http://thesimulacra.net/journal "Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane." - Philip K Dick Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:28:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck John Steinbeck published his novel the The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, shortly after the great depression. It's set in the time of the dust bowl, where much of the top soil of the great plains, from Texas all the way up to Canada, ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/12/13/book-review-the-grapes-of-wrath/ http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/12/10/madrid-fountains/ I'm currently reading How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton. When talking about how Proust helps to expand the world around us by pointing out the things we tend to miss, he writes the following: An effect of reading a book which has devoted attention to noticing such faint ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/12/07/proust-woolf-the-sensitising-work-of-the-author/ I have recently started an account at Tumblr imaginatively entitled The Simulacra Tumblr. Tumblr is similar to a blog, but rather than me writing content, I link things and save quotes and pictures and videos etc. I started it for two reasons, firstly because I wanted to have a place where I can ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/12/05/the-simulacra-tumblr/ Again, following on from clarity. In 1894 Gustav Klimt was commissioned to do three paintings for the University of Vienna entitled Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence. This is the picture he presented for Philosophy: The philosophy professors were outraged when they saw this and refused to accept his paintings. They wanted an image showing "The ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/11/28/further-thoughts-on-clarity-kilmt/ Following on from clarity. When we have a clear understanding of something, is this called wisdom? So the wise person is the person who sees things clearly? Perhaps. In think wisdom is more intuitive and wide ranging than the clarity I have been writing about, although I may be over estimating ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/11/26/further-thoughts-on-clarity-wisdom/ I recently realised that one of the big goals in my life is the pursuit of clarity. Clarity in all things, in my understanding of myself, my relationships and those around me. Clarity in an intellectual sense; that I have clear justified opinions crafted out of deep and sound knowledge. Clarity in an ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/11/22/pursuit-of-clarity/ Part of my motive for getting involved in the smallholding was to understand, and gain some experience of, the process in which animals are reared and processed to produce the steak or joint in the butchers. With this in mind, we recently took the pigs to slaughter at a local abattoir. I wasn't ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/11/13/smallholding-circle-of-life/ Autumn is here. http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/11/09/mist-over-town/ The next candidate I would like to consider as part of my Modern Cathedrals series (Part 1 here) is the stadium. Stadiums are amongst the largest, most open and community-centred buildings of our time. A stadium is one of the few buildings where tens of thousands of people can come together for ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/11/02/cathedrals-02-the-stadium/ Here's a wallpaper I made from a photo taken at an abandoned theme park at the top of a hill in San Sebastian (click for full size).   I love abandoned places like this. The park was opened in 1909 or thereabouts, and there are plaques commemorating the monarch coming to visit, ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/10/20/donostias-crumbling-amusement-park/ Recently I came across the idea of the competent man, which partly sums up the direction in which I am currently heading. In the wikipedia article the author Robert Heinlein summarises the idea as follows: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/10/14/the-competent-man/ All over Europe, and much of the rest of the world, there are vast majestic cathedrals dedicated to God. Now that, as society at least, we have pretty much lost God, where are the new cathedrals? Who are they dedicated to? I've had a few ideas for potential candidates and I'm going to run ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/10/10/cathedrals-the-mall/ I find I notice clouds much more in photographs than I do in real life... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/10/05/emit/ As well as helping out on the smallholding, I have decided to keep a couple of chickens of my own in the back garden. The most satisfying outcome of this decision so far has been the construction of their run. I employed the help of a carpenter friend and we managed to create a pretty ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/09/27/chickenopolis/ I've been helping a friend out on his smallholding for the past few months; feeding the animals, mucking out, doing manual labour, that sort of stuff. I'm not really sure what my motives were for getting involved, but in retrospect I wanted to get into some skill based, anti-intellectual activities ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/09/25/smallholding/ I'm thinking about making the site more picture based, perhaps with some pictures tied into posts. Most of them will be my own work, like this below which was taken on the north coast of Spain (with a little photoshop adjustment). http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/09/23/photoblog/ Well, I've been away from the site for a long time, but now I am back. I don't really have any notion of where I want to take TheSimulacra now, so I'm hoping that things will evolve naturally and eventually I will discover some sort of new direction, but I have no ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/09/23/awakening/ I'm going to take a break from the blog for the next few months. I don't feel in the right place for writing at the moment, and I know the coming months are going to be really hectic, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a break ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2008/01/05/hibernating/ Over the past few months I've been spending a lot of time in the library, so I thought I'd write a post about the nature of 'the library' and what it means to me. My somewhat rose tinted view of libraries looks a bit like this, constructed through the libraries I have ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/12/22/library-love/ I love the power of the cold on my face. All my thoughts can't bring me warmth, all my barriers to the outside fail when confronted with the needs of my body. I don't handle the cold well, my frame isn't designed for extremes. In fact, both my flesh and my mind are always ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/12/13/glacial/ I'm taking a break from writing for a few weeks, back soon. http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/11/13/hiatus/ I'm growing into the idea that a good death is not so much a death where I have chosen the time and place, but where I have some level of control over the event. I used to believe the best way to die was in the setting of my making, ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/10/24/prime-death/ From Virginia Woolf's Orlando, a (brilliant and witty) story about a man who turns into a woman, this bit is set around 1750: Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world’s view ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/10/16/what-are-we-trying-to-do-when-we-wear-clothes/ Recently I have been feeling a real urgency in my soul, as if now is the time to really get going, the time for change and real unparalleled progress. To a certain extent I always have this feeling around this time of the year as I'm beginning a new university year, ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/10/10/structural-integrity/ I wrote a little while ago about how I felt I was maturing in the aesthetic, this growth is coming to a head now, everything around me has taken on a slightly different colour, a slightly different façade. For example, over