absurdity

L.A. Anti-Gang Program Is Paragon of Tragic Absurdity

Hamilton Nolan · 07/21/11 04:20PM

The city of Los Angeles' "Summer Lights" program, which keeps public parks lit up at night in order to discourage gang violence, is having... mixed results. "A 15-year-old girl was shot in the back and a 19-year-old man was shot in the hand [in an apparent gang shooting] as they were leaving a Summer Night Lights event" this morning. Oh. God. It's just too much. It's like some horrible, horrible movie. "A man was shot in the face near a South Los Angeles park after the lights were turned out last week. It provided all-too-real drama for actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, who were on scene at the time while on a police ride-along to prepare for an upcoming movie."

Philosophy Class Is Meaningless, Tasty, Deadly

Hamilton Nolan · 04/29/08 08:13AM

You're a college philosophy student at NYU studying absurdism, the school of thought that says life and the universe have no meaning. What do you do for a class project? That's right: bring in a muffin full of razor blades [NYS]. In a Kierkegaardian effort that would have drawn approving sighs from Albert Camus, a student left the deadly, tasty treats on a table for the next class to find. And in an absurd twist which highlights the ultimate futility of the search for purpose, one kid in the next class started to eat the tempting razor muffin: