arshile gorky working on Aviation in Laguardia Airport for the Federal Art Project.




helen frankenthaler.




robert motherwell in his studio on east 94th street, new york.




hans hofmann in his studio working on a painting.




franz kline.




barnett newman and unidentified woman standing in front of Cathedra in his front street studio, new york.




alexander calder with sculpture .




richard diebenkorn holding a lithograph.




motherwell again, painting in his studio.




ad reinhardt standing holding art work with an audience looking on.




diego rivera at work on allegory of california, san francisco stock exchange luncheon club.




mark rothko in his studio.




marcel duchamp seated holding an artwork made of glass.


and lastly perhaps the most well known shot of the time (with the exception of pollock painting on glass)- “in the selection of painters for the exhibit “american painting today 1950.” the letter appeared in the n.y. times and the herald tribune. a photo of the group taken Nov. 24, 1950 appeared in Life’s Jan. 15, 1951 issue, captioned “irascible group of advanced artists led fight against show.”

The Irascibles. Pictured from left rear: Willem De Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, Hedda Sterne; next row: Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jimmy Ernst, Jackson Pollock, James Brooks, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin; foreground: Theodoros Stamos, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko. Missing from photo: Weldon Kees, Fritz Bultman and Hans Hofmann.


so damned civilized! hope you enjoyed.

i’d never heard of lucien’s work “true histories” or “true stories” as it’s also referred. coincidentally i’d been looking into another author (to be named later), who served up sci-fi well before it’s time, with lack luster web results, so i figured i’d switch gears and maybe have better luck with lucien. and i did.

from the encyclopedia of astrobiology, astronomy, and spaceflight

Lucian of Samosata (A.D. c.120-180)

Syrian-Greek writer responsible for the first fictional accounts of extraterrestrial life. Lucian, whose parents had hoped he might become a sculptor, made a fortune by traveling around Asia Minor, Greece, Italy and other lands giving entertaining speeches, before settling down in Athens to study philosophy. This was a time - the second century A.D. - when faith in the old gods had all but evaporated, Greek culture and thought was in decay, and the great literature of Greece at its height had given way to shallow novels of adventure or romance. All this was grist to Lucian’s satirical mill and in his two extraterrestrial stories - precursors of science fiction - he parodies the kind of feeble fantasy that had become popular.

what i find particularly interesting in that paragraph is this bit- this was a time - the second century A.D. - when faith in the old gods had all but evaporated, Greek culture and thought was in decay, and the great literature of Greece at its height had given way to shallow novels of adventure or romance. all this was grist to Lucian’s satirical mill. by all accounts lucian was a above all satirist. i wonder whether perhaps the idea of lucian’s works as a precursors to science fiction works of today is a bit tenuous or incidental at best? the lineage of satire being quite separate from that of what we consider sci-fi proper today. though both extrapolate the aim is generally quite different. by and large what we think of as sci-fi today is an earnest thing, whether cautionary dystopian tales, action packed space operas, or hard sci-fi with a futurologist bent. they are not often meant to amuse us. yes, light,  “funny” sci-fi novel exists but even these works are not generally considered satire. so can lucien’s work be considered sci-fi in anything but the setting and details? is anything more required? lucian just happens to have written at a time when mythology was still considered theology and in order to satirize mythology you need to come up with some pretty wild ideas indeed. in any case i guess this is exactly the kind of thing Dr. Ni-Mheallaigh’s work might shed some light on…

in the the preface to his “true stories” lucian clarifies the usage of the word “true” in the title by explaining essentially that they are “truly stories” with all the implications the word “story” holds. he admits flat out that he is a liar and says that fact is the only sure truth of his book. here it is in his words (translated by thomas francklin):

As athletics of all kinds hold it necessary, not only to prepare the body by exercise and discipline, but sometimes to give it proper relaxation, which they esteem no less requisite, so do I think it highly necessary also for men of letters, after their severer studies, to relax a little, that they may return to them with the greater pleasure and alacrity; and for this purpose there is no better repose than that which arises from the reading of such books as not only by their humor and pleasantry may entertain them, but convey at the same time some useful instruction, both which, I flatter myself, the reader will meet with in the following history; for he will not only be pleased with the novelty of the plan, and the variety of lies, which I have told with an air of truth, but with the tacit allusions so frequently made, not, I trust, without some degree of humor, to our ancient poets, historians, and philosophers, who have told us some most miraculous and incredible stories, and which I should have pointed out to you, but that I thought they would be sufficiently visible on the perusal.

