Mitchell Heisman killed himself last Saturday, but what’s best known about him thus far is his 1,900 page suicide note. HTMLGIANT has excerpted a very small portion of the note. I wonder how long before someone puts together a performance reading of the thing?
7 responses
I wonder how long before someone puts together a performance reading of the thing?
Is this a question, or just a passive statement? In either case, limning inevitable opportunism is, in a sense, a craven approval of it, no?
note here: http://www.suicidenote.info
I suppose you can call it opportunism if you want, dh. It’s a 1900 page suicide note we’re talking about here, and unlike other people who’ve had manifestos and criticisms of the modern world, this guy only took himself out instead of sending bombs through the mail or laying waste to a shopping mall with a couple of semi-automatic weapons. If someone wants to memorialize this guy by putting together a performance of his opus, I’ve got no problem with it. I might even take part in it, given the opportunity.
If someone wants to memorialize this guy by putting together a performance of his opus, I’ve got no problem with it. I might even take part in it, given the opportunity.
And this performance should take place when? Tomorrow? Next week? I just think it’s a tad gauche to “perform” someone’s “opus” when, as you say, “this guy” is still largely unknown outside of a few breaking news headlines.
Just saying…
Whenever someone with the time and inclination wants to put it together? I don’t know. Maybe I’m being a bit callous here, maybe I’m being a bit gauche as you say. I can live with that, and he’s certainly not going to be upset by it. And maybe it’ll never happen–I was simply speculating, providing, as you said, “a craven approval” of the possibility. Do we really need to know who he is to view his 1900 page suicide note as an artifact worthy of at least cursory notice? Will waiting a couple of weeks make the speculation any less gauche? What’s the magic date–a month? six months? a year? Just let me know.
I guess “the magic date” coincides with the moment you finish reading this 1900-page “opus,” as you call it. Which you haven’t and likely won’t, I reckon.
p. 873
“Few social-political philosophies in history can rival
libertarianism in the sheer lameness of its vision of the good.
It is defined in terms of negatives: just defang religion,
defang society, defang government, just leave me alone! Yet
this lameness of social vision is almost the definition of its
political pride.”
“All political problems can be solved by slapping bumper
stickers of “freedom†over them. But what is left when “the
individual†stops hiding behind these abstractions of
freedom? What if someone were to make the ridiculous
blunder of asking: How do we use our freedom? Are there
duties or moral imperatives justified along with these
freedoms? What is right way to live?”
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