Where the slope of your shoulders and one hundred years meet.

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Has post-irony happened yet?

On Vantage Points.

While watching the Sam Peckinpah film Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (197_), I started to think about vantage points in fiction; or, more importantly, the lives and perspectives of the characters the author does not explore. Consider what Atticus Finch must have felt and thought during the events of To Kill A Mockingbird; we are given an indication, through dialogue and musings from the reliable-narrator, but we never explicitly read it in the text. An aspect of realism is gained through the development of minor characters– however, it is at the same time important to realize that this must be relevant to the story.

To explain:

The characters of the novel exist within the universe of the novel; the events that transpire take place inside the same universe (barring sci-fi, hmm?). The story told in the novel is a fragment of a much larger universe the author has created upon writing a story.

For example, suppose I have written a novel about a man named Pat who lives in an apartment in Chicago. The first Thursday of each month, Pat’s landlord, Mr. Farley, comes to collect the rent for the previous month. From a technical standpoint, the introduction of Mr. Farley into any scene must serve a purpose for the novel; he must engage the protagonist in dialogue, advance the plot, etc.. However, within the frame work of the story, Mr. Farley is simply showing up because he needs to ‘collect the rent’, and will, as a result of that, engage (there’s that word again!) Pat in dialogue, or whatever the needs of the author are. Mr. Farley has a life of his own, outside that of the novel, and it is the events and decisions he makes outside of the book that effect his actions inside of the novel.

The development of these minor (or major) characters helps develop the universe as a whole, but it must be relevant to the context of the story. Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Cohen exemplify this rule: the characters are very real; they have quirks, seperate interests, and yet, these traits are always relevant to the story. Walter’s comically unhealthy relationship with his ex-wife Cynthia in The Big Lebowski (199_) is one of several contributing factors to his mental instability, which sometimes that manifests itself in his bursts of rage and eccentric, which lead to the development of the plot (his Hazzard-County-esque style attempt to switch suitcases and steal the ransom money, pulling the Big Lebowski out of his wheelchair, smashing a car with a crowbar, etc.). Likewise, in A Serious Man (2009), the protaganist’s neighbour’s consistent abrasive behavior has a direct result on the hero’s psyche, though the neighbours themselves (a father and his son) never directly influence the plot.

I feel a bit better now that I’ve written that out. Back to Peckinpah.

Filed under: Existentialism, Knowledge, Thoughts & Things

Being & Naughtyness.

On the subject of existence preceding essence: Sartre claims that existence always has a subjective quality when applied to human reality. What does he mean by this? Taking subjective to mean “a view modified by individual bias”, consider the argument: “Object A” is only “Object A” because I say it is “Object A”. This coffee table is only a coffee table because I say it is a coffee table. Sartre is arguing that the coffee table could in fact be a bed, or a giant-upside-down-cup, or whatever the Hell he chooses.

How does this apply to the art world? I often poke fun at post-modern art; “The art is not the drawing, the art is how the drawing makes you feel.” Ridiculous, I know. So, are artists like Marcel Duchamp actually provoking an existential concept by stapling things to walls? I don’t know much about the Dada movement that he was associated with (I’ll look into it?), but I do know that he was quite the talented visual artist– by no means does am I saying one needs to be a technically capabable visual artist in order to comprehend or create conceptual art– I simply find this very interesting.

Ohh, I’ve run out of things to say. Notice how I actually didn’t say anything at all? Maybe I’m too hard on myself. I need to make an effort to make longer posts. And sentences, apparently.

Filed under: Existentialism, Thoughts & Things

Ah!

Things I have learned since starting University:

  • There are two levels of music snobs: those who like Jeff Buckley, and those who like Tim Buckley.
  • Music snobs make me uncomfortable.
  • You cannot flirt with cafeteria workers in order to get into Meal Hall for free.
  • A pay-before-you-eat-all-you-can-eat cafeteria system at a University is a terrible idea.

Okay, so, not a very good post. But it’s important that I post, post, post!

Filed under: Knowledge

Test.

This is a test post, to see if WordPress syncs up with Tumblr.

Filed under: Misc.

En L’Enfer Des Tournantes.

I recently ‘acquired’ a copy of To Hell & Back by Samira Bellil; it’s the story of her growing-up and struggle to live in the banlieues (err, ghettos) of France, and damn, it is just fantastic.

I need to spend less time wasting time on the internet. Sluggishly creeping through pages of photographs of people I’ve never spoken to doesn’t seem to be the most productive course of action I could take. The internet is big. There’s a lot on it. I should exploit that.

My Tumblr.

Filed under: Short Posts

Stipulation Nation.

An existential dilemma: I find I stress the importance of defining essence over existence; a particularly hindering concept to my blogging game. I seem to focus too much time and energy defining what type of blog it will be, what I will write about, what format I will pursue, etc.; I rarely take the initiative to simply sit down and write about whatever is on my mind, be it aggressive ramblings on the nature of “Blog”, or simply the soup I ate for breakfast.

I have internet ADHD. I spend so much time lurking, and planning on doing this, but rarely do I actually finish what I set out to accomplish.

More, later. But this is a start.

Filed under: Existentialism, Thoughts & Things

The Ressurection.

So, I think I’m gonna’ start blogging again.

Filed under: Short Posts

The Confidence Game.

I don’t know what to blog about.

Filed under: Misc.

Hello.

If one were to glance into my blogging history, one would find several blogs, all of which are now deceased. Yes, one might even deduct from this that, because I have had such a vast number of blogs, sprawling over several different topics and themes, that I might be an “expert” at blogging.

I assure you, this is not the case.

Let’s take a look at my past few blogs.

  1. Fake Plastic Trees — A blog about life (or something like it), which went the way of the dodo shortly after I forgot my password, due to a lack of use.
  2. March Of The Swivelheads — Arguably, the greatest blog name of all time, this ol’ bean followed the struggle of a young man in modern society. It was also extremely boring.
  3. The Small Print – What started as a photography blog, quickly transformed into a poetry blog. Alas, it ended as… nothing. I deleted it.

There was another one, too, a malgamation of all three blog archtypes, but I don’t really remember much about it, other than that I didn’t like the url, and decided to delete it too. I hope with this guy, that I can do a few things; find an outlet to post and share my creative juices (or lack thereof), whether they be with music, photography, poetry, or whatever the Hell I feel.

I think this is the part where I close my eyes, hold my breath, and take a big leap.

Filed under: Thoughts & Things

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