How a Disney animator deals with losing his wife : A doodle diary

Former Disney illustrator Gary Andrews started to "doodle diary" on his 54th birthday. He was happily married and a father-of-two and wanted to remember the joy and beauty of family. Within 3 years he was a widower. Joy, his wife, had passed away from sepsis.

Struggling with ways to cope Gary "opened up his notebook and let his emotions pour out onto the pages" (via).

I was crying so hard it was difficult to focus on the page. I was drawing through tears. Joy had been my soulmate for 19 years. She was beautiful, kind, generous and funny. We did everything together. When I lost her, I felt half of me had gone (via).

Gary has published his work in hopes of raising "awareness for an illness that is often regarded as an afterthought for many doctors. Its symptoms, including fever, sickness, blotchy skin and dizziness, are often mistaken for other illnesses and not recognized until too late. If captured early on, it can be treated with simple antibiotics" (via).

After spending a weekend celebrating my 35th birthday and considering the many (hopeful) boxes I have to fill in, this story and these drawings had me all sorts of choked up. 

May we treasure the time that we've been given.

This one is my favorite because, as I've heard it said before, "Laughter is the manifestation of hope." I can imagine how often Gary felt heavy and depressed and just so alone - especially when his girls crawled into his lap and cried for Mom. But then, moments like these, and perhaps, seeing a bit of his wife's humor and hope shine through his little girls, his spirit was lifted. 

Brilliant.

You can go here for more of Gary's story and to see a few extra sketches. 

Thanks for reading!

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Life Stories :  Humanity

A Culture of Riots : Malcolm Gladwell Thoughts

This week I've been wrestling with these talks from Malcolm Gladwell.

His ideas, as well as the article he references, "Thresholds of Violence : How School Shootings Catch On", have bothered me because what he is dealing with is at the heart of most all of mankind’s issues: social conformity vs. social responsibility.

Why do bad people do bad things? And why do good people let them do it?

Why do we bully, shoot up schools and neighborhoods, and so quickly and easily destroy? And why do so many seem to sit by and watch, doing nothing and saying very little?

These are hard questions. Impossible questions. But they’re also essential questions.

And I like the way Gladwell approaches them.

"You're not insisting on it,” he states, “You're asking us to consider it."

With that, here’s something else for us to consider, that we, according to Gladwell, are responsible for school shootings.

I don’t disagree, but I definitely don’t fully agree. I just haven’t figured out why. Not yet (the chapter is coming. I promise).

But first, let Gladwell explain.

"Forty years ago he would be playing with his chemistry set in the basement and dreaming of being an astronaut because that was the available cultural narrative of that moment. That would be the cultural narrative appropriate for someone with his interests.”

These ideas are pretty provocative with much to consider, which is pretty typical Gladwell, so if you have any thoughts or questions of your own, I’d be curious to hear.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Humanity : Gladwell : Education

Some English stuff that's pretty cool.

Like, why do we have irregular verbs?

And, what did Beowulf sound like?

I think I got only a handful of those words. But if I listened to it long enough, like most foreign languages, I think it would start to make a bit more sense.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  

23 years of tag has kept these friends together

Tag, set for release on June 15, is a movie about five friends who have engaged in a "no-holds-barred game of tag" since the first grade. It looks pretty typical and fairly comical. 

However, it's based on a true story - a brilliant story - of nine buddies who have refused to let time and distance come between their brotherhood. And their story is the antithesis of typical.

The Guardian first wrote about it in April in 2013.

"As teenagers," the article starts, "a group of friends and I spent every spare moment at school playing tag. The game developed into more than just chasing each other round the playground; it involved strategy and cunning. But when I failed to tag someone in the last moments before school broke up for summer – he'd locked himself in his car to avoid it – I resigned myself to for ever being "it".

Until their 10-year reunion.

Everyone had moved off to college to the games had sort of "fizzled out," but when they reunited once more, someone suggested starting it up again and everyone agreed. "We had busy lives and lived hundreds of miles apart," so they came up with three simple rules: 

1. The game could only be play in February
2. You are not allowed immediately to tag back the person who's tagged you
3. You had to declare to the group that you were "it"

Over the next 23 years, these friends kept finding new and creative ways to tag their buddies. "Eleven months of the year are spent planning. Collaborating with a friend is where the fun is – we can spend hours discussing approaches."

I love that. How a simple game of tag kept friends in touch and connected with each other - something we all deeply crave but have little time for. But these guys make time for it, spend money on it, and make it a priority of life. Even if, at times, it means avoiding your friends. Like Patrick does.

