Similes

Just had a thought - happens.

On yesterday's 'Wordtaste, -trick.... ' (Icel. Orðbragð) a widely used Icelandic expression - 'to take someone on the bone' (Icel. 'taka einhvern á beinið') was shown to derive from a specific, real bone, in the office of the Rector of Akureyri College (Icel. Menntaskólinn á Akureyri) where there is whalebone where supposedly former Rector Sigurður Guðmundsson would have his students sit when he had to give them a stern talking to - which is exactly what the expression means.

Now, also yesterday I listened/ watched this interview with China Mieville:  where he answers an interesting question on EmbassyTown, regarding how people could become similes so that the Arikei could express complex thoughts.... here we have a rare example of a metaphor / simile that could work for the Arikei - a real thing to base it on..... while most of our similes, expressions etc. have unclear and foggy roots.

From Orðbragð, current Rector Jón Már Héðinsson sitting on the bone, interviewed by Brynja Þorgeirsdóttir

Winners and Losers at Lókal

Last Thursday I had the good fortune to see James Long and Marcus Youssef of Theater Replacement Vancouver perform Winners and Losers, as part of the Lókal festival. Drama, and especially improvised drama is something I'm very interested in - yet - I have not attended or experienced many shows like this. Theatre in Iceland is for the most part very traditional (or what I've seen of it) so this was truly a true breath of fresh air for me. 

The show has a certain structure and final destination - but involves a great deal of improv and (possibilities for) interaction with the audience. I got the feeling that the Icelandic audience was relatively passive (only throwing in one or two suggestions for discussion). The basis is the game 'Winner / Loser' wherin Marcus and James take various topics, things, people etc. and decide whether they are winners or losers. This then turns on themselves and the truly violent and difficult part of the play is when they start to dig into each other's personal life and history to demonstrate which one of them is winner or loser. The basic question there is the question of class and money and the 'conclusion' (if such a crass concept may be employed) is that there is no way around how these things ultimately define our existence.

This play is very funny, moving and deeply disturbing and I hope to see more from these guys some day!

Railsea

 China has done it again, written a piece of fiction that is just so amazing and different that it boggles the mind. His fascinating play with language and his very tongue-in-cheek treatment of Moby Dick (on a deeper level a critique of the whole western tradition of philosophy - what with the creatures sought out being called 'philosophies'). The characters are also neat and the coming of age story of Sham and how he lights up when he comes into contact with salvage and how he gradually finds his path (or it finds him as it may be) is wonderful.

The utter weirdness of wanting to write about trains, but not having them travel in straight lines is well.... enough really. I also picked up on the similarities with Roadside Picnic - the 'alien' salvage being comparable to the stuff sought out by the stalkers in the Strugatsky's masterpiece.

A must read for all lovers of weird sf and fantasy literature.

irresponsible comments on Derrida and other things

I attended Jaques Derrida's lecture in Reykjavík many years ago. The lecture was titled 'I have only one language and that language is not my own'. The most memorable comment was when he said that being invited somewhere by friend was in fact an act of violence - adding that he had nothing against violence.

I have a curious and complex relationship with philosophy, as may possibly gleaned by checking out the very few posts in this blog devoted to the subject. I have tried reading Derrida but have found this to be quite excruciating. On the other hand, listening to him all those years ago; reading bits and pieces by others about him, and watching clips of him on YouTube I always feel strangely fascinated -  I'm not sure why.

The most interesting and fulfilling way to do philosophy is in my opinion the conversation. I had the good fortune to have a conversation with someone who actually met Derrida and has read him extensively which to some extent was enlightening in other ways not.

In a way I think that what (some) philosophy, and authors like Derrida, in particular, can offer us is
-patience (you have to wait for it; and it may not come)
-respect (respect the fact that even if you do not understand this may be your problem and not the others)
-precision (A) (every single statement and avenue into thinking is already situated and based on assumptions that can, and will, be questioned, queried and eventually if really interesting deconstructed)
-mindfulness (staying with the flow of the arguments and ideas from all over with an acute feeling for the circumstantial, physical, psychological 'reality' at play)
-precision (B) (always defining your terms until you are maybe left with nothing)
-unfinished (the business of thinking and being is clearly, utterly and always open-ended, deeply fascinating and is a challenge we all must face as individuals)

... I think you could possibly connect a Buddhist idea of the non-binary; where dualism is rejected but not in favour of a clear monism - nevertheless non-binary....


.... the philosophy of Derrida is in this context firmly situated in the Platonic-Socratic traditions and thus anti-Aristotelean (not my theory - but it makes sense to me) .... there is clearly a hint of something a wee bit zen in his approach as well...

.... you do not have to read everything ever read to start writing (just almost everything) - you can always start with what you have read, pretend and also base your stuff on what you will read (avenir)....

... deconstruction is thus non-relativism....

World making and art making

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
Arthur Schopenhauer 


I was reading an article in the latest Hugur (the Icelandic Journal of Philosophy) on Shopenhauer (an old favorite) and I started a weird train of thought.... 'If Tolkien is Hegel then Schopenhauer is Lovecraft' - actually I'm pretty sure the latter two had a number of things in common and the German's 'Will' and the American's 'Old Ones' are related for sure.

Anyway, that's not what this blog is about.

Recently I became aware of the fact that the MoMA had decided to include video games in its collection for 20th. century art (Article on that here) . About time, and pretty obvious to me, not so to the high priests of canonical art, wherein painting, sculpting and writing (art) novels=art - creating games, writing fantasy or sf=not art.... etc. etc.

Now I started teaching my RPG class a few weeks back, and we started with Dungeons and Dragons, and now we are playing World of Darkness. It seems clear to me that the original creation of D&D is a very significant cultural event; setting of a wave of creativity that is still going very strong - from many of the concepts of gamification, to Nordic art Larp to the online universes of World of Warcraft  and EVE (interestiongly included in MoMA's selection of video games) . And of course more obviously in the wide variety of the table top role playing games played around the globe today.

The endless array of source books, character sheets, novels and the unwritten adventures played out by groups through the decades form a cultural sphere that has at least many of the characteristics that more traditional art has - and shares with contemporary art a certain democratic quality - where the 'artist' is much less important as an individual than the participants and lines of all sorts are blurred. As I browsed a little I find that I'm not the first one to think about this, however, I'm confident A LOT more could be said on gaming and art - and if Pacman belongs in MoMA - D&D most certainly does!

The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience. 
Gary Gygax 

Tabletop RPG in class

Well, on Monday I'm starting my class in Role Playing Games and Fantasy. I'm starting them of with ready made characters and a ready made adventure in Dungeons and Dragons. I do not suggest this is necessarily the best game, but, in a number of ways it is the game. I also plan reading two novels and trying out more systems - probably Call of Cthulu.... Furthermore I intend to try my hand at running a 'free-form' game in the Nordic style. Hopefully we'll also be able to get out of the school and participate in some events run by the RPG community in Reykjavík!

Finally I plan  a final creative project wherein they will be allowed to
-create a short movie
-write a story
-create their own game ....

I hope the last option will be the most popular.

Play has been an underestimated part of human existence in my opinion, at least definitely in schools - I intend to make it a much larger part of my practice.

More on that later.....