Overlooked : They Who Fail to See

“….so I Fixed it.”

overlook (v.)

late 14c., overloken, "to examine carefully, scrutinize, inspect," from over- + look (v.). Another Middle English sense was "to peer over the top of, survey from on high, view from a high place" (c. 1400).

These two literal senses have given rise to the two main modern meanings. The meaning "to look over or beyond and thus fail to see" (hence "to pass over indulgently") is via the notion of "to choose to not notice" and is attested from 1520s. The seemingly contradictory sense of "to watch over officially, keep an eye on, superintend" is from 1530s. 

Related: Overlooked; overlooking. In Shakespeare's day, overlooking also was a common term for "inflicting the evil eye on" (someone or something). 

Middle English had oure-loker (over-looker), meaning "a timekeeper in a monastery" (early 15c.).

overlook (n.)

"place that affords a view from a height," by 1861, from overlook (v.).

Related entries & more

 

oversee (v.)

Old English oferseon "to look down upon, keep watch over, survey, observe;" see over- + see (v.). Meaning "to supervise to superintend" is attested from mid-15c. The verb lacks the double sense of similar overlook, but it sometimes had it and this survives in the noun form oversight.  Compare German übersehen, Dutch overzien. Related: Oversaw; overseen.

Related entries & more

 

overhear (v.)

"to hear one who does not wish to be heard or what one is not meant to hear," 1540s, from over- + hear. The notion is perhaps "to hear beyond the intended range of the voice." Old English oferhieran (West Saxon), oferhēran (Anglian) also meant "to not listen, to disregard, disobey." Compare overlook (v.) for negative force of over; also Middle High German überhaeren, Middle Dutch overhoren in same sense. And Middle English had overheren "to hear fully or plainly" (c. 1300). The various senses reflect the wide range of over-. Related: Overheard; overhearing.

Related entries & more

 

indulgent (adj.)

"lenient, willing to overlook faults," often in a bad sense, "too lenient," c. 1500, from Latin indulgentem (nominative indulgens) "kind, tender, fond," present participle of indulgere "be kind, be complaisant, yield" (see indulgence). Related: Indulgently.

Related entries & more

 

Advertisement

pretermit (v.)

1510s, "neglect to do, leave undone," from Latin praetermittere "let pass, overlook," from praeter- (see preter-) + mittere "to release, let go; send, throw" (see mission). From 1530s as "intentionally omit, leave unnoticed or unmentioned." Related: Pretermitted; pretermitting.

Related entries & more

 

unforgiving (adj.)

"not disposed to overlook offenses," 1713, from un- (1) "not" + present-participle adjective from forgive. Old English had unforgifende. Related: Unforgivingness.

Related entries & more

 

probe (n.)

early 15c., "slender, flexible rod for exploring the conditions of wounds or other cavities in the body," also "a medical examination," from Medieval Latin proba "examination," in Late Latin "a test, proof," from Latin probare "show, demonstrate; test, inspect; judge by trial" (see prove).

Meaning "act of probing" is 1890, from the verb; figurative sense of "penetrating investigation" is from 1903, probably extended from the verb in this sense. Meaning "small, unmanned exploratory craft" is attested from 1953.

"Probe to the bottom," says President Roosevelt of the postal steals. Yes—"probe to the bottom," but don't overlook the top. What is needed quite as much as a probe—in fact, for the proper use of the probe—is a postmaster-general in the place of Payne, the mere partisan and convention fixer. [Chattanooga Daily Times, June 3, 1903]

Related entries & more

 

command (v.)

c. 1300, "order or direct with authority" (transitive), from Old French comander "to order, enjoin, entrust" (12c., Modern French commander), from Vulgar Latin *commandare, from Latin commendare "to recommend, entrust to" (see commend); altered by influence of Latin mandare "to commit, entrust" (see mandate (n.)). In this sense Old English had bebeodan.

Intransitive sense "act as or have authority of a commander, have or exercise supreme power" is from late 14c. Also from late 14c. as "have within the range of one's influence" (of resources, etc.), hence, via a military sense, "have a view of, overlook" in reference to elevated places (1690s). Related: Commanded; commanding.

