The Meta-Post

It's been a while since my last post, during which much has happened, as is often the case when I'm not meditating on top of a mountain, seeking divine afflatus for my next post. Of course, all these happenings themselves serve as plentiful inspiration for contemplation and composition. What's been missing is the time to actually contemplate and compose. Now that it's the holidays, will that time finally be available? Possibly. These holidays mark a new phase for me, where I will focus on learning and thinking. Nonetheless, a new series of posts is in conception; has long been so in fact, but I finally feel ready to tackle them (a few months from now).

This new series will build quasi-hierarchically, and topics covered will include alphabets, words, names, languages, stories, and mind. The observant reader has already realised that this list strongly resembles the content in Reflexive Reflections. Indeed, the ideas expounded there will be present, implicitly or explicitly, in this series. Perhaps some of them will be elaborated. Perhaps others will be refuted. There is still a process of exploration due to take place. But a coherent school of thought and space of ideas will be mapped out.

The Iota Point Manifesto

We live within a tranquil cataclysm. Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall. All the king's men won't be able to put this one together for sure; it is the world that has exploded into a maelstrom of motion. The shards rain upon other shards, hurtle past each other, smash into each other – even the shard that carries you. Thus are we are assailed on all sides by Values, even by the Value of No-values. Whatever your cause, you will find a prophet. The cacophony of exhortations drowns this violent space, screams Doppler-shifted beyond recognition. What will be our final fate?

Reflexive Reflections

There is no better place to begin than with this self-referential sentence. Yes, like so. After all, all things in this universe (and all universes!) are connected, so any place is as good as another. To be is to relate. Every single thing is linked to other things which in turn connect to yet others, forming networks that also connect to other networks, coalescing into a single network of everything, such that one quickly snowballs into infinity. What happens to one thing sends waves that ripple through infinity. One cannot contemplate something without taking into account its place in the network of things; to fully contemplate something is to contemplate infinity. And to contemplate infinity is to contemplate unity.

Thinking About Not Thinking About Things

The living will always be dogged by the questions of life; that is an ineluctable fact of life itself. After all these questions concern the living, and questions can only be answered by the living. Yet is it in their interests to answer these questions? How should they answer?

One way of answering these questions is to think through them. Thought may be based on many things: experience, knowledge, beliefs, feelings, intuitions. If you are lucky, they are a swarm of fireflies leading you out of the night. If not, they each separate and wander in different directions, until the light is so diminished you are left stranded.

Adiós to el Capitán

The departure of Arsenal's captain and playmaker Fabregas has been a fait accompli since the start of the transfer window; the price has not. Indeed, one of the world's best midfielders has been sold for not even €40 million, a marked reduction on the asking price of £40 million, which is already a huge drop from his market value of £60 million. For comparison, even Andy Caroll cost £35 million, and Kaka was £56 million. That said, even if the club had gotten the full £40 million, an adequate replacement might not be available on the market.

What has Arsenal lost? Arguably the third best central midfielder in the world, behind Xavi and Iniesta (one wonders how Barcelona is going to line up this season), and the most effective midfielder in terms of assisting and scoring goals in the whole of Europe last season. Fabregas plays just behind the striker, allowing him to play the final ball, but also drops deep to dictate the tempo and loft long killer balls (notably for Adebayor and van Persie), or go into the box to finish off moves. Arsenal more than most clubs relies on that position to create chances, as play usually goes through the middle, and to score goals as well, since van Persie plays as a false nine. (Perhaps to bypass his absence against Newcastle, they tried to play down the wings, which failed as the quality of crosses was inconsistent, and too few players attacked the ball when it was sent in. Fluency and ball retention was also poor.) Not only has Fabregas consistently shown the vision and positioning needed to shine in that role, he has developed a good understanding with many of his teammates as well. Without him, the entertainment value of Arsenal (not spectacularly high in recent seasons, to be sure) will go down. To replace all of that will be hard. What are the options?

Concrete Thoughts

Architects must be really free, considering how much time they seem to devote to reading widely. Consider this debate (after the lecture). Perhaps it is the relic of a liberal arts education, or else built on that foundation. Possibly a soi-disant autodidactic Renaissance man could accumulate a comparable amount of knowledge, though shaped by individual preference which may prove inadequate in some areas during public discourse. Or do such intellectuals only seem unfathomably erudite because of our paucity of knowledge in those areas? After all, a study showed that participants who asked questions of their own specialty to outsiders were later appraised as being more knowledgeable by those outsiders.

On a side note, this reminds me how much I want to visit MAXXI. I'm still sceptical about parametricism as the future of architecture though; as interpreted thus far, its aesthetics are not natural nor immediate enough, at least to the untrained eye of the present public.

Leftover Fried Rice in the Devil's Larder

Memories sit like grains of fried rice on a plate, tossed and mixed into a whole from which constituents may still be distinguished. The rice is first left overnight in working memory. Each grain is seasoned with the condiments of feeling, and each chef imparts the flavour of his individuality through his unique recipe. Frying imbues it with colour. Some grains may become charred, while others shine golden, or attain a nostalgic sepia. At last it is served, its wafting aroma drawing you in. Some grains are buried deep, where they simmer, while others lie at the surface, which you can see vividly. But all are part of the dish.

