“Literature remains alive only if we set ourselves immeasurable goals, far beyond all hope of achievement. Only if poets and writers set themselves tasks that no one else dares imagine will literature continue to have a function. . . . the grand challenge for literature is to be capable of weaving together the various branchesContinue reading “Calvino’s 5th Memo: Multiplicity – The finite in the infinite and the infinite in the finite”
Tag Archives: abstractions
Calvino’s 3rd Memo: Exactitude – Crystal & Flame
I’m continuing to find inspiration in Six Memos for the Next Millennium by Italo Calvino. This week I’m looking at Exactitude and Vagueness as contradictory abstractions. Let’s start with some definitions: exactitude: precision, accuracy, meticulousness vagueness: unspecific, imprecise; obscure, hazy, shadowy Calvino uses the symbols of crystal and flame, so I decided to start there.Continue reading “Calvino’s 3rd Memo: Exactitude – Crystal & Flame”
Quickly Capturing Lingering Light
It’s amazing how energizing one cool, cloudy day was. Today, was back to hot and sweaty, but it didn’t feel as oppressive. I finally set up my new mobile mirrorworld to my satisfaction, and played with an interesting purple and green light palette. I find it amusing that these random globs of dried hot glueContinue reading “Quickly Capturing Lingering Light”
The Values of Literature
Last week I stumbled upon Italo Calvino’s Six Memos for the Next Millennium which are a series of planned lectures about literary values he was working on when he died. He died before he finished writing the sixth. His six values of literature are: Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility, Multiplicity, and Consistency. In each of hisContinue reading “The Values of Literature”
Thinking About August
Last week, as I continued my study of contradictory abstractions, I looked at freedom in constraint and constraint in freedom. Studying opposites inspired me to think about photo negatives and negative space, so I tried putting the sections I cut out to create my filters into their own filters, creating negatives of my filters inContinue reading “Thinking About August”
Contrasting Abstractions: The next phase in my study
The Writer’s Games have ended! I sent in my final story yesterday. Guests have left. The family is busy. I might get a full day to myself. And the sun is out. 😎 Hope and Despair Last week, inspired by some abstract art books: Abstraction in Art & Nature by Nathan Cabot Hale Abstracts InContinue reading “Contrasting Abstractions: The next phase in my study”
Motivation to Wade into Cold Water
Motivation Today I’m re-visiting motivation. When I explored motivation in April, I talked about it as a force toward pleasure and away from pain. Motivation came up again when I explored need and talked about Maslow’s pyramid. Today I looked up some definitions and found that motivation is a force that imparts motion as ifContinue reading “Motivation to Wade into Cold Water”
In Awe of Water
June’s Abstractions Here we are already starting June. As I mentioned yesterday, this month’s daily abstract nouns include a mix of new words and further study of previous words. And, as before, Sundays are homographs to guide visual poetry (vispo) from the images created through the week. Awe While defining “poetry” for my online poetryContinue reading “In Awe of Water”
A Wealth of Options
Wealth These last couple months studying abstract nouns have provided a wealth of discoveries, great quantities of new ideas, an abundance of new techniques, a profusion of thoughts, and a plentiful amount of new tools. I feel like these last two months have been a 101 course in abstractions–an overview–and now it’s time to takeContinue reading “A Wealth of Options”
Being Sensitive to Sensitivities
Sensitivity To a vision scientist like me, sensitivity is only a semi-abstract noun. If you look at the state or quality of being endowed with sensation; having perception through the senses, that’s measurable through scientific experimentation. However, the state or quality of being readily or excessively affected by external agencies or influences and having acuteContinue reading “Being Sensitive to Sensitivities”
Experience Writing 