Every time Anonymous says “Expect us.” at the end of one of their videos, I find myself expecting them to say “Patronum” immediately after.
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-30
- @fenris23 Google Reader recommendation seconded. #
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-29
- New psp slim w/ extended batt gets 9 hrs of batt life (more if just playing mp3s) #
- firing up the Excel so I can burn my eyes out with a nice hot spreadsheet #
- hatin’ the whole quickbooks thing today. Yech. #
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-28
- browsing youtube on PSP with PSPTube… great little app!!!! #
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-26
- admiring fruit we got at Cairn’s Corner #
- @kris_sheldon Srsly. Real orngez FTW #
- Mmmmm… The coffeez, my precious… Mmmmm #
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-25
- Just had to impersonate myself to close an account on BlackPlanet.com that was sending me invites #
I am doing well!
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-24
- @sambearpoet they’re both up for me #
- hoping for the best. just put the unlimited data plan in the 650. #
- mania pervades. relax yon chymist or there will be blood in the sky tomorrow. #
Hidden
This afternoon I was trying to fit too much data into a single line on a printed spreadsheet. I kept rotating the mechanical pencil to find a sharper edge, so I could continue to write in the tiny print required for staying in the lines. Rotating, wearing down, finding a new edge, wearing down, rotating, etc…
I’ve been watching several different Disney movies trying to come up with a good theory on why particular patterns repeat. Specifically, certain constructs, basic to society, go out of focus in the creation of these myths. The two I find most representative are the lack of government in Robots, and the lack of mothers in Little Mermaid. There are others, but like real math problems versus textbook examples, they aren’t as easily worked out (e.g. Cinderella lacks a father, while her prince lacks a mother). In Robots, the corporation as authority is not only in charge of its own commercial success, but the lives of all of its consumers [rotating]. No checks and balances. There but for the goodwill of the CEO, go I. The police and media both take their cues directly from corporate authority. It’s suggested that murder is possible for someone high up on the corporate ladder [wearing down]. These are ugly things, normally abject, that we are seeing by abjecting the implicit violence of government and handing it to corporate masters [new edge?].
In the Little Mermaid, we see a bit of a different formula. Both Ariel and her prince lack mothers – not only are they not present, they are not mentioned or alluded to in any way. Here I see them functioning like the objet petit a, where the desire for the unspoken drives our characters here and there as a storm wind of pathos on the sea. Ariel collects objects beyond the surface – they are from beyond the skin that divides the world, but they are given places within the symbolic order. Eric expels the image that others have of him from his own world, only for it to end up forming the central role in Ariel’s world. She pulls him from the depths, and he is reborn from the womb of the sea. He is now interested in finding the objet petit a, and will not be satisfied with anything less. Ariel also seeks out the forbidden – her father destroys the symbols she has treasured, but she has already found them in the real. She must now journey into the abject to transform herself [rotating] by speaking to the witch (who knows Daddy from a long time ago). Ursula manipulates Ariel by playing sympathetic (as a mother would). Without her voice, but transformed nonetheless, she must now step through the mirror surface and be reborn herself. The two pursue each other but without conviction, Ariel’s potential slavery is not really considered as a possibility. Ursula replaces Ariel’s image in Eric’s mind and proceeds to entrance him. He is under the spell of desire, thinking he has filled the gap with the mother who birthed him from the sea. Ariel watches helplessly. The birds (seagull->pelican->self-sacrifice) and fish fight for Ariel. The witch is revealed, but Ariel is too late. She is captured, now by the image that Eric had of her, and although her voice returns communication is of no good [wearing down]. They return to the sea to save the father (the generator of the symbolic order destroyed earlier) and pierce the witch. All is made right, and Triton releases his daughter to the overworld [new edge].
So we can see that hiding things from view is a very effective technique for both mapping out various processes of growth (Little Mermaid as the maturation of the anima/animus) and for looking at the foibles of society. As we look for edges to use, we must always be aware of what is not present, not spoken, and what is not apparent.
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-23
- wipeout pulse + custom sound tracks = win #
