I became interested in photos of people’s backs while reading Geoff Dyer’s book, The Ongoing Moment where he asserts that a photo of a back (or profile) drains the photograph of the subject’s individuality. This makes them suitable to represent a Platonic “thing itself” (Weston) or as propaganda (Lange).
Without going deeper, I’ll just say that I am intrigued by this photo:
I’m, of course, struck by the shadow on her back, and after thinking about it for awhile, I realize that the back of a person lying on the beach is completely different from the back of a person standing up or walking away. I don’t know why this is, but I’m sure of it. The person on the sand is not looking into the distance, no are they ignoring or leaving us.
Moreover, Lou-Anna Ralite doesn’t seem to understand the zen of her back photo because the following photo reveals the front of a much less abstract person.
Ever since seeing an amazing tiny collection of snail figurines in the Folklore museum in Lviv, Ukraine, a few years ago, I have been collecting snails and paying attention to snail sightings. I like this one:
This article finally gave me a word to describe why it’s so hard, at least for me, to argue about politics with smart people who I disagree with: they are rescripting real facts.
In terms storytelling scholars use, Trump
“rescripted” the world to fit his themes. He took
elements of news articles, viral videos, other
tweets and whatever else he needed to build his
messages. He took storylines that were already in
the public sphere and placed new meaning on them
to fit his own tale.
As I listen to rightwingers (and some left ones), I know that something is off, the pieces don’t quite fit together, but I can’t say that any of their facts are wrong. They just see them differently.
It takes a lot of talking, a lot of experience, to see things differently.
Rescripting probably helps explain why arguing with facts tends to make others more certain of their conclusions: they just fold each new fact into their universe somewhere. It may take inventing a Jewish space laser to glue their facts together, but they will do it and happily continue in their delusion (IMNSHO).
A friend responses to what I wrote above
The National Academy of Sciences did studies that showed exposure to differing viewpoints and facts actually increased polarization, especially among the people who identified as Conservative. Being confronted with facts that caused their arguments to blow up and supported the Liberal positions resulted in them digging in their heals and becoming more extreme. So, Alternative Facts then need to be used to support their alternative reality. Liberals tended to have some knee jerk reaction to RWN News feeds, but it seems it was much less and didn’t last long before returning to their previous sense of balance.
It seems to me that the world often becomes more confusing as we learn more about it. Perhaps it causes us to become more fearful and retreat to our safe mental spaces.
Sometimes people present me with facts that I have a hard time integrating into the world I want to believe. This often happens with people to the “left” of me, people whom I like. The clearest example in my mind is when I returned from the Peace Corps in Tunisia, where I occasionally surprised myself by defending the US more than I would have earlier. People would tell me that we were doing terrible things in Vietnam. I didn’t want to believe it: it was confusing and destressing and so different from what I thought our country was. At least I didn’t become more polarized although I did end up believing them. I won’t bother explaining how I think that happened.
Very Interesting..See what you think..For me
personally, I'm Not going to get the vaccine.
I listened to the whole thing.
Peter Humphrey is full of it.
Humphrey exclaims, “Biden says, ‘Every American gets the vaccine’”!! He implies that we will be forced to be vaccinated. That is a lie, of course. Biden is not forcing anyone to be vaccinated.
Schools can require students to be vaccinated in order to protect other people. I agree 100% with that. Are you old enough to remember people getting polio, for example? I sure do. Vaccines stopped all that.
Employers can require employees to get vaccinated. I certainly want to know if people in stores where I go have been vaccinated (when vaccines become more available, of course) and that they wear masks.
Dr Lee Merrit is full of it.
Dr Merrit opposes the type of vaccines being developed in the US
She correctly describes how classic vaccines are made and work the way “the real body does when it gets sick.” I believe she is correct. She doesn’t seem to be against this kind of vaccine.
The currently authorized Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
is not a live vaccine.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine are mRNA
vaccines. There is not a live component to either
of them.
None of the COVID-19 vaccines being developed in
the United States are made with either live or
inactivated whole COVID-19 virus.
Messenger RNA vaccines—also called mRNA
vaccines—are some of the first COVID-19 vaccines
authorized for use in the United States.
mRNA vaccines are a new type of vaccine to protect
against infectious diseases. To trigger an immune
response, many vaccines put a weakened or
inactivated germ into our bodies. Not mRNA
vaccines. Instead, they teach our cells how to
make a protein—or even just a piece of a
protein—that triggers an immune response inside
our bodies. That immune response, which produces
antibodies, is what protects us from getting
infected if the real virus enters our bodies.
