The Fact and Fiction Edition
On the future of arts and culture, perception, soap advertisements, memories of war and the beauty of archiving
The Soaring Twenties
A great essay on the future of arts and culture. Some of my favorite writers and thinkers lived and wrote in the third decade of the 20th century, now a hundred years later, can we be the Soaring generation? An exploration on how time distils and matures the masterpieces that are not appreciated on release, and their creators with their myth making aura should not discourage you, yes you the reader, from ever writing, drawing, building, whatever your craft is, create , put sweat and tears into it, you might be the master of the future. ”I have found more and more that those people of an artistic bent who have already mentally gone through the Covid-induced despair phase and have emerged from the other side appear now to be full of hope and purpose. They already, in some sense, live in the future and they are now constructing the catacombs from which the decentralised art of the near future will emerge.”
https://thomasjbevan.substack.com/p/the-soaring-twenties
Most of the Mind Can’t Tell Fact from Fiction
Our minds are not made to distinguish between fact and fiction, Jim Davies a professor of cognitive science at Carleton University argues. The rational part of our minds perceives , understands that what we are looking at is not real, but the perceptual areas of the brain are connected to our emotions and emotions force us to interpret the world differently, for example fear affects our vision and moods can make us more sensible to visual illusions. “Even after you understand how an illusion operates, it continues to fool part of your mind. This is the kind of double knowledge we have when we consume fiction.”
http://nautil.us/blog/most-of-the-mind-cant-tell-fact-from-fiction
The Magical Art of Selling Soap
19th century in the United States, medical practical knowledge has not advanced since the 2nd century, it was intertwined with magical practice in the collective consciousness, dental surgery was performed at carnivals. No wonder, advertising medical products had a Faustian appeal with messages like ““There is no Sore it will Not Heal, No Pain it will not Subdue,””. Medicine companies advertised in the printed press, actually helping the journalistic industry thrive, they also advertised in “handbills, pamphlets, posters, trade cards, and, perhaps most effective, almanacs””Advertisements assured women that beautiful skin was democratic: it was not a luxury reserved for the few, those with a “naturally” good complexion. On the contrary, all women harbored potential inner beauty that simply had to be coaxed into expressing itself outwardly. ”
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/magical-art-selling-soap
War, Anonymity, and the Dangerous Line Between Truth and Fiction
Eva Nour, released a beautiful novel based on first hand experiences of the war in Syria, City of Sparrows. The experiences are based on the life of her lover, who decided to stay in the city of Homs after the Syrian Revolution started. As she said it herself Eva wrote this book as an act of love. She was inspired by Imre Kertész recount of his experiences in nazi death camps written in the form of a semi-autobiographical series of novels. ”The first time I knew there was something special about Sami was when he showed me a picture he had taken. It showed a couple of kittens that he’d given a bowl of yogurt to. It turned out that the photo was taken in his home shortly after the house was destroyed by missiles. How could that be possible, I thought. Your home has just been destroyed and yet you feed the animal”
https://lithub.com/war-anonymity-and-the-dangerous-line-between-truth-and-fiction/
Humane Ingenuity 29: Noticing the Neighborhood
A short and sweet piece on data digitization that goes from the 900th anniversary of the Domesday Book, the almost complete survey of England to digitized pictures of Los Angeles to online tours for LA or Philadelphia and the complex problem of digitizing Mayan hieroglyphs.”Artists, of course, are often good at documenting the mundane in addition to the sublime, at noticing those overlooked spaces and buildings and objects, and using their cultivated hyperawareness to make the normal worth examining anew.”
https://buttondown.email/dancohen/archive/humane-ingenuity-29-noticing-the-neighborhood/
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Video Pill
The Wonderful World of Jetix
Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt & Watchmen - Deconstructing Formalism
The Art of Composition: 140 Iconic Shots in 1 minute
Podcast Pill
Joe Sacco’s Journalistic Comics, Podcast: Working
Isaac Butler talks with journalist and cartoonist Joe Sacco. Sacco is a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist best known for his comics journalism. His books Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza have been critically praised and have won him several awards, including the American Book Award. His most recent book is Paying the Land.
https://player.fm/series/series-2355372/joe-saccos-journalistic-comics
The Butler Did It, Pocast:Shedunnit
The everpresent butler and its written rules in classic murder mystery novels. Snobbery and murder, all served up perfectly for you on a silver tray.
https://player.fm/series/shedunnit/ep-50-the-butler-did-it
Design Pill
The beekeepers by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Poetic Pill
August 18, 12:10 pm By Jim Culleny
“orange serpentine between
sloped green and me
sky pondlight
blue clean, clouds
cumulous/cirrus
half unseen
in a frame
like dream
geometry/physics
bone-like brick
wood-like flesh
and glass that,
with reflections, sings
with ridges and walls,
choral: concrete, spheres, steel
and other distinctly
human things“
https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2020/10/monday-poem-180.html
Underground Pill
Blu & Exile - True & Livin'
“Open your hearts and let us walk throughout your mental fortress
Close down your chart soon as we spark 'cause you consent to forfeit
Bring back original rap to what it's meant to be
And let that digital relax wax is slippery when wet
Acapella let me spit on ya decks
Play that intro instrumental watch the realest connect
To say it simple yo we simply the best, profess the spiritual
Confess the miracle as individuals and get respect
The next logical step will be to bless the streets
In attempts to reflect what we have yet to see
Ladies and gentlemen, from this dimension
Comes the true and living 90 billion miles from the root of existence
Touch the sun and let me shine like one
Bust ya gun and watch the blind run
We change the shooter's vision
Influential intuitions, intermissions on a mission at the finish, telling 'em, that we just beginning
From out the park dropping jewels in the dark
Comes a beat beating harder than the beat of ya heart
The true and living“
Dictionary Pill
distil = purify (a liquid) by heating it so that it vaporizes, then cooling and condensing the vapour and collecting the resulting liquid; extract the essential meaning or most important aspects of.
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