These, notwithstanding, I cannot think much to blame for their falsehoods, seeing that the custom has been sometimes authorised, even by the pretenders to philosophy: I only wonder that they should ever expect to be believed: being, however, myself incited, by a ridiculous vanity, with the desire of transmitting something to posterity, that I may not be the only man who doth not indulge himself in the liberty of fiction, as I could not relate anything true (for I know of nothing at present worthy to be recorded), I turned my thoughts towards falsehood, a species of it, however, much more excusable than that of others, as I shall at least say one thing true, when I tell you that I lie, and shall hope to escape the general censure, by acknowledging that I mean to speak not a word of truth throughout.  Know ye, therefore, that I am going to write about what I never saw myself, nor experienced, nor so much as heard from anybody else, and, what is more, of such things as neither are, nor ever can be.  I give my readers warning, therefore, not to believe me.

no attempts at suspension of disbelief there huh? of course he then launches into a book written in a deadpan travelog style which never again lets on it’s a pack of lies. some of his observations concerning the lunar inhabitants are as follows (taken from andrew wilson’s: the classics pages):

: the rich have theirs made of flexible glass, poor people wear clothes made of spun bronze. There’s plenty of bronze there, which they wet with water and weave like wool. If I told you what sort of eyes they had, you would probably accuse me of lying - so I won’t be revealing this information. Oh, all right then. They have eyes which are removable. They take them out and put them away until they want to see something; then they pop them in and have a squint. The eyes easily get lost, so they often have to borrow other people’s. The rich keep a box full, just in case. Their ears are plane leaves - except for the men who came out of the nuts - theirs are plain wood. In the royal palace I saw an incredible thing. There’s a big mirror fixed up over a well - not a deep one. If a man climbs down into the well, he can hear everything that’s going on on Earth, and if he looks up at the mirror, he can see every city and every country - just as if he were hovering over it. When I tried it, I saw my family and my entire homeland - I’m not sure if they could see me! If anyone does not believe this, he will find if he ever goes there that I am speaking the honest truth.

haha. guess that would all qualify as ancient world science fiction wouldn’t it? any how that’s just the barest taste. there is plenty of good related reading on the web if you’d like to check out more-

project gutenberg offers 3 full volumes of lucian’s work as well as a “trips to the moon” group that includes plenty more information on lucian, all available free as ebooks or viewable in your browser.

check out andrew wilson’s aforementioned the classics pages for a very entertaining take on lucian’s work. recommended.

some more specific texts by lucian are available at the ancient library.

for more insight into lucian as science fiction writer check out roy arthur swanson’s essay- the true, the false, and the truly false: lucian’s philosophical science fiction (written in 1976 of all times! nudge nudge wink wink)

and finally for a fantastic overview of all things sci-fi through history check out “the ultimate science fiction web guide’s” timeline. a great resource for further reading and greater context. the author i’ve been been attempting to post about without success whom i mentioned earlier is tucked away in this list among many other tantalizing leads.

btw that thumbnail at the beginning of the post is indeed supposed to be a likeness of the man himself. pretty lamentable looking for a satirist! maybe he is a sci-fi author after all. happy reading.

first a note on the images- this group is all drawn from the 1959 annual. it is so packed with interesting stuff that i’ve decided to spread their presentation out over a series of posts. the following twenty are taken mainly from the first section of the book which covers posters with a few from the second chapter which covers magazine advertisements. still to come are book and magazine covers, record sleeves, animation stills, packaging, as well as work from the 1957 annual.

to start- some thoughts on advertising from the introduction by editor charles rosner (keep in mind this was written in 1959)