Dr Merrit is correct that the US is not making traditional vaccines for COVID-19, but …
Live-attenuated vaccines based on SARS-CoV-2 are
still undergoing preclinical testing, developed by
start-up Codagenix and the Serum Institute of
India.
Dr Merrit is wrong that the US is not making anti-viral agents to combat COVID-19
“We need to take back our world from the virology bad boys…” - “They could come out with something else” besides vaccines in her opinion. She recommends Hydroxychloroquine and something else that I can’t make out. But they don’t want it: two plants making Hydroxychloroquine precursors burned down! (I haven’t check this but I think I read about it.) What are the chances?
I don’t know why she believes that no one in the US is doing research on non-vaccine treatments for COVID-19, but she is wrong: just start Googling.
This is perhaps the world view driving Dr Merrit’s “understanding”
Dr Merrit goes even fuller conspiracy theory when she says the newer kinds of vaccines being developed in the US are perfect vectors for inserting pathogens into our bodies. Maybe the Chinese plan to use it to kill us all. Or the American left.
I don’t expect my friend to change her mind.
She is already too far gone into her alternative world.
If she reads this thoroughly, she will probably rescript it and believe even more strongly in her deluded world. But do notice how convincing Dr. Merrit is. It takes work and skepticism to realize how she takes real facts and rescripts them into a conspiracy theory. (Not everything she says is a fact, however. She omits and distorts some facts, as pointed out above.)
I understand your reluctance to watch the Super Bowl, but, much to my surprise, I find myself wanting to tell you why you should watch it.
Reasons not to watch football
I’m not recommending that you watch any other American football games. I have a lot against it. Let me count the ways:
It’s too dangerous, certainly for kids in school who want to play it. The record of injuries, especially concussions, is terrible, and the injuries do not stop as players go on to college and the pros.
It doesn’t even feel like a sport sometimes. A college team, for example, can have a hundred players on the roster! This is partly because they need to have bodies to put in when other players get injured. But the weirdest thing is that a “team” is composed of multiple different teams. Most players play either offense or defense, but rarely both. I mean, in basketball, soccer, etc., everyone has to play “both ends of the field”. (Baseball allows the pitcher to play offense only in the AL(?).) Football feels like a military campaign except that soldiers have to “play” both offense and defense.
Football culture, at least among the fans, sucks. My brain is condemned to remember several decades ago, when UNC football fans discovered that their SUVs - the Ford Bronco in particular - had enough ground clearance to park over the graves in the old cemetery on the UNC campus! I think they found the best parking on top of the graves of slaves, which were pretty low (it’s worth visiting, BTW). That symbolizes entitled football fans to me. I have more respect for the players.
Iris and I have lived at “football schools”, UT Austin and UG Athens. ’Nuff said.
Reason to watch football
The athleticism, especially at the pro level, is astounding and it’s often on display in the Super Bowl. Many successful plays, especially passes, are almost supernatural. (This happens in all sports of course.)
Nevertheless, I don’t usually watch football games other than the Super Bowl. Sometimes I watch UNC games, hoping that they loose. If UNC ever gets a good football team, it risks becoming yet another “football school”, a horrible fate.
Reasons to watch the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is different. It’s one of the most-watched events in sports, not as big as the World Cup, of course, but big.
This sometimes means that the football itself is exceptional. Sometimes it’s boring, of course. If one team dominates, the game becomes like soccer when one team is up one or two goals: boring.
BUT, the Super Bowl is one of the best ways to understand American culture (do I need to put that in quotes?). All the talking heads before and during the game clue you into how many Americans talk about sports.
The advertisements. A Super Bowl ad costs in the millions of dollars per minute! This means that most of the ads are shown for the first time at the Super Bowl. You’ve got to admit that American advertisers can be very creative, often very funny (foreign ones, too, I imagine). In fact Super Bowl ads can usually be found online, where you can watch them without watching the Super Bowl itself. I have done that in the past.
The halftime show. You think the events in the Roman Colosseum were amazing? Try the over-the-top Super Bowl halftime show. Personally I find most of them pretty dumb, but not all. Prince was amazing, for example. I don’t know what the show is this year if they haven’t canceled it. It’s worth watching at least the beginning.
I believe that Amanda Gorman will read a poem this year. I don’t know if this will be before or during the game.
So we plan to watch the Super Bowl
At least the first half or so, along with your son and hopefully you.
abraços, ge
I ended up watching a fair amount of the first half and then switching away…
Kate Phillips (Peaky Blinders) stars in a six-part mystery as the
headstrong, first-ever female detective in Victorian London, who won’t
let any naysayers stop her from keeping her father’s business running.
Stuart Martin (Jamestown) plays her childhood friend, professional
colleague, and potential love interest, Scotland Yard Detective
Inspector William Wellington, a.k.a., The Duke.
