Week 146, Wittgenstein and the answer to the ultimate question

So where were you and what were you doing on Wednesday 8th December 1993, thirteen years after Lennon (John) was shot?

Let's take a look into the crystal ball and see if there is any observable empirical data to give us some cognitive meaning for one group of characters on that day.

Back when the Film Unit at Sheffield Uni was just a long room with some rows of chairs in it the band known as Caustic Soup would make the occasional visit.  Why did we do that?  Well, that must be part of the ultimate question.

The ultimate question must also contain the reasoning for there being a Martian dwarf in Jarman's film Wittgenstein where none appeared in Eagleton's original script.  Is the Martian an hypothetical external observer?  Perhaps Durkheim has something to say on this - although it will almost certainly be too verbose and not even slightly humorous, which would have appealed to Wittgenstein.*

Fast forward in the film to Wittgenstein as he is dying:

Wittgenstein tells John Maynard Keynes, "I'd quite like to have composed a philosophical work that consisted only of jokes."

"Why didn't you do it?" Keynes inquires.

"Sadly, I had no sense of humour."


About a year later, at the end of November 1994 and 7 years before Harrison (George) died, the band went to see Faust, the film directed by Švankmajer.  This was purely for the hell of it - logical, positive, and an ideal cultural night out.  Wooden heads, puppets, live action, and all voiced by Sachs (Andrew) - one of the fifth Beatles.**  But without the physical evidence of a ticket did this elevating cultural event actually take place...

A broad cultural input is invaluable to the creative process, a view which some may consider pompous and overblown, but to that I say, Pretentious, Moi?  In retrospect however can we detect any actual cultural output, is that output unambiguous and of a notable qualitative standard when presented to an unbiased audience?

All the questions.

Let's take a look at the ticket to see if we can spot the answer to the ultimate question.

Just there below the watermark of Starr (Ringo) and McCartney (Paul).  Can you see it.

I can't imagine what Hitchhikers writer, and substantial Beatles fan, Adams (Douglas) would have made of it, but perhaps there is no correlation at all.†

* There is a collective as well as an individual humor inclining peoples to sadness or cheerfulness, making them see things in bright or somber lights. In fact, only society can pass a collective opinion on the value of human life; for this the individual is incompetent. - Emile Durkheim
** Everyone will be referred to as "The fifth Beatle" for up to 15 minutes at some point.
† Another question is... [insert your own here] ?

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