“advertising is a phenomena of our times. it’s increasing power, its influence on national life and its growing impact on the individual have given rise to a full day’s debate in the house of commons; and the wide readership- in particular by the lay public- of madison avenue usa, an analysis of the structure and function of advertising, clearly indicates it’s compelling nature. that its power is increasing is not only witnessed by steeply increasing expenditure, but also by inescapability.

mass advertising has a great singleness of purpose. retaining a firm hold on the general press, it moves into the territories of special media. with gathering speed it learns a new language, a new tone of voice; it attempts to outshine, both in word and image. the editorial contents of publications. each advertiser attempts to out shout other advertisers. but all the shouting and large promises have their limitations (...)

as graphis annual is the annual of advertising art, the more brutal projections of visual salesmanship are outside it’s scope. looking across the border, however, it is evident that the outbidding has reached a point of no return. it is possible that we are nearing a time when some of the big mass production advertisers will conclude that, having gone as far as it can, vulgarization alone is gradually losing its grip. when that time comes it is hoped that at least some of them will have the courage to go to the other extreme, looking for logic and artistic originality.”

sounds like some things never change doesn’t it? now here are twenty images from 1959 in no particular order. (click all for larger version)

massin / andre framcois. poster announcing an exhibition of works by mr. framcois.




phillip thomson. poster encouraging night visits to london issues by the london transport executive.




hans keplinger. tourist poster issued by town of linz.




werner klemke. east german poster for the film the golden spider.




michel gallay. swiss poster for natural fruit juices.




calestino piatti. poster for a swiss furniture exhibit.




ryuchi yamashiro / kiyoshi awazu. silkscreened japanese theater poster.




wim crouwell / kho liang ie. arts council exhibition of contemporary dutch art.




hans thoni. swiss poster to promote rail travel.




kenji maesawa. poster to promote a summer sale at a japanese department store.




as design team. poster for theater group from uruguay.




awazu hosoya. for japanese theater group.




giovanni pintori. poster for olivetti typewriters.




graham coughtry. program poster for canadian broadcasting.




giovanni pintori. advertisement for olivetti adding machines.




therese moll. trade ad for swiss watch components.




herman rastorfer. medical journal ad for itch relief product.




etsushi kiyohara / tsuyoshi takano. japanese life insurance ad.




arnold yarga / ben rose ad forcasting future uses for aluminum.




ben shahn. ad in professional veterinary magazine.


as i’ve said there are so many in each annual it’s hard to decide which to include. these all just struck me somehow. stay tuned for much more from 59 as well as selections from the 1957 annual as well.

all comments welcomed.

case 225

p, laborer, aged twenty nine. family heavily tainted. emotional, irritable; had masturbated since childhood. at ten years old saw a boy masturbate into a woman’s handkerchief. this gave direction to p’s sex life. he stole handkerchiefs from pretty girls and masturbated into them. his mother tried every means to break him of this habit. she admonished him, took the stolen handkerchiefs away and bought him new ones, all in vain. he was caught by the police and punished for theft. he then went to africa and served in the army with an excellent record. on his return to france he resumed his old practices. he was only potent if a prostitute held a white handkerchief in her hand during the act, he married in 1894 and sustained his virility by grasping a handkerchief during coitus.

the fetishistic crisis always came suddenly, like a paroxysm, especially at moments of laziness. he would feel out of sorts, psychically moody, sexually excited, and impelled to masturbate. soon the fantasy image of a handkerchief would appear and take full possession of his thoughts and feelings. if he then caught sight of a woman’s handkerchief he would choke with fear, palpitation of the heart would set in, he would tremble, and profuse perspiration would break out all over his body. although conscious of the risk involved, he was irresistibly forced to steal the handkerchief. he was arrested on one such occasion, but the examining physician declared him irresponsible. during the time of detention he was free of his obsession. he hoped to master his weakness in the future. he estimated that he had stolen one hundred handkerchiefs, he used each handkerchief only once, then threw it away.

what new terrible sexual depravities of centuries past will we bring you next from doctor kraft-ebing’s masterpiece? frottage? violation of statues? cunnilingus? you’ll just have to wait and see, or pick up a copy yourself.