"Patrick," the article reads and the movie portrays, "who does everything he can to avoid being caught, sometimes spends February in Hawaii." When he learned that his buddies were there, at the airport waiting for him, he "hired a man to hold up a card with his name on it in arrivals, so one of us would wait near it. Then he slipped out of another exit."

Brilliant. 

So too was "one of the most unexpected tags" because it was at a funeral . . . of a Mike's father. "During the service, {Mike} felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to find Joe mouthing, 'You're it.'" And Mike didn't even care, because he knew his father "found our game hilarious."

Daring. But brilliant.

I'm terrible at keeping up with old, good, and great friends. Just terrible at it. And it's not because I don't care because I really do. It's just hard is all, and I'm really not sure why. There's Facebook, email, text, phone calls, and old fashion letter writing. Yet, I never seem to make it happen. After reading this article, I've begun to wonder if the ease of communication prevents me from doing it - because it's always there, and I can just do it later, no problem. 

Tag, over hundreds of miles, takes effort and collaboration. It takes intentionality and time. Which, unsurprisingly, are the same ingredients for great friendships, as these now old men have discovered. 

"The best thing about the game is that it has kept us in touch over all these years – it forces us to meet and has formed a strong bond between us, almost like brothers."

Anyone up for a game of tag?

The Most Crowded Island on Earth

So, this is pretty crazy.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff   :  Great Big Stories

On making paper and writing letters

The Papermaker is a short documentary about Gangolf Ulbricht, one of the last handcrafting papermakers in Europe. He "makes unique tree- free papers by hand for international artists, conservators, photographers, printers and many more.

He learned his uniqe craft in Germany, Japan, France and England" (via). 

The Papermaker from Kings&Kongs on Vimeo.

Paper has character. You can tell from the product whether there are things going on beneath the surface . . . paper can have the power of life and death. Paper can be the bearer of emotions. A love letter comes to mind.

Author Simon Garfield says that the art of letter writing is dying, and for obvious reasons: Email. Email has transformed our world, making communicating much faster, much easier, and much more efficient. But what these emails lack, according to Garfield, is depth and emotion. They tend to be much more factual and functional, rather than personal. We read, write, send, then move on and read, write, send – quickly forgetting what we read, wrote, and sent.

Letters, however, take time. And not just to write, but the whole process. There’s the finding of the address, writing it out, finding a stamp, stamping it, then getting the letter to the mailbox. All the while, we could have written over a dozen emails. Emails that, over the course of just a few hours, will have been lost in the shuffle, deleted, or ignored.

I could possibly say the same for journals. When I used to keep an actual paper journal, I did a lot more doodling, more comic style writing (I'm in no way an artist, but I would feel the freedom to try, because who would know?). But then I would forget the journal on a plane, in a taxi, or wherever else journals are forgotten. That's even why I started blogging, which I've learned to truly enjoy, but still. Something personal seems to be lost. 

Letters though, good thought provoking and sincere letter make an impact and are not easily forgotten. They are personal and a physical manifestation of how much someone means to you. Which is why they are found pinned to caulk boards or placed carefully inside our favorite books, so that they can come back to life, over and over again.

Just like Gangolf Ulbricht's paper.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  : On Writing  :  Open Thoughts

BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND SUBSCRIBE - THANKS FOR READING!

The Other Half : February

Ideas, articles, videos, and others things I've found interesting but never posted. 

Films:

You Are My Friend - a film based on the life of Jim Neighbors (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood) is currently in the works with Tom Hanks taking the lead roll.  Production will begin this fall. And I'm more giddy about it.

Edith and Eddie - Nominated for an Academy Award®, Edith+Eddie is a devastating film about the country’s oldest interracial newlyweds. Edith and Eddie are deeply in love, but that’s not where the story ends.

Field of Vision: Concussion protocol - a extremely well crafted, short visual documentary on the viciousness of the NFL, and the dangers that hide behind every highlight hit. "It’s not a headache. It’s not 'getting your bell rung.' You don’t have a bell. It’s a traumatic brain injury. Every single concussion is a new traumatic brain injury. In addition to the torn ACLs and MCLs, in addition to all of the horrible broken bones, the NFL diagnosed at least 281 traumatic brain injuries this season" (via).

-N- Stuff:

Enjoyed listening to this conversation with Jay-Z about race, music, the benefit of Trump as president, and the power of conversation. He isn't perfect - by any stretch of the imagination - but I appreciated the conversation, and the conversations it should inspire.

