Long Reads & Other Thoughts #3
On power lines, surveillance as love, doubting words, the smell of landscapes, the unknowable and Zozobra. Blank Slate by Mary Kang.
A few thoughts to start.
[A few introductory comments]
I caught the horrendous flu that has been circulating and spent most of the week in bed, feverishly delirious. Somehow, I still managed to get myself together enough to prepare this newsletter somewhat in time. I’m still moving very slowly, and my brain feels like it’s been fogged into oblivion, so it might not be my most eloquent moment(s). Apologies.
While begrudgingly working on this, half annihilated, I was trying to remember why it feels worth doing at all. My best answer to my reluctant and belligerent self ended up being that discovering new interests and acquiring new knowledge through sharing with, and listening to others has been a pinnacle of my personal happiness. A fair share of the books, albums, movies, and artists that moved me and participated actively in shaping my taste and views while widening most of my stances on life; I discovered left-field, from a friend, acquaintance, or serendipitous encounter.
Growth comes from exposing oneself to the unknown with acceptance, curiosity, and an open mind. Reading these weekly long-form articles definitely keeps me sharp(ish) and curious. It opens myself to others’ (total strangers’) points of view. And hopefully, whether two or a hundred people read any of these stories or posts, someone will find something that perhaps helps them grow, heal, change, or wise themselves too.
Before we get into the readings, a little tribute to a man whose movies might not have all been quite for me, but whose outmost singularity and perspective on creativity as being part of a unified existence have always inspired me. I could post a lot of smart quotes from David Lynch, and so much has been circling virally online, but this one is the one that stuck with me in this moment. A little brutal, but a great piece of advice made meme.
AL.
This week’s Long Reads.
Power Failure: On Landscape and Abandonment
[by Mya Frazier - Switchyard]
This is a quintessential perfect long read (for me): a topic I would have never thought I could have spent more than 3 min thinking about, made into a journey I can't come back from. Learning about corona discharges, power inequality, the impact of increasing needs for power centers, and their toll on local populations and natural landscapes in a piece of writing so well articulated and beautifully illustrated really left a mark, which I know will grow into further reflections as it keeps haunting me.
On The Grid. How Surveillance Became a Love Language
[by Zoë Hitzig - The Drift]
Something I have been grappling a lot with lately is required immediacy in access. In work life, but also personal life. I found this piece very interesting because, for one, it evokes something that has never been a need or instinct: needing constant knowledge of others’ (partners, family, friends) whereabouts and granting them similar unfettered access. And I’ve been thinking about this a lot as I was traveling extensively this year and still answering others on their own time, accommodating their needs. I also see friends face tremendous crisis in their personal relationships because of a lack of full transparency, which, while not deceitful, was perceived as untruthful when it could have as easily been appreciated as a need for privacy and personal space. This article opens up some really good areas for personal soul searching.
Call yourself I will answer.
[by Daisy Alioto - Dirt]
This was not at all what i thought it would be. And I loved it even more for this very reason. The writer uses recent movie releases to evoke their increasing doubt and dismay in the power and meaning of words nowadays. I feel quite similarly. Yesterday, I read a complex, beautifully written yet simple to understand piece of writing, and instead of joy, I felt sorrow. For how little this still happens, and when it does, how little people care. We’re very stuck in an immediacy in impulse, language, stimuli and intensity. I sometimes think the infinite profusion of inputs we receive daily don’t really allow for much inwards contemplations or deeper understanding of subtlety anymore… I also loved how this spoke of the power of secret names. Worth a read.
Scent Makes a Place
[by Katy Kelleher - Nautilus]
Anyone who has travelled a lot knows how important a smell is to a space’s belonging and identity. I can immediately recognize the smell of ‘home’ (geographically, not as an habitation) the way you can smell snow coming or understand you are near the ocean through smell alone. A really sweet read on the impact smell has on perception, even as it ties to landscape.
The Penumbral Plunge
[by Eric Schwitzgebel - Aeon]
A celebration of penumbra: the uncertain, the unknown, the unanswerable, the unclear, and of human’s willingness to keep ‘going there.’
One City’s Secret to Happiness: The Annual Burning of a 50-Foot Effigy
[by Caity Weaver- The New York Times]
I have yet to visit Santa Fe and never heard of Zozobra before reading this article and reading about the tradition, history and even drama surrounding the celebration was thoroughly enjoyable. It also hit another of my core beliefs: self ritualization as a way to engage with life through other means than those that may be more conventionally institutionalized but may not mean as much to you. This was weird and entertaining
Blank Slate.
[A closing open space for an unreleased little something by someone I respect]
I first discovered photographer Mary Kang’s work through my dear friend Dominique Fung because of her fantastic portraits of artists, writers and musicians. Mary sees humans beyond the limitations of their physical form. She captures their inner essence with vibrancy and wonder.
I was less familiar with the other aspects of her practice and when she sent me a selection of 27—which was a lot more generous than my request of one—images to chose from for this week’s Blank Slate, I realized her ability to render visible the sheer magic so many of us may miss, caught in the seemingly dull, the inherently arduous, the tragic, the numb, is beyond unique.
The task of selecting a single image was mere impossible, but I ended up deciding on the below. Because it somehow felt like a perfect embodiment of Mary’s definitive power: her ability to emulate the surreal beauty hidden just under a thin veil made from our own disenchantments and disillusions.
See you all next week.