{"id":4204,"date":"2012-08-18T10:49:23","date_gmt":"2012-08-18T14:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=4204"},"modified":"2012-08-30T14:10:25","modified_gmt":"2012-08-30T18:10:25","slug":"bobby-youve-been-looking-peculiar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/08\/bobby-youve-been-looking-peculiar.html","title":{"rendered":"“Bobby, you’ve been looking peculiar”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>After the song above, Amy can\u2019t decide whether to go through with her wedding, and decides to call it off (\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Paul. \u00a0I don\u2019t love you enough<\/em>\u201c). \u00a0After her about-to-be-husband walks out of the room, she turns to Bobby for validation, asking, \u201cWhat did I just do?\u201d<\/p>\nBobby, looking a little panicked, scrunched up against a wall replies,\u201dYou did what you had to do, I guess. \u00a0If it was right, you would have gone through with it. \u00a0That\u2019s what I think.\u201d<\/p>\n(So yes, we interrupt this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/08\/sondheim-symposium-sequence-index.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Sondheim Symposium<\/a> on marriage for a little discussion on epistemology).<\/p>\nBobby\u2019s position is a kind of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Candide\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Panglossian<\/a> optimistism. \u00a0He seems to be claiming that every decision is the correct decision, even if the derivation of the decision isn\u2019t clear. \u00a0Maybe his unexamined premise is that the human mind is pretty good at noticing and weighting the \u2018intangibles\u2019\u00a0subconsciously. \u00a0(Just before she tells Paul to go, Amy confesses she\u2019s afraid, but not sure of what). \u00a0I thought Bobby\u2019s approach was an interesting counterpoint to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/07\/if-only-someone-had-said-this-to-stoicteenagedleah.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">emotions are data pitch<\/a> I found persuasive at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/tag\/lesswrong-retreat\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Rationalist Minicamp<\/a>. \u00a0While my fellow and campers were told to use and evaluate our reactions, Bobby seems to take them as revelation.<\/p>\nA <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Homunculus\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">homunculus<\/a> is a popular shorthand for our emotional instincts (so is \u2018lizard brain\u2019 but it doesn\u2019t sustain a metaphor as well). \u00a0I have an unfortunate\u00a0tendency\u00a0to see my relationship with the homunculus as a fight, where I\u2019ve got the best chance of preserving my agency and identity if I can pen it up somehow. \u00a0The minicamp lesson suggested that you could use its input in your decisionmaking process without losing your \u2018self,\u2019 \u00a0basically putting it in a\u00a0counselor\u00a0role. \u00a0But Bobby seems to put the homunculus in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\nI don\u2019t think Bobby is making a strong philosophical claim that his instinctive, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dual_process_theory#Systems\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">system one self<\/a> is the \u2018real Bobby\u2019 and deserves the reins. \u00a0Bobby probably still views his conscious, commenting self as\u00a0him<\/em>, but, he\u2019s content to remain a spectator. \u00a0Identity doesn\u2019t imply agency. \u00a0Bobby spends a lot of time taking himself out of the action in the musical, and his reassurance to Amy seems to show us how deadening that attitude feels like from the inside. \u00a0His detatchment makes it much harder to for him to notice if he\u2019s confused or choose to change his life.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\nPoints to anyone who does a Bobby-related cogsci relyricization of this verse of Joanne\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VvWYuofYLvw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ladies who Lunch<\/a>\u201d \u00a0 I was going to take a crack at it, but my parents are in town and the time got away from me.<\/p>\n<blockquote>And here\u2019s to the girls who just watch\u2013 \nAren\u2019t they the best? \nWhen they get depressed, \nIt\u2019s a bottle of Scotch, \nPlus a little jest. \nAnother chance to disapprove, \nAnother brilliant zinger, \nAnother reason not to move, \nAnother vodka stinger. \nAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! \nI\u2019ll drink to that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the song above, Amy can\u2019t decide whether to go through with her wedding, and decides to call it off (\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Paul. \u00a0I don\u2019t love you enough\u201c). \u00a0After her about-to-be-husband walks out of the room, she turns to Bobby for validation, asking, \u201cWhat did I just do?\u201d Bobby, looking a little panicked, scrunched up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[189],"class_list":["post-4204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epistemologyphilosophy","tag-sondheim-symposium"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>"Bobby, you've been looking peculiar"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After the song above, Amy can't decide whether to go through with her wedding, and decides to call it off ("I'm sorry, Paul. \u00a0I don't love you enough").\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/08\/bobby-youve-been-looking-peculiar.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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