gimmicks.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 1:00 PM on October 25, 2016 [8 favorites]


While I find some of TLP's insights very illuminating in general, his posts fill me with this profound existential dread every time I read one.

I assume that means I'm a raging narcissist probably.
posted by ariadne_88 at 1:35 PM on October 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


I enjoyed it until it got to the ending of "The narcissist is YOU". That seemed dumb; like people who said "We all are terrorists on the inside" (I've actually heard that one). Really?

It seems like an M. Night Shymalan ending to a potentially insightful take on the old myth and our current trend of labeling everyone a narcissist because it's the syndrome de jour of pop psychology at the moment.


I think I might agree with your assessment if the character under discussion weren't Narcissus. Of course the person trying to decode the myth of Narcissus is Narcissus. That's kind of the point of the story. People puzzle over it because it's a story about themselves. It's also a story that implies too much self-regard is dangerous. And one that invites hours and hours of speculation into its Real Meaning. It's a huge headfuck and you're probably better off brushing a cat or watching The Simpsons or taking a walk.

I liked it.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:51 PM on October 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


But when a temptation arose Narcissus's parents either let him have it or hid it from him so he wouldn't be tempted, so they wouldn't have to tell him no. They didn't teach him how to resist temptation, how to deal with lack. And they most certainly didn't teach him how NOT to want what he couldn't have. They didn't teach him how to want.

What if all you were taught was to not want, that you were meant to live with lack, and was repeatedly told "no"?

I don't think I'm the right audience for this one.
posted by droplet at 2:54 PM on October 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


I think this was an interesting idea, but he (?) undercuts it by being wrong every time he says 'I know what you're thinking'. Could have gotten it right at least once.

But that just means instead of reading a message written to you, you're eavesdropping on a message written to someone else. Doesn't that make it more interesting rather than less?

Not only are you assembling a picture of the author as you read, you're trying to imagine who the intended readers are and why the author would be writing to them in particular.
posted by straight at 3:11 PM on October 25, 2016


Is the intended reader a person who really exists, or like the mythical "hipster", are they simply a collection of attributes the author dislikes lumped together and made metaphorical flesh?
posted by Pyry at 3:44 PM on October 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


This post in isolation was insufferable. Then I read more of the blog... oh my god.
posted by smidgen at 4:03 PM on October 25, 2016 [4 favorites]


I'm sorry, did you say something? I was busy looking in the mirror.
posted by sexyrobot


eponysterical
posted by eviemath at 4:37 PM on October 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


"Oh!" I can hear you say. "That's where the word Echo comes from." Grow up! Do you think these are children's stories, like how the leopard got his spots?

Suddenly the internet is castigating me and I'm confused and I'm gonna leave now
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 5:22 PM on October 25, 2016 [4 favorites]


Well, I walked away from that with absolutely no idea what he was trying to say.
posted by a power-tie-wearing she-capitalist at 6:59 PM on October 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


You're so vain, I bet you think this piece is about you. Don't you?

Well, here's what you're not getting.

It is. But not in the way you think!

Anyway, I thought there were a bunch of good ideas in the article, but I guess I too would have preferred a different author. It's an unfair comparison, but imagine what Kierkegaard might have done with this theme (and for all I know, maybe he did write about it somewhere).
posted by uosuaq at 6:59 PM on October 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


TLP, previously
posted by j_curiouser at 9:16 PM on October 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Echo was turned to an echo because Zeus used to like, poke her in the shoulder and go "Hey Echo, can you go tell Hera about that thing that you saw in that place one time?" and Echo would be all like "Um, I guess? Sure?" and would go and chew Hera's ear off while Zeus was golden showering some maiden or getting it on with a heifer, and once Hera got wind of this decided that Echo was in on it and boom. Formless, repeating voice. She could only throw back what she heard.

So, you know, she didn't just waste away for want of Narcissus. Her crime was doing what she was told and pissing off a powerful woman in the process. The misrepresentation of Echo's story kind of got me out of a place where I could appreciate this piece.
posted by Jilder at 9:49 PM on October 25, 2016 [4 favorites]


TLP is a woman, right?

Anyway, this was pretty good.
posted by stoneandstar at 12:06 AM on October 26, 2016


Not only are you assembling a picture of the author as you read,

I actually became acutely aware of myself doing this, during the piece. I did end with a picture of the author. However, I'm inclined to argue that any piece of literature that does this, draw attention to the author at the expense of the subject at hand, is bad writing. I think there's a rhetorical responsibility, or sense of ethics between author and audience; good writing invites readers into a world of ideas, not lure them in on pretense (such as posing as psychoanalysis of myth literature) and then bring up subtly triggering things in the first/third person. It doesn't help if the philosophical moves made are easily arguable--such as that section about how parents do/don't/should/shouldn't raise their children.

What's meta-funny about this is, one might wonder that much written material has this kind of problem; it's just that the competent writers are less obvious about it.
posted by polymodus at 1:26 AM on October 26, 2016


If you don't have the assumptions he's pointing out, i.e. you're not the "you" he's addressing, then you don't have them. But if you're getting mad at someone you've never met because they're pointing out something you think they think about you personally, yes you and you alone and not any other of the potential readers, and you don't like what you think they think about you?

But it's not like that in practice. In practice, there's a "transaction cost" (I blanch at having to use a crude econ term) to communication of this sort i.e. the process of ascertaining relevance and all that. Someone above said that it took them halfway to figure out the "joke". So there's a line where this might be kind of manipulative. Instead, let the reader decide if they want to watch horror movies, or in parallel, read mindfuck literature, or not. That's a matter of consent.
posted by polymodus at 1:41 AM on October 26, 2016


Thomas Moore's treatment of this myth in his "Care Of The Soul" is worth a read.
posted by DJZouke at 5:26 AM on October 26, 2016


The post is named "The Second Story" because it's not an accurate representation of the myth, it's a rhetorical tool.

I can't tell if I'm deluded because I think that while they are rude, accusatory, and arrogant, TLP is good. They're so damn polarizing on the blue and I'm not sure if I can trust my own opinion on them, haha.

But really, even if you didn't like that, go read the last thing that TLP read about cyber-bullying. Or the takedown of the Hunger Games. Or go read some fairly prophetic tracts about the widespread use, side effects, and general efficacy of atypical antipsychotics. Or shit, read everything and then find yourself craving more of alone's writing and then start reading the insane comments.

Where are these people in real life?
posted by sibboleth at 6:51 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


TLP is a woman, right?
I don't know, but people don't seem to think so.
The Last Psychiatrist is Dr. Chris Ballas, a practicing psychiatrist within the University of Pennsylvania Health System. He's been doxed in other places, so I don't feel bad about doing so here.

As far back as 2007, an article at AMSA (the American Medical Student Association) quoted him and noted in passing that he "also blogs as The Last Psychiatrist'". Dr. Ballas also has the requisite strong interest in technology, and is, according to his Healthcentral Profile, writing "a novel about the end of the internet."
posted by Coventry at 11:03 AM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


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