Goodbye - winding things up

<p>Wow,75 responses....you are definitely going to have to come back now JDM :)</p>

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<p>"To have control over others is the ultimate expression of a man's being; it is the lust that drives us all. First for the visceral thrill of destroying something powerful, and secondly for the gratification of being feared and respected."</p>

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<p>The "ultimate expression of a man's being". . . . So, you were just gratifying your perverse desire in public just above. Wow. I don't remember such a bald admission of perversity. Even Nietzsche was more subtle than that in his glorification of the presumed "will to power."</p>

 

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<p>JDM, like almost everyone else, I've always admired and appreciated your contributions to this site. Thank you.</p>

 

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<p>Well said. Thank you indeed, JDM.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

Come on, are you going to insult Nietzsche by comparing these two?

Landrum is being too kind to Elisabeth there, Donald.<br>I had expected him to know about his and her though, so i'm not quite sure he intented to be too kind.<br><br>JDM, i think you are quite right. If something, anything, as trivial as an internet forum no longer gives pleasure, there is absolutely no need to waste your time on it.

<p>Hi JDM, Mr Pomeroy will be 40 next year (half my age) and I wonder if he'll ever grow up? My advice is to ignore. There is plenty on Google under Ashley Mark Pomeroy - Wikapedia so you can judge for yourself. Hope you get into "No Words" again. Oh, I forgot, <strong>we're</strong> not <strong>young</strong> enough to know everything.</p>

<p>Who is "Elisabeth," Q.G.? I've got to get ready for work, and so I haven't had time to do a full web search.</p>

<p>I did find this, though (part of the larger context of the quote from the blog):</p>

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<p>Remorse, guilt, compassion, empathy, all of these are alien concepts in the animal kingdom. There is only pain and fear and horror, and the same true in the human world, for we are animals as well. Our brains are more complex than most, but the difference is only of degree. We are aware of our own existence, and that we are doomed to die. We can modulate pain and pleasure and we have a degree of control over our environment, and we recognise other people, who are like us but inferior. To have control over others is the ultimate expression of a man's being; it is the lust that drives us all. Firstly for the visceral thrill of destroying something powerful, and secondly for the gratification of being feared and respected.</p>

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<p>Nihilism typically bores me, except insofar as some persons get passionate in defense of it. I'm not sure why. If it is "true," then nothing matters, so. . . why bother to expend energy trying to defend it?</p>

<p>Even so, I would like to hear Ashley's take on the Edenic ideal and other mythical and legendary expressions of idealism, sexual and otherwise. I'm not being snide. I really would. It is easy to get unhinged in today's world--and in all previous epochs as well, I suppose. I'm not feeling too well-hinged today myself, a fact which I admit to lest I sound as if I think that I've got it all figured out.</p>

<p>Yet, yet, some philosophies are so "unattractive" that one wonders what might be the source of their appeal. Is there even in the depths of depravity a lingering quest for logical consistency? If so, I wonder from whence it comes.</p>

<p>Perhaps a disquisition on Augustin's "forbidden fruit" while you are at it, Ashley? What is the source of its appeal, after all? We surely cannot be rebelling against God if there is no God. </p>

<p>[in any case, it appears, JDM, that none of the above had both everything and nothing to do with you--or anybody else.]</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

You know Nietzsche, Landrum, but not Elisabeth and the way she 'curated' the Nietzsche Archive? If you know and mention the "Will to Power", you should also know that you are not talking about Friedrich then, but about Elisabeth. Else you do a great disfavour to Friedrich and (moral) philosophy.<br>Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, was Friedrich's sister who cooked the by then no longer mentally with us Friedrich Nietzsche's work until it was palatable to her friends in nationalist and pre- and proto-National Socialist circles. She was the 'author' of "Der Wille zur Macht", the work and the idea. It is not <i>"his glorification"</i> but her glorification.

