Tom: I think I've entered into my existentialist phase.

Satan: Don't be absurd...

Tom: Existence is absurd. Pain is absurd. Without some synthetic concept of "god", these things don't mean anything. You are absurd. I am absurd. Freedom and responsibility are the source of man's dread.

Satan: Is that it?

Tom: It just feels right, okay?

Satan Which part in particular?

Tom: Existence preceding essence.

Satan: You really hate it when people tell you how to behave, don't you? Even if it's God.

Tom: I try to pattern my existence after those who seem truly vital. People who constantly learn and question things probably won't have the time or inclination to take an interest in MY sordid affairs, much less tell me how to conduct them. I hate criticism, especially of the "constructive" variety. At this point, God is kind of useless.

Satan: Say something in French.

Tom: L'être et le néant.

Satan: John Cage.

Tom: What?

Satan: "I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry."

Tom: Ohhhh, touché...you cocksucker.

Satan: Don't get personal, ass. What about that feminist thingy you wrote down today?

Tom: Oh yeah. I found out that a "feminine" cadence is one that ends on a "weak" beat. I admit that if I was a woman this would probably annoy the shit out of me just because it equates feminine with weak. However I'm not a woman. I am a man, and I don't like being told what to think, especially in a sneaky way like this. To me this woman-weak man-strong bullshit is the height of Aristotelian is/isn't subjectivity. It's fallacy all the way.

Satan: Surely you stated that a bit more eloquently in your notes.

Tom: You be the judge:

March 2004

The doctrine of partriarchal hierarchy /domination handed down to us represses men and women equally. It heards the male population towards the belief that women are weaker than men in all things. Males who oppose this doctrine have their manhood as well as their sanity called into question by its adherents, male and female. In accepting the doctrine of male superiority, as in donning a pair of someone else's glasses, a man's perception becomes blurred by the subjective notion that women are "weak" and men are "strong". When a man or a woman tries to force their observations into this constrained box, fallacies abound and insanity is assured.

Satan: Interesting, but do you think anyone will buy it?

Tom: I don't care, and I don't have to.