These children are beautiful and often very sweet to deal with.
On the other hand, houses in Gafsa were closed to the outside world, with only a closed door to the street and a few small high windows. Their outdoors was in the courtyard (a wonderful invention, especially if it had a garden). This meant, as far as I could tell, that children in the streets were basically unsupervised. They gathered in groups of a dozen or more and wandered about. One of their sports was to harass helpless people, mostly old people, women and foreigners. I remember a tiny curly haired girl of about 3 who knew to sing “Bonjour Madam, Gaddesh el 3tham?”, an insult, when she saw me. I remember looking down a dirt street and seeing a doomed cat being swung by its tail in amidst a group of small torturers. Sort of Lord of the Flies.
Some days I avoided going outside at all because I didn’t want to face the children. I was in no danger, but it could be extremely unpleasant.
Things were different in the Gafsa oasis. People lived in huts made of palm fronds or in tents. People of all ages were usually outdoors, where they could see their children. I loved walking in the oasis, especially visiting my best student’s family.
I came to believe that when a family moved from the oasis or the countryside into a town, they went from a culture where little was hidden to one where much was hidden, especially the women, and where children lost their supervision.
Yet, as Michael’s photos show, these children were supremely beautiful and a joy to be with individually.
My friend Rob Anderson posted this on Facebook yesterday. This link might work better.
At least one friend has censored my use of the
word "jab" to refer to injections. Sorry, I read
The Guardian a lot. And the word 'shot' is
triggering--deep childhood trauma... So I'm
asking for a vote of preferred word choice.
Please elect one of the following (yes, I know
they are not exact synonyms):
Jab
Shot
Injection
Vaccine / Vaccination
Fauci Ouchie
Note: your input won't affect my verbal behavior...
I proudly out myself as the person who tried to help Rob by objecting to his sudden and embarrassing adoption of “jab” in the last couple of months. Rob became a kind of Coronavirus himself with little “jabs” sticking out everywhere, attaching themselves to our ears! He’s actually contagious: just look at these well-meaning friends of his, all going “jab”, “jab”, “jab”, “jab” ….
While I can accept a defense of childhood trauma, I have to question whether he’s traumatized by all the words in his list. Rob, were you traumatized by “injection”, “vaccination” as well as by “shot”?
“Jab” has begun to traumatize me! Have pity!
As far as I recall, Rob never used the word until the Pandemic. Surely he must have used another word before being brainwashed by the Guardian and people with haughty accents.
Marian Sue Kirkman correctly notes that “The line between jaunty and precious is sometimes blurry…” but she’s too polite to point out that Rob has crossed it. As the poets wrote, “Ich habe genug!”
Perhaps the worst aspect of “jab” is that it’s outdated “vulgar” slang beloved by British politicians, their medical system and stuffy British media. In fact, some British think that the word is American (!), no doubt due to Anglophilies like Rob who think they are being trendy. (See accompanying poem and especially the comments.)
I encourage Rob to teach us cool new British words like “dench”, “peng”, “piff”, “clapped”, “wavey”, “gwarning”, “rah”, “skrr”, “safe!”, “bombaclart/bloodclart”, “wasteman”, “thirsty”, “paigon”, “scrape”, “sket”, “rents”, “next man”, “mandem”, “gyaldem”, “fam”, “mate”, “m9”, “brudda”, “peng ting”, “roadman”, “donny”, etc.
In spite of his pig-headed linguistic stubbornness (“your input won’t affect my verbal behavior…”) Rob remains my M9.
Rob Anderson replies
My M9 George has benevolently tried to direct me
away from my churlish and naive ways, and I see
now he may have a point. I didn't mean to needle
him or others; I merely sought to use a ten-cent
word rather than a twenty-dollar Latinate one.
(And, yes, maybe, I wanted to be a bit jaunty
[< French gentil].) Perhaps I should inoculate myself
against misunderstanding by using more emojis (😉, 😬),
or inject more obvious humor to lighten things up.
In his well-meaning effort to enlighten me,
though, my dear compadre has made jabs of his own.
I was especially pricked by being called
"pig-headed," "contagious," and *sniff* a
"Coronavirus"! I don't think he intended to stick
it to me, pierce the veil of civility, or puncture
the balloon of our friendship. So I suffered no
percutaneous scarification 😬, and, whereas I may
not abandon my use of 'jab', I will seek to vary
my vocabulary. (I am increasingly fond of "Moderna
vaccine.") Hopefully, further adverse reactions
will be rare, and there will be no soreness at
this site.
PS: If I do say 'jab', it doesn't make me a Tory
or a Brexiteer!