Tuesday morning, for hundreds of miles, the sky was as clear as a bell waiting to be rung. A man, lean like a young jackal, pulled a cellphone from his dapper gray suit, and paused near an ornate stone fountain, smiling at a very private joke. “Let’s call mommy,” he said to a straw-haired girl no more than four, as she held his other hand. She sat on the low edge of a semicircular side basin, looking up at the sparrows landing on the lip of the big square basin to drink and feel the spray on their feathers, at the gas lamps and water jets on the corners and the waterfall in the middle, at the weather vane thing on the very top, so shiny it left a green streak in her eyes, at the brass flower spewing water downward next to her, listening to the rainy hiss of the water, feeling a few specks of mist on her arms bare in the warmth, wishing she could be a sparrow too.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Nessie. I have someone with me who wants to talk to you.”
“Vance! Where are you? Where- Marla?”
“Hi mommy, I miss you. We saw penguins and a horse and a merry-go-round.”
“Where are you, honey?”
“We saw the zoo, and birds, and now daddy has to meet some people. I wish I could see you in the hospital.”
“I’m not in a hospital! Listen, sweetie, I…”
“Me again, Nessie. How ya doing there?” He moved around the corner a few steps so the child could not hear.
“You are a piece of shit. Where did you take her?”
“Don’t be a sore loser, girl. We’re just fine.”
“You are a con man, and my little girl needs a real parent, not a drifter using her as a prop! Sooner or later you’re going to get caught.”
“Well, Nessie, not by you, huh? I’ll ditch this phone before you can sneeze, and I can vanish like smoke. Hey, I’ve got a sweet deal on the front burner. Our little lady might have a rich dad soon, and she’s such a charmer, people will sign up for anything. Top of the world!”
“I’m… almost sorry I met you. Don’t hurt Marla. Please.”
“Your problem is you’re too emotional. How can someone so emotional spend her days dicking around with those supercomputers, hey? I know, I know. You think they’ll save you. They won’t. You don’t understand them. I understand them. I think just like they do. I don’t need to feel. I just need to know. And then I win. Get used to it.”
He closed the phone and casually dropped it in the fountain, where it rocked gently to the bottom, dead in the cool water. “Let’s go.”
Marla had seen him do this a dozen times or more, usually down a sewer drain, and hopped off the fountain to grab his hand impatiently.  “When can we see mommy?”
“When she’s better.”
“When can we go home?”
“When the germs are gone.” That’s why he threw away the phones, he’d told her. The bad germs that made mommy crazy. They might come through the phone. He figured eventually she’d tire of asking, or he’d need a new story. One thing at a time, hey. They walked out of the park and into the shadow of an office building, off in the crowd, unknown among the unknown.

A dark-eyed woman, young in form and face, closed her cellphone and stood from an ergonomic chair before a Cray workstation. She moved as though covered with wasps, clawed open a hall door and sagged onto a break-room sofa with her fists on her temples. She wept.
Her name was Necessity. It wasn’t Nessie. Nessie was a sea monster, a myth, and a bullshit nickname that she asked Vance to stop using, a hundred times, her name was Necessity, and there is no bullshit about necessity. Named after a fort, a strong name, her own dad told her, so the kids at school would just have to face necessity, and she laid it down. Why couldn’t she lay it down with Vance? Was he that slippery, that good an actor, to play her for a fool, walk her down the aisle, clean out the bank and steal their child? Yes, he was, now she knew. He was a psychopath right out of DSM-IV. He was that clever. He was that cold. He was right, he was like a computer. When Marla was only a year old, he got fired from the university for running a DDOS blackmail botnet right out of their servers, but she believed his side of it, the evidence was weak, and didn’t his family already have money? Well, guess how he got that. The secrets crept out. He knew how to run all sorts of cons. He lost custody, and should be in jail now, but he knew how to run, how to cover his tracks, and he ran with Marla, and they half-assed the investigation anyway. Custody fights? The feds do custody fights like they’d do windows. They like to clean the easy side of the glass. He could buzz around like a horsefly out there, just out of reach. Like a biting fly that had no soul. She would find his fatal bug. She would beat him. She was a bad mother. She couldn’t do a thing. She should never have fallen for… but then there would be no Marla. Where was her baby now? She had custody, but he had Marla. Where?
“Necessity, are you all right?” One of the mathematicians from down the hall, come for coffee, looking embarrassed.
“Um, don’t feel good right now.”
“Maybe you should go home. You look tired.”
She nodded, yes, no, wobble. “I’ll stay here for a while, I guess.” Where?

