If you like horror/psychological stuff, I recommend House of Leaves. It’s kind of a gimmicky book in that its style changes a lot and the story is all over the place (literally), but I kind of enjoy how it feels like you’re skimming and ripping out newspaper clippings like a madman and stapling them to the diary of a semi-deranged burnout drug addict with actual brain damage.
Certainly an experience.
I can’t help but be that annoying type of person who, when someone brings up 1984, has to immediately tell them about “We” and that Orwell was kind of cringe lol
I don’t like prudes either, and I do think it comes in part from certain kinds of morally compartmentalized people who are wound so tight from societal/religious/cultural pressures and envy of those who don’t feel as bound to such things that they need it to keep being some taboo thing for their own weird peace of mind.
Not sure if anyone said this yet but I do wonder sometimes if (widely available/freely accessible porn) is also about control/atomization. Having a socially disconnected populace that can only satisfy their innate sexual urges by some sort of supernormal stimuli viewed on a screen that the system can control is just another data point that can be exploited/behavior controlled.
The less real connections someone can make with real people who don’t conform to their supernormal standards, the less they might be able to form communities that can be self-sufficient (to a degree) or fight to change things in the real world. Being physically intimate with someone isnt just a way of sharing pleasure or expressing affection, it’s also one of several highly motivating factors for people to touch grass, which is where 99% of everything that matters actually happens.
Beyond the scope of the topic here, I suppose. Porn is just one avenue. I’m not against it, but there are plenty of reasons to revile the abusive industries that churn it out, and the proliferation of hollow AI porn bots that give people psychosis.
I also blame marketing research and of course, capitalism, for degrading everything they touch to soulless data points to be collated and directed by the whims of those with the power to do it.
I know it’s kinda basic but either the Gurren Lagaan music or just a rewatch of the show/movie.
Never fails to shake me out of a stupor and remind me that no matter the obstacles life throws at you, there’s always a way forward, even if it might not be the way forward you initially wanted.
Revolutionary optimism before I knew what it was, haha.
Also that sometimes things can get so bad you gotta be a tiny bit illogical to stay sane. 😅