Command-post "headquarters of a military unit" is from 1918. A command performance (1863) is one given by royal command.

Related entries & more

 

pardon (n.)

c. 1300, pardoun, "papal indulgence, forgiveness of sins or wrongdoing," from Old French pardon, from pardoner "to grant; forgive" (11c., Modern French pardonner), "to grant, forgive," and directly from Medieval Latin perdonum, from Vulgar Latin *perdonare "to give wholeheartedly, to remit," from Latin per "through, thoroughly" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward," hence "through") + donare "give as a gift," from donum "gift," from PIE *donum "gift," from root *do- "to give."

Meaning "a passing over of an offense without punishment" is from c. 1300, also in the strictly ecclesiastical sense; the sense of "pardon for a civil or criminal offense; release from penalty or obligation" is from late 14c., earlier in Anglo-French. Weaker sense of "excuse for a minor fault" is attested from 1540s. To beg (one's) pardon "ask forgiveness" is by 1640s.

Strictly, pardon expresses the act of an official or a superior, remitting all or the remainder of the punishment that belongs to an offense: as, the queen or the governor pardons a convict before the expiration of his sentence. Forgive refers especially to the feelings; it means that one not only resolves to overlook the offense and reestablishes amicable relations with the offender, but gives up all ill feeling against him. [Century Dictionary]

Beat

“We’re Organ-Donors 

for The Rich —

If We TRY to Play 

like The Yankees in here —

We Will Lose 

to The Yankees

out THERE —

and I HATE to Lose —

I Hate to Lose even more 

than I like to Win.”

“As William Blake wrote at the start of the nineteenth century, ‘For the eye altering, alters all.’ 

Existentialism also flowered in the United States, but American existentialists were considerably more engaged with life than their Irish and French counterparts. Jack Kerouac was an athletic, Catholic-raised writer from Massachusetts. He gained a scholarship to Columbia University on the strength of his American football skills, but dropped out and gravitated to the bohemian underworld of New York City. This subculture inspired his book On the Road, the most famous of all the Beat novels. On the Road was written during an intense three-week period in 1951. It was typed, single spaced and without paragraph breaks, onto a continuous 120-foot-long scroll of paper that had been made by taping together separate sheets of tracing paper. Kerouac hammered away at the typewriter for long hours at a stretch, fuelled by amphetamines and not stopping for food or sleep. The scroll meant that he did not need to stop in order to insert a new page. 

The result was a stream-of-consciousness outpouring of pure enthusiasm which had the rhythms of jazz. It was as if he was constantly ramping up the energy of his prose in order to outpace and escape the nihilism of the world he wrote about. Kerouac’s writings are peppered with references to the Buddhist concept of satori, a mental state in which the individual perceives the true nature of things. The true nature of things, to someone experiencing satori, was very different to the true nature of things as perceived by Sartre or Beckett. 

It was Kerouac who coined the phrase ‘the Beat Generation’. The name arose in conversation with his friend John Clellon Holmes. As he later recalled, ‘[John] and I were sitting around trying to think up the meaning of the Lost Generation and the subsequent existentialism and I said “You know John, this is really a beat generation”; and he leapt up and said, “That’s it, that’s right!’’’ 

Although many people in the underground drug culture of the 1940s and 1950s self-identified as both ‘hipsters’ and ‘Beats’, the term ‘Beat’ has since gained a more specific definition. The phrase ‘Beat Generation’ is now used mainly to refer to the American writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and their muse Neal Cassady. Original nihilistic Beat writers such as Trocchi are left out of this definition. 

There are also attempts to include the American writer William Burroughs in the Beat Generation, despite Burroughs’s unique ability to escape from any category he is placed in. 

This narrowing of focus has led the American poet Gregory Corso to remark ‘Three writers do not a generation make.’ 

