Review of Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics

This book was one that I found that had been abandoned in a public library in Michigan. I looked it up and it was a Book Crossing book. Book Crossing is like Where's George, except it is an electronic network that captures the location of books instead. Italo Calvino was one of the most-translated writers of the 20th Century.

Calvino spent most of his time in academia and published Six Memos for the Next Millennium in 1993. His work Cosmicomics isn't about comic books, per se, but the structure of the novel is integral to the work's meaning. Calvino's work grapples with existence.

Given that Calvino’s Cosmicomics details the conception and subsequent progression of the universe, it isn’t surprising that the novel’s narrator – Qlwfq – is primarily concerned with form and function. One of his first decisions is to fashion a sign as a marker that is representative of his location. He remarks, “I conceived the idea of making a sign… I made something, meaning to make a sign, it turned out that I really had made a sign, after all” (Calvino 31).

Qlwfq is aware of his sign’s composition as a signifier, but it is not until the sign is destroyed, reappropriated, and finally obsolete that he recognizes its signification. From the sign, the form of the universe becomes “no longer a container and a thing contained [but] scrawled over on all sides” and the signifier’s function is to demarcate space (Calvino 35). The relation between form and function does not only apply to actual signs, but also to the discussion of beauty. As a gastropod, Qlwfq is innately ignorant of form, but wants to “put my love for her – all the things that could be said only in that conch shell,” or “to make” (Calvino 146).

However, since the creature does not have eyes, the imagery of the form that it creates and its aesthetic function is lost. While the artist is “bent over doing the hardest part of the job, that is, creating something to be seen, they were… adapting their lazy” eyes to passively witness the imagery (Calvino 152). Whether signs or shells, the conception of imagery therein remains the “most faithful image [of] our true element which extends without shores, without boundaries” (Calvino 153). Therefore, it is the interplay between form, functionality, and imagery that produces the true reflection of self-hood apart from the entire physical world. Calvino's portrayal of artistry enhances our understanding of identity.

Review of Robert Bringhurst's the Solid Form of Language

In an age of electronic printing, it is challenging to find an author that makes a living text what it truly is: viable. Robert Bringhurst delves into a fascinating world about the history of language. In The Solid Form of Language (2004), Bringhurst, outlines the history of everything from Cyrillic lettering to Arabic script in an effort to understand the evolution of language. He performs an analysis of language in tandem with political dynasties, industrial civilization and the shift away from the Latin alphabet.

He makes an interesting point about design, notably that,

"The same industrial civilization that gave us Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Devanagari, Japanese, and Chinese types with similar characteristic: a global epidemic of Helveticas. No one can determine, by examining these fonts, the religious or political opinions of their designers or manufacturers."

What I find intriguing about this comment is the connection between standardization, typeface, and the economy. In today's society, text and language have been codified into transcript, which makes me wonder, why? Helvetica the standard font in the design world. Those who use and maintain the demand for language as business follow the laws of cool. The laws of cool insist that style is acceptable, homogenized, and then it reverberates into distinctions.

The cover of Bringhurst's book is covered in a papyrus-like sheaf. Like the novel, Tree of Life or The People of Paper, the contemporary model of the text is stylized. Tree of Life features cutouts of poetry, including big, wounded gashes in the storyline. I find that this material posits the book further as a print, visual entity in a physical realm.

Image is from Prêt à Voyager.

Why I Won't Fly

Thought Catalog ran an article by Tereza Jarnikova this morning. She blogged about "(Some Of) The People I've Met On The Greyhound." The writer mentioned that Greyhound is "the net that picks up anyone who needs to go anywhere cheap."

I started using Greyhound as a student with cramped budget. The perks of taking a Greyhound are that the line is less expensive. The latest economic crunch – that has left everyone in a lurch aside from purveyors of gold – makes travel by bus a reasonable alternative to flying. I, however, won't fly if I can help it. What happens on the ground is far more interesting to me.

My favorite passenger was The Tigers Fan Whittler. I refer to him as The Tigers Fan Whittler because he whittled IN THE DARK for a large part of the 22 hour trip. I still wonder about this person three years later.

Here's the cliff notes from the last trip:

what people say there

broken swing creaking around
sound of police cars whooshing up in fleets of directional formation
split level houses with the paint chips not to be seen
the husks of five thousand corpses and the Angelus
as the storm trooper DEA squad disbands to the doorbell
the camera crew zooms onto the sign:
Beware of dog?
(feat shot-gun)
beware of owner
it's the smoking gun of the grim-faced green meth cooker
the arrestee spotted washing his house with a stripped-down barrel
hours before
San Fresno is the city of lies, the crystal meth addiction flourishes
snort smoke shoot slam 20 dime bags 700 dollars a week
the west best coast more sincerely impounded with skinny, slaw-jawed yokels
in a terminology that no less febrile
the academic language is dehumanizing
the little chiquawa dog is chirping
the man has arms tattooed in script the typefaces of the capitalists
reminds me of the UAW gods, chickweed pits, the unfiltered cigarettes
one wary eye upon the green sky camera
a liter of cobra snake gutted like serpent spine
a lime floating on top of the beer bottle
this caustic dude from the BBC is interviewing the meth heads on their cracked out porch
like this accent denotes anything to them except the vast disdain of their listening public
in rural San Fresno, they would not have heard it any other way
as his voice ebbs over the police scanner
this is not anthropology, this crime scene surveillance
they could understand you, but not your accent
you might be living in a plateau there, buddy, but they recognize your tone enough
to hate you
to tell you how many children they have
the state of their marital affairs
their complicity reveals the malingerer of the impervious stare of a judicial system that seethes
they slouch, avoid eye contact, pass the drugs and scale over their heads
much like the prescient scales of the Law and Order dramedy
the cookers, he does a circle around his head, you don't mess with them
you're crazy, man
they inhale leaky cauldron fumes
Fresno is the meth capital of the world
since 11 he's been slammin
where did they just come from, man, thank you man, someone's house
silver stereos houses

you just haven't seen the better places
it's gotten a whole lot worse
it's gotten a whole lot worse
this is one of the better place
I hate not being clean but I hate being clean
it has to do with a single instant in time
to be treated or put in prison and you start to like yourself
you treat yourself well
64% of meth addicts complete, how many are sober is unknown
cook it, sell it make some money
take care of your family
it takes care of you
decide to take a quit

Reading List for 2011: Play Theory, Playing, and Culture

et tenuant vigiles corpus miserabile curae,
adducitque cutem macies, et in aëra sucus
corporis omnis abit; vox tantum atque ossa supersunt:
vox manet.

Her sleepless cares waste away her miserable body;
she becomes skin and bone and all moisture from her
body fades into the air. Only her voice and her bones
remain: then, only her voice.

How to be alone :
by: Franzen, Jonathan.

A user's guide to capitalism and schizophrenia :
by: Massumi, Brian.

Deceit, desire, and the novel :
by: Girard, René, 1923-

Convergence culture :
by: Jenkins, Henry, 1958-

The avant-garde and American postmodernity :
by: Nel, Philip, 1969-

Snow White :
by: Barthelme, Donald.

Tree of codes :
by: Foer, Jonathan Safran, 1977-

American music :
by: Leibovitz, Annie, 1949-

SCUM manifesto :
by: Solanas, Valerie.

Unlovable :
by: Watson, Esther.

Crepuscular dawn :
by: Virilio, Paul.

Systemantics :
by: Gall, John, 1925-

Nothing in my Pockets :
by: Anderson, Laurie, 1947-

Footnote

Shirts from the Kwame heist (understanding + thought = culture). Leftovers will be served with Lean Cuisine and a dollop of chicha.