The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes
Time, string theory, and everything
serious crayons:
I think of subjects like this the way my dog might speculate on why when I sit in the comfy chair I tend to hold a bunch of papers with little squiggles on them up in front of my face. That is, it's perfectly conceivable that these answers exist out there, but there's no way I -- and by I, I don't just mean me, with my limited science background, but really all humans with our limited human brains -- will ever really understand it.
Penthesilea:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 27, 2011, 12:01:34 pm ---That line always makes me thing of a shoji screen, which, of course, is totally out of place in Ennis's broken-down trailer, but let be, let be. ...
--- End quote ---
:)
I never heard the term shoji screen before, but I knew immediately what you meant, because I always thought the exact same thing whenever I read this line. The shoji screen part, not the out of place part, because I like the mental image Proulx uses here.
(Meanhwile I looked up the term then, to be sure).
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: crayonlicious on January 27, 2011, 03:46:27 pm ---I think of subjects like this the way my dog might speculate on why when I sit in the comfy chair I tend to hold a bunch of papers with little squiggles on them up in front of my face. That is, it's perfectly conceivable that these answers exist out there, but there's no way I -- and by I, I don't just mean me, with my limited science background, but really all humans with our limited human brains -- will ever really understand it.
--- End quote ---
Never say ever, friend! Sure, we can't comprehend the universe now, but maybe someday in some far distant aeon...the human brain is limited, yes, but it can change and evolve.
And, speaking to your first point, I'm reading a book written by a dog right now! It's called The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth (or is that Garff?) Stein.
Front-Ranger:
Another example of this "flatness" thinking is from the special Brokeback Mountain issue of Film Quarterly, Spring 2007, which friend Chrissi gave to me (thank you, friend!) In the article "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Me" by Joshua Clover and Christopher Nealon, the authors rhapsodize over Madonna's music video for "Don't Tell Me" from her Music album of 2001. They describe the series of flat planes that appear in the video as "not depth but possibility, allowing a range of motion and feeling that retains its shock and intensity." The video suggests that Madonna occupies a space where the virtual becomes "real" and then becomes virtual again. Then, dancing cowboys on separate screens join together behind Madonna and mimic her moves, while they exist on different planes.
The authors conclude, "The layered flatness of "Don't Tell Me" comprise a structure of feeling; the feelings themselves come from the mobility of iconic figures between the layers." Artists like Richard Prince, and parodists who create cartoon representations of Brokeback Mountain want to rescue the icons from their realistic depth and return them to the flatness in which, ironically, they can enjoy greater freedom. In the end of the video, a magnificent horse and rider appear, a Prince painting come to life, the horse throws the man, and he watchs it run away, left in Western loneliness.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: crayonlicious on January 27, 2011, 03:46:27 pm ---I think of subjects like this the way my dog might speculate on why when I sit in the comfy chair I tend to hold a bunch of papers with little squiggles on them up in front of my face. That is, it's perfectly conceivable that these answers exist out there, but there's no way I -- and by I, I don't just mean me, with my limited science background, but really all humans with our limited human brains -- will ever really understand it.
--- End quote ---
Contemplating string theory too long is enough to make one embrace Creationism. ... :P 8) ;D
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