Well, that's my morning gone, as ever. And on far more interesting things than yet more WI stuff, so thanks. :-)
Banksy's theme park/art exhibition looks creepy; think I'll give it a miss. Hey ho. The article that was linked from that, though, where he clears up that many people think visual art isn't good enough if it's easy to understand, was enlightening. I'm with him on this one: there's too much going on in the real world to put stock in abstract art as statement pieces.
Localization of stories - ugh, I find it in books all the time, much to my annoyance. One book I read for book club, set in Las Vegas, Nevada, had the characters "putting the kettle on" in the middle of the summer. Drove me up a wall. Naturally, my fellow readers didn't cotton on that anything was amiss. I was ranting: "They're in the DESERT! In the middle of the SUMMER! Even if they were going to have a cup of tea, this is America; they don't 'put the kettle on'!"
I'm seriously at the point where I can't tell whether it's that tea drinking has taken off in a massively big way in the US, or it's just the localization of stories. I suppose changing the vegetables the kid feared eating to the more stereotypical one for that culture makes sense, and this will only bother us transplants, but it does feed into the larger sense of fake knowledge I keep running across. "Oh yes, I know all about Place X - I've been there on holiday, and I've watched these localized movies from there, so I'm better informed than the natives!"
I shall stop now.
I quite liked the pieces about the telephone. I could've written the first one, and the second one, with the technical information about the voice bands, was fascinating.
The "fairly short set of steps on how to make ideas come into existence" was interesting - I tend to get obssessed about a thing I'm doing, and culture tells me I'm wrong to do it that way, and that I should instead do a bit at a time, so I've always struggled against that impulse, and berated myself for doing it. Perhaps, like with so much else, it's culture that's wrong on this, instead of me.
Talking to strangers ... I remember my friend Erica saying to me, "You and I will talk to anyone!" after one of us had done that, in line for the Royal Garden Party. I found it such an odd observation. Well, yes; why wouldn't anyone talk to anyone else? How else do you find out about all the interesting people around you? I feel like I missed a memo.
And some really interesting photos to end with, as always. Thanks, Silver.
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Banksy's theme park/art exhibition looks creepy; think I'll give it a miss. Hey ho. The article that was linked from that, though, where he clears up that many people think visual art isn't good enough if it's easy to understand, was enlightening. I'm with him on this one: there's too much going on in the real world to put stock in abstract art as statement pieces.
Localization of stories - ugh, I find it in books all the time, much to my annoyance. One book I read for book club, set in Las Vegas, Nevada, had the characters "putting the kettle on" in the middle of the summer. Drove me up a wall. Naturally, my fellow readers didn't cotton on that anything was amiss. I was ranting: "They're in the DESERT! In the middle of the SUMMER! Even if they were going to have a cup of tea, this is America; they don't 'put the kettle on'!"
I'm seriously at the point where I can't tell whether it's that tea drinking has taken off in a massively big way in the US, or it's just the localization of stories. I suppose changing the vegetables the kid feared eating to the more stereotypical one for that culture makes sense, and this will only bother us transplants, but it does feed into the larger sense of fake knowledge I keep running across. "Oh yes, I know all about Place X - I've been there on holiday, and I've watched these localized movies from there, so I'm better informed than the natives!"
I shall stop now.
I quite liked the pieces about the telephone. I could've written the first one, and the second one, with the technical information about the voice bands, was fascinating.
The "fairly short set of steps on how to make ideas come into existence" was interesting - I tend to get obssessed about a thing I'm doing, and culture tells me I'm wrong to do it that way, and that I should instead do a bit at a time, so I've always struggled against that impulse, and berated myself for doing it. Perhaps, like with so much else, it's culture that's wrong on this, instead of me.
Talking to strangers ... I remember my friend Erica saying to me, "You and I will talk to anyone!" after one of us had done that, in line for the Royal Garden Party. I found it such an odd observation. Well, yes; why wouldn't anyone talk to anyone else? How else do you find out about all the interesting people around you? I feel like I missed a memo.
And some really interesting photos to end with, as always. Thanks, Silver.