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Language Log

Wednesday, Jul. 10, 2019 - 9:19 a.m.

3 more loops to make on this circuit of the eternal work in progress, but I’m writing here instead.

Things I have thought of to do when I am in new places:
1. Look for detritus on the ground or on the street that I could keep and incorporate into jewelry. This could help me focus and give me a task when I’m walking in a place that has a lot of people and feels goalless and scary (as “exploring” usually does).
2. Used bookshops

I had this whole thing about wanting to be the Richard Brautigan of embroidery. I wrote about it here and then failed to save it. Anyway the issue is that for me that means bringing a certain level of almost magical or surreal elements into a very prosaic context. Or maybe the setting is really very bizarre and yet the things happening are very familiar and it puts the whole thing into a new light. And mixing categories in new ways. Both categories are fairly mundane details but they don’t go together and so wow.

Text is something I love obviously but in visual media it also always feels like an easy way out. Oh sure, painting the picture with words again instead of with paint. Or thread.

There was that FB thread about the autistic man who interrupted conversations, and my explanation of my visceral contrarian response to the situation. And someone somewhere said something about well you don’t know this man’s particular circumstance, maybe it’s autism or maybe he’s just being an asshole. And I feel like with me, those are not distinct things at all. I would get mad at someone else for saying that but it feels true for me. Like there are times, not often, when I dig in so deeply that it would take massive resources to pull myself out and not be like that. An asshole. And for other people it’s very easy not to be like that. They don’t mind being controlled. But I don’t want to say I shouldn’t make that effort. Sometimes, very rarely, it feels unfair to expect it of me. When it’s something that doesn’t feel important to me but is somehow both a little thing and massively important to others.

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