WORK
All his faces were designed to express rage or loathing. Now that something had happened which really deserved a face, he had none to celebrate it with. As a kind of token, he made his Sex Life in Ancient Rome face.
—Kingsley Amis
—from Lucky Jim
WORD(S)
litost /LEE-tohst/. noun. A Czech word defined by Milan Kundera as “a state of torment caused by a sudden insight into one’s own miserable self,” sometimes accompanied by a desire for revenge…to make another share in the suffering.
“[Litost] designates a feeling as infinite as an open accordion, a feeling that is the synthesis of many others: grief, sympathy, remorse, and an indefinable longing. The first syllable, which is long and stressed, sounds like the wail of an abandoned dog.” (Milan Kundera)
That word litost can also mean too little
to be translated correctly—
a thumbprint as singular as the shade of green
on a grass blade
(Shane Book)
“The alcoholic, Alan Bold wrote, can use his artistic ability to confront litost with creativity.” (Donald W. Goodwin)
WEB
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Art of/from/in the brain. Self Reflected was “made using an elaborate combination of hand drawing, deep neuroscience research, algorithmically simulated neural circuitry, adapted brain scan data, photolithography, gilding, and strategic lighting” → Self Reflected gallery. See also: the Guided Tour and Closer Look videos.
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From Polari to Pig Latin…and eight points in between. → Top 10 Secret Languages. And while I’m in the mood for lists, how about 10 Indispensable Scottish Words?
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A breathless headline but an eye-opening link. → After You’ve Seen These Maps, Your Image of the World Will Never Be the Same Again!
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An amazing story of collaborative art from, of all places, Reddit. → Place
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Merde! → Bad language: why being bilingual makes swearing easier
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Mastodon, an open-source Twitter-like system, is mildly interesting on its own. But using it as a platform for Oulipo-inspired experimentation, like oulipo.social in which “No one is allowed to use the letter ‘e,’ or ’any variant of it, that is found in Latin script,” is fun and fascinating.
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Incidentally, Mouse Reeve, the creator of oulipo.social, also collaborated on Drift, an amazing experimental typography book (and site) that featured randomly generated typographical compositions.
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An hors d’oeuvre, a lagniappe… → xkcd: Mispronunciation
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The geometric paper animals by Guardabosques! are awesome. I particularly like the Japanese Macaques and the various birds
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Today in 1962, singer, songwriter, painter and future Nobel Prize in Literature winner Robert Allen Zimmerman—better known as Bob Dylan - Wikipedia—debuts his song “Blowin’ in the Wind” at Gerde’s Folk City in New York. Based on the Negro spiritual “No More Auction Block” (a staple in Dylan’s live performances at the time; listen to Odetta’s performance), Dylan’s iconic song, like many of his best songs, became famous as performed by others….in this case Peter, Paul and Mary’s version that hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. A few other interesting covers: The Killers, Regina Spektor, Sam Cooke and Johnny Cash.
WATCH/WITNESS
Clown Service, a short film by Tig Notaro.
WHAT!?
Voice Swap
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
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Reader B. enjoyed the funnies: “My Fully Optimized Life is the funniest thing I’ve read in days. ¶ I know far too many people like that.”
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As did Reader G.: “My Fully Optimized Life reminds me of myself on steroids. So funny! ¶ I also laughed at this one, which you might enjoy.”
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Now fewer than three Clamorites wrote to express their unhappiness with (a different) Reader G.’s comments about the “scientific errors” in The Survival of the Friendliest and all of them requested I not publish their comments. But I can characterize the gist as basically asserting there’s more to the story than the dogmatic science and the old adage about forests and trees (Les arbres cachent la forêt).
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
Enjoy the WORK section? Try Notabilia http://ktxc.to/nb for a new WORK every day and concīs http://ktxc.to/concismag publishing original short pieces of all kinds.
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