Thursday, October 30, 2014

States of Illusions

“The sun’s a thief and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea; the moon’s an arrant thief
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;
The sea’s a thief whose liquid surge resolves

The moon into salt tears . . .” 
~ Nabakov as Media Dragon

There are two parts to an art heist such as this—stealing the object and then having a plan as to what to do with it afterward. It was in this second area that the scheme seemed stunted. The crime: Stealing a 299-year-old Stradivarius. The suspect: A hard-luck building manager who fancied himself a high-end art thief... Great Pretender

The maker of many mistakes in life, Borges like Imrich didn’t give reality much credence. When things went wrong, this is just an illusion - a figment of imagination

Great collections are idiosyncratic. Take the Wellcome: Jeremy Bentham’s skin, Napoleons toothbrush, Florence Nightingale’s moccasins... Jozef Imrich's signatures

It is also, in the thinking of writer, critic and mathematician Rudy Rucker, the first work of a literary movement he would name “transrealism” in his 1983 essay A Transrealist Manifesto. Three decades later, Rucker’s essay has as much relevance to contemporary literature as ever. But while Rucker was writing at a time when science fiction and mainstream literature appeared starkly divided, today the two are increasingly hard to separate. It seems that here in the early 21st century, the literary movement Rucker called for is finally reaching its fruition (transrealism first major literary movement 21st century)

Debut Spotlight: Lena Dunham anyone? Have you heard of her? Have you seen her in a magazine or on television. If any of you answered "no," then you probably don't own any magazines or televisions. Not That Kind of Girl is a book of essays inspired by Helen Gurley Brown's Having It All, except that it's directed at a new generation. Amazon's Brittany Pirozollo writes of the book, "In an era where twenty-something women are told how to think, where to work, who to date, and what to wear, it’s refreshing that a voice has broken the mold to empower women to do one thing—be yourself, flaws and all."