Browsing the Book Cover Archive (ooooh, book porn, so hot) the beauty of this cover design initially caught my eye, but the quote on the cover is what really interests me. The opening line of Rousseau’s treatise reads, “Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.”
“Those who think themselves the masters of others,” it continues, ”are indeed greater slaves than they.”
“Powerless Freedom” is the name my husband and his old roommate used for the summer they lived entirely without electricity. I love the expression of individual liberation as the result of giving up participation. I know that this doesn’t exactly jive with Rousseau’s proposal for a civil society organized by collective will (laws, voting). But I think in the 1700s or whenever, he was addressing the issue of a certain kind of oppression or exploitation that could be resolved by introducing what we now understand as democracy.
Today the concept of civil society and democracy is (in my little corner of the world) given to the point of being almost invisible. And so the forces of oppression we may wish to resist have an entirely different source and quality. Maybe if Jean-Jaques were alive today he would have written the Anti-Social Contract. Probably not. Maybe the Anti-Social Networking Contract? Probably not that either.
Either way, power that you may wield over others is an illusion. Don’t forget to let go.
Sooooo, I recently received some politely offended feedback on my recent post about Quidditch playing university students and the affront they presented to my refined sensibilities. I even got called out for thinking I’m tough for punching a celery stalk. (For the record, I am super tough). Overall, this has proved a couple of vague hypotheses that I have been working on:
1) The Internet is a kind of mirror. Perhaps in their sweet little hearts the Quidditch folks feel that their sport is not well-respected outside of their community, so when they look online, what do they find? My irrational venom towards their goofball pastime. While over here, I have a paralyzing tendency to see all sides of a situation with empathy (“gasp! impossible!” yell the Quidditchers). This makes putting strong opinions on the Internet really difficult, because giving offense is anathema to me. So when I experiment with being opinionated and over the top, what happens? A bunch of innocent milquetoasts start getting mad at me.
2) People engaged in fantasy play have zero sense of humour about what they are up to. This is applicable across the board, from Quidditch to LARPers.
People hate on the stuff I like to do, too. But if I went around posting wide-eyed and wounded responses to every person that said Ultimate is the gayest sport next to roller-blading, I would never get all my Burning Man costumes made in time!
Lighten up, you knuckleheads.
One way to instantly feel old is by visiting a university campus. On a recent trip out to UBC to interview Vancouver band The Ruffled Feathers (you can read the interview here on Discorder.ca), I was confronted by some low-grade crimes against reason and good taste that had me WTFing the entire B-Line ride home.
First: Grown-ass university students who play “quidditch.” Nothing gives me worse douche-chills than the idea of adults (or even teens, for that matter) running around pretending to fly on a broom and playing a game made up in a fantasy novel for kids. I arrived on campus late in the evening, so I didn’t see any actual players, but their signs were nauseating enough.
Second: Health advice inside a vending machine. Let’s be clear, these two things do not go together.
(Follow-up note: on a subsequent trip to UBC I was treated to the spectacle of an actual quidditch match. I didn’t get any good pictures because my hands were shaking so badly with laughter/queasiness)
(Further follow-up: I’ve been informed by the very helpful UBC quidditch community that what I saw was just a practice and not an actual match.)
My little name tag. Psyched to start up next week with the Landed Learning Program at UBC Farm! #kidsnveggiesallday
(Taken with instagram)
I kinda had a hunch that outer-space meets farming chic was going to be big this year.
these guys are really hot
(Source: hotdog-highway)
Hey, look! It’s a collection of all the things a person should never say. Sure do like the colours, though.
Mel Bochner, “Oh Well” (2010).
This pretty much sums up my day. Also, can’t stop thinking about the Bochner show I saw at the National Gallery last fall.