Kerouac had originally picked up the word ‘beat’ from a street hustler and junkie who used the term to sum up the experience of having no money or prospects. Kerouac’s imagination latched onto the word because he saw another aspect to it, and one which complemented its original meaning of referring to a societal outcast. 

For Kerouac, the word implied beatitude. 

Beatitude, in Kerouac’s Catholic upbringing, was the state of being spiritually blessed. Shunned outcasts who gain glimpses of grace and rapture are a constant theme of Kerouac’s work, and the word summed this up in one immediate single-syllable blast. The word became attached to the wild, vibrant music that the Beats were so attracted to, and it was this connection to ‘beat music’ that lies behind the name of The Beatles. 

Unlike the more nihilistic European Beats, the American Beat Generation flavoured their version of existentialism with Eastern mysticism. By the middle of the twentieth century a number of Eastern texts had become available in Western translations. Richard Wilhelm’s 1924 German translation of the I Ching was published in English in 1950, for example, and the American anthropologist Walter Evans-Wentz’s 1929 translation of the Bardo Thodol, better known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, gained widespread attention following its 1960 reissue. 

These texts described a spirituality that differed greatly from the hierarchical monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity, with their subservient devotion to a ‘Lord’. They talked about divinity as being something internal rather than external. They viewed spirituality as a matter of individual awareness. 

There are distinct differences in the definitions of words like satori, beatitude, enlightenment, grace, rapture, peak experience or flow, but these terms also have much in common. They all refer to a state of mind achievable in the here and now, rather than in a hypothetical future. They are all concerned with a loss of the ego and an awareness of a connection to something larger than the self. 

They all reveal the act of living to be self-evidently worthwhile. In this they stand in contrast to the current of individualism that coursed through the twentieth century, whose logical outcome was the isolation of the junkies and the nihilism of the existentialists. 

But interest in these states, and indeed experience of them, were not widespread. They were the products of the counterculture and obscure corners of academia, and hence were treated with suspicion, if not hostility. The desire for personal freedom, which individualism had stoked, was not going to go away, especially in a generation that had sacrificed so much in the fight against fascism. 

How could we maintain those freedoms, while avoiding the isolation and nihilism inherent in individualism? Reaching out towards satori or peak experience may have been one answer, but these states were frustratingly elusive and too difficult to achieve to provide a widespread solution. 

The writers of Casablanca had difficulty finding the right ending for the film, but the script they turned in at the last minute created one of the great scenes in cinema. 

It takes place at Casablanca airport during a misty night, and includes a waiting plane, a dead Nazi, and a life-changing decision. Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine makes the decision not to leave Casablanca with Ilsa, the love of his life. 

He instead convinces her to leave with her husband and help him in his work for the Resistance. 

‘I’m no good at being noble,’ he tells her, ‘but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.’ 

This is the moment when he admits that there is something more important than his own individual perspective and desires. Although he previously declared that he stuck his neck out for nobody, he now risks his life and liberty in order to allow the Resistance leader to escape. 

Rick ended the film leaving for a Free France garrison so that he too could fight the good fight. 

Hollywood movies fought off nihilism by offering hope, either through personal love, symbolic escape or the vaguely defined better future of the American Dream. 

Occasionally, they would offer warnings. Oscar-winning films such as Citizen Kane, There Will Be Blood or The Aviator were tragedies which depicted the ultimate isolation of those who got what they wanted. 

Casablanca’s screenwriters were helped by the fact that the film was set and made during the Second World War. This gave them a clear ‘greater good’ which they could appeal to. Rick was able to leave his spiritual and personal isolation in order to dedicate himself to the anti-fascist cause. 

But the film continued to resonate with audiences long after that war had been won, because Rick’s escape from nihilism remained powerful on a symbolic level. The promise that there was something better than individual isolation was something that audiences craved. 

That something better, whatever it was, would take effort, and involvement. But that effort would make it worth working towards. 

Existentialism lingered in Europe, but America was too industrious to navel-gaze. As the Second World War receded into memory, the United States was about to show the world exactly what mankind was capable of. 

It was time, President Kennedy boldly announced, to Go to The Moon....."