the summer I have developed a broader range of things which ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/10/05/existential-expansion/ I found this fantastic picture when browsing a stock photography site a little while ago: I don't know whether the artist intended to write 'looser' or 'loser', but I like to imagine he or she spelt it that way on purpose, rather than it just being poor spelling (although this ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/09/30/without-truth-you-are-the-looser/ I feel a new direction coming. Maybe it's just because it is the end of a long summer, but I feel as though things are moving around me again. I'm feeling less attached to things I have been pursuing over the past year or so, as though my self is ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/09/21/renewed-reconstruction/ I've been learning about the brain over the last few days and it has helped me re-realise the magnificent complexity of the human body and the ethical issues surrounding scientific progress. Resources have been piled into brain research over the past 100 years or so, yet we are still totally clueless ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/09/10/brain-power/ Continuing from last week... What if all our goals are simulacra? Does this present any problem? Or even hold any relevance at all? I think it's important, especially for the agnostic, to be aware that everything around herself is in flux, isn't constant, is (perhaps) simulacra. Things are slightly different for the ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/08/31/simulacra/ A fantastic example of simulacra. Perhaps the most powerful and obvious example of simulacra in our lives is that of "make-up", in the widest possible sense of the word. To change your body and appearance to look like someone else who in turn is a copy, and a distorted copy at that, ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/08/19/seduction-simulacra/ What are photos? It's something I've written briefly about before, but after being away and having lots of photos of my travels to look through it's a thought that has come back to me. I'm talking about photos in the snapshot sense, or perhaps in the  "holiday photos" sense, rather than the pictures you would ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/08/07/preceding-photography/ I'm feeling a real sensitivity to the aesthetic at the moment, a real harmony with my own thoughts and senses. Sometimes I have these periods, often only moments, when my mind really wakes up and comes into focus. It's as if everything around me takes on a subtly different form ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/08/01/shaping-awareness/ Travelling was quite different to what I had expected.It was fantastic seeing some new and different cultures, looking at how different groups and nations organised things in different ways and comparing them to what I am used to. One particularly interesting comparison was how different countries treated the environment. For ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/07/21/post-travelling/ I'm going to be away travelling in Europe for the next few weeks, I'll back in mid June. I'm not sure what the Internet access will be like in the places I am staying, so I might not be able to update the blog while I'm away.I've not been on ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/06/20/travelling/ A reflection on some aspects of what music means to me. I haven't written poetry in years, and it probably shows; but it feels like a good idea just now.  Silence,Sound,Serenity.From abstract to emotion,An idea in motion.An image, a form,An ocean, a storm.A fire, a call,A moment, a fall.Lonely people, lonely time,My memories which ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/06/16/reflection-music/ Another thing that hit me during my revision is that some people choose, or are compelled, to spend all or part of their life applying themselves to one specific task. For example, the genius scientist, the obsessive novelist or artist, the eccentric musician, the serial killer, the Olympic gymnast, the ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/06/06/obsession-and-application/ As mentioned a few posts ago, I've had exams over the past few weeks, hence the short updates; I've been working more or less all day every day for a month and it's had a significant effect on me, changing my outlook and depositing a load of new ideas.One of the first ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/05/30/empathy/ DesktopographyAwesome wallpapers.Back to normal next week. http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/05/20/desktopography/ Just a couple of links this week:Ask PhilosophersThey have a "Question of the day" which is normally pretty interesting; there's a lot of good stuff in the archives too.New Scientist - Last WordA similar thing, but more science based; interesting questions about trivial things. http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/05/12/linkfest/ I've been reading some of Plato's works recently, specifically his allegory of the cave. For those who don't already know what it is about, this is the description from wikipedia, or you can read the original text at the link above.Allegory of the cave Imagine prisoners, who have been chained since birth ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/05/04/plato-and-the-cave/ It appears in my links down the side of the page, but in case you hadn't noticed it toothpaste for dinner is one of the most amusing websites around (well, assuming you have the same warped sort of humour as me). Drew, the guy who runs it, posts a comic every single day, ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/04/25/tuthpaste/ Check out this amazing video from photographer Gregory Colbert. There's also a full length version of the film available on DVD, although it's quite hard to come by. It makes up part of an entire Ashes and Snow project, made up of films, installations, photographs and novels, you can find ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/04/17/ashes-and-snow/ Adam Curtis' new documentary aired recently on BBC2; it was fantastic, as expected, he has a stunning track record, his previous films have been some of the best programmes ever broadcast. It's called The Trap: What Happened to our Dream of Freedom, you can find it through bittorrent, or on google video. ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/04/06/the-trap/ Levels of spam in the comments seem to have exploded over the last week or two so I've been forced to put on comment checking. This means that when you first write a comment you have to enter your email address, I then check it and your email address is approved form ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/04/01/spam/ I've been ill the last few days; nothing serious, just a cold, but I find it remarkable how easily something can overwhelm my body. When I am ill I feel as though I lose a lot of control over my mind, not being able to focus my thoughts, and my body ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/03/26/meliorating-malady/ Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. In our endeavor to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/03/17/creating-cosmology/ It feels as though spring is on its way. I woke up yesterday, after a particularly windy and rainy night, to find dazzling warm(ish) sunshine streaming in through my window. As I emerged for my walk to campus I got that feeling, that only comes during this small window of ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/03/07/sunshine-genesis/ I recently read Jean-Paul Sartre's book Nausea. It was the greatest book I have read in a long long time, he writes so well and really gets to the heart of the humanity in the story, bringing out the underlying feelings of his character like no-one I have read before. ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/02/26/nausea/ Some quotes on modesty:With people of only moderate ability modesty is mere honesty; but with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy. - Arthur SchopenhauerModesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly overvalued by others. ... http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2007/02/19/modesty/