Vance and Marla crossed the wide plaza, took a fast ear-popping elevator, and entered a vast room filled with people working at computer screens, talking on phone headsets, following numbers. Marla kept pace with her father and swiveled her head about, overawed by the commercial hive. He found the man he was looking for and clapped a hand on his shoulder.
A big bald man turned and smiled broadly. “Leo Baker! I didn’t expect you to drop by. And who is this young lady?”
“Hey, Art. This is my daughter Casey, Casey say hello.”
“Hello,” she said, glancing upward. Daddy was always making her do make-believe with strangers. He got so mad if she made a mistake. There were so many distractions in this place. She didn’t like it. Except the windows, where a carpet of buildings spread away, all the perfect dollhouses in the world. Just out of reach.
“Hello, Casey. This is where we trade. Lots and lots of people trading all over the world. What do you think?”
She hesitated, pointing toward the big windows at the edge of the room, and tugged her father’s sleeve. “Daddy?”
“Yes, Casey?”
“Why is that airplane coming here?”
He didn’t answer, and she didn’t ask again, and the towers became smoke on Liberty Street.

The rumors are true: Intel will be inside

Jobs talked about the major transitions in the Mac’s life — starting from the Mac’s Motorola 68000-series processor to PowerPC. “The PowerPC set Apple up fro the next decade. It was a good move,” he said.

“The second transition was even better — the transition from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X that we just did,” he continued. “This was a brain transplant. And even though these operating systems (9 and x) vary only by one in name, they are very different, and this has set Apple up for the next 20 years.”

As the Intel logo lowered on the stage screen, Jobs said, “We are going to make the transition from PowerPC to Intel processors, and we are going to do it for you now, and for our customers next year. Why? Because we want to be making the best computer for our customers looking forward.”

“I stood up here two years ago and promised you 3.0 GHz. I think a lot of you would like a G5 in your PowerBook, and we haven’t been able to deliver that to you,” said Jobs. “But as we look ahead, and though we’ve got great products now, and great PowerPC products still to come, we can envision great products we want to build, and we can’t envision how to build them with the current PowerPC roadmap,” said Jobs.

Intel processors provide more performance per watt than PowerPC processors do, said Jobs. “When we look at future roadmaps, mid-2006 and beyond, we see PoweRPC gives us 15 units of performance per watt, but Intel’s roadmap gives us 70. And so this tells us what we have to do,” he explained.

Transition to Intel by 2007, and yes, Marklar exists

“Starting next year, we will introduce Macs with Intel processors,” said Jobs. “This time next year, we plan to ship Macs with Intel processors. In two years, our plan is that the transition will be mostly complete, and will be complete by end of 2007.”

Jobs then confirmed a long-held belief that Apple was working on an Intel-compatible version of Mac OS X that some have termed “Marklar.”

Mac OS X has been “leading a secret double life” for the past five years, said Jobs. “So today for the first time, I can confirm the rumors that every release of Mac OS X has been compiled for PowerPC and Intel. This has been going on for the last five years.”

Jobs demonstrated a version of Mac OS X running on a 3.6GHz Pentium 4-processor equipped system, running a build of Mac OS X v10.4.1. He showed Dashboard widgets, Spotlight, iCal, Apple’s Mail, Safari and iPhoto all working on the Intel-based system. The system itself was not revealed.

