Doublethink

"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself - that was ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed."
~ Orwell, George. 1984. 1949. Page 35.

Now that's a sentence! 1984 is our third book in the Erudite Squadron of the Tundra Triangle aka book club. This book has long been on my "To Read" list, yet it hasn't substantiated until now. My immediate impression of "doublethink" and "doublespeak" is how I feel trying to make sense of news, politics, and current affairs, as well as history. But, maybe "doublethink" is more like Zen and the art of controlling the ever active minds to be still, in nothingness. The quote is from chapter III, so I'm just tickling my toes in the water right now.

Crux

We just had our first Tundra Triangle book club meeting, or Eggheads as my Grandmother would call it. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001) was the book of choice. Often, I wonder about where the author is coming from and what hints they give to the reader of that while supporting ideas/plot/themes in the text... Sometimes this causes me to loose my focus on the story itself. It is what it is. I delved into both aspects with this book, I hope. I won't go into a review just yet; though, among other tidbits this passage is what stuck with me.


"Our encounters always leave me weary of the glum contentment that characterizes my life. What were those words he used that struck me? Ah yes, 'dry, yeastless factuality', 'the better story'. I take out a pen and paper and write:
Words of divine consciousness: moral exhaultation; lasting feelings of elevation, elation, joy; a quickening of the moral sense, which strikes one as more important than an intellectual understanding of things; an alignment of the universe along moral lines, not intellectual ones; a realization that the founding principle of existence is what we call love, which works itself out sometimes not clearly, not cleanly, not immediately, nonetheless ineluctably." (80)

"After the fire,

"After the fire, the earth is replenished; after the storm the air is clear. Try to watch the destruction with detachment, almost as if it were happening to somebody else. Say yes to the process by meeting it halfway."

"The world will end but the mirror will remain, mirroring nothing."

These are good current mantras pour moi...

photoconductor

Pause the player and allow it to buffer all the way before playing. It will only take a few seconds. If you don't, you'll get some freaky mixed photos.

This kind of thing is what happens when you live in a village, the river is freezing, you have a wig, Photo Booth, and time. It was the day before Halloween and I wore my Vietnamese Aou-ai along with this wig to school. I was enjoying having long hair again. *_* Basically, I went down the line w/ Photo Booth's effects.



Random captions:
* Unite!
* Prom queen series...
* Funky Punk wants You!
* fish eye lens
* If only my waistline were truly this. It's the "squeeze."
* Really, I'm not having knee surgery. I need a bust reduction. ...back problems.
* Now you all know I have a sister. But, did you know she's visiting me... and we're twins? (I'm the oldest.)
* "What tha?!"
* This is meant to bounce back & forth with the next one. ... "Oom-pa... oom-pa!" at the disco.
* This photo makes me think of myself as a ghost viewing our world. (Yes! The imagination is active.)
* Weeeeeee!
* Just... 30... more... seconds!
* Get ready for this set! It's going to be a pseudo Kung Fu reel! I'm a little fascinated. Step back, lest you might get smack...ed! AI-ack! sha-BLACK!


If only I could snap my fingers and have long hair again and not have to go through the awkward years to get there! This was fun anyway.

P.S. }{appy birthday, Laurel... Cuz, you're super!!!
P.P.S. All music credits go to Gogol Bordello - "Illumination"... I wish it would play the whole song.
P.P.P.S. This was my first iMovie. Yay!

09-09-09

How could I resist posting on a numerically special day like today?

Incontrovertibly, a lot has happened since the last time I posted with the end of the summer and beginning of the school year.

*Carey will fill-in-the-blank later.* (cue telephone hold music)

Right now, there is a beautiful sunset outside that I must watch dwindle. There are blue-gray clouds covering the top half of the sky I can see. It's hot pink on the lower half with sherbet orange underneath and on the horizon. The colors look like a Hibiscus flower. The lighting is enough to make the green look vibrant and the yellow grass in the river stand out. The water is calm and the boats are concealed. Only a couple people are riding their bikes on the boardwalk. The West window in "my" new house is wonderful!