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Giant Steps animation
5 March 2005 13:42for the classic jazz (John Coltrane) fans in the audience: Giant Steps (Michal Levy)
5 March 2005
"One drawback in belonging to a race of storytellers is a tendency to forget that life isn't a story, however great the need to perceive it as one. And one of life's chiefest failings, from a storytelling perspective, is that life lacks closure."
"Closure in what sense?"
"Closure in the sense of narrative convergence, all the elements coming together, loose ends tying off neatly after a final climax. Real life is never that tidy, and it doesn't stop happening just because someone's won a victory. Where the endpaper would come in a novel, actual events are followed by more actual events."
--Matt Ruff, Sewer, Gas, and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy
Not an original thought, I'm sure, and I'm pretty sure that I've even inflicted it on my friends before (although not on LJ, as far as I can tell :> ). But worth observing . . . especially for the sake of those (occasionally me) who sometimes say, or think, "As soon as I finish school/get the kids out of the house/get out of debt/get married/etc., then my life will really start." It doesn't, of course; it just starts another chapter . . . and thinking in those terms can cause one to treat the time until the end of the chapter as something to be gotten through as quickly as possible, rather than something to be appreciated for its own sake. (Besides, those that try to insist that the universe provide or respect narrative closure are bound to be continually, or at least periodically, frustrated.)
"Closure in what sense?"
"Closure in the sense of narrative convergence, all the elements coming together, loose ends tying off neatly after a final climax. Real life is never that tidy, and it doesn't stop happening just because someone's won a victory. Where the endpaper would come in a novel, actual events are followed by more actual events."
--Matt Ruff, Sewer, Gas, and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy
Not an original thought, I'm sure, and I'm pretty sure that I've even inflicted it on my friends before (although not on LJ, as far as I can tell :> ). But worth observing . . . especially for the sake of those (occasionally me) who sometimes say, or think, "As soon as I finish school/get the kids out of the house/get out of debt/get married/etc., then my life will really start." It doesn't, of course; it just starts another chapter . . . and thinking in those terms can cause one to treat the time until the end of the chapter as something to be gotten through as quickly as possible, rather than something to be appreciated for its own sake. (Besides, those that try to insist that the universe provide or respect narrative closure are bound to be continually, or at least periodically, frustrated.)
Missile Counter-Attack
Dear Condi,
I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were carefully rigged to show results.
But, gosh, we folks above the 49th parallel are somewhat cautious types who can't quite see laying down billions of dollars in a three-dud poker game.
Written by Lloyd Axworthy, a former Canadian foreign minister.
It's not like I really expect this to have any effect on Dr. Rice. But in addition to the well-aimed missiles (heh) this missive contains, there are some interesting reflections on the differences between the Canadian and American systems of governance.
Dear Condi,
I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were carefully rigged to show results.
But, gosh, we folks above the 49th parallel are somewhat cautious types who can't quite see laying down billions of dollars in a three-dud poker game.
Written by Lloyd Axworthy, a former Canadian foreign minister.
It's not like I really expect this to have any effect on Dr. Rice. But in addition to the well-aimed missiles (heh) this missive contains, there are some interesting reflections on the differences between the Canadian and American systems of governance.