The 2018 Underwater Photos of the Year are out! Which is a little strange, because it's mid February, but I digress. "The standard of this year's entry was even better than last year... and that should in no way belittle last year's because they blew us away then!" Peter Rowlands, Chair of the jury 2018.

Outdoor LIving:

Dabney and Alan decided they wanted to live in a Fire lookout so they built one in the mountains of Oregon. And it's pretty friggen amazing. 

On Pancakes:

These are not the images of the moon you're looking for. Because they're pancakes. 

BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND SUBSCRIBE - THANKS FOR READING!

A Gun's Life : Why we should expect more shootings

Today, I woke up, read, drank some coffee, slipped on the ice outside our house, then drove to work. As usual. 

When I got to my classroom I prepped for the day, made copies of some PDP notes for the novels my students are reading, then checked my emails. As usual.

When students began to walk the halls and fill their seats, I found it difficult to carry on the day, as usual.

So before each class, we talked about the shootings, the problems and solutions, and why it seems to happen so damn often (Since 2013, there have been nearly 300 school shootings in America — an average of about one a week - via).

We had more questions than we did solutions.

During lunch, I came across this video:

Guns Found Here from MEL Films on Vimeo.

There are more gun shops in the US than Starbucks, McDonalds, and supermarkets put together.

That statistic was startling to me, terrifying actually, because if you want to know what a person, community, or country loves, look at where they spend their money and you will find the gods they serve.

We’re sacrificing America’s children to “our great god Gun”:

The gun is not a mere tool, a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate. It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will, and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it?

I'm not convinced that guns are the problem and that if we are to only get rid of them, all problems will be erased. However, I am convinced that if in fact getting rid of guns would prevent 100% of the shootings in schools, America at large would still cling to their rights, their freedoms, and their guns. And that shootings would continue.

But not so, in Japan.

A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths:

The only guns that Japanese citizens can legally buy and use are shotguns and air rifles, and it’s not easy to do. The process is detailed in David Kopel’s landmark study on Japanese gun control, published in the 1993 Asia Pacific Law Review, still cited as current. (Kopel, no left-wing loony, is a member of the National Rifle Association and once wrote in National Review that looser gun control laws could have stopped Adolf Hitler.)

To get a gun in Japan, first, you have to attend an all-day class and pass a written test, which are held only once per month. You also must take and pass a shooting range class. Then, head over to a hospital for a mental test and drug test (Japan is unusual in that potential gun owners must affirmatively prove their mental fitness), which you’ll file with the police. Finally, pass a rigorous background check for any criminal record or association with criminal or extremist groups, and you will be the proud new owner of your shotgun or air rifle. Just don’t forget to provide police with documentation on the specific location of the gun in your home, as well as the ammo, both of which must be locked and stored separately. And remember to have the police inspect the gun once per year and to re-take the class and exam every three years.

Seems like a small price to pay to save our children, our classmates, our teachers, neighbors, friends, parents, and . . . fellow man.

I hear the argument, that we shouldn't blame those who aren't the problem - the responsible gun owners, and that creating more laws is only hurting the law abider, not the law breaker. I get it. But I also don't. 

More than a few of my friends are recovering alcoholics. I, however, am not. But, no matter how much I enjoy a cold drink on a summer evening with the taste and smell of the grill wafting through the air, when they are present, I don't drink. Even though I don't have the struggle, even though I can drink responsibly, I forgo my right to have and drink in my house because I want what's best for the other person. Not just myself. 

This, more than the actual guns, seems to be the bigger more predominant issue - individual rights over the community wellbeing. Japan and other Eastern countries not only have stricter rules and regulations, they also don't have a problem with them being implemented, because they are more of a group society, whereas Western countries care more about the individual. 

Dan Hodges said it this way, "In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over."

That sounds harsh, and I can think of more than a few gun loving friends and family that this doesn't quite relate to, but that doesn't steal much away from the stark truth of the sentiment that the discussion has come to a close. And if we're unwilling to even discuss the possibility of change, nothing ever will. 

In the meantime, expect more shootings. 

(for more excerpts on the United States of Guns, visit Kottke.org).

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Taking of a Buddy :  Hatred in America

Red Gerard wins gold, in slow motion

Inspired by Curtis Jackson, here is Red Gerard's gold medal run, in slow motion, and to the tune of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.