There Aren’t Any Promises.

  

 

Billy Beane was taken in the first round of the amateur draft.

I think this is a steal, to get Billy Beane.

He's young, he's talented.

 

A true five-tool player with speed.

This guy is a can't-miss prospect.

 

This is a great sign for the New York Mets.

And it could be the turnaround that they've been looking for.

 

Ball one.

 

I'll take Billy Beane over Strawberry.

Billy Beane, an interesting pick, turned down a scholarship.

He could've gone to Stanford.

 

Sometimes you don't find out till you get to the big leagues...

This guy has never failed at anything.

 

He's coming out of high school.

Billy was gonna go to college.

He could've been a great quarterback.

 

Strike three.

 

There's not an organization in baseball

who would not have taken a chance on this young guy.

 

He didn't pan out.

That happens every year. Some do, some don't.

 

I mean, if you're having any doubt at all about this...

Having the scholarship...

 

Your son was born with a God-given ability.

Few scouts can go into the mind of a young man and determine whether he's really confident about what he can do.

 

A very special player.

 

So you can sign him based on his ability,

but then he's gotta be successful to be confident.

And once he becomes confident, that's when you've got something.

 

You make a decision on What You See.

And if things don't pan out, you move on.

 

That's Baseball.

Many are Called, Few are Chosen.

 

Billy, that is Kevin Youkilis.

That is the Greek God of Walks. That's My Hero.

That man gets walked more than anybody in baseball except for Barry Bonds.

 

I tried to convince Shapiro to pick him up last June,

but he said he waddled like a duck.

 

 

Billy Beane :

Yeah, Boston snagged him.

I think they wanna wait and see.

 

Are you okay, Billy?

Grady, Head Scout :

Billy? Can we talk?

 

Billy Beane :

Yeah. Yeah.

 

You're unhappy, Grady. Why?

 

Grady, Head Scout : 

May I speak candidly?

 

Billy Beane :

Sure, go ahead.

 

Grady, Head Scout :

Major League Baseball and its fans,

they're gonna be more than happy

to throw you and Google Boy under The Bus

if you keep doing What You're Doing.

 

You don't put a team together with a computer.

 

Billy Beane :

No?

 

Grady, Head Scout :

No. Baseball isn't just numbers. 

It's not science.

If it was, anybody could do 

what we're doing,

but they can't.

 

They don't know What We Know.

They don't have Our Experience 

and Our Intuition.

 

Okay. You got a kid in there that's got a Degree in Economics from Yale.

You got a scout here with 29 years of Baseball Experience.

You're listening to the wrong one.

 

Now, there are intangibles that only baseball people understand.

You're discounting what scouts have done for 150 years? Even yourself?

 

Billy Beane :

Adapt or Die.

 

Grady, Head Scout :

This is about You and Your Shit, isn't it?

Twenty years ago, some scout got it wrong.

 

Billy Beane :

Okay. Okay.

 

Grady, Head Scout :

Now you declare 

War on The System.

 

Billy Beane :

Okay, okay, 

My Turn :

 

You don't have a crystal ball.

 

You can't look at a kid 

and predict his future

any more than I can.

 

I've sat at those kitchen tables with you,

and listened to you tell parents,

"When I know, I know.

And when it comes to your son, I know."

 

And You Don't.

You Don't.

 

Grady, Head Scout : 

Okay. I don't give a shit about Friendship,

This Situation, or The Past —

 

Major League Baseball thinks The Way I Think : --

You're not gonna win.

 

And I'll give you a nickel's worth of free advice.

You're never gonna get another job after this catastrophic season

you're about to set us all up for.

 

You'll have to explain to Your Kid

why you're working at Dick's Sporting Goods.

 

Billy Beane :

I'm not gonna fire you, Grady.

 

Grady, Head Scout : 

Fuck you, Billy.

 

( pushes him )

 

Billy Beane :

Now I will.

Good luck, Art.

 

Kubota. You never played ball, right?

 

 

I played a little T-ball.

 

You're the new Head Scout.

Congratulations.