Trafalgar Square, Blogosphere

Does anyone else get the impression that blog posts travel in flocks? Suddenly, after not having anything to write for a week, you are beset by one fluttering at eye level, another trying to land on your shoulder, a few perching on your fingers, and several nibbling at the back of your head. It usually happens that this is the part of the week you have the least time to spare on the computer.

Metaphorically speaking

"That's not just living in a glass house.

"That's living in a house made of stained glass in 1640s New England. With a picture of the Pope and Charles the First. Hand in hand. Dancing. On top of the Geneva Bible. And spitting on it."

-the historian from Connecticut

I love autumn

Given the title of my blog, this post probably ought to have been written some time ago. :-) But autumn really is just starting in Southern California...

There are so many things I had forgotten about the changes in seasons. Not, I suppose, forgotten intellectually... but this is my first autumn in three years, and there are just some things that you have to experience again to really remember.

The delicacy of the sunshine, such that a gust of wind or a shadow can nullify its warmth in an instant. The way the leaves turn colour from the end of the branch inward. The sharp, dry feeling of drawing in air that is significantly colder than your body temperature. The soporific comfort of being warm when everything else is cold-- preferably with a blanket, a book, and a cup of tea. The changing colour of the sky-- not only from day to day, but from zenith to horizon. The gradual darkening of each morning, almost noticeable from day to day but impossible to miss from week to week. The sound of dry leaves scudding across the sidewalk.

I love the tropics. But I savour this chance to rediscover autumn and winter.

Animation and literacy

Long ago, in a faraway literacy class, we read a book by a David Olson who is not my brother, and discussed the reason for punctuation in writing. This is the sort of thing you do in linguistics classes, and it's great fun.

The human voice is amazing. It communicates all sorts of meaning in a fluent stream of sounds. Writing, however, artificially separates some aspects of those sounds from others. The easiest thing to record, of course, is a string of words; but that leaves some of the meaning out. The meaning that is expressed by (e.g.) pitch, volume, tone, speed, cadence, or enunciation is more difficult to represent in writing. In fact, it cannot be represented perfectly. Let any two people read the same passage to you from a book, and you will see this indisputably. Neither is necessarily "wrong" in their interpretation; but the meanings they give the text are subtly-- or even radically-- different. Not all the meaning is there in the written words.

It's true, however, that (being an extremely literate culture) we have developed conventions that reduce this difficulty. We represent pauses and intonation patterns with various kinds of punctuation. We represent word breaks with spaces. We set off quotations with quotation marks. When we see italics, we know they are linked to higher pitch and volume. All these things add meaning to the string of words; well-developed symbols, widespread conventions, but still imperfect ones-- as all symbols are imperfect when dealing with reality.

Having been recently introduced to the world of anime (thanks to my husband, and to Marcy and Joi), it seems that much the same thing happens with animation. Life is primary, the representation of it is secondary. One can't possibly represent life in a lifelike way; somewhere in the process, some of the meaning gets lost. So, just like in writing systems, animation comes up with conventions to symbolise what actually happens in life.

And-- here's my real point-- different cultures have different sets of conventions for their animation.

The American system relies on a visual one-to-one correspondence in many ways. Things like computer-generated layers of facial muscles, or varying the type of reflection on surfaces according to texture and composition, are typical of the amazing strategies for making two dimensions look like three. Pardon my layman's description here-- I don't know many technical details, but the "realism" of American animation is daily increasing with our technology. We reproduce life the way life looks... that's our system for supplying the missing meaning.

By contrast, the Japanese animation looks two-dimensional, simplistic, and intentionally inconsistent. (Hold on, anime fans-- I'm not criticising!) The "sets" or backgrounds often seem more elaborate than the characters. Fluidity of movement is much diminished. Yet-- it reproduces the way life feels, in a way that American animation barely begins to address. The moments of intense emotion where time stretches, the standing back and looking at yourself as if you were on TV, the exaggerated reactions, the words hanging in the air that everyone can see but no one says... none of it is visually lifelike, but all of it is intuitively lifelike.

Now I want to know if there's a connection between type of writing system and type of visual representation. Is the difference between anime and American animation comparable to the difference between a logographic and syllabic writing system vs. an alphabetic one?

Because my husband said I should post it...

... and because maybe someone else will laugh at my long list of new names.

Two bare feet
Out in the street
Rosie Toes.

Curl up small
Or stretch up tall
Rosie Pose.

Long brown skirt
Embroidered shirt
Rosie Clothes.

Frost does nip
The little red tip
Rosie Nose.

Falling asleep
Slumber so deep
Rosie Doze.

So much to do
Where is my shoe?
Rosie Goes.

Car keys were lost
Groceries cost
Rosie Woes.

SoCal is chill
Draughts on the sill
Rosie Froze.

Jim has a wife
Marriage for life
Rosie Rose.

Contagious cleansing

'...the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai: "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Ask the priests what the law says: If a person carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, oil or other food, does it become consecrated?' "

'The priests answered, "No."

'Then Haggai said, "If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?"

' "Yes," the priests replied, "it becomes defiled." '
-Haggai 2:10-13

Uncleanness can be 'caught.' Holiness, however, doesn't seem to be catching, according to Old Testament law. Our own society echoes this in our maxim: 'Bad company corrupts good character.' We don't have a corresponding maxim for good company. That's just the way things seem to happen in our world; one rotten apple in the barrel may spoil the whole lot, but one good apple simply won't undo the rottenness of the others.

This is why a leper in Israel had to go around crying 'Unclean, unclean.' If you expand this into a phrase, the warning is not simply 'I am unclean'; what would that have to do with the hearers? It is 'If you touch me, I will make you unclean.'

In this light, the leper's words to Jesus in Mark 1:40 are positively shocking. He does not say 'If you touch me, I will make you unclean.' He says the opposite: 'If you are willing, you can make me clean.'

Jesus' answer is matter-of-fact-- and perfectly parallel. 'I am willing. Be clean.' And, as if to prove that in Him the maxims of fallen human nature are being reversed, he stretches out his hand-- and touches the man. Cleansing passes from the God-man to the unclean man... not defilement from the unclean man to Him.

Somehow, the leper got it. Somehow he realised (however dimly) that this conversation was utterly different from a conversation with any other 'clean' person according to the Law. He was talking to the One for whom the Law was not a schoolmaster: talking, in fact, to the very source of the Law's holiness. 'Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle' was merely a faint reflection of that positive cleanness and purity, so positive that it could be contagious.

This, too, is the Christ-life in us. If we are in Christ and He in us, as He prayed in John 17, then we have been vouchsafed a positive, radiant, living holiness; not the absence of uncleanness, but the presence of the Holy One.

Hegemonic hedonism

If your menu for the week includes learning to cook:

Hungarian,

Mexican,

Italian,

Dutch,

West African,

Chinese,

British,

and Indian cuisine...

or any combination of more than five of the above...

you must be an American.

Gotta watch that Apollonarian milk

my brother: Sometimes I think my allergy to milk is half-psychological.

my mother: Well... my dad was lactose-intolerant, too.

my brother: Is it heretical?

Eugene and Katrina, on:

...grating orange peel:

"I am invoking the law of diminishing returns."

"To justify the cessation of your efforts?"

"Precisely."


...doing dishes:

"Outsmarting gnomes is my worldview."

"Last time, blaming gnomes was your worldview. Now you're outsmarting them?"

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."