Apple needs developers’ help to complete the transition

“We are very far along on this, but we’re not done,” said Jobs. “Which is why we’re going to put it in your hands very soon, so you can help us finish it.”

Widget, scripts and Java applications should work in the new environment without any conversion, said Jobs. Cocoa-based applications will require “a few minor tweaks and a recompile.” Carbon-based applications require “a few more tweaks,” recompiling, and “they’ll work,” said Jobs. And projects built using Metrowerks’ CodeWarrior need to be moved to Xcode.

The future of Mac OS X development is moving to Xcode, said Jobs. Of Apple’s top 100 developers, more than half — 56 percent — are already using Xcode, and 25 percent are in the process of switching to Xcode. “Less than 20 percent are not on board yet. Now is a good time to get on board,” said Jobs.

A new build of Xcode, version 2.1, is being released today. This new release enables developers to specify PowerPC or Intel architectures. “… and you’re going to build what’s called a universal binary. It contains all the bits for both architectures,” said Jobs. “One binary, works on both PowerPC and Intel architecture. So you can ship one CD that supports both processors.”

“This is nothing like Carbonizing”

Many developers reading this news may be thinking that they’ll have to go through the same woes they had to in order to get their Mac OS 9 applications “Carbonized” to run on Mac OS X. Jobs assured the crowd that this isn’t like that at all. To demonstrated, he brought on stage Theo Gray, cofounder of Mathematica maker Wolfram Research.

Gray said that Mathematica is encumbered by “ancient code that hasn’t been changed since the Reagan administration,” but despite that, it only took about two hours to get Mathematica’s Mac OS X code running on an Intel-based Mac. “We’re talking about twenty lines of source code out of millions, from a dead cold start. This is nothing like Carbonizing. It’s pretty good when the biggest problem from your port is to figure out what to do with the rest of your weekend.”

Rosetta keeps old apps running

Jobs also discussed a new technology called Rosetta, that he described as “a dynamic binary translator.” It runs existing PowerPC applications on the Intel platform, he said. Jobs described Rosetta as “lightweight,” and said “it’s nothing like Classic.”

Jobs demonstrated Rosetta by running Microsoft Office applications, Quicken and Photoshop CS 2 — all unmodified PowerPC-binary versions, unlike Mathematica — on the new Intel-based hardware.

“So that is Rosetta, Jobs concluded. “These PowerPC apps just run. And that’s what we’re going to have for our users, because every app isn’t going to be there for our users on day one.”

Big names pledge support

Microsoft’s Roz Ho and Adobe’s Bruce Chizen both took the stage to reaffirm their commitment to the Macintosh platform. Ho said that Microsoft has been “working with Apple for some time” to create future versions of Office using Apple’s Xcode tools, and will create universal binaries accordingly.” Chizen called Apple’s decision to move to Intel “great,” and gently chided Steve Jobs: “What took you so long?”

Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini was next on stage, greeted by Jobs with a warm embrace. “I expect there’s a whole lot of people who’d never expect you’d see that logo on this stage,” said Otellini, who launched into a story tracing the history of his company, founded in 1968, and Apple, founded in 1976 — two high-tech firms that have blossomed over the decades in Silicon Valley.

Despite occasional jabs over the years, including Apple’s infamous ad where they set fire to the Intel “Bunny Man,” (an ad that was shown), Intel doesn’t hold a grudge, said Otellini.

“I think this brings the skills and the opportunities and the engineering excellence of two great companies,” said Otellini. “They combine our strengths and play on our respective strengths. Apple has legendary capability at hardware and software design and innovation.”

“Our strengths are different but entirely complementary. We’re about architecture, about scale and scope, and what we are most about is the relentless advancement of Moore’s Law to give you better and better machines every year. So after thirty years, Apple and Intel are together at last. I don’t think of this as a fairy tale with a happy ending. I think of this as an exciting and important story with a very happy beginning,” concluded Otellini, who then left the stage.

Leopard

Apple’s next major operating system release will be called Leopard, said Jobs. “We’re not going to be focusing on it today, but we intend to release Leopard at the end of 2006 or early 2007, right about the time Microsoft expects to release Longhorn,” he said.

