Leviathan

This week for my Milton class I was set extracts from Hobbes' Leviathan. He writes the sort of things that as a self-indulgent depressive teenager I would have loved. Forgive me for quoting this section - it is so wonderfully, (and not even spuriously) pessimistic. It seems that I haven't completely let go of that part of me...

"Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherin men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short."

True?

I left the South, I travelled North, I got confused, I killed a horse. I can't help the way I feel.

The last few weeks have been so high, so low . . . so strange. I've been all over the place. It's felt good, and also awful. I don't really know how I feel right now, a little more balanced perhaps. Anyway I don't want to publish the details of my entire life on the net. It will suffice to say that it's been a weird two or three weeks.

I've decided I need to get out of this town, I am fed up of York and many of the people within it at the moment. I am travelling back to Cardiff this week for a few days. Hopefully they will refresh and revive me. I'm not quite sure where my head is right now.

Regardless of my mind I have been listening to some awesome new music. Namely Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts double album.

It would be fair to say that it's the most pretentious of NINs albums. It would probably be quite difficult to really get into without having listened to classic NIN albums such as The Downward Spiral, Pretty Hate Machine or even their newest album The Slip (which I should add can be downloaded free of charge from the NIN website) It was marketed as a soundtrack to dream to, and so I was expecting something quite different - maybe a collection of lengthy dark ambient industrial pieces of music. What we are given, rather is almost a patchwork quilt of content, ranging in style, tone and texture. Although the intention is clearly for the album to be set out as four seperate pieces of music, broken up into smaller parts or movements it is frankly quite ineffective, as there is no real continuity or thematic development within any of the four pieces that make them clear movements.
Nevertheless, what you do get is a lot of quality music from a quality musician, and is definitely worth checking out, even if the album's intended 'movements' are ineffectual. As for its label as a soundtrack to dream to, I'll let you come to your own decision.
I will leave you with a little taster (this one brings a tear to my eye - emo I know)




Goodbye! - p.s. contact me if you want to borrow the album!