Milch was a spoiled and damaged child who was highly intelligent but deeply flawed. He excelled at writing and had some good teachers. He also developed self-destructive addictions such as gambling and ingesting heroin.
Now he is demented and lives in a care facility. My take away from his life story is as follows - he was smart enough to amass a one hundred million dollar fortune and stupid enough to squander it. The book delves into the psychology of why he went broke, but none of that rings true. My guess would be idiocy.
Opiates remove pain - I get that. Being pain-free is perhaps desirable but pain is also useful.
Gambling is based on the self-delusion that one can predict the future. Guess what, that's a losing bet.
The subtitle of the book is "A Lie Agreed Upon" which is based on a quote attributed to Napoleon "History is a set of lies agreed upon". And while that is true, it's not clear that he ever said it. We currently live in an age where the lies are promulgated by the media and swallowed whole by the braindead masses. I won't list them here, but I will mention one popular lie of omission - leftists like to spout "Hitler burned books!!!11!!" but they never mention the titles nor the content nor the authors of those books. I will leave that research to the reader.
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Gifted and addicted.
Talented and Flawed.
Forward movement and derailment.
High intelligence and idiocy.
Are these also flip sides of the same coin?
At this point in life, I'm still wondering what it is that creates, leads to, results in someone being deeply flawed. What does it track back to? Original sin? Trauma? Lost trust?
The book I'm currently reading presents addiction as "a spiritual ritual played out in a material world". I don't know if these quotes from it present truth or not, but I found them intriguing:
"The way of healing an addiction lies in finding the connection between body and soul. A great cherishing mother is often the link...Infants need to learn to trust and receive from their caretakers, their environment, and ultimately themselves. We might have learned--not inaccurately from the difficult situation into which we were born--that at least one of these three is not fully trustworthy. Such early learning dies hard.
To receive is
to let life happen,
to open to grief and loss,
and to open to love and delight."
Gambling is based on the self-delusion that one can predict the future.
Actually, it's based on the laws of permutation and combination. Most people either don't think that way or can't do the math on the fly. You can win, but you have to be rally smart.
"History is a set of lies agreed upon". And while that is true
Only until something comes along (or somebody rereads the source material). I've talked about how history is re-evaluating George McClellan at Antietam and Simcha Jacobovici and the dating of the Ten Commandments.
Like science, history isn't always settled.
leftists like to spout "Hitler burned books!!!11!!" but they never mention the titles nor the content nor the authors of those books.
Technically, it was Goebbels, not Hitler. Since we have the film, the list is only partially irrelevant, but here are some of the authors:
Heinrich Mann, Ernst Gläser, Erich Kästner, Bertolt Brecht, Ernest Hemingway, Erich Maria Remarque, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, Heinrich Heine, and August Bebel.
They did specify the reasons, such as Jewish, non-National Socialist ideas, etc.
Not picking a fight, just sayin'.
Interesting list, Mama.
I think Forward movement and derailment could better be nemesis and hubris; with High intelligence and idiocy, arrogance might replace idiocy.
I do like the way you think.
I was thinking, as I read the title, that two of my best investments were big eaters, and that was followed by consideration of the returns received from the smaller beings invested in who were covered in feathers or fur. After looking up the quote, I added in the goodness received from the painting and repainting that takes place in my art studio, along with our return on investment from the repaint jobs done on the house we sold 4 years ago and the one we moved into which was completely repainted to yield an overall look that continues to bring me a sense of peace and joy. Another flip side of the same coin, I suppose, depending on point of view. I appreciated the post for the consideration it prompted.
"Never invest in anything that eats or needs (re)painting” is a caution against investing in horses and houses. New York theatrical showman Billy Rose (1899-1966) was cited in February 1949 with saying: “Never buy anything that eats.” The saying was added to by at least October 1957, when it became: “Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs repainting.”
In August 1959, it was reported that Billy Rose had broken both of his rules—he’d bought houses that he repainted and a police dog.
Milch owned race horses. Some were successful. Others became dog food. I am okay with that, as my dogs have to eat, too.
I forget precisely how many tens of millions of dollars he lost at the race track, but it was substantial. He bet so often and so profligately that he had his own private betting window at the track. He really thought he could predict which horse would win a particular race. He was wrong far more than he was right. No amount of card-counting or calculating odds can help when you are squandering your money on a living, breathing animal that may or may not be as drugged-up as its competitor.
As for houses - my house is brick and even at age 71 it has never been painted.
Deadwood is well written but the secret to its success was the original director, Walter Hill.
Walter Hill was the greatest director of Westerns since John Ford.
He set the tone for the series that made it so successful.
Walter Hill was much more successful in the eighties as he directed such classics as The Warriors, Southern Comfort, The Driver and 48 Hours. He made two great Westerns in Wild Bill and the Long Riders. And one of my all-time favorite movies "Streets of Fire" which is a retelling of The Searchers with a motorcycle gang instead of Comanches.
He is an unknown genius.
Only Clint Eastwood ranks with him as a direct of Westerns in the last 30 years.
Those who disagree suck cock by choice.
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