[ExI] difficult (?) puzzle

Tue Jul 7 20:43:22 UTC 2020

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat
Sent: Tuesday, July 7, 2020 12:08 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] difficult (?) puzzle

>…The meaning of anything is supplied by the hearer (Existentialism).  I did not  know that you were interested in the enigmatic ("What is the sound of one hand clapping...?"   "Cl   cl   cl").  And I have not heard that Beatles' songs needed interpretation…

It doesn’t.  But Beatles songs were persistently interpreted, with meanings assigned to them the Beatles never intended.

Consider the easy breezy and very literal Penny Lane, with an understanding of its time.  The 60s Rock and Roll scene eschewed materialism, but those were the early days, when the Fab 4 had been struggling musicians, and before they went to India to be guru-ized.  They had no heartburn with commercial success.  The Rolling Stones were eating their lunch, so the recording company Parlophone urged the boys from Liverpool to churn out songs, get them on vinyl, fight back against the Stones.  

McCartney and Lennon lived near Penny Lane, so they wrote a song about the sights and sounds from that very literal place.  There really was no deep meaning, but it is a nice song, a pleasant ear virus.  You might have caught it just from my mentioning the song, and now you can’t get it out of your head.  

Before you read on, do stop thinking about Penny Lane please, and concentrate.

Later the Beatles’ song (HEY!  Stop thinking about Penny Lane!) Helter Skelter was interpreted by a psychopath to lead other psychopaths to mass murder.

>…  Yesterday, Michelle, a few more (that I have not heard in several decades)…

Oy now ya done it.  I can’t get the Michelle song outta my head.  Oh well, I like that one as much as Penny Lane.

>…I see that you are quite a literal person…

How can you be sure?  I might be a literal person, or an AI, at which time I would be a figurative “person.”

>…bill w  (did like 'otherwise')

Me too!  No charge for that sir, my pleasure.

spike

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