<p>See, it won't be all that different without me. :)<br>

I've mostly had fun, or I would have quit earlier. Never say <em>never</em>, but we all need a rest.</p>

<p>My photography is mostly documentary, as most of you realize, but even my art(y) school trained daughter recognized a certain quality in my work, typified by my straight-on, but actually heavily photoshopped image of Constantine's Arch.</p>

<p>Thanks, I appreciate all of your comments.</p>

<p>This is, however, the end.</p>

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<p>I missed the allusion, Q.G. (I went through my Nietzschean phase back in 1971.) I do remember what you are talking about, now that you mention her role. I suspect that the concept is his, but I could be wrong.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

<p>I asked what might have caused such a departure.</p>

<p>Then I read some of the rude bilge that followed and I understand.</p>

<p>Good luck to you, sir! I've always admired the results you can tease from some old plastic camera that exceed my ability to use a Nikon.</p>

<p>We'll have to erect an arch for you, JDM. You have overcome the site, maybe even the world.</p>

<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_of_Constantine#/media/File:Archofconstantine.jpg">[link]</a></p>

<p>I like your version better.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

<p>Best wishes JDM, and like everyone posting, I read your's first whenever (and wherever) I saw them. I said to myself a long time ago that I get your humor and "where you're coming from", and also instantly realized not everyone does. Such is life on the internetz. Humans can be real jerks.</p>

Just wondering where did you find such an odd array of weird detractors.

<p>Fair winds and following seas, JDM. I will miss your articles and comments.</p>

<p>As to the rest, if brevity be the soul of wit, why did it take 1144 words to say what could have been said in six?</p>

<p>Always relied on solid, sensible comment from you. Please don't stay away too long.</p>

<p>I'm Spartacus!</p>

<p>JDM, I don't pretend to be overly edumucated. I am a simpleton. I appreciate simplicity. Not because I'm unable to handle more complicated matters, I can. It just isn't worth the bs to me. If you do go, come back soon. If you don't, good luck. I haven't checked in with much new stuff lately because my job and personal obligations eat my time like jungle ants. Your championing of East German cameras I find commendable. I've seen some rather long winded comments above. Keep it short and sweet. It's better that way.<br /> Live long and prosper.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, JDM, don't give up on that Signet 35. You'll learn to love it yet.</p>

<p>JDM, I couldn't believe that we lost you. Then I looked through some recent threads and understand your decision, even if I wish it weren't so. All the best.</p>

<p>I must confess I am confused. A PN contributor who was apparently held in high esteem by some (but does not seem to have posted any pictures) has decided to leave. One contributory factor seems to have been the remarks by a certain Ashley Pomeroy, a person who appears to have some ability as a photographer, together with an attitude which is unremarkable by the standards of fashion photographers but who may appear to a person of delicate sensibilities from the academic world to be overly brash.<br>

AP seems to have been a powerful irritant to JDM - to me, AP's words are water off a duck's back, I am happy to comply with AP's request to be judged by his not at all bad pictures and not be overly influenced by his looked-for international man of mystery image. If JDM is bored with PN, he should most certainly do something else - to state his departure is due to the fact that he finds AP odious I find is wild and unnecessary. I wish him well, but the sky has not fallen.</p>

I'm confused. Who the heck is Ashley Pomeroy and why does anybody care what she had to say? JDM is one of the most

helpful people on the Internet and as far as I can tell Pomeroy is a relative unknown with questionable taste in postprocessing and

no manners.

<p>Well AP thinks he is a great writer but his phrase "magnetic attraction" puts the lie to that. A supercilious person who likes to pile upsophisticated words to impress people.<br>

But to keep record straight it was not pomeroy that was the straw that broke the camel's back according to JDM</p>

<p><em>it was not pomeroy that was the straw that broke the camel's back according to JDM</em><br>

Are you sure? His PN photographer biography now consists only of a 5-line quote from Ashley Pomeroy and a brief indication of how much this has annoyed JDM. JDM was often provocative and stated extreme opinions (one example - his view of Mortensen) but clearly didn't like having the tables turned on him. </p>

Are you discussing the personality and behaviour of a photographer here? Seriously?<br>Don't. Talk photography.

<p><em>Are you discussing the personality and behaviour of a photographer here?</em><br>

Yes. In particular, I'm discussing the behaviour of the OP as described by himself and trying to understand why AP seems to annoy him so much that he decides to quit, having been a mainstay of PN for some considerable time. If the OP's post is permissible., so is mine.</p>