A Conversation On Jake Lodwick’s “Past Capacity”

Christopher:
What do you think of Jake?

Boris:
He reminds me of a Jewish stand-up comedian.

C:
He reminds me more of Eminem, who is neither a comedian nor Jewish. (Boris, I think you’re thinking of Daniel Coffeen.)

B:
I really don’t want to have this conversation.

C:
No, come on, answer me this: what’s the best part of “Past Capacity”?

B:
That it ends.

C:
Don’t be like that.

B:
Okay, there’s a lot of corny wordplay and throwaway lines, but ultimately he has something quite serious in mind here. What is that? I don’t know and I’m not terribly curious to find out.

C:
He says one of the purposes is “to remake the world in the vision of Jake.”

B:
Okay, like Freud, he is lapsed Jew trying to find a replacement for God?

C:
Whoa, why all the anti-Semitism?

B:
There’s nothing anti-Semitic about it, it’s just a cultural comparison.

C:
Isn’t that just the modern, post-Kafka condition: trying, searching to find a replacement for God?

B:
Yes, when you have run out of other options – what else are you going to do but privilege the self to the highest degree?

C:
What’s wrong with privileging the self? Isn’t that what Whitman sings all about? God expressing himself through us.

B:
It could be.

C:
Is God talking through Jake??

B:
He’s giving deep expression to the God within him, for sure.

C:
Sense that’s a bad thing, in the gospel according to Boris.

B:
You think?

C:
He’s fresh. He’s doing good things.  It’s deep, ethical, accessible, and fun. What more could we ask for?

B:
I think it’s shallow, superficial, and tragic that a human being could spend so much time on such nonsense.

C:
What’s wrong with nonsense? I love nonsense.

B:
If you’re Lewis Carroll.

C:
Or Dante… But, why can’t Jake be like Lewis Carroll?

B:
Cause there’s no Alice.

C:
Why does Alice matter?

B:
Because Alice is a blond nymph.

C:
Are you saying Jake needs hot girls in his videos?

B:
Why not? He could be telling them stories, and “groundbreaking speeches in rhyme.” They might listen. They might take him seriously.