There's something about watching a seventeen year old young man accomplishing such a massive feat under intense pressure that makes me question many things in life. 

Yet, there is something to this as well that is truly inspiring. 

You can watch Red Gerard's run in real time here.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Inspiring Art  :  Rock Climbing to Sigur Ros :  Chinese Dancers to Modest Mouse

The Sound of Black Ice

This small lake outside Stockholm, Sweden, emits otherworldly sounds as Mårten Ajne skates over its precariously thin, black ice. “Wild ice skating,” or “Nordic skating,” is both an art and a science. A skater seeks out the thinnest, most pristine black ice possible—both for its smoothness, and for its high-pitched, laser-like sounds (via).

So cool. Yet, so terrifying. The scene around the 2:08 mark, where the ice is cracking beneath his skates is really a remarkable sight. 

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Inspiring Art  :  The Art of Flying

Ludovico Einaudi : Elegy for the Arctic

On the Arctic Ocean, with a grand piano floating on a platform and against the backdrop of the Wahlenbergbreen glacier (in Svalbard, Norway), Einaudi plays an original piece composed in the hope of protecting the Arctic (via).

I just love the scene, near the minute-thirty mark, when the glacier seems to respond by casting itself into the ocean, like it's trying to reach him. Like it's trying to reach us.

Is anybody listening?

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Inspiring Art  :  Classical Music

How to hide a yawn

How To Hide a Yawn from Daniel Koren on Vimeo.

"Everybody needs to know this." And it's true, because we've all experience this, intimately. On both sides. 

I'm definitely a mouth closed, jaw clenched, nostril flaring yawner, but I'm fully considering the, "clean your face with your shirt" option. Because it's golden. Clearly.

Which are you?

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Short films

"It doesn't say, 'America.'"

Sadie did not attend school beyond the second grade. Instead, she worked. Like many of her should-be schoolmates living in Lancaster, South Carolina. Hine photographed the mill school, and the public school where non-mill children went.

Lewis Hine caption: This is where the mill children go to school. Lancaster, S.C. Enrollment 163– attendance, usually about 100. There are over 1,000 operatives in the mill. These are all that go to school from this mill settlement, which is geographically a part of Lancaster, but on account of the taxes has been kept just out of the corporate limits. Nov. 30/08. Location: Lancaster, South Carolina.

Lewis Hine caption: This is where the other children go to school. Public School: Lancaster, South Carolina, November 1908.

In a time where the America is in constant pursuit of making itself great again, one has to question, if the image of Sadie didn't say America, what did? And what does?

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Sadie's Story  :  Photography

The Art of Flying, and Living

The art of flying - short 2 min version from Jan van IJken on Vimeo.

It's called a "murmuration of starlings" — the marvelous flight pattern of 10,000 or more of these often maligned birds. Or, as poet Richard Wilbur wrote, “ a drunken fingerprint across the sky,” smudging the dusk horizon with the quickness of a pulsating jellyfish (via).

And it's baffled mankind for years. 

So Wayne Potts, a biologist at the University of Utah, began making movies of their flocks and analyzing them, frame by frame, to see how each individual bird moved. He found that "a turn ripples through a flock just as a cheerleading wave passes through sports fans at a stadium," and he explained the finding with the name of his theory: the “chorus line hypothesis.”

An individual dancer who waits for her immediate neighbor to move before initiating her kick will be too slow; similarly, a dunlin watches a number of birds around it, not just its nearest neighbors, for cues (via).

These cues come not merely with their eyes, but also through acoustics and perhaps even the use of the "tactile sense of onrushing air from close neighbors to help guide {their} direction."

In short, they don't simply react to their immediate surroundings, they respond and move in accordance to their greater surroundings, to the greater community. Because they listen, holistically, with their eyes, ears, and body.

And in doing so, they remain connected and move and flow and "murmurate" with ease and beauty and grace.

They live in community. 

And they teach us more than a little something about life. How to look beyond the immediate left and right, but beyond, to the greater community, and not just ourselves.

They teach us that when we shift and move and live outside our simple circles, when we consider the community rather than the individual, we (to paraphrase Richard Wilbur) refuse to be caught . . . in the nets and cages of common and simple thought.

But rather, beautifully lost in the greater murmuration of life and living, as we soar and swoop and fly. Free as birds.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Substituting People for Animals  :  On Living

BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND SUBSCRIBE - THANKS FOR READING!

God our Mother, overcome thy father

To be a Mother is to suffer;

To travail in the dark,

stretched and torn,

exposed in half-naked humiliation,

subjected to indignities

for the sake of new life.