______________________________________

developing an intel ready version of os x parallel to the power pc version, for 5 years? pretty sneaky sis.

are you familiar with “dexterity puzzles?” they are small handheld puzzles which require a bit tilting, shaking, balancing or other dexterous manipulations to solve. you don’t see them so much anymore- video games and all. the older among you will remember i’m sure. they were generally self contained, glass topped or plastic enclosed, with ball bearings or other movable parts inside. they came in many guises, with different names, but the aim was always essentially the same, get the ball to in the hole.

here are a few examples-

what do these fun little distractions have to do with anything? well it’s like this- in my opinion happiness is not a baseline value for human consciousness. i’ve mentioned this before. the obsession with being “happy” all the time seems entirely unreasonable. the idea that we ought to be happy indefinantly seems ridiculous to me. that we ought to medicate ourselves toward this ideal seems foolish at best, dangerous at worst. happiness is a single state in the emotional flux. the desire to remain frozen in a single state is not only impossible but seems wrong-minded or foolish somehow. i’m willing to bet that in actuality dissatisfaction is by far more common, sum total, in a human life than happiness. which brings me to dexterity puzzles…

it seems to me that dissatisfaction is to the human mind what the ball bearing is to the dexterity puzzle. it is always present. a part of the mechanism itself. the mind wants to be at work solving things, any old thing at all. it is not satisfied to be “at ease” which is what happiness seems to imply. it wants to be in motion. when you sleep it occupies itself with dreams. when you are awake if you do not actively occupy it with problems of you’re own choosing it does not idle and wait for further input, rather it sets to work solving the only other problem available to it, namely- you, or i suppose more accurately- itself. though self reflection is certainly healthy the problem with setting a mind to work on itself is simple, like a dexterity puzzle with 7 holes and one ball bearing, it is not solvable.

i know that for myself this is a dangerous game. it is where the “devil’s work” mentioned above comes into play because though i do not believe in a personified devil the adage “the idle brain is the devil’s playground” makes absolute, crystal clear, sense to me. if my mind is not sufficiently occupied with something, not seriously engaged, or, i’m going to be plain about it, not distracted, it sets to work mercilessly poking an prodding itself in short order.

what struck me one day is how like one of those dexterity puzzles my dissatisfaction is. if i am not sufficiently engaged or occupied i quickly fall back on the puzzle of myself. i begin moving that ball bearing about the puzzle board attempting to fit it into one of the holes. “why am i discontent? let’s see… teeter, balance, roll, tilt, roll, balance, tilt—-plunk—- ah ha! it’s my job!” or it’s one of the others. it may sit for a time in one depression only to suddenly roll out again and settle in another. really it does not matter where it lands. the point is this, if i’m bored enough the generalized dissatisfaction of life comes to the fore and my mind starts trying to find the cause, rolling that little hard granule of discontent around until it finds somewhere to put it. love? money? sex? friends? family? work? myself? i’ve learned that this process

in a sense game play and that it needs to be recognized as such.

anyhow the central meaning of all those meandering sentences above might be more succinctly explained with an illustration. let’s call it “the human dissatisfaction game!” a dexterity puzzle for our ceaselessly active minds. a dexterity puzzle with 7 holes and only one ball bearing which though not technically winnable can devour hours / days / years of mental energy all the same.

(click for larger version.)

thanks to mr. vincent van gogh for providing us with old man in sorrow (aka on the threshold of eternity) which the miserable bastard on the puzzle is entirely based on. come to think of it vincent wrestled quite a bit with his own dissatisfaction puzzle didn’t he?

a.

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i.

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k.

l.

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n.

o.

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y.

z.

any connections other than the intended? any undercurrents? trends? curiosities? coincidences? i don’t know. interesting anyhow i think. for a while i’ve thought it would be fun to create a google image dictionary with a result for each word. i’ll never have the time or energy to do it, but might be neat. could be done more easily with hypertext links to a search for each word i suppose, that way it would remain dynamic as well… would still be too time consuming… ah well, goodnight.