WORK
This singularity of meaning—I was my face, I was ugliness—though sometimes unbearable, also offered a possible point of escape. It became the launching pad from which to lift off, the one immediately recognizable place to point to when asked what was wrong with my life. Everything led to it, everything receded from it—my face as personal vanishing point.
—Lucy Grealy
—from Autobiography of Face
WORD(S)
prosopagnosia /praws-ə-pag-NOH-zhyə/. noun. An inability to recognize familiar, or what should be well-known, faces. Commonly(ish) known as “face blindness.” From Greek prosōpon (face) + a (without) + gnōsis (knowledge).
“Due to his impact with the beech tree, the flubbery rattle of the brain within its shell referred to technically as ‘coup contracoup,’ Joe lost most of his ability at visual memory, even for faces such as his mother’s and my own, a deficiency called ‘prosopagnosia.’” (Jim Harrison)
“Dr Kertesz mentioned to me a case known to him of a farmer who had developed prosopagnosia and in consequence could no longer distinguish (the faces of) his cows, and of another such patient, an attendant in a Natural History Museum, who mistook his own reflection for the diorama of an ape. As with Dr P., and as with Macrae and Trolle’s patient, it is especially the animate which is so absurdly misperceived.”
“Headaches, disordered speech, weakness, visual disturbances, nausea, numbness, paralysis. Prosopagnosia, pareidolia. The softening sky reflected in the water. Silver but appearing rose gold in that light. The momentary sense of having traveled back in time.” (Ben Lerner)
“Some were consoled by Weber’s bombshell: a simple neurological quirk that revealed how everyone suffered from a form of prosopagnosia. Even normal recognition fails when the observed face is upside down.” (Richard Powers)
WEB
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Someone Organized All 403 Of Bob Ross’ Paintings On One Happy Little Website
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Multiple layers to this compelling story → ► A Peasant vs The Inquisition: Cheese, Worms and the Birth of Micro-history
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A look inside the still-vital institution and some great photos. I want a copy of the failed, asymmetrically bound New Collegiate dictionary. → A Journey Into the Merriam-Webster Word Factory
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Why Mind Wandering Can Be So Miserable, According to Happiness Experts :: Pairs with Yuval Harari, author of Sapiens, on how meditation made him a better historian.
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Inside the Fountain Pen Hospital → Where Fountain Pens Are Saved and Sold
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In case you missed it, the ► Missing Richard Simmons podcast became a bit of a phenomenon. I got hooked despite myself. It’s also been controversial, being labelled an experiment in privacy invasion and morally suspect. I agree most with the premise that it was questionable, but not cruel.
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Survival of the Friendliest: It’s time to give the violent metaphors of evolution a break
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How To Pay Attention: 20 Ways To Win The War Against Seeing
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An “exclusive to BobDylan.com” → Bob Dylan: Q&A with Bill Flanagan
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Today in 1484, William Caxton publishes the first English printed version of Aesop’s Fables. You can read Caxton’s version of the Fables (and then some) on Aesopica or browse a reprint in the Internet Archive.
WATCH/WITNESS
Masterpieces never sleep by Lesha Limonov:
Delft Blue Eyes (Nails) by Francine LeClercq & Ali Soltani:
Two of ten finalists for the Rijksstudio Public Award 2017, an award given to the best of those who “download images from Rijksstudio and use them to create their own artwork.” Open for public voting until April 20.
WHAT!?
“We’ve done almost no research into this area, but human reproduction in space is going to be key to us living on Mars.” → ► Space Sex is Serious Business.
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
- Reader E. on most disturbing books: “I was surprised there was no mention of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. See NYRB’s review by Daniel Mendelsohn. I had to stop reading it.”
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