[Jimmy Marr]

Originally Posted by Alex Linder

well i grew up reading books, not dating. my home life was very stable. i just played sports and read books. i didnt date or party or really even have a lot of friends. i do not come from extroverted, gregarious stock, as the irish tend to be.

You callin' me Irish?

i come from intellectual, sober, private people. so...my world is calm and internal and mental, but it's about external ideas, and playing with verbal forms, it's not about my personality or background, which are pretty typical Flyover German-British farmers-wit-brainz-cum-bourgeois suburban. I'm not interested in me, but this thing on the table under the operating lights in front of us - and i consider it a sad and terrible thing that most writers' only or main subject is themselves (particularly women).

You callin' me your bitch?

I do fear being repetitive, and i'm acutely conscious when i've told anecdotes before, but i repeat them anyway because always new listeners and repetition is part of the job. with me, the thing is context, specific knowlege, lubricated with what i consider humor. i always hated in college that nothing was prepared (ie, study this course and you come away knowing...what? just a bunch of random courses leading to no particular body of knowledge), and all vnn is a reaction to that. at least you walk away from ANYTHING i write or record knowing the fucking context of whatever is being discussed - the biggest one possible. so you see how YOU fit into the picture. random shit just blipping around for no point i cant stand that. believe me, there are millions of things i dont say that i could.

I believe you. I like your approach. Lot's of us do. I hope these podcasts make the rounds. I'm doing my part.

Writers endlessly turn their families into material, particularly their parents, as wfb did to his father (calling him an anti-semite) and joe sobran said this is particularly despicable. i believe that and that mentality guides anything i might say in relation to relatives or anyone i used to work with. that's just basic ethics, as i see it.

This is a common tendency, but it's been exacerbated by the massive application of psychoanalytic hogwash to baby boomers. It creates a sense of identity that is completely attributable to familial relationships, especially anything that can be conflated as a sexual relationship between parent and child. That's what gives it it's grab.

Now, let me show off something I've learned from you:

If all elements of identity are attributable to social environment, to what elements must they NOT be attributed?

For sixty-four thousand dollars, what are race and genetics?