To be a Mother is to say,

“This is my body, broken for you,”

And, in the next instant, in response to the created’s primal hunger,

“This is my body, take and eat.”

To be a Mother is to self-empty,

To neither slumber nor sleep,

so attuned You are to cries in the night—

Offering the comfort of Yourself,

and assurances of “I’m here.”

To be a Mother is to weep

over the fighting and exclusions and wounds

your children inflict on one another;

To long for reconciliation and brotherly love

and—when all is said and done—

To gather all parties, the offender and the offended,

into the folds of your embrace

and to whisper in their ears

that they are Beloved.

To be a mother is to be vulnerable—

To be misunderstood,

Railed against,

Blamed

For the heartaches of the bewildered children

who don’t know where else to cast

the angst they feel

over their own existence

in this perplexing universe

To be a mother is to hoist onto your hips those on whom your image is imprinted,

bearing the burden of their weight,

rejoicing in their returned affection,

delighting in their wonder,

bleeding in the presence of their pain.

To be a mother is to be accused of sentimentality one moment,

And injustice the next.

To be the Receiver of endless demands,

Absorber of perpetual complaints,

Reckoner of bottomless needs.

To be a mother is to be an artist;

A keeper of memories past,

Weaver of stories untold,

Visionary of lives looming ahead.

To be a mother is to be the first voice listened to,

And the first disregarded;

To be a Mender of broken creations,

And Comforter of the distraught children

whose hands wrought them.

To be a mother is to be a Touchstone

and the Source,

Bestower of names,

Influencer of identities;

Life giver,

Life shaper,

Empath,

Healer,

and

Original Love.

- Allison Woodard

Yet, when we think of Power, we emulate the father

When we think of Strength, we look to our dads

and envision God with a penis.

Yesterday I posted a few thoughts on boxes. Then, this morning, while walking to work, the podcast God our Mother took those simple thoughts, doused them with gasoline, and then, with the smirk of deep understanding, sent a spark flying through the barren darkness. 

When the box exploded, I had to step back, almost

run

Because the flames that licked and snapped and grew in the darkness

scared me.

And the box was gone.

To Be a Mother is perhaps unfair and probably incomplete

but no more so than the decades and decades and decades of thought

on the father.

And we've swallowed and followed those 

like wine and bread

and must-covered hymnals

all the way

to war.

To Be a Mother is perhaps unfair and probably incomplete

because how does one define a mother?

Simply? 

Succinctly? 

Fully?

Like God.

Who oversees the dirt and molds the clay

into the perfect and complete image

of Them. 

He and She

Both and They

Strong. Fierce. And ever more and equally God-

the Source,

Bestower of names,

Influencer of identities;

Life giver,

Life shaper,

Empath,

Healer,

and

Original Love.

The box slayer.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Open Thoughts  :  Other Inspiring Podcasts

BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND SUBSCRIBE - THANKS FOR READING!

Microsculpture : The Insect Portraits of Levon Biss

what I loved most about these pictures and his process was the reminder that everyday things, everyday annoyances can often become something very different, very beautiful even, if only seen in a different way.

And that is encouraging. 

Microsculpture is a ground breaking project by the British photographer Levon Biss that presents insect specimens from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History like never before . . . Microsculpture was first exhibited in the main court of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.  Surrounded by the museum’s stunning Neo-Gothic architecture, the largest of Microsculpture’s photographic prints measured up to three metres across and surrounded the visitor.  Seen alongside the tiny insect specimens themselves, this huge transformation of scale offered a unique viewing experience" (via). 

Although much smaller than three meters, these images are still stunning.

Jewel Longhorn Beetle

At high magnification the surface of even the plainest looking beetle or fly is completely transformed as details of their microsculpture become visible: ridges, pits or engraved meshes all combine at different spatial scales in a breath-taking intricacy. It is thought that these microscopic structures alter the properties of the insect’s surface in different ways, reflecting sunlight, shedding water, or trapping air (via).

Marion Flightless Moth

Levon photographs the insect in "approximately 30 different sections, depending the size of the specimen.  Each section is lit differently with strobe lights to bring out the micro sculptural beauty of that particular section of the body.  For example, I will light and shoot just one antennae, then after I have completed this area I will move onto the eye and the lighting set up will change entirely to suit the texture and contours of that specific part area of the body.  I continue this process until I have covered the whole surface area of the insect" (via).

