TOPIC: Tsundoku
Today's magic word is "tsundoku": "the phenomenon of acquiring
reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without
reading them. The term is also used to refer to unread books on a
bookshelf meant for reading later." [-Wikipedia]
This film also has the "fake ending" one sometimes see, where
everything seems resolved but in fact there is yet another threat
or twist. This is usually about twenty minutes from the end, and
we first noticed it in POLTERGEIST. On our second viewing, when
the "fake ending" came along, several audience members got up to
leave (presumably to beat the rush out of the parking lot). We
were torn between not wanting to give away anything to the people
remaining, and wanting to yell at them, "Come back, you
morons--you're missing the best part!"
By that logic, as someone somewhere between atheist and agnostic,
I should be afraid of death. I'm not. I first faced my real
chance of death a bit over twenty-five years ago and found it
didn't bother me at all. (The situation was prepping for bypass
surgery. Not all who undergo it survive. My vastly bigger fear
was surviving with brain damage, which can also happen.)
By that logic, as someone somewhere between atheist and agnostic,
I should be afraid of death. I'm not. I first faced my real
chance of death a bit over twenty-five years ago and found it
didn't bother me at all. (The situation was prepping for bypass
surgery. Not all who undergo it survive. My vastly bigger fear
was surviving with brain damage, which can also happen.)
As I understand the terms, you can't really be "between" atheist and >agnostic. To be atheistic means not to believe in a god. To be agnostic
means to think the question of a deity's existence can't be resolved. An >agnostic can believe that there's a god in spite of that lack of
evidence, or not.
The main point is that being atheistic doesn't require affirmatively >believing in the non-existence of a god. Someone who has never been
exposed to the idea of gods and hasn't come up with it independently
would be an atheist.
Personally, I don't fear death (the state of being dead), but I do fear
dying (the process).
UNEARTHLY STRANGER (1963): UNEARTHLY STRANGER was made by Anglo
Amalgamated, who also made THE MIND BENDERS (another of Mark's
"forgotten science fiction films") and the "Carry On" films.
The film is told in flashback, and there is an odd continuity
problem which makes one think the framing sequence was added later
by someone who did not read the script very closely. (In the
opening, the character who is the skeptic in the main part of the
film talks about how he believed and the other character was the
skeptic.)
(Also, the claim is that the aliens don't blink, except they do.)
Once again we have a shot of a spiral staircase shot offIt's at Internet Archives. I enjoyed it, https://archive.org/details/unearthly-stranger
kilter--this is a real favorite of directors.
Released theatrically April 1964.
Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057623/reference>
What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/unearthly-stranger>
I don't know whether or not the existence of one or more deities
can be resolved. I do know that, at least to my satisfaction, that
it has not been. To date, despite great efforts by many people
over many centuries, there is a profound lack of evidence or
demonstration FOR the existence of a god or gods. So far, this
makes the probability of such existence extremely low, so--at
present--my default position is that god(s) do not exist.
So....you tell me. Does that make me an atheist or an
agnostic...or some fuzzy state in between the two that has not
yet had a quantum collapse?
In article <107ac24$1vbbm$1@dont-email.me>,
Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
I don't know whether or not the existence of one or more deities
can be resolved. I do know that, at least to my satisfaction, that
it has not been. To date, despite great efforts by many people
over many centuries, there is a profound lack of evidence or
demonstration FOR the existence of a god or gods. So far, this
makes the probability of such existence extremely low, so--at
present--my default position is that god(s) do not exist.
So....you tell me. Does that make me an atheist or an
agnostic...or some fuzzy state in between the two that has not
yet had a quantum collapse?
As for death... In the specific instance, I would never have
experienced dying.
Dorothy J Heydt <djheydt@kithrup.com> wrote:
I don't know whether or not the existence of one or more deities
can be resolved. I do know that, at least to my satisfaction, that
it has not been. To date, despite great efforts by many people
over many centuries, there is a profound lack of evidence or
demonstration FOR the existence of a god or gods. So far, this
makes the probability of such existence extremely low, so--at
present--my default position is that god(s) do not exist.
So....you tell me. Does that make me an atheist or an
agnostic...or some fuzzy state in between the two that has not
yet had a quantum collapse?
Perhaps it makes you actually a god, but you don't know it yet?
--scott
[RUMOURS] is on Sky Cinema in the UK this week, and I've long been
a Maddin fan, so I'm going to record it. [-pd]
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