Castling Kingside

It takes hours to build a sandcastle and seconds to destroy it. At this very moment, Tommy is involved in the former. There is no school this morning, so he came over to the playground after breakfast. Tommy loves building sandcastles; he visits the sandpit almost everyday. His mother is unhappy about having to vacuum the house everyday, but is reluctant to buy him Lego building blocks so that he won't go to the sandpit. And so he builds.

The Half-Blind Prince

An eye for an eye makes the world go blind, but two eyes for an eye leaves you with one, and in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king (inter caecos regnat luscus). This seems a sound strategy according to game theory, at least on the surface. But Hobbes tells us that even such a cyclopean king is susceptible to assassination by his blind subjects, so there will still be some degree of egalitarianism in this dystopia. However, blind subjects are perforce of lower economic value, both due to reduced capacity for labour, and reduced empathy as they cannot "see things" the same way as their liege. Also, what value does a one-eyed king have to a blind people? He might be able to do things better than them, but he would have less understanding of their issues, and there would be less social acceptance, even if he was clearly the best choice to lead.

4-1-3-2

Thou Art

I sat next to some interesting people in the cinema the other day. One was a culturally knowledgeable woman, who was apparently trying to educate her teenage daughter. She commented on the songs playing before the advertisements started, the meaning and relevance of the French song playing during an advertisement, and then during the trailer for Fast & Furious 5 about the potential of film as an art form and how it is wasted on car chases. As if well-choreographed car chases are not a kinetic art form.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Dogs

I spotted a good piece of advice in a magazine: "Get a dog. Even geniuses need some unconditional love." Not that genius warrants much love anyway. But in one of those rare moments of clarity, a hybrid of epiphany and prescience, I saw how it will all turn out:

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The grand narrative of progress is shoved in our faces wherever we go. Since consciousness is bound to the illusory arrow of time granted us by thermodynamic entropy, the existence of psychological phenomena such as memory and (apparent) free will leads us to adopt that grand narrative. That presupposes a certain principle that guides free will toward progress, but the grand narrative itself reinforces the existence of that principle in a positive feedback loop. Such a tripartite Escherian structure cannot exist without any pillar; the grand narrative is necessary to justify der Wille zur Macht, that driving force of life, and der Wille is required for progress.

Spiderman innamorato

Once upon a time, in one of the rare moments of peace known during Charlemagne's reign, a knight-errant was roaming the land. He had not had any deeds to perform for years, and was contemplating returning home that day as he rode towards the village. It was an average-looking village next to an average-looking forest, and his spirits fell at the thought of the deeds he would not be performing in this village.

Beware the Ideas of March

Un Petit Chinoiserie

If a Chinese man is trapped in a Chinese Room, how does he convince the outside world there is a Chinese man in the Chinese Room? 

Are matters complicated if the Chinese man is himself a Chinese Room?

Which contains a Chinese man/Room, Matryoshka-style ad infinitum?

Should he see the psychiatrist who tends to bipolar bears? 

If so, where can said psychiatrist be found, the Equator?

Who Questions the Questioners?

Where do you go if you need to get away but you're already on vacation?

If whatever land he treads on becomes his, must the self-imposed exile never stop walking?

Clothes are made for tall people, and tables for short people. What of tablecloths?

If I have no mouth and I must scream, will I sound nasal?

If the funniest jokes are often the truest, then is life the funniest of them all?

If on a winter's night a reader

I am presently drunk with euphoria after reading If on a winter's night a traveller, by Italo Calvino. As if a homeopathic dose of the proverbial 'Whatever the author is smoking (I want some of that)', amplified by serial draftings and editings, has overwhelmed me.

There are the works that arouse in my pen hand a wanderlust, a desire to once more take flight and set words on paper, knowing that my writing has improved by mere exposure to the author's shadow. And then there are the works so far beyond sublime they are lime; they paralyse that same hand into inaction, for no words I write can ever compare.

If on a winter's night a traveller is both.

Playlist 2010

Albums

Port Entropy, SHUGO TOKUMARU - SHUGO TOKUMARU was rated in the Straits Times as the best Asian artist to perform in Singapore in 2010, but that was in March, when I wasn't around and wasn't a fan yet. His latest album Port Entropy has songs with lots of instruments and items, all played by himself, woven into dense harmonies and soundscapes, albeit with less of the interesting cacophonies and folk melodies of his previous album.

SENSE, Mr.Children - Mr.Children is not the name of a pederast, but that of a Japanese pop band. This album has only 1 single, the song fanfare from the latest One Piece movie. However, the dearth of singles does not lead to lower quality of music, and throughout the album great songwriting and Sakurai's emotive vocals demonstrate why they are arguably Japan's favourite artist. SENSE has fewer ballads than my impression of Mr.Children had led me to expect, instead having a wide variety of styles. I am not sure where to place this album within Mr.Children's oeuvre, having not listened to most of their works yet, a problem I shall be quick to rectify.

COME ON!, TETSUYA - L'Arc~en~Ciel's bassist and leader, formerly known as TETSU69, had an amazing year of releases this year, beginning with the single ROULETTE and culminating in this album, affirming TETSUYA's status as a brilliant writer of melodies and one of the key drivers behind L'Arc~en~Ciel's success.

List of Lists 2010

In this inaugural List of Lists (LoL), I shall recap some of the most memorable things of 2010. Overall 2010 was a year of exploration, both of the inner and outer world. I pushed the boundaries in many areas, experiencing and learning new things, discovering moments of artistic and sensory delight along the way. Without further ado, here is the LoL 2010 with categories in alphabetical order. Music-related entries to follow in a separate post.