Paris Peacock

Ruby Tailed Wasp

You can see many more of these ridiculous images here, and if you do, don't pass up on the Treehopper. It might be my favorite.

Treehopper

But the Branch Back Treehopper is pretty amazing too . . . and the Tricolored Jewel Beetle. 

Here's the madness behind the process:

You can also check Levon Biss' TED Talk and more of his non-insect work here.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Photography  :  National Geographic

BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND SUBSCRIBE - THANKS FOR READING!

How Curious George Escaped Nazi Germany

Curious George is the mischievous child that still lives inside us all, a swinging catastrophe with an envious joie de vivre. But everyone’s favorite chimp almost didn’t make it to the page. The story goes way back to 1940 as Nazi forces prepared to invade France. German-Jewish artists H.A. and Margret Rey fled Paris by bicycle, carrying the original manuscript that would later become “Curious George.” From there George traveled the globe, trekking down to Lisbon, sailing across the pond to Rio de Janeiro, finally making his home in New York. The rest, of course, is history, as our primate protagonist climbed his way into our hearts and onto the world’s stage.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Real People  :  Great Big Stories

BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND SUBSCRIBE - THANKS FOR READING!

Humans Doing Incredible Things

: Dancing on Air :

"It's about exploring the limits of what we can do . . . It just depends on how much you want it."

: Wheels, ReImagined :

"It would be easy for me to just be bummed out on {spina bifida}, but for me I just found the positive . . . It's wheels, stuck to your butt. How is that not a great time?

The wheelchair is a great opportunity"

: 45 Days, 22 Hours, 38 Minutes :

"It's a trail for one who wants to be in fellowship with nature. No matter whether your running it, or walking it, or you're taking ten years to do it. When you're walking that trail you have a vibe, and you feel it."

: Riding the Wall of Death :

"You've got bigger balls then most of the men!"

: Towering Above the Rest :

"You have to keep going because you have a collective responsibility and you don't want to let the team down."

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Humanity  :  Life of Adventure  :  Great Big Stories

BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND SUBSCRIBE - THANKS FOR READING!

Where new words come from

Official sources, like dictionaries, only document currant usage. New words don't originate from above, but ordinary people, spreading words that hit the right combination of useful, and catchy.

Kory Stamper, lexicographer and author of Word by Word, expounds a bit more on dictionaries and the role they play with words:

“Many people believe that the dictionary is some great guardian of the English language, that its job is to set boundaries of decorum around this profligate language like a great linguistic housemother setting curfew. Words that have made it into the dictionary are Official with a capital O, sanctioned, part of Real and Proper English. The corollary is that if certain words are bad, uncouth, unlovely, or distasteful, then folks think that the dictionary will make sure they are never entered into its hallowed pages, and thus are such words banished from Real, Official, Proper English. The language is thus protected, kept right, pure, good. This is commonly called “prescriptivism,” and it is unfortunately not how dictionaries work at all. We don’t just enter the good stuff; we enter the bad and ugly stuff, too. We are just observers, and the goal is to describe, as accurately as possible, as much of the language as we can” (pg 35).

At the heart of it all, it is us - the people - who create language. And this makes sense because like clothing, it's a form of expression and identity. And like clothing, it is ever evolving and molding to who we are, and who we wish to be. 

The question is though, which comes first? The chicken or the egg? Do the words help define and create our identity, or does our identity define and create the word? 

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  The Language of Love: When English words aren't enough  :  What Literature is for

BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND SUBSCRIBE - THANKS FOR READING!

The Electric State: A Narrative Artbook of extraordinary imagination

In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through a strange USA, where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside heaped together with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car approaches the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to be unraveling ever faster as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in (via).

Simon Stålenhag is the internationally acclaimed author, concept designer and artist behind Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. His highly imaginative images and stories depicting illusive sci-fi phenomena in mundane, hyper-realistic Scandinavian landscapes have made Stålenhag one of the most sought-after visual storytellers in the world.

Now, Stålenhag turns his unique vision to America in a new narrative artbook: The Electric State. With your support, these amazing images will turn into a top-quality narrative artbook, truly doing justice to the extreme attention to detail and quality of Stålenhag's work.

The book will also add Stålenhag's own texts to supplement the images, giving you an even deeper understanding of the universe of The Electric State.

His artwork truly is fascinating and his imagination crisp. Each piece could be a story in and of itself.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Art  :  Role of Art

BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND SUBSCRIBE - THANKS FOR READING!