{"id":6679,"date":"2016-02-06T16:57:06","date_gmt":"2016-02-06T16:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/02\/06\/the-perils-of-pleasure-on-the-lost-highway\/"},"modified":"2016-02-06T16:57:06","modified_gmt":"2016-02-06T16:57:06","slug":"the-perils-of-pleasure-on-the-lost-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/02\/06\/the-perils-of-pleasure-on-the-lost-highway\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Night at the Oldies: The Perils of Pleasure on the Lost Highway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Wilde<\/a>, De Profundis<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The gods had given me almost everything. But I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease. I amused myself with being a FLANEUR, a dandy, a man of fashion. I surrounded myself with the smaller natures and the meaner minds. I became the spendthrift of my own genius, and to waste an eternal youth gave me a curious joy. Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in the search for new sensation. What the paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the sphere of passion. Desire, at the end, was a malady, or a madness, or both. I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure where it pleased me, and passed on. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the housetop. I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace. There is only one thing for me now, absolute humility.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


Compare the words Plato puts in the mouth of Socrates in the Phaedo<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

. . . every pleasure and pain has a kind of nail, and nails and pins her [the soul] to the body, and gives her a bodily nature, making her think that whatever the body says is true. (tr. F. J. Church St. 83)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Oscar<\/a>From Oscar Wilde to Plato to Hank<\/a> Williams here<\/a> channeled hauntingly through Kurt Nilsen and Willie Nelson:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I'm a rollin' stone all alone and lost<\/span>
For a life of sin I have paid the cost<\/span>
When I pass by all the people say<\/span>
Just another guy on the lost highway<\/span><\/p>\n

Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine<\/span>
And a woman's lies make a life like mine<\/span>
On the day we met, I went astray<\/span>
I started rollin' down that lost highway<\/span><\/p>\n

I was just a lad, nearly 22<\/span>
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you<\/span>
And now I'm lost, too late to pray<\/span>
Lord I paid the cost, on the lost highway<\/span><\/p>\n

Now boys don't start your ramblin' 'round<\/span>
On this road of sin are you sorrow bound<\/span>
Take my advice or you'll curse the day.<\/span>
You started rollin' down that lost highway. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tom Petty version<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Byrds, Life in Prison<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Warren Zevon, Carmelita<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Nina Simone, House of the Rising Sun<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Doc Watson, Tom Dooley<\/a>.  The Kingston Trio's 'collegiate folk'  version<\/a> from 1958.<\/span><\/p>\n

Merle Haggard, The Fugitive<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Marty Robbins, Devil Woman<\/a>
<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>Simone Weil in the Light of Plato: Notes on Phaedo 83<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oscar Wilde, De Profundis: The gods had given me almost everything. But I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease. I amused myself with being a FLANEUR, a dandy, a man of fashion. I surrounded myself with the smaller natures and the meaner minds. I became the spendthrift of my … Continue reading “Saturday Night at the Oldies: The Perils of Pleasure on the Lost Highway”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}