Yes, exploiting the fact we have a media library. And not to be confused with “fugue state(meant)s.” Then again…
Protected: Tasteless Anecdote
Assignment L.11.02: Reflection
I rarely propose assignments. I rarely do them. I do not expect an enthusiastic response. That is not the Lichtenberg way. Our way is toss off whatever it may be with only smothered hope. Followed by a smirk. And then walk away quickly.
I propose a structure that may inspire a creative response. I’m mostly interested in whether or not the structure is useful in any and all media or though any and all modes of expression. Need the structure be explicit within the work? Good question. Visible or invisible? Subject or silent support of some other subject? Are we always aware of what stages the supporting mise en scene of our every thought, revery or effort?
The structure is built on reflection. Looking into a mirror and seeing not only oneself but also, behind oneself, another. Another looking perhaps at one’s back or at the reflection of one’s eyes. And so, what may follow? Might one try to look into the eyes of the reflected other to discern what the other sees, to see if the other sees one’s attempt to look? Everything would then circulate about the question: at any moment, does the other share the beam of sight with the one looking? A beam shared though reflected.
You can ignore everything after my initial sketch of the lines of sight, after the first three sentences of the previous paragraph. To imply that a question might reside within this structure is an imposition, I realize. Certainly a possibility within the structure, but not necessary for creative exploitation. Don’t attach anything to it unless it’s useful. You need not let this structure lead to questions of any sort.
A mundane though uniquely modern phenomenon. Mirrors certainly are part of the architecture of mind and self in the modern world. And I say modern (said it twice, now, really three times, heaven help me) fully aware that glassy reflection appears in myth, theology and other pre-Renaissance moments of thought. An aside, this paragraph, a ruffling of an otherwise smooth and unfussy texture. Or a skidding waver of the beam.
It occurs to me to add that, for the purposes of this assignment, I consider philosophy to be a mode of creative expression.
Politeness
We’ve been watching the original Dark Shadows on Netflix Instant View. (No, we’re not hip enough to have known that Depp and Burton are doing a remake. Found that out later as I looked for links. It was truly just a desire to relive childhood memories.) As the vampire Barnabas Collins made his entrance into the action over ten or so twenty-minute segments, I became quite preoccupied with his politeness. Something about the totality of it–its comprehensiveness. Obviously, he wants to be accepted into the family at Collinswood and not arouse suspicion. It pays for him to be on his best behavior. Soon enough he will be making some pretty significant requests of folks, so it’s not to his advantage to upset anyone. Charm is his skeleton key. But there’s more to it, I think. The character Maggie, already under a certain amount of hypnotic influence, notes how his “old world” manners seem linked to a profound sense of loneliness and isolation. What she doesn’t know this early on, of course, is the true nature of this separateness and the true depth of it.
I am struck by how this simple soap managed to create something dark and palpable through such rudimentary and minimal means. I found myself nodding along with Barnabas as he spoke in various scenes to various characters he wished to charm and influence. I, too, was appreciating what was at stake as he reached out from a position of absolute separateness. I was in the game, and there was not one special effect to lure me along through its magic. Barnabas is nothing but what he can say, and he gets nothing except through what he can say, so he must say it in a very precise way. The script at times even has him discriminating properly between the uses of who and whom. What we are witnessing is Vampire Minimalism crafted wholly through language. Sure, soon enough there will be teeth and biting and fluids, and we know something is afoot behind the veneer, but the essence of the vampire is in the words. As if seizing upon a spoken politeness that is palpably archaic, or dead, he extends a powerful reach into the world of the living with its unsuspecting casualness and neglect and its trivial cares. His banishment from us and his appetite for us are expressed in his strange, antique precision.
Reading too much into it due to my own alienation? target=”_blank”>See for yourself.
Murder in You Know Where, Take II
Yeah, whatevs. Feedback sought. Thank you in advance, gentlemen. Click here to download.
Isn’t this what WE’VE been saying?
Genre
In order to offset the inferiority complex generated by other “best” lists that I had little or no experience with, consider please NPR’s new list of 100 Fantasy and SciFi novels. What’s your count? How far down before you hit one you’ve not read? What do you think of the quality of the list? I’ll compile my response and add it in the comments.
Meta?
I must confess, I”m not at all online slots sure how to process this.
Drawing to Music
I don’t know how many read my Cartoon Guru blog, but I wanted to make sure people to see this.
This piece really struck a me. I would love to discuss it. I will leave it to the brighter among us to decide what that discussion is.
Mike
oxytocin, euphoria, unlearning, social bonds, etc
Was introduced to Walter J. Freeman while watching a psychoanalytic roundtable on youtube. Â Apparently psychoanalysis is perpetually in dialogue with neuroscience. Â How can this be? Â What a wide open world we live in!
So what would you want to unlearn after taking your next dose of oxytocin?