there  could  be  snakes  in  here

(c) Beatrice Warde (1932) What's the Hamlet of scifi? (Not the 'greatest and most complex work in its field': the book which earns you disapproval if you admit to not having read it.) Brave New World ? Do Androids Dream? Dune ? Gravity's Rainbow? It's hard to imagine anyone making fun of you for not having read 2001 . So, is scifi less centralised and hierarchical, then? Maybe. Maybe the scifi world is just yet to have its Robert Hutchins , the fossilising stipulation. Maybe I've just not spent enough time around the geek equivalent of academic snobs: convention attendees. ***************************************************** Scandinavian countries are the least violent places in the world, all hovering around 0.5 murders per 100,000. But their crime fiction - unusually pessimistic, lonely, and depraved even for crime fiction - has been taking off like nobody's business. How long will it take for the entire population to be fictionally murder...

(c) Jenny Morgan, 'Midsummer Hare' It may be that curiosity comes at the expense of commonality. *********************************************** We need a term for high-IQ people who are, nonetheless, idiots. I suggest 'arch-idiot'. Usage: "Almost the entire field of financial economics was composed of archidiots." Taleb uses nerd as a technical term for this; Marx, ein Fachidiot . The culture at large uses savant, but this is not quite right and would stick the boot in to autists yet again. We also say book-smart, but that's anti-intellectual: our problem would not cease with the banning of all poncey books, since our problem is with those that abuse the poncey books. Archstupidity (n.): The presence of strong abstract reasoning in the absence of emotional intelligence, empirical feedback, or actual  rationality . Leads to the ubiquitous, dangerous assumption that since one understands one c...

(c) Rubens, 'Pastoral Scene' (1638) Prune back your long hopes. As we speak, envious time is running away with us. Pluck the ripe day! Trust the future as far as you can throw it. . - Horace 'Coy mistress', sir? Who gave you leave To wear my heart upon your sleeve? Or to imply, as sure you do, I had no other choice than you And must remain upon the shelf Unless I should bestir myself? Shall I be moved to love you, pray, By hints that I must soon decay? No woman's won by being told How quickly she is growing old ... - A.D. Hope People who say "Carpe diem!" mean well. (We are running out of time, after all.) But you have to wonder if even the urgent affirmation of good life justifies the associated YOLO crap and emotional blackmail. Premise : [Action x] looks pretty stupid . Premise : But you'll die some day! Conclusion : You may as well [x]. or, less ignobly: Premise : Life is transient. (Memento mori) Premise : You're in yo...

(c) Arcimboldo (c.1570) "Spring and Summer" Deciphering corporate language: "Manager" = Controller .  "Executive" = Controller controller / King Simpleton  / Capital's Metatron "Administrator" = Cartesian demon. "Supervisor" = Guard labour . "... Officer" = Desk ballast. "Analyst" = Cherry-picker . "Advisor" = "Yes" Man. "Consultant" = "It'll cost you" Man. "Assistant" = monkey. "Intern" = monkey's monkey. "Technician" = nerd monkey. "Programmer"= Code monkey . "Developer" = Programmer. (OK, so job-title inflation is an understandable process - you're trying to convince people that what they do is important - but you're doing so without changing their work or working conditions.) ************************************************ Here is the great joke of the humani...

(c) Olafur Eliasson (2010), Your uncertain shadow I sent out another one of those round-robins  with which I fish for large identity statements from my friends. This time: " if you were a computer game, what computer game would you be? " I meant the question metaphorically ("what game has features, broadly construed, that you also have?") but people took it literally ("what game world would you like to be in?") as often. Making this latter interpretation is itself a Statement of sorts. CR: "On a good day, Grand Theft Auto - popular because fun to mess around with, but equally if not more more rewarding when engaged with more deeply. On a bad day, Metal Gear Solid - pretentious, talks too much." [Metaphorical, and received within 5mins of my sending the challenge.] RM: " Haze. Never great, never popular, pseudo-intelligent, made by better people capable of great things. Desperately trying to escape its British origins. Not qui...

We people of the books agree on nothing - but all disagree with the pyre and the gag. All good books are holy - but criticism more.

Charlotte Salomon (1942), '#4835', detail from the incredible 'Life? or Theatre? ' A classic is a book that someone very powerful once said was good. ************************************************************************************** LOL. This is from a speech by the old pope, against gay marriage and queerdom and other good things: People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but something that they make for themselves . Thing is, stripped of sarcasm (and the assumption of an essentialist audience), this is actually an objective statement of pomo people's outlook! You could attribute this exact statement to a Stonewall spokesperson or Judith Butler without raising comment. This is funny. ******************************************************************...